Wham! The Music Box (c) 1985 Melbourne House
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WHAM! THE MUSIC BOX GUIDE
The Sinclair Spectrum is a computer with only one sound channel, until now.
The Music Box gives you two channels of sound, allowing anyone to compose
music quickly and effectively without knowledge of music or programming.
DEMONSTRATION
To demonstrate the features of the program, load the program like any
Spectrum game. When the program has loaded press '1' to load a tune into
the MUSIC EDITOR. There are already six tunes in memory when the program is
loaded, so press 'M' for memory and a list of tune names appears. Press the
number of the one you want and when the main menu reappears press '3' to
listen to the tune. If you want to stop the tune at any stage press '6' and
you will go into the MUSIC EDITOR, pressing key '6' again to return to the
main menu.
YOUR FIRST COMPOSITION
a) Select the Edit Mode by pressing '6' while looking at the main menu.
b) Erase any tune in the Music Editor's memory by pressing '7' followed by
'Y' to confirm that you really want to erase it.
c) Press key '1' to select Octave 1, and check that the figure 1 appears by
the word OCTAVE in the status window.
d) If the number by the word CHANNEL is not 1 press 'T' until it changes
to one.
e) Type the following keys, which make up the bass line of a tune we have
composed for you - where CS represents the CAPS SHIFT key and EN is the
ENTER key (do not try to type the commas):- CS, EN, X, EN, V, EN, B, EN,
H, EN, B, EN, V, EN, X, EN, CS, EN, X, EN, V, EN, B, EN, V, EN, X, EN.
If you make a mistake, press the '0' (zero) key to step back.
f) Press key 'R' to return to the start of the tune. Press key 'T' to
change to channel 2, checking that the number next to the CHANNEL
changes to figure 2.
g) Press the key '3' to select octave 3, for the treble part of the tune.
h) Type in the following notes - CS, X, V, CS, X, V, CS, X, V, CS, X, V, B,
V, X, V, M, M, B, V, B, V, X, V, CS.
i) press 'R' to return to the start of the tune and 'Q' to play it, or 'P'
to play it note by note.
j) You can type any notes you like on top of music already in the Music
Editor's memory, each note you type will replace the note previously
typed at that point for the channel you are working on.
k) When you are happy with the tune, use the 'P' or 'O' keys to move to the
end of the tune and press 'W' to put in an end marker; this should be
done on both channels.
l) Press '6' to return to the menu, where you can choose to save the music
datafile, or compile it into a machine code routine you can use in your
own program.
DRUM EFFECTS
While in the the Music Editor, you can at any time add a bass drum effect
by prssing the 'E' key. There are also three noise effects which you can
design yourself, available on the 'Y', 'U' and 'I' keys.
To design a noise press the '8' key and you will see a graphical
representation of the waveform and duration of the three current noises.
You can use the '5', '6', '7' and '8' keys as cursor keys to move around
the graph, then press the '0' (zero) key to change the graph under the
cursor. There are seven different waveform, and four different sections of
the duration which can be turned off and on independently. To hear the
current noise the press '9' key. When you are happy with the noise you have
designed press 'ENTER' to return to the Music Editor and press 'Y', 'U', or
'I' as appropriate to place the noise in the tune.
Note: Noises use both channels, to erase a noise you must put either a note
or a rest in place of the noise on both channels. You can get more than
three different noises in a tune, simply design a noise, put it in the
tune, redesign a new noise and put that in the tune and so on for as many
as you need.
TEMPO
The speed at which the music is played can be altered using the SET TEMP
option from the main menu and the '5' and '8' keys. Press '6' to return to
the main menu to try out the effects of your changes.
COMPILER
The Compiler option produces a machine code routine which you can use in
your own programs to play the music of the tunes that you create.
The Compiler asks for a memory location at which to place the routine, this
should be 32768 or higher (Spectrum memory below this address is shared
with the display ULA and operates more slowly than the other memory) and
not so high that there is no room for the tune. It also asks for a RETURN
OPTION, normally the routine tries to play all the tune but will return
when any key is pressed. Alternatively, it can return always after each
note is played, allowing your program to do things while the tune is
playing. If the 'W' key has been used in the Music Editor to create tune of
different lengths on two channels then these tunes will repeat and the tune
will not have an end. If the tunes are of the same length then there is a
natural end to the music.
The Compiler saves the compiled routine to tape as a normal Spectrum CODE
file which must be reloaded using the command LOAD 'name' CODE XXXX where
XXXX is the starting address you specified earlier.
To play the tune RANDOMISE USR XXX, unless playing note by note when to
play the next note you should RANDOMISE USE (XXXX + 12).
To stop the routine stopping when any key is pressed, making it only return
at the end of the tune if there is one, POKE XXXX + 16, 17. Other useful
POKEs are given on the screen when the Compiler runs.
FOR MUSICIANS
The Music Box does not attempt to duplicate all the complexities of normal
musical notation. For instance you will note that all compositions are
shown in the key of C major and the only note length used is a quaver. For
longer notes simply repeat as many quavers as you need, you will not
normally hear any gap between the notes as they are played. These and other
simplifications do not limit the range of tunes you can compose.
KEY REFERENCE GUIDE
1-4 Select octave 1 - 3
5 Change border colour
6 Return to main menu
7 Erase whole tune
8 Noise effect editor (for key use in this routine
see above)
9 Rewind (repeat backstep)
0 (zero) Step back one note
Q Replay tune
W End of tune / repeat marker
E Bass Drum effect
R Restart - move back to start of tune
T Change between channel 1 and 2
Y, U, I Noise effects 1, 2 and 3
O Fast forward
P Play single note
CAPS SHIFT Note C
A Note C sharp (D flat)
Z Note D
S Note D sharp (E flat)
X Note E
C Note F
F Note F sharp (G flat)
V Note G
G Note G sharp (A flat)
B Note A
H Note A sharp (B flat)
N Note B
M Note C
K Note C sharp (D flat)
SYMBOL SHIFT Note D
L Note D sharp (E flat)
SPACE Note E
ENTER Rest
You will see that the notes are arranged as for a normal musical keyboard.
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Programming by Mark Alexander
Program Copyright (c) 1986 Mark Time Ltd.
Music (c) 1984/1985 Morrison Leahy Music Ltd
Published by
Melbourne House
60 High Street, Hampton Wick
Kingston-upon-Thames
Surrey KT1 4DB
United Kingdom
70 Park Street, South Melbourne 3205, Australia
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Complete Instructions typed in by Paul Thompson, April 2003