SIDNP2.DOC Sidplayer News #4 part two... MISCELLANEOUS 1. Be very careful to never let two voices using the same waveform play notes of the exact same pitch at the very same time. When this is allowed to happen, a phenomenon known as "destructive harmonic interference" can occur, which in no way damages your computer but can cause the two voices to cancel each other out and be inaudible. The effect happens randomly and is not always noticeable. The only time that two voices should simultaneously play the exact same pitches in the same octave with the same waveform is when the voices are being detuned. 2. If two notes of the same pitch are tied together, it is a good practice to put the shorter note first. This is because a note tied to another note does not release. If the longer note is put first, the release cannot begin until the shorter note starts playing, and in some cases the release would normally begin sooner. This is especially true when larger release points are used. Putting the shorter note before the longer note ensures that the release will begin at the appropriate place. 3. When a grace note is played, remember that the duration for the grace note should come out of the duration for the preceding note. This way, the note following the grace note will begin right on the beat, as it should, instead of the grace note. It may be necessary to use utility durations for both the grace note and the note preceding it. 4. KPLAY and MPLAY and the other players end a song right when the last duration is complete, even if some of the voices are not done releasing. To let each voice fade out and finish completely, it is a nice touch to put a rest after the last note in each voice. 5. Remember that when you are creating a very long song, it is much easier to break the song into parts, enter and edit each part separately, and then combine them using the MERGE utility found on page 369. This utility can also be used to create songs larger than what the Editor can hold in memory. 6. The LISTER utility on page 365, or the revised version called PRINTER which prints in three columns only to a printer, can be used to find duration bugs in songs. See SIDNEWS#1 for information on the PRINTER utility. 7. Whenever possible, please try not to use the default waveform and envelope. The default settings were chosen because they give a simple, neutral waveform and envelope which can be modified easily. Playing all three voices with the default square wave and organ-type envelope, however, can make any song, even a very good one, sound pretty blah. 8. Don't overlook the subtle but significant effects that different envelope settings can have on a song. Envelopes seem to be one of the most ignored aspects of songs. MASTER COMPOSER SYNDROME It has been observed that people who formerly used the Master Composer music system and now use Sidplayer exhibit a strong tendency to use a heavy dose of vibrato and pulse width sweeping in their songs. Presumably this is because these are two easy-to-use features that are not found on Master Composer. If you might be such a person, we urge you to control your fascination with these features and use them sparingly. Thank you! THE BASEBALL CARD PHENOMENON Some music systems may make songs sound better than other music systems, but the quality of a song depends just as much, if not more so, on the time and care taken by the person entering the song. While it is nice to have lots of songs to collect and trade, it is also important to keep the quality level high in order to maintain interest in the songs. We would prefer to encourage people to emphasize quality over quantity. SIDPLAYER ON YOUR STEREO If you don't have your computer hooked up to a stereo, you're only getting part of the story when you play a song. Playing songs over a stereo gives you fuller bass lines and triangle waveforms, and reveals other things you never knew were there. See SIDNEWS#1 for instructions on how to hook your computer up to a stereo. SOME ADVANCED TECHNIQUES TO PONDER 1. The sync mode is not used very often because it requires two voices, leaving only one voice free. The mode offers a whole variety of new tone types, however, and is definitely worth investigating. Try the sync mode with different combinations of waveforms and TPS values, as demonstrated by the song TPI#14. 2. See page 337 for a discussion of using sync and ring modulation at the same time. With this technique, you can sometimes get tones that sound like they are being filtered, even though they are not. 3. Another possibility is to use portamento with the sync mode. This is done by putting an absolute set command of a different pitch before each note that is played. When this is done on the synchronized voice which adds the harmonics, an interesting "wah" effect is produced, as in the song ETAL. 4. Some people have gotten interesting results by using the sync or ring modulation modes with nonstandard configurations. 5. Absolute set commands can be placed between rests following a note with a large RLS value to make a note slowly fade away while changing pitch. This technique was used in the song STUNTMAN. 6. A subtle technique is to use the absolute set command with detuning and portamento. Turn on the detuning and set a detuned pitch with the absolute set command. Then turn off the detuning and play a note with a slow portamento rate in effect. The note will not start at exactly the correct pitch but will move to the desired pitch. This may be useful for simulating some vocal effects. A variation on this method is to not use detuning and just use the absolute set command to set the pitch one half step below the desired pitch, with a faster portamento rate. 7. Detuning and transposition can be an interesting combination. Octave transpositions with detuning were used in PIPERS, CALLIOPE, BISTRO, and AMERICA. 8. An advanced use of detuning is to slightly detune a voice, even when it is not being played along with another voice containing the same notes, for a fuller sound. This technique is based on a principle used by barbershop quartets. 9. The POLYCON utility can be used to add a pedal effect or lingering effect (like a bell) to a song, as in FUER. This technique can also be used with fast arpeggios for another interesting effect. See SIDNEWS#3 for full instructions. 10. Detuning with polyphony also gives an interesting effect. This combination was used in the song ISLAND. 11. When the waveform TP is used, pulse width sweeping can be used to sweep the width past 2048, thereby making the volume fade out. 12. A note by note use of utility duration is very tedious but can produce some wonderful phrasing effects. See the song FUER for an example. Even using just a few carefully placed utility durations can add a nice, more natural touch to a song. 13. When two voices are playing similar notes, perhaps with different pulse widths or detuning, a very short utility duration rest can be placed at the beginning of one of the voices to create an echo effect. See the version of TAKE FIVE by Stan Halaby for an example. 14. While having only three voices can be quite a limitation, it is sometimes possible to use one voice for two different effects simultaneously. For example, CANTINA uses the same voice for both bass notes and percussion effects. The bass notes are played on the beat and the percussion effects are played on the offbeat. Phrase calls can make it easy to alternate between different waveform and envelope settings. 15. One technique to get around volume problems on a voice is to release a note before has completed its attack phase. This will require some experimentation with attack rates and release points. The technique was used in the stereo version of AXEL F. 16. A rapid succession of different pitches using white noise makes an interesting percussion line, as in the song IBEX. 17. Longer white noise notes, as in the song OSPREY, can also give an interesting effect. 18. One other interesting effect is to play a sequence of notes of the same pitch but with different pulse widths. FINAL REMARKS 1. Some of these suggestions and techniques are described in the book, along with complete instructions on how to use the Sidplayer Editor and a fairly comprehensive introduction to music theory. 2. Most people feel that it is worth $16.95 to get the complete documentation. 3. Other music systems cost twice as much and are not as well documented. 4. The book also has bitmapped graphics and sprite utilities, and sections on Advanced BASIC. 5. The Sidplayer Editor is not a Public Domain program and is supposed to be used only by those who have purchased Volume Two. If you use the Sidplayer Editor and don't have the book...
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