MIDI INTERFACE For ZX Spectrum 48k/128k/+2 INSTRUCTION MANUAL Cheetah Marketing Thank you for choosing the CHEETAH MIDI INTERFACE The CHEETAH MIDI INTERFACE is an interface to allow the connection of MIDI devices to a suitable computer, creating a powerful system with many exciting capabilities. To assure you that your MIDI INTERFACE will give you many years of enjoyment, please be sure to read this owners manual carefully before attempting to operate it. FEATURES 8 Track Midi Sequencer Controls any Midi compatible instrument Records Velocity Data Midi In Out Through Real Time input Step Time input Forward and Reverse sequence playback Transpose facility Midi Delay Fully menu driven software Suitable for home or professional use EQUIPMENT REQUIRED MIDI INSTRUMENT(S) CHEETAH MIDI INTERFACE (Supplied) MIDI LEAD (Supplied) ADDITIONAL MIDI LEAD (if required) CONTENTS INTRODUCTION SET UP INSTRUCTIONS THE MAIN MENU RECORD A VERSE TRACK AND VERSE TO RECORD ADJUST A VERSE LENGTH LINK TWO, OR COPY ONE VERSE DELETE A VERSE REVERSE A VERSE TRANSPOSE FOR KEY SHIFT DEFINE SEQUENCE TRACKS TRACK ENABLE SWITCHES EDIT FACILITY STEPTIME EDITING SONG EDITING PLAYBACK OR DELAY PLAY THE SONG ADJUST THE METRONOME ASSIGN CHANNELS TO TRACKS CHANGE INPUT CHANNEL SET INPUT OPTIONS SET OUTPUT OPTIONS SYNCHRONISATION SAVE AND LOAD SEQUENCE DATA SERVICE INFORMATION THE CHEETAH MIDI RECORDING SYSTEM INTRODUCTION MIDI is an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, the high speed communications system used by synthesisers, sequencers and other music hardware. The main function of the MIDI system is to allow one instrument to send information about which note is being played to on or more other instruments. IN most small MIDI systems there will be only one 'information provider', (usually a synth), which will send note information to one or more instruments. They will be used as a 'realtime' system where a musician can control more than one sound from a single keyboard. Traditionally, music has been recorded on magnetic tape as sound to be played back at a later time. This, while satisfactory, does not allow a musician to change a track's sound (from a flute to a xylophone for instance) without re-recording. The advent of computers has changed the professional music industry by allowing a record producer to store the music as a list of information held in a computer's memory. For example, the representation below shows two instruments playing ascending and descending notes on two separate tracks. beat track 1 track 2 1 note on, pitch c, octave 1 note on, pitch c, octave 2 2 note off, pitch c, octave 1 note off, pitch c, octave 2 3 note on, pitch d, octave 1 note on, pitch b, octave 1 4 note off, pitch d, octave 1 note off, pitch b, octave 1 5 note on, pitch e, octave 1 note on, pitch a, octave 1 6 note off, pitch e, octave 1 note off, pitch a, octave 1 Track one was originally played on an electronic piano and track two on a string synth, but rather than being recorded as sound, the two tracks were recorded as notes in the computer and could be played back as a synthesised 'slap bass' and a drum beat if required. Until recently this was only available to a recording studio with thousands of pounds to spend, but now you can do all that with the Cheetah MIDI Recording System. The system will allow you to record up to 8 tracks of music, each track having 16 verses stored in it, each verse being from 1 to 64 bars in length. Each track may be assigned to any one of sixteen music channels and a song constructed and played on any or all of the 8 tracks simultaneously. In addition to this, all of the information may be stored onto a tape or other storage device. SET UP INSTRUCTIONS Turn the computer off. Connect the MIDI Interface to the rear of the computer. Do not force the connector too hard. Connect the MIDI IN socket to the OUT socket of your master controller, the MIDI OUT socket to the IN socket on the slave device. Optionally connect the MIDI THROUGH socket to any slave device that you do not want to send sequenced information to. (If you have only one synthesizer connect OUT to IN and IN to OUT on both devices). +-------------------------+ | +-------------------+ | ................. | | V | : : | | +-+--+----+-+ : | | |IN OUT THRU| : V | | | V +-----------+--+-------+ +----+-----------++ +-------+--------------+ | IN OUT | | | | IN OUT | |+--------------------+| |+++++++++++++++++| |+--------------------+| ||OO|OOO|OO|OOO|OO|OOO|| | +++++++++++++++ | ||OO|OOO|OO|OOO|OO|OOO|| |||||||||||||||||||||||| | +++++++++++++ | |||||||||||||||||||||||| +----------------------+ +-----------------+ +----------------------+ MASTER CONTROLLER COMPUTER SECOND INSTRUMENT (Main Keyboard of Synth.) (OPTIONAL) Switch the computer on. Rewind the tape fully on side 1. Type "LOAD" and press ENTER. Play the tape. The tape will load one picture and two blocks of program and you will be asked to stop the tape. You may choose to transfer the program to microdrive or begin. If you choose to transfer to microdrive you will be asked to play the tape again. DO NOT REWIND TO DO THIS. The automatic run program is stored on the tape AFTER the main program. THE MAIN MENU All of the options on the Main Menu may be selected by using the up and down arrows to highlight the option which may then be accessed by pressing enter. RECORD A VERSE You will be shown a visual metronome which moves in time to the tempo, the value of that tempo in beats per minute and the present quantization value. In addition to this an audible metronome will be played on the beeper or through your television set. The beat is variable during recording by using the up and down arrow keys between 40 and 244 beats per minute. The quantization is also variable by using the left and right arrow keys to increase and decrease the level between 0 and 9. Quantization is a process which automatically moves the beginnings and ends of notes to fixed positions in the bar. For example, with the quantise set to 9 any notes played or released will be moved to the nearest half beat, automatically tidying the bar. This is fully variable while recording and you may alter the quantise and listen to its effect before merging the bar. The quantisation values are: 0 no quantise 5 1/8 triplet 1 1/32 triplet 6 1/8 note 2 1/32 note 7 1/4 triplet 3 1/16 triplet 8 1/4 note 4 1/16 note 9 1/2 note When you start the record run you will see a magenta border, the metronomes will run and you will be given two bars lead in. On the last beat of the second bar the border will flash yellow and a loud beep sound to tell you to get ready. On the next beat the recording starts, the border changes to red and any notes you play will be stored. After the correct number of bars the border will again become magenta and the process will start again. There is no limit to the number of times you can repeat this cycle and notes played will be 'layered' onto those played previously. To stop recording press the spacebar. If the border is red when you do this you will be asked to wait while the record run completes itself. You may then: RESTART the record run and continue the layering process, MERGE the recorded verse with the permanent memory (this will simply save the verse if it is a 'first time run' or layer the verse onto any previous recordings), APPEND the recording to the current verse (add it on the end), TRANSPOSE UP or TRANSPOSE DOWN by one semitone. (To try this record a verse with only one note it, press space, select append, then transpose up, append, transpose up, append, quit and select play a sequence), QUIT without keeping the verse. If your record run fills the memory up, a warble note will sound and the border will flash yellow (time to start deleting unwanted verses). WARNING... When a record run starts the computer tidies the memory beforehand. Sometimes if the verse you want to record has a lot keypresses or control wheel information in it, the metronomes do not start straight away. Be patient it may take some time for the poor old Z80 processor to do all of the work. TRACK AND VERSE TO RECORD Each track has sixteen verses labelled A to P. Use the up and down arrow keys to select the verse you want to work on. Enter returns you to Main Menu. ADJUST A VERSE LENGTH Any or all of the verses may be as long as 64 bars, (for orchestrated symphonies etc). The only limiting factor is the amount of keypresses the memory can store. When the program is first loaded, a Verse is four bars long. To vary the Verse length, use the up and down arrow keys to increase or decrease the number of bars in the Verse. Enter stores the required number of bars and returns you to the Main Menu. LINK TWO, OR COPY ONE VERSE Select this option to link together (append) two Verses into one, or copy one Verse. If you copy a Verse to an empty Verse, then a duplicate of the original will be formed in the new Verse. If you append a Verse to another Verse, then the destination Verse will have the source Verse added to it. You could append one Verse to the same Verse, giving a Verse twice as long as before. Note however that this will lengthen the original permanently. Copying the original to an empty Verse before appending it to itself would avoid this. When you have entered the source Verse, you will be returned to the Main Menu. If you entered an empty Verse as the source Verse however, you will be given an error Message and returned to the Main Menu. DELETE A VERSE Will remove the Verse specified, to leave more room in memory. Enter the Verse to be deleted. You will be asked to confirm your choice, to avoid deleting any wanted Verses. Confirming your choice deletes the chosen Verse and returns you to the Main Menu. REVERSE A VERSE Turns a bar of music backwards. Enter the Verse to be reversed. Once you have entered the number and letter of the chosen Verse, it will be reversed and you will be returned to the Main Menu. Q will exit if selected by mistake. TRANSPOSE FOR KEY SHIFT Select this option to directly transpose a Verse by up to 12 semitones in one operation. Enter the Verse number and letter and then use up and down arrow keys to transpose the Verse by up to 12 semitones higher or lower than the original pitch. Enter carries out the operation and returns you to the Main Menu. DEFINE SEQUENCE TRACKS When recording you are able to hear any Verses specified from this option as backing. Also if you wish to, you may record a repetitive sequence to loop continuously from the 'play a sequence' option. In this way it is possible to have a number of 64 bar backing sequences stored for playback in a live set for example. To select the track, press the track number and use the up and down arrow keys to select Verses A-P. Enter returns you to the Main Menu. TRACK ENABLE SWITCHES If a song or sequence track is not needed you may turn it off rather than delete it. This is also useful while recording to switch out any distracting music. To toggle a track on or off press its identifying number. Enter returns you to the Main Menu. EDIT FACILITY Here you may edit a Verse in steptime or a song page with up to 30 verses per track. Select the desired edit mode. STEPTIME EDITING The Verse is displayed in 'pianola' fashion from left to right. The beats are marked on the bar as single lines, bars start with a double line. The beat and bar markers are taken from the current time signature. When a note is playing in any one time slot, a black bar will be displayed. Only one octave is displayed at a time, but you have a reference in the form of an 11 octave keyboard at the bottom of the screen. On this a red flashing bar denotes the current octave. To select a particular pitch you may use the up and down keys, or play the note from the keyboard after selecting (N)ote. In all cases, the octave and pitch will be displayed and a bright bar placed across the screen. This bright bar is the pitch cursor. To select the chronological position, the left and right keys move by one beat in the current signature, (F)orwards and (B)ackwards by one bar, with Z and X to move a fine cursor 'space invader' style. You can (I)nsert a note between two end points. Move to the pitch position, Select I, mark one end with the cursor by using < > F, B, Z or X, then press SPACE. Select the other end in a similar way, press SPACE again and the note will appear. You may move (M)ove one or other note end to a different place. Put the pitch and time cursors over the note to be moved, select M and then select (E)nd or (S)tart. Move to the new end point and press SPACE. The note end will be shifted to a new place (don't worry if the note disappears momentarily). NOTE... if you move a start to a place after the note end, or an end before a start the note will be erased. Be careful not to (I)nsert of (M)ove on top of the other notes as a housekeeping process removes any unnecessary notes and you cannot play the same key twice at the same time. Deleting is done by pointing to the note with both cursors and selecting D. When editing is completed to your satisfaction quit, with Q. SONG EDITING Songs are generally made up of sections: Introduction, 1st Verse, 2nd Verse, Chorus, 3rd Verse, etc., etc. When these individual sections are joined together, a song is formed. In the program, we call each of these sections Verses and give them different letters to tell them apart. Thus, Verse A would be the introduction, Verse B would be the 1st Verse, Verse C would be the 2nd Verse and Verse D would be the chorus etc., etc. Each of the eight tracks available in the program may have up to thirty separate Verses. Each of these Verses may have up to 64 bars in length. On any track you may specitfy a sequence of verses to be played. Each verse will be played on the correct channel until its end. Then any space in the song sequence will stop all activity on that track. For example, to play on track 1, two verse 'A's, one verse 'C' followed by three verse 'D's, simply edit track one for: AACDDD and select 'Play the song'. If you need to put time in with no music just record a bar and don't press any keys. To edit the verse letters into position use the cursor keys for movement and enter the verses by letter. To erase a letter, use the spacebar. To exit press ENTER. PLAYBACK OR DELAY Selecting PLAY A SEQUENCE will repeatedly play the sequence tracks. To finish playing the sequence loop, press the spacebar. A new menu will give you the following options: CONTINUE will restart the loop from wherever you stopped it, RESTART begins the loop afresh, QUIT returns to the main menu. Selecting Delay will give you a MIDI echo. Adjustable in 0.1 second steps, this echo will re-transmit anything on the MIDI IN line to the MIDI OUT line after the specified delay. The maximum length of delay varies according to the amount of Note memory free. PLAY THE SONG Sends verses from the appropriate tracks, to the channel specified, in the order listed on the 'edit song' page. When selected you will see a new menu with these options, BEGIN, PLAY NOW, starts the song, EXTERNAL START, waits for a 'start song' command from the jmidi system or for the run/stop line to go high if you are using an external sync option, PLAY FROM HERE, continues from the point where the song was stopped, MAIN MENU, to exit. To stop playing at any point, press space as for the play sequence option. The play song menu will be displayed again. ADJUST THE METRONOME When recording or playing, a metronome system is provided to help you to keep in tempo. This metronome defaults to 4:4 time but may be adjusted to suit the type of music you want to record. You can hear the metronome beats through the beeper or via the television speaker and see a visual representation in any of the record or play windows. To adjust the timing you must decide upon the number of beats in the bar (numerator) and the number of beats per full note (denominator). For example, 4:4 time has 4 beats in the bar and each beat is a quarter note long (4 beats per note), 9:2 time would have 9 beat markers in the bar and each beat would be half a note long. This can be seen when you steptime edit. The pianola type display has the current timing superimposed with the note information. The metronome has no effect on the way that a piece of music is recorded or played. It is only there to help you to keep time and may be changed at any stage. To adjust, select (N)umerator or (D)enominator, then use the up and down arrow keys, ENTER finishes and stores the selected signature. ASSIGN CHANNELS TO TRACKS Each of the eight tracks may be sent to any one of sixteen separate MIDI channels and thereby to any one of sixteen different MIDI devices. To select the track, press its identifying number, then use the up and down keys to adjust the channel number. Enter will store the settings and quit. CHANGE INPUT CHANNEL You may record from any MIDI channel, although in most cases you will only have one information provider connected to the IN socket. If you want to record from one channel and exclude information from all others, you must set the input channel number to match the output channel on the device you are recording from AND turn off the OMNI mode with the input options menu. Use the up and down arrow keys to change the MIDI channel number within the range 1-16. Enter. SET INPUT OPTIONS With this menu it is possible to 'filter' the information that you record. First check with the instruction manual of the chosen instrument, to see what MIDI data is transmitted from it, as not all instruments can transmit such function as key pressure etc. Turn off all the functions not required to be received by the MIDI INTERFACE, as this will avoid memory being reserved to record information not being sent. Each of the eight functions may be switched on or off by pressing the number corresponding to the required function to be switched. The functions selected are highlighted in blue. Enter stores the required options and returns you to the Main Menu. 1..Omni On when selected allows recording from all MIDI channels regardless of the setting of input channel. 2..Allow Program Changes will enable you to record a patch change in the verse. 3..Record Pitch Wheel allows you to store the pitch controller information in the bar. The pitch wheel is capable of sending large amounts of information which may 'clog up' a verse. If this is turned off is may help you to save space. 4..Record Mod Wheel as above. 5..Enable Continuous Controller as above. 6..Allow Mode Changes if selected this will enable you to record all of the MIDI mode change information in the verse. 7..Poly Key Pressure If your synthesizer has pressure sensing on every key it may be recorded by using this option. 8..Channel Pressure as above but not so expensive. When you have selected all of the desired options press enter to store them. SET OUTPUT OPTIONS This menu is used in the same way as the one above, the only difference is in the first option. 1..Enable Running Status will only transmit status bytes when a status change is required. This means a potential time saving of 30% in MIDI transmission time. SYNCHRONISATION The program runs its own internal clock synchronisation in most cases, providing the timing for other instruments to play the note data being sent. Use the menu displayed when this function is selected, to change to an external MIDI clock, such as from a drum machine or other sequencer. You may also synchronise with a sequencer using 96, 48 or 24 pulses per quarter note. In this instance pins 1 & 3 of the MIDI THRU socker are used to receive clock pulses. Pin 1 will accept the Run Stop signal and Pin 3 will accept the Clock. Use the up and down keys to select and Enter returns you to the Main Menu. SAVE AND LOAD SEQUENCE DATA You may save your recorded information plus the song page to either tape or MICRODRIVE and retrieve it at a later time. HINT... save it several times on different tapes or drives, in case your copying media is suspect -- a lot of hard work can disappear into thin air. PLAY IT AGAIN SAM! (C) CHEETAH MARKETING LTD. 1987 Designed by Speedwell Software, I.O.W. SERVICE INFORMATION ONE YEAR GUARANTEE Your new Cheetah product has been tested and inspected before leaving the factory. It is guaranteed against defective materials or workmanship for a period of one year from the original purchase date provided it has been properly operated and maintained. During the above guarantee period, any defects in parts or workmanship will be repaired by Cheetah Marketing Limited at no charge, except for a handling and return transportation charge of L1.50 which must be enclosed when returning your unit for service. Make remittance by cheque or postal order payable to Cheetah Marketing Limited. Do not send cash or stamps. Return your unit postpaid to Cheetah Service Department, (C.O.D. packages will not be accepted). Please pack your unit carefully with proper wrapping to avoid breakage as no liability can be accepted for damage of loss in transit. To expedite processing, please ensure nature of failure is indicated. At its option, Cheetah Marketing Limited, may elect to replace the entire unit, rather than repair it. This guarantee does not cover replacements of cases or screws. This guarantee is void if the defect is due to use of the product for other than the purpose it is designed for, or to accidental (whether in transit or otherwise), misuse, neglect or repair other than by the manufacturer. Cheetah Marketing Limited disclaim any liability for incidental or consequential damages. This guarantee becomes effective only if a letter is completed and mailed within ten days of purchase giving the following details:-- When and where purchased, with copy of receipt. These statements in no way prejudice the statutory rights of the purchaser. This applies to UK only. CHEETAH MARKETING LTD Norbury House, Norbury Road, Fairwater, Cardiff CF5 3AS. Telephone: Cardiff (0222) 555525 Telex: 497455 Fax: (0222) 555527