pouët.net

John Player by Carillon & Cyberiad [web]

--- NEW FEATURES IN JOHN PLAYER V1.6 ---

- Paste track C=+1-3 changed to C=+P
- Help on current edit screen C=+H
- Music relocator included in release



--- NEW FEATURES IN JOHN PLAYER V1.5 ---

- Added slide command
- Note trig rewritten from scratch
- Optimized 1 rasterline, now peaks at
  7 starting lines (unless you totally
  torture it)



--- COMMON KEYS ------------------------

Space     Play
Run/Stop  Silence

Cursors   Move around

+ and -   Block select
[ and ]   Sound select
< and >   Keyboard octave

C=+C      Copy
C=+V      Paste

F1        Block Edit Screen
F3        Sound Edit Screen
F5        Sequencer/Info
F7        Disk/Options Menu



--- BLOCK EDIT SCREEN ------------------

Most of the keys comprise a two octave
keyboard which is used to enter notes.

Hold Shift for tied notes (no retrig,
only frequency is changed).

Del       Delete step
½         Enter 'Off' (gate bit off)
Home      Go to top left corner

Shift+    Enter command in cmd column
Letter    (see Commands below)

Shift+    Cut block
Home

C=+C      Copy block
C=+V      Paste block

C=+R      Replicate block at cursor

C=+T      Copy track
C=+P      Paste track

C=+S      Swap track with buffer


Replicate fills the block with the range
above current cursor position:

If cursor at step $10 steps $00-$0f are
copied to $10-$1f.

If cursor at step $08 steps $00-$07 are
copied to $08-$0f, $10-$17 and $18-$1f.



--- SOUND EDIT SCREEN ------------------

Shift+    Play sound (on channel 1)
Keyboard

C=+C      Copy sound
C=+V      Paste sound
½         Key up (same as 'Off')

Shift+    Play entire song instead of
Space     repeating current block only


All sounds share the same 64-step sound
table. The columns are (left to right):

Waveform  11:Triangle  41:Pulse wave
          21:Sawtooth  51:Triangle+Pulse
          31:Tri+Saw   81:Noise
          15:Ring mod  43:Pulse/Sync
          23:Saw/Sync

Arpeggio  00-7E:Rel. note (semitones)
          80-FF:Absolute pitch/2

Filter    00-FF:Cutoff (added to Flt)


If you want a hard restart the first
step of all sounds should play waveform
$09 (see preset sounds). Either use it
with all sounds or none of the sounds.
Otherwise the player can't keep the
timing.

Hard restart is not hard-wired to the
playroutine because sometimes not using
it gives a more desirable sound: The
attack is softer and for example when
using an initial click with the noise
waveform at high pitch you get a nice
sounding 'small soft click'.

The same click with hard restart is more
stable, but also much more harsh.


Absolute pitch works in a special way:
The value is shifted to left and written
to high byte frequency register.

81 (low)  $02nn     (low byte nn of 
82        $04nn      frequency is not
83        $06nn      changed from that
.                    of the last note)
.
FF (high) $FEnn


Filter cutoff value is added to which-
ever value is set as filter base by the
Flt command.

For example, you can set up a filter
envelope which ramps down from 7F to 00
and then 'tweak' the filter using Flt.

Wrapping is never checked so in this
case the Flt values should never exceed
80. (Unless this is the desired effect)


Sound Parameters:

Attack/Decay      AD (nybbles)
Sustain/Release   SR (nybbles)

Sound Trig Pos.   Defines sound range
Sound End         in table (highlighted)
Sound Loop        (always set loop pos.)

PWM Init          01-0F (00 for no init)
PWM Rate          01-FF (slow to fast)
PWM Top Limit     02-10
PWM Bottom Limit  00-0E

Filt.Reso/Ch.Sel  reso 0-F, ch. sel 0-7
Filt.Type/Volume  ftype 0-7, volume 0-F

Only channel 1 notes read the filter
parameters and filter table.

Some ADSR values may bug, experiment. :)

PWM Init must be bigger than PWM Bottom
and smaller than PWM Top Limit. Values
out of this range or equal to either of
the limits may cause the modulation to
stop.

PWM Init 00 skips all PWM parameters and
keeps the current PWM on channel (PWM is
continued).



--- SEQUENCER/INFO ---------------------

Return    Insert current block at cursor
Del       Delete block under cursor

Shift+    Play starting from cursor
Space

T         Edit tag
I         Edit info (6 lines)

Only tag is attached to packed music.
Info is saved with music data files and
it's also used as scrolltext with Save
Executable.

Extra spaces are skipped when scrolling
the text. (The scroller routine hangs if
there's no text at all. I won't fix this
because it's a good punishment for not
writing a scrolltext)

Loop position is entered after a zero:

00       Loop at position 08
08



--- BLOCK COMMANDS ---------------------

Shift+1st letter to enter command in
block command column.

Brk      Block break

End      Block end
         (used internally by the player
         and can't be changed/removed)

Tmp 0C   Set tempo
         (06-FF, default 0C)

Flt 00   Set filter cutoff base value
         (this is added to cutoff values
         read from sound table)

Ini 00   Initialize modulation
         (used with both vibrato and
         slide, vibrato width 00-02)

Mod 01   Select channel for modulation
         (channel number 01-03)

Off 01   Stop modulating channel
         (channel number 01-03)

Vib 02   Set vibrato rate or stop slide
         (01-04, 00 stops slide without
         resetting frequency)

Sli 00   Start pitch slide
         (00-7F up, FF-80 down)


There is only one modulator which can be
either vibrato or slide.

You can modulate more than one channel
at the same time, but all channels use
the same modulation settings.


Here's an example of using vibrato:

Ini 00   Initialize, small vibrato width
Mod 03   Select channel 3 modulation
---      
---      (any number of steps, vibrato
---      is not yet activated)
---       
Vib 02   Start vibrato at rate 02
---
---      (any number of steps, vibrato
---      continues)
---
Off 03   Stop vibrato on channel 3
Vib 00   Vibrato off (saves cpu time :)
---
---


There's also a simplified way but then
you never know at which point of sine
wave the modulation is started:

Ini 01   Just initialize vibrato width
Vib 02   and rate at start of song
---
---      (let the song go on)

Then whenever you need it:
---
Mod 01   Start vibrato on channel 1
---
---      (any number of steps, vibrato
---      continues)
---
Off 01   Stop vibrato on channel 1
---
---


Here's an example of using pitch slide:

Ini 00   Initialize modulation
Mod 03   Select channel 3 modulation
---
---
---      (again, slide is not
---      yet activated)
---
Sli 10   Start sliding, speed 10
---
---      (slide continues)
---
---
Off 03   Stop modulating channel 3
---
---

Command Off also resets frequency to the
original note.

Alternatively, you can use the command
Vib 00 to stop sliding - The reached
frequency is then kept.

Don't forget to stop modulating (Off 03)
the channel before trigging a new note.



--- NOTES ------------------------------

- Packed music might not sound right if
  restarted: channel modulation and some
  sounds are not reset

- Also, you should use the actual packed
  file saved from John Player, not an
  image that is ripped from memory after
  playing that song

- Yeah, I know the slide command isn't
  that good but heck, you can't have it
  all...

- In case of emergency hit run/stop and
  restore and type sys2061 or sys16384
  (or sys4^7) to restart the editor


John Player Editor Version 1.6
(c)2001 by Aleksi Eeben (aleksi@cncd.fi)
http://www.cncd.fi/aeeben