GENERATING A SONG ----------------- Once you've finished a song under STarKos, perhaps you want to use it in your own productions. This is a very simple procedure. Just run the GS (GENSONG) file (or |GS if you've connect the right ROM) and follow the instruction below. This program will convert a SKS file into one to eight BINARY file(s). These files can then be used, along with the STarKos player (see PLAYERS.ENG, and the GP prog), in any of your program, whether it's coded in Basic or Assembler. So, you've probably understood that it's most the same as the BSC's Soundtrakker, except that the song you generate is NOT in the same file as the player. This has no convenience, and only advantages : you can use ONE player for a multitude of songs ! And you can put them everywhere in memory (well, there're some restrictions if you code in basic). Don't forget the 2 modules that allow you to relocate both song and player... That's what makes STarKos the most flexible music editor available. WHY A COMPILER ? ---------------- Because !! I think it's a terrible mistake to prevent the compiling of a song, like the AMC. Why ? Because most of the times, a song contains unused instruments, patterns, and the format used under an editor follows most of the time more 'opened' rules. The format used by the Starkos player is more optimized. Every unused data is cut, as well as data that will never be reached, at the end of patterns for example. THE SONG GENERATOR MAIN MENU ---------------------------- Once GS is loaded, a menu appears : 1) Show all files on disc 2) Show SKS files on disc These two options are pretty self explanatory, so I won't tell you what they were made for... 3) Load and compile a song This option is of course the main one. See below. 4) Drive A Allows you to switch between Drive A and B. LOADING AND COMPILING A SONG ---------------------------- First of all, is asked the name of the SKS file. Then you'll have to enter the address of the song, from 0 to #ffff. After that, the screen turns to black and the CPC's going to work, the longer the song is the longer you'll have to wait, but hey, who cares. --> For technical reason, the screen is turned off because it's used as a buffer. If an error disc happens, the screen turns to red and you will have to press 'R' to Retry or 'C' to Cancel. Then a screen appears and tells you the size of the compiled song, and the number of files it will take. What is that ? Well, STarKos song can reach the size of 54kb. For both editor and compiler, the SKS file is handled in the banks memory. However, the compiler is going to generate another song that can be as big ! The CPC doesn't have enough memory to manage this. That's why the compiler can generate single files of #8800 (34kb) only, the rest of the memory being taken by the compiler, the buffers and the system. If your song is bigger than that, then a second file is created. The screen shows 2 options : Automatic or Custom size. What does it mean ? Well, it's very simple. 'Automatic' means that the files are as big as they can be. If you song size is #A000, then the first file size will be #8800, and the second #1800 (#8800+#1800=#A000). Most users will use the Automatic size. 'Custom' allows you to define the size of each file. You can save up to 8 files, with a size from 1 to #8800 (34kb). What is the use of this ? Well, it can be useful if the song is big and you need to load it in several parts. You can want to first have a multitude of files, to be linked later before playing it. This brings me to an important point : Even thought you can create several files, THE FILES MUST BE LINKED ONE AFTER THE OTHER ! So it's not possible for the moment to cut the songs in various parts in the memory. The song data must be put in a LINEAR way. However, you can open a bank and put a part of the song inside, even if the other part get over it. Example : A song could start from #6000 to #7fff of bank #c4, and continue from #8000 to #a000 in the 'normal' memory. Just remember that the player must have access to any data of the song, so don't forget opening the bank if needed. Once the choice is done, Automatic or Custom (and the sizes given), a SECOND pass begins. The compiler creates indeed the song in 2 pass, like most assembler in fact. Just wait the same time as previously ! However, this time the files are saved on disk. When it's done, a message indicated you whether the song has been successfully saved or not. It's over ! The files created have the same name as the SKS song, but the extension is different. For a song called TRY.SKS, the output files will be... TRY.BIN TRY.BI1 TRY.BI2 ... TRY.BI7 WARNING : The files generated don't have the right START address if you look at their header. So when you load them, you MUST precise their address. LOAD"TRY.BIN" will NOT work. But LOAD"TRY.BIN",&4000 will. That's all. Now that you have a song compiled, just use GP, that generates a player. Please read GENPLAY.ENG for more info !