Track Screen Help Page 1 of 1 CtrlJ to join two tracks F1 record, F2 play, F3 stop, F4 punch CtrlX to eXtract tracks F5 pause, F9 load next, F10 SMPTE box CtrlE to erase a track D for disk operations, E for the editor CtrlF to view/change filters C for the conductor, G for global edit CtrlP to set patch mode S for the step sequencer CtrlN to name a recorded track O for Options page, P for Pattern Mode CtrlS to solo a track I for the Information Screen CtrlM to mute/unmute a track R to recover a track which could not be CtrlA to mute/unmute all tracks transferred CtrlR to reverse muting T, M, L, to move to the Track, Metro, and Location boxes General data entry: Use cursors (and Home/End/PgUp/PgDn in the track box) to move between items. Number entry can be cancelled by Del, or corrected with BackSpace. +/ increment and decrement numbers, shift +/ increase or decrease by 10. Cr Complete Entry / Toggle Switch Text and number entry are ended with Cr. Use it also to toggle switches (e.g. filters, start measure and beat). Esc Finish / Cancel Use it to leave the program, to return from the subsidiary screens, or to finish or cancel a procedure. End of Help for Track Screen to Exit 0 Step Sequencer Help Page 1 of 4 Step Sequencer Features: Music Display Step Sequencer Data Entry Box Metrobox Location Box The Music Display shows you the music in your Step track as you enter it. You cannot move around in the Music Display, but it will change as you enter more music into the Step track you are constructing, or when you delete notes using the Backspace key. You may step music onto the end of existing tracks. The Step Sequencer Data Entry Box is the heart of Step. It allows you to enter values for 4 numbers which define the duration of a "step". Use the cursor keys to move from one number to another. The numbers which define a step are: Base Note, Tuplet, # of Tuplets, # of Notes Base Note: this is the value which is being subdivided. If Base note = 1, then the value to subdivide is a whole note. If Base note = 4 (the default) the value to subdivide is a quarter note. Tuplet: the number of parts the Base note will be divided into. A value of 4 PgDn to see more Help for the Step Sequencer, or to exit. 0 Step Sequencer Help Page 2 of 4 for Tuplet means the Base note will be divided into 4 parts. If Base note and Tuplet = 4 (the default for each) then the step is defined as a 16th note: a quarter note divided into 4 parts yields a sixteenth note. # of Tuplets: increases the duration of a step. If # of Tuplets = 3, the step will be three times the value expressed with Base note and Tuplet. If Base note and Tuplet are 4, and # of Tuplets = 3, the duration will equal 3 sixteenths. # of Notes: another subdividing factor which defines the # of notes the step (as described by Base note, Tuplet, and # of Tuplets) will be divided into. If Base note = 4, Tuplet = 4, # of Tuplets = 3, and # of Notes = 5, the duration of the step will be one fifth of 3 sixteenths. Keys: the Spacebar, Sp, or your Sustain pedal (or Portamento pedal) moves you forward in time by the value of the step you have dialed up. Every time you move forward by a step you will either be entering notes in your track (as long as a MIDI note event or patch change has taken place), or you will be accumulating time between the last MIDI event and the next which occurs. Delete or Del: as long as you have not progressed to the next step, by PgUp or PgDn to see more Help for the Step Sequencer, or to exit. 0 Step Sequencer Help Page 3 of 4 pressing Sp, you can delete any notes you have entered by pressing Del. You can Assign and Retrieve your 10 favorite Step durations using the A and R keys. When you press A you will be asked for the preset number you want to store the current Step parameters to. When you want to Retrieve a Step preset, press R followed by the preset number to retrieve. The default presets are: 1 Whole note, 2 Half note, 3 Half note triplets, 4 Quarter note, 5 Quarter note triplets, 6 Eighth note, 7 Eight note triplets, 8 Sixteenth note, 9 Sixteenth note triplets, and 0 thirtysecond note. You may override any or all of these defaults, and then save your preferences to the FORTE.CFG file (using Option 12 on the Options screen). Press E for Edit if you want to Edit the track. You can press S from Edit to return to Step on the same track. (Since the Editor always pads out the last bar of the track you are editing, when you press S from Edit you may be placed beyond the end of the last note in the last measure in the track. You may want to use the BackSpace key to remove the last note, then to play it again and PgUp or PgDn to see more Help for the Step Sequencer, or to exit. 0 Step Sequencer Help Page 4 of 4 continue on your way.) The Step Sequencer is completely polyphonic. You may enter the notes of a chord one at a time or simultaneously, as long as you do not press Sp or your pedal in between. You may hold on to one or more notes in your chord and release the others, which will create simultaneous attacks but nonsimultaneous releases. Pressing Sp or the sustain pedal is always the last thing you should do, since it is this action which enters the last MIDI events you played into your track. The Metrobox functions the same in Step as it does in the Play/Record screen. If you have a Conductor track with Meter or Tempo changes, you will see these in the Metrobox as you reach the timepoints corresponding to these changes. You may Play your Step track at any time, as you create it. FORTE II keeps track of where you are in your track and will resume Step entry from that point. Use the Location Box to change where Play begins and/or ends. Press Esc when you are finished. (You will be prompted for a track # to save your work to.) End of Help for the Step Sequencer. Press to exit, or PgUp to see more 0 Global Editor Help Page 1 of 5 Global Editor Features: Music Display Edit Tracks Menu Other Commands You can move around in the Music Display to look at your music or to select the measure # and track(s) you want for any Global operations. Use the cursor keys:  to move track by track and measure by measure. Use Home to move to measure 1 of the track you are on, End to move to the last measure in the current track, PgUp to move to the first track currently displayed (or to track 1 if it is not on the screen). Likewise PgDn moves you to the last track currently displayed, or to track 32. You can move through your music 8 measures at a time by pressing Shift , and by screenfuls (78 measures at a time) by pressing Ctrl . All the functions you see in the Edit Tracks Menu are available on any tracks you select. As the main status message indicates, CtrlM puts you in multiple track mode. Once you have chosen this mode, the program will mark the track the cursor is on, and you can toggle other tracks individually by pressing Cr. You may also use the power keys CtrlS (for single track), CtrlA (for all tracks), and CtrlR (to reverse the marks). If you do not select multiple tracks, the program assumes you want to work on the track your cursor is currently on. PgDn to see more Help for the Global Editor, or to exit. 0 Global Editor Help Page 2 of 5 The Edit Tracks Menu allows you to select from the following operations: 1 Insert Silence 2 Silent Replace 3 Delete Bars 4 Copy Bars to Buffer 5 Insert From Buffer 6 Copy Track 7 Erase Track 8 Offset Track and 9 Create Track. 1 Insert Silence lets you put silent bars of any meter into your chosen tracks. If you have not selected all existing tracks, the silence will be added and the tracks will be reorganized according to the structure of the Conductor, which will not be changed by the insertion. You may choose one meter for the insert, or follow the meter changes of the Conductor. If you have selected all tracks, the silence will be added and the Conductor will be changed automatically to include a meter change, if the meter of the silence inserted does not agree with the Conductor's meter. 2 Silent Replace lets you replace existing music with silence. As usual, if you want to operate on multiple tracks you must enter multiple mode with CtrlM, and then mark the tracks you wish to alter. You can then cursor over the measures which you are going to replace with silence (intense video will indicate these measures), followed by Sp, which completes the operation. If you are replacing PgUp or PgDn to see more Help for the Global Editor, or to exit. 0 Global Editor Help Page 3 of 5 measures with silence on only one track, the data will be stored in a buffer, called 'UNDO', if you have a buffer available. 3 Delete Bars lets you remove the number of bars you specify from the tracks you select. Again, bars to be deleted will be marked with intense video. If you are deleting bars on all existing tracks, and if the bars deleted include any meter commands in the Conductor, the Conductor will be adjusted accordingly. Also, if you are deleting bars on only one track, the data will be saved to the UNDO buffer. 4 Copy Bars to Buffer allows you to mark a number of bars in any track and copy those bars to a buffer, i.e. to some free memory in your computer, which you can use for 5 Insert from Buffer, or to operate on further in Edit. Use the cursor keys to mark the bars you wish to copy (intense video will mark the bars). If the last bar of the range specified is not a full bar, it will be copied to the buffer in its "incomplete" form. If you have marked bars beyond existing data, the buffer will be padded out with silence corresponding to the number of empty bars. 5 Insert from Buffer allows you to copy from a buffer into selected tracks starting at a measure you specify. You will be prompted for a # of copies of the PgUp or PgDn to see more Help for the Global Editor, or to exit. 0 Global Editor Help Page 4 of 5 buffer to add into the track (the default = 1), as well as the buffer # to copy from. If the buffer is "incomplete" (see 4 above) it will be copied in this form, letting you make insertions which are polyrhythmic with respect to the current meter. 6 Copy Track allows you to copy or move any existing track to any other track. You will be prompted to select for 1 Copy or 2 Move. Then, if the # of the track to copy or move to is an already existing track you will have to confirm that you want to Replace/Delete the track, since its data will be destroyed. 7 Erase Track allows you to erase selected tracks. You will be asked to confirm the erasure, since data will be destroyed. 8 Offset Track lets you 'slide' selected tracks forward or backward in time by a number of ticks which you can enter (between 480 and +480). This is useful in creating simple delays, or in adjusting between the different reaction times of different synthesizers or drum machines. 9 Create Track gives you a quick way to create a track with two measures of silence in it (measure 0 and measure 1). PgUp or PgDn to see more Help for the Global Editor, or to exit. 0 Global Editor Help Page 5 of 5 0 Block Copy allows you to copy a block of measures, on selected tracks, to a later position in your music. For example, you may want to copy bars 1 8 on all existing tracks, to bars 33 40. After marking all tracks, use the cursor keys to mark the bars you want to copy, then press Sp. Then move the cursor to the measure to copy to and press Sp again. You will then be prompted to match Target tracks with Source tracks. (By default, the Targets are the same as the Source tracks.) You can change these assignments to create an instant reorchestration of the block. After you have selected your Target tracks, the program will ask whether you want to copy any Conductor commands it finds in the block into the Conductor at the block insert measure. Other commands: Location allows you to enter a measure number to move to directly. Buffers displays existing buffers and the amount of memory they take up, rounded up to the nearest K). You have the option of 1 Erase Buffer and 2 Name buffer. Erase Buffer allows you to delete any existing buffer, which will free up the memory which was taken by the buffer. (The Global Editor is the only screen where you can do this operation.) End of Help for the Global Screen. Press to exit, or PgUp to see more 0 Disk Screen Help Page 1 of 2 Disk Screen Features: Default Directory Status File Display Disk Menu The Default Directory Status supplies you with information about the current date and time, the current default directory and its free disk space. You may select and store the directory where your sequence and track files will be saved in the configuration file, FORTE.CFG (see Option 12 of the Options screen). The File Display shows you simultaneously up to 38 files in the current default directory. If there are more than 38 files in the directory, PgDn will scroll the files one by one, so that you can see all the files in the directory. Since FORTE II does not store into memory files which scroll off the screen, if you want to see information on these files you should press 6 Renew directory. You can move to the bottom of a column of files using the End key, or to the top of a column with the Home key. The normal cursor keys, , function as usual. The information in the File Display consists of the name and extension of each file, the date/time it was created, and the amount of memory it takes up (in K). The Disk Menu supplies you with the following directory and file functions: PgDn to see more Help for the Disk Screen, or to exit. 0 Disk Screen Help Page 2 of 2 1 Save file allows you to save the current sequence you have created or any single track in that sequence to disk. You will be prompted for a path, i.e. a disk drive specification followed by a directory and a file name for the file to save. If you are saving a Sequence the file will automatically be supplied with a ".SEQ" file extension, or ".TRK" if you are saving a Track. 2 Load file lets you load the file the cursor (and the reversevideo block) is on into memory if it is a ".SEQ" or ".TRK" file, and was created with FORTE II. 3 Rename file allows you to give any file a new filename and extension. You can use Rename to change the directory a file resides in. Unlike 1 Save file, Rename does not supply a file extension. 4 Delete file allows you to delete the file the cursor (and the reversevideo block) is on. You will, of course, be asked to confirm the deletion. 5 Change directory allows you to select any directory as the default. All files in this directory will be displayed (up to 38 at a time, see File Display). 6 Renew directory redisplays the directory to show files which have scrolled off the screen (when there are more than 38 files in the directory). End of Help for the Disk Screen. Press to exit, or PgUp to see more 0 Page 1 of 6 of help for the Editor screen: Key Summary F2 starts play from the Music Display. 1..7 make the menu choices. Esc always cancels what you are doing. Sp executes any data change to your track. Hit Esc if you're not sure! Cr = toggle, Ctrl-A = all, Ctrl-S = 'solo', Ctrl-R = reverse switches Gray + and - increase and decrease numbers, Shift/+ and - by more. Ins toggles the pitch display from flats to sharps. CtrlN replaces measure numbers with a chart of note lengths. N = Notes Mode, M = MIDI Controllers Mode, B = Block/Buffer Mode C D G I O P S T = other screens; E = edit new track L = Location enter new measure number F = Fix Up Track R = Screen Resolution F10 = SMPTE location , shift, Ctrl Home finds the first note in the track, End finds the last. PgDn moves you to the top of the MIDI range, PgDn to the bottom. > finds the next note or controller, < finds the previous one. Press PgDn for more, Esc to return to the Editor. 0 Page 2 of 6 of help for the Editor screen. Features of the Editor screen: Music Display Menu Window Data Window Keyhelp window The Music Display is a piano-roll-style depiction of the notes in your track, laid over a grid showing their pitch and time. There is one horizontal line for every whole-step in the scale, a dotted vertical line for every beat and a solid line for every bar. You can read pitch from the scale at the left, and time from the measure-numbers below. As you move your cursor through your track, it is followed by a box on the left, showing its pitch, and a box below, showing its position in time. The Menu Window is at the lower left corner of the screen. It shows you the title of your current menu, at the top, then the numbered choices, in the mid- dle, then the name of the menu which you will reach with Esc, at the bottom. The Data Window, at the lower center of the screen, shows you data about the changes you are making in your track: parameters of a note or controller, block definition, etc. When you enter data, often your cursor will be placed here. The Keyhelp Window displays the keys you can use for "graphic editing", in Notes and MIDI Controllers Modes. PgUp or PgDn for more, Esc to return to the Editor. 0 Page 3 of 6 of help for the Editor screen. Notes Mode is where you go to edit one note at a time. Here the Data Window shows you the parameters of a single note: start time, end time, length, pitch, channel, velocity and release velocity. When a note is blinking, these numbers always refer to that note. With < and > and the cursor keys, you can find these parameters for every note in your track. To Change a note, press 1. (Your cursor must be on it.) Enter the new para- meters you want for the note, and hit Sp to enter the change into the track. If the new note overlaps with another one on the same pitch and channel (this is confusing for the Editor and meaningless for MIDI instruments), you will be told so and asked to re-enter the change or cancel with Esc. You can 2) Insert a note whether or not your cursor is on one already. Data entry is just the same as for Change. 3) Erase removes the note your cursor is on. 4) Undo reverses whatever you just did: it Changes a note to what it was before, Erases a note you Inserted, puts back a note you Erased, even Undoes itself. PgUp or PgDn for more, Esc to return to the Editor. 0 Page 4 of 6 of help for the Editor screen. MIDI controllers mode works very much like Notes, except that there are many different kinds of controllers. Use Choose Controller to select the one you want, from among the predefined switch and continuous controllers, or by en-tering the number of one we have not listed. Controllers are displayed along the measurenumber line, at the bottom of the Music Display. The Value parameter in the Controllers data window has different ranges de- pending on the particular controller selected: -8192 to +8191 for Bender; 0 to 127 for continuous controllers, ON or OFF for the switches, and one of two set- tings for patch messages. Some machines send their patch 1 as MIDI patch 0, some send it as MIDI patch 1. Pick the setting which shows the patches the way your synthesizer does, choosing Options, then Patch number range. Graphic Editing in Notes and MIDI Controllers Mode There are shortcuts for the Insert and Change operations. Sp inserts a new note or controller: values default to the last event displayed in the Data window. In both modes, the window at the lower right gives a list of the keys you can use in this way: they come in pairs, with the key that decrements (value, length, start time) on the left, such as [ ], which change a note's start time or the time of a controller. PgUp or PgDn for more, Esc to return to the Editor. 0 Page 5 of 6 of help for the Editor screen. A Block is a selection from the MIDI data in your track, restricted by time and by choices of notes, controllers, and channels. Once you have defined a block to include just those MIDI messages you want to change, you can perform a number of operations on the block, changing all the messages included in it. You can Delete the block, either wiping all the messages in it, leaving the timing of the track intact, or cutting the block out of the track, shortening it. You can Alter Data in the block, transposing it, quantizing it, changing the velocities or the lengths of the notes in it, changing the channels the messages are sent on, and filtering out the controllers. A Buffer is a stretch of MIDI data that is not part of any track. Here and in Global, you can copy part of a track into a buffer: from the buffer you can copy the data back into the same track or a different one, anywhere you like, as many times as you like. The eight buffers FORTE II supplies can be used to build complicated tracks from elements taken from any part of your sequence. In the Editor, you copy data to a buffer using 4)Load Buffer with Block. All the messages in the block are copied, with their timing kept exactly as in the original, but calculated from the beginning of your block. Once you have loaded a buffer, whether here or in Global, you can copy it into your track, using the three choices under 5)Copy Buffer Contents. Insert PgUp or PgDn for more, Esc to return to the Editor. 0 Page 6 of 6 of help for the Editor screen. breaks your old track, placing the contents of the buffer between the two parts. Replace leaves your track the same length, writing the buffer contents over any- thing that was there and removing the old messages. Overlay does the same ex- cept that the old messages are left as they were: the data from the buffer and the old data from the track occupy the same time. Before you copy a buffer, you can alter it in several ways. Three of the Alter Data functions -- Transpose, Change Velocities, and Convert Channels -- are provided for buffers under choice 7, along with three for buffers only: Invert, Retrograde and Time Stretch. To find out what's in a buffer, play it with choice 6. Blocks are defined with choice 1. Here you can toggle the modes of length, note, controller, and channel selection with Cr. Block length, for example, may be defined as Track from m.1, Track from m.0, or Between points. If you choose Between Points, a display of the two timepoints will appear in the upper part of the Data Window: to set these points, press Sp and your cursor will jump up to the top of the window. The other settings work the same way. PgUp for more, Esc to return to the Editor. 0 Conductor Screen Help Page 1 of 3 Conductor Features: Music Display Conductor Markers Current Conductor Commands Box Conductor Menu The Music Display depicts graphically the music in your tracks. You cannot move around in the Music Display in this screen but it will change as you change your location within the Conductor track itself. The Conductor Markers are the box characters "" which show you which measures contain meter or tempo changes. You can move the cursor from one marker to another using the <> keys. You can move from measure to measure using the  keys. Ctrl  will move you to the edge of the screen you are on, or to the next screen. Home takes you to bar 1, End to the last measure containing Conductor commands. When you move from marker to marker you will change the information displayed in the Current Conductor Commands Box, which is always displayed when the cursor is on a marker. This box shows you all Conductor Commands for the current measure. PgDn to see more Help for the Conductor Screen, or to exit. 0 Conductor Screen Help Page 2 of 3 Conductor Menu: 1 Insert Meter and 2 Insert Tempo, 3 Remove Meter and 4 Remove Tempo let you insert a meter or tempo, or remove a meter or tempo, at the measure the cursor is on. For tempo commands you will also have to specify a beat. 5 % All Tempos 6 Accel/Ritard 7 Shift Commands 8 Block Copy and 9 Block Remove are powerful block editing commands. 5 % All Tempos allows you to multiply all tempo commands in the Conductor, or all tempo commands in a block you mark using cursor keys, by a percentage. A tempo chart is displayed which pairs any percentage with another which will 'Undo' the effect of other. E.g. 50% is paired with 200%. This can be very halpful when the tempo your music is at is faster than you can play. 6 Accel/Ritard allows you to mark a block of measures between which you want the tempo to change gradually. Having marked the measures you will be prompted for an initial tempo and a final tempo. The program will fill in the rest. 7 Shift Commands lets you move all Conductor commands, starting at the measure the cursor is on, forward or backward in time. For example, if you decide to PgUp or PgDn to see more Help for the Conductor Screen, or to exit. 0 Conductor Screen Help Page 3 of 3 add 8 bars of intro to the beginning of your music, and you have already programmed meter and/or tempo changes into the music, you only need to shift the commands, using cursor keys and the Sp key, backward in time (later in the music) by 8 bars. If you Shift commands forward in time, any commands which lie between the beginning of the commandstoshift and the measure they are being moved to will be deleted. 8 Block Copy allows you to mark a block of Conductor commands (using cursors and Sp) and to copy them, beginning at any other measure. If you have a repetitive group of meter changes, for example, which you want to call back at a later point in your music, Block Copy can save you a lot of labor. Unlike 7 Shift Commands, if there are commands later than the point you are copying commands to, the new commands will be inserted before any subsequent commands. I.e. all commands after the insert point will be moved backward in time. 9 Block Remove lets you mark a block of Conductor commands from which you can remove 1 All commands, 2 Meter commands or 3 Tempo commands. This is a powerful deletion command, so be careful when using it. End of Help for the Conductor. Press to exit, or PgUp to see more. 0 Options Screen Help Page 1 of 6 Options Screen Features: Options Menu Channel filtering display Tracks/channels display The Tracks/channels display is at the bottom of the screen, and shows for each recorded track the channels in it. The Options Menu offers the following 19 items: Option 1 = Omni Off/On: Omni Off enables reception of MIDI data on one channel only. Omni On enables reception of MIDI data on all channels at once. Omni Off is sent when you load FORTE II, to set old synths to receive on just 1 channel. Option 2 = Controllers On/Off: enables/disables sending (therefore recording) of MIDI continuous controllers, e.g. Bender, Modulation Wheel, etc. Does not affect Patch changes or MIDI switch controllers (e.g. Sustain or Portamento Pedal). Option 3 = MIDI Thru On/Off: enables/disables transmission of data at MIDIIN to the MIDIOUT port. NOTE: MIDI Thru Off is prevented for any channels which are being filtered out (see Option 4). For filtered channels, therefore, MIDI Thru is always On. (This is simply the way the MPU401 works!) PgDn to see more Help for the Options Screen, or to exit. 0 Options Screen Help Page 2 of 6 Option 4 = Channel Filtering: the cursor will be placed at channel 1 of the Channel Filtering Display. Use cursor keys  to change the channel number you are at. Cr will toggle Off and On any channel. Video will change to normal for filtered channels, intense for accepted channels. The Power Keys, Ctrl A, S, and R, for All, Single, and Reverse, function as they do elsewhere in FORTE II. Use this feature when you want to send to FORTE II data from another unit but want to exclude some channels. Option 5 = Local Keyboard On/Off: Certain MIDI keyboards have been designed so that their soundgenerating circuitry can be turned off even while they transmit MIDI data out as you play them. If your synth has this feature, Option 5 allows you to designate a channel for a synth whose soundgeneration is to be "muted". Option 6 = FSK Resolution: toggles the resolution of the Externalsync FSK clock between the FORTE II clock rate (120 ticks/beat) and MIDIsync rate, 24 ticks per beat. This may be useful if you have already striped a tape with FSK sync from a different source. Option 7 = Set Color: The Tracks/channels display will be temporarily replaced. Press 1 to change the foreground color, or 2 to change the background color. The Set Color Display, "Normal Intense Reverse", will change accordingly. PgUp or PgDn to see more Help for the Options Screen, or to exit. 0 Options Screen Help Page 3 of 6 Option 8 = Channel to Name: Tracks/channels will be temporarily replaced by the Channel to Name display. The cursor will be placed at channel 1. Use cursor keys to change the channel you are on. Then give each channel a 3letter name for easy identification on the Trackbox. You must press Cr to indicate you are finished entering a name for a channel. Option 9 = Automatic Backup: If set to ON, resaving a sequence will create a backup file with the same filename, with extension '.BAK'. Option 10 = MIDI Interface Setup: Only use this feature if you know what you are doing! If your computer already uses IRQ2 (the default interrupt of the MIDI interface), and the interface can be reset (by software or by rejumpering), use this feature to indicate which IRQ # your MIDI system will be generating. You may also change the numbers of the interface's Data Port and Status Port. Normally the Data Port is at port address 330h, the Status Port at 331h. Option 11 = All Notes Off: If you get a "stuck note" Option 9 will turn it off. A noteoff for all 128 MIDI pitches is sent on each of the 16 MIDI channels. NOTE: if the stuck note stems from a hardware problem, Option 9 may not turn off the stuck note. Also, do not press F3 = Stop at the end of a Record session until you have released all notes, as noteoffs are not recorded for such notes. PgUp or PgDn to see more Help for the Options Screen, or to exit. 0 Options Screen Help Page 4 of 6 Option 12 = Input Channel Conversion: alters the recordchannel of incoming MIDI data. The data is echoed to the conversion channel as you play. Option 13 = Send Song Position Pointer: You can begin Play in the middle of your music and slave another unit to FORTE II if it receives Song Pointers. An SPP is sent corresponding to StrtMeas/Beat (in the Location Box). Return to Play/Record (or Global), then Play when the slave unit confirms receipt of the Song Pointer. Option 14 = Configuration: Saves the values you want FORTE II to "boot" with to FORTE.CFG. Values saved correspond to Options 110, the Metrobox values, Step Sequencer presets, Input Filtering, and a Data Directory. Once FORTE.CFG exists, a Configuration menu allows you to select which values to resave. Option 15 = DOS Shell: Allows you to go to DOS and to run programs as you would from the DOS command line. At least 40K of memory must be available to FORTE II in order for you to use Option 13. Return to FORTE II by typing "EXIT". Option 16 = Tracks/Channels toggle: allows you to flipflop between tracks 1 16 and tracks 17 32, to view which channels are in which tracks. PgUp or PgDn to see more Help for the Options Screen, or to exit. 0 Options Screen Help Page 5 of 6 Option 17 = System Exclusive: A 64K buffer stores up to 8 system exclusive data dumps for your sequence, and saves them to disk with the rest of the data. After reloading the sequence, send the banks when you like, or, if you saved with AutoTransmit ON, the program will automatically download the banks at load time. This feature does not support synths which require a 'handshake', confirmation that all is well in the land of SysEx. Since some synths send banks out as a succession of small packets, FORTE II will wait for you to press Sp to signal that the incoming dump has finished. This allows you to store more than 8 banks, if you need to, since you can dump from two or more synths before pressing Sp. When you want to upload a bank to FORTE II, press R for Receive. You can then enter a dump request code, in Hexadecimal, or, if your synth can be made to send its banks from its front panel without a request, just press Cr. Then, when the dump is complete, press Sp and the results of the dump will be displayed. (The channel number and manufacturer ID displayed will be from the first dump only.) Press T to Transmit a bank. If you want to transmit several banks, press CtrlM for multiple, then use Cr, or Ctrl A, S, and R, then press T. Toggle AutoTransmit On and Off with A. To Zap a bank, cursor to it and press Z. PgUp or PgDn to see more Help for the Options Screen, or to exit. 0 Options Screen Help Page 6 of 6 Option 18 = MIDI File Conversion: converts your sequence to a standard MIDI File, for use with score transcription programs, or other sequencers. You enter a filename and extension for the MIDI FIle FORTE II will be creating. Option 19 = SMPTE Cue List: allows you to store up to 10 Cue points, or simply to find what measure, beat, and tick correspond to a timepoint, expressed in hours, minutes, seconds, frames, and subframes. (Subframes are not strictly part of the standard SMPTE Time Code, but are employed generally in music applications using SMPTE.) Select a SMPTE Offset (the SMPTE code where your videotape begins) and a SMPTE Locate point (where some visual event happens). Set the number of frames per second (24, 25, 29 = Drop frame, or 30), and the subframes per frame (up to 100). Pressing Sp will display the measure, beat, and tick information for the SMPTE time. Pressing A will assign the information to a Cue Point, whose number and name you supply. R will let you retrieve a Cue Point. When not on the Options screen, Sp and R will use the measure, beat, and tick information for the operation you are currently working on: setting the Strt Meas and Beat information on the Track Screen, or the Block/Buffer Start or End time in the Editor, or the Pattern Start point in the Pattern Screen. End of Help for the Options Screen. Press to exit, or PgUp to see more 0 Pattern Screen Help Page 1 of 4 A pattern is a collection of instructions for FORTE II on how to play back a given track. These are the parameters which make up a pattern: all timepoints are given as measure, beat and 16th (). Name. Up to eight characters long. Start point. Where in real time the pattern will begin to sound. Repeat count. How many times the data in the pattern will be played. Mark 1. The place in the track's data where FORTE II begins to play, when the realtime Start Point is reached. Mark 2. The place in the track's data where FORTE II stops playing, and either starts the pattern over again or looks for the next one. Channel. What channel the pattern goes out on. May be left "as is" (shows a dash): use to switch it on and off. Patch. Sent at the beginning of each repetition: may be switched on or off with . PgDn to see more Help for the Pattern Screen, or to exit. 0 Pattern Screen Help Page 2 of 4 Quantization. Just like the Quantization setting on the Track screen: 0 means no quantization. Transposition. Value added to every MIDI pitch in the pattern. Velocity offset. Value added to every noteon velocity in the pattern. End point. You can't set this directly: it is calculated from the start point, the repeat count, and the distance between Mark 1 and Mark 2. Restrictions on Patterns Two patterns on the same track can't begin in the same measure. Two patterns on the same track can't overlap: the realtime start point of one can't come before the realtime end point of another. One track can have up to 255 patterns. More restrictively, the total number of patterns is limited by available memory: one pattern takes 35 bytes, and they all must fit within 64K, so the maximum is 1872 patterns, divided among all the tracks or less if you don't have 64K free. PgUp or PgDn to see more Help for the Pattern Screen, or to exit. 0 Pattern Screen Help Page 3 of 4 Patterns appear as blocks against a background of dots. The first measure of the pattern is a larger block. Subsequent measures in the same pattern show as smaller blocks. If you move the cursor to the head block, a window will pop up, showing you all the parameters of that pattern. < and > move you to the next and previous patterns. You create and edit them via the main Pattern menu: 1. Change pattern If your cursor is on a pattern, this option will move you into the pattern box, where you can change all the parameters. Press F10 to set the pattern start point via the SMPTE box. When you're ready, press Sp to save your changes or Esc to back out. If there is any error, you will be told so and returned to the pattern box. 2. Insert Pattern If your cursor is on an existing track, this will pop up the pattern box, where you can edit the parameters of a new pattern for that track. Again, Sp saves the pattern, Esc backs you out. If you choose 2 when you're on an existing pattern, the default start point will be the end of the old pattern. 3. Delete Pattern Answer Y to delete the pattern your cursor is on. PgUp or PgDn to see more Help for the Pattern Screen, or to exit. 0 Pattern Screen Help Page 4 of 4 4. Copy Pattern If your cursor is on a pattern, this copies it to any other track. 5. Mark Patterns Puts you into a special mode, with its own submenu. Using Home, End, < and >, you can mark patterns on one track: then 1) copy them to other tracks; 2) copy them to some point within the same track, perhaps repeated a number of times; or 3) delete the block. If one of the copy operations would obliterate patterns in any of the tracks, you will be asked whether you really want it to apply to them: answer Y and FORTE II will go ahead, N and it will go ahead only on the other tracks. 6. Mark Measures Mark measures across all tracks or a selection. Use the cursor keys to select the measures you want, Cr, CtrlA, S, R to select tracks. Then 1) copy all the patterns in those measures, in all selected tracks, to some other measure, selected by moving to it with the cursor, or 2) delete all those patterns. You are warned if copying would destroy other patterns. F1 record, F2 play, and F3 stop, work here as they do on the Track Screen. End of Help for the Pattern Screen. Press to exit, or PgUp to see more 0