About MIDIX 0.4 MIDIX is an extension which extends Note application built in your Newton. Once MIDIX installed, Note will provide a new stationary which can store standard MIDI file along with some notes. MIDI file can be played through Macintosh standard MIDI interface connected to the serial port. MIDIX supports MIDI files in standard MIDI format 0 and 1. MIDIX requires Newton OS 2.0. Some of the new synthesizers or sound generators have a serial interface to connect directly to host computer. If you have one of them, try to connect the same way as you do for Macintosh. What's New in MIDIX 0.4 Ą Fix a problem in playing and optimizing MIDI file recorded in high-resolution, like one created by Finale. Ą Add a new item "Preferences" to action list to access MIDIX preferences. Ą Add a preference to disable checking MIDI connection (Active Sensing) when opening player view. Ą Redesign player view and add some functions to view items. Ą Add program view to control volume and patch for 16 channels. Ą Remember volume and patch information even in empty note, then send it out by a tap on Play button. Ą Tapping Pause to enter into free control mode to change volume and patch in real time. Installation Just like other Newton packages, you can install MIDIX package using Newton Package Installer or alike. If you have a previous version installed, remove it from Extras drawer before you install new version. How to Play Ą Create New Memo You can create a MIDIX file just like making a new memo. 1. Tap "New" button at the bottom. 2. Tap "MIDI" from the popup list. You can delete or duplicate a memo using Action button at the upper right corner of each memo. However, the current version of MIDIX does not have routing capability, such as beaming, printing, etc. Ą Download Standard MIDI File You can store a standard MIDI file in each memo by downloading from a host computer. MIDIX supports standard xmodem protocol (128bytes/block with 1byte CRC) at 9600bps. Before you download a file, make sure to connect your Newton to the host computer with a serial cable, and setup a communication software on the host side with connection options - 9600bps, no parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no handshake. To download a file, do the following steps. On the host side: 1. Choose "Send File" command in the communication software. 2. Select a file to send. 3. Start download. On the Newton side: 4. Tap Action button from a memo. 5. Tap "Download" from the popup list. A status slip appears to show progress. You can stop downloading by tapping "Stop" button on the slip. Ą Optimize MIDI File When you download a MIDI file in format 1, you need to optimize the file first so that MIDIX can play it back. You may also want to optimize those files in format 0 that sound sluggishly. Those files usually consist of very complicated MIDI events. 1. Tap Action button from a memo which stores MIDI file you want to optimize. 2. Tap "Optimize" from the popup list. A status slip appears to show progress. You should be patient as the process takes time. You can stop the process by tapping "Stop" button on the slip. Ą Playback MIDI File MIDIX provides a player view which looks like a audio controller. When you open the player view, you can Play, Stop, and Pause playing a MIDI file. 1. Tap Action button from a memo which stores MIDI file you want to play. 2. Tap "Playback" from the popup list. If you set "Always check MIDI device" option in the preferences view (see below), MIDIX looks for a MIDI device presented on the connection when you open a player view. MIDIX will tell you so when it cannot find any device. You may not want to Play a song when you get warning, as MIDIX will go "hung" if the connection is properly made. You can open as many player views as you like, but only one player view can play MIDI at a time. Ą Record MIDI Data MIDIX player view also supports recording MIDI data coming from other MIDI devices. It may not accurate as you expect, but it sure is a better-than-nothing feature. When open a player view, tap Record to start recording, and then tap Stop to complete recording. As you tap Record button, previously downloaded or recorded file will be deleted. Ą Expand Player View Tempo and volume options are not initially shown in the player view. To access to these options, tap the tapedeck icon on the left side. Another tap on the icon makes it shrink to the original size. Ą Adjust Playback Tempo You can adjust tempo faster or slower by dragging the diamond of Tempo slider to the left or right. The original tempo is always set in the middle of the slider. Note that Tempo option does not affect to recording. When you tap the "Tempo" label, MIDIX will set it back to the orignal tempo for you. Ą Adjust Master Volume To change master volume, drag the diamond of Master slider. This option will control volume for all MIDI channels while keeping balance between channels. If the song has volume change messages embedded in MIDI data, those will override setting by this option. Ą Open Program view Program view allows you to control volume and patch (program change) of individual channels. To open program view, tap the "Master" label on the player view. The program view shows channel numbers, patch names assigned to the channels, and volume. It shows information of first 8 channels at a time. To display another set of 8 channels, tap the "Ch" label on the upper left corner. Another tap turns it back to the previous channels. Ą Assign Patch to Channel When you assign a patch to a particular channel, you must first show the program control. To switch to the program control, tap the "Volume" label on the top. The "Volume" label will turn to "Program", and show the similar but different set of sliders which let you select a patch out from 128 sounds. Ą Define Sound Name You can name your favorite sounds when they are displayed on the program view. MIDIX will remember the names, so that you can select sounds by their names. To define name of a sound, tap the patch you want to change. MIDIX shows a slip, where you can write down a name for the sound. Tap Close button to discard the slip. You can also erase the name, and leave it blank to set it to the default name "unknown". Once you give a name to a sound, it will appear as you change the program slider. Ą Free Control Mode All information you set in the player view and the program view, such as tempo, volume, and patches are saved in each note. You can change those information in a note which does not have MIDI file downloaded or recorded. When you tap Play button from an empty note, the volume and patch information will be sent out to MIDI devices. This is useful if you want to switch back and forth between predefined sets. You can also put MIDIX into "free control mode", which allows you to set volume and patch as you control. All controls except tempo (which works only when you playback a song) will be sent quickly just like when you are playing a song. To enter into the free control mode, tap Pause button on a player view while not playing nor recording. Tap Stop button to exit the mode. Note that you cannot play or record when you are in the free control mode. Ą Set Preferences You can access to the MIDIX options through the preferences view. To open the preferences, tap Action button, and then tap Preferences from the popup list. The version 0.4 has only an option "Always check MIDI device", which tells MIDIX to detect MIDI device when open Player view. Since you select Preferences from Action button, you may call more than one preferences views on the screen. In this case, the last closed view will set the final preferences. Known Problems There must be many problems reside in this software. Here are some known that you may see when you play with MIDIX. Ą A player view cannot recognize another one is in play. Ą When tap "Download" before starting download on the host, connection may not be established. Ą Cannot detect error in data transfer while downloading file. Ą Overflow check for MIDI data store is not implemented. Newton would report an error as it happens. Ą Complicated songs (in time) would not give enough time to operate player view while playing. Special Note MIDIX 0.4 is a freeware. I would not refuse your contribution if you offer though. You can freely distribute this software as long as you attach this memo. There is no warranty to MIDIX, so play with this software at your own risk. Please send me any kind of feedback about the software. Change History 5/31/96 The first version 0.1 released. 6/7/96 Version 0.2 released. Changes include: Ą Set maxmum size for MIDI data to 64K bytes. Ą Support standard MIDI format 1. Ą New command to optimize MIDI data for better performance. 6/10/96 Maintenance version 0.21 released. Changes include: Ą Fix the bug with tempo change in the middle of a song. Ą Ignore system exclusive messages properly. System exclusive is not yet supported. 7/3/96 Version 0.3 released. Changes include: Ą Transmit system exclusive messages found in MIDI file. Ą Tempo slider in player view to adjust playback tempo. Ą Volume slider in player view to adjust master volume. Ą Prevent Newton from power-off while playing a song. Ą Show version number of the extension in the information box. 7/8/96 Maintenance version 0.31 released. Changes include: Ą Improve accuracy in translating MIDI time to Newton clock. Ą Check MIDI connection to see any device presented when opening player view. Ą Correct application name which appears on notification slip. 9/13/96 Version 0.4 released. Author Yoshio Hirose 1-6-5-702 Towa, Adachi-ku, Tokyo 120 Japan Internet: hirose1@apple.com