New release of EightyOne available

[Moggy]

Hi John.

Yes I have tried the other speech units and found them most excellent. The MIDI thing has perked my interest as I have used it as a musician since its inception and I have about 3000 MIDI files on an SD card, which thanks to the ZXpands creator, Charlie Robson, I can load into a real zeddy, attach one of my pro MIDI modules or keyboards to the spand and play the files via the software he also created.
If the MIDI implementation follows that of the real Spectrum 128 then I suspect it will be 8 channel only and not of the GENERAL MIDI standard but will have to try it and see.

I also play real audio tracks on the zeddy with a D/A attached to the spand, using a similar method made possible by forum member Adam Klotblixt so the thought of doing MIDI in emulation sounds intriguing although as I'm not the smartest technically I may struggle to make it all work.

Again great work lads great work.

[Moggy]

Finally after many near misses/files not found blah blah blah I got this to work!

What I gleaned from it is..

1) Only piano and drums no other instruments sounding, the other instruments being sounded by the piano voice only.

2) Only the 128 STD chip and the TS duo make any noise.

3) Not GM by any stretch of the imagination and for some strange reason it shows single notes spread over "pseudo" 16 channels as if to an impression of full 16 part playback.

4) Just for trivia the track "Canyon" was first included on Windows 3.

From the drum timbre I can tell that it's using the windows built in GM MIDI wave table which is loosely based on the Roland sound canvas. Eighty One's sound menu appears to allow other mappings so tonight will connect it to one of my modules to check if A it will play it B how many channels are actually sounding and finally see if I can fathom why only the piano voice is sounding. If the Zeddy can do MIDI I'm sure this can be persuaded to too.


Let the fun begin!!

[Moggy]

Having had a play with the MIDI gubbins I have found out why it only sounds a piano voice for all the instruments barring drums.

The player isn't transmitting any of the set up information contained at the start of the MIDI file IE voice, effect, volume, pan etc for each channel. most if not all MIDI modules including the one Windows uses, default upon initialisation to the piano voice on 15 of the 16 channels then the file to be played sets up each channel to whatever is held within the file data. If none of this data is sent then 15 of the channels will be at voice 00 or 01, depending on the module, which is the voice for piano.

For proof of the above I set all 15 of the instrument channels to the same instrument IE flute, trumpet organ whatever and started the player again. As expected it played the files but only using the voices pre set on the MIDI keyboard or module which means to hear the track as it should be heard you would have to set the channel voices and other channel settings individually on your external device, then play the file again safe in the knowledge that the player will only send note data and not interfere with any other settings.


The good news is that Eighty One will play externally connected MIDI keyboards or modules and should this player ever be made to transmit what's needed then it would make a welcome addition to Eighty One but as it stands it's only any good for piano tunes.

[stroebeljc]

Wow! Thanks for that in depth analysis, Moggy. Is there another MIDI player that you would recommend?
Also, how did you connect EO to your external instruments?

[Moggy]

Hi John.

Sadly I don't have the brains or the skills to recommend another player and truth be told I cannot fathom why this one isn't transmitting the start up information. the logic being if it can send the note on/off info why not the rest? It may be that the files themselves have had this info removed by the players creator when he converted the files to work with this player who knows. If there was some way to isolate the MIDI files from that disc image then I could examine them and answer that question. I suspect that whilst he's undeniably an excellent programmer he may not be too hot re MIDI protocols and believes note information is all that's required, apologies to him if I'm in error.

The player I use on the ZX81/spand combination was written by the spands creator Charlie Robson and actually plays files that are pre converted to fit with the spands serial transmission protocol so maybe that could be adapted in some way?

As for Eighty Ones MIDI connection to the outside world I was pleasantly surprised at how well it works.
It seems to be basically accessing windows own MIDI mapper hence it using windows own MIDI wave table so by extension should connect to anything the MIDI mapper can map to. Most modern instruments now are USB whereas the older modules and keyboards using DIN connectors used to be connected to the PC's sound card joystick port and would show up as a device called MPU 401, modern PC's would need some kind of interface for these older instruments but USB devices are plentiful.

To connect just open the sound menu (see attached picture ) and it will list all attached MIDI devices. When connected to my own MIDI keyboard, it showed up in the menu also. just pick the device you want and Eighty One's MIDI output will go there.
Pointing windows itself at a given device is slightly more complex and requires a third party jobby to do that but that's for another time I think.

The main bug bear is having a MIDI installed into windows in the first place, windows ,unlike linux, needs a driver for every keyboard or module you attach whereas linux just see it as a USB device and just plays the damn thing!. Older versions of windows were very flexible in how you assigned stuff MIDI wise whereas from W7 onwards things got a bit more clumsy.

However there are 2 MIDI devices that I use and in my opinion were just made for our little tooters and even in windows needs no drivers, they're just plugged in and recognised and they work bloody lovely.

They are called Dreamblaster S2 (perfect for the ZX81) and Dreamblaster X2 ( perfect for the Spectrum) and even a special version aimed at gamers. Physically they are the size of a matcbox but punch above their weight MIDI wise and it sure beats spending big money on full size pro modules..

The S2 requires some fettling to make a physical connection to a computer however the X2 is a straight forward USB device which also allows different wave tables to be loaded. So all you would do is connect the X2 to your PC which will go through the usual device connecting routine and that's that no drivers required. when you run Eighty One just F8 look at the MIDI output settings and set it to Dreamblaster X2 job done.

Sorry to drone on but MIDI is a passion of mine.

Links to the Dreamblasters.

https://www.serdashop.com/waveblaster

https://www.serdashop.com/DreamBlasterX2

[stroebeljc]

Thanks for the detailed rundown. That's exactly what I was looking for. You've been a big help.
Regarding the midi files for the example, here is a link to them that will prevent the need for trying to pull them off of a TRD image, if you're interested.

[Moggy]

Thanks for that John I will examine the files and report back.

[Paul]

As informative as all these posts which I really like to read are,
it would be great to have a new thread that only announces new Versions of Eigtyone without discussions.
A seperate discussion thread is advisable.
We now have 38 pages to read
Kind regards
Paul

[Moggy]

@ Paul
I disagree whats being discussed is pertinent to Eighty One and unless stroebeljc requests other wise I will continue posting in this thread, rather than scattering discussions all over the board. I feel it's best that everything pertaining to any given emulator should remain in one spot. The fact there are 38 pages is frankly irrelevant and we are doing no more than you yourself did with your discussions in the six page PIco thread. If you want a thread solely dedicated to new emulator announcements without discourse then feel free to create one or move the emulator thread to the announcement section where comments aren't allowed rather than asking everyone else to accommodate your feelings by creating lots of emulator discussion threads. This would mean creating endless threads to cover every different aspect of any given emulator rather than keeping it under one heading.

It's better I feel given the weakness of the search engine here to keep it all under one roof, so if someone cannot find a particular aspect of an emulator in the emulator section regardless of what it is then it likely doesn't exist and you don'e waste time with endless searches for what you were seeking.

Just my thoughts on it but I'll obviously follow any majority opinion.

[Moggy]

@John

I have analysed the MIDI files used in the file player and can confirm that they contain all the relevant control codes to set the MIDI files correctly (see picture), IE program change, volume, pan and effect settings for each channel and conclude that the player used in Eighty One is not transmitting said information, just the note information so the fault is within the player not the files themselves.
How to solve this is beyond my scope I'm afraid and would require someone with better skills than my own.