AGI Sound Tutorial - Visual Editors
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Visual Editors
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The only visual interactive editor available for AGI sounds is Visual AGI by Joakim Möller and Gustaf Wennerholm. However this is intended to be a complete AGI development environment and not just a sound editor. Unfortunately (and fortunately!), the only section completed is the sound editor. This can be used to create sound files for your own game.
Another possibility is to create your music in a MIDI, ROL or ImpulseTracker editor and then convert them using one of the available converters. The use of those editors is a bit beyond the scope of this document however.
In installing Visual AGI, it must be pointed out that there are several versions of the Visual AGI in development. I've found beta3a does not work in Windows 95 but beta3 works fine. Try both versions and see how it goes on your machine. Because this version is very early beta, there's a few things you need to do before you can open/create sound files. It also crashes every once in a while. But come on, this is cutting edge!
Opening Sound Editor
Execute Visual AGI. Right now you can only edit sound resources if you create a new AGI project. Go to the "file" menu and click on "new". Press the "OK" button because you just want to edit sounds, not make a new game. You can't open up an external file yet. You need to create a new sound file before it will let you import one. Go to the "project" menu, select "add to project" and then "new". Select "sound" and press press "OK". You should now have a fresh sound editing window open.
Making new Sounds
Follow the commands for opening the sound editor and you should have a new sound window open for you to edit in. Make sure you save often.
Editing Sounds
Follow the commands for opening the sound editor. You NEED to open a new sound window before you can import any sounds. Open the "file" menu and select "import". It will open a file dialog for you to select your file. After you select your file, the file's data should appear in the sound editing window.
Saving Your Sound
Go to the "file" menu and select "export". This will let you save your newly edited sound resource. You should do this often since this is still a beta product.
Commands
This is an excerpt from the Visual AGI readme file:
Pattern Mode:-------------Use Z-M or Q-P to insert notes. Set octaves using numbers. Set attenuation using numbers.
'1' or ',' sets "OFF" note '.' clears the note at position (numpad) '-' and '+' switches between patterns in the same machine (numpad) '/' and '*' moves the base octave up and down
CTRL-ENTER: creates a new pattern CTRL-SHIFT-ENTER: creates a copy of the current pattern CTRL-DELETE: deletes current pattern
Sequence Mode:
Use the character next to your pattern to insert it at the current position.
CTRL-E: Sets end position directly above position (Sequence Mode only)
Common keyboard commands:
RETURN/ENTER: Switch between Pattern and Sequence Mode INSERT: Inserts empty at position, moves everything one step down DELETE: Deletes at position, moves everything one step up
.. more to come, haven't had time to program all keys that I'd like to yet.
The difference between pattern mode and sequence mode, as far as I can see is:
- Pattern - edit the file and create patterns
- Sequence - grand overview of file, you can zoom in and out, mix patterns and play it.
Besides the keys, you should play around with the toolbar buttons to get a feel of the functions.
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