NB: THIS APPLICATION IS FOR THE ATARI PORTFOLIO (tm). THIS VERSION WILL *NOT* WORK ON ANY OTHER COMPUTER. NO DISTRIBUTION WITHOUT PERMISSION. H!T MAKER (tm) for the ATARI PORTFOLIO by Michael Delugg (c) 1991 Shareware Documentation Once upon a time, a music producer/audio engineer started developing a program that he hoped would make his job easier. He kept working on it, adding features that would make it unnecessary for him to refer to his calculator, or his click-track book or a list of delay times, or any number of things. He wanted this program to be something really special -- a real triumph. A collection of utilities to make simple work out of the tedious mathematical chores related to music and audio/video production in one small package. If he packed it full of features, it would mean that he would no longer have to carry around so much luggage from day to day. And so finally, when the program was done, it meant instant access to tables and math, and stuff that's just too much for any ordinary person to remember -- all in a beautiful little package that included his electronic address book, diary, a memo writer and even a calculator (not that he needed it any longer). The program is called H!T MAKER, and the elegant little package it runs on is the ATARI PORTFOLIO. Welcome to the short, shareware documentation of H!T MAKER for the PORTFOLIO. My name is Michael Delugg, and as I've already mentioned, a lot of work went into this application. My friend BJ Gleason of the American University deserves a LOT of credit for prodding me, and especially helping me (maybe I've got the order reversed there, I'm not certain). I was a budding, young, inexperienced programmer when I first asked BJ for help. He showed me how to transform my ugly duckling into a beautiful PORTFOLIO application: With menus, windowed (boxed) messages, user-input boxes, etc, etc... All the neat things we are used to seeing in a PORTFOLIO program. If you like my program (and I hope you do) please send money. H!T MAKER for the PORTFOLIO is copyrighted, and all rights are reserved. This is "shareware." You try it for about 30 days, and if it works for you, you are honor-bound to register. Otherwise, just remove (erase) it from all your media, and we'll forget that any of this ever happened. A check for only seventy-nine dollars (US) will register you as a legal user of H!T MAKER for the PORTFOLIO. I'll send you a version on an IBM-compatible 5 1/4" disk (that doesn't have that mildly annoying reminder screen), and more extensive documentation which includes a more detailed explanation of features, and more examples of their use, plus some background information that you might find very helpful, or at the least, informative. Also, if you register, I'll respond to either your phone calls or your EMAIL on CompuServe (tm). PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!! If you do use this program, please understand that a LOT of work went into its creation. Seventy-nine bucks is very little to ask -- after all, the first jingle you score with H!T MAKER might earn you thousands! Make checks payable to FOUR TO THE BAR, INC. and mail to: Michael Delugg 15 West 72 Street, # 20-S New York, NY 10023 Disclaimers First, H!T MAKER is currently designed to run only on the ATARI PORTFOLIO. I am developing a version for the PC. Registered users will be advised when that becomes available, and will be able to get that version at a very low price. (If and when that version becomes available will depend somewhat on the shareware response to this version.) Finally, the user (that's you) takes full responsibility for and in the use of this application. If you do find any flaws and report them to me, I will fix them, and mail you the fixed version. But the bottom line is this: While I've made every effort to insure H!T MAKER's reliability, you use this application at your own risk, as is. Thanks for your attention; now let's get to work! Reminder: This "short" documentation is designed to get you up and running. When you register H!T MAKER, you will receive more extensive documentation. Running H!T MAKER (Using the HITmaker utility:) To run H!T MAKER, copy the program to your "A: drive" (a PORTFOLIO ram card, where you will also need room for your ".HIT" files). Your "C: drive" should be no larger than 56 K (consult your PORTFOLIO manual). Run H!T MAKER by entering HIT at the A> prompt. After pressing the space-bar, you'll see H!T MAKER's main screen. (Pressing ESCAPE eventually quits from everything, including the program.) But for now, press "H" for the HITmaker utility (the program's namesake). This first utility will assist you in scoring a piece of music effectively, so that video events you choose from a time-coded picture will be enhanced by your musical arrangement. Your first prompt from HITmaker is for a filename. You will have to make up a DOS filename, to which H!T MAKER will add the extension "HIT" when you press . Remember that filename for later. At the next prompt, enter either a metronome or click-track tempo. Note: When you are entering numbers in numeric "fields", pressing or will move you to the next field. Pressing the space-bar will also move you forward. You can also backspace (delete). If you are in an empty field when you press , you will erase the previous field and the cursor will move back to that field. If you press when entering any text or numbers in a field, H!T MAKER will CLEAR the ENTIRE ENTRY LINE, starting you off with a "clean slate." In most cases, if you press on an EMPTY (blank) entry line, H!T MAKER assumes that you wish to quit that entry. After a bit of experimentation, I think you'll find it intuitive. (The long documentation goes into more detail on tricks to make it easier for you to enter your data.) OK, let's get back to work. After entering a filename and a metronome or click tempo, HITmaker now needs to know what kind of time-code you are working with. (All the H!T MAKER utilities can do calculations in any of five popular types of time-code.) Then you will be asked for the picture's START OF SOUND TIME-CODE address. Now here comes the cool part: Cue- by-cue, HITmaker will ask you for an event ON time & OFF time, until you tell it (N)o more cues. Then it will finish and close the DOS file you named earlier. If you gave it a filename that already exists in your working path (hopefully A:\), the new info is appended to the bottom of that file. Escape out of H!T MAKER, and load the file you just created into the PORTFOLIO's text editor. You now have a list, by cue number, of every video event (cue) that you gave the HITmaker utility, along with the BEAT NUMBER that each cue falls on. (By musical convention, beat number ONE is of course, your first beat of music.) So if a cue falls on beat number 9, at 4/4 time, that would equal beat 1 of the third measure. (Eight beats equal 2 bars at 4/4 time, so then the ninth beat is the downbeat of bar 3.) Any decimal places indicate a cue that does not fall exactly on a downbeat. E.g., If HITmaker tells you a cue is on beat number 9.5, that would be the EIGHTH NOTE AFTER the downbeat of bar 3 (still in 4/4 time). Generally, most sequencers number each quarter-note, and this scheme also allows for varying meters in a small program. I'm sure you get the idea, and it becomes quite easy the more you work with it. In no time at all you will be using H!T MAKER to help you score a jingle or a documentary, movie cues -- and many other video projects. Of course the creative part is still up to you! Hit'n'Run The second utility, Hit'n'Run, is based on the previous theme, but is designed to be a QUICK one-time-only "event finder." Hit'n'Run is especially useful in the field. In circumstances where a cue has been missed or overlooked, you can find that cue in seconds. Just enter the metronome or click-track setting, followed by the video time-code points, and on one screen display, Hit'n'Run will tell you what beat numbers correspond to the start and end points of the missing (or changed) video cue. On that same screen, Hit'n'Run will also display the metronome setting that you gave it, and its corresponding click- track setting, or vice versa, depending on the time base you first chose. (The full documentation goes into further detail on these aspects.) The reason for an extra utility like Hit'n'Run is this: No matter how prepared a composer, producer or arranger may feel (s)he is, there is always the possibility of a last-minute change, or of client demands that make it necessary to adapt -- to "think on one's toes." Whatever the reason, your ability to react well and meet the challenge quickly and effortlessly is what Hit'n'Run was written for. Time Machine There are two utilities that you access from the Time Machine menu choice: Delay Calculator and the Time Code Calculator. Let's look at each one. As you may have guessed, the Delay Calculator is used primarily to calculate note durations, in milliseconds. In the production of records and in other musical applications, it's often desirable to set effects devices to match (or not match) the tempo of the song you are working on. So for example, if your song is being played at a metronome of 120 bpm, a quarter-note delay effect would equal 500 milliseconds. That may be easy to figure out or remember, but what would, say, an eighth-note triplet equal? How about at 109 bpm? You =can= carry around a list of such conversions, but you don't need to if you have H!T MAKER. Also, all of the H!T MAKER utilities will allow you to enter metronome times accurate to one-tenth of a beat-per-minute, and Delay Calculator will return delay times accurate to one-thousandth of a millisecond. Whether you're working in metronome or click-track, you'll get the answers you need fast with H!T MAKER. Furthermore, (whenever applicable) all the H!T MAKER functions will return (display) the corresponding time base, so that you have it for future reference. I.e., if you enter 120 bpm in metronome, you will see its equivalent of 12 frames in click-track. Occasionally, all I need from H!T MAKER is the correct conversion of a click-track to a metronome tempo, or vice-versa. The Time-code Calculator is a deceptively simple utility. First you tell it what type of time-code you will be using. Next you will see a 3-line entry box. Enter your time-code addresses by typing in numbers, and pressing or to move along to the next fields. After entering an offset (second) time-code point, you will be prompted, on the third line, to press either MINUS or PLUS for the desired result. (Hint: You don't have to press shift-equal, the equal sign alone will be interpreted as a "+".) Usually these types of calculations are done by dedicated hardware or sequencing applications. This is the only inexpensive program that I know that will give you the correct answers when you are calculating in drop- frame time-code. For doing video work, this utility alone might be worth "the price of admission." Well, that's all folks. As I stated previously, this documentation is short & simple; I merely wanted you to have enough information to run the program. H!T MAKER has been through a lot of field-testing, and is very stable. Feel free to experiment, and if you decide to register the program, feel free to contact me about it on CompuServe. Registered users may address email to: 71106,1421. I'm sorry, but only registered users will have their questions answered. Thank you, and enjoy the program.