a little help on Protracker

[pulselooper]

Hi fellas!

My name is Andre, I´m from Sao Paulo/Brazil and I´m quite new on Amiga. While I slowly read (almost) all the threads on this marvelous forum, I have a serious doubt on Protracker, which is really slowing me down on my tunes.

The question is: how do I change the octaves and notes on a single note in a pattern? I know I could click on the "octave up/down" or "note up/down" buttons but it seems like it changes only the full track or full pattern, when the track/pattern buttons are selected.

But the problem is: I see there´s also a "block" button, which supposely would change things only in the block. But even if I selected the one and only note I wanna change with CTRL + B (selecting this note as a block), the note up/down and octave up/down just don´t seem to work.

BTW, I´m using PT v. 3.15

Hope you guys can help me out! Thanks a bunch, and I´ll be no stranger here.

[Zetr0]

@pulselooper

Welcome to EAB =)

theres plenty of mischief to get upto around here, so kick-back and relax, read up on some retro-coated yummyness that is this fair board...


Now, what system have you got your protracker running on ?

The reason I ask is that I would suggest Octamed Sound Studio (if you have atleast 2MB Chip and / or Some fast ram)

OSS can load up mods written in protracker as well as save out as that format, it also has a lot more functions than PT3.15

Personally although I cut my teeth on Protracker I fell in love with Octamed, to be precises it was Octamed 4 that was on a cover disk that I fell in love with... and I just went from there.

Its very intuitive and easy to use, I even have the PC version of octamed and I have been toying with getting OSS v2.0 for the PC soon =)

[pulselooper]

Hi Zetr0! Thanks a lot for your reply.

Actually, I also have here Octamed and AHX. I installed them both but for now I´m more likely to use Protracker. I know the other two will come on their time

But in regard to your help and attention, I installed the Octamed Soundstudio (v. 1.03) and it has some errors on the installing. Do you recomend taking a look on the earlier versions of Octamed? Any place I can find the v. 5? (this one has a good tutorial scanned from Amiga Format).

BTW, I´m using an A600 with 2mb ram.

Thanks buddy!

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

The reason I ask is that I would suggest Octamed Sound Studio (if you have atleast 2MB Chip and / or Some fast ram)

Not one of these "Octamed is better" arguments.
He's using PT and fine with it. Can someone help him get through his problem instead of suggesting him to use a different software? I been looking for the online reference for Protracker without luck. Perhaps someone can finally find them.

I hate these Octamed vs. Protracker pussy fights. Protracker is a great program, Octamed is too, different strokes for different folks. Suggesting to use a completely different software is not an option since they are both quite different, using OctaMED to make MODs is a waste of OctaMED. And if you use these extra featuires OctaMED has, you NO LONGER CAN EXPORT AS MOD. Please advise with a little but more of insight info, thre are good reasons for André to choose Protracker, he knows what he is doing

It'd be GREAT if the fucking Aminet archives would INCLUDE THE HELP FILES. I can't believe they were uploaded without them. This is why him (and me!) are having problems getting through basic functionality like this.


Oh hi André, tenho certeza que alguem va solcionar seu problema aqui ;D

[TCD]

About the original question :
Why would you want to do that anyway? You can just simply enter the new note if it's just one. Otherwise a block selection should work. Does block selection work if you select more than 2 notes? If so, there might be a reason

[Anakirob]

Any place I can find the v. 5?

CU Amiga Sep 95

[tero]

Originally Posted by Akira

I been looking for the online reference for Protracker without luck.

i'l have the helpfile from v2.3a
will this do?

also pt.effects v2.1
pt.fileformat v3.01 and v3.61
pt.play v2.1

[pulselooper]

Originally Posted by Akira

Oh hi André, tenho certeza que alguem va solcionar seu problema aqui ;D

Thanks man. That´s exactly why I chose to begin with PT. Right now, all I want to do is 4-track mod songs.

[pulselooper]

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

About the original question :
Why would you want to do that anyway? You can just simply enter the new note if it's just one. Otherwise a block selection should work. Does block selection work if you select more than 2 notes? If so, there might be a reason

That´s because I just can´t find how to lower/up the octaves or the notes themselves. All I can do is lower one octave by hitting F1, and that´s all

And the block selection doesn´t work even if I selected more than 2 notes. If I have/want to lower notes or octaves, I need to do it on the entire track and that´s a problem.

So, any way of lowering/upping the notes and octaves before (or even better: after) I play them in the pattern? That case, I can use notes lower than C-2 or higher than B-3.

[pulselooper]

BTW, I found the shortcuts list here in the files of 2.3: http://fi.aminet.net/mus/edit/protracker23.readme

For the effects I´m using the list on an Amiga Format issue about PT 2.3

Is there anything else? Still, both of them couldn´t solve my problem ;(

[TCD]

Originally Posted by pulselooper

And the block selection doesn´t work even if I selected more than 2 notes. If I have/want to lower notes or octaves, I need to do it on the entire track and that´s a problem.

Sounds like this version is broken. You could try this one : http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=13364 and check if the block selection works.

[Jope]

PT3.x makes Jope a sad panda.

[pulselooper]

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

Sounds like this version is broken. You could try this one : http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=13364 and check if the block selection works.

This version doesn´t work on my a600 (because it´s for AGA, probably).

I tried 2.3d also, but it doesn´t seem to have block options on the EDIT OP.

Damn, it can´t be so hard to change note parameters...

[Jope]

Tracking ain't easy. ;-)

If pt.help and the protracker2.3d documents don't list what you want to achieve, it is not possible to do so with your version of pt.

These are old tools, pt2.3d has a surprising amount of functionality compared to what these used to be. However time has gone forward and pt development hasn't.

If you want to make pt3.x songs, then you better have the right play routine if you intend to use them for something else than listening to them with the version of pt you used to create them.

[pulselooper]

Originally Posted by Jope

Tracking ain't easy. ;-)

If pt.help and the protracker2.3d documents don't list what you want to achieve, it is not possible to do so with your version of pt.

These are old tools, pt2.3d has a surprising amount of functionality compared to what these used to be. However time has gone forward and pt development hasn't.

If you want to make pt3.x songs, then you better have the right play routine if you intend to use them for something else than listening to them with the version of pt you used to create them.

Yeah Jope, I know all of that. And I´m glad people here at EAB are really helping me out - which didn´t happen at other foruns.

Actually, I started jamming with PT 2.3d and discovered it runs a lot better than 3.15 on my machine. And the sample files load very faster... think I´m sticking to it. Living and learning.

But still, IF there´s a easier routine for changing note parameters I´d really make good use of it (because I don´t believe any help file gives you absolutelly everything about any piece of software).

[Jope]

Most of the time you'll find yourself doing lots of work with the number keys and the arrow keys. :-)

[daxb]

From Protracker pt.help file:

Left Amiga (Plus keys below) -       
Transposing like in Edit Op. Screen 1
  Sample/Track        Sample/Pattern 
  ---------------------------------- 
  1 - Note Up         2 - Note Up    
  Q - Note Down       W - Note Down  
  A - Octave Up       S - Octave Up  
  Z - Octave Down     X - Octave Down
                                     
  All/Track           All/Pattern    
  -------------------------------    
  3 - Note Up         4 - Note Up    
  E - Note Down       R - Note Down  
  D - Octave Up       F - Octave Up  
  C - Octave Down     V - Octave Down

Here it works. You have to choose your note (sample number) then press left Amiga + 1,Q,A,Z for single note/octave up/down.

Some useful info are in the PT4.0beta and source code archive.

[pulselooper]

daxb, I love you. Don´t know why the hell I couldn´t see this help file inside 2.3. Downloaded it again and there it was.

for the future generations, I put the file in txt format here in my personal ftp: http://www.andrezp.com/protracker.txt

now it´s time to get to the music. Happy days

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by tero

i'l have the helpfile from v2.3a
will this do?

also pt.effects v2.1
pt.fileformat v3.01 and v3.61
pt.play v2.1

YES


Also: can ANYBODY upload the pt.help files for v1.3 and v3.14?

CHEERS

[tero]

files are zoned

as a note to mention:
some versions require to have the pt.help in the program's folder instead of sys:s

sorry for doing this late but i wasn't at home...