Table of Contents
Patterns
Each Pattern is a container for notes that are played.
Each Pattern row is played from the top entry to the last entry usually 64 rows down.
Each row contains colour coded areas.
Each column may either contain a value or a Hyphen which says “Do Nothing” or “Do not change”.
The white column is the Index running from 0 to 63 rows. This field cannot be changed.
The first green column marked S in the Legend is the Sample Column. Samples number from 0 to 6.
The Magenta column marked EGC in the legend is the EG Envelope Column.
The EG is a hardware device inside the AY that can take over control of the Volume producing a number of simple envelopes.
WAVE utilises this feature by providing the preset envelopes Sawtooth(S), Triangle(T) and Decay(D).
Both Triangle and Sawtooth are repeating envelopes and the value placed in the EG field directly sets the speed of the envelopes. However since the envelopes are very fast they may be referred to as waveforms and the value as the frequency.
The range of Notes obtainable are within the lower octaves. The range is limited because the AY Envelope control was never designed to work in this way. However the benefits of being able to produce waveforms other than square wave far outway the limitations.
The Decay envelope is not repeated and produces an envelope that starts high and decays to zero volume.
For a full list of available Notes for the repeating envelopes refer here.
The second Green column is the Noise Column. Noise is a seperate generator inside the hardware of the AY sound chip. Noise may be applied to any of the three channels by setting it in the Effects associated to them. Noise is therefore shared between the channels. Noise can range from 1 to 31 but is shown using a special extended hexadecimal format digit in the range of 1 to V.
The 3 yellow columns represent the three sound channels A,B and C on the far right.
The Cyan columns are their associated parameters.
Each yellow and cyan group is shown below.
| N#O | V | E | O | CP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Note | Volume | Effect | Ornament | Command & Parameter |
N#O is the Note field.
WAVE notes range from B-0 to C-6 but the entry may also hold a Rest (RST).
A Normal Rest(RST -) will wait for the duration of the row without doing anything interesting.
A V Rest (RST 0) will silence the Channel and any ornament, effect, SID or Sample playing on it.
Two other types of Rests are available. One that lowers the current volume of the channel and the other to raise it.
All types of Rests can be selected with -/= whilst over the Volume field. Delete will restore a Normal Rest.
V is the Volume for the Note and is limited to 0,4,8 or 15. Any note played is always based on this initial Volume value.
If no effect is specified the note will play at the specified volume otherwise it may be modified by the Effect.
E is the Effect for the Note. Effects run from 0 to 14 and are always shown in Hexadecimal (0-E).
Effects alter many attributes of the sound including Volume, Pitch and Noise.
Refer to the Effects section here.
O is the Ornament for the Note. Ornaments run from 0 to 14 and are always shown in Hexadecimal (0-E).
Effects modify the note in semitones from its original value.
Refer to the Ornament section here.
CP is the Command and Parameter for the entry.
Commands for version 0.2 and above a extensively used and provide additional feature control.
Each Command can be selected through the - and = keys (default) and show as letters C,Z,S,T,B and O.
SID is a software generated square wave that is appliable to a number of different AY registers. The particular AY Register it is applied to provides different effects upon the channel.
However the SID frequency is always tied to a particular Chip Channel. The channel the SID command was used in will imediately be assigned the SID frequency source.
One SID channel is provided in Wave. SID will always be assigned to the channel that the last SID command was set in.
Channel SID
Channel SID modifies the channels volume producing a square wave. The modification consists of the inversing of the current Volume value and the value held in the Commands parameter (0 to F).
The actual difference SID makes very much depends on the Parameter passed but it is generally used to recreate the classic SID sound heard on the Commodore 64 computer.
To activate Channel SID set the Command to “C” and the Parameter to the range of 0 to F(15).
Status SID
Status SID acts on the Status Register by toggling the Tone bit for the Channel. This SID was used in the game Pulsoids for the Oric some years ago.
To activate Status SID set the Command and parameter to “CS”.
Noise SID
Noise SID acts on the Status Registers by toggling the Noise bit for the Channel. This is the first Editor (as far as i know) to utilise this bit for SID. Its effects are widely unknown but should provide some interesting Noise type effects.
To activate Noise SID set the Command and parameter to “CN”.
EGF SID
EGF SID acts on the Channels EG Flag in the same way as Status and Noise SID do. Its effects are currently not known.
To activate EGF SID set the Command and parameter to “CG”.
SID Off
SID Off will turn any current SID off regardless if the channel the command is issued in was linked to the SID.
To Disable SID set the Command and parameter to “CO”.
buzzer SID
Buzzer SID is an advanced software driven sound effect that acts on the Hardware Envelope to provide sounds similar to ring modulation and variable volume sawtooth waveforms.
One SID channel is provided in Wave. SID will always be assigned to the channel that the last SID command was set in.
To activate Buzzer SID set the Command to “Z” and the parameter to the cycle value. You will also need to enable the Hardware Envelope (EG) in an Effect with an EG Period 00.
S Sample
Samples are applied to the channel the Command is issued in. Samples are played at 5Khz with 4 bit resolution.
T change Tempo
Changes the music tempo from the default tempo and remains until either the end of the music or another Tempo Command is issued.
B pitchBend
Pitchbend allows any note to be moved from one note to another smoothly. This is done using a linear method rather than the conventionally moving a note through set steps of the range. The actual technique was accurately coined by (and with thanks) Dbug as “linear interpolation between semitones that are on a logarithmic scale.”.
The parameter passed represents the number of interpolations and delay of the Pitchbend as follows
| Parameter Range | Delay | Number of steps between semitones |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | No Delay | 8 Steps |
| 1 | once every 2 play cycles | 8 Steps |
| 2 | once every 3 play cycles | 8 Steps |
| 3 | once every 4 play cycles | 8 Steps |
| 4 | No Delay | 7 Steps |
| 5 | once every 2 play cycles | 7 Steps |
| 6 | once every 3 play cycles | 7 Steps |
| 7 | once every 4 play cycles | 7 Steps |
| 8 | No Delay | 6 Steps |
| 9 | once every 2 play cycles | 6 Steps |
| A | once every 3 play cycles | 6 Steps |
| B | once every 4 play cycles | 6 Steps |
| C | No Delay | 5 Steps |
| D | once every 2 play cycles | 5 Steps |
| E | once every 3 play cycles | 5 Steps |
| F | once every 4 play cycles | 5 Steps |
| G | No Delay | 4 Steps |
| H | once every 2 play cycles | 4 Steps |
| I | once every 3 play cycles | 4 Steps |
| J | once every 4 play cycles | 4 Steps |
| K | No Delay | 3 Steps |
| L | once every 2 play cycles | 3 Steps |
| M | once every 3 play cycles | 3 Steps |
| N | once every 4 play cycles | 3 Steps |
| O | No Delay | 2 Steps |
| P | once every 2 play cycles | 2 Steps |
| Q | once every 3 play cycles | 2 Steps |
| R | once every 4 play cycles | 2 Steps |
| S | No Delay | 1 Step(Glissando) |
| T | once every 2 play cycles | 1 Step(Glissando) |
| U | once every 3 play cycles | 1 Step(Glissando) |
| V | once every 4 play cycles | 1 Step(Glissando) |
O trigger Out
Triggers an external application.
In Wave music editor (and due to the shortness of space) whenever a trigger out occurs the channel volume monitor will alternate between Blue and Red.
