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[Ron Clarke <ariadne AT earthlink.com.au>]

Hi Sindi,

On Tue, 4 Jul 2006 00:24:22 +0000 (UTC)
sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org> wrote:
 
> What exactly is a patch, does it have to be 128 instruments?  I think it 
> was derived from the use of patch cords in a Moog synthesizer.

   A patch (*.pat) file is for a single instrument and contains actual sound 
data, usually in a number of sections in the file, and information for the 
player (timidity) on where to start and to loop back to at different 
frequency ranges.

> 
> >> What instruments are included in the patches?  Could you limit it to just
> >> ordinary orchestral instruments (no more than 20 of them)?

   There are 128 named instruments in a set of patches.

> Could I myself reduce the size of the 'patch' by deleting anything not 
> used in an orchestra or symphony band?

    If you fiddle around with a patch file you will probably destroy its 
functioning, at least partially if not totally.


> There are lots more that I never even heard of, sound effects, etc.

   Yep.   :)     I have used some, but not all.  Yet !


> A patch is one instrument and your package has 128 of them?
> Can you (as with playmidi -p) specify which instrument to use for each 
> track and substitute one piano sound for another?

    Yes.  The easiest way is to edit the configuration file, and direct all 
pianos to a single piano patch, or all strings to a single string patch, and 
so on.

    But it sort of destroys the whole point of using instrumental patches in 
the first place - that of giving the music texture and contrast, and making 
it live.  Otherwise you may as well just play a music-box.


> I need to make BL3 partition bigger before adding sound.  Can I run it in 
> BL2 (with libc.so.5 and libm.so.5 added)?  Do I add anything other than 
> the sound modules for my sound card (sb)?

   I have been running timidity in BL2 for a long time.  You may have noticed 
that MIDIs are MY THING, my websites are full of them, so it was one of my 
first projects when I first started tinkering with BL.

Regards,
         Ron

-- 
Ron Clarke 
AUSREG Consultancy      http://www.ausreg.com
Tadpole Tunes           http://www.tadpoletunes.com
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