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Extreemly Useful! Hell YES!

6 (46.2%)

Very Useful.

3 (23.1%)

Somewhat Useful.

2 (15.4%)

Not Very Useful.

2 (15.4%)

Not at all Useful! Hell NO!

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 13

[the-486-kid]

I think all this XG / GS stuff may be a bit of a side track, and off my original and more simplistic feature request.

In FT2, each instrument has some basic MIDI functions, that are saved into the .XI header.  This should kill the argument that it would be bending the file architecture to incorporate these features, but it ain't  'cuz it's always been there!

How it works:

You select the instrument that you want to add/adjust MIDI, then click "I.E.Ext." which stands for Instrument Editor Extension:

There you have two check boxes
"Instrument MIDI enable" and  "Mute Computer"
as well as three horizontal sliders "MIDI transmit channel"; "MIDI program"; and "Bender range (halftones)"

So effectively,  one could set up an Instrument, that could function in two ways:  Accept MIDI IN signal on a specific channel, to trigger sample playback of a specific sample! 
[NOTE: FT2 listens to ALPHA MIDI IN, and only plays the instrument that is currently highlighted in the Instrument Window.  Expansion would be required if you were to send Data on multiple MIDI chanels, and in turn have more than one instrument play back.]

OR 

During editing or playback, Send MIDI OUT signals from specific instruments on a specific MIDI channels with MIDI Program data, to control outside sound sources. 

OR, the ultimate, a combination of both IN/OUT; resulting in FT2 playing samples out the sound card, and your MIDI gear simultaneously.

MIDI OUT was a fundamental of FT2, and I feel should also be included in future releases of Milky Tracker.  I feel as a user of FT2 for over 10 years now that these features were obviously WAY ahead of their time, as they are still not making it into current tracker programs.  However, the main problem with FT2, is that development stopped.. and thus the bugs in the MIDI implementation were never worked out    huge bummer!

NOTE:  I tried for 30 minutes to figure out a way to convert the .PCX screen shots that I exported from inside FT2 (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + PrtScr)  but was unable to get them up here.. sorry.

[raina]

I seem to remember the screenshot format being .LBM (DeluxePaint), IrfanView for one supports that.

[the-486-kid]

I seem to remember the screenshot format being .LBM (DeluxePaint), IrfanView for one supports that.

Oh yeah!  I think you are right..  I'll try that.   The program does not auto set the .xxx extension on the end of the file 

[pailes]

I've been trying to save an instrument with some MIDI parameters, but FT2 freezed for me (running in Dosbox). Can anybody try that, maybe it's because I have no MIDI gear connected or something.

[the-486-kid]

I've been trying to save an instrument with some MIDI parameters, but FT2 freezed for me (running in Dosbox). Can anybody try that, maybe it's because I have no MIDI gear connected or something.

Saving  an .XI with midi should not make FT2 freeze if you don't have midi hardware?!  FT2's disk-op is totally non-hardware dependant (minus the hard drive requirement  )
I suspect that it's the fualt of your emulated environment, I wouldn't really know as I use real DOS.

Here are two Bass Instruments that are saved with MIDI params:
http://www.the486kid.com/XI

BASSMIDI.XI:  midi ch. 1, program  36, computer mute off, pitchbend increment 12
BASSMID2.XI   mid ch. 2, program 127, computer mute off, pitchbend increment 6

Werd!

[pailes]

Saving  an .XI with midi should not make FT2 freeze if you don't have midi hardware?!  FT2's disk-op is totally non-hardware dependant (minus the hard drive requirement  )
I suspect that it's the fualt of your emulated environment, I wouldn't really know as I use real DOS.

I wouldn't be so sure about that, the XI saving works fine in DosBox when I'm not messing with the MIDI settings.

Here are two Bass Instruments that are saved with MIDI params:
http://www.the486kid.com/XI

Link seems to be down atm. I'm trying later.

[the-486-kid]

I wouldn't be so sure about that, the XI saving works fine in DosBox when I'm not messing with the MIDI settings.
Link seems to be down atm. I'm trying later.

Hrm?  Well, FT2 never froze for me in true dos, when saving an XI with midi perams.

type in the full addy.. it's up @ http://www.the486kid.com/XI

Don't miss the (www.) and it works fine... my name server is lame.

[m0d]

Don't miss the (www.) and it works fine... my name server is lame.

You can say that again. The domain lookup fails as you've got your domain configured as www.the486kid... as part of the domain rather than a host.domain... just weird, that

pailes: manually type the address in, that way it works.

[Deltafire]

<techybit> There's no A record for the486kid.com, whilst www.the486kid.com does have an A record, when it should be a CNAME! </techybit>

Anyway, the way it is (wrongly) configured means that the web page cannot be viewed in Konqueror/Safari or Opera, but Firefox seems to handle it ok.

[the-486-kid]

<techybit> There's no A record for the486kid.com, whilst www.the486kid.com does have an A record, when it should be a CNAME! </techybit>

Anyway, the way it is (wrongly) configured means that the web page cannot be viewed in Konqueror/Safari or Opera, but Firefox seems to handle it ok.

AUGH!  It's all wrong!  

Ok, I fix it   

Now, did you get the .XI's Pailes?