README File for TRAX PASSPORT DESIGNS 100 Stone Pine Rd. Half Moon Bay, CA 94019 (415) 726-0280 INSTALLING TRAX Installing TRAX is easy. You simply boot your computer and run the TRAX installer program, SETUP. In addition to the TRAX application, you can also install some sample music files. The end of this document contains additional information about Windows, MIDI Drivers, Port and IRQ settings and troubleshooting tips. MIDI setup Although you can use TRAX without a MIDI instrument, in order to use TRAX with a MIDI instrument, you must configure the software so that it can communicate properly with your hardware. See the instructions below. INSTALLATION By running the Setup program from within Windows, you can quickly and easily install TRAX and all related files. Note: For the following installation Microsoft Windows must already be installed on your hard disk. To install TRAX from Windows with the Multimedia Extensions or Windows 3.1 or later: 1. Run Windows. 2. Insert the TRAX Program Disk into your computer's disk drive (A: or B:). 3. Choose "Run" from the File menu of the Windows Program Manager. The Run dialog appears. 4. In the "Command Line" text box, enter A:SETUP (or B:SETUP if the Program Disk is in drive B:). 5. Click OK or press Enter to run the TRAX Setup program. The Setup dialog appears. The default drive and directory to which TRAX will be copied are displayed in a text box. If you want to install TRAX in a different directory or drive, simply make the appropriate changes to the text box. Several installation options are listed in the box at the bottom of the dialog. These include installation of the TRAX program files and MIDI drivers The options are pre-selected (reverse highlighted) for installation (the Passport MIDI drivers will automatically be de-selected on Multimedia PCs or PCs running Windows 3.1 or later). De-select any options that you do not want. 6. Click OK and follow the on-screen prompts. A dialog appears that asks if you would like the Setup program to create a TRAX Program Group in the Windows Program Manager. 7. Click Yes or press Enter to create a TRAX Program Group. MIDI setup Although you can use TRAX without a MIDI instrument , in order to use TRAX with a MIDI instrument, you must configure the software so that it can communicate properly with your hardware. 1. Open the TRAX Program Group in the Windows Program Manager (if it is not already open), and double-click the TRAX icon to run the program. 2. Pull down the Goodies menu and choose the MIDI Setup item. The MIDI Setup dialog appears. Ports TRAX can communicate with the MIDI world over any one of your computer's output ports. This lets TRAX address sixteen MIDI channels over any port. There are three drop down list boxes that enable you to make port assignments. The first box lets you designate the output port of your interface. This list box allows you to select which of your computer's MIDI hardware ports will be used for MIDI playback. TRAX's output can also be routed to the onboard synthesizers on sound cards like Anchor Electronics' Media Concept board, Creative Labs' Sound Blaster and Media Vision's Pro AudioSpectrum. Next to the output port list box is a check box labeled "Send Sync". Click this box to transmit MIDI sync messages on that port. TRAX sends MIDI song position pointer, MIDI start, stop and continue and MIDI clocks. The next list box, labeled "Record port" tells TRAX which port is connected to the MIDI controller with which you'll enter notes onto your score. TRAX can play or record based on your computer's own internal clock or on a MIDI song position pointer and MIDI clocks received from an outside source. If you'll be synchronizing your computer to an external signal, you may want to keep the incoming sync signal separate from MIDI data you're recording. The "Receive sync port" item lets you do this. Sync Source The "Sync Source" radio buttons determine whether you'll use your computer's clock or an external MIDI device as TRAX's master clock. If you won't be using an external MIDI sync source to control the playback of TRAX: Check Internal. Your PC's internal clock will control TRAX's playback speed. If you do want to "slave" TRAX's playback functions to an external source: Check External. ******************************************************** TRAX and Windows This version of TRAX is designed to run with the Multimedia Extensions to Windows 3.0 or with Windows 3.1. The Setup program creates a Program Manager group called "TRAX" and several Program Manager items (icons) for the TRAX executable program and sample files. Several sample music files are included with TRAX. Some of the files are authored and voiced according to authoring guidelines for Multimedia PCs, where channels 1 through 10 are for Hi-End General MIDI style sound modules, while channels 13 through 16 are for base-level Adlib, SoundBlaster or MediaVision style FM synth cards. The best way to get these files to sound good on your system is to play them back through a correctly configured MIDI Mapper. You can do this by selecting the MIDI Mapper as the output port in TRAX's MIDI Setup dialog. Alternativly, you can playback the base-level channels directly to an Adlib sytle FM synth, by selecting the corresponding output port in the MIDI Setup dialog and by soloing the tracks that are assigned to channels 13 through 16. Of course, if you have a General MIDI synth, such as the Roland SC-55 Sound Canvas connected to a MIDI out port, then you could solo all tracks that are assigned to channels 1 through 10 and play them back directly to the General MIDI synth. The other sample music files that are included are generic enough to sound good on just about any synth or sound module. These files are not intended for multimedia purposes and will probably not sound right when played back through the MIDI Mapper. ************************************ TRAX - Sound Card and MIDI Interface Address and Interrupt settings You can use the "Drivers" Applet in the Windows Control Panel to adjust the settings that are used for your MIDI hardware. Select the driver that you want to configure and then click on the "Setup" button to change the port address and interrupt level. If the driver that you need does not appear to be installed then click on the "Add" button to install it. You can also edit the SYSTEM.INI file directly using the Windows SYSEDIT application. Look for the section in the SYSTEM.INI that contains the settings for your driver. If the driver is currently using the default settings then you may have to add the section as shown in the examples below: ; default settings for an MPU-401 [mpu401.drv] port=330 int=2 ; for Soundblaster or Media Concept MIDI [sndblst.drv] port=220 int=7 The first entry, for instance, will tell the Windows MIDI driver to look for your MPU-401 on interrupt 2 at port address 330. Check your card and its documentation for help on finding out what these values are. The above values are the defaults. You need only add an entry to your SYSTEM.INI file if your values are different than these. Windows provides a program which makes editing your SYSTEM.INI file, and other system files, easy to do. It is called SYSEDIT.EXE and can be found in your Windows system directory. Add it to your Main group if you haven't done so already. It is great to have around. Take care when you edit these files, however. They must be just right for your system to work. Keep backups around just in case. *********************************** TROUBLE SHOOTING -> If you get the message 'Out of environment space' when booting after installing TRAX, increase the environment size in your CONFIG.SYS file. The statement: shell=command.com /e:512 /p will most likely provide you with ample space. If not, increase the number after '/e:'. -> If you get no MIDI I/O whatsoever, make sure that you have selected the correct MIDI ports in the MIDI Setup dialog. If you still get no MIDI I/O then make sure that the SYSTEM.INI settings are correct for your hardware. Check your card and its documentation to make sure of what the values are.