A TOUR OF MENUS Chapter 3 Menu Overview The PatchMeister uses one set of menus, so the same menu options are listed for every window. However, the active window will determine which of those options are actually available at a given point in time. Menu items that can't be used with the active window will appear fuzzy, or ghosted, and you wonÕt be able to select them. The active window also plays an important role in determining what the menu item will actually do. Example: If you select the Project menu Print Item while the aclive window is a Bank win- dow, the contents of that Bank window will be printed. If the active window happens to be a Library window, that Library will be printed. If you choose the Bank menu Clear All Items oplion when the active window Is The PatchMeister window, all of the In- stalled Drivers will be removed. * TIP * If you want to perform an action on a specific window, click anywhere within that window to make it the active window. Then select the desired menu option. * TIP * The active window has red text in its title bar, whlie all other windows have blue text in theirs. The menu strip used by The PatchMeister contains seven (7) menus: Project, Bank, Library, Drivers, MIDI, Settings and B&P Pro/SuperJAM! Lets begin our review... Project Menu The Project menu is comprised of the following items: Save Use the Save menu item when you want to write a file to disk without being prompted for a filename. The active window determines exactly what is going to be saved. Click the mouse anywhere inside the window you want to save. This will ÒactivateÓ the window. Select the Save menu item. The file will be rewritten using its original filename. You will, however, be prompted to provide a filename the first time you try to save a particular window. Save As... This menu item saves a window to disk after prompting you to enter a filename. The active window determines exactly what is going to be saved. Export... Selecting the Export option will allow you to save the contents of the active window in a simplified format for use outside of The PatchMeister program. The exported file will contain raw SysEx data in a format that can be sent directly to your synth. (See Chapter 13, ÒImport I Export.Ó) Import... Import is the counterpart to Export. In order to use files aeated by other librarian programs, you need a way to get them into your PatchMeister environment. The Import menu item attempts to do just that. The Driver that is highlighted in The PatchMeister window will be used for the import. Select the Import menu item to invoke a requester asking you to select the type of file to import. Print This menu item can be used to print the contents of an active Bank window, an active Library window or an active Help window. About... This menu item will display information about The PatchMeister. Quit Selecting this item lets The PatchMeister know that you are finished. All opened windows will be closed and the program will shut down. Bank Menu For the most part, Bank menu items only pertain to Bank windows. The one exception is the Clear All Items option which also applies to Setup windows and The PatchMeister window. There are seven (7) items under this menu: View The View menu item causes the display of the active Bank window to toggle between two (2) different display options. The first view option displays each patch name. The number of columns used to display the patches is determined by the width of the Bank window. The second option displays each itemÕs search key along with its patch name. There is always one (1) column when Banks are viewed with this option. New Bank Choose this menu item when you want to open an empty Bank window. The active Bank window is used to determine which type of Bank the empty window will store. Compress Bank Use this menu item to eliminate quickly all of the empty slots from the active Bank window. Clear Items Selecting this menu item will delete all items from the active window. Use this menu item if your intent is to aeate a new Bank or Setup from saatch. You can also use this menu item to clear all of the installed Drivers from The PatchMeister window. Undo Use this menu item if you need to back out a change just made to a Bank window. Save Patch List This command extracts the patch names from the Bank and saves them as a patch list file. Both SuperJAM! and Bars&Pipes Professional can read these lists and use them to configure patch (or "program") changes by name. Transfer Patch List (Accessory Version Only) This command is available only when The PatchMeister is installed as an Accessory within Barr&Pipes Professional version 1.1 or higher. Like PatchList, this extracts a patch list from the selected bank, but instead of saving it to disk, it places the list in Bars&Pipes Professional's set of available patch lists. Library Menu The five (5) Library menu items apply only to Library Windows: Options... The Options...menu item opens a requester allowing you to set the various Library window display options. For more information, please see Chapter 12, "Libraries". Find... Selecting the Find menu item opens a small window allowing you to enter a search key. This search key (along with the other Library menu Options) is used as part of the Library windowÕs selection criteria. Delete This menu item allows you to delete files and directories from within a Library window. Remember, directories must be empty before they can be deleted! Snapshots & Setups Use this menu item to open the Library window which will display your Snapshots, Setups and Capture files. Rebuild Library The Rebuild Library menu option can be used to resync a PatchMeister Library with the actual contents of its directory. Driver Menu Menu options pertaining to Drivers can be found in the Drivers Menu: Open Driver Setup... If you like, you may use the Project menu Save As... item to save a particular Driver setup you have created in The PatchMeister window. The Open Driver Setup... item can then be used to load the previously saved set of installed Drivers at a later time. Bring To Front / Send To Back The Bring To Front item will move the window containing all of the installed Drivers (The PatchMeister window) to the front of the screen display. This same menu item will then change to Send To Back, and can be used to send The PatchMeister window to the back of the screen display. Create Driver Use the options in this command to view, create and/or edit Drivers: NEW: Use this sub-item if you want to create a new Driver. OPEN: Use this sub-item if you want to edit (or view) an existing Driver. MIDI Menu The MIDI Menu contains items that control MIDI communications. The five (5) menu items are: Get From Synth... Use this menu item to get SysEx data from a MIDI instrument. The SysEx data will be retrieved from the instrument highlighted in The PatchMeister window. You will be presented with a requester displaying the MID! route of the instrument as well as the different SysEx types stored in the instrument. You can change the MIDI route if necessary. Click on the type of SysEx file you want to retrieve. An appropriate window will be opened after the data has been received. Send To Synth... Use this menu item to send SysEx data to a M!DI instrument. After selecting this menu item, you will be presented with a requester displaying the MIDI route to be used for the ÒsendÓ. If you are in a Library window, use of this menu option will send the file youÕve highlighted. If you are not in a Library window, the contents of the active window will be sent to your synth. New Snapshot... This menu item can be used to take a ÒsnapshotÓ of your MID! environment (See Chapter 9, ÒSnapshots.Ó) New Setup Use this menu item to open an empty Setup window. Setup files are built by dragging file names from different Library windows into the Setup window. (See Chapter 10, ÒSetups.Ó) New Capture... Use this menu item to ÒcaptureÓ a bulk dump from a synth that does not have a Driver. (See Chapter 11, ÒCapture Files.Ó) Settings Menu The Settings menu contains a variety of options: Auto Audition When this menu item is checked, an arpeggio will automatically be played each time a Bank item is sent to your synth through use of the Bank windowÕs TO SYNTH button. Of course you can still use your Amiga keyboard to further audition that Bank item by typing any combination of letters on your Amiga keyboard. (See Chapter 6, ÒAuditioning Sounds.Ó) NOTE> The arpeggio will be played in the octave assigned to the QWERTY keys. Interlace (Stand-Alone Version Only) This menu item allows you to select whether or not you wish to run The PatchMeister using an interlace screen. Check Memory (Stand-Alone Version Only) The Check Memory item will open a small window which lists all available memory. Check Disk Space (Stand-Alone Version Only) Selecting this item opens a small window which lists pertinent information about the disks currently in use. B&P Pro / SuperJAM! Menu This menu contains options available in the Accessory version of The PatchMeister. When loaded into Bars&Pipes Professional, this menu is called ÒB&P ProÓ, otherwise itÕs called ÒSuperJAM!.Ó Two options are available for Bars&Pipes Professional, while only the first is available for SuperJAM!: All To Back Sends all of The PatchMeisterÕs windows to the back, bringing Bars&Pipes Professional (or SuperJAM!) windows to the front. Select this command a second time to bring The PatchMeisterÕs windows to the front again. Auto Load This option determines how The PatchMeister files integrate into your Bars&Pipes Professional song files: ENABLE: Check this option if you want Bars&Pipes Professional to include a PatchMeister file name when it saves a song. ATTACH FILE: This command attaches the currently selected file (in a Library window) to Bars&Pipes Professional. This file will save with the Bars&Pipes Professional song and load when the song is reloaded. VIEW FILE: Displays the name of the currently attached file.