Play
CTRL-1
You
can also activate play from main menu Play, at line
Play :
If you press play all tracks which are not switched
to off by mute switches are
- send to your MIDI output device
or
- routed to MIDI Locator's Virtual Sample Player if Virtual
Sample Player is visible and an .igr sound library loaded (see
more info about Virtual Sample Player here)
Mute
switches
If you want to change more than one mute switch at the same time,
please click on it and hold the mouse button down for more than
2 seconds, then a little menu appears.
Please read about mute switches' influence to the render process
in Virtual Sample Player's file writer here.
Determine and send
"Determine and send" section at the beginning of the sequence
play process
MIDI Locator
assumes that you will hear a loaded sequence at your MIDI device
as it was created by the author, and not influenced by random
states of controllers in your device set by a sequence you heard
before. MIDI Locator has to detect the device's current
controller states and to square them with the needed controller
states inside your MIDI sequence, where you go to play now.
If you go to play at the very beginning (at position 001:01:000)
MIDI Locator assumes that the author wants your MIDI device
in an initialized state, never mind if he forgot a MIDI mode reset
at the beginning. To determine the initial values of controllers
(which are different in different MIDI modes) MIDI Locator
derives the MIDI mode of the loaded sequence from the existens
of mode typical MIDI events.
If the current controller
states in your MIDI device distinguish from these ones needed
at the start point in your sequence, MIDI Locator sends
the relevant controllers settings to your device for correct adjustment
before it really starts playing your sequence. For knowing which
states are active at your device, MIDI Locator keeps careful
all last sent states in memory.
Visualisation of
Determine and send
MIDI Locator avoids
to send a MIDI mode reset itself, it always sends the correct
values of currently "dirty" controllers.
Please note that these can be hundrets of events in worst case,
but only some or none in best case.
If you start a sequence in the middle, MIDI Locator follows
the controller flow of all MIDI controllers to this point (assuming
initialized states at the beginning) so that controllers are then
set to states as if you'd switched off/on your device and played
to that point.
Only if the next event which will be played in your sequence is
a MIDI mode reset, MIDI Locator supresses to square controllers.
We call this feature inside MIDI Locator the determine
and send section in a sequence play process.
Nevertheless you can confuse MIDI Locator by switching
an external MIDI output device off and on without notification.
Then MIDI Locator thinks that the last sent values are
still active. So don't do this without manually sending a GM,
GS or XG mode reset, so that MIDI Locator clears its value
memory, too.
You can manual send a GM, GS or XG mode reset by clicking the
right information window (current device mode) :
MIDI mode info windows
at MIDI Locator's main application window's bottom
MIDI mode reset dialog
You can switch determine and send off in MIDI Locator's
settings menu , on page general.
Settings/general
There you can remove the mark from Determine and send...
Then MIDI Locator just plays the events of your sequence
and doesn't adjust any controllers before, when you press play.
Controller positions
on play parameters
of Settings/General
To avoid an overflow of MIDI events in your device by determine
and send there is the parameter delay in ms.
This is the amount of time MIDI Locator waits between two
controller adjustments and should only be set to a few ms (maybe
5-10). The time cumulates with the number of needed adjustments
before a sequence start point.
Determine and send leads to a more easy editing process
if you are creating own MIDI sequences, because you don't have
manualy reset controllers to their correct states if you permanently
alter between different start positions. Also hearing MIDI sequences
from authors which forgot to enter controller adjusting MIDI events
at the beginning will be much more comfortable - but please note
that you have to enter at least a correct MIDI mode reset by a
sysex event if you have finished editing your sequence to make
it hear like you have created on other MIDI file players.
Rewind preparation
The cursor position is stored in memory when you press play, for
recovering it when you press rewind.
Stop
CTRL-2
Press stop if you want a playing sequence to stop. If no sequence
is running, the stop button sends MIDI events which are necessary
to stop probably hanging notes. Hanging notes could appear e.g.
if you stop a sequence in a moment where a MIDI controller Sustain
on has been sent, but the following Sustain off lies
behind the position where you stopped. Usually only necessary
when working with Sustain controllers.
Rewind
CTRL-4
The rewind button moves your cursor to the position where you
started your sequence playing the last time. If you did't play
your sequence yet or if you press rewind the second time,
your cursor will be placed into the very first measure 0001:01:000.