If you're reading this, you're one of the "lucky" people who have agreed
to help me test MONOTONE, the tracker for extremely simple sound
devices.  This alpha release of MONOTONE is lacking many features, but
it has a bare minimum of editor commands and effects to compose simple
tunes.  The manual, also a work in progress, can be viewed via
monotone.txt or printed via monotone.rtf.  If you'd like to see MONOTONE
in action before diving in, consult http://www.vimeo.com/825647 for a
quick demo.

Miscellanous MONOTONE concepts you should be aware of:

- Notes sound until they are turned off.  Enter OFF "notes" to do this.

- Note entry is based on Protracker (ie. z=C-4, s=C#4, etc.).  Tracker
movement and commands are *not*, however.  I've chosen what I think is a
logical keyboard definition for PCs, but if you don't like it, run
MTCONFIG.EXE to reconfigure the keys.  It is a clunky utility, but it
gets the job done.

- Protracker is based on a 1/50th of a second timebase.  MONOTONE is
based on a 1/60th of a second timebase.  That means it is slightly
"faster" than Protracker.  This was intentional (playback routine allows
copper effects on CGA this way) and is not a bug.  You will have to
adjust :-)

- The cursor lands on notes only.  There are many reasons for this but I
won't go into them here.  To enter effects or pattern orders, use the
"Enter" functionality (convienently defaults to the ENTER key).  To
erase, use "Erase" function (defaults to CTRL-ENTER).  I know this
sounds incredibly retarded but do it a few times and you'll see I wasn't
totally insane.

- All numeric entry is in 2-digit hex.  So if you want to pattern break
to row 32, you enter D20 (20 hex = 32 decimal).  If you want to set a
speed of "5", you enter F05.

Testing notes:

- Default helpscreen key is F1, but not everything is listed there.
KEYLIST.TXT has full list of commands.  Print it out for a handy
reference.  If you redefine keys and keep forgetting them, you can use
MTCONFIG to regenerate the KEYLIST.TXT file.

- Don't pick "True CGA" unless you really are on a true CGA monitor.

- MONOTONE documentation is incomplete, but it couldn't hurt to read it
anyway.

- Only effects working in the alpha are Fxx (set speed), Bxx (pattern
jump), and Dxx (pattern break).

- If you're testing MONOTONE on a 4.77MHz machine, don't start a song or
pattern playing while on the Tracker screen.  Switch to the status
screen instead.  (The tracker screen repainting routine is not optimized
yet and is slow enough that it affects playback on really slow machines.)

- If the speaker is driving your roommate/wife/etc. crazy, run MONOTONE
in DOSBox.  The emulated output will go through your soundcard and you
can wear headphones.

- "understa.mon" is 4-track tune.  It's included mostly so you
can see how orders work.  "FF" is "end of song".  Use "tab" to switch
back and forth on the tracker screen.  Others are included as well.

Known bugs:

- When you find some, please reply to the monotone mailing list at
monotone@oldskool.org...