ALESIS MMT-8 Exchange for Windows 9x/Me/Nt/2K/XP
------------------------------------------------
Thank you for you interest in ALESIS MMT-8 Exchange. These short notes
will hopefully be enough to get you started. If not, feel free to contact
author using the address specified at the end of this text.

Purpose
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ALESIS MMT-8 Exchange is a supplementary tool for users of this old but
still popular hardware sequencer. It allows basic editing of MMT8 tracks,
parts and songs, copy and paste operations, and Standard MIDI file import
and export.

Installation
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Copy file MMT8Ex.exe in convenient place and run it from there. MMT8 Exchange
package consists of only one executable file (not counting this ReadMe), so
full features Setup program does not seem to be appropriate.

Editing
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Editing is pretty straightforward: select the item group in the left pane,
then double click on the item in the right pane to open the appropriate
dialog.

You can select one or more items in the right pane by holding down Shift or Ctrl
key and clicking on items with a mouse button, then copy/paste items using
clipboard.

Import
------
MMT-8 Exchange can import both type 0 and type 1 Standard MIDI files. For type 0
files you have an option to explode them by placing messages with different MIDI
channels on separate MMT8 Tracks.

MMT-8 Exchange imports midi tracks only into currently selected MMT8 tracks. 
For example, if you have track list open in the right pane, and MMT8 Tracks 
1,2 and 5 are selected, the import operation will only affect these selected 
tracks.

If you have one or more parts selected, all tracks within these parts are 
assumed to be selected. The same is true for songs, that is, if you have one or 
more songs selected, all parts referred by all selected steps in these songs are 
assumed to be selected. Also, if you select 'Parts' or 'Song' items in the left
pane, all MMT Parts or Songs are assumed to be selected. These are the most
general selections, useful when you want to import as much as possible.

So, before importing midi file, you have select target MMT-8 item. Keep in mind
that MMT8 tracks and parts do not store tempo information, so if you import midi
file while having parts or tracks selected, the midi file tempo setting will be
lost. You can import into a song instead, and its tempo will be set to the tempo
specified in the midi files.

If imported midi file contains markers, you have an option to import events
between markers into different MMT8 Parts. For example, you can create standard
midi file in your software sequencer of your choice, mark various sections of
the piece with markers, say, Into, Verse, Chorus, Coda, etc. and when
imported, you'll have MMT8 parts with the same names.

Note that ALESIS MMT-8 resolution is restricted to 96 Pulses Per Quarter Note,
while most modern software sequencers normally use much higher resolution.
For this reason, if the imported material has been recorded with higher
resolution and was not quantized, it might sound a little bit different.


Export
------
MMT-8 Exchange always exports Standard Type 1 MIDI files with 8 tracks. 
Depending on what you have selected, you can export MMT8 tracks, parts or
songs. Selection rules are the same as for import operation.

When exporting song, MMT8 Exchange creates midi file which, when played 
in to the same midi setup, sound exactly the same as if played from 
ALESIS MMT-8.

Miscellaneous
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MMT-8 Exchange loads and saves files in native device SysEx format, 
thus you can send and receive these files to/from device using any
of the standard SysEx utilities. 

If you have problems sending/receiving midi data try tweaking Midi Buffer 
size and delay times -- this helps to cope with various MIDI device driver
peculiarities.

Contact
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Pete Kvitek
mail: pete@kvitek.com
web : www.kvitek.com/midi
