Vivaldi User Guide

Tips, Bugs and Future Improvements

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Last updated: July 1996

Known bugs

Future improvements

Note that these are unlikely to happen at any time soon.

Tips

File types
When using the music editor, use the MusDump format as much as possible - it takes up the least disk space. Similarly, use SampDump for samples, except when mixing, when you should use STSample.
Hard disks
If you have a hard disk, put !AWSystem either in the root directory (the one that opens when you click on the drive icon), or make your !Boot file obey !AWSystem's !Run file. If you have Risc OS 2, put these lines into your !Boot file:
Set AWSys$Dir <wherever you put it>.!AWSystem
Set AWSys$Path <AWSys$Dir>.
IconSprites <AWSys$Dir>.!Sprites
RMEnsure UsefulModule 5.20 RMLoad AWSys:Modules.UsefulMod
For example, if you put !AWSystem into :4.$.!Boot.Data then the first line would read:
Set AWSys$Dir :4.$.!Boot.Data.!AWSystem
If you have Risc OS 3 or above, simply put this line in, instead of all the above:
Filer_Run <wherever it is>.!AWSystem
Just keeping it in the root directory next to !System is probably easier if you're not too sure about all of this...
The applications themselves can be put anywhere you like, so long as AWSystem is run first.
Vivaldi
Use Vivaldi in a wide-screen mode. On Risc OS 2, try mode 16. On Risc OS 3, use mode 35. This lets you see all of the windows at once.
Playlists
When using playlists, you should still be able to do virtually anything in the Desktop. However, do not print or access Spark archives while playing music, since things go a little haywire; you can pause the music while reading Spark archives, but you must kill the music before attempting to print - printing takes up lots of CPU time so the music sounds terrible, plus it goes a little squiffy afterwards, leaving a big sprite in the sprite area.

Basically, kill your music before printing a document, and pause it before using any program which uses the system sprite area (like SparkFS).

Applications
It is a good idea to have a few of the applications loaded at once; eg Vivaldi to edit music, TrackPlay to control stereo, and Samp-Edit to edit samples. Remember that sample files can be dragged between most of the applications in the Vivaldi package.
Scrap directory
If you have no hard disk and you drag samples between programs a lot, then it would be a good idea to create a scrap directory on the RAM disk so that disk swaps are not necessary, if you have 128K free. Make a 128K RAM disk using the Task Manager, press F12, and type:
Set Wimp$Scrap RAM:$.ScrapFile - then press RETURN, and type:
Set Wimp$ScrapDir RAM:$ and then press RETURN twice.
This actually works for any applications which use the scrap directory for app-to-app transfer. Also, you can make the RAM disk any size you like - for transferring samples, if you use SampDump for saving, then 64K will probably do. The sample editor will complain if the RAM disk gets full, anyway.

Recent changes

Changes made to the package are listed below, with the most recent at the top:

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