Glossary: Terminology
A | |
| stands for 'Attack Decay Sustain Release' and describes a type of envelope. ADSR Envelopes are used in Pulsar to shape the amplitude of Tracks A, B & D | |
| (generally) notes of a chord repeated in quick succession, often looped | |
B | |
| stands for 'beats per minute'. Often used in sequencers/recording devices to describe the tempo/speed of a track or song. | |
C | |
| sequence of Pattern numbers | |
D | |
| pulse width setting for Track A & B | |
F | |
| Steps are divided into ticks, the number of ticks depending on Song Speed, Table Speed etc. Sometimes known as a 'tick' | |
M | |
| a multi-voice Table | |
P | |
| sequence of notes and commands | |
S | |
| one row of a Song, Chain, Pattern, Table etc. | |
T | |
| sequence of pitch, volume and Commands | |
| Steps are divided into ticks, the number of ticks depending on Song Speed, Table Speed etc. Sometimes known as a 'frame' which refers to the refresh speed of the audio engine happening once per video refresh (60hz for NTSC, 50hz for PAL) | |
V | |
| stands for Volume Unit meter. Often seen on mixing desks to show you the real-time level of each channel | |
U | |
| stands for User Interface. Often used as GUI which means 'graphical user interface' but as Pulsar's interface doesn't really contain any graphics, I describe it as just 'UI' |
Glossary: Hexadecimal and Binary Numbers
Hexadecimal is a base-16 number system (decimal is base-10) so each single digit goes from 0 to 15. Digits 10 to 15 are represented by the letters A to F.
Binary
Binary is a base-2 number system where each digit can either be 0 or 1. From right-to-left the digits represent 2 to the power of 0 to 7, that is 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128.
| Decimal | Hexadecimal | Binary |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 00 | 00000000 |
| 1 | 01 | 00000001 |
| 2 | 02 | 00000010 |
| 3 | 03 | 00000011 |
| 4 | 04 | 00000100 |
| 5 | 05 | 00000101 |
| 6 | 06 | 00000110 |
| 7 | 07 | 00000111 |
| 8 | 08 | 00001000 |
| 9 | 09 | 00001001 |
| 10 | 0A | 00001010 |
| 11 | 0B | 00001011 |
| 12 | 0C | 00001100 |
| 13 | 0D | 00001101 |
| 14 | 0E | 00001110 |
| 15 | 0F | 00001111 |
| 16 | 10 | 00010000 |
| 17 | 11 | 00010001 |
| 18 | 12 | 00010010 |
| 19 | 13 | 00010011 |
...and so on until:
| Decimal | Hexadecimal | Binary |
|---|---|---|
| 253 | FD | 11111101 |
| 254 | FE | 11111110 |
| 255 | FF | 11111111 |
As you can see, the highest unsigned number in 8-bits is 255 (or FF or 11111111).
The most common way to represent signed numbers is using "Two's Complement".
Glossary: Two's Complement (8-bit signed numbers)
Two's Complement is used to represent signed 8-bit numbers. The explanation of how this is achieved is not for this manual but here's a handy guide to get you started.
| Decimal | Two's Complement (Hex) |
|---|---|
| 0 to 127 | 00 to 7F |
| -1 to -128 | FF to 80 |