| MED v1.5 had some very significant changes to the earlier v1.x updates and although they may not be obvious because they are under the bonnet and not visually apparent, it could not possibly be considered a simple v1.x update. Many users complained that the previous V1.x updates used too much CPU power and those with older, slow PC's found that playing most of their songs would quickly bring the PC to a halt. Andy answered this question and a lot more, in beta tests playing a 32 stereo channel MOD in MED v1.5 had greatly reduced the CPU usage. This improvement meant that when playing your songs, the response time from the MED GUI has greatly improved and was now much smoother, even with a song playing that contains many large samples. To quote John Neil, the MED Help editor.............. Play back is smooth to the point of silky, and again those expecting the same as earlier in this department will be very surprised indeed. We have found that the 'pops n clicks' at the sample start have more or less disappeared completely and the sound is a lot more full and the lower tones (Bass) is much more apparent. (So turn down that bass knob first). Another major change in v1.5 was the online help system. The old style Windows help files has been replaced by the Microsoft HTML help. This means you will be able to browse through the help files in the same manner as you would through the Internet. The new help system is mainly a conversion of the original by Ed Wiles, but there are many additions and rewrites to some of the help documents from the help author, John Neill who, like Andy, put a lot of time and effort into v1.5 In addition to this, there have been even more changes in this department, you will find that new bubble help (or Balloon) has replaced the '?' windows dialog help and you can just place the mouse over certain areas of MED and helpful information will pop up automatically for you. Easy or what eh? There have been other additions, which while small are very much welcomed in this update such as the ability to preview samples from within the Instrument Pool. A number of features are under a new subcategory on the 'Settings' menu, aptly named 'Others'. This is where a number of advanced settings will be found. Note that all of these are stored directly in the Windows registry, rather than the traditional MED configuration file. ExclusiveSoundOutput:
If this value is set to false then MED and other softsynths or other audio programs can share sound together. ShowBalloonhelp:
This option was asked to be included by the beta testers, this gives you the option to turn off the balloon help when using MED, useful if you are a veteran and do not need the help provided. OutputPlugin:
You can assign which plug-in Med will use to save your song to disk. PluginDir:
You can now change the folder where you keep your MED Plugins. SampleUndoCount:
Before if you wished to change the sample undo level this could only be done by changing the value within the registry itself. The undo level can now easily be changed from here. You may want to consider adjusting this upwards if you have lots of free memory, or downwards if you are memory constrained, or do not find the undo function useful. About the previous v1.6
There were reports of regular crashes being caused when large samples were copied into the sample editor, this has now been cured. A few smaller parts of the code were also altered in the hope this will help those few users who are still using old/slow machines although, to be honest, the use of old/slow machines for this type of media usage is not recomended. (Ensure you have the latest Microsoft DirectX installed) About the present v1.7 After reading the above you will see that the previous MED v1.5 & v1.6 had some very significant changes to the earlier v1 thru v1.4 but as with all software, there is allways room for improvement and hence this v1.7 release. Until George, the new main author has completed MED V2, James, a very enthusiastic MED user who, as luck would have it, is also a programmer, has decided to continue bug fixes and time permitting, hopes to add as many features that he can to this present V1.xx release. To that end, he has just bug-fixed four parts of the previous V1.6 and reports.......... 1. 0x20 tempo bug fix If you enter command 0x920 for a tempo change it would change the tick/line to 1 instead of 32... I found this bug since I wrote a mod in octamed and used 0x920 for one slow passage in beethovens 5th. 2. MMD0 MMD1 synth sound transpose bugfix When loading a mod which was saved using MMD0 or MMD1 using synth sounds into v1.6, the octaves were being transposed an octave higher... This transpose was supposed to only apply to Sample and Hybrid sounds but not synth sounds. I found this bug when testing a song I wrote using octamed. I've tested... Synth, hybrid, and samples for MMD0 and MMD1, and now it appears to be working properly. now to find the crackling noise problems... 3. Sample Editor's black on black bugfix The change here will only be noticed by anyone who uses a black color scheme (e.g. where your text is white on black). When opening the sample editor the color you have chosen for your text will be the color displayed for the waveforms in the sample editor. For most people this has been black text on white, so no change will be apparent to them. 4. Added Read Volume checkbox for midi. This is a much needed option which was originally available for the Amiga Octamed... By default this option was not checked and so you could input your notes using midi-in and change them without having to worry about the volume commands overriding any commands you have previously put for this note. A few smaller parts of the code were also altered in the hope this will help those few users who are still using old/slow machines although, to be honest, the use of old/slow machines for this type of media usage is not recomended. Unless James adds a feature which can be considered signifant enough to warrent a v1.8, any further V1.xx bug-fix/additions that he adds will be released with a suffix, (ie: v1.7b). If you are eagerly awaiting the release of MED V2 (especially if you are a MIDI user), why not give George your support and encouragement by leaving him questions. You can do this by following the instructions below: Simply browse to the MED Forum at: MED Forum and register (choose a username and password), once you
are a member, you can select, (or browse to later): Read V2 Posts by George you can not only read any of the posts but as a registered
forum member you can then leave him your V2 questions/ideas. | 
