This will teach you the basics on creating a SoundScape for your watch. I will discuss the File Format, followed by the Creating a SoundScape with Melody Wizard.

File Format

The SoundScape file format is powerful and flexible. Timex really thought ahead when they planned this format out, hats off to them. If Timex has nothing else, they certainly have good Design Engineers. To help I have blatently stolen the image from John Toebes site, who gives credit to Pigeon. (Please note I changed the image to give it transparency).

What you see above is a byte-by-byte breakdown of the default sound scheme. This shows you the component parts and layout of the file.

With referense to above for clarity, the format, for the purposes of the end-user, has a tiered structure with the following features.

• 10 System Events {System Sound Table above}. This involves the events which cause the sound, say pushing a button, or an alarm going off.

• A Number of Sound Settings, which define WHICH melody to play, how many times to play it, and whether the watch should then continue on and play the NEXT Sound Setting. This is shown above in the Soundlet Count Table, which is tied byte for byte to the Soundlet Pointer Table.

• A Number of Melodies, or strings of notes, which get played.

This is the basic features involved in a file. So in turn the Event refers to a Sound Setting, which refers to the Melody, how many times to play it, and whether to move on. When it moves on it can ONLY move on the the next setting, you cannot move from, say, Setting 3 to Setting 7, it must be, for example, Setting 5 to Setting 6, or Setting 1 to Setting 2.

The file format allows, as you can see, for unlimited numbers of Settings and Melodies. You can also cross reference Settings with Melodies, as you can see above. There are no practial limits to the sound format, while the limits in the watch are still unclear to me... I have seen it written that the limit is 256 bytes, but believe the limits to be actually significantly lower than this. I'll let you experiment, and let me know what you find to be the case. FYI: I have found past 64 bytes gives me trouble.

It is important to realise that a setting can be used by more than one event, and a melody by more than one Setting. Also be aware that the setting is the same for whatever event is using it. This all means that you can create a Melody, and create two Settings, both refering to it. One could play the Melody once, while the other repeats it ten times. You could then use the first setting for something like the Button Beep, while the other could be used for an Alarm. In this way you can recycle melodies and save space in your SoundScapes, potentially making very large, complex SoundScapes while remaining within the 68 bytes total recommended size...

Creating a (Simple) SoundScape with Melody Wizard

As we have seen above the file format defines the ten System Events, associating them with Settings, which refer to Melodies. We will make our first SoundScape following this order.

When we open the program we effectively have a blank SoundScape, we'll start with that. We have the Button Beep Event showing, No. 1 Setting, and Melody 1 (which is blank). We do not want a big Melody for the button beep event (I assume, but then maybe you want the fifth symphony when you push a button!) We'll just drag a note (probably the shortest one with the two curls coming out the top) and drop it on the musical score. We will leave the No. Plays at 1, and Leave "Last Melody in Set" Checkbox checked.

We have now associated the Button Beep event with a Setting (No. 1), a melody (Melody 1) and a number of plays (1). We have also specified that this is to be played without moving on to any further settings (Last Melody in Set Checkbox checked).

We can now move on to the next Event, Return To Time. For this we don't want the same as the Button Beep, otherwise we wouldn't know when we returned to the time! So we'll create a new setting by clicking Melody Setting Listbox, and select "New Setting". We see now we have "No. 2" under the Melody Setting Listbox. We'll need a new melody as well, so we'll do the same with the "Melody to Play" Listbox by clicking on it and selecting New Melody. We should now have "Melody 2" showing, and a blank melody below.

We'll drag another note over, and drop it either higher or lower than the previous Button Beep Note so we will hear a difference. We may also want to use a slightly longer note.

Now we have two settings, using two different Melodies. We'll save the file now by clicking on Save (or pressing Alt+S). Name the melody Melody1 or something like that and click OK. The program should tell you the scheme will take up 24 bytes.

By default events are associated with Setting No. 1, so we'll skip over Hourly Chime and Confirmation, leaving them associated with Setting 1. We'll select Appointments. It will be associated with Setting No. 1 but we'll create a New Setting, followed by a New Melody. On this melody we will drop four notes, and then save. We'll change the number of plays to 10, so that it will play the notes ten times. It should tell us our scheme takes up 31 bytes.

We'll change to the Alarm Event by clicking on the Events Listbox, and make a new setting (No. 4) and a New Melody (Melody 4). Instead of Dropping notes onto the score, we'll load up a saved Melody by clicking on the Load in the Melody Section under the score. We'll choose the "Mobile Ring 1" Melody and choose OK. We'll set the number of plays to 10, just to make sure we hear it when it goes off. We'll save our scheme now and it should tell us our scheme will take up 50 bytes.

Congratulations, you have made a basic sound scheme. You can use our S&A Manager to install the sound.

Remember, to change the duration of a note, you can just right-click on the note. To change its pitch, we just right-drag it up or down.

You're thinking "This guy couldn't teach a fish to swim, I could do a better tutorial than this..." and then you click on the icon below to send it to me, receiving full credit on these pages...

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