This month Paul Gilby takes an in-depth look at the TMN Conference system, and discovers equipment support groups, sound libraries and much more.

If you read last month's article you will have seen the opening screen display that welcomes you when you first log onto The Music Network (TMN). This shows the six basic facilities listed as (c)onf, (h)elp, (m)ail, (s)etup, (u)sers and the bye command for getting off the system when you have finished. This month, we'll take a close look at the (c)onf area.

Short for 'conference', (c)onf is a term used by TMN to cover all information services on the system; so whether you are looking for news or a manufacturer's support area, this is where it will be. If you consider what a physical conference is, then you'll understand how the TMN electronic version works. A conference is a gathering of people who have come together with the common aim of either learning about or exchanging information on a specific topic. This could take the form of a lecture, where information is presented for you to read in the form of a 'paper'; a seminar, where information is first provided and then a discussion about that particular topic is instigated; or it could be a 'free for all' open forum where anyone can take part in the discussion.

The electronic equivalent of this approach is very similar but has one major difference — time. Unlike a real-life conference, you don't have to be on TMN at a specific time of the day; TMN conferences are always an on-going process. This allows you to download information from a conference into your computer, print it out, read it at your leisure and then decide what to do. What you are allowed to do is where the next difference occurs. A lecture can be considered to be a 'read only' conference where you literally just read the information presented; for example, a Sound On Sound article. A 'read/respond' conference allows you to read about something - eg. someone wants help with a MIDI problem - and then respond to that query by typing a reply. Again, this doesn't have to happen in real time; you can go off for several days to do some research and then log back onto TMN to send your reply. Conferences are essentially timeless!

Open conferences or forums are a 'free for all', where anybody can throw in an idea for discussion rather than being involved in a dedicated topic, such as sampling techniques. These open areas are the closest electronic approximation to real conversation, and are generally much faster moving than other types of conference. If you read through the complete transcript of an open conference, you would see how it develops from topic to topic as time goes by and new issues are raised. For example, it could start off talking about the recent introduction of a new sequencer program and its relative merits over other programs, then evolve into a discussion about the problems of syncing sequencers to tape. These areas can go anywhere, and it is totally down to the users who take part.

Dedicated conferences can cover all sorts of services. These are broken down into many areas. For instance, a manufacturer's support service may have a number of sub-areas, each a separate conference. So, rather than simply visiting a conference called roland, you may well find conferences like roland.news, roland.enquiries, roland.sounds, roland.tips etc. Here roland.news would be a read-only conference, whereas roland.tips would be a read/respond area. Sound libraries are slightly different and we'll cover them in a moment.

Other dedicated conferences could be in the form of a database. These will be read-only and could contain information about almost any aspect of the music industry, eg. a list of second-hand equipment prices or a complete guide to recording studios in the UK. However, although the information in a database cannot be altered by the user, you can change the way you search the database. A database is accessed through... you guessed it, a conference, and you'll be able to read a conference topic that allows you to search the database in a certain way.

Many TMN conferences will be provided by companies, others by enthusiastic users. If you want to start a User Club or product appreciation area, you too could oversee a dedicated conference all of your own, eg. an Ensoniq Mirage or a Casio CZ101 group. To start your own area all you need to do is contact TMN ((Contact Details)) and discuss the idea.

SOUND LIBRARIES

Conferences can take the form of a library dedicated to non-text use. These are used to hold either computer program code, sounds for synthesizers and samplers, or songs stored as sequencer MIDI Files.

When you visit one of these conferences - such as tmn.sounds - the first thing to do is to look at the index with the i command. You will see a list of headings including the type of synth, type of computer and program, and other details. You select the item you wish to read - just as in a regular conference - and a description of the sound file will be displayed.

Then you'll see the words binary file follows. At this point, you can tell TMN to send the file to you via an error-corrected file transfer system such as KERMIT or XMODEM; a choice you'll find in most communications programs. You can also upload your own files to TMN if you wish to share them. After the session is over you can get off TMN, boot up your music software, and load your new sounds into your synth.

The same approach goes for song files and computer programs: you just load the data you saved on disk into the specific application program, ie. if it were a Dr. T KCS song file, load KCS and call up the new song you just downloaded off TMN. You will find a number of sound libraries in many different areas of TMN. A general library of public domain sounds will be provided by TMN itself but you will also find that some of the manufacturer support areas will have their own libraries. At the time of writing, we have also heard that some of the music retailers are considering offering mail order sounds which you can purchase by credit card and then download off the system.