Deskplay is using Shellplay 0.71 Ñ Copyright 1993 Brian C. Bening
What it is...
Deskplay is a New Desk Accessory that lets you listen to Amiga¬ music module files (also referred to as MOD files) while under the desktop.
Deskplay works hand in hand with the famous Shellplay MOD player by Brian C. Bening to provide easy handling and excellent playback quality of Amiga¬ MOD files. (Hi Tony Morales: ╥Sonobox? What the hell...╙)
NOTE: If you have an Apple Hi╨Speed SCSI Card, Deskplay won╒t be of much use to you. This is because of a bug in Shellplay that causes the GS to crash whenever music is playing and the hard╨disk is accessed. Turning DMA on the Hi╨Speed Card off is the only way to prevent this...
Installation...
Copy the files ╘Deskplay╒ and ╘SP╒ into the Desk.Accs folder of your boot╨volume, then reboot. You can, of course, also use IR¬ and double╨click on ╘Deskplay╒ to use it, but make sure ╘Deskplay╒ and ╘SP╒ are in the same folder.
Using Deskplay...
If you are familiar using a common CD╨Player, you won╒t have any problems with Deskplay at all.
Deskplay╒s interface is devided into two sections: The playback and the songlist section (more on this later). The playback part along with all its buttons and displays operates like a standard CD╨Player.
The four small buttons from top left to down right are:
Ñ Power (╨SPACE): Pressing this button enlarges the Deskplay window
to allow access to the songlist section.
Ñ Eject/Open (╨O): Allows you to load a new set of modules (see
below) or just new modules. As the name implies, it removes all
songs from the current song list. Deskplay automatically puts
itself in playback mode once the songs have been loaded.
NOTE: MOD file are loaded independent of their names/suffixes,
three filetypes (ASCII, Binary, Unknown) are supported. Only
limitation: Deskplay won╒t load more than 400 MOD files, sorry
(╥ohhh!╙). Shellplay supports NoiseTracker, ProTracker and
StarTrekker (4 channel) formats.
Ñ Info (╨I): Gives information on the current song in memory.
Normally, the author of a music module has a lot to say about his
masterpiece, but it may happen that this place is left completely
blank or contains some weird instrument names.
NOTE: If you have the Genesys.8 font (comes with Genesys)
installed, Deskplay will use it instead of Shaston.8 to display
the information of a song.
Ñ Options (╨!): Opens a dialog with all options referring to the
playback of modules. These are as follows:
Volume: Sets the playback volume (in percent from 0 to 100).
Stereo: Sets the percentage of stereo. 0 means monophonic,
100 means full stereo. In╨between values mix channels, so
you won╒t turn dizzy when listening to MODs via headphones.
Channel Doubling (╨D): Allows the percentage of stereo to be
set to values from 100 to 200. These values do not affect
channel mixing (since it will always be full stereo), but
rather make the music sound louder. Value 200 pushes the
Ensoniq to its output limits! Beware...
Tempo: Smart PT/ Constant (╨S): Guesses the playback tempo
method (Amiga¬ ProTracker or constant) to use by
examining each song before playing it (this is the
default setting).
ProTracker (╨P): Uses Amiga¬ ProTracker tempo
Constant (╨C): Uses constant speed tempo (otherwise
known as VBL timing). Constant tempo may be set to:
50Hz (╨5) or 60Hz (╨6)
Follow Position Jumps (╨F): Postion jumps are commands used
within MODs to create infinite loops or to hide songs (the
default setting is off).
The six large buttons are (from left to right):
Ñ Previous Song (╨<): Skips to the previous song. Can also be used
to select a certain track when no music is playing.
Ñ Fast Forward (╨F): Plays the current song back three times as fast
(150Hz) as normal. Hit ╘Fast Forward╒ again for normal playback.
Ñ Next Song (╨>): Skips to the next song. Can also be used
to select a certain track when no music is playing.
Ñ Play (╨P): Either plays the song that has been selected by the
╘Previous Song╒ or ╘Next Song╒ buttons or the song selected in the
song list. If no songs have been loaded, ╘Play╒ will also let you
load songs or a set of songs, and then automatically put Deskplay
in playback mode. Playback mode is indicated by a green ╘Play╒
symbol in the large display.
NOTE: Once in playback mode, you may close the Deskplay NDA if you
want, because Shellplay is capable of real background╨playing, i.e.
you can switch between applications while the music is playing.
However, playing Amiga¬ MODs ╥eats╙ a lot of processer time, so
your system may be slowed down significantly. Also, be warned that
your system might crash if you start an application that uses the
GS Sound Tools while playing an Amiga¬ MOD in the background. And
another, very important point: The system WILL CRASH some time
while playing a lot of MODs. This is a bug in Shellplay, and there╒s
currently no way around it. Sorry! The best solution is to hit ╘Stop╒
from time to time. Also, do not enter ProDOS 8 while a music is
playing. Again, the system WILL crash.
Ñ Stop (╨.): Stops playing the current song(s). Also removes
Shellplay from memory.
Ñ Pause (╨Space): Pauses the current song. Pause mode is indicated by
a green ╘Pause╒ symbol in the large display. ╘Pause╒ also ╥frees╙ all
processor time, so this is handy if ╤ for example ╤ you need to print
out something quickly but still want to have Deskplay/ Shellplay
active. Pressing ╘Pause╒ again continues playing the current song.
The Songlist...
...contains all songs that have been loaded. The songlist is much like the contents of a real audio CD, except that you can customize it completely. Note that you can╒t modify the list while the music is playing.
The songlist is also the fastest way to access a certain song: Once the song has been highlighted in the list, it can be played by clicking the ╘Play╒ button. You can also double╨click on a song name, and it will immediately be played.
You can also select multiple songs for playback (using ╘Shift╒ & ╘Open Apple╒). The small number in the large display then stands for the number of ╘programmed╒ songs. A small ╘PRG╒ will indicate that you are in program mode. All other songs in the songlist will be dimmed. You can leave program mode by pressing ╘Stop╒.
The buttons that directly affect the songlist are:
Ñ ADD: Adds more MODs or module sets to the songlist.
Ñ DEL: Deletes selected entries from the songlist.
Ñ CLR: Clears the songlist.
The other three buttons are:
Ñ RND: Plays all or the selected songs in random order. Random mode
is indicated by a small green ╘RND╒. You can also press this button
if the music is already playing (in normal mode) to put Deskplay
in random mode. If you are already playing songs in random mode,
pressing this button causes the songs to be re╨randomized and jumps
to a new song. You can leave random mode by pressing ╘Stop╒.
If no songs have been loaded, pressing ╘RND╒ will allow you to load
modules and then put Deskplay in random playback mode.
Ñ SAV (╨S): Saves the current songlist. We call the result a set of
modules. This gives you the ability to create your own ╥MOD CDs╙.
A set is treated like a normal music module. It can be loaded, or
appened to the current songlist.
Ñ About Deskplay (╨?): Info on Deskplay and hellos from Ninjaforce!
When the Deskplay window is frontmost, hit ╨K to stop the current music, clear the songlist and close the NDA.
Saving Deskplay Settings...
Deskplay automatically saves all its settings (options, current song directory) to disk when you close the NDA. Deskplay writes its settings in its resource fork, so you don╒t have to mess around with stupid config files...
Special NDA Access Keys... ...sind geil!
To make Deskplay even easier (and faster) to use, you may hold down the following special keys while choosing Deskplay from the Apple Menu:
Ñ ╘Option╒: Brings up the Deskplay options dialog
Ñ ╘Shift╒: Stops playing the current music
Ñ ╘Open Apple╒: Pauses/continues playing the current music
Ñ ╘Control╒: Same as Eject/Open
NOTE: The keys will only work if the Deskplay window is not open!
Accessing Deskplay in 320 Mode...
...is not possible (yet). However, all of the NDA Special Access Keys work fine; the options dialog is available, too.
Some Final Words...
Deskplay is dedicated to Brian C. Bening. Brian wrote the very best MOD player for the GS in 1993, the ╥year of GS MOD players╙. Back then, the Shellplay documentation mentioned a possible full featured music program that might appear in the future and a desktop version of Shellplay. Unfortunately, those two programs never came out. And while there are some NDA MOD players available these days, they are all, and perhaps this is not only our opinion, very poorly done. This (among other reasons) is mainly why we did Deskplay, and we hope you enjoy the result.
Have fun with it!
(╥Not bad for our first ╘real╒ desktop program, eh?!╙)
