CD ROM Paradise Collection 4/CD ROM Paradise Collection 4 1995 Nov.iso/music/synth100.zip/README

Text File | 1994-10-27 | 6KB | 102 lines

If you use PKUNZIP, be sure to use the -d option to restore the directory
structure of mcc Synthesizer. If you forget to do it, mcc Synthesizer will
not work properly. In particular, it won't be able to load any file.

Note to the users with a 101 keys keyboard: the drum number 3 and the note
corresponding to the missing key is not available.

To run mcc Synthesizer just type SYNTH from the directory where it's
located. The default output device will be a Sound Blaster card. To find
it, mcc Synthesizer will search the environment variable BLASTER and if
it's not defined, mcc Synthesizer will try to autodetect the card by
scanning the addresses 220h, 240h, 260h and 280h and the interrupts 7, 5,
10 and 2, in the given order. The DMA channel must be 1, if it's not 1,
you must define the BLASTER variable as Aaddress, Iinterrupt, Ddmachannel.
If there's no Sound Blaster, the output will be the PC speaker.

Alternatively you can tell mcc Synthesizer what's the output by the command
line:
synth 1         - the output is a DAC on LPT1
synth 2         - the output is a DAC on LPT2
synth b         - the output is Sound Blaster
synth s         - the output is PC speaker

mcc Synthesizer uses additive synthesis (inverse FFT) to obtain the waves it
will reproduce. It outputs only sampled data and doesn't use any FM synthesis
capability of the sound card.

If you want to put synth.exe in your path, its subdirectories must be located
in the same subdirectory, where synth.exe is located. Alternatively you can
set an environment variable SNTDIR that points to the subdirectory where all
the mcc Synthesizer subdirectories reside. The BANKS subdirectory is
necessary, because synth.exe will search there the default files set_1.snt,
drums.snt and rhythms1.snt.

There's a bug that I don't know how to fix: using Sound Blaster as the output
device, every 65536 / Sampling frequency seconds, you'll here a click. If
I'll get some money from this program, I'll get the Sound Blaster development
kit and fix the bug. I'll probably drive a Sound Blaster 16, too. For now,
the maximum that mcc Synthesizer can drive is a Sound Blaster 2.0 (maximum
sampling frequency for playing, what mcc Synthesizer actually does, is 45000
kHz). The output is always mono.

mcc Synthesizer requires a 386 processor or better. It uses 32 bit
instructions. The processor must be quite fast. If you here a clicking
sound, try to lower the sampling frequency. There are no problems
with the Sound Blaster (my 486/33 Mhz works perfectly with a 45000 kHz
sampling frequency). If you use the PC speaker or a DAC on LPT1 or LPT2,
make the processor work in real mode so that it can respond faster to the
interrupts. To do so, don't have EMM386, QEMM386, 386MAX or any other memory
manager installed. mcc Synthesizer doesn't test your CPU power, so, if you
haven't a fast CPU, you can lower the sampling frequency, but if your computer
is slow and you don't have a Sound Blaster card, your computer will crash.
mcc Synthesizer uses approximately 565 kbytes of conventional memory. It
does not use extended, nor expanded memory. If you disinstall EMM386 and
the memory isn't enough, try to disinstall SMARTDRV and/or other TSRs.

mcc Synthesizer doesn't work under OS/2, because it uses the DMA auto-
initialize mode and there's a bug in OS/2 virtual DMA driver. Other programs
don't use this mode, but I use it, because it's the only way I know to have
the click every 65536 / Sampling frequency seconds and not 30 or more times
a second. I will fix it when I'll get the development kit, as I said before,
so a future version of mcc Synthesizer will probably work under OS/2 (it's the
best operating system for PC-s). Note that no DOS program that uses the PC
speaker or a LPT port as the output device for reproducing digitized sounds,
can work as you expect under OS/2, because OS/2 doesn't allow a DOS program to
monopolize the timer that generates the interrupts (required to obtain a
constant sampling rate).

There is a utility for converting .WAV files to .SNT files in this release,
but it's really far from being complete; it will be enhanced in future.
It can handle 8 and 16 bit, mono and stereo .WAV files. It accepts any
sampling rate, but it doesn't make any resampling. The saved .SNT file
contains a single sampled drum module (without spectrum, so it can't be
edited). The ADSR envelope must be then corrected with mcc Synthesizer.

This package is distributed as shareware. No modifications may be done to
any file of the package. It can be freely distributed, but no money may be
asked for its distribution without a written acknowledgement of the author.
The registered version may  not be distributed. There is no warranty of any
kind for this product. This package is protected by copyright. If you like it
and you use it not for evaluation purposes only, you are asked to register it
sending a check of 30 $ to the author:

Marko Vitez
via dell'Erica 8
34134 Trieste
Italy

The unregistered copy has the save command disabled. Registering, you will
receive a code that will enable the save command.

For more information, questions and suggestions, my e-mail address is

[e-mail] or
[e-mail]

Thanks to Jeff Bird, David Welch and Cristopher M. Box for Sound Blaster
programming information and to Alessio Kozman for his beta testing.

Thank you for using mcc Synthesizer.