Suzy B Software 2/Suzy B Software CD-ROM 2 (1994).iso/extras/falcon/ssam108/supersam.doc

Text File | 1995-04-27 | 68KB | 1,672 lines

*********************************************************************
**                                                                 **
**              S    U    P    E    R    S    A    M               **
**                                                                 **
*********************************************************************
**                 The Superb Sample Editor v1.08                  **
*********************************************************************
**        A Terrosaur Systems Production for the Falcon030         **
**              (C) Copyright 1994 by Daniel Hastings              **
*********************************************************************

SuperSam is Shareware!
To enable the program's full functionality you must send the
registration fee to the author.

The files SUPERSAM.PRG,
          SUPERSAM.RSC,
          SUPERSAM.DOC,
          HISTORY.DOC and
          REG_FORM.DOC
may be freely distributed on the following conditions:

1) No alterations are made to the files.

2) The files are kept together.

The files may be coverdisk mounted by magazines providing the
author is notified in writing at least 1 month before the magazine
hits the shops.

Disclaimer:
The Author takes no responsibility whatsoever for any harm, damage
or inconvenience caused by the use or misuse of this software
package. This software is intended to run on an ATARI FALCON030
computer under TOS. The author takes no responsibility for its
success or failure on other machines or under other operating
systems.

*********************************************************************
IMPORTANT NOTE:
This version of SuperSam cannot load configuration files created
by earlier versions. If you are upgrading you MUST delete the
SUPERSAM.INF file created by your older version!
*********************************************************************

Contents:

        1.  Introduction
          1.1  What is SuperSam?
          1.2  Features of SuperSam
          1.3  Shareware : Version limitations
          1.4  Shareware : Registering

        2.  Quick Start
          2.1  General Use
          2.2  The File Menu
          2.3  The Options Menu
          2.4  The Help Menu
          2.5  The Sound Buttons
          2.6  The Block Buttons
          2.7  The Clipboard Buttons
          2.8  The Misc. Buttons
          2.9  The Convert Buttons
          2.10 The Playback buttons
          2.11 D2D Operation

        3.  The Controls In Depth
          3.1  General Use
          3.2  The File Menu
          3.3  The Options Menu
          3.4  The Help Menu
          3.5  The Sound Buttons
          3.6  The Block Buttons
          3.7  The Clipboard Buttons
          3.8  The Misc. Buttons
          3.9  The Convert Buttons
          3.10 The Playback buttons
          3.11 Sampling Sounds
          3.12 D2D Operation

        4.  Editing Techniques
          4.1 Sound Effects
          4.2 Ripping Samples
          4.3 Converting Other Formats
          4.4 Correcting Bad Samples
          4.5 Improving Mono Samples

        5.  Program Notes
          5.1  Why was SuperSam written?
          5.2  Compatibility
          5.3  Credits
          5.4  Contact addresses

1. Introduction *****************************************************

1.1  What is SuperSam?
----------------------

SuperSam is a sound sample editor for the Falcon030.
A sound sample is a digitally stored sound. Hence with SuperSam
you can digitally store sounds on disk, and edit them in a variety
of ways including reversing them to play them backwards, cutting
and pasting, combining multiple sounds and many more functions.
SuperSam eventually aims to be able to do anything you could
possibly wish to do to a sound sample.

1.2  Features
--------------

SuperSam has many features including:

  *  Handles 10 sample file formats
  *  Handles 8 bit mono, 8 bit stereo, 16 bit mono
     and 16 bit stereo samples
  *  Almost all operations can be performed direct to disk
  *  Clipboard cut, copy, load, paste, replace, overlay
  *  Ability to import/export from the GEM clipboard
  *  Ability to sign and unsign samples
  *  Ability to fade in/ fade out samples
  *  Ability to boost volume by 25% or to the max possible
  *  Ability to reduce volume by 25% or to zero
  *  Ability to zoom in for finer editing
  *  Flexible deleting
  *  Ability to swap the channels on a stereo sample
  *  Ability to pan the stereo image left to right or vice versa
  *  Ability to edit only the left or right stereo channel
  *  Ability to shift sample playback frequency
  *  Ability to create samples from the MIC input either to RAM or
     direct to disk
  *  Supports all Falcon playback frequencies
  *  Customisable
  *  Can be installed as an application to play samples when they
     are double clicked
  *  Will play or load a sample dropped on its desktop icon
  *  Online HELP system
  *  Batch conversion between all file formats
  *  Jukebox mode to play all samples in a folder
  *  Fully GEM legal programming
  *  MultiTOS compatible
  *  Supports virtual and alternative RAM
  *  Dynamic Memory Allocation

1.2  Shareware : Version Limitations
--------------------------------------

SuperSam is shareware. This means that if you intend to keep the
software you should pay the registration fee. As an extra
incentive to register, this program has some limitations which can
only be removed by registering.

The limitations are these:

In RAM editing mode:
     - Save, Save As and Block Save are disabled.
     - Export Clipboard is disabled.
     - Switch to D2D is disabled.

In D2D editing mode:
     - sample size is restricted to 8000000 bytes.

When you register you will receive a .KEY file which will remove
these limitations and register the program to you. It will also
disable the shareware reminder at the beginning of the program.

1.3 Shareware : Registering
-----------------------------

To register the program, fill in the form contained in the file
REG_FORM.DOC and send it with the registration fee to the address
below. The registration fee is currently 15 pounds sterling, or
equivalent in other countries - please allow for bank conversion
charges.
Please make cheques payable to Mr D. L. Hastings. Please enclose
an SAE, or International Reply Coupon, and a disk with your
registration fee - this will vastly speed up the registration
process. Alternatively, if you have an Internet email account, or
a BBS account in TurboNet, AtariNet, FidoNet or NeST then enclose
your network address and your KEY will be sent to you through the
network. My contact addresses in these networks are below.

Note to foreign users:
I regret that I cannot accept cheques made out in a foreign
currency, nor can I accept credit card numbers. I can accept
Eurocheques, travellers cheques or bank drafts made out in
sterling or of course cash sent through the post, although this
last may be risky. International Monetary Orders are also
acceptable providing they are made out in pounds sterling, but
there is a minimum value of 20 pounds for an IMO.
Proof of posting will not be accepted as proof of receipt. I hope
to be able to set up agreements with foreign user groups or public
domain libraries to handle foreign registrations, so it may be
worth your while to contact me first, before sending any money.

Note to USA users:
There is now a registration agent for SuperSam in the US. The
registration fee for the USA is $25.00 and should be sent to:

Michael Fung
325 N Neville St, #2
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
USA

You can email Michael at [e-mail] or telephone him on
[phone]. He can accept personal cheques from the US, so it
should be much easier for US residents to register with him.

When you register you will receive the following:
 - a KEY file to unlock the program limitations
 - the latest version of the program if it is later than the
   one you have.
 - Notification by post or email of new versions.

Send your form and fee to the address at the end of this document.

Network contact addresses:
InterNet: [e-mail]
TurboNet: 100:1011/0.6
FidoNet : 2:440/108.6
AtariNet: 51:502/100.6
NeST    : 90:102/140.6

Please use the InterNet address if possible, a fast response is
much more likely from this address.
I strongly recommend that you contact me via the InterNet address
if possible before registering.

2.  Quick Start  **************************************************

This section is designed for those who already know about sound
samples and editing them, and is intended simply to tell the user
the function of each control. If you are a complete novice, skip
to the in depth instructions in section 3.

2.1  General Use
------------------

You can start SuperSam in 3 ways.

1) Double click on SUPERSAM.PRG.
The program will load, display the tools window and it's menu bar.

2) Drop a sample file onto the SUPERSAM.PRG icon.
The program will load, play the sample and quit. If you hold the
shift key down during loading, the program will load, load the
sample into the edit buffer and then go into edit mode.

3) Install SUPERSAM.PRG as an application for a sample file type,
then double click on a sample file.
As for (2), the program will load and play the sample, or load it
into the edit buffer, depending on whether the shift key is
pressed during loading.

Once the program is running, you have a menu bar and a tools
window, the functions of with are detailed below. If a sample is
loaded then the sample display window will also be open.

The Sample Window
------------------

Closing the sample window clears the sample from memory.
Clicking in the window with the left mouse button sets mark 1, and
clicking in the window with the right button sets mark 2.
The scroll bar at the right hand side of the window, is the sample
shifter, it shifts the sample data relative to the green zero
position. The up arrow shifts it up, the down arrow shifts it
down. The slider determines the size of the shift, if it is at the
top then the minimum shift is made, if it is at the bottom the
maximum shift is made.
The Sample window name is the file name of the current sample, and
the name that is used by the save function.
The information line shows the current file format and the playing
time of the sample and the editing mode.


The Tools Window
-----------------

The editing tools are described below. Closing the tools window
exits the program. Most of the tools are inactive if no sample has
been loaded.
The information line shows the largest block of free memory and
the name of the person to whom the program is registered.
The display below this shows the position of mark 1, the size of
the edit buffer and the position of mark 2. The button marked <--
moves mark 1 to the beginning of the display, the button marked
--> moves mark 2 to the end of the display.

The Keyboard
--------------

A lot of functions have keyboard shortcuts, these are given with
the functions below. In addition are three others:
ESC: Force all windows to redraw.
CLR/HOME: Set mark 1 to the beginning of the sample and mark 2 to
the end.
HELP: summon the online help system.

2.2 The File Menu
-------------------

This menu contains program functions relating to files:

Open:
Load a sample file from disk into memory. This will clear any
sample already in memory. SuperSam can load 10 sample formats:

 - AVR (Audio Visual Research). This is the preferred sample
format on Atari systems. It saves all the data about the sample
including the mark positions. File extension is .AVR.

 - RAW (raw sample data). This format contains raw data only, with
no playback information. File extension can be .RAW, .SAM, .SND or
.SPL among others.

 - AU (Sun/NeXT audio format). The sample format used by Sun and
NeXT computers. SuperSam cannot load all samples of this type,
only those stored in 8 bit or 16 linear form. It cannot load mu-
law samples. File extensions are .AU and .SND.

 - WAV (Microsoft RIFF-WAVE). The preferred sample format of
Windows users on the PC. This format stores all information except
for mark positions. File extension is .WAV.

 - VOC (Creative Voice). Another PC format, usually used by those
who prefer MS-DOS to Windows. This is a completely brain-dead
format which cannot handle stereo or 16 bit samples, and stores
very little playback data. It cannot even store the playback
frequency exactly. File extension is .VOC.

 - DVS. This format is used by Winrec to store D2D recordings. It
stores all information except the mark positions.

 - IFF FORM-8SVX (Amiga interchange file format). This is a format
popular on the Commodore Amiga, and also used by many ported sound
tracker programs. It stores all sample information. Please note
that at this time SuperSam cannot store stereo or 16 bit samples
in this format.

 - IFF FORM-8SSP (Protracker interchange file format). This is a
cut down version of FORM-8SVX. It stores only the mark positions
and sample data. This format does not support stereo or 16 bit
samples.

 - IFF FORM-AIFF (Apple Interchange File Format). This is a
comprehensive file format used by many professional music systems
including Cubase Audio. It stores all playback information.

 - IFF FORM-AIFC (Apple Interchange File Format revision C). This
is a varient of the above format. It also stores all playback
information.

At this time SuperSam does not support compressed formats - these
will trigger an error message.

SuperSam will attempt to automatically determine the file type, if
it cannot then it assumes it is raw data. The keyboard shortcut
for open is [control]+[O].

Save:
This function saves the current sample to disk, using the filename
as displayed at the top of the sample window, in the current
format. Keyboard shortcut is [control]+[S].

Save As:
This function allows you to rename a sample when you save it.
Keyboard shortcut is [control]+[shift]+[S].

Import Block:
This function imports sample data from the GEM clipboard directory
into the program clipboard buffer. Keyboard shortcut is
[control]+[I].

Export Block:
This function exports sample data from the program clipboard
buffer to the GEM clipboard directory. Keyboard shortcut is
[control]+[E].

File Format:
Select current file format. This option determines the format used
by all save and export options. The current format is displayed in
the information line of the sample window. Keyboard shortcut is
[control]+[F].

Convert:
Batch conversion system. Select the source path and file mask and
the destination path and the destination file format, then hit
okay to start conversion. Press Escape to abort conversion after
the current file. Keyboard shortcut is [control]+[shift]+[C].

Jukebox:
Play all samples in a directory. Select the path and file mask
then hit okay to start playing. Press a key to skip to the next
sample, or Escape to stop playing. Keyboard Shortcut is
[control]+[J].

Save Setup:
Save the program set up to disk. This creates a file called
supersam.inf which is read in at start up. This saves the default
file format, window positions, dialog colours and file paths.

Quit:
Exit the program. Keyboard shortcut is [control]+[Q].

2.3  The Options Menu
-----------------------

This menu holds playback and configuration options.

8 Bit Sound: Playback sample as 8 bit data.
16 Bit Sound: Playback sample as 16 bit data.
[control]+[shift]+[R] toggles between 8 and 16 bit playback.

Mono Sound: Playback sample as mono data.
Stereo Sound: Playback sample as stereo data. Note that the
hardware prevents 16 bit mono playback. [control]+[P] toggles
between mono and stereo playback.

Speed:
Triggers a sub-menu from which you can select the playback
frequency.

Preferences:
Triggers a dialog box allowing you to customise the program. From
here you can choose whether to allow the sample window to be
topped, whether to use the GEM clipboard directory or an
alternative path and the size of the D2D editing buffer.

Alerts:
Toggles the confirmation alert boxes on and off. These boxes
appear when the program thinks you are trying to do something
dangerous. Keyboard shortcut is [control]+[A].

Dialog Colour:
Allows you to select the background colour and fill style of the
dialog boxes used in the program. Keyboard shortcut is
[control]+[C].

2.4  The Help Menu
--------------------

This is a link to the online help system. Selecting the subject
you want help on brings up the appropriate help page.

2.5  The Sound Buttons
------------------------

Play Once:
Play the marked block through once. Keyboard shortcut is [SPACE].

Stop:
Stop playing. Keyboard shortcut is [BACKSPACE].

Play Loop:
Play the sample from the beginning and then play the marked block
in a continuous loop. (Not implemented for D2D)

Compress:
Half the sample size by stripping every other piece of data.

Interpolate:
Double the sample size by calculating values between each data
item.

2.6 The Block Buttons
-----------------------

These buttons all act only on the marked block.

Zoom:
Zoom in the marked block to fill the window.

Unzoom:
Zoom out to display the whole sample.

Keep:
Keep the marked block, but delete everything else.

Delete:
Delete the marked block but keep everything else.

Reverse:
Reverse the sample data.

Zero:
Zero the sample data.

Sign:
If the data is unsigned, sign it. If the data is signed, unsign
it.

Save:
Save the block to disk. (Not implemented for D2D)

Fade In:
Fade the sound in from zero volume to maximum volume.

Fade Out:
Fade the sound out from maximum to zero volume.

Vol Up:
Boost the volume by 25%.

Vol Down:
Reduce the volume by 25%.

Vol Max:
Boost volume to the maximum possible without causing clipping.

Exchange: (Stereo samples only)
Swap the left and right channels over.

Pan L->R: (Stereo samples only)
Pan the stereo image from the left channel to the right channel.

Pan R->L: (Stereo samples only)
Pan the stereo image from the right channel to the left channel.

2.7 The Clipboard Buttons
---------------------------

These functions control the program clipboard buffer.

Cut:
Copy the marked block into the clipboard and then delete it from
the sample.

Copy:
Copy the marked block into the clipboard.

Load:
Load a sample into the clipboard. Note - no check is made that the
sample is the same type as that in the main buffer. (Not
implemented for D2D)

Paste:
Insert data from the clipboard into the sample at mark 1.

Replace:
Replace the marked block with data from the clipboard.

Overlay:
Combine the marked block with data from the clipboard. This is
used to mix two sounds together, although some quality is lost.

Swap:
Swap the buffers. The main sample buffer becomes the clipboard
buffer, the clipboard buffer becomes the main sample buffer. This
allows you to edit the data in the clipboard. (Not implemented for
D2D)

Clear:
Clear the clipboard buffer and free the memory it used. (Not
implemented for D2D)

2.8  The Misc. Buttons
------------------------

Buttons that didn't seem to fit anywhere else...

Sample:
Switch to sampling mode. The control panel will change to the
sampling controls. Connect your sound source to the MIC socket.
Click DMA Oscilloscope to toggle the oscilloscope on or off, use
the arrowed buttons to control gain and attenuation. Click RAM to
to start recording to memory or D2D to select a file to record to.
Press any mouse button to stop recording.

Resample:
Change the playback frequency of a file. Select the source and
destination frequencies. Note - if OTHER is selected you should
type the frequency in. NOTE - you must type leading zeros, i.e.
06969 rather than 6969.

LEFT/RIGHT/BOTH:  (stereo samples only)
This button toggle between editing the left channel only, the
right channel only and both channels together. It affects all
editing operations EXCEPT sign, save and resample, and of course
the convert and playback controls.

D2D: (RAM editing only)
Switch to D2D editing mode. This basically saves the sample and
then closes it and reopens it in D2D mode.

2.9  The Convert Buttons
--------------------------

Mono <-> Stereo:
If mode is mono, the sample is converted to stereo and vice versa.

8 Bit <-> 16 Bit:
If mode is 8 bit, the sample is converted to 16 Bit and vice
versa.

2.10  The Playback Buttons
----------------------------

These control the sample playback and are equivalent to the
controls in the Options menu.

Mono/Stereo:
Toggle between mono and stereo playback. (Keyboard shortcut is
[control]+[P])

8 Bit/16 Bit:
Toggle between 8 bit and 16 bit playback. (Keyboard Shortcut is
[alternate]+[R])

xxxxx Hz: (where xxxxx is a number)
Select the sample playback frequency. (Keyboard shortcut is
[control]+[R])

Jukebox Mode:
Activates the jukebox mode, see Jukebox under the File menu.

2.11 D2D Operation
--------------------

Most editing functions can now be carried out direct to disk,
removing any limitations on sample size. If a sample is too big to
fit in RAM, the program will automatically switch to D2D mode -
indicated by some text in the sample window. Alternatively you can
switch from RAM editing to D2D editing by clicking on the D2D
button. The display in D2D mode takes a few seconds to generate as
it must be done from the file.

Beware that in D2D mode all operations are carried out immediately
on the file - so if you think you might make a mistake WORK ON A
COPY of the file.

Direct to disk editing works as follows:
1) A new file is created with the extension .D2D
2) The original file is loaded block by block into memory, edited
and then saved to the new file.
3) The original file is deleted and the .D2D renamed to that of
the original file.

At any time an edit can be aborted by pressing a key or clicking
the mouse. In this case the new .D2D file is deleted and the
original left unchanged.

This system has several good points:
1) In the event of a system crash the original file is untouched.
2) You can abort it at any time without corrupting the file.
3) The file can be dynamically resized.
It also has a few bad points:
1) It can be slow on big samples.
2) It requires at least as much free space as the size of the
original file.

When the system switches to D2D mode a block of memory is
allocated for use as a buffer. This is used for playing, recording
and editing the sample. By default this is 1Mb and this is
adequate for most of the time. If you have 16Mb of RAM then you
can use the Preferences dialog to increase the buffer size, hence
making the processing more efficient.

Finally clipboard operations in D2D mode work differently. Blocks
cut or copied to the clipboard are saved in the GEM clipboard
directory rather than held in RAM. You can tell SuperSam to use a
different directory using the Preferences dialog. Deselect Use GEM
Clipboard and type the new path into the Alternative path box.

3  The Controls In Depth ******************************************

This section is designed to help the beginner learn how to use the
editing functions to edit the sound.

3.1  General Use
------------------

The program will normally be started by double clicking on the
SUPERSAM.PRG icon on the desktop. The program will now load. When
loading has been completed, the SuperSam menu bar will appear at
the top of the screen and a window (called the tools window) will
open containing a panel of control buttons.

The Information line of the tools window shows the largest block
of memory available to the program, and some text which is either
Please Register if the program is unregistered, or else the user's
name. Beneath this are 5 white boxes. The first shows the position
of the start of block marker, mark 1, and the last shows the
position of the end of block marker, mark 2. The number is the
offset of the marker from the beginning of the sample, in bytes.
The middle box shows the size of the current edit buffer. All of
these three will show 00000000 at the moment as nothing has been
loaded.
The remaining two boxes are buttons marked <-- and --> . These
move the first marker to the beginning of the buffer and the
second marker to the end of the display respectively.
Under these are the sample editing controls, divided into sound,
block, clipboard, misc, convert and playback sections.

Buttons in the tools window are activated by clicking on them with
either the left or right mouse buttons.

When a sample is loaded, see below for how to do this, a second
window opens, called the display window. It shows a graphic
representation of the sound wave.
The information line here shows the current sample file format
(see below), the length of the sound in seconds and the editing
mode - either RAM for editing in memory as in v1.01 or D2D for
editing direct to disk.
Clicking in this window sets the block markers. The left mouse
button sets mark 1 and the right button sets mark 2.

On the right hand edge of the window are two arrow buttons and a
slider. Together these make up the sample shifter. Display across
the window is a green line, called the zero line. The sample data
should be centered on this line. If it isn't then you can use the
sample shifter to center it - the up arrow moves the data up and
the down arrow moves the data down. The slider controls how big a
step is used - at the very top is a very small step and at the
very bottom is a very big step.

There are keyboard shortcuts for most menu options, which are
listed next to the entry in the menu. ^ indicates the Control key
and the up arrow indicates the shift key. In addition to
these are the following keyboard controls:

ESC: Force both windows to redraw. If the windows become corrupted
by another program, or by a redraw failure under TOS 4.01, then
press ESC to make them redraw.

CLR/HOME: This button zooms out the display to show the entire
sample and sets the markers to the beginning and end. This is
frequently used before saving to prevent the markers being saved
in the wrong places.

HELP: Pressing HELP is equivalent to selecting General from the
HELP menu (see below).

3.2  The File Menu
--------------------

This menu holds all of the functions to do with files. Sample data
is held in various files.

Open:
This allows you to load a sound sample into the edit buffer so
that you can play and edit it. Click Open or press control+O. The
familiar fileselector appears, use it to select the sample you
wish to load. The program will now attempt to determine the type
of the sample and load it into memory. SuperSam currently
recognises 10 different sample file formats. These are:

1) Audio Visual Research.
This is the best format to use on Atari computers because it
stores everything about the sample as well as the sample itself.
It is by far the best supported sample format on the Atari.
If you do not intend to use your samples on another system, like a
PC or something, then stick with AVR. It's tried and tested.
Files in this format have the extension .AVR, e.g. FRED.AVR

2) Sun/NeXT Audio Format.
This is a file format used by the Sun and NeXT series of
computers. Whilst it is a comprehensive format in most respects,
one of its major drawbacks is that it does not store the marker
positions, so if you save a sound in this format you will lose
the mark positions when you reload it.
Another drawback is that most samples in this format are in what's
called a mu-law format. Your Falcon cannot play these files and
SuperSam will complain if you try and load them. However SuperSam
will load files containing 8 or 16 bit linear data.
Files in this format have the extension .AU or .SND.

3) Amiga Interchange File Format. (IFF FORM-8SVX)
This sample format is very popular on Amiga computers. It stores
all the sample information, but you cannot load or save either
stereo or 16 bit samples in this format. The file extension for
this format is .IFF.

4) Protracker IFF format. (IFF FORM-8SSP)
This is a cut down version of the FORM-8SVX format used by (among
other things) Protracker ST. This version does not save the sample
frequency so SuperSam will probably not get the correct playback
frequency with files in this format - it will take a guess at
12292 Hz as this is a very common frequency.
File extension is .SPL for these files.

5) Microsoft RIFF-WAVE
This format was designed by Microsoft for use with Windows on the
PC. It stores all sample information except for the mark
positions.
File extension is .WAV.

6) Creative Voice
This is another common PC sample format. It is very cumbersome and
awkward to use and does not store mark positions. It cannot handle
16 bit or Stereo samples and does not store the sample rate
exactly. Basically don't use it unless you have to.
File extension is .VOC.

7) Winrec DVS
This is the format used by the D2D recorder Winrec. It is as
comprehensive as AVR except that it does not support 16 bit mono
samples and does not store mark positions.
File extension is .DVS.

8) Apple interchange file format (IFF FORM-AIFF)
This is a format popular with professional music systems. It was
originally designed for use on the Apple Mac computers, but is now
becoming more widespread - amongst other things Cubase Audio uses
this format. It stores all information except mark positions.
File extension is .AIF.

9) Apple interchange file format 'C' (IFF FORM-AIFC)
This is a later version of the AIFF format. It is bascially the
same but just different enough to be incompatible.
File extension is .AFC.

10) Raw data files
These are sample files containing only the sample data and no
playing information. If SuperSam cannot identify a sample format
then it will assume it contains raw data only.
Because these files don't have playback data you will have to set
up the 8 bit/16 bit, mono/stereo and playback rate manually.
File extensions include .RAW, .SAM, .SND, .SPL.

When the file loads if all goes well the display window will open
ready for you to start editing. There are also two warnings that
may appear. The first says:
"Playback rate does not match available hardware frequencies" and
then gives a frequency. This means that the sample was made at a
frequency which the Falcon cannot play. SuperSam will then use the
nearest frequency which is possible. This means the sample may
sound too fast or too slow when you play it back. See Resample,
below, to see how to correct this.
The second says "Invalid or unsupported file type." This means the
sample is in a format that SuperSam cannot load. SuperSam
currently cannot load compressed data or mu-law format samples -
these will give this error.

Save:
This selection saves the current edit buffer to disk using the
current filename (as displayed at the top of the display window) in
the current file format (as displayed in the display window
information line). If a file with the same name is present on the
disk already, then it will be overwritten.

Save As:
This option allows you to save the edit buffer to disk under a new
name. Use the fileselector to enter the new filename then click
okay to proceed or cancel to abort the operation.

Import Block:
This function looks in the GEM Clipboard directory (usually
c:\clipbrd\ for sample data in the current format. If it finds
some then it loads it into the clipboard buffer. (See Clipboard
buttons, below).

Export Block:
This function does the reverse of above - it looks in the program
clipboard and if it finds data there it saves it into the GEM
clipboard directory in the current file format.
This function combined with the preceding one allow you to cut
and paste between different programs, for example between SAM and
SuperSam. (No relation...)

File Format:
This allows you to change the current file format. It calls a
dialog from which you click on the format you want to save things
in. I firmly recommend that you stick with AVR format unless you
are importing or exporting files from another computer system.
AVR is a simple, straight-forward format which stores all the data
you need and is very reliable.

Convert:
This function allows you to convert a whole batch of samples from
one format to another. Suppose you had a whole batch of .WAV
samples you want to use in a program that will only load .AVR
files. Select Convert... and a dialog appears. The source path is
the location of the files you wish to convert, the dest. path is
where you want the converted files saved and dest. format is the
format you want them converted to. Suppose your WAV files are in
F:\WAVFILES\ and you want them converted to AVR and stored in
F:\AVRFILES\. Click on Source path. Use the fileselector to change
directories to F:\WAVFILES\ and then type *.WAV into the filename
slot to select all WAV files in the directory. Click Okay.
Now click on Dest. Path. Use the fileselector to change the
directory to F:\AVRFILES\. You do not need to add a filename.
Click OKAY. Now click on Dest. Format. Select AVR from the dialog.
Now click on OKAY and the program will convert the files.
Note that in the Source Path you can use any file mask, *.WAV,
*.*, SOUND??.* and so on to select files, or select a file to just
convert one file. You can press Escape during the conversion to
stop converting after the current file.

Jukebox:
The jukebox plays all the sound samples in a directory. Its use is
very similar to convert, except that you only have to set the
source path and then hit OKAY. Again, any file mask can be used,
including ? and * wildcards. Pressing any key skips to the next
sample, pressing Escape aborts playing altogether.

Save Setup:
This selection saves the current program configuration into a file
called SUPERSAM.INF. This file is read when the program is run and
used to set the defaults. Information saved includes the position
and size of the windows, the dialog colour and fill, the default
file load path, a default file save path for each file type and
the current file format.

Quit:
Exit the program. Don't click it unless you really want to! It
won't ask you to confirm.


3.3  The Options Menu
-----------------------

This menu contains entries to set up the sound playback system and
the program configuration.

8 Bit Sound and 16 Bit Sound:
These options determine whether the data in the edit buffer is
played as 8 bit data or 16 bit data. The currently active option
is ticked. 16 bit data generally has higher quality than 8 bit
data. Playing a sample in the wrong mode will result in a very
hissy or corrupted sample.

Mono Sound and Stereo Sound:
These options determine whether the edit buffer data is
interpreted as stereo data or mono data. The currently active
option is ticked. Playing a mono sample in stereo mode results in
the sound seeming twice as fast as it should be. Conversely play a
stereo sample in mono mode makes it sound twice as slow as it
should be.

Speed:
This option triggers a sub-menu containing all the valid sample
frequencies. Just select one of them to change the playback rate.
If your sample sounds too slow, try using a higher frequency. If
your sound sounds too fast, try using a lower frequency. All the
frequencies are given in Hertz. 1 Hz is 1 cycle per second.

Preferences:
This calls a dialog allowing you to configure the program the way
you want it. Options are:

Top Sample Window - if on then the sample window if topped if you
click in it just like any other window. If off then the sample
window cannot be topped - any click in it will set marks instead.

Use GEM Clipboard - if on then Import/Export and D2D clipboard
operations will use the GEM clipboard directory - usually
C:\CLIPBRD or C:\SCRAP. If off, then SuperSam will use the path
typed into the Alternative Path box.

The final panel is to select the size of the D2D edit buffer. This
is a block of memory used by SuperSam to playback, edit and record
blocks of data from disk. It defaults to 1Mb, but you can increase
this if you have more memory. Increasing the size speeds up the
D2D processing.

Alerts:
Whenever SuperSam thinks what you are trying to do could
permanently corrupt your sample data it will pop up an Alert box
asking you to confirm what you are trying to do. Some people find
these annoying, so this option allows you to turn them on and off.
If they are on then the option will be ticked.

Dialog Colour:
If you don't like the colour of the dialogs then select this
option to change it. Select the colour and fill style you prefer
from the dialog then select OKAY to install it.

3.4 The Help Menu
-------------------

This menu is part of the online help system. Simply choose the
subject you want help with and the appropriate help page will
appear. The HELP key on the keyboard is equivalent to selecting
General from this menu. You can go from the selected page to the
next page by click NEXT or by pressing RETURN. Go back a page by
clicking PREVIOUS and exit the help system by clicking CANCEL or
pressing RETURN on the last page.

3.5 The Sound Buttons
-----------------------

This section of the edit window is used for various sound
functions.

Play Once:
This button simply plays the marked block through once. (see the
Block section below for how to mark a block). Pressing SPACE on
the keyboard also triggers this function.

Stop:
This button simply stops the sound system if it is currently
playing. Pressing BACKSPACE on the keyboard is equivalent to
clicking on STOP.

Play Loop:
This button also plays the sample, but in a slightly different
way. First it plays from the beginning of the sample up to mark 1.
Then it plays the marked block in a continuous loop. To stop
playing, click STOP or press BACKSPACE.

Compress:
This function is designed to make big samples smaller. It does
this by deleting every other piece of data in the edit buffer.
This reduces the sample to half its former size. You will also
need to half the playback frequency or the sample will sound twice
as fast. Although you get a big reduction in sample size by using
Compress, you also lose sound quality, so only use it if you have
to.

Interpolate:
This function does the opposite of above. It inserts extra data
between each piece of data in the edit buffer. This doubles the
sample size but does increase the sound quality slightly. You will
have to double the sample playback frequency to maintain the same
apparent speed. Of course you will not get the same quality as you
would have got by making the sample at the higher frequency.

3.6 The Block Buttons
-----------------------

All of these buttons act only on the marked block of data in the
edit buffer. To mark a block just click in the display window with
the left button where you want the block to start and the right
button where you want the block to end. The marked block will be
displayed in reverse video - i.e. green on black instead of red on
white.
The only time a marked block is not reversed in the display is if
it fills the entire display window.

Zoom:
Zoom in the display so that the marked block fills the display.

Unzoom:
Zoom out the display so that the whole sample is displayed.

Keep:
This function will delete all the sample data except for the block
you have marked, i.e. it will keep the marked block and throw away
the rest. For example if you have a sample of someone saying "I am
Fred" and you mark "Fred" as a block, after clicking KEEP you will
have only a sample saying "FRED".

Delete:
This function will delete the block you have marked and keep
everything else, i.e. it keeps everything except the marked block.
For example if you have a sample of "I am Fred" and mark "Fred" as
a block, after clicking delete you will have only a sample saying
"I am".

Reverse:
This function reverses the data in the marked block. This allows
you to play things backwards. For example if you reverse a sample
of "I am Fred" you will end up with something sounding roughly
like "dreefh eemmm eeeeeiiii"!

Zero:
This allows you to wipe a section of a sample. Mark the block then
click Zero and the block is reduced to a silent flat line. E.g. if
you have "I am Fred" and block mark "am", after hitting Zero you
get "I       Fred". Zero is usually used to get rid of unwanted
clicks or glitches in a sample.

Sign:
This button signs or unsigns sample data. If you try and play
unsigned data you will hear an incredibly noisy and hissy version
of the sound, to correct it hit Sign.

Save:
This function saves the marked block to disk in the current
format. Use the fileselector to choose the path and enter a
filename. This function cannot be used in D2D mode and is then
greyed out.

Fade In:
This button fades in the sound in the marked block. This means it
starts from zero volume at the beginning of the block and
gradually increasing to maximum volume at the end of the block.

Fade Out:
The opposite of Fade in. It starts at maximum volume at the
beginning of the block and gradually fades it out to zero volume
by the end of the block.

Vol Up:
This is short for volume up. This button increases the volume of
the sound in the marked block by 25%. Be careful of increasing the
volume too far - you will get an effect called clipping which
distorts the sound.

Vol Down:
The opposite of above. This button decreases the volume of the
sound in the marked block by 25%. Note that as you decrease the
volume of the sound you lose information, so if you lower the
volume and then raise it again you lose some sound quality.

Vol Max:
This is a useful button which increases the volume of the marked
block to the maximum possible without clipping occurring. Note
that occasionally a single volume peak will prevent any increase
in volume. If this is the case then you should locate the peak
using zoom, block mark it and then either ZERO or VOL DOWN. You
can now unzoom and VOL MAX the sample.

Exchange: (stereo samples only)
This function swaps the left and right stereo channels on stereo
samples. Everything that was on the left speaker is now on the
right and vice versa. In mono mode this button is greyed out and
is not selectable.

Pan L->R: (stereo samples only)
This performs a fade out on the left channel followed by a fade in
on the right stereo channel. The effect of this is to cause the
sound to slide from the left speaker to the right speaker as you
move through the block. In mono mode this button is greyed out and
is not selectable.

Pan R->L: (stereo samples only)
This is the same as above except that it slides the sound from the
right speaker to the left speaker.

3.7 The Clipboard Buttons
---------------------------

These buttons control SuperSam's clipboard buffer. This buffer is
used to store data so that you can cut bits out of the sound and
stick them in elsewhere.

Cut:
This button copies the marked block into the clipboard buffer and
then deletes the marked block. So if you had our "I am Fred"
sample and marked "am" as a block, after using Cut you would have
"I Fred" in the edit buffer and "am" in the clipboard buffer.

Copy:
This button just copies the marked block into the clipboard
buffer. With the "I am Fred" sample, marking "am" and selecting
Copy leaves you with "I am Fred" still in the edit buffer and "am"
in the clipboard buffer.

Load:
This is the other way to get data into the clipboard buffer. (See
also Import Block, above). This allows you to load a sample
straight into the clipboard buffer ready to mix with the edit
buffer. Note, SuperSam tends to assume you know what you are doing
and does not check that the sample is the same type as the data in
the edit buffer. This function is not available in D2D mode and is
then greyed out.

Paste:
This button allows you to insert the data from the clipboard into
the edit buffer at the position marked by mark 1, the beginning of
the block. For example if you had "I Fred" in the edit buffer and
"am" in the clipboard buffer, positioning mark 1 just before Fred
and clicking Paste would give you "I am Fred" in the edit buffer.
This button is greyed out and not selectable if there is no data
in the clipboard.

Replace:
This button allows you to replace the data in the marked block
with the data in the clipboard. For example if you had "I am Fred"
in the edit buffer and "Fred" in the clipboard, if you marked "am"
as a block and hit Paste you would end up with "I Fred Fred" in
the edit buffer.
This button is greyed out and not selectable if there is no data
in the clipboard.

Overlay:
This is used to mix the sound in the clipboard buffer with that in
the edit buffer. For example if you had "oooooooooooo" in the edit
buffer and "I am Fred" in the clipboard and used Overlay, you
would get a "I am Fred" with "oooooooooooo" in the background in
the edit buffer. Try it and see. It is usually a good idea to use
Vol Max after using Overlay as the program has to first reduce the
sample volumes to prevent clipping.
This button is greyed out and not selectable if there is no data
in the clipboard.

Swap:
This button swaps the data in the edit buffer with the data in the
clipboard buffer. For example if you had "I am Fred" in the edit
buffer and "I'm not Fred" in the clipboard buffer, after using
Swap you would have "I'm not Fred" in the edit buffer and "I am
Fred" in the edit buffer. This allows you to cut data into the
clipboard and then edit it, although you should beware that any
time you use Cut, Copy, Load or Import Block the clipboard
buffer is changed.
This button is greyed out and not selectable if there is no data
in the clipboard. This function is not available in D2D mode and
is then greyed out.

Clear:
This button deletes all the data in the clipboard buffer, thus
freeing the memory it used.
This button is greyed out and not selectable if there is no data
in the clipboard or the program is in D2D mode.

3.8 The Misc. Buttons
------------------------

These are a few buttons which did not have an obvious heading.
They control editing and sampling.

Sample:
This button changes the program mode from editing to sampling,
i.e. recording sound from the MIC port. When you click this button
the tools window changes from the editing tools to the sampling
controls. See below for instructions on using the sampling
controls.

Resample:
This button allows you to change the playback frequency of a
sample without altering its apparent speed. Click the Resample
button and a dialog appears with two sets of radio buttons and a
couple of exit buttons. The top set is used to select the source
frequency -  i.e. the current playback frequency of the sample. If
you select OTHER then you should type the frequency into the Other
Frequency: box. The lower set of radio buttons is used to set the
destination frequency - the frequency you want the sample to play
back at. Again if you select OTHER you should enter the frequency
into the Other Frequency box. Then click on RESAMPLE to change the
frequency or CANCEL to abort.

NOTE - When typing in a frequency that is less than 10000Hz, you
must type leading zeros. Typing 6069 is equivalent to typing
60690, you must type 06069 to get 6069Hz.

This function is very useful for samples imported from other
systems. For example if you load a WAV file produced on a PC then
the chances are you will get a message saying:
"Sample frequency does not match available hardware frequencies.
The frequency is 22050 Hz."
Since the Falcon cannot play samples at 22050 Hz, you have to
resample it to get the right speed. Click Resample. Select Other
in the source frequency box and type in 22050. Select 24585 Hz in
the lower box, then click resample.
You can now play the sample at the correct speed.

Note that there is always a loss in sound quality when resampling,
although generally changing to a higher frequency is less
distorting than going to a lower frequency. Moving to a
destination frequency that is an exact multiple of the source
frequency will not cause quality loss.

Both/Left/Right: (stereo samples only)
This button controls the editing mode for stereo samples. When you
click on it it cycles through Both, Left and Right modes, meaning
edit both channels, the left channel only or the right channel
only. This setting affects all operations except SIGN and SAVE and
of course the Sound Buttons.

D2D:
This button is used to change the editing mode from RAM editing to
D2D editing. This is useful if you need to make the sample much
bigger - for example suppose you have a sample 1024343 bytes long
and you wish to interpolate it. Interpolation doubles the size of
the sample, so if the free memory is less than 1024343 then you
will run out of memory when you click Interpolate. If you click
D2D then the system will switch to D2D mode in which there is no
size limit on samples - so you can now interpolate it.

3.9 The Convert Buttons
-------------------------

MONO <-> STEREO:
This button converts a mono sample into a stereo sample, or a
stereo sample into a mono sample. Which conversion occurs depends
on the current mode, if SuperSam is in mono mode, then it will
convert the sample to stereo and change the mode to stereo. If
SuperSam is in stereo mode it will convert the sample to mono and
switch to Mono mode.

8 Bit <-> 16 Bit:
This button is similar to the previous one except that it converts
between 8 bit and 16 bit samples.


3.10 The Playback Buttons
---------------------------

These buttons duplicate the first 5 functions in the Options menu
and both control and display the current playback mode.

Mono/Stereo:
This button toggles the playback mode between mono and stereo. As
the hardware prevents 16 bit mono playback, it will not allow you
to switch to mono if SuperSam is in 16 bit mode.

8 Bit/16 Bit:
This button toggles the playback between 8 bit and 16 bit modes.
As the hardware prevents 16 bit mono playback, if you change to 16
bit mode, SuperSam will automatically change to Stereo mode.

xxxxx Hz: (where xxxxx is a frequency value)
This button displays the current playback frequency. Clicking on
it calls a popup box from which you can select a new playback
frequency.

Jukebox Mode:
This is equivalent to selecting Jukebox... from the File menu.

3.11 Sampling
---------------

Sampling is converting analogue sound into a digital form stored
inside the computer. SuperSam has not been designed with sampling
as a priority, but it is included for completeness.
To sample a sound, first select the frequency you wish to sample
at. The higher the frequency, the larger the sample but the higher
the quality. Then select the mode you want, 8 bit or 16 bit, mono
or stereo. Normal settings for amateur sampling are 12 or 16 Khz
and 8 bit mono. Then click SAMPLE, in the Misc... buttons section.
The tools window will change to show the sampling controls. Also,
any sound coming into the MIC socket at the rear of the machine
can now be heard through the monitor, headphone socket or internal
speaker.

You should now plug your sound source into the MIC socket at the
rear of the computer. If you are sampling from a Hi-fi or cassette
deck rather than a microphone, you should turn its volume down to
zero before attaching it to prevent damage to the Falcon's input
circuits.

Now turn on the level meter by clicking on DMA Level Meter. The
display shows the volume of the input. Increase the volume of
your sound source until the indicators are on average at the top
of the Normal range, just entering the High range at peak volumes.
Do not increase it so far that the indicators hit the end of the
scale - this means that clipping is occurring and your volume is
too high. If you are using a microphone then you will probably
need to increase the input gain to get a reasonable level. Do this
by clicking on the up arrows at the top of the left and right gain
controls. If you find you are getting feedback from the computer's
sound output then either turn its volume down or increase the left
and right attenuation with the attenuation controls. To turn off
the level meter, just click a mouse button.

Now you are ready to begin recording. If you only need a short
sample, click RAM. The system now starts recording all sound
coming in to the computer in memory, it will continue until it
runs out of memory or you click a mouse button.
If you need a long sample, click D2D. A fileselector will appear
for you to select the file to record to. This file will be saved
in AVR format. Enter a filename and hit okay. An alert will pop up
after the file has been initialised - click Start to begin
recording. Recording will end when you run out of disk space or
you click a mouse button.

Once recording is complete you are automatically returned to the
editing controls.

4. Editing Techniques *********************************************

This section is intended to help the user learn some useful
techniques I have discovered in editing samples.

4.1 Sound Effects
-------------------

1) Echo
Adding an echo is fairly easy to do, using the clipboard overlay
function. Load the sample you want to add an echo to into the edit
buffer. Now block mark a small chunk of it, and copy it into the
clipboard. Click Swap to edit the clipboard data, and then click
Zero, and swap again. You now have a few seconds of silence in the
clipboard. Add this to the beginning of the sample by clicking <--
to move mark 1 to the beginning and then clicking Paste.
Now make sure the marks are at the beginning and end of the sample
and click Copy. Now you have a second copy of the sample in the
clipboard. Hit Swap again to edit it. Block mark a small segment
of the silent bit at the beginning, and hit Delete. If you want
the echo to be quieter than the original, hit Vol Down until you
are satisfied with the volume. Hit Swap again to return to the
main buffer. Now click overlay. This adds the clipboard data to
the edit buffer. Select Vol Max and then play the sample. Voila -
one echo. This can of course be repeated to get multiple echoes.

2) Morphing
Yes morphing is possible with sound too! Morphing with sound
samples is a way of gradually turning one sample into another.
The two sounds you want to morph must be of the same type and
playback frequency, and ideally about the same length.

Load in the first sample. Block mark the second half of the sample
and then select fade out. Now change to AVR format and save the
sample (AVR is used so that the block marks are preserved). Load
in the second sample. Block mark a section at the beginning of the
sample, roughly the same length as the fade out you made at the
end of the first sample. Hit Fade In. Now change to AVR format,
and then hit the BLOCK SAVE button, to save just the marked block.
Call the sample FADEIN.AVR or something similar. Now hit Delete to
remove the fade in from the current sample. Select BLOCK SAVE
again to save the rest of the sample, call it REST.AVR.
Now reload the first sample. The fade out section should still be
marked. Hit Clipboard LOAD and load the file FADEIN.AVR into the
clipboard. Now select Overlay to mix the fade in into the fade out
on the original. Hit Vol Max. Now hit clipboard load and select
REST.AVR. Position mark 1 as close to the end of the sample as you
can, repeatedly zooming in on the sample end will help to do this.
Then select Paste to add the rest of the second sample to the end
of the first.
Now hit Unzoom, and then <-- and --> to reset the marks to the
beginning and end of the new sample. Press Play to hear the
resulting morph.

4.2 Ripping Samples
---------------------

This section is intended to help you to 'rip' samples used in
other programs. Suppose you have a game or demo with some
interesting sound effects which you think might be sound samples.
here's how to find them and strip them out of the program file.

First you must make sure the program is not packed, i.e. all the
data in it is uncompressed. The easiest way to do this is to load
it into the Mega Depacker program, which will decompress it if
possible and allow you to save the uncompressed program.

Now run SuperSam and click Open. Select the program file with the
fileselector and SuperSam will load it as raw data. Change the
playback frequency to about 12 Khz and make sure the mode is 8 bit
mono. Click Play Once. You will hear a variety of buzzing, beeping
and hissing as SuperSam plays data that is not sound data, but you
will be able to hear any sounds that are present. If there doesn't
seem to be any clear samples, change to 16 bit mode and try again.
If you still can't hear any samples then you are out of luck.

Otherwise you should be able to locate the section of the data
which contains the samples. Mark this section and select Keep to
remove all the other unwanted data. Now you must determine the
correct playback frequency. Do this simply by increasing the
frequency if the sounds are too slow, or decreasing it if they are
too fast.

Now you can save the samples in any form you like.

Note that by careful editing in RAW 8 bit mono mode it is possible
to replace samples in a game program with your own. Load the
program in as RAW data as before and locate the samples you want
to change. Note - you must not change the program mode from 8 bit
mono! If you do then the program file format may be corrupted
meaning you cannot run the program any more because SuperSam will
automatically correct a stereo sample to an even length and a 16
bit stereo sample to a length divisable by 4 which can strip vital
information from the end of the file.
Load the sample you wish to have in the program into the
clipboard. Mark the sample you wish to replace in the edit buffer
very carefully, then select replace. Make sure the program is in
RAW mode and then save the file.
The sample you replace it with must be of the same type, mode and
playback frequency as the original and you must be very careful
not to disturb the actual program data or the program will no
longer run.

It is possible to use this technique to change the voice of the
Talking Clock accessory but be warned it is very difficult to
achieve such radical changes without corrupting the file.

Remember that under UK law, whilst it is legal to modify programs
for your own use it is _NOT_LEGAL_ to distribute the modified
program, UNLESS it is public domain software. Public domain is not
the same as freeware - if the program has a copyright message
anywhere in it you may not distribute an altered version without
the express permission of the Copyright holder.
YOU MAY NOT DISTRIBUTE AN ALTERED VERSION OF SUPERSAM!

4.3 Converting Other Formats
------------------------------

Although at present SuperSam 'only' knows 10 sample formats, it is
possible to load others as RAW data. You will then have to find
the correct playback speed and mode by trial and error - keep
trying until it sounds right. You will also need to delete the
header information at the beginning of the sample, or you may hear
a click as it is interpreted as sound data. You will not be able
to load compressed or mu-law samples in this way, but 8 and 16 bit
linear samples can usually be loaded.

4.4 Correcting Bad Samples
----------------------------

Correcting bad samples is not easy. However there are some ways to
improve the sound.

If your sample is very hissy, then this may be improved by
resampling the data to a lower sample frequency as this cuts out a
lot of higher frequencies. If your sound source tends to produce a
lot of hiss then you can make better samples by sampling at a much
higher frequency than you want (32 Khz rather than 12Khz) and then
using resample to shift the playback frequency down. Another way
is to use the graphic equaliser or tone control on your sound
source to turn down the higher frequencies.
If your source produces hiss or hum at the same volume regardless
of the volume setting, you can minimise it by reducing the gain
controls on the Sampling control panel to zero, and carefully
increasing the volume on the source.

If you have a stereo sample from a record or tape, you may find
that there are in places clicks or scratches on either one channel
or the other. You can remove these by selecting LEFT or RIGHT as
the editing mode and then zooming right in on the click, block
marking it and then using ZERO to wipe it. Don't use DELETE here
or you will end up with the channels out of sync, which is good
for a laugh occasionally, but not really very useful.

4.5 Improving Mono Samples
----------------------------

One way of making mono samples a lot more realistic is to convert
them into stereo samples. However simply clicking on Mono <->
Stereo won't help much because you end up with the same sound
being played on each channel - hence it still sounds mono. Here is
an easy way to make it _sound_ stereo even though it isn't really.

First load the sample - you can use RAM or D2D mode.
Now click Mono <-> Stereo to convert the data to stereo.
Now for the clever bit! Zoom in on the beginning of the sample and
block mark a small section at the beginning. Mark a section about
a quarter of a second long - check the length by playing it.
Switch the editing mode to RIGHT channel only. (You can use LEFT
only but in my experience the result isn't as good). Now click
Delete! The marked section is deleted from the start of the right
channel, causing the stereo left and right channels to go slightly
out of sync. This gives a sort of echo effect across the channels
- but it sounds much better than that because of the way the brain
decodes stereo sound. Try it and see!

5  Program Notes ***************************************************

5.1 Why was SuperSam written?
-------------------------------

It came to my attention that there were no cheap sample editors
suitable for amateur sound enthusiasts using the full power of the
Falcon030. Whilst there are huge numbers of public domain and
shareware direct-2-disk recording programs, these are great for
creating samples and generally speaking extremely lacking in the
editing samples department. There are Replay 16 and Clarity Falcon
from Hisoft, but these sell at 80 and 100 pounds respectively and
so are not really accessible to the poor students like me. So, I
decided one boring winter afternoon that I could always write my
own...
Many moons and much work later, SuperSam is completed. Well, I say
completed but actually it will probably never be complete as I
keep adding more to it, but if I don't release it now I probably
never will. And besides - I need the money!

5.2 Compatibility
-------------------

SuperSam was written on a Falcon030 running TOS 4.01, and so
should be 100% compatible with any other Falcon with TOS 4.01. It
has also been extensively tested on a Falcon030 with TOS 4.02 so
that should be okay too. It also seems to work perfectly under
TOS 4.04. It has not been tested under alternative operating
systems like Geneva and Magic so although all the code is legal OS
calls, I cannot guarentee it will work properly.

SuperSam also runs happily under MultiTOS with MiNT version 1.04+.
Although it is not really designed to be multitasked, it happily
runs alongside any other programs that are MultiTOS friendly.
However, there may be some conflict if you try and multitask
SuperSam and another program that uses the DMA sound system. Even
running two copies of SuperSam may not work. SuperSam
will not happily coexist with SAM, the System Audio Manager, or
other programs which assign samples to system events. This is due
to the nature of the DMA sound system and is unavoidable. If you
have problems, or functions don't seem to work, you should turn
off any system event sounds and try again.

SuperSam can run in virtual RAM (as provided by OUTSIDE or VRAM),
or alternative RAM quite happily, although your virtual RAM driver
must be pretty fast to keep up with the speed requirement for
playing samples.

SuperSam requires a horizontal resolution of 640 pixels, and will
not run in less. It looks at its best in 16 or more colours, with
a vertical resolution of at least 400 pixels, but will run in
less. SuperSam will not run on a computer without a 68030
processor, DSP, 16 bit CODEC DMA sound and a DMA sound connection
matrix. At present, the only computer with all these features is a
Falcon030 so SuperSam will only run on a Falcon.

5.3 In Future Versions
------------------------

There are many things I intend to add to SuperSam in the future.
Among these are:

  - Ability to run as an ACCessory

  - AV protocol support

  - DSP sound effects

  - DSP Fast Fourier Transform

  - DSP frequency filtering


5.5 Credits
-------------

Credit where credit is due:

Programming done in 68030 assembler by Daniel Hastings.

Thanks to:

Hisoft for Devpac-3 which made it painless.

Daron Brewood for much testing, suggestions and general
encouragement without which development would have ground to a
halt months ago.

Steve Taylor and Mark Baker for advice on GEM legal programming
and how to get event_multi to check for either mouse button.

Michael Fung for clarifying how the Falcon sound system works and
offering to handle registrations in the USA.

Robert Cooper for help in deciphering the DMA sound interrupts.

Stefan Scheffler for help and advice in implementing the AIFF
sample format as used in Cubase Audio.

Bjork for the Debut album which made hours of programming much more
enjoyable. (Okay, so it's a free ad for her... Wanna make
something of it?)

5.6 Contact addresses
------------------------

Until June/July 1995 please use the following address for a fast
response:

Daniel Hastings,
4 Cowley Bridge Road,
Exeter,
Devon.
EX4 5AD
(England)

My home address from which letters will always be forwarded to me
is:

Daniel Hastings,
Aspenglow,
Rectory Road,
Alderbury,
Salisbury,
Wiltshire.
SP5 3AD
(ENGLAND)

Please enclose an SAE or IRC if you want a fast reply.

I can also be reached on many computer networks.
InterNet is preferred if possible and is much more likely to get a
fast response. My InterNet email address is:

[e-mail]

I can also be reached through four BBS networks. Send netmail to
the following addresses:

TurboNet: 100:1011/0.6
FidoNet : 2:440/108.6
AtariNet: 51:502/100.6
NeST    : 90:102/140.6

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