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OS/2 Help File
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1995-10-31
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ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Five to Five General Information ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Five To Five Version 2.12
for OS/2 2.x
Copyright 1995 by
Harald SchФnfeld and Bernd Spellenberg.
September 1995
Five To Five is a program to convert various sound file types as used on
different computer systems. You can also convert the sample rate and use a low
pass filter.
The program Five To Five is shareware. For more information see Registration.
For detailed help see using Five To Five.
Exemption From Liability
The programmers can not be held responsible for any errors which may occur
while using this software. We do not claim this software is useful for all
applications.
Distribution
Five To Five may and shall be copied and spread under the condition that all
program- and text- files of this archive are included without any modification.
Commercial use (distribution, selling the program for money, spreading via PD
disk series or CDs) is not allowed. But the authors may grant the permission
for such use.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2. Using Five To Five ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
There are four basic steps to convert a sound file from one file type to
another:
1. Select the import file.
2. Select the type of the output file.
3. Select the format of the output file.
4. Export the file.
Additionally, you can modify the volume of the sound data, use a low pass
filter and change the sample rate.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.1. Import ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
To select an import file, press this button or drag a file icon onto the dialog
window.
The file will be opened and Five To Five tries to get all necessary information
from the file header. The file name is then displayed in the entry-field next
to the button. A brief information about the file will be shown underneath.
If Five To Five couldn't find a file header, a 'Format Definition' dialog
appears, where the format of the sample data has to be defined manually.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.1.1. Manual Format Definition ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
If Five To Five couldn't find a header in the import file, this dialog appears
and the format and the frequency of the sample data have to be defined
manually.
If you are trying to import a sample type not (yet) supported by Five To Five
as raw data and you know the length of the header, you can type it in. It will
then be skipped.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.1.2. Manual Frequency Definition ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
To define the frequency of the raw sample to be imported, simply click onto the
drop down list to select a predefined frequency, or type any other frequency
into the edit field.
The drop down list provides additional information about typical frequencies of
different computer systems.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.2. Import Sample Information ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
This dialog shows a detailed information about the import file. If the file was
not yet analysed, the whole file will be scanned now and the progress indicator
appears.
The following information is displayed:
Length
File type
File format
Peak level
Note: The reported length is the length of the sample data (in bytes) without
any header.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.3. Export ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
To write the new file select the 'Export' button. At first a file dialog
appears to select the export file name. Then a visual progress indicator tells
you about the current status of the export operation. If the export file
already exists, a check back dialog appears. If the export file name is the
same as the import file name, a temporary file will be created.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.3.1. Modifying The Volume ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Normalizing
If the peak level of the import sample is rather low, it is useful to use
'Maximize volume'. Using this option, the file will be written with maximal
possible volume (and a peak level of about 98% to 100%). In this case the file
will be scanned once completely. If the fading option is active, too, the file
has to be scanned twice.
Fading
'Fade In/Out' allows you to fade in and out the volume of the sample at the
beginning and end. This is very useful, as there are often some distortions at
this part of the sample. The duration of this effect can be typed in both for
the start and the end of the sample if the option is selected. You can type in
1 to 9999 ms. If 0 is used, the option has no effect.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.3.2. Frequency Conversion ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
By selecting the button 'Convert Frequency' it is possible to convert the
sample data from the given sample frequency to any other frequency. You can
select this frequency by choosing any from a PopUp with predefined standard
values or by typing it in. Converting a sample to a higher frequency increases
the length of the file while the sound quality surely will not get better.
Converting to a lower frequency leads to a shorter file, while the higher
frequencies in the sample data are lost.
If frequency conversion is selected, the low pass filter is automatically
activated. This is necessary to avoid harmonic distorsions when converting to
a higer sample rate and to avoid aliasing when converting to a lower sample
rate. The correct edge frequency is automatically selected. Unfortunately the
filtering process takes some additional time. So if you want to hear the
result faster and if you don't care about some distorsions, you can disable the
filter manually.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.3.3. Low Pass Filtering ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
By default, the 'Low pass filet' option is selected, when the frequency
conversion button is activated. It can also be selected independently of the
frequency conversion, for example to filter out noise. Just type in the edge
frequency you want.
Note: The highest possible frequency in a sample with the sample rate f (e.g.
8000Hz) is f/2 (4000Hz). So the highest possible edge frequency is the
half of the sample rate.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.4. Progress Indicator ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
During longer lasting file operations (e.g. export), a progress indicator
appears. To abort the operation, press the cancel button.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> Help About Product Information ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The OK button closes the Product information dialog.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3. Supported Types and Formats ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
File Types
Five To Five currently supports the following file types:
DVSM For WinRec, WinCut, Fortune (ATARI)
CIT For Fortune (ATARI)
AVR Many ATARI St/Falcon programs
HSN CrazySounds (ATARI)
SND Sun, NeXT, Mac
WAV PC
AIFF Mac, SGI, ATARI, Cubase
Raw data Raw data for many different programs
To select the export file type, click onto the 'File Type' drop down list
menu.
Note: The supported AIFF file type is different from the type supported by
MMPM/2, version 3 (we haven't seen a little endian AIFF file so far -
but OS/2 seems to want them).
File Formats
To select the format of the export file or the raw file to be imported, click
onto the 'Format' drop down list. For every file type the possible file
formats will appear in the list. An actual format consists of several basic
formats:
Stereo / Mono
Two or one channels
Signed / Unsigned
With or without sign
Motorola / Intel
For Motorola (big endian) or Intel (little endian) CPUs
16 / 8 Bit / ц-Law / Deltapack
16 or 8 Bit are uncompressed, ц-Law and Deltapack are
compressed. Deltapack needs as much memory as ц-Law, but
sounds much better.
Selecting 'Keep' in the list ensures that the input format is used as export
format if this is possible (which depends on the different file types). If it
is not possible Five To Five chooses a format that does not use more memory
than the import format.
Note: Please notice that it is almost useless to convert a worse format to a
better one. It only requires more memory but sounds the same. But it is
possible that other programms support only some formats. Converting
ц-Law to deltapack can result in a slightly worse sound quality,
although deltapack is the better format.
Note: For further information on file types and formats you might want to
take a look at the article series 'Sound Sample Formate' in the German
magazine 'ST Computer' (2/94-6/94).
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4. Release History ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
12.04.93 Version 0.9 - Very first release for the ATARI computer
12.04.94 Version 0.91 - Greatly improved version was finally released ;-)
- Correction in DVSM import
05.05.94 Version 1.0 - Published by Maxon for the ATARI computer
- AES 4.02 3D support
- Copyright Maxon
27.11.94 Version 2.0 - Complete re write of the program.
- New file types: CIT (Fortune), HSN (CrazySounds)
- Fade in/out time seperately adjustable
- Correct volume maximation in connection with fading
- Visual progress indicator
- Drag&Drop
01.02.95 Version 2.01 - For the ATARI.
- New file type: AIFF
- MultiTOS Bug with iconizing fixed
19.01.95 Version 2.01 Beta - For OS/2! Although this is the first version
for OS/2 it has the same features as the ATARI version. Thus the
same verison number
05.03.95 Version 2.01 for OS/2.
12.03.95 Version 2.02 for ATARI.
- Shareware registration dialog
- Icon for desktop resource file included
17.04.95 Version 2.1 for ATARI.
- Frequency conversion
- Adjustable low pass filter
- User break during conversion by pressing ESC or UNDO
- The program can now be hidden using MagiC
- Corrcet file delete of the export file during 'disk full' on
MTOS/MagiC
18.07.95 Version 2.11 for ATARI.
- Check back if export file already exists.
- Bugfix in dialog memory management
- Problems with export status bar fixed
- Bug in registration dialog fixed
- Bug in DVS-Import/Export with frequency conversion fixed
18.07.95 Version 2.11 for OS/2.
- Functionally equivalent to the ATARI version 2.11
- First German release
03.09.95 Version 2.12 for ATARI.
09.09.95 Version 2.12 for OS/2.
- Option for header skip in raw import
- Files without extension now importable
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5. Future Plans ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
We will continue to support Five To Five in the future. Our current plans are:
More file types and formats
- AIFF-C
- WAVE 4 bit
- ADPCM
- Yamaha
Additional Platforms
- Apple Macintosh
- DEC Alpha under (OSF/1 - Digital Unix)
If you have any additional suggestions, please let us know.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6. Registration ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Call For Registration
If you use Five To Five regularely you have to pay the shareware fee of DM 20
($ 15, Ь 10). Payment can be done via EuroCheque (or other international money
orders if you pay the fee!), remittance order or cash. A single registration is
vaild for all past and future versions of Five To Five on all supported
platforms.
Please write your name in the comment field of the remittance order and send us
your name, address, email address and a remark to 525 V2.11 for OS/2 seperately
(via mail or email). You will then recieve a personal key from us that allows
you to register yourself in all future versions of the program for all
supported platforms.
Register
After recieving your own key from us, you can then enter this key into the
Registration dialog: First, select the Product Information dialog in the system
menu. Then press the Register button to open the Registration dialog. Here you
can enter the obtained key and press the OK button to register. If the
registration was successfull, the key can be saved in the OS2.INI file to make
it permanent. After the registration the annoying about box at each program
start and end will not appear anymore.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7. Contact Addresses ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Send suggestions, criticism, comments, bug reports and cheques to:
Harald SchФnfeld
Lerchenstraсe 2
90587 Veitsbronn
Germany
Email: Harald.Schoenfeld@rzmail.uni-erlangen.de
Bernd Spellenberg
FБrther Straсe 11
90617 Puschendorf
Germany
Email: Bernd.Spellenberg@rzmail.uni-erlangen.de
Remittance orders can be drawn to one of the following banking accounts:
Harald SchФnfeld
Kto. 5117726, Vereinigte Sparkasse im Landkreis FБrth, BLZ 76250110
or
Bernd Spellenberg
Kto. 122343, Raiffeisenbank FБrth eG, BLZ 76260451
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8. Acknowledgements ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
We wish to thank:
our 1st generation beta testers Peter Sergedahl and Thomas 'Gryf' Binder.
our other ATARI beta testers Wolfgang Simon und Adam 'Riker' Kulinski.