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1992-05-18
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CALLIOPE MUSIC VISION
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Copyright (c) 1992 Melvin Douglas All Rights Reserved
Single-Track Midi Music Player
for the
Sound Blaster Music Card
Version 1.02 May 1992
-----------
LEGAL STUFF:
-----------
CALLIOPE MUSIC VISION software is hereafter referred to as CALLIOPE.
Users of CALLIOPE must accept this disclaimer of warranty:
"CALLIOPE is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties,
expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of
merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no
liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from
the use of CALLIOPE."
CALLIOPE is a "shareware program" and is provided at no charge to the
user for evaluation. Feel free to share it with your friends, but
please do not give it away altered or as part of another system. The
essence of "user-supported" software is to provide personal computer
users with quality software without high prices, and yet to provide
incentive for programmers to continue to develop new products. If you
find this program useful and find that you are using CALLIOPE and
continue to use CALLIOPE after a 21 day trial period, you must make a
registration payment of $20.00 U.S Dollars.
To register this copy, print and complete the REGISTER.FRM file
and send it along with the registration fee of $20 directly to:
Melvin Douglas
Post Office Box 141
Uniondale, New York
11553-0141
Adlib is a registered trademark of Adlib inc.
Sound Blaster is a registered trademark of Creative Labs Inc.
QuickBasic is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp.
PROGRAM FILES:
-------------
CMV.EXE - Calliope program
CMV.DOC - Calliope documentation
ROL2MIDI.EXE - Conversion utility program
REGISTER.FRM - Registration form
FILE_ID.DIZ - BBS file description text
DESC.SDI - BBS file description text
VENDOR.DOC - Vendor distribution agreement
*.MDI - several pre-converted midi music files
Note: A music file with the extension ".ROL" is an Adlib format sound
file. ".ROL" files may be found on almost any Bulletin Board system.
In case you don't read any further, note that you may use the "/S"
command line switch to bypass the opening screen: i.e., "CMV /S".
------------------
ABOUT THIS PROGRAM:
------------------
Thank you for trying CALLIOPE MUSIC VISION (CMV). This program was created
for use with a Sound Blaster sound board. It will play single track Midi
compatible music files. Included with CALLIOPE is a program (ROL2MIDI.EXE)
which allows you to easily convert a .ROL file into a Midi compatible
(.MDI) file, which is a type 0 midi. CALLIOPE IS NOT CRIPPLED IN ANY WAY.
To convert any .ROL file to MIDI:
C>ROL2MIDI filename /Bbankfile /Onewfile
for example, to convert ROCKNROL.ROL to ROCKNROL.MDI using the
standard instrument bankfile:
C>ROL2MIDI rocknrol.rol /Bstandard.bnk /Orocknrol.mdi
Note: Case is sensitive.
The resulting file is the only format that CALLIOPE will recognize and
play. MDI files do not require Bank (.BNK) or instrument files once they
have been converted from their .ROL format into single track Midi's. All
of the musical information is self contained in a single compact file.
Several pre-converted files are included so that you may experience the
"Sight and Sound" of CALLIOPE immediately.
---------------------
HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS:
---------------------
o An IBM PC/XT/AT/386/486 or true "compatible" running
MS-DOS or PC-DOS 3.0 or later.
o 528K System Memory.
o CGA/EGA/VGA Video Adaptor.
o One floppy disk drive or hard drive.
o A Sound Blaster Sound board.
----------
BACKGROUND:
----------
None really, but like many of you, when I first purchased my sound board, I
rediscovered all of my games which supported sound, and seemingly my PC was
a whole new thing again. Then, I became interested in the board's ability
to play music (or simulate playing music).
Most of the available music players were good, but I found that I wanted to
know more about the music that was playing...not just the filename and it's
size. I also wanted a display that was dynamic rather than static,
something that presented me with lots of information, and I wanted more
control of the file selection process too.
Those are some of the reasons CALLIOPE was created. Here is a list of the
features that CALLIOPE will provide. I hope you like them well enough to
make CALLIOPE your favorite Music Player.
--------
FEATURES:
--------
File Selection Via a Popup scrolling window with mouse support, plus:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
- Sort files by Name, Size or Date.
- Tag or un-tag single files or ALL files.
- Support for 1000 files.
A Play-Mode screen which provides the following information:
-----------------------------------------------------------
- The I/O port address and IRQ number location of your sound board.
- Name of the current directory.
- Name of the music currently playing.
- Name of the music to be played next.
- The elapsed time for the current music.
- The total number of selections made.
- The number of selections remaining to be played.
- The number of the current selection.
File Buffer Information:
-----------------------
- The current size of the buffer.
- The byte currently being processed in the buffer (ascending).
- The percentage of the buffer already completed.
- The mode of the current music: Melodic or Percussive.
A Status window to advise you of any changes:
--------------------------------------------
- Plus various symbols to provide an alternate measure of music duration.
- A pointer-bar graphic across the top row for estimating the music
duration from a distance. Admittedly, some of these are redundant,
but, so what?
Active Play Controls as follows:
-------------------------------
- Pause the music.
- Continue music from a paused state.
- Skip the current music (immediate).
- Cancel music play mode and return to the main menu.
-----------------
CALLIOPE COMMANDS:
-----------------
I tried to make CALLIOPE as intuitive as possible so that you can use it
"right out of the box". However, all software should contain at least a
brief explanation of the available commands, so here it is:
When CALLIOPE is first invoked, the file selection window will popup and
search the current directory for all files with an extension of .MDI, and
will present a list of these files within this window. If no matching
files are found, CALLIOPE will notify you of this via a popup message
window, allowing you to return to the DOS prompt. While the files are
displayed, you may scroll the window up or down to view and/or select the
files.
COMMAND LINE: You may use the "/S" switch to bypass the opening screen:
i.e., "CMV /S".
---------------------
FILE SELECTION WINDOW:
---------------------
To activate the File Selection Window from the main menu, type Alt-M.
-------------------------------
FILE (MUSIC) SELECTION COMMANDS:
-------------------------------
Tag one file at a time by pressing the right arrow key, or <Shift> Right
Arrow key. Unshifted, the highlighted bar will move down one file after
each tag. S