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Plugins
Plugins are small components that are automatically loaded at runtime and contain
functionality that enhances the abilities of the program that loads them.
DeliPlayer's plugins are Dynamic Link Librarys (DLLs). Using DLLs is quite common on
the Windows platform.
DeliPlayer's plugins can be split into 3 sections:
- Players
Each of these plugins contains one replay engine. To be able to play e.g. FastTracker2 files
the FastTracker2 player plugin for DeliPlayer is necessary.
This plugin type is from now on simply called 'players'.
- Stream plugins
These plugins convert the output of the players to something listenable.
Examples for 'Stream plugins' are: Mixer, Equalizer and the SoundFX plugin.
Stream plugins (and visualization plugins) are also called 'Genies'. Don't
get confused. Its just a nickname.
- Visualization plugins
This plugins type is not involved in playing nor does it improve the
soundoutput. Its purpose is to visualize certain aspects of the music/sound that
DeliPlayer is playing. Examples are: Frequency Scope and the Levelmeter.
Players
The player concept is one of the highlights of DeliPlayer. It was
introduced by DeliTracker, DeliPlayer's predicessor on the
Amiga computer.
After loading a player, DeliPlayer will recognize and play modules of that
specific type. When DeliPlayer is started all players in the 'players'
directory are automatically loaded.
Information like copyright and releasedate of the supported formats
can be obtained by selecting a player in the treeview of the
configuration window.
Some players (for example the Tracker player) handle more than one
format, in which case the treeview entry can be expanded to display
the complete list of supported formats.
Basically, there are 3 types of formats/players:
- Native players
All important formats are covered by native players because they are in your
machine's (native) CPU code and therefore provide excellent performance.
Examples are: MP3, ProTracker, ImpulseTracker, ScreamTracker, FastTracker.
Some Amiga formats were never ported to other platforms.
DeliPlayer also supports most of these formats with native players.
Examples are: TFMX, DigitalMugician, FaceTheMusic, SonicArranger
Jochen Hippel's editor is available on the Amiga and the Atari,
DeliPlayer plays both formats.
- Converted formats
If you never owned an Amiga you probably have not heard about clones
like NoisePacker or ThePlayer.
Most clones didn't have their own editor, the modules were composed in
ProTracker and later converted into a more compact format.
DeliPlayer does not provide an extra player for each clone format.
Clones are rather converted back into the original format and then
played with the original player.
Examples are: ThePlayer, NoisePacker, TrackerPacker, WantonPacker
- Emulated players
The Play680x0 plugin makes it possible to use most
players and even custom modules from DeliTracker (DeliPlayer's
predicessor on the Amiga) . This plugin emulates the 680x0 processor
and a few AmigaOS routines. The emulation is quite complex, but usually
you shouldn't notice any difference between a native and a emulated player.
In case you encounter a problem (e.g. DeliPlayer refuses to play a certain module
format although the player was loaded by Play680x0), you can
enable logging. The Play680x0 player will then log all actions
into the given log file. You can use this file for locating the
source of the problem. Please note that the log file can grow quite
large, so you shouldn't enable logging unless you really need it.
The C=64 SID player also is a emulating player. SID modules always
contains both music data and the player in one file. Therefore no additional
players like the emulated Amiga players are needed.
If you like the C=64 music style you should take a look
at FredEditor, FutureComposer and SoundMon which have
a similar crispy sound.
The link page of the DeliPlayer website (http://www.deliplayer.com)
is a good starting point if you're looking for any kind of music
that is played by DeliPlayer.
Stream Plugins
SoundFX
The SoundFX plugin generates the Wide Stereo and Reverb effects.
Wide Stereo manipulates the output waves so that the channels seem to
be farther apart.
DeliPlayer can generate a 3 tap reverb.
The Reverb effect is an recursive echo effect. It uses the output of the echo effect
as another tap. You can tune the delay and decay of each reverb tap.
Using too low decay settings results in the tab's volume decaying too slowly and
because of the reverb recursion accumulating to an overflow.
To avoid this effect you should enable the Auto Decay option and not set the
decay values by hand except you really know what you are doing.
Equalizer
The Equalizer allows you to create your own frequency profile. 10 frequency bands
can be amplified and attenuated up to 20 Decibel.
You can shift the whole equalizer profile up and down with the Modify Gains
slider.
When modifying the equalizer settings the resulting soundoutput might be too low or
too loud. In this case you can adjust the overall volume of the soundoutput with
the Mastergain slider from -20 up to 20 Decibel.
Actually the output cannot be too 'loud'. When the equalizer settings result
in an overall amplification (that is what you usually do) the output begins to saturate.
Note that some soundcards do their own sound manipulation and some tend to saturate
normalized signals even if all of their effects are turned off.
Also, loudspeakers have only limited dynamics and will start saturating the output
themselves at some point (especially with loud bass frequencies).
This is even worse with headphones.
If you are not sure wether Deli creates the satruration or not, you can
open the WaveScope plugin and check if the signal reaches the top/bottom
borders of the window. If it does, DeliPlayer is responsible for the saturation.
To avoid saturation, use the following steps for finding your equalizer settings:
Play one of your favorite tunes. Reduce the mastergain, depending on how strong you
want to amplify the bands. E.g.: if you need extra special bass amplification you
should start out with about -8dB and increase the volume of your HIFI set so that
it is on the same level as before reducing the mastergain. Now start
increasing the amplification of the desired bands and verify the result by applying
the changes now and then. If the output begins to saturate, reduce the mastergain.
2 equalizer settings can be stored and recalled with the Store and Restore buttons.
Zero resets all equalizer bands to 0 Decibel.
Amiga sets the equalizer bands so that the resulting soundoutput is similar to
that of the Amiga computer. This is just for the hardcore Amiga fans.
Mixer
The Mixer is a core component of every (multichannel) music player. It is the place
where the virtual channels, the instruments, are mixed together.
There are different mixing algorithms available. There is no best algorithm, it
depends on what format is being played and how you like the 'sound'.
You can select the used mixing algorithm in the Quality droplist.
For MP3s it does not matter what mixing algorithm is used because no mixing is needed.
For multichannel modules like FastTracker2 and ImpulseTracker, interpolated mixing
is a good choice.
For 4 channel Amiga modules, oversampling creates a more original sound.
When listening to so called chip modules (tunes with very short/synthetic instruments),
scaled mixing creates the charmy, crispy sound these tunes are known for.
The Click Removal droplist controls how much effort is taken to remove 'click'
noise from multichannels tunes. These 'clicks' are created by carelessly edited instruments
and high volume differences.
We recommend using the 'good' setting. It removes almost all 'clicks' while not consuming
much performance. The 'best' setting produces optimal results but needs a bit more CPU
power.
The Stereo Join effect simply adds part of the left stereo channels onto the
right channel and vice versa. This effect is very useful when listening to 4 channels
modules on headphones.
The Volume Level increases the volume of the soundoutput. Normally there is
no reason to turn off Auto Boost and set it by hand.
The display plugins visualize different ascpects of the currently playing tune.
All display plugins have the following user configurable attributes:
- Popup on startup
When selected, the plugin is opened when DeliPlayer is being started.
- Always on Top
Keeps the plugin's window on top of all other (even non-DeliPlayer) windows.
- Captionless
Displays the plugin's windows without the caption bar.
- Borderless
Displays the plugin's window without border.
- Colorscheme
Allows you to select the colorscheme.
The Levelmeter displays the volumes of all virtual channels or the output
channels (usually stereo) in different ways. When displaying the virtual
channels you can choose if you want to visualize the 'virtual' volume
of the channels or the 'real' pressure. The 'virtual' volume does not necessarily
reflect the pressure but in most cases it gives a good hint and sometimes looks
more 'jumpy' than the pressure.
The default configuration displays the channels as ascending bars
(the higher, the louder) split into 30 segments. You can configure the number of
segments, the segment spacing (the 'empty' space between the segments) and the
bar spacing (the empty space between the bars). Setting the number of segments
to zero disables segmentation resulting in continuous bars.
Beside ascending bars you can choose to display the volumes as descending bars,
two bars, one from the top and one from the bottom, meeting in the middle and
as two interleaved bars, one from the top and one from the bottom.
Finally all modes can also be drawn horizontally. This makes ascending bars
grow from the left to the right, and so on.
As an option, the Levelmeter can display a peak marker.
The time a peakmarker stays at the peakposition can be specied by setting
the Hold Time. The drop-down-speed of the markers can be modified in the
Drop Speed field.
The Wavescope displays the currently playing waveform. Again you can choose from
a variety of displaymodes:
- Dots
This mode is rather boring but consumes very little CPU power.
- Lines
Draws a continuous 'wave' for each output channel.
- Solid
Displays a filled wave for each output channel. As the waves are rendered
over each other, you will see the 'hull' of the output channels.
- Mirrored
Additionally displays the waves mirrored at the X axis.
- Additive
Adds the output channels and renders
the resulting wave instead of one wave per channel.
- Differential
(Available only in 'solid' mode) Draws the waves for all output
channels and fills the space between the waves.
- Scaling
Lets you specify how much the channels' waves are being scaled on
the time (X) axis. The higher the scaling, the more CPU power is consumed.
The Frequency scope displays the frequency distribution of what DeliPlayer is
currently playing. There are various ways of configuring the look of it.
The sonogram displays the same as the FrequencyScope but in a very different way.
Frequencies that are 'loud' (have a high peak in the Frequ.Scope) will be displayed
as a 'bright' point, silent frequencies are displayed with a 'dark' point.
One frequency analysis is drawn as one line with the frequencies on the Y-axis.
The X axis is the time axis. You can swap the X/Y axis.
The Sonogram is not 'jumpy' at all. The Sonogograms of some tunes look really crazy,
escpecially when pitch slides are used.
MP3 Info Editor
The MP3 Info Editor is unlike the plugins described above.
It provides an easy way to view and modify MP3 ID3 information.
Its configuration controls when it's window automatically pops up
and when it automatically closes itself.
Module Info
The Module Info plugin displays sample, instrument, song and
message information that is present in most non-streamed music files,
often called 'modules'.
Depending on the format and the 'module', more or less data can
be evaluated.
Next: Clients
Up: DeliPlayer documentation
Previous: Server
Contents
2000-11-26