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Turnbull China Bikeride
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Turnbull China Bikeride - Disc 2.iso
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STUTTGART
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SOUND
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MATTRK1
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!S3M2MTRX
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!Help
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1996-04-04
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matrixTRK •••••• ••••••
•••••• ••••••
1..32 voices ••• •••
song player module v0.85 ••• •••
••• •••
PreRelease ••• •••
••• ••• matrix
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Contents
Introduction
Package file list
Song player module usage
Song file converter
Note
Features of the full version
Future enhancement
Why do we use an own file format?
Copyright
Contact
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Introduction
1992: In Chemnitz (Germany) there were 2 Coders Marko Lukat (blackICe) and
Michael Pohle (Lord of the earwigs) who came together to realize their first
production. It was `Rubik's Cube´ written in Assembler on Intel PC. But all
the code was neither well optimized nor very fast and the sound routine could
not play all the PROTracker effects. Later blackICe bought an A5000 and we've
released our first Demo called `!cMemc´ on the Cebit 1993. The Demo is based
on an special effect of the Memory Controller. The main code was written by
blackICe. To play a song within the Demo it was neccessary to patch the Sound
DMA handler (not yet fixed in RiscOS 3.5, shame on Acorn). Due to a lack of
available song players with the ability to run under special timing
conditions we've had to code our own song play routine.
The first version of matrixTRK was coded by 'Lord of the earwigs'. Followed
by many steps in development of matrixTRK now we present a new version with
new features which are described in this documentation. Additionally you will
get full information about the file format, the SWI- and CLI- Interface and
about useful utilities. If any problems, bugs etc. will occur while using the
matrixTRK module do not hesitate to contact the authors (addresses in the
last section).
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Package file list
matrixTRK will be distributed in 4 packages (ZIP-archives,roughly 660K each):
- mtrxTRK1.ZIP, mtrxTRK2.ZIP, mtrxTRK3.ZIP, mtrxTRK4.ZIP.
These archives contain all the necessary module and document stuff besides
a couple of demo songs. After decrunching the following structure should be
available:
!S3M2MTRX -> Application directory
!Boot
!Help -> this file
!Run
!Sprites
!Sprites22
Link -> Work directory
Docs -> directory
!FXSpec -> sound effect description
!TRKSpec -> matrixTRK specification
!Validity -> error code explanation
ST3Doc -> stuff to scream about :-)
ST3TechDoc -> guess ...
WorkSpace -> workspace structure
Resources -> directory
Convert -> task obey for WIMP
matrixLink -> matrix SWI server
matrixSQSH -> backend for Squash
matrixTRK -> 1...8 voices player module, optimized
mtrxTRK32 -> 1..32 voices player module, prerelease
S3M2MTRX -> ScreamTracker 3.xx file converter
Songs -> directory
matrixTRK -> directory
¥2ND_PM -> 8 voices, packed pattern, *****
¥2ND_SKAV -> 8 voices, packed pattern, *****
¥CHARIOT -> 16 voices, packed pattern, ***+
¥CTGOBLIN -> 12 voices, packed pattern, ****+
¥FM-SCRAP -> 16 voices, packed pattern, ****+
¥NOTC -> 8 voices, packed pattern, ****+
S3M -> directory
WAR-REM -> 9 voices, ***
YUME -> 11 voices, ***+
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Song player module usage
matrixTRK is a new song player for the Archimedes and RiscPC. To get started
you only have to double click the !S3M2MTRX application icon. The directory
S3MConvert:Link will be opened. There are the subdirectories Docs, Resources
and Songs. Open the Song.matrixTRK directory. But before enjoying the cool
songs by double clicking them pump up the volume on your amplifier. By
default the player module for 8 voices is loaded. If you want to hear songs
with more than 8 voices you have to load the mtrxTRK32 module that you can
find in the directory Resources.
Note:
By default a sample period of 48 microseconds is used. That means a replay
rate of 20833 Hz. On slow Archimedes computers with a high number of voices
you'd like to change that value by using the appropriate SWI:
SYS"matrix_TRKSamplePeriod",xxx
The value of xxx can be 3 (333.333 kHz, 1 channel) ... 255. The sample period
should be a multiple of the hardvoices and not less than 3us*hardvoices else
the song may sound funny. If you change the value whilst playing a song, it
will be restarted due to the song history with the new sample period. The
more the number of voices the higher xxx should be ! Just try it.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Song file converter
You can't listen directly to S3M 'cos matrixTRK has it's own file format. So
you have to convert S3M to matrixTRK. That's quite simple. The S3M file type
is Data (&FFD) by default. Double click on an S3M file and it will be
converted. The destination file has the type &00B (matrixT) and will be
stored in the same directory as the source. Try the S3M file YUME in the
directory Songs.S3M to test the converter. For more details about the
converter see the !Run file. There are also information about the converter
options variable.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Note:
- Releasing the full version of matrixTRK will take a while because we don't
have much time to continue coding (diploma).
- Do not delete your original S3M files because the file format of matrixTRK
is temporary and will be enhanced very soon.
- If the 32 voices player version is active 8 hardware voices are necessary
else the song will be muted (changes via Sound_Configure).
- matrixTRK does not disable interrupts while filling the DMA-buffer. That's
why disk accesses may jam the sound output (could be fixed if neccessary).
- A preRiscPC ModeChange ServiceCall handler isn't implemented yet. It'll
deal with this lovely 25.175MHz frequency.
- What's wrong if the last song part of a S3M file sounds strange? That could
have the following reason: the last song sequence entry in S3M files is &FF.
matrixTRK ignores that and plays the next sequence entry until the end of the
sequence. These (hidden) parts may sound strange, indeed.
- After the song end perhaps it will be restarted with wrong speed and tempo.
- Stereo positions currently aren't valid whilst playing a song with more
than 8 voices.
- An effect for setting the stereo position isn't implemented yet.
- If you want to get more S3M songs via Internet contact ftp.uni-paderborn.de
(look for pc-demos...).
- The prerelease only supports 8 bit samples.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Features of the full version (many features are implemented in the
PreRelease, too)
File handling:
- Detailed file validation error description in file !Validity.
- Reducing sample data to fit a song module into less memory than originally
needed.
- Detailed interface description of matrixTRK for coders.
Sound system:
- Automatical detection of the replay rate for your Acorn Computer.
- DMA buffer resizing while playing a song is possible (as you like it).
- Support of all Acorn sound system replay rates from 3.921 kHz up to 333.333
kHz. But: no dynamic change is possible because of the song history. Changing
the replay rate whilst playing a song results in restarting the song.
Player module:
- Flexible pattern length supported.
- Volume column sound effects additionally to normal sound effects supported
(see file !FXDoc in the Doc directory for currently supported effects).
- Note range reaches from C-0 up to B-7 (8 octaves).
- Fine tuning of the samples using 2 parameters (pitch and sample rate).
- Samples with sample rates up to 65.535 kHz and 1 MB length (16 MB are
possible if it's needed) supported.
- 8...16 Bit sample depth supported.
- Optimized 32 voices player module with dynamic memory management.
- Redirection of the song output to a file.
Song file converter:
- Packed pattern output of S3M2MTRX converter.
- Intelligent stereo attachment and song optimization.
- PROTracker file converter (MOD-format with voice numbers from 1...32).
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Why do we use an own file format?
That question you will have in your mind. There are a few points. Before you
can listen to your favorite song file a few loader actions must be done. At
first we have to validate the file and then it can be loaded. The parts of
our file format can be packed with up to 8 different packing schemes. It is
possible that you can encrypt your special song file by using an own packer
that will be supported by our loader. An detailed interface description you
will get with the full version. Our player I think is the right thing for
programmers of games and demos because it is universal in every way and takes
less processor capacity than the most other players around. If we want to
expand the functionality of our player to support other song module types we
simply add a few new chunks into the existing file format instead of writing
a complete new loader and validation routine in Assembler. But you are right
- a converter is needed, indeed, but it is easier to code it in BASIC or C.
That takes less time. Now try to find these features in the S3M file format.
If you want to know more details please refer to the files in the directory
'Doc' or contact us.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Future enhancement:
- XM support!
If you have any ideas what we can do to make matrixTRK perfect - let us know.
Another point is that no frontend and song editor are available. But there is
no time to code such things, sorry.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Copyright
Copyright of the matrixTRK and matrixLink modules is owned by matrix. We
offer no guarantees as to the reliability/stability of the modules mentioned
above or any of their functions.
You may copy the modules freely provided that they remain unaltered.
You may not sell the program without our written permission. However, Public
Domain libraries may distribute the program provided they charge at most 3
pounds sterling per disk. If anyone else would like to distribute matrixTRK
and matrixLink then please write to us first to get our permission.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Contacts
Lord of the earwigs
Michael Pohle
Bahnhofstraße 20
04626 Nöbdenitz
Germany
email: michael.pohle@e-technik.tu-chemnitz.de
•••••• ••••••
blackICe •••••• ••••••
••• •••
Marko Lukat ••• •••
Venise-Gosnat-Straße 48 ••• •••
14770 Brandenburg an der Havel ••• •••
Germany ••• ••• matrix
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edited by blackICe and `Lord of the earwigs´ Wed 03rd April 1996