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Text File | 1994-01-29 | 15KB | 333 lines

System PlayTrack version 1.06 Mk II ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ © David J Seery 1993 Licence agreement ----------------- This has been changed from previous versions! See the 'License' file for details of your rights and responsibilties. Disclaimer ---------- This software is provided "as is"; no warranty, express or implied, is given as to the merchantability of this software or its fitness for any given purpose. No responsibility can be taken by either the author or any distributers of this software regarding loss of time, data, profits, staff, media, or anything else due to the direct or indirect use or misuse of this software. Although the software has been tested thoroughly it should be said that the testing was carried out on a base model machine - an A310 with a single floppy and Risc OS 2, with 1Mb, so no guarantees as regards multiscan monitors, Risc OS 3, A4s etc., can be made. However as !PlayTrack does everything legally it should work on any configuration. -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- Introduction ------------ !PlayTrack was written to fill a gaping hole in Archimedes SoundTracker (and Tracker) playback routines: there are virtually no players around that can give the (experienced) user analysis and details on the Tracker module being played, while allowing a more basic user to use the software at a simpler level. !PlayTrack was written with the object of achieving both of these goals and in its present incarnation is a fairly good player but it should be noted that you can't actually write or score music with !PlayTrack: only playback what somebody else has actually written. The controls provided by the system are deliberately like a cassette or video recorder: fast forward, rewind, pause, stop, and play, all are supported along with a volume control. In this document, we will examine the menu that !PlayTrack provides (there is only one main menu: the iconbar menu) and then each window in turn, explaining its features and how to use it, and perhaps at this point it would be advantageous to list the features that !PlayTrack provides. o Rewind, Pause, Stop, Play and Fast Forward o Pattern position counter o Internal speaker toggle o Mute button o Volume control o Module and tune statistics o 8 channel playback and stereo positioning o Independant stereo o Detailed samples list o User controlled tune buffer o A variety of user preferences o A machine code redrawn 8 channel vu-meter o Display sample waveform and hear sample o Cathode Ray Oscilloscope display o Tune monitor o Save tune as Relocatable Module o Volume control o 8 Channel individual mute o Sample rate control This is, of course, only a brief list. 1.1 The Main Menu ----------------- The main menu is accessed from the iconbar and contains the entries Info, Open, Save, Stop, and Quit. The first and last are largely self explanatory and are the standard Risc OS functions of this type. Open leads to a menu with 10 entries which allows you to open any of !PlayTrack's windows. A keyboard short cut is also listed opposite each item. The Save option leads to a dialogue box which will be explained in the section on saving a tune as a relocatable module; Stop halts the current tune according the the user preferences which are set in the Preferences dialogue. The menu is fairly short as !PlayTrack's main features are accessed from the windows, and so it is to these that we must turn out attention. 2.1 The Control Window (Shift-F1) --------------------------------- Along the top of this window are the five control icons for controlling the tune currently playing; below this is a position counter showing the current position (left) and the total number of positons (right). Opposite this the tune name is displayed when one is playing. Two toggles control the state of the internal speaker and the mute condition. When the mute toggle is on, no sound is played, but when it is off (the normal condition) sound is buffered normally. The red bar at the bottom of the window is the volume control. Just slide it to the correct place to set the volume, it is (internally) on a scale of 1-127 but you need not worry about this. Below the red volume bar are 8 toggle buttons which control individual channel muting. If a button is 'pressed' then that the corresponding channel is playing. If it is 'released' then the channel is muted. Click over the buttons to change the state of each channel. Next to these is the sample speed controller. Click over the number with Select to increase it and Adjust to decrease it. The speed is in the range 0-5 and the numbers mean: 0 - normal sample rate 1 - half sample rate 2 - normal sample rate (with VIDC enhancer) 3 - half sample rate (with VIDC enhancer) 4 - normal sample rate (with VGA modes) 5 - half sample rate (with VGA modes) If option 1, 3 or 5 is selected, the sample quality is reduced, but 8 channel tunes will take up only a little more time than 4 channel tunes originally. Changine the speed alters the approximate ammount of CPU time spent playing the tune; if you select the wrong speed it may result in a loss of quality. 2.2 The Tune Information Window (Shift-F2) ------------------------------------------ This window is "static" which means it merely provides information about the tune and the user cannot interact with it. The window lists the filename of the tune, and its size (both in bytes and kilobytes); the number of voices, patterns, and its speed; the tune name and its author; and the instruments and format it is in. 2.3 The Stereo Positioning window (Shift-F3) -------------------------------------------- This window affords the user overall control over the stero positioning. Unlike a lot of playback programs, and the poor Amoeba, !PlayTrack allows full 8 channel independant stereo (for tunes that use 8 channels!). Channels 1 to 4 are displayed along the top, with channels 5 to 8 at the bottom of the window. Each channel can have 7 positions within its predetermined range; alter this by clicking on the left or right arrow on the appropriate side of the stereo positon display. !PlayTrack is the only SoundTracker playback routine that I know of (in the PD) that has "sophisticated" facilities (that is, it isn't just a front end) that can handle 8 channel trackers. 2.4 The Samples Window (Shift-F4) --------------------------------- This window allows you to view all the samples that a tune uses, but like the tune information window it is static and therefore non-interactive. The information listed for each tune is its number, name, volume, and length. 2.5 The Buffer Control Window (Shift-F5) ---------------------------------------- !PlayTrack maintains a buffer in RMA (the Relocatable Module Area) into which it loads tunes to be played. The advantage of this mechanism is that the tune is assured of workspace in which it can be played. This might not be available were !PlayTrack not to maintain this buffer. The major disadvantage is that the buffer has to be as large as your largest tune, and it is therefore not sensible for me to set the buffer to, say 400k (as big as my biggest tune) if the largest you have is 128k. The buffer is therefore "dynamic", this means that you can alter it during the life of the program, although not, for obvious reasons, while a tune is playing. To alter the size of the buffer, type the number you want into the writable icon at the top of the window and either press return or click on the "Intialise Buffer" bar. This bar will slab in and the size of the buffer will be adjusted. You can save this permanantly from the Preferences window. Also displayed in this window is a "used" and "free" section so you can see how much you need to alter the buffer by, if need be. 2.6 The Preferences Window (Shift-F6) ------------------------------------- This window allows you to specify your own personal preferences to set !PlayTrack up to your way of working. The options available are: o Load and Play If set, after loading the tune will play. Default: On o Set clock rate If set, the sound system DMA clock will be set to the value in the writable icon on startup. Default: Off o Delete track on Stop If set, the track will be deleted when stop is clicked, otherwise playing will cease and the counter be reset to 0. Default: On o Auto filetype as STModule Tracker or SoundTracker tunes are available filetyped as a variety of types, and it helps if all are a uniform type. !PlayTrack uses &CB6, STModule, as its standard format and if this is set, then all tunes will be set to this type after loading them. Default: Off o Mahoney & Kaktus scan If set, the 31 instrument format will be detected by an ASCII 'x' character in this file; otherwise a scan for the "M.K." string will be performed. This string was introduced by Mssrs. Mahoney & Kaktus when they expanded the SoundTracker standard. Default: Off These options can be saved permanantly by clicking the Save icon. The buffer size is also saved with the options file. 2.7 The Vu-Meter (Shift-F7) --------------------------- This is simply an 8 channel vu-meter with no really fancy touches or graphics but it does it's job. One of the things to be improved, if I ever get round to it. Looks pretty and impresses the boss. 2.8 The Sample Waveform Window (Shift-F8) ----------------------------------------- This is a useful tool for users who like to tinker, but it has a serious value as well. While a tune is playing (or even paused) you can type a sample number you have looked up in the Samples window into the writable icon and press return: the waveform for the sample will then be drawn. It will be too long to fit onto the screen, so a scrolling window is supplied instead. The two vertical lines, if present, mark out the sample repeat start and end positions. You can also hear the sample by clicking on the hear button. 2.9 The Cathode Ray Oscilloscope Window (Shift-F9) -------------------------------------------------- This (tiny) window displays the output from the channel displayed in the title bar on its rather garish green surface. Still, that is what CRCs look like, so who am I to argue? You can increment the channel number by pressing Select over the window, and decrement it by Adjust. 2.10 The Monitor (Shift-F10) ---------------------------- This is a bit of a stopgap until I can get a machine code one written, but it works, and that is the main thing! 3.1 Saving a tune as a Relocatable Module ----------------------------------------- You can save a tune as a relocatable module be either accessing the save window from the menu, or via F3. The two toggle icons allow you to specify whether you would like the tune to autoplay after loading, and whether you want any * commands to be implemented. After setting up your choices, drag the save icon to a directory viewer and the file will be saved. After this you just need a copy of the TrackerModule (from inside !PlayTrack) and you can then "play" the Relocatable Module. The main use for this, I think, will be for programmers wanting to incorporate Tracker tunes into their games, but who don't know how. You can easily do this using the Relocatable Modules and if you need to pause or stop the tune, the * commands will allow you to do this. 4.1 The Keyboard Shortcuts -------------------------- The F key shortcuts are only available if the pointer is in a PlayTrack window, this is because we don't want to pinch other program's keypresses! The full list is: F1 - Internal speaker toggle F2 - Mute toggle F3 - Save dialogue F4 - Rewind F5 - Pause F6 - Stop F7 - Play F8 - Fast Forward F9 - Volume Down F10 - Volume Up F11 - Reset (Internal speaker off, mute off, volume to 100%, play on, counter reset to 0) And for Shifted function keys: F1 - Control window F2 - Tune information F3 - Stereo F4 - Samples F5 - Buffer F6 - Preferences F7 - Vu-meter F8 - Sample Waveform F9 - CRO F10 - Monitor Pressing the function key for a corresponding window when it is open will close the window, so it acts like a toggle or flip-flop if you are used to electronic terms. 4.2 The !Music Directory ------------------------ Also supplied with !PlayTrack is a directory called !Music which is really a place to put your Tracker files. You may need more than one if you've got a lot on floppies. It keeps your root directory neat and tidy and looks good too! Double click it to open up the directory viewer, as usual. 4.3 CDs and PlayLists --------------------- Thanks to Colin McEwan for this idea. If you drag a !Music Directory onto the !PlayTrack icon then !PlayTrack will play every tune in that directory in a cyclical fashion, without any user intervention - you can just sit back and enjoy the music! If you want something a little more complex then you can create a PlayList. This is a textfile (as created by !Edit) which simply lists all the tunes you want to play - but you must list the FULL pathnames, otherwise !PlayTrack will get confused. When you drag this file to the icon !PlayTrack will pick a tune at random and play it, and then another at random when that has finished, and so on. The tunes may be spread over several discs, and !PlayTrack will prompt you for the correct disc if necessary. !PlayTrack now detects the end of a tune if the pattern position jumps to one which is smaller than the current one. This avoids the problem of tunes which don't jump back to position 0 (eg Powerslave) but means that tunes which jump around all over the place may get unduly harsh treatment! Still, I think this newer way is better overall. The easiest way to create the PlayList is to Shift-Drag the files into an !Edit window, this adds the pathnames at the cursor position. 5.1 The End (!!) ---------------- That is about all for this release: I hope you enjoy using the software and find it useful. Bug reports, comments (always welcome), ideas (please!), or anything else, should be addressed to: David J Seery 15 Farm Walk Bents Farm Estate Littleborough Lancashire OL15 8LJ If you want a reply, please include a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Failure to enclose one may lead to a failiure to reply!