©Copyright 1994-1995 Antoine ROSSET (rosset@dial.eunet.ch)
Description
PlayerPRO is a complete music editor software (SoundTracker). You can use it with any Macs without any specific hardware. PlayerPRO can load and play following formats: MOD, S3M, Midi, MTM, MADx, OKTA, snd, WAV, AIFF, AIFC, MED and XM.
What is a SoundTracker?
Still uncommon on Macintosh, these music utilities originated on the Amiga platform, and have then been developed on the Atari ST, IBM PC, and finally on Macintosh. These soundtrackers are based on a single file system: the MOD format and its derivatives. The MOD format was intended to be a compact way of storing music inside games and demos, especially background music. The files consist of "patterns" of musical notes inside "partitions" (pattern lists) which can be played in different order, and more than once. (The number of tracks simulates the number of musicians a conductor would have in his orchestra; in the case of a 4 track file, the conductor has only the possibility of having 4 instruments playing simultaneously, even when the players can change their instruments). These files are commonly used and belong most of the time in the public domain. There are thousands of them. If you have a modem, BBSΓÇÖ, America Online, Compuserve, Internet, etc. are all gateways to infinite sources of such files.
PlayerPRO offers you a whole range of functions to exploit these music files:
Sound reading: several methods of reading are offered, many sound drivers.
Display of analyses tools: Fourier's analysis, oscilloscope, tubes, piano, digital partition, classical partition, simplified partition, animations, etc.
Music edition: music editing can be accomplished by writing at the level of classical partition, digital partition, or simply by piano recording, by Midi instruments or else by Midi files.
Technical Details:
- Any Mac from 68020 to PowerMac (FAT version)
- Requires NO special hardware (all other musics softwares require MIDI Hardware)
- Play up to 32 simultaneous channels WITHOUT special hardware.
- Sound quality from 11Khz 8bits to 44Khz 16bits.
- Support all Mac sound chips (ASC, AWAC, DSP)
- Support many music formats: MAD, MOD, S3M, OKTA, MTM, 669, AIFF, AIFC, WAV, XM, MED, Midi.
- A special ASC driver for 68k Macintosh available
- Native PowerMac version
- Compiled with CW7
- Online Help for beginners.
- Quicktime 2.x support: instruments loading and editing
- Complete graphic interface (more than 15 tools windows)
- Support MIDI Hardware: MIDI IN/OUT. GM compatibility via Quicktime 2.1
- Fast oscilloscope and Fourier analysis. (60 im/sec) Realtime.
- Complete editor interface to create your music.
- Instruments edition: AIFF, Snd.
- Support sound input from Microphone, CD, etc.
- Support Volume Envelope
- Support multiple samples for instruments (high quality instruments)
- Support volume command
- Music List : you can store up to 2000 musics
- Free sample rate: from 1 Hz to 50 Khz
- Free base note for samples
- Sound filters for samples edition
- Edition filters for partition edition
- Plug-Ins support for future updates: IMPORT/EXPORT/FILTER
- AIFF music export: rate, amplitude, compression, channel
- Supports 8 octaves
- Realtime interface to "see" your playing music
- Up to 64 instruments for 1 music
- Complete Drag&Drop interface (System 7.5 savvy)
- Panning interface
- Complete developper toolkit to use musics in your own project (THINK, CodeWarrior)
- XMCD in safe FAT to use musics in HyperCard, MacroMind, etc.
- API to create Plugs
NEW FEATURES IN ACTUAL VERSION (4.5.1):
- New drivers with better multi-rate processing
- Stereo delay option
- Linear Interpolation option
- Surround option
- New XM, MADfg, S3M plugs
- S3M Export
- Some crashing bugs have been corrected (samples window, recording on 68k, ...)
- A JAPAN documentation is now available. Thanks to jun@dc.sony.co.jp (Jun-ichi Nagahara)
- Some changes in GUI
- New Dev.Kit
NEW FEATURES IN ACTUAL VERSION (4.5):
ΓÇó Wave Preview (need a fast Mac)
ΓÇó Compiled with CW7 (both version: 68k & PPC)
ΓÇó Automatic file identification : simply Drag&Drop your file in MusicList.
ΓÇó New MIDI Hardware interface
ΓÇó New MIDI Import, MED Import
ΓÇó New Quicktime Instruments to PlayerPRO converters. (supports real rate, basenote and multi-samples)
ΓÇó New digital editor: faster, cleaner and easier.
ΓÇó New file format.
ΓÇó Support XM files.
ΓÇó Support volume envelope.
ΓÇó Support volume command.
ΓÇó Support multiple samples for 1 instrument.
ΓÇó Better S3M support.
ΓÇó New music list with true icons.
ΓÇó New list manager in PPC.
ΓÇó New Music List: faster, real finder icons, supports up to 2000 musics.
ΓÇó New sound driver: much faster at startup and use less memory.
ΓÇó Filters for Digital Editor.
ΓÇó Direct edition in Digital Editor by mouse click.
ΓÇó Supports free finetune: allows sampleRate from 1 Hz to 50Khz.
ΓÇó Supports base frequency to create multiple samples instruments.
ΓÇó Supports 8 octaves.
ΓÇó Quicktime 2.1 instruments support: import all samples/instruments.
ΓÇó New classical editor.
ΓÇó New wave editor.
ΓÇó Note projection for Classical and Pattern view.
ΓÇó Extern plugs for Import/Export. Source code available in Developper toolkit (see below).
ΓÇó All plugs can be compiled in PPC.
ΓÇó Many bugs have been corrected...
INCOMPATIBILITIES:
ΓÇó Thousands of colors on some Mac TV 630 (not on all Mac TV 630)
ΓÇó RAMDoubler with FullView & ScreenSaver
ΓÇó Virtual Memory with FullView & ScreenSaver
ΓÇó 24 bits Memory Mode (change it to 32 in memory control panel)
ΓÇó SuperBoomerang with Open Dialog on some new PowerMacs
Where to find the last version of Player PRO & more infos?
On compuserve:
ΓÇó Mac forums/Entertainment forums/Sound Utilities[19].
