Large Pack of OldSkool DOS MOD Trackers

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Text File | 1997-01-11 | 24KB | 457 lines

─────═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ Fast_Introduction: Simply run LIQ WASTETIM (or any MOD/S3M/LIQ name). The program will autodetect your SB1,2,Pro,16 or PAS16 card, and will start playing. Use <LEFT-CTRL> and <LEFT-SHIFT> to scroll the screen. Use <TAB> for 80x50 mode switching. Have fun. ╘══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════────── THE █ ▀█▀ █▀▀▀█ █ █ ▀█▀ █▀▀▀▄ ─────────────────────────────── █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ ──────────────────────────────── █▄▄▄█ ▄█▄ █▄▄▄▀▄ █▄▄▄█ ▄█▄ █▄▄▄▀ ─────────────────────────────── ──────────────────────── ▀▀█▀▀ █▀▀▀▄ █▀▀▀█ █▀▀▀▀ █ ▄▀ █▀▀▀▀ █▀▀▀▄ ──────────────────────── █ █▄▄▄▀ █▀▀▀█ █ █▄█ █▀▀▀▀ █▄▄▄▀ ──────────────────────── █ █ █ █ █ █▄▄▄▄ █ ▀▄ █▄▄▄▄ █ █ ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── v1.27 Professional Soundtracks Development System All Rights Reserved - Nir Oren 1993-1997 ** Running Under Tran's Dos Extender ** ╒════════════════════╗ │ Introduction ║ └────────────────────╜ The Liquid Tracker is a program capable of playing and composing digitized modules, with the ability to play up to 64 different samples simultaneously, with variable pitch, volume, pan position and effect, at different time intervals. Since I assume you already know what Tracker is, I'll just suggest you play around with the program. There is an online hypertext help, that supplies all there is to know in order to work with the program. Press F1 to pop up the help from the program. ╒════════════════╗ │ Features ║ └────────────────╜ ■ Sound Routines ──────────────── ■ Multichannel, up to 64 channels ■ Utilizes extended memory for samples and patterns, also without EMS driver. ■ True 16 bit/Stereo samples support ■ 32bit-PCM-Interpolation to preserve the original sample's waveform ■ Unlimited sample size (a must for 16bit samples) ■ Up to 100 samples ■ 16 bit mixing even with 8 bit samples ■ 64 positions full individual channels panning ■ Dolby (tm) Surround sound, can be set, if desired, only to a specific channel(s) ■ 9 Full Octaves ■ Support for MOD/S3M/LIQ file formats, thus giving compatibility with thousands of high quality modules from the Amiga and PC. ■ Supports all S3M, LIQ and MOD various panning commands ■ Saves in LIQ or S3M format ■ Very fast, 32 bit code optimized mixing routines ■ High sound quality, even when playing maximum of 64 channels ■ 16 bit fraction frequency precision ■ 16 bit volume precision ■ Dynamic alterable mixing frequency (ALT F3,F4) (Usefull for slow machines) ■ Support for the following sound devices: Sound Blaster v1.5 - 2.0, Sound Blaster Pro, Sound Blaster 16, Pro Audio Spectrum 16, Pro Audio Spectrum and output to file ■ Full ProTracker effects supported [except SetFilter/FunkIt] ■ Implementation for some of the ScreamTracker ]I[ and ProTracker playing bugs, so modules are likely to be played accurate even when they were written relying on these programs' bugs, and should have played wrong. ■ User Interface ──────────────── ■ Very convenient pull-down menus interface ■ Many features turn the tracker into a complete playing environment. These include an internal file manager, enhanced Info Screen and more. ■ Complete SuperVGA text-modes support, up to 9 full tracks on screen using 132 column screen modes, yet still allow editing in the eye-convenient 80x25 and 80x50 screen modes ■ More tracks on screen (up to 31) can be viewed using fields folding. ■ Full screen usually dedicated to a single purpose at a time - main menu, file manager, patterns, samples, info screen & more, unlike some trackers that squeeze too much editing features to one screen decreasing characters size and ease-of-use. ■ Context-sensitive Online Help Hypertext ■ C00l scroller in the InfoScreen! ■ 32bit code, loading the program into Extended Memory ■ Fast program loaded. This means you can execute LIQ.EXE without any significant delay, without any "DOS/4GW" or similar HD swapping. Good when executing from other programs. ■ A genuine *DOS* program, take advantage of all your system resources for the only important purpose - the music! Once you'll learn how to operate this tool, you will create music so fast and so professional, in a manner you've never thought possible! ╒════════════════╗ │ Requirements ║ └────────────────╜ Minimal ─────── ■ 386sx/16 ■ EGA display (CGA/MDA will work, but awful) ■ Sound Blaster 1.00 card ■ 350K XMS/EMS/int15h ■ 450K conventional memory Recommended ─────────── ■ At least 486/33 to handle multichannel modules with intermediate pans ■ SuperVGA with extended text modes, to allow huge pattern display ■ Sound Blaster 16 or Pro Audio Spectrum 16 for 16bit/stereo/44khz sound ■ 4 Megs free extended memory so huge modules will fit in. ■ Prefer to work with HIMEM.SYS rather than other EMMs. ■ The right mood ;-) ╒═══════════════════════════════╗ │ Command line options ║ └───────────────────────────────╜ Usage: LIQ [switches] [filename[.ext]] [switches] /? - Quick summery on command line options * /O? - Set output device to: 1=SB1 2=SB2 3=SBPro 4=SB16 8=File 9=PAS16 * /B??? - specifies sound card address * /I? - specifies IRQ * /D? - specifies DMA /F?? - specifies mix frequency (Khz) ** /L - Don't loop module Usable for player's SHELL such as ModMan, will cause exiting to Dos when module reaches last pattern ** /E - Quit Liquid upon pressing ESC Also usable for player's SHELL. It will cause Liquid to exit to Dos when pressing ESC at Info Screen, instead of going to main menu /M - Force mono mode /8 - Force 8bit mode /R - Reliable Mode, meaning: 1) Plays a bit faster, and ALOT faster under EMS mode (this is not triggered on by default, because it takes some more memory and also causes a delayed response when entering notes in the pattern editor). 2) Remains stayble under programs that reprogram the timer, like Dos's EDIT, QBASIC and GWBASIC 3) Switches to 'Violent' mode, if another program resets the sound card in Dos Shell (thus halting Liquid's playing task), it will re-initialize the sound card and restart playing from the same position it has been stopped. /S - Activate Demo Mode * If one of the parameters marked with an asterisk is not specified on the command line and "AutoDetect" in the Setup is set to ON, Liquid will use it's internal autodetection routine to find the missing parameters. ** Features marked with an two asterisks involves auto exiting to Dos, and will be discarded if the Pattern or Samples Editor is accessed, to avoid loss of data. ! The command line switches force overriding both the setup and the autodetection (which is invoked on every execution) results. ╒════════════════╕ │ L E G A L │ ╘════════════════╛ The Liquid Tracker program and documentation are copyright (c) 1993-1996 by Nir Oren, and all rights are reserved. No modifications may be made on the program nor on it's documentation, except for the author; and in no event such modified version may be distributed. The program may be distributed only as a whole, with all the files included in the original archive. No BBS ad's may be added to the LIQxxx.ZIP archive. You can use the Liquid Tracker (disribution version) in your program if you include the whole Liquid Tracker archive with it. No reverse-engineering, debugging or and kind of sourcing may be done on the program, except for the author; No money may be charged for the Liquid Tracker program, except for the author and the case of sharewares or CD-ROM distributor, as long as there is no special fee for the Liquid Tracker itself and as long as this is not the commercial version of Liquid Tracker. The author reserve the right to make any change in the program updates, including the changing, adding or removal of certion features. There is no warranty, and the author is not liable for any damage caused (although highly unlikely) by the use or the improper use of this program; use at your own risk. All the trademarks in this document are registered by their respective owners. ┌══════════════════════╗ │ P E R S O N A L ║ └──────────────────────╜ So what do we got here? Another module tracker. I know, this could have been much better, and will. I have started this project in the early days, when the most advanced trackers for the time being were ScreamTracker 2 & Komposer669. The first version was released in September '93. Since then, many trackers (dis)appeared, notably FastTracker1, MultiTracker, ScreamTracker 3 and FastTracker2. Module players? more than the water drops in sea (We need one module player for every 50 users now don't we). However, this is a Tracker, not a player (as one can figure). And a good one, I hope. Lots of TOTALLY AMAZING, useful and essential ideas are on the way. Also as a module player, it acts perfectly, loading all data into extended memory, plays modules pretty accurate, providing very good sound quality, and nice InfoScreen. I think we have an issue here of using LIQUID as a S3M/MOD player on a daily basis (use it, I do! ;-) In addition, if you think that the Liquid Tracker has a great interface and it is usable for you, then register it! Tracker programming is probably the most non-profitable application a programmer can write, compares to the work invested on it. It sometimes takes years to develop (because it's complex routines), it's market is generally low, (Because it meant for musicians only. try comparing the amount of "tracking programs" users, to "communication programs" users, for example) so it's probably an addiction writing such program. (But hey, real computerized music composers know, that nothing compares to the Tracker's concept in making music) Special thanx must go to my beta team which is ─────────────────────────────────────────────── Adi Sapir [DoC], Hay Shalom [Dr.Music], Yossi Zinger [Quadri] Adi Berger [EagleBerger], Motti Koskas [F-16], Guy Nir [Mr.B] Lior Elkotser (thanks for the Tseng!) and... Moti Radomski [Chompi] Greeting goes out to all those who MADE/MAKE the PC sound scene ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Sami Tammilehto (for ST/FC/DIGIPLAY/EMS/16CHN), Otto Chrons (DMP/16bit), Thomas Pytel (8CHN Tracker/GUS), Mark J Cox (StereoCovox/Modplay), David López & Angel Trigo (SBPro), Fredrik Huss & Mognus Hogdakl (FT[2]) Joshua C. Jensen (GUS) Keep up with the good work! ╒═════════════════════════╗ │ Technical Information ║ └─────────────────────────╜ DIGITAL SOUND MIXING CONCEPT 16 BITS sound Many people wonder "what is the real difference between 8 bit and 16 bits sound ? Is it worth buying a 16 bit sound card ?" the answer is simple. 16 bits sound gives you the benefit of a better amplitude precision. This becomes more noticeable as the number of playing channels increases (Naturally, more channels will cause each channel to play softly, but this can be perfectly resolved by post-amplifying the output sound) and is less noticeable when less channels are playing. With 16 bit sound, you can hear clearly the minor details of the sound, too, whereas with 8 bit these will get distorted (try listening to a multichannel module starting from a low volume and you should clearly hear the difference, or better, if you are able to find SUB.LIQ by Adi Sapir, test this one). As for the profitability from buying 16 bit card: nowadays 16bit cards' prices are quite low (the SB16/PAS16 are really cheap in their basic version; the PAS16 BASIC is significantly cheap; 70$ in Israel (probably half the price in USA (=35$))) So, if you have a good amplifier and hi-fi system, get a 16bit card right away (and if you don't have good hi-fi, then buy one; if you don't want to spend any money on a good amplifier, what the heck are you doing here reading Tracker documentations, anyway?!) The Mixing Frequency (= sampling rate) That is the speed at which the sound is mixed, which means how many times per seconds the sound is updated (ex. 44.1Khz means sound is updates 45158 times per second). This also refers to the maximum frequency the player will allow a sample to play with full representation of all the bytes in the sample. The higher, the better the sound will get, and more CPU time the sound routines require to mix the channels. Now one can ask... Why not produce a card with 32 bit sound support? why not produce a card with 88 Khz sound support (for example)? The answer to that question is that the human ears can't get more than a certain frequency and amplitude resolution and thus increasing those values is absolutely redundant. Now, since the highest sound frequency that can be heard by human ear is 22 Khz (and one with very good hearing; the avarage is something around 16 Khz), and since there's a physical rule regarding digitized samples saying that in order to get certain sound frequency, you should record and play it in double frequency, the standard quality in studio recordings (also in CDs) became 44 Khz. (thanks to Guy Nir for the above information). Anyway, even 33 Khz sound with 12 bits sound is enough for avarage human hearing. I would have stated even lower frequency, but the sound filters existing on many 16 bit sound cards (notably the SB16 with it's CODEC chip) require about 33 Khz to get the maximum quality possible. ■ 16 BIT cards with built-in memory vs. software mixing routines ----------------------------------------------------------------- Performing the channels-mixing by software is a relatively complicated process and not easy to program. In addition, it takes some CPU time, depending on the sound routines optimization, channels number, mixing frequency, pan positions and more... Those facts (mostly the first one) make the development of high-quality* 'multi-tracks' sound software a property of few "addicted" programmers and groups (this number is however increaseing day by day, due to sources releases by some of the programmers despair from creating their software). In the year 1992 Advanced Gravis started their revolution with their UltraSound card which is basically an enhanced version of the "Paula" Chip on the Amiga. It does the mixing by hardware, and no CPU time is involved. Of course, this method has it's disadvantage: the output sound cannot be post- processed! This means that you cannot mix specific channel with a special method (like "robotize" for example), or any sort of digital effects (of course, you can always wait until the hardware manufacture develops a new hardware with "effects" but this always costs more and it does not upgrade as fast as software which does the same). * High-quality means that the playing routines will support 16bit sound and 16bit cards as well as support >4 channels (this needs highly optimized sound routines), and support XMS or EMS. A nice bonus would be if the routines fully support panning, 16bit, over 64K samples and various sound devices. ╒══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │ Software Mixing vs. Hardware Mixing Comparison Table │ ╘══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ REALTIME SOFTWARE MIXING HARDWARE MIXING (SB16, SBPro, SB1,2, PAS, (Gravis Ultrasound, Windows Sound System, DAC, Soundblaster AWE32) GUS/AWE in their software mixing mode (which is not widely supported by prog- rams), Pc-Speaker) CPU TIME USED Alot. Very dependant on the Minimal. optimization of the software, The Mixing itself does vary from one to another. not require any CPU when a 486DX33 machine is time. This is actually dedicated to sound calc. the biggest advantage you can use more than 32 of the GUS/AWE, less tracks playing at 33Khz, important if you don't 16Bit, Stereo and still have plan on playing games, lots of CPU time available. and you only want on a 386SX/33, you can mix to play music. about 9 channels with BEST QUALITY - and still have CPU time (even up to 13 channels but with no CPU time left, just remember to run LIQ -R) SOUND QUALITY Excellent on 16 Bit! Very Excellent (GUS quality good at 8 Bit, depends in goes down with more than the software and the sound 16 channels). Also it filters on specific cards. depends on the hardware Since sound can be post- sound filters on the processed the quality can specific sound card. be improved by software usually cannot be improved based digital filters in by new releases of various new versions of various software. software. SUPPORT Supported by most of the Supported by most of players/trackers available. the NEW players/trackers Not widely supported by available. games games; Companies prefer Supported by new games. to use the FM. see next Foreseen to be a standard section. in games since it doesn't take CPU time and deliver great quality. PROGRAMMING Depend on the sophistica- Relatively easy. tion level of the software; full panning? fast routines? 16bit? stereo? software amplifying? various output devices? relatively complicated. MEMORY Latest programs can utilize You have to pay extra all available memory which cost for on-card memory means that if you have 32MEG chips. Vary from 256K board memory you can dedicate to 8 MEGA (some old cards it all to samples! memory is support up to 2 MEGA) shared which means less cost. MIXING DIGITAL. ANALOG. RECOMMENDED This section has been added only recently. Since today's CPUs are running faster every day, and 586's running at 200 Mhz became not such a rare thing, it is safer to say that a program can do all the mixing using the CPU, yet still have a lot of remaining time for the foreground application (if any), and enough CPU time to performe echoes, filters, interpolation, and anything needed. So sound cards like the GUS and AWE are redundant, to my opinion (as long as there are good sound routines available to perform the mixing, like Liquid's ;-) ╓───────────────────────────────= CONTACTS =───────────────────────────────╖ ║ ║ ║ New versions of Liquid can be obtained FREELY from ║ ║ ║ ║ Anesthesia (A) BBS - (972)-7-9971505 - 28k - 24 Hrs Log name: LIQUID ║ ║ (972)-7-9954490 - 14k - 24 Hrs Password: LIQUID ║ ║ ║ _______ ║ ║ \ \_\ ║ ║ / \_______\║ ║ You can cont(r)act the author by: │ SnailMail: ||__\ __/ | ║ ║ │ (°°_________/ ║ ║ FidoNET: 97:200/215, 2:403/442 │ Nir Oren ║ ║ ------------------------------------- │ P.O. box 8180 ║ ║ InterNET: nir.oren@tbu.excellnet.co.il │ Petah Tikva 49181 ║ ║ │ Israel <reply guaranteed!> ║ ║ │ (The SNAIL is (C) !!! ;-) ║ ╙──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╜ or al, al ; Are we at null? jnz Fast_Introduction * * * End if LIQ.DOC * * *