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Text File | 1994-08-25 | 17.0 KB | 390 lines

╔╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╗ ╟┼┼┼┼┼┴┴┴┘░░░░▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓██████████████████████████████████▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒░░░░└┴┴┴┼┼┼┼┼╢ ╟┴┴┴┴┘░░░░▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓████┌────────────────────────────────┐████▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒░░░░└┴┴┴┴╢ ║░░░░▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓████ ·∙──┤ Dual Module Player Companion ├──∙· ████▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒░░░░║ ╟┬┬┬┬┐░░░░▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓████└────────────────────────────────┘████▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒░░░░┌┬┬┬┬╢ ╟┼┼┼┼┼┬┬┬┐░░░░▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓██████████████████████████████████▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒░░░░┌┬┬┬┼┼┼┼┼╢ ╚╧╧╧╧╧╧╧╧╧═════════════════╤══════════════════════╤═════════════════╧╧╧╧╧╧╧╧╧╝ │ ⌐ Version 2.40 ¬ │ ┌──┴──────────────────────┴──┐ │ (C) 1994 Psychic Psoftware │ └────────────────────────────┘ Contents ■ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────-─--∙∙··· · ─────────────────┘ ■ Introduction ■ Features ■ Where to find new versions ■ Mailing lists ■ List of keys ■ Sample Ripper ■ Configuration ■ Limitations ■ Thanks ■ To do ■ Where to contact me Introduction ■ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────-─--∙∙··· · ─────────────────────┘ ■ This program is CARDWARE/SMILEWARE, that is, you may distribute it freely as long as you don't charge any fee for it and if you want to continue using it, please send me a postcard of your hometown (or a letter with a picture of your hometown included). ■ DMPC was written as a front end for the Dual Module Player ((C) 1992, 1993, 1994 Otto Chrons). DMPC was originally coded just before I had to write an examination, so don't expect miracles (not big ones anyway). It was designed to be small and fast rather than big and flashy... and with all the additions over the last year or so it's getting more flashy (and fast!). Hopefully this will make using the command-line driven DMP (an excellent product) easier to use. In fact it should make using any command-line driven program absolute heaven (NB. I'm the author, I like my program *8). ■ Legal stuff: If this program does anything that is antisocial to your computer, hey, shit happens.... and I'm not responsible. Features ■ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────-─--∙∙··· · ─────────────────┘ ■ Supports: ANY FORMAT YOU WANT!! ■ You can use virtually any player you want! ■ Reads multiple directories at startup. ■ Sample ripper for MOD, S3M, 669, MTM, ULT, FAR, STM, AMF & DSM files. ■ Piano-style layout for the preview functions. ■ Rip samples to signed SMP, unsigned SAM, Windows WAVE, Creative Voice, Sounder/SoundTool, Scream Tracker 3, Farandole Composer and Tetra Music Editor formats. ■ Preview sample on GUS, PAS, SoundBlaster, Tandy, LPT DAC or Speaker. ■ Support for ARJ, LHA, ZIP, LIMIT, HA, HYPER, HPACK, SQZ, ZOO, PAK, ARC, UltraCompressor II (rel 2) and RAR archives. ■ Description file for archived files. ■ Configure up to 50 players. ■ Built in screen saver with user-definable timeout length. ■ Mouse support. ■ Logfile that makes DMPC startup approx. 85% faster than usual. ■ Reads up to 2000 music files. ■ Listfile support (@DMPC.LST) ■ Play a list of files sequentially or in random order. ■ Switch between 25 and 43/50 line modes. ■ Load/Save tagged selection. ■ Change drive/directory. ■ Fast file find with partial matching. ■ Extract to temp directory. ■ Delete files/all tagged files. ■ Tag/untag by file extension. New Versions ■ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────-─--∙∙··· · ─────────────────────┘ Can always be found at: » ftp.sun.ac.za /pub/msdos/audio/local » ftp.wustl.edu /pub/msdos_uploads/modplayers » archive.epas.utoronto.ca /pub/pc/ultrasound/submit » ftp.uwp.edu /pub/incoming/modplayers OR pub/msdos/modplayers -=> Read DMPC.BBS for a list of official DMPC distribution/support sites <=- Mailing Lists ■ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────-─--∙∙··· · ─────────────────────┘ Thanks to Pieter Immelman, I now have two mailing lists for DMPC. » The first list is DMPC-LIST which is a list aimed at distributing the latest version of DMPC to people who don't have FTP access (and to Sysops of BBSes that are DMPC support sites and need DMPC as fast as possible). To subscribe to DMPC-LIST, send a mail message to listserver@oliver.sun.ac.za with the body of the message being: SUBSCRIBE DMPC-LIST <YOUR-NAME> Please fill your name in where I've put <YOUR-NAME> and don't include the <> on either side (yes folks, it does happen!). Conditions for DMPC-LIST ------------------------ DO NOT subscribe to this list if a) you mailer can't handle incoming messages larger than 64Kb or b) you have access to any FTP sites that carry DMPC (see the list above). » The second list is DMPC-TALK which is a talk list, anybody is free to join. This list is for discussion about future additions, bug reports etc in/on the DMPC music player shell/sample ripper. To subscribe to the DMPC talk list, send a mail message to listserver@oliver.sun.ac.za with a the body of the message being: SUBSCRIBE DMPC-TALK <YOUR-NAME> Keys ■ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────-─--∙∙··· · ─────────────┘ Up and down scroll through the list of music files. PG UP Move one page up PG DN Move one page down HOME Go to start of list END Go to end of list ENTER play the file OR changes to the directory. SPACE will tag/untag a file. T tags all. U untags all. D delete current file. P plays all tagged files in order or if there are no tagged files, it will act like ENTER. R does the same as P except that it specifies random selection. O plays one of the tagged files randomly and untags it. S Save current tagged selection to file. L Load a tag selection from file (clears previous tagged selection). . Re-read current directory. , Toggle scanning of directories in DMPC.DIR on/off. / Toggle between manual directory reading and reading DMPC.LOG V Toggle screen mode between 25 and 43/50 (if possible). C Change drive. F Find a music file by name. X Export descriptions to DMPC.DSC I Edit a description from the file selection menu. F1 Display help page. 1..0 Select config 1-10 ALT-1..0 " " 11-20 SHIFT-1..0 " " 21-30 CTRL-F1..F10 " " 31-40 ALT-F1..F10 " " 41-50 ALT-A..Z Jump to music files beginning with that letter. F10 Shell to DOS CTRL-L Write all information about files to DMPC.LOG CTRL-C Change to directory on current drive. CTRL-D Delete all tagged files. CTRL-R Go into the sample ripper/previewer CTRL-T Tag all files with certain file extension. CTRL-U Untag all files with certain file extension. ■ When writing DMPC.LOG, only the current information will be saved, ie. files not in the file selection list will not be in the logfile. If DMPC.LOG isn't found at startup with USE_LOGFILE=TRUE, DMPC will read the directories in the normal manner. If you change to a drive/directory that isn't represented in the logfile, DMPC will read it manually. ■ For players without a listfile capability: When your tagged selection includes archived files, DMPC will de-archive and play them one at a time (for disk space reasons) randomly or sequentially. If DMPC is controlling the selection play then pressing N in DMP will not take you to the next file in the selection (for obvious reasons) but if you press ESC it will play the next file. Press ESC twice in fast succession if you want to quit a DMPC controlled selection (and I mean fast!). ■ For players with listfile capability: When your tagged selection includes archived files, DMPC will de-archive all the archived files in the list and then pass control to the player (make sure you have the space!). After the player finishes playing the selection DMPC will remove all the de-archived archive files from your temp diretory. ■ If you have a mouse, moving the mouse up and down will do the same as the up and down arrow keys. The left button emulates P and the right button emulates SPACE. Sample Ripper ■ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────-─--∙∙··· · ──────────────────────┘ In the sample ripper you have a new set of functions mapped to the keys. You can use the cursor keys to move to the different samples. If you want to preview the samples, try and use a DAC, SoundBlaster, PAS or GUS because the samples sound really lousy through the PC Speaker. You can only preview up to 64k, therefore if a sample is bigger than 64k, you'll only hear up to the 64k mark. The ripper, however, can rip the samples even if they're bigger than 64k. MTM, FAR and ULT support now includes pseudo support for 16 bit samples. I cut the sample to 8 bits to play it, 16 bit samples can (for now) only be saved in SAM, SMP, FSM or Windows WAVE format. The unsigned raw sample is saved in a FastTracker v1.x compatible format. Config options: RIPPER_DIR is the directory where you want DMPC to save your samples to. RIPPER_DEVICE tells DMPC what device it will be using, valid options are GUS, PAS, SoundBlaster, DAC and Speaker. RIPPER_PORT is the port that DMPC will play the sample through. RIPPER_DMA specifies what DMA channel to use for the SoundBlaster. DMPC finally has a proper keyboard-style layout for the frequencies and is using the 110 x 2^(n / 12) formula for the frequency scale. The new layout (which is exactly the same as Scream Tracker 3's) can be seen below. 'Z' starts at C3 and 'P' ends on an E5. All of these keys will change the frequency and then play the sample. Samples are only loaded if you want to play a different sample to the last used one. People using a DAC or the PC Speaker will have to wait for the complete sample to play before they can select the next note etc. All other (supported) soundcards should allow you to stop a sample at any time. Actual note: C# D# F# G# A# C# D# F# G# A# C# D# │ │ ││ │ │ │ ││ ││ │ │ │ ││ │ │ │ ││ ││ │ │ │ ││ │ │ │ │ ││ │ │ │ ││ ││ │ │ │ ││ │ │ │ ││ ││ │ │ │ ││ │ │ │ │S││D│ │ │G││H││J│ │ │2││3│ │ │5││6││7│ │ │9││0│ │ │ └┬┘└┬┘ │ └┬┘└┬┘└┬┘ │ └┬┘└┬┘ │ └┬┘└┬┘└┬┘ │ └┬┘└┬┘ │ │ Z│ X│ C│ V│ B│ N│ M│ Q│ W│ E│ R│ T│ Y│ U│ I│ O│ P│ └──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┘ Actual note: C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E ENTER Play a sample (8 bit or pseudo 16 bit) at current frequency. CTRL-R 8 or 16 bit signed (SMP) CTRL-U 8 or 16 bit unsigned (SAM) CTRL-S SoundTool (SND) CTRL-W Windows WAVE (WAV) CTRL-V Creative Voice (VOC) CTRL-C Scream Tracker 3 (8 or 16 bit SMP) CTRL-F Farandole Composer (8 or 16 bit FSM) CTRL-T Tetra Module Editor (SPL) HOME Move to first sample END Move to last sample ESC Go back to DMPC menu. The ripper supports MOD, S3M, 669, STM, MTM, ULT, AMF, FAR & DSM files. Trying to rip unknown formats will produce garbage & maybe crash DMPC! I'm working on other formats (what other formats are there now?), but don't hold your breath... I need format specs!! Please send me the specs for whatever formats you can get your hands on!! Can anyone with information on how to play digital samples through the Adlib range of cards please send it to me? Same goes for any other card you would like supported, send me the info I need and I'll try add it for you. Configuration ■ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────-─--∙∙··· · ──────────────────────┘ ■ DMPC has a config file (DMPC.CFG) for the command-line switches that you would use when loading your modplayer. It can have multiple devices and players and follows the MS Windows (TM) (yech!) INI type format. Many of the options are defaulted for ease of use. See DMPC.CFG for an illustration of the format. The device name can be up to 30 characters long, options 40 characters and the player definitions can be up to 60 characters long. The file inclusion mask is a list of characters that represent the different formats that a player can play (see DMPC.FMT for more info). ■ DMPC will search the path for ARJ.EXE, LHA.EXE, etc. and DMPC.CFG, if it can't find DMPC.CFG in the path, current directory or the directory where DMPC.EXE was executed from it will take -p42 -c6 (PC SPEAKER!! <--- Yech!) and DMP as the default. If ARJ.EXE cannot be found (using the same search technique as for DMPC.CFG), DMPC will not search ARJ files for music files (similarly for the other archivers). When a file occurs uncompressed and in an archive, only the uncompressed file is shown in the list of available music. Limitations ■ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────-─--∙∙··· · ───────────────────┘ ■ If you don't have EMS on your machine, DMPC will crawl when you try to play anything 'cause it will be swapping to disk. A RAM disk as the swap dir will improve things. ■ You can only use up to 2000 music files. ■ Samples on DAC/Speaker can't be cut short like on SB/GUS/PAS/Tandy. ■ DMPC will not work on Hercules displays. ■ Sub-directories in archives are not supported. ■ The sample preview on PC Speaker sounds lousy, but it always does... »» Now stop reading this dumb DOC and go and play some music! *8) «« Thanks to ■ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────-─--∙∙··· · ──────────────────┘ ∙ Otto Chrons for writing DMP/PMP and sending me information about his AMF format. Ask him about DSMI (what DMP was written with). ∙ Robert Jung for the tech info about ARJ files in UNARJ230.EXE ∙ Thomas Wagner for his PD swapout routine. ∙ Thayne Breetzke for his advice and positive criticism (and an email address). ∙ Bryan Kilian for helping me get DMPC from just an idea into such a popular program (not to mention helping with the code some of the time!). ∙ Rory Freeman for various helpful routines. ∙ Sand (K. Sunley) for designing a really cool ANSI screen for DMPC. ∙ Mark Adler for sending me the ZIP header format. ∙ Toni Nikkanen for becoming a registered DMPC user... *8) ∙ All the people who have responded so positively (and negatively?) to DMPC! ∙ My friends on IRC for suggesting new features & functions. ∙ Ashton Mills for making this doc more readable. ∙ Daniel Nicholson for giving me ideas on how to implement the ripper. ∙ VangelisTeam's Tracker source... I learnt some things in there! ∙ Jeff Bird & the SoundBlaster Freedom Project (even though I had to do some really weird corrections to the code to get it to work!). ∙ Necros of The Psychic Monks for forcing me to put S3M ripping routines into DMPC and for No Memories II. ∙ Worx (Roger Moe) for helping me fix the bugs in the timer polling routine of the DAC/Speaker sample previewer. ∙ Nocturnus for finding the format specs for MTM, FAR & ULT for me. ∙ Stephen Retzlaff for making me add the listfile code & the fast find. ∙ Sunny Woo for helping me debug, test & improve DMPC. ∙ Advanced Gravis Technology for their SDK. ∙ AIP-NL for providing information about UltraCompressor II. ∙ Thomas Varsamidis for helping me make the sample previewer better. ∙ Jeffrey L Hayes for producing the Tandy DAC guide. ∙ Guns n' Roses for providing the music I work best to (and some nifty quotes) To do ■ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────-─--∙∙··· · ──────────────┘ - Any other archivers you want supported? Are there any other archivers? - Support other soundcards? (ARIA, WSS, Adlib?) - Add support for more formats in the ripper... all I need now are the format specs and I'll add them! - I need a swapper that supports EMS/XMS/Disk, can anybody help? » If you can think of anything else you want to see in future releases, just pop me some email at the address mentioned below. Contact moi at ■ ┌───────────────────────────────────────────-─--∙∙··· · ───────────────────────┘ ∞ email : brad@canopus.ru.ac.za (Until November 94) OR 9216189@ml.petech.ac.za OR wmeier@lark.ru.ac.za These are not my own accounts so please mark the messages clearly with DMPC in the title (for the mail filter). ∞ snail-mail: -> DMPC <- Brad Meier 8 Jasmay PLace Nahoon Valley East London 5241 Sunny South Africa ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────