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1993-01-09
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7KB
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140 lines
Mountain Software Presents:
DMA-SOUND
(The STE DMA Sound Sample Player)
Version 1.2
Released January 15, 1993
By Anthony Watson
Shareware - $5
*****************************************************************************
REQUIREMENTS
The STE DMA Sound Sample Player allows you to play sound samples using the
hardware built into the STE/TT/Falcon computers. Naturally older ST's which
do not have this hardware will not be able to use this program. The program
itself only uses 15K of RAM, though memory usage overall varies with each
sample played. The only limit to the length of sample playable is the RAM
you have available in your machine! DMA-SOUND should work from Hard-Drive,
Floppy Drive, or RAM-DISK.
*****************************************************************************
WHAT IT DOES
Recently I've been playing around with sound samples on my Mega STE.
There were many sample players for the ST/STE computers, and all did a fine
job! However, I found it 'unpleasant' having to load up a player program,
select playback speeds and so forth, just to hear my samples. I thought
there must be an easier way. So, I wrote my own player to suit what I wanted!
Since my computer has the hardware built in for Sample playback, I've
always converted any samples I have into the signed format necessary for the
DMA hardware. An excellent utility program for doing this is RESAMPLE. So
following the filename criteria set up for RESAMPLE, I decided to make use
of it's filename extensions. Therefore, Playback speeds are set up according
to the number in the extension:
.6 = 6 Khz
.12 = 12 khz
.25 = 25 khz
.50 = 50 khz
Any file which contains one of these numbers in the filename extension
will be considered an STE sample file, and will be played accordingly. In
other words, if you had a file such as 'SAMPLE.25E' it would be played back
at 25khz. If the file was named 'SAMPLE.6' it would be played back at 6khz.
You can run DMA-SOUND directly, and use the fileselector to locate the
sample you wish to play. However, the program was intended to be set up as
an application, allowing you to just click on the sound file you wish to
play. It's rather simple to do. Click once on the DMASOUND.PRG file. Then go
to 'Install Applications' under the 'options' heading in the menu bar. Then
enter the filetype you want to install the application for. Be sure to save
your desktop after completing this procedure!
Unfortunatly, the desktop 'install applications' procedure only allows
you to install a program for one file extension. To get around this, you'll
need to install the program for one extension. Then load the NEWDESK.INF
file (or DESKTOP.INF) into a text editor capable of loading/saving ASCII
text. Next, locate the line in the file which specifies the application you
just installed. (Look for DMASOUND.PRG).
Once you've found the correct line, make as many copies of this line as
necessary, and modify the extension requirements as needed. Then save the
file back out. You should end up with something similar to:
#G 03 04 000 F:\MTN_SOFT\DMASOUND\DMASOUND.PRG@ *.6??@ @
#G 03 04 000 F:\MTN_SOFT\DMASOUND\DMASOUND.PRG@ *.12?@ @
#G 03 04 000 F:\MTN_SOFT\DMASOUND\DMASOUND.PRG@ *.25?@ @
#G 03 04 000 F:\MTN_SOFT\DMASOUND\DMASOUND.PRG@ *.50?@ @
The beginning of these lines may vary according to the TOS version and
the path under which you've saved DMASOUND.PRG. Primarily make note of how
the extension variations are handled. Once you've modified the .INF file and
saved it back out, reboot your machine. Now you can play an STE signed sound
sample by simply clicking on the filename of the sample you wish to play!
*****************************************************************************
WHAT IT DOESN'T DO
DMA-SOUND 'WILL NOT' play back 'Unsigned' samples! These include any from
ST-Replay etc. The DMA hardware in the STE machines requires signed samples
and only has 4 built in playback speeds. (Listed above) Most 'conventional'
samples are sampled at 10khz, 15khz or some other frequency not compatible
with the DMA hardware.
I highly recommend both RESAMPLE by Steve Whitney, and SOUNDLAB by DMJ
Software for sound sample editing/conversions. If your samples are in a
different format, you WILL REQUIRE one of these excellent programs for
making the conversions. Both should be available on GEnie and/or your local
BBS!
*****************************************************************************
Version 1.1
Released October 15, 1992
Version 1.1 makes a few minor updates to the DMA SOUND utility:
1. DMA SOUND is now TT compatible
2. DMA SOUND now plays 'STEREO' samples! To differentiate between mono
and stereo, the last character of the sound samples filename
extension must end in 'S' for Stereo. If the last character is not an
'S' then the sample is assumed to be mono.
Sample extensions: .06S 6khz stereo sample
.6_S 6khz stereo sample
.6S 6khz mono sample (Note the difference?)
.25M 25khz mono sample
.25E 25khz mono sample
.25S 25khz stereo sample
3. You can now abort the sample playback by clicking either mouse key!
This is a nice feature to have if you 'accidently' play a very long
sound sample. Also, works nice when you are going through all of your
samples trying to find 'just the right one'!
*****************************************************************************
Version 1.2
Released January 15, 1993
1. The bug of DMASOUND bombing when trying to play some samples has been
fixed. After much confusion, I finally figured out it was bombing on
samples which contained 'ODD' numbers of bytes. It didn't matter what
length the sample was, only whether it had odd or even bytes. Once I
figured out the cause, it was an easy fix.
*****************************************************************************
SHAREWARE PLEA!
DMA-SOUND is Shareware! It's cost is only $5. However, this program has
not been disabled in any way, and it is strictly up to your honesty to
register this program. If you would like to continue seeing new programs
from Mountain Software, please show your support by sending $5 to:
Anthony Watson
6911 NE Livingston Road
Camas, Washington 98607
You can also reach me on GEnie (A.WATSON6), or leave E-Mail to Anthony
Watson on the Mosh Bit (Fnet #648, or FidoNet 1:105/139)
Thank you for trying DMA-SOUND! If you have any questions regarding this
program or any other Mountain Software product, please don't hesitate to
contact me!
Anthony