Amiga Magazin: Amiga-CD 1997 May & June

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$VER: DeliTracker.eng V2.21 (04.11.1995) Copyright 1995 by Delirium Softdesign (Peter Kunath and Frank Riffel) 1.OVERVIEW 2.LICENSING AND DISTRIBUTION 3.ORDERFORM 4.GETTING STARTED 4.1 System requirements 4.2 First steps 4.3 Tooltype Settings and Shell Environment 5.BASICS 5.1 Players 5.2 Genies 5.3 Packed modules 5.4 Module lists 6.HOW TO CONTROL DELITRACKER 6.1 The main window 6.2 The option window 6.3 The player window 6.4 The genie window 6.5 The program window 6.6 Shortcuts 6.7 Commodities 6.8 Arexx 7.NOTES 8.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1.OVERVIEW Welcome to DeliTracker 2.21. For those who don't know: DeliTracker is a highly flexible soundplayer which supports many sound formats. The replay routines for the common formats ProTracker, NoiseTracker, SoundTracker 15 and 31 instrument version and StarTrekker without AM sounds, are builtin. Additional players can be loaded from disk. DeliTracker is NOT a Sampler, Digitizer, MIDI sequencer nor a song editor. It is only meant to play music modules in a very comfortable way. Here are some good reasons for using DeliTracker: ° System friendly and multitasks happily ° Highly expandable due to modular concept ° Allocates the sound channels ° Supports xpkmaster.library for decrunching ° Correct play speed in PAL/NTSC (uses timerdevice) ° Works well with serial.device ° Modulelists ° ARexx ° PubScreen support ° Hotkey (Commoditiy) ° Appwindow, modules can be played by simply dropping the module icon (or even a hole directory) into the mainwindow ° Written in 100% Assembler 2.LICENSING AND DISTRIBUTION DeliTracker (c) 1991 - 1995 by Peter Kunath and Frank Riffel. DeliTracker 2.21, the DeliTracker tool icon, their related documentation, utilities, and examples (hereinafter "Files") and in particular player and genie interface are (c) Copyright 1991-95 by Peter Kunath and Frank Riffel. All Rights Reserved. This package is Shareware. If you like this program and use it frequently, we encourage you to register. The share ware fee is $US 20 or 20 DM. You may send CASH or EUROCHEQUE's. We cannot accept any other cheques cause it is not possible for us to cash foreign checks without having to pay substantial fees to the bank. Registered users will be shipped a disk containing the latest release version of DeliTracker. Please allow a delay of 2-6 weeks. By co-operating with this concept you help to ensure continued development of this product. Please send your registration card (Orderform) and cheque/money to: Frank Riffel Merkstr. 27 82405 Wessobrunn Germany An orderform can be found at the end of this document. You may send bug reports, remarks, and suggestions to this address as well. If you have written a new soundsystem and you wish to adapt your replay-routine to DeliTracker, contact us. We will help you. DeliTracker may be distributed on public-domain, shareware disks, and electronic networks such as the Internet as longs as the followings conditions are fulfilled: 1. All Files must be kept together. You can find a list of all Files in 'Distribution'. 2. None of the distributed files may be modified in any way. The only exception is archiving (e.g. with LhA), but the original files must be 100% restoreable. 3. For any use in commercial products the permission of the authors is required. DeliTracker has been developed and tested thoroughly. Never-the-less, the Authors cannot be held responsible for any damages that are caused by DeliTracker. The Files and their related documentation, utilities, and examples are provided "AS-IS" and subject to change without notice; no warranties of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. No liability or responsibility is assumed. Use at your own risk. Installer and Installer project icon (c) Copyright 1991-93 Commodore-Amiga, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced and distributed under license from Commodore. 3.ORDERFORM *************************************************************************** * * * For registration, send this form along with USA $20 or 20 DM to: * * Frank Riffel, Merkstr. 27, 82405 Wessobrunn, Germany * * * *************************************************************************** * * * *********************************** * * ** ** * * ** DeliTracker Registration Form ** * * ** ** * * *********************************** * * * * * * Name : ______________________________________________________________ * * * * Address : ___________________________________________________________ * * * * City : _____________________________ State: _________________________ * * * * Postal Code: _______________________ Country: _______________________ * * * * email : _____________________________________________________________ * * * * DeliTracker Version: ______ Kickstart: _______ Amiga : ____________ * * * * * *************************************************************************** * * * * * OPTIONAL * * * * RAM : _____ MB FAST-RAM Processor : 680__0 * * * * _____ MB CHIP-RAM * * * * * * Comments : __________________________________________________________ * * * * _____________________________________________________________________ * * * * _____________________________________________________________________ * * * * _____________________________________________________________________ * * * * _____________________________________________________________________ * * * * _____________________________________________________________________ * * * * _____________________________________________________________________ * * * * _____________________________________________________________________ * * * * * *************************************************************************** 4.GETTING STARTED 4.1 System requirements DeliTracker II requires at least Workbench and Kickstart 2.0 (aka V37). We recomend the usage of Workbench 2.1 (or 3.x), because the ASL Filerequester of V38 and above is much faster and supports multiselect. If you want to use packed modules, the 'xpkmaster.library' and the corresponding sublibraries must be installed. Make sure that you use V2 of XPK! V1 is NOT sufficient. DeliTracker requires at least 150KB of memory. Additional memory is needed for every loaded genie, player, the current modulelist and the decrunched module. Of course, your System should be equiped with a Monitor that has speakers, or even better, connected to a HiFi system. 4.2 First Steps If you already use an older version of DeliTracker, please delete all the files in the old distribution and your configuration files. Now run the supplied installer script by simply double clicking on the apropriate installation icon. The installation script will install DeliTracker on your harddisk into a drawer named DeliTracker. After the installation we strongly suggest that you move seldom used players and genies to the storage dirs (e.g. from DeliPlayers/ to DeliPlayers/PlayerStore/). If you don't do this you will waste memory! If you need a particular player or genie you can still load it by yourself. If you start DeliTracker the first time besides the control window a few other windows will be opened. On 68000er systems this can take some seconds. These windows belong to particular players or genies. To avoid that DeliTracker opens all these windows every time you start you must configure them. It is not hard to do this. Activate a window. Now select the desired options. You will find several options in the 'Settings' menu. If you whish that the window should not be opened every time you start DeliTracker turn 'Popup' off. Some windows additionaly contain gadgets for several options. For those functions and options refer to 'Genies.doc' or 'Players.doc'. Now save these settings using the 'Save Prefs' from the 'Project' menu. You may close the window now and continue with another. Note: There is an ENV: variable called DELICONFIG. It contains the path to the configuration directory. This variable is important if DeliTracker was installed on a CD-ROM. You can set this variable to a directory on your harddisk (e.g SYS:DeliConfig). This enables you to use your favorite settings rather than the predefind on the CD. 4.3 Tooltype Settings and Shell Environment For Shell usage you must separate all keywords and arguments by spaces. Strings which contain spaces must be quoted. For Workbench usage (i.e. tooltypes) seperate the arguments from the keywords with '='. To set the tooltypes use the 'Information' item of the Workbench. Invalid Tooltypes are ignored. DeliTracker can be used as a 'Default Tool'. For this you have to enter the path where DeliTracker is located at the 'Default Tool' line of the module. This asumes that the module has a project icon. Shell Example: 'DeliTracker config "DELI Config" volume 32 filter no' Starts DeliTracker with 'DELI Config' as configuration file, turns the lowpass filter off (not on A1000's) and sets the volume to 32. These options are used as KEYWORDS in Tooltypes and as CLI templates. The keywords are not case sensitive! Option Default value and description -------------------- ----------------------------- config <file> "DeliConfig/DeliTracker.config" Loads the specified file as a configuration file. cx_priority <pri> 0 (default priority) Sets the commodities priority. Valid values are -128 to 127. cx_popup <yes|no> yes (window opened) Defines if the control window should be opened at startup. If it is set to 'no', no window will be opened. The mainwindow may be opened later via hotkey, Commodities Exchange or with an ARexx command. cx_popkey <string> "" (no hotkey), see also Hot Key closequits <yes|no> no (CloseWindow will hide the GUI) This option describes the behaviour when you push the close gadget of the mainwindow. If turned on DeliTracker will quit if the window is closed. This is also known as the 'Nessy' option:-) zoomed <yes|no> no (MainWindow will be opend with normal size) Determines whether the MainWindow will be opend in zoomed state (small size) or not. module <file> No file, empty module list. Uses <file> as startup module. Note: You can use Modulelists as well. playerpath <path> "DeliPlayers" Sets the searchpath for external players. geniepath <path> "DeliGenies" Sets the searchpath for external genies. pubscreen <Screen> "", default PubScreen (usually Workbench). Let you specify the name of the public screen where DeliTracker, all Player and Genie windows should pop up. If the given screen is not available (e.g. does not exist), DeliTracker opens its windows on the default public screen. Note: Screen names are case sensitive in V37! mainwinxy<XPos>/<YPos> 0/1 Attempts to open the mainwindow at the given position. prefwinxy<XPos>/<YPos> 0/1 Attempts to open the option window at the given position. playwinxy<XPos>/<YPos> 0/1 Attempts to open the player window at the given position. geniewinxy<XPos>/<YPos> 0/1 Attempts to open the genie window at the given position. progwinxy<XPos>/<YPos> 0/1 Attempts to open the program window at the given position. filereq <X/Y/W/H> "" (requester internal default setting) Specifies the filerequester coordinates. volume <volume> 64 (maximal volume) Sets the volume to <volume>. Where volume can range from 0 to 64. balance <balance> 0 Sets the balance to <balance>. Where balance can range from -64 (left channels only) to 64 (right channels only). quickstart <yes|no> yes (module is played immediately after loading) Defines if a loaded module should begin to play immediately after loading or if the module is in a paused state. This option is meant for synchronization purposes in ARexx scripts. filter <yes|no> no (filter off) Switches the internal lowpass filter on or off. An advantage of having the filter off is that frequencies over 7kHz are not cut off. This has the effect that most modules will sound much better. Note: On A1000 this switch has no effect. appicon <yes|no> yes (display appicon) If turned on an appicon is left when mainwindow is closed else no appicon appears. lowchip <yes|no> no (use chipmem for modules) If turned on DeliTracker tries to use fastmem for the module. swapplay <yes|no> no (don't use low memory handler) If turned on DeliTracker will attempt to flush unused players. DeliTracker will re-load the players when needed. This function works only with V39 and above. songend <yes|no> no (ignore songend signals) Lets you specify whether songend events should be ignored or not. Some players support a notification of the song end. If this option is set, DeliTracker will pause the module and load the next module. If only one module is in the soundlist then it is paused after the song has played once. append <yes|no> no (replace modulelist with new selection) Lets you specify whether the soundlist should be inserted at the current position or replaced by the new selection. randmod <yes|no> no (play modules in sequential order) Lets you specify whether a Next/Prev-Song event should take a randomly picked or the following (preceeding) list entry for loading. Once a module has been played it won't be reselected until other selected modules have been played. This behaviour is also known as 'Shuffleplay'. This option only works if there are more than 2 entries in the modulelist. activate <yes|no> yes (activate window at startup) If turned off all windows are opened in inactive state. May be useful for shell users. Hi Zop :-) timeout <secs> 0 (no timeout) Lets you specify the amount of time (in secs) after that DeliTracker will cause a Next-Song event. A value of 0 disables timeout. If songend is enabled DeliTracker will react on the first event that occours. fadeout <secs> 0 (don't fade) Lets you specify the time for fadeing out. A value of zero disables the smooth transition between two modules. This feature is only available for players that support volume changing. randsong <yes|no> no (first subsong) Lets you specify whether the first or a random subsong should be choosen when a new module is played. playstart <yes|no> yes (startmodule is played at startup) Defines weather the startup-module should be played when DeliTracker is started. 5.BASICS 5.1 Players The player concept is one of the strong points in DeliTracker. After loading a player DeliTracker will recognize and play modules of this type. It has the advantage that you may only load the players that you need (= efficient memoryusage). Of course you may unload any player at any time. Another advantage is that you only need to know how to use DeliTracker rather than every single player. Multimedia applications in conjunction with ARexx greatly benefit from this (e.g. You may play any Module in an AmigaVision(TM) presentation). Another major advantage is that the player interface is very flexible so everyone may easily enhance update or adapt players. For details on programming read the includefile and 'Developer.doc'. DeliTracker has the common players built in. These are: SoundTracker15, SoundTracker31, StarTrekker without AM sounds, NoiseTracker and ProTracker. There is another player called 'CustomPlay'. This is a special player that was created to play special modules that contain their own replay code. These 'modules' may not be crunched, because they are loaded via LoadSeg() to allow relocation. In V2 we have added support for player processes (i.e. Now it should be fairly easy to create players that load samples directly from disk). Another improvement is the introduction of the "Noteplayer Interface". This is nothing else than virtualizing all sound hardware accesses. The player does not write to the hardware at all instead it fills out a structure with the needed information. DeliTracker passes this structure to a Noteplayer Genie that handles the sound processing. Other genies may evaluate this data, too. The number of external players that may be loaded is only limited by the amount of free memory. When DeliTracker is started all players in the 'DeliPlayers' directory or the specified playerpath e.g. tooltypes or in the configfile are loaded. The external players are listed and described in the 'Players.doc'. 5.2 Genies Genies are a new concept in Release 2.0. Basicaly they are little "programs" which extend or enhance DeliTrackers functionality. In many respects genies are similiar to commodities. They can react on user actions and DeliTracker's internal program states. They can have their own GUI that can be shown or hidden. Genies usualy run as seperate processes. This enables them to do asynchronus event processing. You can quit a genie either with the remove genie function (found in the genie window) or by sending a CTRL-C to the genie process itself. The GUI of a genie usualy offers menus with the following menu items: Project About A ? Short info about the genie. ============== Save Prefs A S Save the current settings as default ============== Hide A H Hide the GUI ============== Quit A Q Remove the Genie Settings Activate A A Activates the window if the GUI is opened Popup A P Opens the GUI when the Genie was loaded ============== Other settings Other genie specific settings, see the ·············· particular genie documentation. There are different types of genies: NotePlayer Genies This type of genie has the task of hiding the actualy used audio hardware. You can think of a NotePlayer genie like a virtual audio device. A major reason for virtualizing the hardware accesses, is that later NotePlayers could make use of high quality sound cards (or a new chipset) which may support more than four channels. With the help of the CPU (or later a DSP)a Noteplayer genie can emulate more than four channels. As a side effect of the currently used mixing technology for the native amiga soundhardware, we can reduce the chipmem usage to 1KB of sample buffer memory. For future compatibility, the NotePlayer mechanism is prepared to handle 16 Bit samples, as well as for several sample encoding schemes (signed/unsigned/ulaw). Players that support this interface will greatly benefit from this. Here are some of the advantages: ° Independence of the used audio hardware ° Independence of the number of hardware channels ° Audiodata can be shared with other genies as well (Stereoscope, Quadrascope, FFT Analyzer ....) ° Resource handling is done by the Noteplayer genie This includes memory/channel allocation and hardware initialisation. ° Volume and Balance control is also done by the genie When a player requires a Noteplayer, DeliTracker will try to use the "cheapest" noteplayer it can get. The choice is based on following criterias: CPU usage, used memory type and the number of channels. They are evaluated in that order. Decrunch Genies Decrunch genies can decrunch files that are loaded by DeliTracker. Note: You will run into trouble if you want to load multipart modules from one archive. Think of a LhA'ed TFMX module! Convert Genies Convert one module format into another. The user has the advantage that only few optimized and bugfree players are needed to play a variety of "packed"/"optimized"/"crypted" module formats. In most cases you would need much more code for a player than for a converter. Other Genies These Genies have no defined task. They can control or monitor many things. Many users have suggested that we should supply "graphical equalizers" and other things that make the screen alive. Or just wanted more information about the current module. With this type of genie it is possible to extend DeliTracker, so that more infos can be displayed. And indeed in most cases they display optional information. This can be simple things like sample names, number of patterns, or the filesize. With the aid of a fast CPU they can also display more complex things like the current waveforms or the frequency distribution (think of an FFT Analyzer). Genies that display such complex things will usually run at process priority of -5 so they will only get the cpu when no other important task needs the cpu. Only the Paula-NotePlayer Genie is internal. This is a Noteplayer for up to 4 voices that uses the audio.device channel allocation and direct writing to the hardware for output. The user can select the allocation precedence. All other genies are loaded at startup from '/DeliGenies'. For the external genies refer to 'Genies.doc'. 5.3 Packed modules If xpkmaster.library V2 or higher is installed DeliTracker will use the library for decrunching. Optionaly you may load Decrunch Genies for use of other packers. Certain players do not support module packing! This is due to the fact that those players load the module by themselves rather than using the internal LoadFile() function. If the player-info field for a particular player shows 'Packable....NO' you are not allowed to crunch modules for this player. NOTE: Don't pack custom modules because they are loaded and RELOCATED via LoadSeg()! The only way to get around this is to use the XFH filehandler or patch LoadSeg() with xLoadSeg to be able to load XPK compressed files. 5.4 Modulelists DeliTracker has an internal Modulelist, that can be manipulated with the program window. Add modules, arrange each entry as you want and save the whole as a modulelist. Later you can retrive your favorite selection. Modulelists are organized as ascii files. The first line must contain 'MODLIST' as an identifier. Each further line can contain the filename of a module, a module directory or the path of another modulelist. DeliTracker treads Modulelists nearly like modules. The difference is that when DeliTracker wants to 'play' a Modulelist, the modulelist it is treated as a new selection of modules. The 'Random Mod' and the 'Append' flags are evaluated. WARNING: In one very special case this leads to a deadlock situation. This happens when the first entry in the Modulelist is the list itself and 'Random Mod' is off. At that point DeliTracker will not stop to replace the modulelist by itself again and again. Don't create such lists! 6.HOW TO CONTROL DELITRACKER 6.1 The main window The main window is the central part of the DeliTracker. All module specific things may be controlled with this panel. DeliTracker's main window consists of four groups. Each group can be folded away, so that you can choose which parts of the window are visible. If the window is active the titlebar shows the actual list nubmer, the number of modules in the list, the used player and the filename of the module. The following is a overview of how the full window looks. Note: If a gadget is drawn ghosted, then this option is not accessible for this player. There could be two reasons for this:First, the soundsystem does not have this feature at all (e.g. SoundTracker has no SubSongs), and second, the player is not perfectly adapted (which is more likely). +----------+--------------------------------------+------------+ | Module: | ////////////MODULE NAME///////////// | [ Time ] |\ +----------+--------------------------------------|------------| Info | Format: | ///////////MODULE FORMAT//////////// | 00:00:00 |/ +----------+--------------------------------------+------------+\ | Comment: | [ ====================== 13 =================== ] | Comment +---+---+--++-+------------------------------------------+-+---+/ | | | | | [12] | | |\ |[O]|[P]|[G]+-+------------------------------------------+-+[R]| Control | | | | | [11] | | |/ +---+---+-+-+-++-----+-----+-----+----+-----+-----+-----++-+---+ |[+]| | | | | | | | | | +--\ |\ +---+ |< | < | << | |> | >> | > | >| | [] | ^ | | | | Tapedeck |[-]| | | | | | | | | - | +--+ |/ +---+-----+----+-----+-----+-----+----+-----+-----+-----+------+ [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] Tapedeck group [+] Faster: plays song a little faster [-] Slower: plays song a little slower [1] Prev Song: play the previous song. This gadget is only enabled if more than one file was selected. If 'Random Mod' is selected this button picks a random module. See also 'Random Mod'. [2] Prev SubSong: Jumps to the previous sub-song (if available). [3] Prev Pattern: Jumps to the previous pattern. If the current pattern is the first, the counter is set to the last pattern. [4] Play/Pause: Plays a paused sound or pauses a playing sound. [5] Forward: Jumps to the next pattern in the module. If the current pattern is the last, the counter wraps around to the first. [6] Next SubSong: Plays the next subsong of a module. This function allows you to select other melodies in the module. Not every soundsystem provides you this feature. One of the most common soundsystems that provide multi-modules are TFMX and MED. [7] Next Song: This button loads the next module form the selected modulelist. If the last module of the list is playing and you press this button the first module of the list will be played (cyclic list). If 'Random Mod' is selected this button has the same function as the Prev Song button. [8] Stop Song: This button resets the patterncounter and the speed to the initial default value. [9] Eject Module: stops the actual module and removes it from memory. [10] Load Song: Opens the filerequester and lets you select one or more modules for playing. If you select an empty directory DeliTracker will scan the whole dir and add all files matching the module pattern (see option window). The first selected module is loaded and played. If enough memory is available, DeliTracker will use double buffering. This means that the current song continues playing until the next song is loaded. Control group [O] opens or closes the Optionwindow [P] opens or closes the Playerwindow [G] opens or closes the Genieswindow [R] opens or closes the module Programwindow [11] Balance Control: Let you change the Balance. [12] Volume Control: Let you change the Volume. Comment group [13] Comment: Here you can read/enter an optional comment. If you hit 'Return' the comment is saved. Info group This group contains some informations about the current module. Namely the module name, the format name and the the time how long the module has been played. Note: If the player supports internal modulenames, the real modulename is displayed rather than just the filename. There may be a difference between the format name and the playername: If a module has been converted with a converter genie the format name is the source format (e.g. NoisePacker 2.0) and not the destination format (ProTracker). [Time] Resets the time counter to 00:00:00. Menus The non menu shortcuts are only shown if running under V39 or above. Project Open <A> O ...Open the filerequester. ================= Play/Pause 0 ...Play or pause a module. Stop Playing 1 ...Stop the actual module. ================= Next Module ] ...Load the next module in the Soundlist. See also 'Random Mod'. Prev Module [ ...Load previous module. Eject Module . ...Stop playing and remove the actual module from memory. ================= About... <A> ? ...Open about requester. ================= Hide <A> H ...Close all windows. ================= Quit <A> Q ...Leave the program. Control Faster + ...Increase playspeed. Slower - ...Decrease playspeed. Reset Speed * ...Reset playspeed. =================== Forward 5 ...Jump one Pattern forward. Backward 4 ...Jump one Pattern backward. =================== Next Subsong 8 ...Play next Subsong. Prev Subsong 7 ...Play previous Subsong. =================== Volume Up 6 ...Increase Volume. Volume Down 9 ...Decrease Volume. Reset Volume / ...Reset Volume to max. =================== Left Balance 2 ...More left balance. Right Balance 3 ...More right balance. Reset Balance Enter ...Reset Balance to balanced. Settings Info <A> I ...Turn info group on/off. Comment <A> C ...Turn comment on/off. Control <A> N ...Turn control group on/off. Tapedeck <A> T ...Turn tapedeck group on/off. =================== Options... <A> S ...Open option window. Players... <A> P ...Open player window. Program... <A> R ...Open module list window. Genies... <A> G ...Open genies window. =================== Load Settings... ...Load saved settings. Save Settings ...Save default settings. Save Settings As... ...Save settings to selected file. Appwindow To make the module selection even more comfortable, icons from modules and module drawers may be dropped on the control window. The modules will be handled as if they were selected with the file requester. If a drawer is dropped, all files will be scanned. All files that match the module pattern will be added to the module list. Sub-directorys are not scanned. To use this feature the control window of DeliTracker must be opened on the workbench screen. 6.2 The option window The option window is for seting all global options. To open the option window you may either select the 'Options...' menu or the '?'-Gadget of the mainwindow. Startup Mod default "" This module is loaded when DeliTracker is started. If it is a module list DeliTracker will automaticaly load the first module which is specified in the module list. You can either enter the module by typing the path into the stringgadget, or using the file requester gadget behind. Player Dir default "DeliPlayers" this is the path where DeliTracker searches for players. Genie Dir default "DeliGenies" this is the path where DeliTracker searches for genies. Pubscreen default is "", (default PubScreen, usually Workbench) Let you specify the name of the public screen where DeliTracker should pop up. If the given screen is not available (e.g. does not exist), DeliTracker opens it's windows on the default public screen. Note: Under V37 screen names are case sensitive! Hot Key default is "" (no hotkey) This defines the hotkey which is used to open or close the windows. If the DeliTracker windows are closed via the hotkey, all other Player and Genie windows are closed as well - the same applies to Hide Interface. To disable the hotkey, use the INACTIVE option of the Commodities Exchange Program. Pattern default "~(#?.info|info.#?|smpl.#?|#?.NT(%|.(pp|im|xpk)))" Defines the pattern of the module requester. This pattern is also used when scanning directorys. It enables the user to hide unused (nonmodule files, like #?.info) files. Songend default is OFF (ignore songend signals) Lets you specify whether songend events should be honored or not. Some players support a notification of the songend. If this option is set, DeliTracker will pause the module and load the next module in the list. If only one module is in the soundlist, then it is paused after the song has played once. Timeout default is 0 (no timeout) Lets you specify the amount of time in secs, after which, DeliTracker will cause a Next-Song event. A value of 0 disables module timeout. Quickstart default is ON (module is played immediately after loading) Defines if a loaded module should begin to play immediately after loading or if the module is in a paused state. You can use this option for synchronization purposes in ARexx scripts. Fadeout default is 0 (don't fade) Lets you specify how many seconds the fadeout of a song will take. Fadeing is performed after every eject event. If you select zero no smooth transition will be done. This feature is only available for players that support volume changing. Random Mod default is OFF (sequential order) Lets you specify whether a Next/Prev-Song event should choose a random pick, or the following (preceeding) list entry for loading. Once a module has been played it won't be reselected until other selected modules have been played. This behaviour is also known as 'Shuffleplay'. This option only works if there are more than 2 entries in the modlist. Random Song default is OFF (first subsong) Lets you specify whether the first or random subsong should be choosen when a new module with subsongs is played. Filter default is OFF (filter off) Switches the internal lowpass filter 'on' or 'off'. If the switch is 'off' it has the advantage that frequencies over 7kHz are not cut off. This has the effect that most modules will sound much better. Note: The A1000 filter cannot be switched off! Append default is OFF (replace modulelist with new selection) Lets you specify whether the soundlist should be inserted at the current position or replaced by the current file selection. Appicon default is OFF If the Appicon feature is selected and the mainwindow is closed, an appicon will be created. All files that are dropped into the appicon will be handled as if they were selected with the file requester. If a drawer is dropped, all files will be scanned and added to the module list. Only files which are not matching the pattern will be skipped. Subdirectorys are not scanned. A double click on the appicon will open the windows again. Activate default is ON (activate windows) If turned off, all windows are opened in inactive state at startup. May be useful for shell users. Play at Start default is ON (startmodule is played at startup) Defines whether the startup-module should be played when DeliTracker is started. Prefix default is 4 Specifies the maximum size of the prefix in chars. If a prefix is encountered DeliTracker won't show it the module list. DeliTracker recognizes a prefix by the first dot in the filename. Example: Prefix is set to 3, the filename 'dw.sentinel' will be stripped down to 'sentinel' whereas 'mdat.TurricanI' won't be changed. This setting influences the module list sorting. Swap Players default is OFF If turned on DeliTracker will attempt to flush unused players on low memory situations. DeliTracker will re-load the players when needed. This function works only with V39 and above. Low Chipmem default is OFF If turned on DeliTracker tries to use a Noteplayer that can play from fastmemory else the default Noteplayer choosing algorithm is used. This does not mean that every module is now loaded into fastmemory. Only modules of those players which support the noteplayer interface will be located in fast memory. Load Load a saved configuration and set all values to those of a previously saved configuration. Save Save all actual settings to a configuration file. The configuration file contains all above settings plus the filerequester and window co-ordinates. The default config file is saved to the configuration directory. It is named "DeliTracker.prefs". If you select another path/filename the prefs file is saved to this path. OK Close the options window. 6.3 The player window The player window contains all controls for the deliplayers. On the right side is a listview which shows all players that are currently loaded. When the player window is opened the currently active player is selected. Under V39 the active player is always highlighted. A 'D' in front of the playername marks all players that are disabled. A disabled player stays in memory, but DeliTracker doesen't call it's checkcode. A double click on an entry will toggle the player on/off. If you select one entry, all information about this player is shown on the left hand. Old players will have a version number less then 1.00 (ie. 0.03). Config Configure selected player Show Open the player's GUI Hide Close the player's GUI Add Load (an)other player(s) Remove Unload selected player Clear Unload all external players Ok Close player window If a player with the same name is already loaded, the player with the lower version number will be expunged. Internal players may be removed too, but their memory is of course not freed. To add a whole directory of players, just select the dir and make sure that the filename-string in the file requester is empty. Now DeliTracker scans the directory and loads every player. For selecting the default player path see Options-Window. 6.4 The genie window The genies window contains all controls for deligenies. It is very similar to the player window. When this window is opended the currently used NotePlayer is selected. With V39, the active NotePlayer Genie will be highlighted. As in the player window, a double click on an entry will enable/disable it. Another double click on a NotePlayer Genie will force this NotePlayer. This means DeliTracker will use this genie for playing whenever possible. A 'F' in front of the geniename marks this NotePlayer as forced. Only one NotePlayer can be forced at a time. Config Configure selected player Show Open genie GUI Hide Close genie GUI Add Load (an)other genies(s) Remove Unload selected genie Clear Unload all external genies Ok Close genie window If a genie with the same name is already loaded, the genie with the lower version number will be expunged. Internal genies may be removed as well, but of course the memory is not freed. Adding a whole dir of genies works the same as above. Just select the dir and DeliTracker will load all genies. For selecting the default genie path, see Options-Window. 6.5 The program window The listview shows all modules that are in the current modulelist. If the filename of the module has a prefix (max. four chars + '.') then DeliTracker won't show the prefix. Under V39 the current module is highlighted. Depending on the selected mode, a click on an listview entry will have a different effect. Play Plays the selected Module. Move The selected module is removed from the list and moved into an internal buffer. When another entry is selected the cut entry is inserted below that entry. Just try it. It is very easy to move the modules around. Delete Removes the selected entry form the modulelist. New Removes the complete Modulelist. Insert Open Requester for inserting modules. Current Jumps to current module, it is centered. Load Load a saved Modulelist. Save Saves the current Modulelist starting with the active module. All entrys are saved! Sort Sorts the Modulelist. Ok Closes the program window. Note: Modulelist's are treaded like modules, the difference is that when "played" they replace/extend the current modulelist and try to load the first module of the modulelist (if 'Random Mod' is off). This is potentialy dangerous, when the first entry in a modulelist is the modulelist itself. So don't create such lists! 6.6 Shortcuts Nearly all funtions of DeliTracker can be reached via keyboard short cuts. Any underlined chars in a gadget text indicates the shortcut for that gadget. The shortcuts are ony active for the particular window the gadget belongs to. All shortcuts will only work if the corresponding action is possible. Although the shortcuts can be entered in upper or lower case. All stringadgets can be left with the 'esc' key. For ease of use every DeliTracker window additionaly has the following shortcuts: F1 open/activate main window F2 open/activate option open window F3 open/activate player window F4 open/activate genie window F5 open/activate program window Because the main window makes heavy use of buttons with images rather than text buttons, we couldn't use the underscoreing method for indicating the shortcut. Some of the main window shortcuts are menu shortcuts (RAmiga+Menukey) while the others are simple keys. To make them easy to remember we decided to order them in hirarchy on the nummeric keypad. Of course the shortcuts can be used even if the corresponding function group is folded away. Simple key shortcuts, see also main window menu section. +----------+----------+----------+----------+ |PrevMod ·NextMod |ResetVol |ResetSpeed| |[ ·] |/ |* | +----------+----------+··········+··········+ |PrevSub ·NextSub |VolDown |Slower | |7 ·8 |9 |- | +----------+----------+··········+··········+ |PrevPat ·NextPat |VolUp |Faster | |4 ·5 |6 |+ | +----------+----------+----------+----------+ |Stop |LBal ·RBal ·ResetBal | |1 |2 ·3 ·Enter | +----------+----------+----------+ | |Play/Pause |Eject | | |0 |. | | +----------+----------+----------+----------+ In additon you may specify a global hot key for the opening and closing of the mainwindow. This hotkey works even if no DeliTracker window is not active. See also cx_popkey and hot key option below. 6.7 Commodities DeliTracker is a Commodity, therefore some typical things may be controlled from within the Commodities Exchange Program. First select 'DeliTracker' in the 'Available Commodities' box. The cycle gadget shows you if the hotkey for opening/closing the mainwindow is enabled or not. Click once to change this. 'Show Interface' will open and activate the mainwindow. 'Hide Interface' will close all DeliTracker windows. Finally a click on the 'Remove' button will quit DeliTracker. As usual for commodities, a CLICK ON THE CLOSE GADGET ONLY CLOSES THE WINDOW, but doesn't quit the program. Additionally the following signals can be sent to DeliTracker: CTRL-C Quit DeliTracker CTRL-D Disable Commodity Broker CTRL-E Enable Commodity Broker CTRL-F DeIconify Windows 6.8 ARexx Nearly all functions of DeliTracker can be controlled with ARexx. This is very nice if you are using other ARexx aware software like AmigaVision(TM). DeliTracker is addressed as a function host with the name "DELITRACKER". DeliTracker provides the following commands: quit Leave DeliTracker and shut down all genies/players. filter <yes|no> yes: Switch filter on. no: Switch filter off. quick <yes|no> yes: Turn quick on. no: Turn quick off. appicon <yes|no> yes: Display appicon. no: No appicon. swapplay <yes|no> yes: Turn low-memory handler on. no: Turn low-memory handler off. randmod <yes|no> yes: Turn Randomplay on. no: Turn Randomplay off. songend <yes|no> yes: Recognize songend signals. no: Ignore songend events. append <yes|no> yes: Activate append mode. no: Deactivate append mode. activate <yes|no> yes: activate windows at startup. no: all windows are opened inactive. timeout <SECS> Set timeout to given number of seconds (SECS) If SECS = 0 the timeout function is disabled. fadeout <SECS> Set fadeout time in seconds. Zero deactivates fadeing. Valid range is 0 to 5 randsong <yes|no> yes: start with randomly picked subsong. no: start with first subsong. playstart <yes|no> yes: startmodule is played at startup. no: don't play a module at startup. volume <VOL> Set volume to <VOL> (Range VOL: 0 to 64). balance <BAL> Set balance to <BAL>, 0 is default, -64 left only, 64 right only (Range BAL: -64 to 64). forward Play next pattern. backward Play previous pattern. nextsong Play next song (module). prevsong Play previous song (module). nextsubsong Play next subsong. prevsubsong Play previous subsong. faster Increase playspeed. slower Decrease playspeed. loadconfig [FILE] Load configfile [FILE] if [FILE] was specified, else pop filerequester up. saveconfig [FILE] Save configfile [FILE] if [FILE] was specified, else pop filerequester up. savelist [FILE] Save module list to [FILE] if [FILE] was specified, else pop filerequester up. loadplayer [PLAYER] Load the [PLAYER] if specified, else open loadplayer requester. deleteplayer <NAME> Remove player with name <NAME> from memory. Note: all modules of this player won't be recognized any longer. configplayer <NAME> Call the configuration routine of the player <NAME>. loadgenie [GENIE] Load the [GENIE] if specified, else open loadgenie requester. deletegenie <NAME> Remove genie with name <NAME> from memory. configgenie <NAME> Call the configuration routine of the genie <NAME>. playpause Play/Pause song. stop Stop song. playmod [MODULE] play [MODULE] if [MODULE] was specified else pop requester up. eject Remove active module from memory. makelist <MODULE> Inserts [MODULE] at the current position into the module list. clearlist [NUMBER] Clear the modulelist entry [NUMBER] or clear the whole list if [NUMBER] is ommited. playlist <NUMBER> Play the module with the list position <NUMBER>. pubscreen <SCREEN> Closes all DeliTracker windows and tries to reopen all windows on the pubscreen <SCREEN>. showgui [NAME] Opens the GUI of the specified player/genie or all DeliTracker windows. hidegui [NAME] Closes the GUI of the specified player/genie or all DeliTracker windows. status <group> <dependent> Returns the actual status. This funtion is divided into four different groups: global settings (g), player specific settings (p), module dependent settings (m) and genie settings (j). Additional arguments are specified after the group. <group> = g : Global <dependent> = <cmd> <cmd> description returnvalue pdr playerdir string pub prefered pubscreen string gdr geniedir string lst path of programfile string pnu number of players number gnu number of genies number vol current volume number bal current balance number tim timeout in seconds number fad fadeout number ver DeliTracker version number led filter <yes|no> qst quickstart <yes|no> rmo random module <yes|no> rso random subsong <yes|no> app append <yes|no> swp swap players <yes|no> act activate window <yes|no> end songend <yes|no> ico appicon <yes|no> pst play at start <yes|no> gui windows open <yes|no> ply paused or playing <yes|no> <group> = m : Module <dependent> = <cmd> <cmd> description returnvalue dir moduledir string fil filename string fmt formatname string nam real modulename string pna name of current player string gna name of used NP genie string max selected modules number num actual position in list number <group> = p : Player <dependent> = <playername> <cmd> <cmd> description returnvalue nam name string cre creator string des description string ver player version number sho show <yes|no> hid hide <yes|no> ena enabled <yes|no> vol volume <yes|no> bal balance <yes|no> jmp patternjump <yes|no> spd playspeed <yes|no> sub subsong <yes|no> cfg config <yes|no> pck packable <yes|no> int internal interrupt <yes|no> npl uses noteplayer <yes|no> end songend detecton <yes|no> prc running as process <yes|no> swp swapable <yes|no> <group> = j : Genie <dependent> = <geniename> <cmd> <cmd> description returnvalue nam genie name string cre creator string des description string ver version number cfg config <yes|no> sho show <yes|no> hid hide <yes|no> ena enabled <yes|no> dcr decrunch type <yes|no> cnv convert type <yes|no> npl noteplyer type <yes|no> prc running as own process <yes|no> Square brackets [...] mark arguments that may be omitted. Arguments in angle brackets <...> must be supplied. For almost any command example scripts are available. All commands may be entered in lower and upper case. Note: We changed the string handling, quotes are not needed any longer. 7.NOTES The playspeed of a player is the same on PAL/NTSC machines as long as they don't generate their own interrupt (i.e use the inbuild interrupt generating mechanism). For Modem users: All players that use the DeliTracker internal timer Interrupt should now work well with serial transfers. Players which generate their own timer interrupt may probably not. This is due to the fact that instead of executing the actual playroutine in the timer interrupt itself, we cause a SoftInt (so that the real routine executes in a lower interrupt priority than the RFB interrupt). 8.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Our special thanks go to the following people: Our betatesters Stefan, Börnie and Manfred for their bugreports and ideas. Armin Sander (Oktalyzer) and Carsten Schlote (Sonic Arranger) for creating DeliPlayers for their soundsystems. Jörg W. Schmidt for the source code of PlayFTM. Tomas Partl for his player. Patrik Rak for creating the Spectrum-AY player. Markus Illenseer, Christian Rattei and especially K-H. Ruckmich for the correction and enhancement of the german docs. Acechan (and Logixs) for the french translation of the docs. U4ia and Christian von Roques for a quick scan of the english doc files in Version II. Kevin Dackiw for the enhancement of the NoisePacker players and the correction of the english doc files of V1.3x. DoIO for modules, demos and diskmag advertisement. Thomas Winischofer for MusicMaker Ekhall for sending some replay stuff. Markus "maw" Weichselbaum for the PT betas and the hints about the programming of the audio hardware. Stephan Schaem for the WindowFX sourcecode. Petter E. Stokke for the C-startupcode. Chris Marz for some modules. Dense for the X-Comm betas Olaf "Warp" Kalgraf for sending some programs Jamal Hannah for supplying us with many PC module format documentations. All on IRC #amiga & #amigager (Internet Relay Chat) Hi ALFred, Flintlund, laire, Janne, MASH, mnemo, stefanb, ZZA :-) Florian Vorberger for many nice modules, players and genies. Pink/Abyss for reporting odd behaviour of noteplayers. U. Dominik Müller for XPK. Eric Kennedy for TstApp.rexx. Nicolas Franck for Deli-Wizard. Chaos/Sanity and McDeal/Sanity for the 'DrWho' source. Jarno Paananen (Guru/Sahara Surfers) for the ScreamTracker3 and FastTrackerII player source. Bastian Spiegel (Twice/Lego) for the AON replay source. Jon Pickard for the NotePlayer adaption of the TFMX player. Kim Øyhus for his turbo-fast FFT routine. Andi da Silva for tons of new DeliPlayers. Mark "Marley" Leitiger for the Whittaker source. Christian Buchner for the CyberSound calibration-software. and all others, who have send replays, modules or registrations.