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1992-12-05
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MODPLAY PRO ********* (C) Mark J Cox
MODPLAY PRO ** 1990/1991
MODPLAY PRO *******
MODPLAY PRO ************** Version 2.19b
Play AMIGA 4 channel sampled music files on a PC
I. QUICK START
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
If you are impatient and don't want to read all the documentation before
trying this program, type:
mp
or mp -a-i If your machine is 10Mhz - 12Mhz
II. EXTRA INFORMATION
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1 If your video card supports text modes such as 25*132,
44*132, 60*132 or just about any other text mode then enter
this mode (using the utility supplied with your card) and
MODPLAY PRO will take full advantage of it when selecting
filenames
2 Modplay Pro now has full PROTRACKER support. See a later
section for details. MODPLAY can execute your programs
while playing mods - see section 3.1
3 The Modplay config file must exist in one of two places
i) The current directory
ii) The directory in which the copy of MP.COM you are running
is in.
4 Modplay Pro will now view .GIF files including GIFs that have
been GIFLITE'd and GIF89's. The last .GIF file viewed will be
used as the background to the VGA scope display (F10 when
playing). No support for Interlaced GIF's.
III. INTRODUCTION TO MODPLAY PRO
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Modplay Pro allows you to play Amiga soundtracker/noisetracker files,
Protracker files and even 4 channel Startrekker files on a PC
(10Mhz or faster clock speed, 286 processor or better).
Modplay Pro is written *entirely* in assembler and now runs to over
11,000 lines of source and has taken around 400 hours to produce.
*** DOES NOT ALWAYS WORK WHEN USING emm386 ON A 386 PC ***
1. WHAT ARE MODULES?
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
A module consists of 15 (or 31) sampled instruments and a four channel
music track. By playing the instruments at different pitches a
soundtrack lasting many minutes can be produced. The PC speaker is not
really up to handling modules, since in total we have a 10 bit sample
to be played, and the speaker can only handle 5 (and thats only just
possible). A D/A converter gives 8 and the stereo version gives
effectively 9. The output sounds OK through a good sized PC speaker, the
cheap piezo devices found in some computers including laptops are not
really designed to cope. So through external hardware MODPLAY PRO comes
close to the quality you would get on an AMIGA.
2. IMPLEMENTATION
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
MODPLAY PRO implements all Amiga effects such as vibrato etc.
Most Amiga modules have samples in them that are less than 64k each in
length, these can be played as normal on any 286 10Mhz or better; a
rare few have samples >64k in them and although these will be played
by modplay pro you really need a 16MHz machine minimum to keep up. These
modules are marked with a '*' on the top line of the display next to the
filename when they are playing.
2A. PROTRACKER
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
On the Amiga there are a wide variety of tracker players. By far
the best (personal opinion) is the Protracker player. Protracker
modules can have many more commands in them (Thinks like Tremelo,
Note delays, Repeat loops, etc) and I have recently found many
modules are Protracker ones and so benefit greatly by implementing
this new set of commands. All Protracker commands execept FunkInvert
(EFx) are implemented (FunkInvert just plays a sample sort of
backwards... this would mean changing my interrupt routines a little
too much and would slow down normal songs)
3. MODPLAY PRO OPTIONS - COMMAND LINE PLAYING
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
From the command line a module can be played through any of the output
devices with or without a moving graph display. The format is
MP [-q] [-0..6] [-a/-b] [-output device] [filename [.MOD]
Items in [ ] are optional. The -q if present tells MODPLAY PRO not to
display any text and so the module will play without disturbing the
text display. (You could use this in a game's title screen written
in C or Basic, by doing a system or shell command - MODPLAY PRO exits when
a key is pressed). The -(number) tells MODPLAY PRO what hardware to play
the module through. The filename can contain wildcard characters
(*,?), so MP * would be valid and would play all the *.MOD files
in the current directory one after the other. Playback of a sequence
of files can be aborted by pressing ESCape two or three times in rapid
sucession.
-0 is the PC Speaker (default unless a stereo-on-one card is found)
-l1 is a D/A converter on printer port 1
-l2 is a D/A converter on printer port 2
-l3 is a D/A converter on printer port 3
-l4 is a D/A converter on printer port 4
-ls is 2 D/A converters, one on port1 the other on port2 (gives stereo)
-lm is 2 D/A converters as above but giving mono.
-xm
This is of use if you have a single D/A converter on an expansion
port or any known address. Use -xm(address) where the address is
a 3 digit hex number. (Example -xm3B7 would play in mono to a
D/A converter at address 03B7)
-xs
This is similar to -xm, allowing two D/A converters and hence stereo
operation. Use -xs(address1)(address2). [Example, -xs300301 would
play in stereo to D/A converters at 0300 and 0301. Note that these
switchs must be used from the command line and cannot be changed when
inside MODPLAY PRO
-xq
Similar to -xs, allowing four D/A converters - this gives the Best
possible quality! But it may not work too well on slower computers.
Use -xq(address1)(address2)(address3)(address4) [ Example
-xq3003BC2F93DC would play to D/As at 0300, 03BC, 02F9 and 03DC.]
As with -xs, all the addresses must be different!
-y1 (-y2,...-y4)
Disney Sound Source D/A. This output routine is designed to drive
the Disney D/A converter (that is supplied with some games etc.). The
Disney D/A sits on a parallel port but must be clocked after each
sample (unlike the standard D/A in hardware.doc) and turned on and off.
-y1 would output to a Disney D/A on LPT1, -y2 on LPT2 etc. A normal
D/A converter on a parallel port will work with this option as well,
although it is not recommended as it is more processor intensive.
Stereo-on-1
Modplay Pro will autodetect a Stereo-on-1 board on any Parallel port and
use it. See HARDWARE.DOC for more information
Soundblaster
Modplay Pro will autodetect a Soundblaster card at any base address and
use it.
(Using a /number will ignore anything autodetected).
-a should be used if your computer crashes when playing tunes, it
decreases the rate of playing samples - decreasing the quality
noticably through the speaker, but should mean 10Mhz-12Mhz machines
can cope.
-b This is the default mixing speed designed for a 12MHz PC
-d This option is used when if you don't like my choice of character
for drawing the bars. I've had lots of mail all saying you