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README.OS2
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1997-06-03
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TiMidity-0.2i port to OS/2 Warp with DART and PM support
--------------------------------------------------------
June 3, 1997
To get this to play MIDIs in real time you'll need to have DART
(Direct Audio Real-Time) working on your computer. If you have OS/2
Warp 4, you're set. If you have version 3, what you need, accourding
to IBM, is have FixPak 10 or greater installed. You can check this by
doing a VER /R at the command line and if the revision number is more
then 8.234 then you do. If you don't you can get the lastest FixPak
at href="http://ps.software.ibm.com/pbin-usa-ps/getobj.pl?/pdocs-usa/
os2warp.html It will not work on any OS/2 version before 3.
The driver has a buffer that's a couple of seconds in size, so if
you do something, like open a folder, the sound may not suffer. The
size of the buffer is set with the "-B n" where n is the number of
buffers. The default number of buffers is 40.
If the program is getting behind the program will dynamically
increase it's priority. If it's still falling behind setting the
resampling frequency to something lower will help. This is done with
the "-s f" switch where f is the new resampling frequency. I
sometimes find that it sound will be distored when the computer is
working, even there is enough in the buffer. I think this is cause by
the fact that it can't send the next buffer to the sound card when the
computer writing to an accelated video card. Lowering the resamplling
frequency helps with this, too. The default for the OS/2 version of
TiMidity is 22050. A value of 11025 is good. Other values will work
if your sound card supports it.
The format values supported include 8 and 16 bit sample widths
(using 8 bit will not improve performance, TiMidity generates 32 bit
data and has to reduce it in any event). You can select mono or
stereo. Using mono does improve performance. Selecting Signed,
Unsigned or Byte-swapped will be overriden with the DART driver.
Using the default of 16 bit stereo will should work fine for most
people.
The SLang interface only displays as many lines of messages from
TiMidity as it has room on the screen. You can switch to the old
simple interface with -id or, better yet, use -ist to get a fancy
display of the notes being played, although the display is quiet a bit
ahead or what you hear. You can reduce that lag by setting the -B n
value to something low, like 3.
There are some minor problems, none of which are my fault :-).
First every time the program ends gives two MMOS/2 errors about an
invalid device ID given. It does this because the main TiMidity
program calls the sound driver closing function twice. The first time
it closes properly, the second it gives errors. It's nothing to worry
about.
TiMidity can generate .wav files, but it does 16 bit .wavs
wrongly. If you got a hankering to make a .wav file you can force it
generate 8 bit data and that'll work. The .wav file system was not
written by me. The MS-DOS version of TiMidity does generate proper 16
bit. If I had half a mind I'd get it working in OS/2 the same way.
Often when it finished playing a song it'll say "Output Flush
timed out". This means that it was waiting for the buffer to empty,
but it never figured out when it did. This may sometimes cause a bit
of silence between songs, but that's all. This problem may be my
fault.
If you have any questions or comments, please email me at
doconnor@autobahn.mb.ca and watch
http://www.autobahn.mb.ca/~doconnor/timidity.html for updates.
TODO: Make it a MMOS/2 device. (so you might be able to get
TiMidity to play the Midi inbedded within OS/2 games). Use DSMI
(Timidity has it's own mixer right now).
-----
On a personal note, and I'm not sure if this is appropriate, I'm
interested in jobs where I'd have the opportunity to program for OS/2
or, possibly, be involved in writing a compiler. This is not a plea
as I'm currently quite gainfully employed as a computer programmer-
consultant. I am a Canadian and I'm not interesting in going to the
United States unless it was a really interesting job (like working for
StarDock). Other countries I may give a bit more consideration to.
You can email me at doconnor@autobahn.mb.ca