karl@sugar.hackercorp.com (Karl Lehenbauer) (10/16/89)
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Developer kits and resale licenses are now available for the Hackercorp
Commercial SMUS Player.
This package was designed to be bundled with Amiga programs to provide
the capability of loading and playing music files that are compatible with
the Interchange File Format (IFF) Simple Musical Score (SMUS) specification.
The SMUS player can play SMUS songs generated by Electronic Arts' Deluxe
Music Construction Set, for example.
The Commercial SMUS Player has many advantages over other available
music players for use within programs. Some of the capabilities of
this SMUS player are:
o can load multiple songs and maintain a shared pool of samples
o can play songs simultaneously with floppy and hard disk I/O, as well
as concurrent window resizing, depth arranging, etc
o can play one song while loading another
o supports instrument changes within tracks
o can play chords within tracks
o well behaved; communicates with audio through audio.device and
allocates and deallocates voices on the fly so other well-behaved
audio programs can run concurrently
o can read IFF 8SVX single and multioctave 8SVX sample files,
including those that have been compressed by Fibonacci delta
compression
o supports Hackercorp-created IFF VOIC multisampled files
("voicebanks"), providing greater flexibility in sample rates,
size and note ranges of samples (tool to create VOIC instruments
is included, plus some voicebank-based instruments are also
included)
o server runs as separate programs, so a game or application
consisting of several distinct programs need only load the
server once, and music can play while new programs are loading
o SMUS loader translates tracks, in-line, into a form that reduces
their runtime play overhead, by deleting superfluous events (such
as clefs and key signatures, which are only relevant to programs
that display scores) and subsuming adjacent events that are the
same; for example, groups of rests are coalesced into one
long rest of equivalent length.
o player consumes very little CPU time, typically around 2%
o stereo channel placement is user-controllable
o spec-consistent note prioritization handling lets you decide
which notes will play when there aren't enough voices available
to play all your notes (and sound effects).
o remote procedure call (RPC) library makes for easy interfacing
to the player, via calls such as LoadSong, PlaySong, UnloadSong
and StartFadeOut. (C source code to the RPC library is included)
o sample management routines permit flexible control of what samples
(instruments) are loaded and unloaded, and permit minimizing disk
load times by retaining in memory samples used in multiple songs,
while unloading others
o server can load songs, instruments and voicebanks from IFF CAT
archive files, reducing clutter and, more importantly, reducing
load time by up to 50% (a public domain tool written by Hackercorp
to create and manipulate CAT archives, iffar, is included)
o message-based server interface is also provided
o server code size is less than 30K bytes
The developer kit consists of a diskette containing the SMUS loader and
player programs, special debug versions of the same, the source to an
interface library callable from Aztec C, documentation, and the source
and binary of a fully functional example program that shows how to use
the interface library.
Versions of the interface library will be developed for other languages
and dialects if interest warrants. The Amiga multitasking executive and
file system must be operational for the server to work, i.e. programs
that completely take over the machine may be unable to use the server.
The price for a developer kit is US$100. An unlimited binary resale
license for a single product is US$400. The developer kit price may
be applied to the cost of the first resale license.
Feel free to email, write or call for more information. To order a
developer kit, send a check or money order to:
Hackercorp
ATTN: SMUS Offer
3918 Panorama
Missouri City, TX 77459
(713) 438-4964
Usenet: uunet!sugar!karl
Internet/BITNET: karl@sugar.hackercorp.com
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