karl@sugar.uu.net (Karl Lehenbauer) (12/31/88)
Programs that read and write SMUS files are not stellar in their interoparability. For example, the SMUS files written by Soundscape cause Deluxe Music to get a "Software Error/Task Held." Examination has shown that SoundScape does not write INS1 chunks. (Trying to play it on my SMUS player caused audit code to trip.) This is legal according to the spec, but interoperability with DMCS would be as basic a test for a SMUS file writer (particularly since DMCS can recognize the presence of Soundscape and install itself in the patch panel) as making sure one's lores and hires ILBMs work with DPain II (sic). Another example, DMCS, when asked to write a file in SMUS format, doesn't include any dynamic volume events. This is bogus because they're there in some form in the FORM DMCS files and they're defined in the SMUS spec. EA just neglected to write them out. This means I'll either have to reverse engineer the DMCS FORMs or find another method of getting SMUS files entered. I have heard that SoundScape has a module on one of the expansion disks that does a better job; I don't know if the result if DMCS-compatible, though. -- -- uunet!sugar!karl | "We've been following your progress with considerable -- karl@sugar.uu.net | interest, not to say contempt." -- Zaphod Beeblebrox IV -- Usenet BBS (713) 438-5018
me128-aw@kepler.Berkeley.EDU (me128 student) (01/02/89)
In article <3192@sugar.uu.net> karl@sugar.uu.net (Karl Lehenbauer) writes: >Programs that read and write SMUS files are not stellar in their >interoparability. For example, the SMUS files written by Soundscape >cause Deluxe Music to get a "Software Error/Task Held." Examination has [stuff deleted] I found another error in DMCS. When reading SMUS files, it ignores the iRegister field in an INS1 chunk, instead assuming that the instruments are all contiguously numbered starting from 0. Thus, if the score was created in a program such as SONIX and lots of instruments loading and deleting was done, all the wrong instruments will be played. -Vince Lee