nan@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Nan Zou) (05/01/91)
Hello to all you Amiga gurus, as my subject says, has anyone written
a Sound/NoiseTracker player for Sun SPARCstation 1? I'm normally a
PC/Unix person, so I'm pretty ignorant about Amiga stuff. There are
already softwares to play NoiseTrackers on the PC throught a Sound
Blaster's DAC, with decent quality too. I'm not too familiar with
the Sun's audio device either, seems like one 8-bit DAC. Anyone
familiar with both platforms want to try this? Or if there is already
a player could someone tell me where to find it? Thanks.
--
Nan Zou | Bitnet : nan@ksuvm
Kansas State University | Internet: nan@math.ksu.edu
#include <std_disclaimer.h> | nan@matt.ksu.ksu.edu231b3678@fergvax.unl.edu (Phil Dietz) (05/02/91)
In <1991May1.022337.8905@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu> nan@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Nan Zou) writes: >Hello to all you Amiga gurus, as my subject says, has anyone written >a Sound/NoiseTracker player for Sun SPARCstation 1? I'm normally a >PC/Unix person, so I'm pretty ignorant about Amiga stuff. There are >already softwares to play NoiseTrackers on the PC throught a Sound >Blaster's DAC, with decent quality too. I'm not too familiar with >the Sun's audio device either, seems like one 8-bit DAC. Anyone >familiar with both platforms want to try this? Or if there is already >a player could someone tell me where to find it? Thanks. >-- > Nan Zou | Bitnet : nan@ksuvm > Kansas State University | Internet: nan@math.ksu.edu > #include <std_disclaimer.h> | nan@matt.ksu.ksu.edu Well I'd be a real task getting it to work on a SPARC. There are two limiting factors that make Noisetrackers a bad descision on a SPARC: 1) SPARCs don't use linear sampling like the Amiga and MAC. The samples must be converted to a form called uLaw. This process compresses the sample with a process similar to fibonacci. In the process, delta values are made and stored rather than the number itself. This 'delta'ing approximates the values, with division. When a number comes out like 12.5, it is rounded, thus producing errors in the sound. This conversion also takes a bit of time. 2) Currently, SPARC sound systems are limited to 8000 samp/sec. That's it. No variable length like the Amiga or mac...only 8000 sam/sec. So now all samples inside the Noisetracker songs are going to have to be upsampled or more likely downsampled heavily. Some Amiga samples go beyond 30000sam/sec. The conversion to 8000 will seriously degrade the sample. So you have a seriously degrade sample that is then converted to uLaw (which will mess up the degraded sample even more) Other than that, a Noisetracker player could be possible (4 voices ??), but it would sound very good compared to an Amiga or a decent SoundBlaster card. ---- Flame Proof o __ | o Shield of Phil Dietz +-- <__< | -+- Arrogance 231b3678@fergvax.unl.edu /\ | / \ University of Nebraska
morris@casee.enet.dec.com (Tom Morris) (05/02/91)
Phil Dietz writes: |> 1) SPARCs don't use linear sampling like the Amiga and MAC. The samples |> must be converted to a form called uLaw. This process compresses |> the sample with a process similar to fibonacci. In the process, |> delta values are made and stored rather than the number itself. The mu-law encoding is not linear, but it is also not a delta coding scheme. It uses a logarithmic encoding which gives a wider dynamic range at the expense of precision in encoding high signal levels. The conversion from linear to mu-law can be done with a simple lookup table, so it shouldn't be very expensive to do. |> There are two limiting factors that make Noisetrackers a bad descision |> on a SPARC: While the quality of the resulting audio isn't going to be as good as it would be on an Amiga, I wouldn't be so quick to call such a port a `bad decision.' It really depends on what your goals are. I imagine that people with workstations that had this audio hardware built-in might be interested in a software-only solution that would allow them to preview NoiseTracker files, even at limited quality. I've even seen a NoiseTracker player for the IBM PC's internal speaker. It certainly couldn't be any worse than that! -- Tom Morris morris@casee.enet.dec.com Digital Equipment, Centre Technique Europe S.A.R.L DTN 828-5729 B.P. 129 - Sophia Antipolis Tel. +33 92 95 57 29 06561 Valbonne Cedex - France Fax +33 93 65 41 58
moonhawk@bluemoon.uucp (David Culberson) (05/03/91)
> > I've even seen a NoiseTracker player for the IBM PC's internal speaker. It > certainly couldn't be any worse than that! Could you tell me where to get this? I have both a 386sx and an Amiga 2000 <The Amiga is FAR superior IMHO>, and I find it , uh how should I put this.... Entertaining... to say the least, to hear or see an IBM attempting to emulate an Amiga. Ever use PC-View? sad sad sad.... Have you heard an IBM trying to play a SoundBlaster VOC file through it's internal speaker? Sad sad sad! I cry it's so sad... David This is from moonhawk@bluemoon.uucp moonhawk%bluemoon@nstar.rn.com who doesn't have their own obnoxious signature yet
morris@casee.enet.dec.com (Tom Morris) (05/15/91)
|>> |>> I've even seen a NoiseTracker player for the IBM PC's internal speaker. It |>> certainly couldn't be any worse than that! |> Could you tell me where to get this? I have both a 386sx and an |>Amiga 2000 <The Amiga is FAR superior IMHO>, and I find it , uh how should |>I put this.... Entertaining... to say the least, to hear or see an IBM |>attempting to emulate an Amiga. Ever use PC-View? sad sad sad.... Have you |>heard an IBM trying to play a SoundBlaster VOC file through it's internal |>speaker? Sad sad sad! I cry it's so sad... |> David |> The player for the IBM PC is called MODPLAY and it was written by Mark Cox. Considering the available hardware support, I think it does a pretty good job. I don't think I said that I thought the IBM PC had better quality audio than the Amiga. My original point was that if some could write a program to do this on a PC, than it was almost certainly possible on on a SPARCstation or other workstation with a built-in codec. Below is the documentation for the MODPLAY progam. Regards, Tom Morris ---------------- _ __ _ __ _ , ) ) _// / ) ' ) / Amiga module player M O D /--' / /--/ / / for a 10Mhz or faster / /___ / (_ (__/_ 286+ PC // Version 1.12 (/ (C) Mark J Cox 1991 ____________________________________________________________________________ Contents: o What are modules o How to use MODPLAY o How to get modules & contact author and o How to make a D/A converter for 5 pounds that works with MODPLAY, PLAY and other software ____________________________________________________________________________ Introduction ------------ Modplay allows you to play (most) Amiga soundtracker/noisetracker files on a 286 or better PC (10Mhz or faster clock speed). CGA minimum is required for the graphical display whilst playing, but no display at all is required just to play modules. MODPLAY detects automatically if a module is corrupt, and detects if it is a 15 or 30 instrument module. What are Modules? ----------------- A module consists of 15 (or 30) 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 (with difficulty!). A D/A converter gives 8 and the stereo version gives effectively 9. Implementation: --------------- MODPLAY implements all Amiga effects such as volume sliding, vibrato etc. except for the looping which, although implemented as described in Soundtracker v3.0 (plays all the sample first, followed by the loop the rest of the time) does not seem to work with some modules. (See bugs section) Instructions: ------------- There are two ways of using MODPLAY - the first from the command line and the second in 'interactive mode' Command Line: ------------- 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 MODPLAY [/q] [/0..5] filename [.MOD] Items in [ ] are optional. The /q if present tells MODPLAY 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 exits when a key is pressed). The /number tells MODPLAY what hardware to play the module through /0 is the PC Speaker /1 is an D/A converter on printer port 1 /2 is on printer port 2 /3 is 2 D/A converters, one on port1 the other on port2 (gives stereo) /4 is 2 D/A converters as above but giving mono. /5 is a D/A converter on printer port 1 (thats on a video card) /6 is a prototype board These are explained in more detail later on. Playing is stopped by pressing *any* key, or when the module is finished (some modules loop around to the beggining again and so never finish) Interactive: ------------ Typing MODPLAY /i will scan the current directory for all module file. These are then displayed in a list. The cursor keys, PgUp, PgDn, Home and End allow you to select a module; the 'c' key alters the destination of the sample (like /0,/1.. above); the 's' key displays the samples that make up the module; ESC key exits and pressing SPACE or RETURN will play the highlighted module. Source of Modules: ------------------ There are many sources, Including myself. Modules usually come archived in LZH form, these can be unpacked with the LHARC program which can be found on most MSDOS BBS's. The files will usually unpack as 'mod.something' and MSDOS cuts them short to 'mod.SOM' and it is best to rename these to 'something.mod' so that MODPLAY will automatically detect them. Speaker Routines: ----------------- The PC Speaker routines I used in PLAY and RESPLAY were not good enough for MODPLAY. PLAY and RESPLAY worked by linearly assigning the 64 different waves the speaker could produce to the 256 levels of sample. Most of MODPLAYs information is in the middle 30 or so levels, as its not very often that all the four channels are at maximum volume together. So I have designed a new logarithmic table - this means that the sound will be a little wierd from the speaker, but it is better than it was with the PLAY algorithm. Supported Hardware: ------------------- MODPLAY will play modules through the PC Speaker as mentioned above, through an D to A converter on any of the three possible parallel ports, in stereo if you have an D to A converter on both LPT1 and LPT2 (this sounds really good) and also through a prototype board (currently in development by a friend - stereo replay and sampling). How to make a D/A converter for five pounds: -------------------------------------------- A simple circuit for HiFi quality sound needs only a few components (and this circuit will work with lots and lots of other software) You need: IC1 a ZN426E (about 3 pounds) C1 a 10micro-farad electrolytic capacitor (10V or greater) C2 a 4.7micro-farad electrolytic capacitor (10V or greater) R1 a 380ohm resistor (any sort) CON1 a phono socket CON2 a 25 way male D-type connector (for your parrallel port) A bit of 10 way cable - or 10 short wires. 1 roll of double sided sticky tape (how'd that get there?) A +5v supply Connect the following pins of IC1 to the numbered pins of CON2 (should be numbered on the socket). IC1 - CON2 IC1 - CON2 3 9 12 5 2 8 11 4 1 7 10 3 13 6 9 2 Connect 0v of your power supply to pin 25 of CON2, the ground connection of CON1, pin 7 of IC1 and also the -ve side of C2. Connect +5v of your power supply to pin 14 IC1 and one end of the resistor IC1 pin 5 and 6 are joined together and also to the +ve side of C2 and the other end of the resistor. IC1 pin 4 is connected to the +ve side of C1, the -ve side being connected to the centre connection of the phono socket CON1. Every pin except pin 8 of IC1 should now be connected somewhere. Connect a +5v power supply, attach to a parallel port and plug in your amplifier to the phono socket. Filter? ------- Usually you would put a filter, buffer and amplifier after the D/A converter - but I have had no problems without and it sounds great to me. Getting a +5v power supply -------------------------- Catalogues such as MAPLIN (uk) provide simple circuits for obtaining a +5v power supply (it only has to be 100mA maximum). Alternatively you could tap +5v off the keyboard connector or use 3 1.5volt batteries (or even 4 1.5volt batteries with two diodes in series to drop the voltage). In fact, anything that produces a voltage in the range 4.5 - 5.5 volts. Freeware: --------- This software is Freeware - that means that there is no registration fee, you can copy this software, give it to anyone, and use it for anything (subject to the license at the end of this document). If you like this software, and would like the author to continue writing a gift would be appreciated. For gifts of 10 UK pounds or greater I will send a package of the full circuit diagrams for sampling as well as the playback mentioned here, printed documentation for PLAY, RESPLAY and MODPLAY and two disks with Samples and the latest versions of the programs. If you want to save the hassle of collecting, unpacking and renaming modules, I am willing to supply from my collection of nearly 15Meg of modules. If you wish me to send you one, or more disks please enclose a gift of: 2 pounds post and packing (non-UK 3 pounds) and then 1 pound for each High Density disk you require. Or send an SAE for a list of all current disks and their contents. All disks branded, High Density 3.5" (1.4Meg) Disk 1. Latest versions of PLAY, RESPLAY and MODPLAY Disk 2,3,4,5,6,7. Various Tracker modules My address is at the end of this document. PS It took me 9 solid days to write this, and 3 hours to document - I hope this makes you feel guilty :-) Credits: -------- Many thanks must go to Mahoney & Kaktus for their Amiga assembler noisetracker replay routine which provided much inspiration and help with the module format and effects. Bugs: ----- Will not load modules that have samples greater than 64k. I have found that this only applies to about 5% of modules. I wrote the routine to be quick and at the time was told the maximum in a module was 64k, I later found that that the maximum was 128k and this would mean a rewrite of two essential routines. I will get round to it eventually. The LOOP effect seems to work on most modules - some modules it doesn't. I'm looking into this one. Coming Soon: ------------ Playing modules that have large samples in them A routine you can link into your own C programs to play modules Fast forward/Rewind and Skip whilst playing a module Random 'Shuffle' play of all modules in a directory _____________________________________________________________________________ Copyright/License/Warranty -------------------------- This document and the program file MODPLAY.COM ("the software") are copyrighted by the author. The copyright owner hereby licenses you to: use the software; make as many copies of the program and documentation as you wish; give such copies to anyone; and distribute the software and documentation via electronic means. There is no charge for any of the above. You are specifically prohibited from charging, or requesting donations, for any such copies, however made; and from distributing the software and/or documentation with commercial products without prior permission. NO FOR-PROFIT ORGANIZATION IS AUTHORIZED TO CHARGE ANY AMOUNT FOR DISTRIBUTION OF COPIES OF THE SOFTWARE OR DOCUMENTATION, OR TO INCLUDE COPIES OF THE SOFTWARE OR DOCUMENTATION WITH SALES OF THEIR OWN PRODUCTS. THIS INCLUDES A SPECIFIC PROHIBITION AGAINST FOR-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS DISTRIBUTING THE SOFTWARE, EITHER ALONE OR WITH OTHER SOFTWARE, AND CHARGING A "HANDLING" OR "MATERIALS" FEE OR ANY OTHER SUCH FEE FOR THE DISTRIBUTION. NO FOR-PROFIT ORGANIZATION IS AUTHORIZED TO INCLUDE THE SOFTWARE ON ANY MEDIA FOR WHICH MONEY IS CHARGED WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION FROM THE COPYRIGHT OWNER. No copy of the software may be distributed or given away without this document; and neither the program or document may be altered in any way. There is no warranty of any kind, and the copyright owner is not liable for damages of any kind. By using this free software, you agree to this. The software and documentation are: Copyright (C) 1990/1991 Mark J Cox All trademarks/registered names acknowledged. _____________________________________________________________________________ Address: -------- Mark J Cox Electronic Mail: 29 Lundie Close (JANET) mjhc8@uk.ac.bradford.eleceng Stenson Fields mjhc8@eleceng.bradford.ac.uk (non UK) Derby (NETMAIL) Mark Cox 2:250/404.5 DE2 3AN (Kingdom of Greyhawk BBS) (OR) Mark.Cox@f404.n250.z2.fidonet.org (Or if before July 1991, 17 Kirkburn Place, Bradford, W Yorks BD7 2BZ is slightly quicker) All comments on PLAY, RESPLAY, MODPLAY or future software is welcomed! -- Tom Morris morris@casee.enet.dec.com Digital Equipment, Centre Technique Europe S.A.R.L DTN 828-5729 B.P. 129 - Sophia Antipolis Tel. +33 92 95 57 29 06561 Valbonne Cedex - France Fax +33 93 65 41 58