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  |                    S o u n d   M a c h i n e   I I I

                          -thenewgenerationofplayerzz-                      |
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=========| Contents |===========================================================

1. Quick description of Sound Machine III
2. Presentation of the main dialog box
3. Technical informations, bugs and limitations

=========| Part 1 |=============================================================

     Sound Machine is a soundchip player. It should work on all Atari computers
(on 520 STFM/STE, you will perhaps have to start your computer without any
programs in memory). This software has been tested on an STE with 4 Mb memory
and a standard Falcon in VGA mode. It will surely runs on STFM, Mega ST and Mega
STE. Problems may appear with TT and clones about some music formats which don't
run on Falcon.

     Another player ? Yeah, but this one is different. First of all, it has been
fully rewritten with GEM-compatible code, it means you can use it in all the
resolutions but in multitask (despite of a GFA bug). It is particularly easy to
use, even for a person who doesn't know the wonderful world of soundchips.
Furthermore, Sound Machine is the only software which allows to play unknown
soundchips by setting the different parameters. Of course, it is possible to
save these unknown musics into Sound Machine's built-in format. Sound Machine
III is fully compatible with the files created by the good old Sound Machine
2.5. And that's only a little part of Sound Machine's abilities.

     What is a soundchip ? That's a 3 voice music which uses Yamaha sound co-
processor's synthetic sounds. Some musics allow sampled sounds, for the drums
for example : those are digidrums (also called halftracks). Other musics sound
like the good old C 64 tunes : they are called Sid-Voice musics.

=========| Part 2 |=============================================================

     The main dialog box can be divided into 3 parts : file information, the
parameters and the GEM buttons.

* The first lines give some useful information such as the file name or its
length. You will find bellow these info a short description on the file loaded
in memory (format, author, more info, etc.).

* Parameters are numerous, I'm going to describe them :
  - 1st init : the first offset to initialize the music.
  - 2nd init : another offset to initialize digidrum musics.
  - Play : the main offset, it will play the music at each VBL.
  - 1st stop : the first offset to stop the music.
  - 2nd stop : another offset to stop digidrum musics.
  You'll note it is possible to (un)select a button in the front of "2nd init"
  and "2nd stop". It means you can decide to call or not these two offsets. They
  are especially used for digidrum musics.
IMPORTANT : if you're a beginner, avoid modifying these parameters else Sound
Machine will crash.
  - Music number at the beginning : sometimes, a file can contain several tunes.
  The right values must be included between -1 and 15.
  - Music number at the end : when a music ends, the routine sometimes need a
  particular music number (e.g. : -1 for the Lotus format).
  - Several musics in the file : now you know that a file can contain several
  tunes. If this option is activated, you will be able to change tune with the
  "+" and "-" keys when the music is playing. Some formats dislike this possibi-
  lity and crash, so be careful. Please note that with the "+" and "-" keys,
  the values must are included between 0 and 31. Beware to the bombs !
  - This music should run on Falcon : if you own an ST, you don't mind. If you
  habe got a Falcon, activate this option if you are sure that the music in RAM
  will work on you computer. Anyway, when a file is loaded, Sound Machine verify
  if this music can be played on a Falcon.

* The buttons are quite numerous too :
  - LOAD : you can load a file into the memory. Sound Machine attempts to iden-
  tify the format of the file (by compairing with 70 recognized formats). If the
  file is recognized, Sound Machine will display the right parameters in the
  main dialog box. Of course you can modify them if you want.
  - PLAY : allows to play the music. If the format is unknown, Sound Machine
  asks you if you want to play it regarding to the parameters in the main dialog
  box. If you own a Falcon and if the music can't be played on it, you can force
  Sound Machine playing the music (e.g. if you use Backward). Moreover, all the
  recognized formats aren't played by Sound Machine, such as soundtracks and
  samples. Indeed, Sound Machine has been coded in GFA Basic and better players
  for these kind of files exist (MegaTracker Player or Paula for soundtracks,
  BackGround Player or SAM for samples).
  - SAVE : the file in memory will be saved.
  - See header : allows you to see the first 200 bytes of the file in memory.
  - Convert & save : the file currently in memory will be converted into the
  Sound Machine III and then saved on disk.
  - About : some information about Sound Machine.
  - Options : allows you to have some useful info : kind of computer (if you are
  using an emulator), free RAM and used RAM. You can set the software up too :
  you can choose Sound Machine asks you a confirmation before playing an unknown
  type of music. You should activate this option if you're a beginner. Thanks to
  the second option, you can limit the size of the reserved memory for the GEM.
  Of course, this size will only be taken into consideration the next time you
  will start Sound Machine (if you've saved the options before).
  - Extract & save : when a music is converted into the built-in format, Sound
  Machine just add some bytes at the beginning of the original file. So, this
  option will do the contrary and will remove these bytes. The new file will be
  saved.
  - Exit : guess what... Sound Machine will ask you no confirmation.

=========| Part 3 |=============================================================

     In order to be played, a soundchip generally contains at the beginning of
the file a routine which have to be called at each VBL. Indeed, at each VBL, the
Atari will go and see in a special list which are the routines to be executed.
But there can be only 8 places in this list. So, when you run Sound Machine, it
will go to this list and, if there is room enough, it will note this place and
will use it to play soundchips later. If there is no room enough then Sound
Machine will go back to the GEM Desktop. So be carefull is you really want to
use Sound Machine under a multitasking OS.

     A little word about bugs. I have coded this version by using the procedures
and the routines of the last version (2.5). I was very carefully but some bugs
may appear. If you find some bugs, please tell me what did you do some seconds
before and what's your configuration...
     I've recently noted that Millenium Brothers musics are a bit particular...
If you want to play such tunes, click first on "Several musics in the file", hit
the "-" key and click on "Play". Another problem, but on Falcon with Backward
only : after a Count Zero music, your computer will stop if you want to load
another file or to exit Sound Machine. I don't know the reason why it bugs...

     Concerning the limitations, you can't run Sound Machine as an accessory.
Well, in fact you can virtually do it, but you will only be able to use it once
because it wasn't made for this ! You can't use it in a multitask OS as a back-
ground application because its dialog boxes don't enjoy multitasking very much.
Why ? Because Sound Machine plays soundchips and it must be very carefully and
clean if you don't want your system crash. Playing soundchips in background is
more difficult than playing samples or soundtracks.


                                                End of doc - Have a lot of fun !
