Noziam Sound Machine v1.0 John G. Nozum 9 Waynesburg Pike Moundsville, WV 26041 U.S.A. July 1995 What is Noziam Sound Machine? Well, it is a program that allows you to have up to 36 sounds loaded into chip ram at the same time and lets you play up to four at a time via the Amiga's keyboard. By the way, "Noziam" is an adjective that I made out of my last name, Nozum. This program was written in AMOS the Creator, v1.36. While I have tried to get all the known bugs out of the program, you may have some weird problems on the first 4-8 times that you activate a sound. This bug is in AMOS itself--in the SAM RAW command. Other than this, the program seems to be pretty solid. However, you may not encounter the AMOS bug at all, for I tried a work-around by silently using the SAM RAW command eight times before control is handed to you. The program is easy to use. After a couple initialization screens, you are taken to a file requester. One thing not shown in the file requester is how to change current devices. To do this, move the mouse pointer into the directory window and click on the RIGHT mouse button. Now scroll through and select the device with the LEFT mouse button. Also, to get to a parent directory, click on the "o" right above the UP arrow. At this stage, four different file formats are recognized when loading: IFF one-shots (IFF-8SVX), IFF-Instruments, raw data, and Noziam Sound Machine's own script files. If you hit ESC or click on QUIT, then the program will quit loading stuff. If you do this on the first entry, the program will abort itself. If a IFF one-shot sound is loaded successfully, it will load the sound and ask you what key you want to use to play that particular sound. Note that the sound will not be heard at this time. If an IFF-Instrument is loaded successfully (more than one octave), then the MIDDLE or first octave below the middle one will be loaded. The rest is disgarded in the load operation. The purpose of this setup is to load an octave that is as close to the middle one as possible, but also attempt to preserve optimal sound quality. Again, you will be asked for a key to program this sound into. If a raw file is found, you will be warned that it is not an IFF sound file and be asked whether if you want to go ahead and load the raw data. If you answer 'y', then it will proceed, otherwise, the file requester will be brought up again. If you do go on, you will be asked for a playback rate between 1000 and 28045. Next, you will be asked for a key to program this sound into. If a Noziam Sound Machine script file is recognized, then it will automatically execute it. These script files are simply a list of pathnames, playback rates, and volumes, all which is generated by this program. If you save such a file, BE SURE that you do not change any pathnames and such to your sounds, or you will have an error and the program will abort. After selecting one or more sounds, click on QUIT or hit ESC to start enjoying the program. Note that when loading a NSM (Noziam Sound Machine) script file, you will automatically be taken to the main part unless an error occurs. After about 2/3 of a second, the program is ready to enjoy. This delay is where the SAM RAW command is used eight times to hopefully get the error activity over before control is handed to you. Now comes the fun! Press any of the keys (DO NOT USE SHIFT KEYS) to hear those sounds that you want to hear. Note that if you try to play more than four sounds and the first sounds are not done yet, they will be cut off in order to accommodate the new sounds. To stop all the sounds immediately, but not stop the program, press the SPACE BAR. To save an NSM script file, press SHIFT-S and you will be taken to the file requester for saving your file. To start over, press SHIFT-L for LOAD. Again, all four file formats are recognized. To edit the volume and/or pitch of a sound, first play that sound, and then press SHIFT-E for EDIT. Note that you do not have to wait until the sound dies out. It will be cut off immediately when entering the EDIT screen. The edit screen is self-explanatory and allows you to change the pitch and/or volume of a sound and to test that sound from the EDIT mode. The controls in the EDIT mode include: P for changing playback rate (pitch), V for changing volume, T for testing, SPACE BAR for aborting sound during test mode, and E for Ending the EDIT mode. If you use SHIFT-A while in the main part, you will be taken to the LOADing mode again, but sounds will be APPENDED to the pre-existing ones. WARNING: NSM scripts are NOT recognized during an APPEND operation or after one or more sounds are already loaded during a LOAD operation. To end the program while in the main part, use ESC. Note that this program will check the amount of chip ram that you have, and it will immediately grab a little over 90% of it for itself. It is not advisable to multi-task with this program. However, directory utilities, such as Directory Opus do not pose a problem other than stealing a little bit of chip ram. Note that any programs started AFTER NSM is started may behave strangely or crash do to extremely low amounts of remaining chip ram. Also, note that this program will not allow you to accidently overdo your chip ram. If you try to load too much stuff, a bell will ring and that load will be aborted. Note that you may have some strange problems on Amigas with no fast ram. This is because sounds are loaded into another area of memory for examination before being placed into the play buffer. This can be a significant problem with large sounds (on Amigas with no fast memory). In addition, if the screen stays black when starting the program, use LEFT-AMIGA-A repeatedly until one of the screens come on; This is caused by another bug in AMOS itself. This program will work with KS 1.3 or higher. Lastly, if you do wish to multi-task or whatever, use LEFT-AMIGA-A to toggle between this program and Workbench. I hope that this helps you out. Have fun stirring up the town! From John G. Nozum