Simple-Player v1.6a - April 4th, 1997 ------------------------------------- What's is SimplePlayer ? ------------------------ SPlayer is now MAIL-WARE I have spent many hours on SPlayer. Months to be exact. If you use this program let me know. You can E-Mail me or send a Post card. The future of SPlayer relies on this. Since SPlayer is free, I don't think it's much to ask for a little feedback. Please no MUI vs GadTools Flame wars. SimplePlayer is a GUI for Play16. Play16 is a sound utility that lets you play samples of any size off your Hard Drive. Play16 version 1.7 is included in this archive by permission of it's Author: Thomas Wenzel. (Thanks Tom!) SimplePlayer controls most of Play16's functions. ***************************************************************************** How to install SimplePlayer --------------------------- Just click on the install Icon..that's it. You can put Simple Player and Play16 wherever you want. <<<< YOU MUST RUN THE INSTALLER >>>> Failure to do this will cause certain doom.... ie: The program will not run as intended. Manual installation is possible. If you want see where the Installer puts everything, see Bugs and Installation ReqChange 3.x ------------- I strongly recommend ReqChange 3.x by Magnus Holmgren. It gives SPlayer and your System Requesters more power. ReqChange will centre Requesters, aswell as give you the indispensible "All" button. SPlayer loves this feature. One click and all your samples are loaded. Many more features too. Get it! ReqChange can be found on Aminet. ****************************************************************************** Requirements to run SimplePlayer -------------------------------- SimplePlayer will run on any Amiga with Kickstart 2.0+ An '020 or higher is recommended for playing 16-Bit samples at 14-Bit resolution. Read Play16's docs for more info. ****************************************************************************** How to use SimplePlayer ----------------------- I'm not going to go into detail about Play16's features. Read Play16's Docs if you need more info about anything mentioned in this guide (1) TRACK: 00 (6) 8 - Output --- (7) DEF - Screen | | (3) | | (4) 00:00 | | (8) OFF - Loop --- (9) MODE - (10) Auto (11) | (2) TOTAL: 00 (9a) 8/16 ( 9b) Mono/Stereo (5) READY (17) [] (18) [] << > >> * ^ (19) [] (20) [] (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (21) [S] (22) [?] 1) The Number of the selected sample that will be played. 2) The Total Number of samples that were selected. 3) Shows the current state of SPlayer. Play, Stopped, Pause, etc. 4) Elapsed time 5) Shows Sample names and Status info 6) Current Sound Output: 8 : Standard Amiga 8-Bit Audio 14 : Cunning 14-Bit Amiga Audio If you have any 16-Bit samples, Turn this on. (68000 users beware!) 14c : Same as 14-Bit but use calibration See Play16 archive and docs for info AHI : Uses the AHI sound driver for Amiga and Various sound cards. You need the AHI archive to use this mode. See Play16 docs for more info. If the AHI driver is not installed "AHI" will not appear in this gadget. 7) Screen DEF : Select it if run your system in NTSC/PAL VGA : Select this if you run your system in Multiscan, DoubleNTSC, DoublePAl, etc 8) Loop OFF : Play the Sample once ON : Repeat Sample forever! (or you can press stop) 9) Mode - Toggles between Auto/Raw and Strict 9a) 8/16 - This allows you to select 8 or 16 bit raw format. Defaults to 22050 for 8-bit and 44100 for 16-bit. You can change the value to the correct frequency. 9b) Mono/Stereo - select Mono or Stereo for the Raw sample. (10) STRICT: will only have Play16 play standard Sound files. Like wav, 8svx, au, maud, and 16 bit samples. In this mode Non-Sound data will not be played. SPlayer will show Playing then stopped. No sound will be played. AUTO: If this gadget is left alone (don't type in it) Play16 will try to play anything it comes across. You can even hera what Splayer itself sound like. RAW: As soon as u type in this gadget SPlayer enters raw mode. The current or next sample will be played at this frequency. Valid ranges are 3500 to 56000 HZ. If Splayer Plays a sample but it sounds too fast or slow, use this feature. You can also speed up samples or slow them down just for fun. ONLY STANDARD 8 BIT AMIGA SOUND FILES AND WAVS ARE SUPPORTED IN RAW MODE 16 Bit samples and any other formats will only produce noise. Lots of it 11) This button simply resets SPlayer to Auto mode. Good to get the sample to play back at it's original speed. 12) Skip - Skip back one Sample. Keep this button pressed and a fast reverse search will be done through the sample list. 13) Play - Play the Sample. Enter "Play" Mode. See the bottom of this page for more info on "Play" mode 14) Skip - Skip forward one Sample. Keep this button pressed and a fast forward search will be done through the sample list. 15) Stop - Stops playing The sample. This will also take you out of "Play" mode 16) Load/Eject - Loads/Ejects the file list of samples. Brings up a file requester. Supports Multi-Select 17) Seq Play - Plays all samples one after another or if unselected SPlayer will wait for a Skip forward or back button to be pressed. 18) Repeat - Loops a singe file or the entire Sample list. 19) Random - Randomly plays all selected Samples 20) Filter - Turns the Amiga's Low-Pass Filter (reduces the treble) on or off. Normally you'll want the filter off (that is the default). But some samples might sound Dirty, or have a lot of noise, turning the filter on might help. 21) S - Brings up a requester to save out the currently selected file 22) * - Prefs Window . Will bring up the Prefs Window. See Prefs at end of this file for more information. Special modes: Play Mode: (Sequential Play must be off) When you press Play SPlayer goes into Play Mode. The Display will show ">" and when the sample is finished the Display will show ">|" By pressing Skip forward or Skip back the sample will play automatically. You do have to Press play again. Pressing Stop at any will exit Play Mode. The Display will change to the Stopped Symbol. This comes in handy when you do not want the next sample to play immediately. Play and Reverse Play: (Sequential Play must be on) When Sequential Play is enabled (on) All the selected samples will be played one after another. Pressing > will advance one Track or more if left pressed. Playing will continue when the > button is released. If you press < Play will continue as mentioned above but in reverse order. Save Mode: All the files you save out will be in their native format. Voc, wav, aiff filed will not be converted. Since Play16 can play these files, I see no need to have SPlayer convert them. ***************************************************************************** Stuff to Add ------------ If you like, use, and recommend this program to your friends, let me know. I like to hear good things about my work. Stuff that I'll add soon (maybe): - Tooltypes support - Add Audio CD Player support - clean up and optimize SPlayer's code (right...) Any suggestions welcome.. You can E-MAil me at: favers@execulink.com ***************************************************************************** Bugs and Installation --------------------- Firstly..Make sure you read the entire docs and Play's docs on the proper use of these programs before sending me any Bug reports. Also, the installer is included for a good reason..use it! If there is any bizarre misbehavior of SimplePlayer on your system let me know. Make note of your Amiga model, OS version, and Programs you might have run at startup. The following files are used by Simple-Player: C: Directory Copy Break Status * Led + RequestFile S:SPlayer Directory *SPlayer.images *SPlayer.prefs Fonts: Directory *SPlayer8/8 *SPlayer8.font *SPlayer/10f *SPlayer.font *SPlayerBig/11f *SPlayerBig.font * - These files are installed by the Installer program + - RequestFile is Standard on 3.x Systems. On 2.x, Simon Dick's RequestFile v37.4 is copied here by the Installer. Normal "Behavior" The Timer may skip seconds from time to time, especially when 14-Bit modes and VGA screens are involved. Don't worry, the Timer will catch up to the actual time within a few seconds. If SPlayer is called from the cli or a Web Browser but refuses to play the sound sample, low chip-mem is usually to blame. ***************************************************************************** The ones responsible... ----------------------- SimplePlayer was written Allan Versaevel. Play16 was written by Thomas Wenzel. Now the Disclaimer Part (legal stuff): Any Unauthorized distribution outside this archive of either SimplePlayer or Play16 is strictly prohibited. SimplePlayer Is the copyright of Allan Versaevel. Play16 is the copyright of Thomas Wenzel Thomas Wenzel and myself are not responsible for any damage to you, your family, or your computer system, caused directly or indirectly, by the use of this software package. Use at your own risk... Boy, glad that's over with... Hope you enjoy this program. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: favers@execulink.com Allan Versaevel 679 Miller Street Woodstock, Onatrio Canada. N4S-5K2 ***************************************************************************** Excellent Jobs Everyone! Many Thanks To The Following People: Beta Testers: ------------- John Pszeniczny - Eddie's Brother Christian Birchinger - Batman beware, the Joker is back! Michael "Cap" Brenegan - ArcNet Junkie to the end Roy Milican - Beginner programmer elite ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thomas Wenzel - Play16's Author. Thanks for The best sound utility on the planet. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Simon Dick - Author of Requestfile V37.4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Robert C. Reiswig - For his talents in making the much improved Installer for SPlayer 1.6 This Installer is (c) 1997 of Robert Reiswig. Any copying in whole or in part without the author's permision is strictly prohibited. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Many thanks to those who replied with their suggestions and bug reports. ***************************************************************************** @Node History "A Simple History Of Simple Player" v1.6a - Fixed (I hope) a Bug in the Prefs. Some other bugs killed - Added More Control Over Raw samples (8/16 Bit or Mono/Stereo) v1.6 - Prefs window added - AHI support via Play16 1.7 added - Improved installer v1.5 - Fixed Random routine bug. - Added a Custom Font for the Elapsed timer. Easier to read - Cleaned up Splayer's GUI. 20 lines smaller - Added CD-like Display Graphics - Killed some redundant code. v1.4 - Can now be used with IBrowse and AWeb. - Supports saving of sound files. If you liked what you listened to, you can now save it out. Great for Web Browsing. - SPlayer can now handle one command line argument. ie: "SPlayer Sys:Sound/sample.iff". Can be used with any program or via the shell. - "Smart"" Random Play added. - Replaced the Eject Graphic with a more standardized one. - c:version command compatible. - various bug fixes. v1.3a - Added IBrowse Support. Now SPlayer can be called up by IBrowse to play sound files off the net. v1.3 - Now you can save SPlayer's Window position. - Random Play feature has been added. - Reverse Play feature added - GUI has been moderately changed. Looks better. - Fixed Font Bug. Splayer will adapt it's window to the Window Title's Font. - If a sample list is already loaded and you select load/eject but do not select any files (press cancel or close gadget), the original list will not be erased. - Some Optimizing has been done. Dead, repetitive code has been removed. - Various Bug fixes. v1.2 - Seq Play can be turned on or off - File Requester "remembers" last Directory you were in. - Fast search added. - Elapsed "Real Time" Timer added. - Fixed it so that only one Simple Player can be run at a time. - Another slight GUI change. - Killed "50-feet software" ( I was tired when I thought of that one) Now My Name appears. v1.1 - Repeat option added. Will loop lists of samples. - Filter option added. Turns the Amiga's Low-Pass filter on and off. Useful for "Dirty" sounding samples. - Slight GUI change to make room for the above mentioned options. - Included RequestFile 34.7 by Simon Dick. Now SimplePlayer will run on 2.x machines. v1.0 - First Public Release of SimplePlayer. v.9 - Fixed bug #2008. Raid finally did the trick..Got ya ! v.8 - Stop actually works now... v.5 - Too strange to mention. Fixed it though. v.1 - First Semi-Usable version of SimplePlayer. V.0 - Didn't exist yet. ***************************************************************************** IBrowse Set-Up -------------- SPlayer can now be called up by IBrowse to play sound files off of the net. The only exception is if you use IBrowse on FTP sites. IBrowse uses a different protocol for those pages. How to Set up the IBrowse Preferences to use SPlayer: 1) Go into "Preferences" in IBrowse 2) Select "General" 3) In the Window that pops up click on "Ext.viewer" 4) Select "Add" 5) In "Mime Type" enter "Audio". Press return 6) Enter "*" in the adjacent box. (to the right). Press enter 7) In "Extension" type "wav.voc.aiff,au.maud,iff" press enter 8) Beside "Action" select the "Ext.viewer" button 9) In the "Viewer" box, type or use the File gadget, enter the path and name os SPlayer. 10) In "Arguments" enter %f and press return. 11) Click on "OK" 12) In the "Preferences" menu again, select "Save Settings" That's it. Now whenever you click on a wav, aiff,au,etc. file, Splayer will pop up and Play the sample. ***************************************************************************** AWeb 1.x to 2.0 Set-Up ---------------------- SPlayer can now be called up by Aweb to play sound files off of the net. How to Set up the AWeb Preferences to use SPlayer: 1) Select "Change Settings" from the "Settings" menu 2) use the Page Cycle gadget and keep clicking on it till you reach the Mime Type and External Viewer Page 3) Click on ADD 4) Type "AUDIO" in the Type box (left side) and "*" in the box beside it. 5) In "Extensions" enter "wav aiff voc iff maud". Press return 6) In "Command" enter the path of SPlayer including it's name. 7) In "Arguments" enter %s and press return. 8) Click on "Save" That's it. Now whenever you click on a wav, aiff,au,etc. file, Splayer will pop up and Play the sample. ***************************************************************************** AWeb 2.1 Set-Up --------------- SPlayer can now be called up by Aweb to play sound files off of the net. How to Set up the AWeb Preferences to use SPlayer: 1) Select "Browser Settings" from the "Settings" menu 2) Select Viewers (5) from that window 3) Click on ADD 4) Type "AUDIO" in the Type box (left side) and "*" in the box beside it. 5) In "Extensions" enter "wav aiff voc iff maud". Press return 6) In "Command" enter the path of SPlayer including it's name. 7) In "Arguments" enter %s and press return. 8) Click on "Save" That's it. Now whenever you click on a wav, aiff,au,etc. file, Splayer will pop up and Play the sample. ****************************************************************************** Prefs ----- Here you can set your path for Play16 and GAIP16. Set your AHI Mode, Global Prefs and window position. Click on the ^ button beside the Play16 gadget to select your Path and file name for Play16 Click on the ^ button beside the Play16 gadget to select your Path and file name for GAIP16. This is used for the AHI sound driver. It lets you select the audio mode you are to use. Only choose a mode that your setup supports! AHI Mode ID - calls the GAIP16 program and lets you select the Audio mode you want. The resulting number is shown to the right. You Must have the AHI archive installed or this gadget will be ghosted. As well, your path for the Gaip16 program must be selected via the requester. NOTE: Only install the AHI drivers that support your Hardware. The GAIP16 program could Guru your system if otherwise. Global Prefs - If checked will save (if you select save) all SPlayer settings. (ie. Check boxes and Cycle gadgets) Save Window - If Checked will save SPlayer's Window Position. Please Note: ************ You must move Splayer's Window to the position you desire before opening the prefs window. Save - Save current settings and exit prefs Okay - Use GAIP16 prefs and and exit (no saving done)