============================================================================ A N D N O W , T H E B U T T O N S : ============================================================================ If you're reading this, I hope you have tried playing with EdPlayer a bit. You know that there are a lot of buttons on the main panel that appears when you run the program. Here they are, left-to-right, slowly working downward from the top. (There are no keyboard equivalents for any of these buttons in this release. You'll have to use your mouse. Sorry). POWER: This exits EdPlayer rather immediately. No "Are you Sure?" prompts or anything, because they sometimes annoy me. Of course, all the proper shutdown routines are run, such as unloading the current song, etc. Note that the close gadget in the "iconified" WB window has this same function (see ICONIFY below). (ARexx/telled users: see KILL, SELF in ARexx section) "T": Tempo control. NoiseTracker modules can have different tempos depending on whether you are in PAL or NTSC mode. This button toggles between the two tempos, with the current status appearing in the LED display. Note that this option is memorized "per song" in program mode (see PRG below). Note that modules composed with ProTracker should always be played in PAL mode. ProTracker always sounds like it is in PAL, even on NTSC machines. (ARexx/telled users: see PALM, NORM, NTSC in ARexx section) HELP: This is the "Online Help Function." I call it "online" because you can get help while you are using EdPlayer. (Of couse, this being an Amiga, you can multitask and get help from the DOCs while you are using EdPlayer too. Oh, never mind.) Anyway, you click here to turn help on, then click on the buttons you want help with, and then click here again to turn help back off. "|<": EJECTs current song, moves to previous program selection, and displays title of that selection. You can use this to flip through a program, select where you want to start, and press PLAY to start. (see PRG below). (ARexx/telled users: see PREV in ARexx section) ">|": Same as "|<" above, but moves to NEXT prg selection rather than the previous one. NOTE: In random mode, this button jumps to a random song, not the next one. (ARexx/telled users: see NEXT in ARexx section) ?: The button with the little question mark on it is the random play button. It toggles a similar-looking LED. When the LED is lit, the current program plays in random order. Also, the NEXT command and the ">|" button (just above) jump to random songs rather than the next song when this is on. The status of the random LED is saved when a program is saved. (ARexx/telled users: see RAND, SAVA, SAVC in ARexx section) PRG: OK, now it's time to explain programs. A "program" is a list of module filenames that EdPlayer can memorize, along with two options per name (PAL / NTSC and FADE / NO FADE). When such a list exists, EdPlayer will attempt at the end of each song to load and play the next song in the program, using the options for that song. The two buttons listed above this one scroll through the program. Now about the PRG button itself: Be careful with this button!! It's main use is for ERASING the current program! This is because CREATING programs is more easily done with the OPEN button described below. If EdPlayer has a program in memory, the "PRG" LED will light up on the display. *2.0*>It is now possible to save programs! Yay! But not from the panel. (aww...) Look in the ARexx Commands section for SAVA and SAVC. (ARexx/telled users: see JUKE, ERAS, SAVA, and SAVC in ARexx section) EJECT "^": Unloads current song, freeing lots of CHIP memory. Does NOT erase current program. (ARexx/telled users: see EJEC in ARexx section) Fade Slide: A tiny slider to the right of the EdPlayer logo controls the rate at which songs fade out. Because it is small and its effects are large, numbers appear in the info bar at the bottom when you use this slider. A fade rate of 1 is slow fade, 4 is normal fade, and higher numbers are faster fades. Note that if the FADE LED (yellow triangle) is not lit, this slide is ignored, and the song does not fade at all. Be sure to look at the description of the Fade BUTTON (below). (ARexx/telled users: see AUTO in ARexx section) OPEN: For this one, you need the kd_freq.library version 3.0 or higher in your LIBS: directory! This library might have come with the EdPlayer archive, because its copyright notice is as follows: >>If you want to use 'kd_freq.library' in any freely distributable program, >>you may include the 'kd_freq.library' file as long as you also include the >>'FR_User.DOC' file and mention 'Copyright 1990 Khalid Aldoseri'. Oh yes, the author of this library, Khalid Aldoseri, can be reached at the following address: Khalid Aldoseri P.O. Box 505 Manama, Bahrain. Fax: (973) 694777 Compuserve 75166,2531 And I almost forgot to mention that this library is Copyright 1990 Khalid Aldoseri. Now that you have the kd_freq.library, you can use the EdPlayer OPEN button to bring up it's file requester. With this requestor, you should select the filename of a module you want to hear. If there is no program, the song will load and begin to play. However, if there IS a program (even an empty one created with PRG), the song's name will be added to the program. NOTE THAT A MUCH EASIER way to make programs is with the file requester's "Extended Select" feature. To use this, hold down the SHIFT key and click several module filenames. As you click them, they light up. (If you press shift-rightarrow, ALL the files in a dir will light up). ***> THEN, you MUST hit the "SELECT" gadget at the top right. When you press "OK", ALL of the filenames will be added, in alphabetical order, to the END of the current program. If no program exists when you use this feature, one will automatically be created. To start any program, press PLAY. NEW for EdP v1.1: EdPlayer can now use the req.library if it can't find the kd_freq.library. You have to be a little more careful with req, however: it lets you specify drive names ("DF0:") instead of volume names ("MyMods1:") so if you have 30 disks and you program them all as DF0:something, you're going to be CONFUSED!! *2.0*> Various notes for v2.0 and up: I cannot control many features of the file requesters. All of the file requesters are written by OTHER PEOPLE, and are only called on by EdPlayer as libraries. Please report bugs in a file requester to the author of that file requester, not me!! The next version of EdPlayer may support the asl.library (Workbench 2.0 standard). (ARexx/telled users: see LOAD, PLAY, JUKE, FREQ in ARexx section) "<<": Rewind button. This button skips back to the start of the previous position ("Pos") in the song. If you hit it a few times, it sounds like you are "rewinding" to an earlier part of the song. ">>": FastForward button. This button skips ahead to the start of the next position ("Pos") in the song. You can hit it a few times to skip over any boring parts of a song. PLAY "|>": This button has many functions. If no song is loaded, it will try to get a module name from the program and load & play it. If a song IS loaded, but not playing, it will ignore the program and play the current song. If a song is ALREADY playing, this button will PAUSE it (either immediately or fade-to-pause, see FADE). Finally, if a song is paused, and you press this, the song will continue, either immediately or fade-back-in (see FADE again). (ARexx/telled users: see PLAY, PAUS, CONT in ARexx section) STOP: This button has a square on it. It stops the music IMMEDIATELY, regardless of the state of the "fade" light. If you want a fade-out, fade to a PAUSE and then press STOP. I made it this way because I found that in practice, when people press STOP, they just want the music to STOP right there because they're debugging or something, and fading is mostly for song changes in a program. NOTE that you can NOT continue after a STOP! You must start again from the beginning of that song. If you wanted to continue, you should have pressed PAUSE (a function of the PLAY button above). (ARexx/telled users: see STOP, FADE in ARexx section) LOOP: This button has a little curved arrow on it, signifying a loop. It will toggle on and off the similar-looking LOOP LED on the display. When this LED is lit, the current song will loop to the beginning (or wherever the composer decided it would loop to) and keep playing. In program mode, each song will come to an end, but the whole program will loop when it runs out of titles. When this LED is NOT lit, the current song will end (either immediately or fade-to-stop, see FADE) and in program mode, the program will end when it runs out of titles (but it won't be erased). Note that certain MED modules have a special "STOP" command ($FFE) encoded into the end of the song, and these modules will NEVER LOOP, regardless of this button. Random programs also ignore this button, they just go on selecting songs at random and never stop... (ARexx/telled users: see LOOP, AUTO in ARexx section) FADE: This button has a triangle that is supposed to signify volume fading away (sort of). Whenever you use PAUSE or CONTINUE, or when the song reaches an end just before a program change, the song can either stop/start immediately, or gradually fade out/in. NOTE the two kinds of music modules: 1) The kind where the music comes to a nice stopping point at the end, and doesn't need to loop. 2) The kind where the end of the score sounds like it should keep going! Then it loops to somewhere in the middle. These tunes appear to have NO stopping place, because anywhere you stop them makes it sound abruptly cut off. Most module players only handle the first kind of tune. But with EdPlayer's FADE function, a song of the second type can loop when it reaches the end, and then fade to a stop in part of the song you already heard (where it will be after a loop, obviously). This puts a very nice pseudo-ending on an otherwise endless tune. HOWEVER, if you apply this to a song of the first type, you get something that sounds like it stops, re-starts, and then fades. A LOT of people reported this as a BUG! Well, it's NOT. Just turn FADE OFF for those songs, with this nice FADE button! The button toggles on and off the similar-looking FADE LED on the display. When this LED is lit, EdPlayer will try to fade the song as mentioned. When this LED is dark, EdPlayer will just do instant stops and starts. If a song comes to an end, and LOOP is off (or program is on) and FADE is on, the song will LOOP anyway, but begin fading to a stop, and the program change will occour after the fade. Note that this button has NO effect on (1) the STOP button or (2) MED modules that have the special STOP effect ($FFE) encoded into them. However, these MED modules WILL trigger program changes, of course. SETTING the fade rate: see the "PAUS" command in the ARexx section!! (ARexx/telled users: see PAUS, LOOP, AUTO, FADE in ARexx section) FILTER OVERRIDE: This button looks like a small arrow mushed in with the filter button. It toggles a similar-looking LED. When lit, EdPlayer will not change the audio filter except for specific requests from the user such as the filter button or FILT command. When not lit, the filter is automatically controlled by EdPlayer. (ARexx/telled users: see FILT in ARexx section) FILTER: This button looks like a dot with little waves coming out of it. It has a similar-looking FILTER LED on the display panel that shows the status of the Amiga's audio filter, which is also displayed by your Amiga's so-called "power" LED. Pressing this button toggles the state of the audio filter. Unless you have filter override on, you won't need this button much, because the filter is normally automatically handled by EdPlayer. (ARexx/telled users: see FILT in ARexx section) ICONIFY: This button looks like a WB 1.3 back gadget, but it's NOT the one in the title bar. It gets rid of the CD-player like controls, saving a bit of CHIP mem, and produces a tiny "iconified" window on the WB screen. This window has only two options: The close gadget will exit EdPlayer (see Power above), and the right mouse button, if pressed when the window is selected, will bring back the CD-player look. Of course, all the EdPlayer functions remain in effect in this mode, like program changes and ARexx messages. Plus, this mode saves a bunch of CPU time, because EdPlayer can sleep rather than updating the display every video cycle. If you REALLY need to conserve memory, you should hide EdPlayer altogether and then close the WB screen, using one of the ARexx commands and then some utility for closing WB: (ARexx/telled users: see MENU, ICON, HIDE in ARexx section) DISPLAY: This button looks like a calculator 8. It toggles between four display modes, described in the LED Display section (EdP2.0.LEDs.DOC) (ARexx/telled users: see DISP in ARexx section) BARS: This button is mushed up with DISPLAY because it controls a different part of the display: The moving bars. It cycles the bars through three modes: 1) Normal VU-meters, like EdPlayer 1.1a and before. The bars display voices 0,1,2,3 (speakers: Left, Right, Right, Left). 2) Sorted VU-meters. The bars display voices 0,3,2,1 (speakers: Left, Left, Right, Right). Easier to watch than (1). (NOTE: I just recently got an A3000, and found that the audio outputs were marked wrong!! The one marked "left" output the right speaker's channel and vice versa. I know of several A500s and A2000s that say voices 0 and 3 are LEFT). 3) Spectrum Analyzer. Thanks to Eric Parkin for drawing this. It displays notes based on their frequency (pitch). Because there is so little room for a wide range of notes, EdPlayer keeps track of the collective avarage of all the notes in a song so far, and "pans" the analyzer to focus in on the most-used range of notes. (ARexx/telled users: see DISP in ARexx section) MIDI: This button is supposed to look like a MIDI plug. Sort of. Anyway, it toggles MIDI on and off. The MIDI LED on the display shows the current status of MIDI. When the light is off, your serial port is free for things like downloading, etc., and when the light is on, the serial port is allocated for MED modules to send MIDI data with. Note to midi.library users!!!! See "MIDL" in ARexx section! (ARexx/telled users: see MIDI, MIDL, NOMI in ARexx section) VOLUME SLIDE: Well, what do YOU think it does? It controls the volume of a piece of music. Also, it might NOT be such a good idea to fuss around with this thing while the music is already trying to FADE in/out of its own accord due to the FADE LED. (ARexx/telled users: see VOLU in ARexx section) EDSYNTH POPUP: To the right of the volume slider is a small button with three shapes on it that are supposed to resemble piano keys. This button reveals (or removes) a fun new toy called "EdSynth" (thank Al for the name). EdSynth has a much more accurate rendition of a piano keyboard on it, and the keys will light up different colors as notes are played on them by the current song. The color of the note is controlled by the instrument number playing it. There may be more instruments than there are colors, in which case two instruments may share a color. The colors in this version are: (when not affected by MCOL): Red, Green, Light Grey, Yellow, Tan, ICKY, ICKY PURPLE, Inverted (black keys turn white, white keys turn black), and checkerboard (red/green mix). EdSynth is rather fun to watch; I recommend keeping it open when you don't need as much viewing area of other screens. (ARexx/telled users: see SYNT in ARexx section) INFO BAR: You can click in the space between EdPlayer's "feet" to display the name and author info of the current song. Also, this space shows other useful stuff like the online help, and the version info when you first start EdPlayer or when you come out of an Iconify or HIDE. NOTE TO MODULE AUTHORS: If you want to create some "author info" to appear in this bar whenever your module plays, there are 2 ways: (1) For PT-MODs: Create some instrument names preceded by a "#". Each instrument name in the PT-MOD that starts with a # will be linked together (add your own spaces!) and displayed in the bar. (2) For MED MODs: Create an "annotext" as the MED documentation describes. *2.0*> As of EdPlayer v2.0, EdP will search the instrument names of MED mods that contain them (MED 3.2 and up) and will add any instrument names starting with a "#" to the end of the annotext. SPECIAL EFFECTS: EdPlayer can handle some neat effects in the author info of a module (NT OR MED). These effects all start with a <`> mark, NOT to be confused with the more ordinary <'> mark. PLEASE NOTICE the difference between ` and ' !!!! The ` key, on my American keyboard, is in the top-left, just under the ESC key. Here are the effects: (lowercase letters ONLY!) `s = SLOW. Text will scroll at 1/4 normal speed. `n = NORMAL. Text resumes normal scroll speed. `f = FAST. Text goes THREE TIMES normal speed!! `r = RED. Text from here on will be red. `y = YELLOW `g = GREEN `t = TAN (EdPlayer's tanish color used on buttons) `p = ICKY, ICKY PURPLE!! `w = WHITE, the default. `` = ` (if you really want a ` mark to appear). To use any of these effects, just insert them in the author text of your module. Note that using a ` mark at all will FORCE the text to scroll, even if it was short enough to fit all on the lo-res screen at once (NOT LIKELEY!!). NOTE: If you play a MED mod with MCOL turned on, the colors produced by the above effects may be different, depending on the palette of the MED mod in question. (ARexx/telled users: see MESS, MCOL in ARexx section) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following are only visible when the EdSynth keyboard is displayed: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- EDSYNTH BOGUS PITCHBENDER: When my brother Al drew me a keyboard, he decided to write "EdSynth" on it, and he also drew a small pitchbender on the left side. I left both of these things where they were, because they look kind of cool. However, they do nothing else. In fact, the only mouse-sensitive part of EdSynth is its power button. Obviously, EdSynth is purely for viewing pleasure. EDSYNTH POWER: This power button just gets rid of EdSynth, unlike the main EdPlayer power button which exits the whole program. Currently there is no way to display only EdSynth and not the CD panel. That's all the buttons in this version. Hope ya like 'em.