Digital Music Player version 0.9 an Aria production 0. Documentation ---------------- This documentation is a temporary solution. As of version 0.9, there is no online help available. Version 1.0 will include a full help system. The reason for the lack of help in this version is the fact that I want to satisfy the demand for a quality .MOD music module player. 1. Introduction --------------- Digital Music Player is a multi-threaded .MOD format music module player for OS/2 2.x with the MMPM/2 multimedia extensions installed. A digital capable audio adapter is required. DMPlayer has been designed to work well with you. It is capable of playing songs in the background while you get real work done with a minimum of interruption. Aside from the wonderful music of course. You will be able to listen to your favorite modules and still have a responsive system at your fingertips. DMPlayer even cooperates with the system sounds provided by MMPM/2. Digital Music Player is currently capable of playing the following formats: 4 track, 31 and 15 instrument Protracker/Noisetracker modules 4 and 8 track Startrekker modules 6 and 8 track Fasttracker modules More formats will be supported in the future. 1.2. Ariaware ------------- This software product is provided to you for the sole purpose of evaluation to purchase. DMPlayer is not free. You are granted license to a trial evaluation period of 30 days in which to determine if you wish to continue using the program. If you decide to use DMPlayer after the 30 day trial period, you must pay the registration fee of $20 (US). Any use beyond the 30 day trial period is prohibited by law. Please see the file REGISTER.TXT for more information on how to register. 1.2.1. Limitations ------------------ If you have not registered DMPlayer, then you will have to face up to a few limitations. These limitations are critical, however, they do not interfere with the evaluation of the program. The current limitations are as follows: 1. Inability to save settings between sessions. Normally, DMPlayer would remember window positions, audio settings, playback settings and directories accessed. 2. Inability to load or save SongLists. All other aspects of the SongList window are fully functional. I hope that you do not find that these limitations are too restrictive. You should still be able to determine whether or not you wish to use the program even with these restrictions. Due to these limitations, many people may quickly dub this software as 'Crippleware' or the like. Be that as it may, I have made a serious investment in the development of DMPlayer and I must protect that investment. I have tried to do so in the most benign manner possible. 1.2.2. Registration ------------------- When you register DMPlayer, you will receive a keyfile unlocking the full functionality of the program. The one time registration fee will provide you with *free upgrades for the life of this program*. Both minor and major upgrades will be made available via your favorite OS/2 shareware distribution site. All future versions of this program will automatically be unlocked by the keyfile you will receive. Please see the file REGISTER.TXT for more information on how to register. 1.2.3. Support -------------- DMPlayer is an evolving product. Support for other module formats will become available in the future. More functionality may be added at some later date. All of which is free to registered users. Support is made available via the internet. Mail questions and/or comments to: dodger@kira.csos.orst.edu or murrayk@instruction.cs.orst.edu 1.3. Distribution ----------------- Digital Music Player may be freely distributed provided that the entire archive remains intact. Shareware distributors may not charge more than $5 (including shipping) for this software package. 1.4. Warranty ------------- No warranty of any kind is implicitly or explicitly granted through use of this program. Aria will not be held liable for any damages resulting form the use of this product. 1.5. Installation ----------------- Digital Music Player needs no special setup. Simply copy the program file into a directory and create a program object if you desire. 2. Explanation -------------- The heart of Digital Music Player is the main control panel. This dialog box presents the most amount of information in the least amount of space possible. It will not hog your entire desktop. It has been designed to somewhat resemble an CD player so the funcitonality should be readily apparent. 2.1. Main Dialog ---------------- This is the basic layout of the main dialog. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |[ ] Digital Music Player [o]| +---------------------------------------------------+---------------------+ | SongList name track x of y | SongList | Audio | | | dialog | Control | | Current module name time +----------+----------+ +---------------------------------------------------+ Module | Playback | | Play | Pause | Stop | Rew | FF | | Prev | Next | Info | Settings | +---------------------------------------------------+---------------------+ The display is easy to understand. The current SongList is displayed in the upper left corner. This is also where you will be notified of problems relating to the SongList. The current module is displayed in the lower left corner of the display. Status messages related to the current module are displayed here. The current and total tracks display is located in the upper right corner of the display. The elapsed time is displayed in the lower right corner. The time display does not take into account skipping about in the song. It simply displays a running elapsed time that the song has been playing. If you have ever used a CD player, then you should be able to control the playback of your music modules with DMPlayer. All the buttons act as they would on any CD player. The 'Prev' and 'Next' buttons select the previous or next song in the SongList. The four buttons on the far right of the main dialog control the appearance of the four auxiliary dialogs. They act as toggles, showing the relative dialog if it is hidden, and hiding it if visible. There are also two menu items added to the system menu. The 'About...' option displays the copyright, version information, and who the program is registered to. The 'Help' menu item will open the help system in the future. 2.2. Playback Settings ---------------------- This is the dialog where you determine the output quality. DMPlayer supports either 8 or 16 bits per sample in both mono and stereo modes. If your audio adapter does not support stereo or 16 bit, then those options will be disabled. You also set the frequency for playback here. The frequency slider allows you to make a precise tradeoff between processor time and quality. The lower the setting, the less time DMPlayer will steal from the system. The higher the frequency, the better the output quality. The differences, in terms of processor time, between 8 and 16 bit or stereo and mono are negligible in most situations. These settings do not take effect while a song is playing. It must be stopped and then restarted for them to become apparent. 2.3. Audio Control ------------------ This is where you can adjust the volume, balance, bass and treble. Not all audio adapters support these settings. However, due to a limitation in the MMPM/2 interface, there is no way to determine certain hardware capabilities so all of these controls are enabled whether or not your particular audio adapter supports the action. 2.4. Module Information ----------------------- This dialog displays some detaild information about the current module. This includes the name, number of channels, format, full path name and a list of the samples in the module. The list of samples shows the sample name, length, repeat offset and the repeat length. 2.5. SongList ------------- A SongList is a collection of music modules that can be loaded, edited and saved. Clicking on the SongList window with the context mouse button (by default the right mouse button) brings up the context menu for the SongList. The SongList supports 6 different views of its contents: Icon, Name, Name Flowed, Text, Text Flowed, and Details. These views are the same as their respective views in the WPS folder system. This should be a very familiar system to work with. That was the whole purpose in designing the SongList in this manner. Drag and drop operations are also supported. You can drag songs within the SongList to reorder. You can also drag music modules from the file system and drop them in the SongList! Experimentation is the direct way to understanding. To play a song, simply double-click on it and listen and enjoy! 2.5.1. SongList Menus --------------------- The SongList menu has the following options: New: Start a new SongList from scratch. Open: Open a SongList that was previously saved. Save: Save the current SongList. Save as: Save the current SongList with a different name. Add songs: Select songs to insert into the SongList. View: Icon: Select the Icon view. Name: Select the Name view. Text: Select the Text view. Details: Select the Details view. Flowed: Select whether or not to flow the Name or Text view. Select: Select all: Select all items in the SongList. Deselect all: Deselect all items in the SongList. The context menu for one entry has the following options: Play: Start playing this song. Remove: Remove this song from the SongList. The context menu for several selected entries has the following options: Remove: Remove these selected songs from the SongList. 2.5.2. Reordering the SongList ------------------------------ Reordering of the SongList is easy. Simply drag the item to be repositioned to it's destination and release the button. In the Icon view, there is no real concept of 'between' items, so attempting to drop an item between two others will result in that item moving to the end of the list. In all other views, items may be placed between (or before or after) others. Items may also be placed 'before' another item by dropping onto the destination. Experiment and you will understand. 3. Thanks --------- Thanks go out to the following people for doing some *serious* late night bug hunting: Adrian Idzik Linden deCarmo Dave Killian Chance Geurin Special thanks to Linden deCarmo for all his support and answered questions about the innermost workings of MMPM/2. You guys did a great job with MMPM/2 Linden! Thanks for all the help and answered questions and bug reports and moral support and etc... 8^) Thanks also to my other early beta testers. You all helped out! -1/10/94- +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Digital Music Player was coded by Keith Murray (the Dodger) of Aria. | | Copyright (c) 1993-1994 Aria, all rights reserved. | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+