*********************************** AM/FM ***********************************       AM/FM SPECIAL DISK 1     IMPORTANT NOTICE      Dear AM/FM Reader, This disk contains a number of music files in a variety of 3 different music formats: 1) Standard MIDI format 1 files, 2) Music-X Performance files and 3) MED/OctaMED files, using MIDI instruments. Our original intention was to let you play the standard MIDI files directly from the menu system within this disk. However, that has proved impossible, we're sorry to say. It's a long story, which I will explain in a little while, but for now, let's just settle with the fact that you have to locate the files on the disk, unpack them with Powerpacker or Decrunch, and then load them into the appropriate sequencer/MIDI software package. The standard MIDI files will happily load into Dr.T's KCS, Bars & Pipes and possibly some other sequencers. The Music-X Performance files will of course load into Music-X (any version), and the MED/MIDI files will load into MED or OctaMED. (Or OctaMED-Player). Now, if you're interested in hearing why you won't be able to play the songs through your MIDI interface directly from the AM/FM menu system, read on, and I will tell you a story about a serious case of the: The Powerpacker Blues! When I started to put this disk together, the very first thing I decided on was to keep all data files on the disk packed with Powerpacker. The reason for this, obviously, was to get more data on the disk. It was especially relevant on this disk, since MIDI files are known for being packed down to only a fraction of their original size, when run through the Powerpacker. In fact, by powerpacking all MIDI files and text files on the disk, I could cram onto this one disk enough material to fill up about three disks, if it hadn't been packed in any way! Also, my plan was to let you choose to play all the standard MIDI files directly from the AM/FM menu system. I installed a nice little program called MFPlay, which have been featured on AM/FM before, and which simply reads standard MIDI files and plays them through your MIDI interface. It works wonderfully. Unfortunately though, MFPlay doesn't support Powerpacked files. It won't recognize a file as anything at all, if the file has been packed with Powerpacker. So: In order to get this working, I decided to install a program called Powerpacker-Patcher, which is supposed to go between the disk loading system and any Amiga program, decrunching the files inbetween, so that any program, Powerpacker supporting or not, can use Powerpacked files. The programs will not even "see" that the file is Powerpacked. I decided to install this, so that MFPlay could play the MIDI files, even though they were powerpacked. This seemed to work fine when I had installed it and tested it by booting up the AM/FM disk and running everything from there. MFPlay loaded and quite happily played the Powerpacked MIDI files. Until I tried the same thing when AM/FM had been started up from the Workbench of my already up and running Harddisk/Workbench system. For some reason, MFPlay now simply crashed! It seems that the combination Powerpacker-Patcher/MFPlay/Workbench or something else in my system caused a Software Failure. (I didn't have anything else like a virus checker or anything like that running, so it seems to me it must have been Workbench itself which, in the combination with both Powerpacker-Patcher and MFPlay, crashed.) Ok, I thought, so I will just write an "important notice" file, explaining that the use of MFPlay from the AM/FM menu might crash on some systems. Everyone would have to try it out for themselves, and if it crashed, well, they would just have to load the MIDI files into KCS or Bars & Pipes. I actually wrote this explanation and started installing the various text files on this disk. Sigh... The next thing I found out (after pulling my hair etc.) was that all my text viewers, which already supported Powerpacked text files (like the one we always use on all AM/FM disks) also crashed with Powerpacker-Patcher! I also tried other programs, and I found out that: All programs which already have built-in Powerpacker-support simply crash and cause a system failure if they are used while Powerpacker-Patcher is installed! I was getting desperate! I left a message on a local BBS, asking some programmers etc. for help with this problem, but no one could come up with a solution. I was considering the possibility of keeping all the files on the disk in their original, non-powerpacked form, and releasing this disk on three disks instead. But turning one disk into three, just to let people play the standard MIDI files directly from the AM/FM menu instead of having to load them into the appropriate software package? 880 kb on a disk, when I could make it almost 3 mb? Nope. I decided to forget MFPlay and Powerpacker-Patcher (which I will never go near again as long as I live), and just present the text files on this disk, explaining which formats the song is available in. I have kept the MFPlay program in the directory C on this disk, in case you want to make use of it in your own system. I really works wonderfully on standard, non-powerpacked MIDI files. Conclusion: You will not be able to play any music directly from the menu system on this disk. You will just be able to read about them, then locate them on the disk and load them into the appropriate software package. Conclusion 2: Powerpacker-Patcher sucks. (Sorry, Michael Berg). Bjørn A. Lynne AM/FM [Ed] *********************************** AM/FM ***********************************