************************************************************************** * * * Noisome v1.0 * * * * User Documentation * * * * © 1993 David Larsson * * * ************************************************************************** Preface ======= The program and files in this distribution are freely distributable, but are also copyright (c) David Larsson. They may be freely distributed as long as no more than a nominal fee is charged to cover time and copying costs. No commercial usage is permitted without written permission from the author. Everything in this distribution must be kept together, in original unmodified form. The above is generally known as freeware. Please contact me if you have any comments or suggestions: E-Mail: f92dala@fy.chalmers.se Mail: David Larsson Gibraltarg. 82:150 S-412 79 Göteborg Sweden Contents ======== 1. Introduction 2. Features 3. Installation 4. Usage 5. ToolTypes 6. Known problems 7. Problems never heard of 1. Introduction =============== There was a time when every decent computer made beeps when you pressed a key. That was very cute, but today's computers seem to miss this feature for some strange reason. I don't want it to stay that way, so I've made this program that takes you back in time and plays any sample you wish when a key is pressed. But that's not all, folks! You can have different samples for different keys, special samples for the mousekeys, a sample to be played instead of the visual display-"beep", and more... To sum up, this is an invaluable tool that adds one or two extra dimensions to your Amiga-experience. Keep it. Use it.:-) 2. Features =========== * Noisome is a standard Commodity and will only work on Workbench 2.04 or higher. It works together with the new Sound-prefs in 2.1 and 3.0. * The program lets you select soundsamples (8SVX, raw data, mono and stereo) to be played when any of the following events occur: Event Comment ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Visible bell One of the major improvements in Workbench 2.1 was the ability to play a sample or beep instead of the "flashing screen"-warning. But everybody hasn't upgraded yet, why I have it here. Key Any key that produces a visible output. Return A special sample for this key is required for a realistic simulation of a typewriter! Space The same goes for this one. Left mousebutton Only add a sample to this if you really think that you won't go insane and kill your pet or something. Right mousebutton This option only exists for the symmetry, but I'm sure that someone will find a situation where it will come in handy. Disk inserted This can really surprise someone who doesn't know that Noisome is running. A crunching or "swallowing" sound is strongly recommended. Disk removed If you have loads of chipmem, you could always put some interesting sample here. * The overhead is very small, and typing speed doesn't suffer at all. The task priority can be set freely. In this way, you can choose whether Noisome should give you an accurate response on EVERY click or no system performance loss. * The samples are played in mono or stereo, and two can be played simultaneously. (See "Usage" for details). The audio allocation priority can also be set. These two settings enable you to decide how Noisome will work together with other programs that produce beeps, like Sound-preferences, comm-programs etc. * If several identical samples are chosen for different events, only one copy of the sample will be held in memory. * Of course, the audio filter can be turned off, so you really can enjoy those high-pitched, sweet sampled typewritersounds! 3. Installation =============== You can try the program out immediately by simply doubleclicking on the Noisome-icon. For a permanent installation, drag Noisome and Noisome.prefs to any drawer, preferably WbStartup. The supplied preferences are set to look for the samples in a drawer called 'Samples', which sould be copied to the same directory as Noisome. Of course, this isn't necessary if you have your own samples. The complete path of the prefs-file can be changed with a ToolTypes- option. This is described in the "ToolTypes"-section of this manual. The following files should be in the archive: Name Description ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Noisome The program Noisome.prefs Preference file (Old Remington samples) Modern.prefs - " - (Modern Brother samples) Noisome.doc This file Samples/ Bro_key Key pressed on an electronic Brother typewriter. Bro_return Carriage return - " - Bro_space Space key - " - Rem_key Key pressed on a Remington, early 30'ies model. Rem_return Carriage return - " - Rem_space Space key - " - Oh_uh Donald Duck has made a mistake... 4. Usage ======== You can start Noisome either from the CLI or the Workbench. As a default, the main window will open. (See "ToolTypes" for how to disable this.) I hope that everything is quite straight-forward, so here is only a short description of the gadgets: (The underlined character is the keyboard shortcut.) Label What is it good for? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Window's Closes the window, but doesn't quit the program. close-gadget Events Contains all the events that Noisome currently supports. ¯ Click on the one you want to edit. Sound The name of the current sample. Note that it doesn't have to be the same as the filename. Play Plays the sample. Actually, two samples can be played if ¯ you also have a sampled connected to the left mousebutton. File Here you enter the filename of the sample to be associated ¯ with the selected event. Entering an empty string removes the loaded sample from memory. If the file isn't an 8SVX-type IFF, it will be treated as raw data. Browse Brings up a filerequester. ¯ Volume Well... Sets the volume of the current sample, I guess... ¯ Enabled If this gadget is NOT checked, then the sample will remain ¯ loaded, but it won't be played. Flash screen This only applies to the DisplayBeep-event. If you can't ¯ live without a flashing screen, this is the gadget for you! In WB2.1, it also means that the sound you selected in Sound-prefs will be played. (The following gadgets affect all samples) Filter With this gadget you can enable and disable the hardware ¯ low-pass filter that make samples sound very muffled. Channels Lets you choose how the channels will be allocated. ¯ Note that the channels stay allocated for as long as Noisome runs! However, you can change the priority, so that other - more important - sound-producing programs won't fail to run. The different options are: 1 mono - One sound will be played in one channel. 2 mono - Two sounds can be played at the same time, but they will stay in one speaker. 2 stereo - One sound will be played in both speakers. 4 stereo - Two sounds in both speakers. Audio This is the priority with which the channels are ¯priority allocated. The value must be between -128 and 127. Choose this value carefully! A high value (e.g 126 or more) will effectively prevent your favourite music program from starting. On the other hand, if you enter a low priority, you will still hear the ugly warning beeps that some programs produce instead of a lovely sample of yours. I suggest that you experiment with different combinations of channels/priorities. Task priority This is the priority of the task that sits and listens ¯ for the events and play the samples. A low value won't give any overhead at all, but a sample isn't always played when an event occurs. Experiment with different values! Enable Noisome will listen for events and play the appropriate ¯ samples. Disable No samples will be played and the channels are deallocated. ¯ You can't bring up the window by pressing the hot-key combination. Hide Closes the window, but doesn't quit the program. ¯ Quit Quits Noisome. You should never have to do this. ¯ These are the menus and their shortcuts, if any: Noisome About ? Shows the current version of the program. Enable Noisome will listen for events and play the appropriate samples. Disable No samples will be played and the channels are deallocated. Hide Closes the window, but doesn't quit the program. Quit Q Quits Noisome. You should never ever have to do this.:) Preferences Open... O Loads new preferences. All samples currently loaded will be deallocated. Save S Saves all the settings to a file. The filename will be the one of the last loaded preference file. Save as... A Saves all the settings to a file of your choice. 5. ToolTypes ============ Noisome recognises the following ToolTypes: (They can also be type in as parameters from the CLI) PREFSFILE= The path of the preferences file that Noisome will look for when the program is started. The default is 'Noisome.prefs'. CX_POPKEY= The key-combination that will bring up the main window when it is closed. See your Workbench- documentation for details. Default is 'ctrl lalt n', which means the Control key together with the left Alt-key and 'n'. CX_PRIORITY= The priority of Noisome in the Commodities handler chain. The default is 0. CX_POPUP=[YES|NO] Whether the main window should be opened or not at startup. Default is YES. DONOTWAIT This is useful if you put Noisome in your WbStartup-drawer. See your Workbench-documentation for details. 6. Known problems ================= Well, er... There seems to be a problem when you have allocated several channels at a low priority. When you run a program that quickly allocates and deallocates one or two channels, Noisome sometimes seems to hang... But have no fear! Noisome will revive if you start another program that allocates ALL channels and then releases them. To avoid this problem, only allocate one or two channels or to set a higher audio priority, like 100 or so. 7. Problems never heard of ========================== If your Amiga suddenly vaporizes or gets localized in Hebrew, you've just experienced what I usually refer to as an undocumented sideeffect, and I would like to hear from you. Please, carefully write down the steps that produced the mishap, so that I won't do the same mistake on my own machine.;) THANKS to Anders Hammarqvist and Martin Kullgren, for testing and giving suggestions!! /¯\ David Larsson /¯\ Engineering Physics /¯\_/¯¯¯¯ / \_/¯\ /¯¯¯\_/ \ Chalmers University of Technology / Sweden / \_/ \ /¯\ /¯\ /¯\_/¯\ / ¯\ / \ / \_/ \ / \ / \_/ f92dala@fy.chalmers.se \__/ \_/ \__/