_______________________________________________ |Program: DeskTracker | /\ |Type: Accessory | /\ \ |Version: 1.15 | /__\ \ |Distribution: Shareware | _/_ _\_\_ |System: STf/STfm or STe/MSTe/TT/Falcon*;| | TOS/MiNT/MultiTOS; | | any screen rez | | 1Mb+ recommended | |Last update: 16th September 1993 | |Written by: David Oakley | | | |Copyright (c)1992,1993 ASTRAsoft | | | |Purpose: Play ProTracker modules in | | the background with animated | | graphic display of tune. | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * Separate versions provided for computer groups Originally based on a NoiseTracker routine written by Wizzcat in 1991, DeskTracker and the current version (DeskTracker MT) are designed to play MOD files on any machine with PCM sound chip. Warning: ON SOME MACHINES AND SETUPS THE COMPLICATED NATURE OF DeskTracker'S MODULE PLAYER MAY CAUSE A CRASH IF EXPOSED TO TOO HEAVY WORKLOAD DURING HIGHSPEED PLAYBACK. EXPERIMENT FOR A WHILE BEFORE DOING IMPORTANT THINGS WHILE RUNNING DeskTracker!!!!! ============================================================================ __________________ / CHANGES TO 1.0x / please read if you're upgrading... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o There is now no ATRAK.PRG/DTMTTRAK.PRG in the AUTO folder o DTMT.INF is now DESKTRAK.INF, different file format o DTMT.ACC is now DESKTRAK.ACC. o New version of RUN_MOD.PRG. ============================================================================ ___________________ / This program is / / SHAREWARE! / ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DeskTracker has taken a lot of work by an overstressed university student! This software is distributed free, but if you use DeskTracker for an extended period (for example over 1 month) it would be appreciated if you could send a donation of œ5 (pounds sterling) to the address below. I will try to reply to all mail within a month, even if it's just a postcard to say I'm getting round to it. The address is... David Oakley 6 Watlands Road Bignall End Stoke On Trent ST7 8QQ ENGLAND If you register, you get... o The current version of DeskTracker with all the trimmings left on o Versions of the Tracker-player used in DeskTracker which can be included as object files in your Lattice-C or GFABASIC-3 compiled programs or Devpac assembler programs. o Put on our mailing list ready for when I finish my MOD-Editor 'Storm!' early in '94. It will work in any GEM mode with at least a 640x400 pixel screen and will be fully MultiTOS compatible with all the background playing features you've seen in DeskTracker! o Various little ASTRAsoft disk/stocking-fillers o My gratitude! Please make all cheques payable to David Oakley and in sterling only. For international registrations, you must send travellers cheques, sterling cheques or cash, use registered post if you're worried by security. When registering please state which model of Atari you have and which monitor you use. Also mention which version of DeskTracker you are using at the moment. ============================================================================ ________________ / Compatibility / ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DeskTracker STe will only run on an ST compatible that supports Atari's PCM sound which was first introduced on the STe. DeskTracker ST will run on any ST, as long as it has a Yamaha sound chip, as all current computers do. It may be affected by processor accelerators and fail to work on these computers. DT has been tested on a 520STfm, 1040STe, Mega/ST, Mega/STe, TT and a Falcon. We have tested it running MultiTOS without memory protection, but it fails with memory protection on... When will HiSoft bring out a MTOS-compatible debugger? As I said in the introduction, there are a few machines where DT can cause system crashes... I only know of one machine out of over a hundred who've tested DT, and that's the one I'm using! Annoying, very annoying... ============================================================================ ____________ / The files / ~~~~~~~~~~~~ In this package (archive or folder) you should find the following files: DESKTRAK.ACC Can also be run as a program. There is now no need for an AUTO folder program, which was needed in earlier versions. DESKTRAK.TXT This file RUN_MOD.APP For MultiTOS only! Install this with application type .MOD and then double-clicking MOD files will automatically add them to DeskTracker's memory list and begin playing. ============================================================================ __________________ / Getting started / ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Just copy DESKTRAK.ACC into the root of your boot drive (e.g. A:\ or C:\). ============================================================================ ____________ / Operation / ~~~~~~~~~~~~ DeskTracker is designed to work just like a real CD player. Well, it works like mine does! It has two main modes of operation: normal and memory. When in Memory mode, several of the buttons have different meanings, usually when no MOD is being played. In the list below, shortcut keys are in square brackets (eg. [L] ). Click on the menu item 'DeskTracker ST(e)' in the File menu. The DeskTracker window will appear: ________________________________________ |X| DeskTracker STe 1.20 |O| |----------------------------------------| |_____________________________|OPTIONS|ii| | ____________________ ~~~~~~~~|~~| || /\ | [] | |> || 00 | ASTRAsoft |12| ||====|====|====||----| ______________|25| || << | || | >> ||<=> ||MEM |ADD |RAND|50| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What the buttons do: Button Display Description __ Close |\/| If in Accessory mode, closes the window but keep playing. [Undo] |/\| If in Program mode, stops playing and quits the program. ~~ Full __ Iconises DeskTracker to a very small window. All keyboard |/\| shortcuts still work and operation continues as normal. |\/| Useful for MultiTOS. Also available on the Spectrum ~~ Analyser and Oscilloscope windows ______ Load | /\ | Load and start a new ProTracker MODule. If you press [L] | == | Cancel on the fileselector then the current tune is ~~~~~~ erased from memory and the memory is freed. See 'Auto-Allocate' below for information about memory allocation on non-MTOS machines. Use the [Clr] key to simply eject a song. ______ Clear | /\ | This button is activated by holding down the right mouse [Clr | == | button and clicking the left on Load. It stops playing Home] ~~~~~~ and wipes the current song from memory. +RtMouse In memory mode, Clear ejects the current song and returns Button DT to normal mode. ______ Stop | i~~i | Stop the currently playing song, but don't erase it [S] | |__| | from memory. Reset pointers to start of song. ~~~~~~ ______ Play | |\ | Play the current song from the current position. If any [Spc] | |/ | other program has stopped DeskTracker, this will restart ~~~~~~ the tune from where it was stopped. _______ Pause | i~i~i | Stop the currently playing song, but remember where [P] | |_|_| | we were so play restarts from this point. ~~~~~~~ ______ Rewind | /|/| | Move the play position back by one section [->] | \|\| | ~~~~~~ ______ Fast | /|/| | Move the play position forward by one section Forward | \|\| | [<-] ~~~~~~ ______ Add to | ADD | Select a MOD file and add it to the end of the memory | | playlist. Alternatively you can specify a set of files, [+] ~~~~~~ using *.MOD, A*.MOD, *.* etc. If you specify a file with a .TXT extender, DT will use this as a list of songs to add to the playlist. These names should include the full path name ______ Repeat | +->+ | Toggles whether the MOD file will repeat once it [R] | +<-+ | has reached the end. DT will even trap those songs ~~~~~~ which will normally always loop! _______ Options|OPTIONS| Opens the Options screen, where you can change various [HELP] ~~~~~~~ options. See below... ___ Oscillo |\/\| Opens the oscilloscope window. [O] ~~~ ___ Spectrum|III| Opens the spectrum analysis window and then toggles [A] ~~~ between the three representations. __ Frequency |12| These buttons select what the output frequency of the Selectors |25| player is through the STe's PCM sound generator. Higher [1..3] |50| Higher frequency means better quality but more processor ~~ time. 50 will lock an 8MHz computer!!! On the ST version, these buttons denote 8, 10 and 16KHz playback, and 16 will lock an 8MHz computer. ______________ / Memory Mode / ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In memory mode, DeskTracker will automatically run through the list of songs you select either sequentially or randomly. On the STe version, it will pre-load the next song a couple of patterns before the end of the current one so you get (almost) seemless playback. One Falcon owner has experienced a problem where DT fails to load new songs after a while. I've tried to fix it, but not having a Falcon (sigh!) I don't know if it's worked. Once the ADD function has been used to move into Memory mode, several of the buttons change function: Button Display Description ______ Eject | /\ | Stops and unloads the current song, and resets to [L] | == | the start of the playlist. ~~~~~~ ______ Stop | |~~| | Stops and unloads the currently playing song. [S] | |__| | ~~~~~~ ______ Play | |\ | Plays the current song from the current position. [Spc] | |/ | Loads the current song if it is not in memory. ~~~~~~ _______ Pause | |~|~| | Stop the currently playing song, but remember where [P] | |_|_| | we were so play restarts from this point. ~~~~~~~ ______ Rewind | /|/| | Rewind through the current song if PLAYing [<-] | \|\| | or move to the previous song in the playlist. ~~~~~~ ______ Fast | /|/| | Speed forward through the current song if PLAYing Forward | \|\| | or move to the next song in the playlist. [<-] ~~~~~~ ______ Memory | MEM | Shown depressed when songs are in memory On | | Click to deselect and clear the memory [M] ~~~~~~ ______ Repeat | +->+ | Toggles whether the playlist will repeat once all [R] | +<-+ | songs have been played. Songs will never repeat when ~~~~~~ in Memory mode. ______ Random | RAND | Play items in the playlist in a random order. Currently play | | tracks may repeated before all tracks have played. ~~~~~~ Effectively turns on Repeat mode. ============================================================================ ____________________________________ / Spectrum and Oscilloscope Windows / ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Both these windows act in similar ways. They can be set to appear automatically whenever the DT main window is opened. This option is available from the Options dialog, below. Also available there is the size of each window which can be altered, causing the windows to be resized on exiting the dialog. From version 1.22 the window size can also resized dynamically using the mouse. To resize either the Spectrum or Oscillo windows, click and hold down the left mouse button inside the window. A rubber-band box will appear which can then be resized in much the same way as a standard GEM window can. Note that the width and height of the Oscillo window is not exactly determined by your settings. In order to give a decent performance, it must be a multiple of 100 pixels wide and 64 pixels deep. When it is resized, the real size of the oscillo window will be the next smaller size which is a multiple of 100 by 64. ============================================================================ _________________ / Options Dialog / ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This page allows various features of DeskTracker to be customised. If your version allows the setup to be saved, all of these parameters will be reloaded next time you run DeskTracker or boot the computer with it as an accessory. The buttons and fields are as follows: ______ | Auto | ** registered version only ** ~~~~~~ When set DeskTracker will automatically open the Spectrum Analysis or Oscilloscope window at the same time as the Control Panel. _____________ |Size: 300x 50| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sets the size of the windows. When the Options screen is exited, DeskTracker will try to convert them into reasonable sizes, so the real sizes of the windows will vary considerably compared to the value you give. _____________ | Update rate | | _25 ms | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sets the amount of time DeskTracker waits before each update of the animation screens and control panel. Increasing this number makes the spectrum and oscilloscope windows more jerky but releases more processor time for other programs. Set this to zero for the smoothest animation. If you are using DeskTracker at the same time as another GEM program, you will notice a considerable increase in system performance if you have a value of 100 or more for the update rate. _______________ | Auto Allocate | | _200K | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When not running in MultiTOS, DeskTracker will still de-allocate and allocate memory when a new song is loaded. This is potentially dangerous, since memory allocated within a program belongs to the program, rather than DT itself. If the program is then exitted, DT will carry on playing, even though the memory the song is in has been freed when the program exitted. To get around this, DT will automatically allocate memory on boot-up if the value here is greater then 0. All new songs will be loaded into this space which is never cleared, unless the new song won't fit into the space. If this is the case then DT will put up an Alert box and if you continue it will scrap the allocated memory and start again with a bigger block. This new block is subject to the problems above if it is allocated within a program. _________________________________ | MOD Path: D:\AUDIO\MODS | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This sets up the current path to load songs from. Note that you should only enter the pathname and not a wildcard specification... Entering D:\MODS\*.MOD would make DeskTracker try and look at a path such as D:\MODS\*.MOD\*.MOD which (probably!) wouldn't work... ____________ | ProTracker | ~~~~~~~~~~~~ DeskTracker has the ability to play ProTracker songs, which have extra effects such as fine volume sliding and double beat notes. You may find however that some old NoiseTracker songs will sound wrong, and when this option is off it turns DeskTracker into a NoiseTracker compatible player. ______________ | Default Rept | ** registered version only ** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This sets whether DeskTracker should repeat a song or not when it is in Normal mode. The option sets the default which takes effect as the song is loaded, and this is subsequently changed using the Repeat [R] button on the main control panel. _________ | Colours | ** registered version only ** ~~~~~~~~~ When set the NoiseTracker-style Spectrum Analyser has a red (grey in monochrome) area for peak values. Note: if you have redefined colour register 2 (usually red) then Spectrum will have a different peak colour! ____________ |Falcon Patch| ~~~~~~~~~~~~ This option activates a fix to a problem which occurs in early Falcons. In these machines the DMA sound is not turned on at boot-up, so DT will switch it on for you. ____________ | Fancy Load | ~~~~~~~~~~~~ This option affects the display on the control panel while a song is loading. When the option is on, a new song is loaded in parts, and the control panel displays the name of the new song and the percentage loaded after each block. With it off, DT loads the song in one block. __________ | Allow 50 | ~~~~~~~~~~ Using the '50' button on the DT Control Panel is usually fatal for non accelerated ST or STe's, so when this option is off, the button is disabled and 50KHz (16KHz for DT-ST) playback is not allowed. _________ | Keys... | ~~~~~~~~~ Brings up a help page which gives a list of all the shortcuts available from the control panel or either animation window. Learn these... They really do speed up operation a lot! ______ | Save | ** registered version only ** ~~~~~~ Saves all the options in the Options page for automatic loading when you next run DeskTracker. Also saves the current playback frequency as default. ________ ________ | Cancel | || OK || ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ Reject or accept the changes you've made on this page. ============================================================================ _______________ / Packed songs / ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Currently, DeskTracker only supports one type of packed MOD files, and that is Ice packed files created by JAM Packer 4.0. Note that files packed using ICE Packer itself won't work. To use JAM to pack a MOD file you will need to set ICE pack (of any pack rating, it doesn't matter), and then click on where it says Program in the 'File Packer' section to change it to Data. Then pack away! You can select any file extender for the resulting file, DeskTracker won't notice, but it's probably most sensible to put packed files in another folder and keeping the .MOD extender on so that you don't have to keep changing the FileSelector extension. MOD files do take _a_long_time_ to pack, even on a relatively powerful computer. With full compression on, expect a MOD file to still be at least 60% of its original size afterwards. ============================================================================ ___________________________ / Registered User Upgrades / ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you've sent me œ5 of your hard earned cash and suddenly realised that the current shareware version is bettern than your registered copy, please do one of the following: o Email me, stating your registration number. If your email account can survive 50K or UUEncoded DT and you have the technology to decode it, then I can send you it that way and it saves a lot of bother. Otherwise try and find a friend with an account that can. o Mail me. Send your original 720K disk to the usual address stating which version it is, your name (obviously) and registration number. I will return the disk to you updated to the current version. ============================================================================ _____________________________________ / And the thanks and hellos go to... / ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ People who helped in the development of the DeskTracker project (whether they knew it or not...!), in approximate order of participation... Wizzcat (original NoiseTracker player source) Graham Harrison (numerous ideas, comments, legal quotes) Simon Forey (many 68000 ideas and comments) Ian Rae (ideas, STe testing) Howard Tomlinson (STe testing, musical stuff) Christophe Boyanique (Falcon OS calls) Andrew Scott (ProTracker documentation) Dieter Fiebelkorn (MultiTOS Drag'n'drop) Jeroen Lambregts (bug pointing and ideas) Chickenpox (giving me time off work to finish v1.20) Mark Ashford (Position Jump Bug) And the hello list in diplomatically alphabetical order... Andrew Scott, Ant, Andy-O., Christophe Boyanique, Eric Smith, Fozz, Had, HiSoft, Ictari, Ian Rae, Jeroen Lambregts, JS Slap, Kev, Mark Ashforth, Mike Goodman, Mrs Skidmore, Paul Steptoe, RTD, Rob Perry, Shaunie Kylie, Stephe, Stevie, Stov, U4ia, 4-mat So many people have given opinions and ideas on the features in DeskTracker that I couldn't possibly name them all... Thanks to you all! ============================================================================ ______________________ / Contact the author! / ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'd like to hear from you whether you've found a bug, can suggest any improvements or just plain like the program. I'd especially appreciate it even if you just send me a postcard! I'll try to reply to any mail I get. By email... Send mail to me at dxo@cs.bham.ac.uk or D.Oakley.kid0111@oasis.icl.co.uk or send your mail to Graham Harrision at: u2e32@keele.ac.uk if you're sending mail from abroad and this doesn't work, you may need to go via a gateway. Ask your system administrator for info. By post... or David Oakley Graham Harrison 6 Watlands Road 353 Heathcote Road Bignall End Halmerend Stoke On Trent ST7 8QQ Stoke On Trent ST7 8BH England England By phone... 0782 720714 Evenings (1830 to 2100 GMT) Please ask for David Oakley and if I'm not in leave a telephone number where I can contact you during office hours (0900 to 1630 GMT). For international calls, use your international dialing code and add 44 (code for UK) 782 (code for Stoke) in place of the 0782. ============================================================================ ________________ / Warranty Free / ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sorry, but this software comes with absolutely no warranty, other than that enforced by law in your country. ASTRAsoft takes no responsibility as to the suitability of use of this software on your system or in your particular circumstances. The author is not responsible for any damages that may occur as a result of use or misuse of this software, or inaccuracies in this manual. ============================================================================ _________________________ / A Note to Distributors / ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please do not include this disk on any Public Domain/Shareware library disk without the explicit permission of ASTRAsoft. We like to ensure that libraries have the most up-to-date versions of our products and so if you let one of us know we'll send you the latest versions as they come out. Send a letter by post or email explaining who you are, what your address is and which products you have got at the moment. We will then send you a reply by either of these means... once that has happened you can put it on a disk! Formally, DeskTracker or any other ASTRAsoft SHAREWARE product may not be included on any PD/shareware library disk or magazine cover disk without the permission of the ASTRAsoft partnership. See ya! David. [9th December 1993] PS. Will there ever be a sequel to DeskTracker? You may think so, but I could not possibly comment! :-)