ST: Sound Tools



ST translates sound samples between different file formats,
and performs various sound effects.

This release understands "raw" files in various binary formats,
Sound Blaster .VOC files, IRCAM SoundFile files, SUN Sparcstation 
.au files, mutant DEC .au files, Amiga/SGI AIFF files, 
Macintosh HCOM files, Sounder files, and Soundtool (DOS) files.

The sound effects include changing the sample rate, adding echo 
delay lines, applying low- and band-pass filtering, and the 
infamous Fender Vibro effect.

History:
This is the fourth release of the Sound Tools.

The first release was posted last summer as the "AUX" package.

The second release, SoundKit, came out this past fall.  NeXT 
objected to the name SoundKit and so it's now Sound Tools.

The third release, Sound Tools, only went out in beta and
Bill Neisius contributed several fixes and formats so I
felt ST had graduated to another release.

Installing:
The Makefile needs one option set: -DSYSV if you're on a
System V machine, or -DBSD if you're on a BSD-ish machine.

After compiling, run 'tests'.  It should print nothing.  This
indicates that the programs mostly work.  By reading the tests
you may see how to make a sound sample file which you can play.
'monkey.au' and 'monkey.voc' are a short lo-fi monkey screech
in two supported file formats, to help you ensure Sound Tools works.

SOX uses file suffices to determine the nature of a sound sample file.
If it finds the suffix in its list, it uses the appropriate read
or write handler to deal with that file.  You may override the suffix
by giving a different type via the '-t type' argument.  See the manual
page for more information.

I hope to inspire the creation of a common base of sound processing
tools for computer multimedia work, similar to the PBM toolkit for 
image manipulation.

The files I wrote are copyright Lance Norskog, and may be used for
any purpose.   The U-Law translation and echo delay line code 
come from Jef Poskanzer's SST package.  The .AU, .AIFF, 
.HCOM formats, and numerous bug fixes were contributed by 
Guido Van Rossum.  The 8SVX, Sounder, Soundtool (another name
clash!) and many DOS fixes were contributed by Bill Neisius.

Sound Tools may be used for any purpose.  Source
distributions must include the copyright notices.  Binary
distributions must include acknowledgements to the creators.

Enjoy!

	Creator & Maintainer:
		Lance Norskog		thinman@netcom.com

	Contributors:
		Guido Van Rossum	guido@cwi.nl
		Jef Poskanzer		jef@well.sf.ca.us
		Bill Neisius		bill%solaria@hac2arpa.hac.com 


		(your name could be here, too)