Category : Music and Digitized Voice
Archive   : DMP281.ZIP
Filename : DMP.DOC

DMP.DOC

Documentation for the Dual Module Player v2.81

Copyright (C) 1992,1993 Otto Chrons


DMP.EXE is a program demonstrating the capabilities of the DSMI
programming interface (DSMI stands for Digital Sound & Music
Interface). It's a standalone module player with which you can play
STM, S3M, 669, FAR and MTM files as well as Amiga modules (MOD or
NST). DMP is cardware so you can freely distribute it and I hope you
did, as long as you include this help file with the executable. If you
like the product, please send me a postcard to the address shown on the
endscreen of DMP!!

Here is the command line syntax:

DMP [options] [modulename] [@listfile] [options]

Where:
------
modulename : name of a module (wildcards *,? allowed)
listfile : name of a file containing list of module names

options : -Sxxxx set sampling rate 4000-44100
alternatively 4-44
-H or -? show help screen
-Ix interrupt number
-Pxxx port address (use 42 for PC speaker)
-Dx DMA channel
-O Scramble module order
-L Inhibit looping
-M Mono mode (SB16 & PAS)
-Q Quality mode (on 8-bit cards only)
-Cx Desired card where x is:
1 for Sound Blaster
2 for Sound Blaster Pro
3 for PAS+
4 for PAS16
5 for SB16
6 for general DAC (Covox)
7 for Aria cards
8 for Windows Sound System & compat.
9 for Gravis Ultrasound
10 for PC Speaker
11 for Stereo DAC (LPT1 & 2)
12 for Stereo-on-1 DAC
-Txxx Buffer size xxx (0-32000)
-E Disable extended tempos (MOD only)
-Axxx Amplify by xxx, 31 is normal volume
-B Disable EMS usage
-8 Force an 16-bit card into 8-bit
mode (works with Aria, PAS16 and WSS)
-Nxx Set default panning to xx (0-63,100)
100 = Surround sound
-W[command] Automatic DOS shell, executes optional
'command'.
-Zxx Use 25/50 row display

If you use some options all the time, you can put them into an
environment variable DMP:

Example:

You always want to use quality mode and sampleing rate of 22kHz and
mono mode, put following line into your AUTOEXEC.BAT

SET DMP=-q -s22 -m

NOTE! You cannot override single letter options (-l,-o,-m,-q) with
command line parameters. All other options can be overriden.

Alternatively you can use the CmdLine parameter in DMP.INI for same
purpose.

You may have to give your soundcard's IRQ number and/or port address
if DMP fails to find them. If you don't provide both values then DMP
will assume 220h for port address, and 7 for interrupt number. Giving
wrong address will hang your machine, but wrong interrupt number
only stops the playing after a second. The "/C" option is useful if you
want to use some other card, than the one DMP automatically detects.

You don't have to add any extension to the name, because the
program will try extensions MTM, AMF, STM, 669, S3M, FAR, MOD and NST
if it doesn't find the file. Note that you can supply many modulenames
and list files.

Example:

DMP beyond -s20 *.NST @goodmods

goodmods is a text file containing following lines:
occ-san
stars
intro3

DMP will use the sampling rate of 20KHz and play following
modules: BEYOND.MOD, OCC-SAN.STM, STARS.MOD, INTRO3.MOD and all
.NST-files in the current directory.

DMP has also a config file called DMP.INI. It should be placed in the
same directory with DMP.EXE but DMP will also find it if it's somewhere
in the PATH. See the file itself for explanations on config switches
and strings.

You can also play modules inside archives by specifying in DMP.INI how
to extract files from the archive.


Using stereo DACs

If you have two DACs on LPT1 and LPT2 you can use them as one stereo
source with following command line:

DMP -c11 ...

Note that you don't have to specify port address.

If you have a Stereo-on-1 DAC you can use it with following options:

DMP -c12 -pXXX ...

where XXX is the address of the DAC (LPT1 = 378)


How to use DMP

After DMP has loaded the first module, it starts to play it and
shows some information about it. DMP displays module's name, its file
size, the amount of memory used for module and sampling rate. Because
of the AMP's Intelligent Module Loader (IML) modules usually take
10-30% less space. I've seen a 244Kb module shrink into 151Kb when I
loaded it with DMP. While playing, DMP updates fields showing current
pattern, row, elapsed time, volume and sampling rate. Under these
fields are four lines showing the current status of the corresponding
tracks. Here is an example:

ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ
bassdrum ³ F#2 ³ 64 ³ ³ þþþþþþþþþþþþþþþþþþþþþ
strings7 ³ D-3 ³ 20 ³ ARPEGGIO ³ þþþþþþþþþþþþþþþ
guitar42 ³ E-2 ³ 12 ³ PORT.NOTE ³ þþþþþþþþþþþ
guitar44 ³ G-2 ³ 57 ³ FINE VOL ³ þþþþþþþþþþþþþþþþþþ
ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß

The first field shows the instrument currently playing on that
track. Second is the note value, third its volume and fourth indicates
what special command is running. The bar simulates a VU meter on music
equipment, but you shouldn't take it as an exact representation of
the music level, it's there because it looks nice!

The rest of the screen is filled with instrument names. The numbers before an
instrument name indicate the channels that instrument is playing on.

Pressing 'H' brings up a quick-help showing command line options and
keys used to control the program.

Keys :
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ

P pause module, any key resumes
1-9 turn track xx on/off
0 turn selected track on/off
D DOS shell (write EXIT to get back)
N load next module (if you have supplied more than one)
S stereo mode on/off (SB Pro), default is on
F filter on/off (SB Pro), default is off
left/right Jump to next/previous pattern
up/down select track
F1-F10,+,- set volume
[,] Set new speed
{,} Set new tempo
V Real/fake volume bars
L,M,R,U Panning full left/mid/right/surround
, . Panning left/right
Z Switch between 25- and 50-row display
H Help screen
ESC exit

Try this module player with all the modules you have, and if you
encounter problems with any modules, inform the author. Have fun.


ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ
Contacting the author
ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß

ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ ³
³ By mail: ³
³ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ³
³ ³
³ Otto Chrons ³
³ Pyydyspolku 5 ³
³ FIN-36200 Kangasala ³
³ FINLAND ³
³ ³
³ InterNet: ³
³ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ³
³ [email protected] (fastest method to contact) ³
³ ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

Newest version is always available at:

ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ R.A. LAW +358-37-5849007 24h ³
³ ftp.uwp.edu /pub/msdos/modplayers ³
³ ftp.wustl.edu /pub/msdos_uploads/sounds ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

See CABINET.DMP for a list of DMP support sites in Finland.

See DMP.REV for revision history.

ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ
For programmers only
ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß


DMP was created with Borland C++ 3.1 and it is based on DSMI's
routines, so by ordering DSMI interface you could write programs with
similar capabilities. DSMI is a collection of routines (for C and
Turbo Pascal) that allows programmers to play modules in the
background, but unlike any other module player it also allows
simultaneous sound effects!! Up to 32 channels can be used which means
that you can have a module and sound effects playing in full stereo (on
cards which support stereo sound)! DSMI is available and the price is
270FMK ($70). Packet includes full documentation (printed), OBJ files &
libraries for C version, TPUs for Turbo Pascal and also most of the
source code so you can modify the behaviour of DSMI.