[Coco] Sound Chaser Multi-Format Music Player BETA

Fri Jun 29 11:12:39 EDT 2012

On Friday 29 June 2012 11:04:55 Bill Pierce did opine:

> Actually it is possible Aaron, I have the program set in a wait state
> while the player is running. The player is actually running in another
> 64k workspace anyway., but... there will really be no need in the
> finished program as there will be a complete file selection routine. 
> You will be able to select from 1-300 songs no matter what format and
> when you hit play, they will all play in sequence. I've just been too
> busy trying to get the Lyra portion to play and haven't worked on the
> selection routine. If you notice, the filename will turn blue after
> hitting <Enter>, this is to let you know you have that file selected.
> Then they will turn green after playing, this is so you know that
> selection has played. There will be a hot key that will bring up a
> scrollable window with your selections in order of selection so you can
> go through and delete songs from the selection if you don't want them
> there. The Play menu will have all the selection edit cmds in it. I
> guess I need to pause a bit from the players and get the selection
> scheme finished.
> 
> As far as doing something else while song is playing.. On a Coco,
> producing sound takes 100% of the CPU. This is why most sound programs
> have interupts blocked while playing. The midi player on the other
> hand, has a small amount of time between blocks being sent, but most
> actions you would do would slow the song down a bit. Try playing an
> Umuse song, then go to another window and type "Dir". The song will
> skip or drag while the disk is being accessed and the disk access will
> stutter slightly. This is because the Midi driver only blocks interupts
> while it is sending data. When it is waiting on a countdown till time
> to send the next note, it's in sleep mode. But we are talking fractions
> of seconds here,

I would think that effect would be very much reduced by the fact that the 
IRQ's are locked out on a per byte sent basis when going out the bitbanger 
at 115k, as compared to going out the bitbanger at 31.250k.  IOW still 
there, but not quite the disaster it was 20 years back.  Now, if we just 
had a 2 way hardware port that worked at 230k...  But not with a deluxe 232 
pack.  Not in our wildest dreams can that chip run that fast.
> 
> Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
> Bill Pierce
> ooogalapasooo at aol.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Aaron Wolfe <aawolfe at gmail.com>
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Fri, Jun 29, 2012 6:12 am
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Sound Chaser Multi-Format Music Player BETA
> 
> 
> I've been messing around with this today, very nice!  Ultimuse
> layback works perfectly over dw4 (the only thing I have to test with,
> o real midi interfaces for coco).
> Would it be possible to run the player in a separate process so that
> he sndchaser interface was still usable?  That would allow the user
> o change output devices on the fly from within the program, queue up
> he next song maybe, that kind of thing.
> well done
> Aaron
> 
> n Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 7:37 PM, Bill Pierce <ooogalapasooo at aol.com>
> wrote:
> 
>  Hi Guys,
>   I've finally posted a Beta version of the Sound Chaser Multi-Format
> Music layer for OS-9 on my Coco Music site.
>  This is by no means a release and is put up for those who would like to
> try it ut and give some feedback. Currently, it will only play
>  two music formats. Ultimuse & Musica. Orchestra 90 & Lyra are getting
> real lose to completion and will be added soon as will be a standard
> midifile layer! I have provided a variety of music on the demo disk as
> well. In my Ultimuse player, there is the ability to play Midi through
> the Coco erial port, Speech Systems Midi Pak of which Gleneside's pak
> is compatable, and ny user Midi interface that uses the /MIDI driver.
> Yep... that means it will ow play through Drivewire flawlessly. You can
> even select which DW sound source ou want to use right from the menu.
> This means all you who've not been able to lay Midi due to lack of Midi
> hardware can now do so with Sound Chaser & rivewire.
>  The Musica player will play music through the Coco's 6 bit dac or the
> rchestra 90 pak and the Speech Systems Stereo pak, BOTH IN FULL STEREO.
> Of ource you have to have the paks plugged into a stereo sound system
> for this to ork. Now if Aaron would just write in an 8-bit stereo sound
> driver for riveWire that had to write enabled ports... :-)   The Orch90
> function also orks real well in the emulators.
> 
>  What I need:
>  I need people with an Orch90 pak and Speech Systems pak to try this out
> and et me know if there's any problems.
>  Also, Does anyone own a ColOrchestra Midi pak? or the InterComp Sound
> Midi nterface?
>  I have the info on the colorchestra pak and can write a drive in for
> that, but have no info on the InterComp Sound Midi pak.
> 
>  Also... does anyone know how to detect whether or not these paks are
> present? know there's a way and I would like to be able to disable the
> menu option for hose paks not present on a system on program startup.
> 
>  And most of all PLEASE read the SoundChaser.doc file found in the root
> irectory of the Demo disk image.
> 
>   So click here for your listening pleasure
>  https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/sound-chaser
> 
>  And for info on my other projects coming soon..
>  https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/coco-projects
> 
>  And there's always my studio recorded Coco music...
>  https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/home/the-music
>  And the Coco with me on Guitar...
>  https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/the-performance
> 
>  Please let me know of any bugs you may find or any suggestions you may
> have Thanks All...
> 
>  Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
>  https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
>  Bill Pierce
>  ooogalapasooo at aol.com

Cheers, Gene
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
My web page: <http://coyoteden.dyndns-free.com:85/gene> is up!
Just about every computer on the market today runs Unix, except the Mac
(and nobody cares about it).
		-- Bill Joy 6/21/85