SND Player v0.3, June 14, 1997
       

What is 'SND Player'?
---------------------
   'SND Player' is a GEM-Based musicplayer for .SND tunes.
   The .SND format was invented by Jochen Knaus (aka BDC/Aura).
   It's basicly an easy way to handle madmax, bigalec etc songs.
   This player will only work on tunes converted to .SND format
   (url follows to sites with tunes of this kind).

  

Yet anohter soundchip player, why?
----------------------------------
   Well, beacuse of a couple of reasons actually;
    - To practise GEM Interface coding for other projects.
    - There were no (reliable) GEM Player out for these kind of
      songs.



Quick guide to the interface of SND Player:
-------------------------------------------
   Main window:
   |---|-------------------------------|---|
   | 1 |              2                | 3 |
   |---|-------------------------------|---|
   ||-------------------------------------||
   ||                 4                   ||
   ||-------------------------------------||
   | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |
   | | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | |
   | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |
   |                                 E     |
   |---------------------------------------|
   
     1: Exit program.
     2: Titlebar.
     3: Iconify the program (only AES v4.1 and above (or compatible)).
     4: Name of loaded file.
     5: Load new .SND file (fileselector pops up).
     6: Stops the current music.
     7: Play, starts playing the loaded tune.
     8: Fastforward.
     9: Pause, first click pauses the music, second continues playing.
     A: Information about loaded tune, and ABOUT button.
     B: VU Meters!
     C: Decrease tunenumber.
     D: Increase tunenumber.
     E: Number of currently played tune.
     
   That's about it I guess. If you, against all odds don't understand 
   how to use this program, email us.
   
   
   
Compatibility:
--------------
   SND Player has been tested on these systems, with the following
   results:

   Hardware:   
    - 4mb standard Atari Falcon030.
    - 14mb standard Atari Falcon030.
    - 4mb 40/20/64/50mhz (cpu/bus/fpu/dsp) Atari Falcon030.
    - 4st/16ttmb standard Atari TT030.
    - 4mb standard Atari STe.
    - PC Pacifist (SID tunes sounds horrible though).

   Software (OS, AES)
    - TOS v1.0 (works, but icons look bad, try another AES)
    - TOS v2.06 (works, but icons look bad, try another AES)
    - TOS v3.06 (works, but icons look bad, try anohter AES)
    - TOS v4.04 (works, no problems)
    - MiNT+N.AES (works perfect, recomended setup)
    - MiNT+MultiTOS AES4.0 (works, no problems)
    - MiNT+MultiTOS AES4.1 (works, no problems)
    - MiNT+oAESis (works, no problems)
    - MiNT+XaAES (don't know yet, must install and try)

    If you do not have a new enough AES to display the dialouges 
    correctly, we recomend you to get AESv4.1 from Atari. It can be
    run as standalone program from the autofolder with TOS, or as
    a multitasking AES with MiNT.
       
   
Hidden functions:
-----------------
  Yes, there are a couple of these;
   - Drag & Drop, Ataris MultiTOS Drag & Drop supported.
   - Commandline option, run SND Player with the commandline of a 
     tune, and it will automaticly load, and play it.
   - If you have a VA/AV server, player will take advantage of this.     


Future improvements:
--------------------
   - Playlists
   - Audio control (input, output volume)
   - DSP Effects
   - Other players (for 'native' formats).
   - Your ideas?
   
     
        
Authors, and downloadsites:
---------------------------
  GEM Programming:
   Odd Skancke (oskancke@sn.no)
   
  SND Format and replayroutine:
   Jochen Knaus (knaus@informatik.uni-freiburg.de)
   
  Resource, docs and ideas:
   Anders Eriksson (ae@kuai.se)
   
  SND Player official website:
   http://wombat.ludvika.se/~ae/snd/
   Here you can find lots of .SND tunes and the latest version of the 
   player. This site works fine from any browser, including Lynx.
   
  Jochen Knaus ST Sound page:
   http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~knaus/stsound.html
   Here you have a BIG site dedicated to ST Soundchipmusic, good
   explanations about each musicfile, and much much more. Unfortenly
   you need a browser that can show frames.