82 lines
3.8 KiB
Plaintext
82 lines
3.8 KiB
Plaintext
BGMUSIC Background Music, by Guy T. Rice BGMUSIC
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Version 1.0 documentation
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This program lets you play music or some digitized sound in the background
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while you are using an Apple IIgs program. Since it is an NDA, it will only
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work with programs that use the standard IIgs desktop interface. It can play
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any digitized sound file. You can create these digitized files with an MDIdeas
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SuperSonic Digitizer, or with a Future Sound digitizer, or whatever.
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How to set it up:
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First of all, there's a program called BGMUSIC. This program must be
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copied into your DESK.ACCS directory, which is inside your SYSTEM folder.
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It doesn't matter what position it takes in the catalog. Personally, I always
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keep my desk accessories alphabetized.
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Secondly, you will need a digitized sound file. Put this into your
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DESK.ACCS directory, and rename it MUSIC. Digitize whatever music you like
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best. You should probably digitize as slowly as possible, as you don't want
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to use up too much memory. (Memory used by BGMUSIC cannot be used by your
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program. However, if you run out of memory, you can click the Close box for
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BGMUSIC. This will release all the memory BGMUSIC was using immediately.)
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Finally, there is a program called AUXSET. You can put that program
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anywhere you want, it doesn't matter. When you change sound files, you may
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have to run this program. It modifies the playback rate of the sound file by
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changing it's "auxtype" field. If a file is digitized at a different rate,
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then it must be played back at a different rate. This program can also be
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used to configure STARTSOUND and SYSBEEP as well as BGMUSIC.
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When you run AUXSET, it will ask for the pathname of the file you wish to
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modify. You should type something like this:
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/HARD.DISK/SYSTEM/DESK.ACCS/MUSIC
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Replacing "HARD.DISK" with whatever the name of your hard drive it.
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A note on digitizing for BGMUSIC:
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Since loading sound files takes time, I would suggest digitizing sounds
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at the slowest possible rate, so that they take up the least amount of space
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and can be loaded quickly. The quality of the sound goes down, however, when
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you digitize slowly. Its a tradeoff, but I think it's best to speed up the
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boot process by slowing down the digitizing rate.
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If you are using the MDIdeas SuperSonic Digitizer, and the new Sound Edit
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program, go into the "Preferances" section before digitizing. Set the
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Playback rate to 40, and the Digitizing rate to 34. Then click "Okay". This
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will result in the most compact sound files.
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Oh, also, don't pack the resulting sound file when saving it. Leave it
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unpacked. And make sure the file's playback rate is set at 200. (Note, the
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playback rate used by BGMUSIC is on a different scale than that of Sound
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Edit. To be specific, the BGMUSIC playback rate is the parameter passed to
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the Sound Manager toolset as playback rate.) Run AUXSET to set this.
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Macintosh and other sound files:
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When playing back files digitized on a Macintosh, a playback rate of 450
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has worked best for me so far. If that doesn't work, 200, 300, and 400 also
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are good bets.
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Finally, if you figure out how to use sound files from any place I
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haven't mentioned, let me know. I don't know if any other computers use the
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same kind of files as Apple IIgs and Macintosh, but I'd love to hear from
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anyone who does. My GEnie mail address is GUYRICE, and my Post Office address
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is given below.
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Final notes:
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This software is completely public domain. You are not OBLIGATED to send
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any money at all. However, you are NOT RESTRICTED from doing so, either. If
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you really liked this program, STARTPIC, STARTSOUND, SYSBEEP, or any other
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public domain programs I have written, and feel you need to show your
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appreciation to me somehow, my address is:
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Guy T. Rice
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P.O. Box 13036
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Dinkytown Station
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Minneapolis, MN 55414
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