Yet Another Music Player

[Crypticalcode0]

I friend of mine was so kind to donate some source code he made in the day for a Adlib tracker it is all in pascal and well I never worked with that programming language before.

I am gonna port his tracker to C for Starters and perhaps add a MIDI file support to it.

Which features make or break a tracker player and which file formats are out there, and more importantly which is the best?
This is important because i would like a good solid balance between size and speed.
I aim for OPL2 unless someone could convince me other wise.
This is to me a learning curve I never before wrote a program.
I have worked with C before.

 

[MMoeller]

Hi,

This/ site gives a overview of the various Adlib-based Formats.
I don't know which is the ``best'' Format. Which Format does the Pascal-based Tracker uses ??

Regards

 

[MMoeller]

After quick search for Adlib Tracker I found Adlib Tracker II, which seems to be the most wide-spread one.
It uses the a2m-Format which is documented in the source archive (file 'TECHINFO.DOC'). You can enhance the
existing format used by the Pascal-based Tracker with features from the a2m-format. I would include exporting modules
to the most wide-spread formats. Writing a tracker is not an easy starting point for the first program at all....
Since Adlib Tracker II uses the OPL3-Chip you maybe support it too...

Regards

 

[Crypticalcode0]

After quick search for Adlib Tracker I found Adlib Tracker II, which seems to be the most wide-spread one.
It uses the a2m-Format which is documented in the source archive (file 'TECHINFO.DOC'). You can enhance the
existing format used by the Pascal-based Tracker with features from the a2m-format. I would include exporting modules
to the most wide-spread formats. Writing a tracker is not an easy starting point for the first program at all....
Since Adlib Tracker II uses the OPL3-Chip you maybe support it too...
Regards

Spare me the wotsit.org info.

OPL3 is not that very different from OPL2 it adds some more channels and some more wave forms.

besides from my personal experience a lot of the soundcards with a ymf262(OPL3) only have one YAC512 DAC where they support two so most soundcards don't even have all channels supported.

OPL2 has a priority for me since OPL3 is compliant with OPL2, even so it is relative easy to extend from what i gather from the doc's.

To be honest i require a little guidance with design decision making.
I can code, but what i did untill now is write a bunch of subroutines but i have never written a full program alone.

 

[MMoeller]

the sound stuff is interesting for me, if you would send me a documentation of the current file format, we could take a
look into it ! Which C Compiler do you use ??? Just another thing: On what (PC) Systems should the program run on ?
Could you upload a screenshot/exe of the current Pascal Program !?

If you need the lastest DOS C Compilers, let me know I can get one...

Regards

 

[Crypticalcode0]

It is a variation on HSC tracker.
It was made with turbo pascal, err 7 i think.
I was thinking of running it on AT and up, because it would run dog slow on anything below that, besides i would like to modularize the whole program in several parts some of which could be TSR, until the main actually gets exited, since TSR's can send a INT21/0x4C.

This would require a large amount of memory.

I would like a Dos C compiler, since it would save me the need to hard code stuff which the compiler should handle.
I am currently using PDClib as library base.

Give me a Mail address and I would do better MMoeller

 

[MMoeller]

I wouldn't modularize as TSR's since they are only useful when different programs utilize them.
I would simply modularize on the source code level (different prefixes for the various modules (e.g. gui_ for GUI functions, io_ for File I/O). When you want some kind of DLL-Functionality (i.e. loading modules from files) I don't know an easy way since it requires relocation.... The advantage of this kind of modularization would be that the programs functionality could be easily extended by simply copying the module in the Tracker folder and it will be available to it... else a completely new exe must be linked.

For the C Compiler, just say which one you want and I will get it ...

Martin

 

[Crypticalcode0]

Well design technical I was going to separate the loader/decoder as a TSR from the player itself.
I am thinking of how to add playlist functionality and i think the simplest way is to create a .BAT file.

C compilers i have and work with are SAS/C, Small C, Blooddev C++, and Borland C++ V5.5.

I really need a compiler with a solid IDE, one which tell me if i was inconsistent That would spare me time hunting down my errors.(There is a reason i use this Alias)
I do not have any preference in Compiler, nor would i know which is the best.
I design hardware, and write some of the subroutines.