AudioCenter is a sound player front-end that controls many audio players. The main purpose of this version is to allow you to select a new song to play and AudioCenter will stop the current audio player. AudioCenter will then start the player associated to the newly selected song type. This will free you from having to know what player you have to use to play different file types. You also don't have to worry about closing one player before you start playing another song.
The basic concept of AudioCenter is this, associate all audio files with AudioCenter (MOD,S3M,XM,MTM,ULT,IT,MP3,MP2,MIDI,etc). Setup AudioCenter so that it knows what player to launch when you double click (or single click from the WarpCenter) on a music file.
Speaking of the WarpCenter... AudioCenter is meant to be used in conjunction with the WarpCenter.. Included with this zip file is a few icons that you can use as the icons for the folders that contain your audio files. Then you can add the audio folders to the WarpCenter and 'click a way' to play your favorite music.
The inspiration for AudioCenter came from a neat feature that UltiMOD has.
If you associate files with Utlimod it will handle stopping the
current song and starting the new song with out starting a new Utlimod session,
just like AudioCenter works.
Installation:
Simply decompress the zip file into it's own directory (which you probably have already done) then run install to create an icon on your desktop.
The install.cmd file will create a desktop object and associate the following file extensions to it.
Find and select the EXE file for your player (i.e.. Ultimod.exe)
Type in a file extension that this player can handle (i.e.. *.MOD)
Click the ADD button.
Repeat steps 5 & 6 for all file extensions the player supports.
Add any command line parameters for this player in the Params field.
Repeat steps 3 to 8 for all your audio players.
Tip:
Don't forget to remove any associations for all file extensions you setup in AudioCenter from other programs. Also don't forget to add the file associations to the AudioCenter program object (if the install has not already). If you add your music directories to the WarpCenter you can easily select new songs on the fly.. That's the whole point of AudioCenter.
Note:
This program does not add any data to the system or user INI files. All program data is stored in the AUDIOCEN.INI file located in the startup directory of AudioCenter. So if you decide to remove AudioCenter just delete the directory where you installed AudioCenter and there should be no traces of this program left in the system!
Limitations:
The current version has the following limitations. Some of these limitations will be eliminated in upcoming versions. (1.0)
The player must automatically start playing when the song is loaded.
The player must support command line arguments.
The player must support the following command line format player.exe
If you have any suggestions to fill in the ??'s for a MID player please let me know... I was thinking TinyMidi would work but it does not auto play and it does not have a text version..
Tips:
Use a non-GUI player if possible. It is much cleaner that way!
UtliMOD, Muse & DMP can play some of the same files. You can select the player that you like best to play most MOD type songs.
Muse can be hard to find.. If you can't find it send me a message and I'll send you a copy.. It is a really good player!
AudioCenter should work with most audio players.. Try all your favorite players and if they don't work let me know, I'll see if I can get it to work!
An ICON... WOW that's a hard one.. Someone want to donate one? :)
Volume Control
MOD file song name ripped from the file
Control player with Pause/FF/RW buttons (if I can figure out how to do it)
*Much* Improved user interface
Drag & Drop support
Song Lists (If I can think of a way to do it!)
Fixes to the many bugs that I haven't found yet!
Contact:
Snail Mail
Kevin Langman
121 Oakdale Dr.
Oakville Ont. Canada
L6H 1J4
E-Mail
langman@earthling.net
Web
(My old free WWW provider has killed my page... Hope it'll be back soon!)
Other stuff:
Thanks to:
Casey Langman - Testing & Coding help.
Jeff Kessler - Testing & for being the only worthy competition for programming at school.
Some coworkers - For helping me get started in OS/2 programming.
IBM PSP - For creating OS/2
F you to:
Microsoft - For creating crappy OSs and forcing the world to use it!
Apple - For breaking up with IBM and getting in bed with MS.. Nice knowing you Apple!!
IBM (!PSP) - For not supporting/Marketing OS/2 enough.... "If you lose the Client, you'll lose the server..." Think about it.
If you use this program please send me a postcard.. All I really want to know is if any one is using it.. If you have any suggestions please mail me, and if you find a bug please, please tell me about it! If I don't get any user feed back then there will be no upgrades! In the future (Version 1.0) I will change this program from PostcardWare to Shareware.
Last but not least (Legal Stuff):
AudioCenter is Copyright (C)1997 By Kevin Langman
This document is Copyright (C)1997 By Kevin Langman
This program has no warranties of any kind.. USE THIS PROGRAM AT YOUR OWN RISK.... In other words, if this program causes you any problems what-so-ever (includes big ones and little ones) don't come crying to me!
Don't install AudioCenter on any computer that you are not prepared to lose all of the data on the machine!
Having said that, I have not purposely made this program to cause any damages to your machine.. And (at my discretion) I will usually help you out if you have any problem using this program. I am a nice guy, normally!