



                       PowerMOD for OS/2 v0.34

                    MOD music player with effects

                 Copyright 1996,1997 Antony T Curtis



Optimised for reading using                             20 October 1997
 TEDIT in 80x25 video mode
    Just hit Page Down!




Page 1

 ABOUT THIS RELEASE:
 ===================

Cosmetic:  New flame and fountain effects for Analyer.
           Pop-up menus nearly everywhere.
           Minimising main window does not minimise others.

Other:     Proper Play List support. Can disable individual samples.

nb: My 486 is out of action - this version has only been tested on a
    Pentium class machine. If you're using a "low" spec machine, tell
    me how well it runs.

DISCLAIMER:
===========
        THIS SOFTWARE HAS ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY AS TO IT'S
        FITNESS FOR USE OR OTHERWISE. THIS PROGARM MAY BE A CPU HOG.
        I ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY LOST DATA/PROFITS, BRAIN DAMAGE,
        WASTED TIME, BRUSES TO LOWER JAW AS IT HITS THE DECK, etc...
Page 2

 REQUIREMENTS:
 =============

        486sx 33MHz
        6Mb RAM
        OS/2 Warp 3
        MMPM/2 with Audio Support
        VGA Display Adaptor
        Mouse
        Lotsa MOD files...

Recommended minimum setup:

        486dx4 100MHz
        8Mb RAM
        VLB 800x600 256 Color display
        16bit stereo soundcard
        OS/2 Warp3 (FP17+) or Warp4.

Page 3

 FEATURES:
 =========

        + Plays 4, 6 and 8 track MOD files
        + Better playlist support
        + 5 Channel modes ( Mute, Left, Middle, Right and Wide)
        + Real-time adjustable effects
           + Volume
           + Quality ( 100% down to about 5% )
           + Speed ( 50% up to 150% )
           + Tempo ( 50% up to 150% )
           + Echo ( up to 0.1s, variable gain )
        + Sample list (highlights active samples)
        + Spectrum Analyser (32 bands, with peek holds)
        + 8 Wave displays (4 types: Line, Solid, Wave and Dots)
           + Rainbow colour waves!
        + 6 predefined effects! ( Cave, Hall, Stadium, Tannoy, Telephone )


Page 4

 WORDS FROM THE AUTHOR:
 ======================

This program was written over a year ago and I never got round to
releasing it - so I am doing so now. There may be bugs but as I'm
working on a completely new version, bugs found may not be fixed.
Remember - this was the first program I had ever written for OS/2
and it was first working within a month of getting a compiler for
OS/2.

The main "plusses" for this MOD player is that the effects are
adjustable in real time. It currently only uses MMPM/2 so it
should work in any multimedia OS/2 system v3 or better.
"Minuses" include that it can only handle the MOD format and
that there is currently no DART support. Also, with the latest
Creative Labs drivers the sound goes choppy - select the SBFix
option and restart PowerMOD to solve this.


Page 5


I have no fixed date for the next release - only that I'm working
on it when I have the time. I plan to support a wider range of
file formats and also extend the range of real time effects that
are available. Also, the user interface may be quite different.

Just for the curious out there, this program was written using
fPrint's Virtual Pascal compiler and consists of only 5600+ lines
of Pascal source code. The only bit not written in Pascal is the
Discrete Fourier Transform code which is written in assembler.
The next version should be using the Fast Fourier Transform %^)

That aside, this program should work acceptably on a 486dx2-66
and on a Pentium, it should fly. If you own a Pentium class PC
and you also own a mWave based sound card, you can run PowerMOD
multiple times and play different MOD files at the same time.
This has been tested and on a P100, you can play 8 simutainously.
Can't imagine why someone would like this - sounds awful :)

Page 6

 CONTACT INFORMATION:
 ====================

        Antony T Curtis

email:  antony.curtis@olcs.net (preferred)
        ssu95atc@reading.ac.uk


web:    http://nuts.ml.org/

If you have any suggestions or comments, don't hesitate to contact me.
Many thanks for all the suggestions and complements that I have received.

(: Donations would be accepted. :)




Page 7

 KNOWN PROBLEMS:
 ===============

  Stalls under high CPU load.
    Cannot be fixed due to buffer size & the use of MMPM/2. DART should fix.

  mWave users experience a long quitting time.
    Don't yet know why - I suspect it's something to do with mWave's drivers.

  Mixer Window never works.
    It actually worked with early beta SB16 drivers and Merlin (Warp4 beta).
    IBM changed the API - and I haven't subscribed to DevCon.

  Sucks a lot of CPU.
    Yes. It does, doesn't it?




Page 8

 HISTORY:
 ========

Version 0.34    20 Oct 97
        Now it has a proper playlist. Added Random selection.
        Added Right-Mouse-Button pop-up menus to some windows.
        Added flame effect for Analyser display.
        Other minor cosmetic adjustments.

Version 0.33    18 Sep 97
        Fix "not-loading" bug. New - Prototype dynamic priority.
        CLI added. "Remembers" more settings.
        Performance enhancements (core & display).
        Cosmetic enhancements - Wave Display.

Version 0.32    17 Sep 97
        Now able to load read-only files
         - Playing from CDROM should work.
        Cosmetic adjustments, incl button bitmaps for 1024x768+ users
        Moved SBFix option to a more sensible location.

Version 0.31    14 Sep 97
        Fixed "Invisible" window problem.

Version 0.30    12 Sep 97
        First Version released to the big wide world.
        Added SBFix setting to correct choppy sounds with Creative
        Drivers.

Version 0.24    12 Dec 96
        Added Channel Wave displays

Version 0.23    09 Dec 96
        Added Spectrum Analyser display
        Improved sample display list - to show active samples.

Version 0.21    02 Sep 96
        Added multiple file selection.
        Added sample display list.



Version 0.20    20 Jul 96
        User interface improvement.

Version 0.10    22 Apr 96
        Stereo 16bit sound version. 8channel.

Version 0.01    20 Apr 96
        Created PowerMOD/2. Quick and dirty port of my original DOS
        version. Stereo 8bit sound. 4channel.











