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author darius
date Fri, 23 Jan 1998 16:05:00 +0000
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1 /----------------------------------------------\
2 +--------------- MIKMOD FOR UNIX --------------+
3 \----------------------------------------------/
4
5 This is version 3.0.1 of MikMod of Unix - it is a fairly big leap
6 from the MikMod 2.14 that everyone's been using for the past year or
7 so - sorry it's so late coming. However, I think you'll be pleased
8 with it... The console player is better - you can see
9 & scroll through the instrument list and see the sample messages now,
10 and the archive support is much improved, and the playlist support is
11 pretty sweet as well. The big thing really is...
12
13 WE HAVE IMPULSE TRACKER SUPPORT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
14
15 This now puts MikMod 3.0 in direct competition with MikIT :)
16
17
18 COMPILING
19
20 I. Type "build-mikmod.sh"
21 II. It builds
22 III. The excutable binary 'mikmod' is spit into your directory
23 IV. Install mikmod somewhere in your $PATH
24 V. Enjoy kick-ass mod music :)
25
26
27 USING MIKMOD
28
29 To get the command line options, type "mikmod -h"
30 That should tell you most of what you want to know, basically you just
31 type "mikmod <filename-1> <filename-2> ... <filename-n>"
32 Once you're in the player, a few keys you can press...
33 (keys don't have to be capitalized, BTW)
34
35 UP/DOWN scrolls the sample list
36 LEFT/RIGHT or -/+ moves the song backwards/forwards 1 pattern
37 SPACE pauses
38 N loads the next song
39 P loads the previous song
40 Q quits
41 W writes writes the current playlist to "$HOME/mikmodplaylist"
42 I toggles between sample/instrument names/messages
43 (this is only for .XMs and .ITs)
44 M gives you the song message/comment (.ITs ONLY)
45
46 If you're playing MikMod in quiet mode (with the -q switch), you
47 can tell MikMod to jump to the next/previous song by sending
48 the MikMod process SIGUSR1 or SIGUSR2 respectivly.
49 In other words, let's say you're doing something like this:
50
51 $ mikmod -pl myalltimefavmods -rp -k -t -q &
52 [1] 7531
53
54 You've told MikMod to read the songs out of the playlist
55 myalltimefavmods, to play them in random order, to delete each
56 module from the playlist after playing (so none get played twice)
57 to skip over any file access errors, to not spit out any output, and
58 to run in the background.
59 bash gives us the process ID, in this case it's 7531. You can also
60 find this out from "ps", "top", on any of a number of other utilities.
61 Now, let's say a song you don't like as much comes on, or for some
62 reason one seems to be looping forever, you can do this...
63
64 $ kill -s SIGUSR1 7531
65
66 and MikMod will start playing the next file in the list.
67 If you want the previous file, just use SIGUSR2 in place of
68 SIGUSR1. Note that when you're playing randomly, it doesn't actually
69 make any different if you select next or previous, because the next song
70 is selected randomly every time, and the previous one not saved. As
71 well, if you're not playing randomly but have an ordered list you are
72 deleting after each plays, you won't be able to get the previous song
73 played either... Hrm, maybe I should make SIGUSR2 toggle pause
74 instead... What do you think? E-mail me!
75
76
77 BUGS
78
79 What? Bugs? Where???
80 Yes, there are a few bugs and/or misfeatures and/or things that should
81 be implemented that haven't yet been.
82
83 - sample messages are sometimes a bit screwed up for some .MTMs
84 - You can't view the song messages of .MTMs, except possibly for
85 the very first line. This is because the way the song comment
86 is stored is really wierd for .MTMs and totally different from
87 the way .ITs store it.
88 - When you pause, any looped notes will keep on playing. This is
89 actually a bug ("feature") of MikMod_TogglePause() which
90 I will probably have to do in and patch...
91 - At the end of a few songs you'll "go over the edge" and it will
92 try to play past the end of the second to last patten. In
93 other words, if "pos:" of the ncurses display starts showing
94 400+ and the sound is wrong (or not there) it's time to hit
95 NEXT...
96 - The ULT loader is broken. Segfaults every time... Solution:
97 AVOID PLAYING ULTRATRACKER MODS FOR THE TIME BEING
98 (it's not so common a format, so that shouldn't be too too
99 inconvinient)
100 - In addition to .ULT, the .FAR, .MED, and .669 loaders are of
101 questionable status. I haven't been able to throw any files
102 of such formats at 'em to test. Tell me about your
103 successes/failures at playing any of those...
104 - Hmm, the status display should probably display the BPM along
105 with the protracker speed...
106 - Sometimes I've gotten "Cannot allocate DMA buffer" error.
107 I don't know where this is comming from, and it can be annoying.
108 Try running it a few times and it will work eventually.
109 - Prolly some other problems that escape me at the moment...
110
111
112 TODO
113
114 * X Interface (there already are several based on older versions of
115 MikMod, however none of them reached a very sophisticated level)
116 * File selector under ncurses
117 * View messages in .MTMs
118 * Write a /dev/sequencer driver so people with GUSes and AWE32s can
119 use hardware mixing
120
121
122 MIKMOD ON NON-LINUX PLATFORMS
123
124 First, check playercode/unix_drv/ to see if a driver has been written
125 for your platform. If so, you're in some luck. Theoretically you
126 then can simply edit the makefile to compile in your driver. It's
127 probably not that simple, however, as these drivers haven't been tested
128 with MikMod 3.0 and are carryovers from 2.15... I don't have access
129 to Suns, SGIs, etc with which to test. If you DO get MikMod working
130 with this distribution on another unix than Linux, or need some help
131 in doing so, E-Mail me! I want to support as many unices as possible
132 in the MikMod for Unix distribution.
133 BTW: FreeBSD uses the same sound driver as Linux, so the oss driver
134 should probably work fine. Werd to the FreeBSDers!
135 Also... This code was originally for DOS. DOSisms like the DOS
136 drivers and makefiles for Watcom C have been mostly deleted to save
137 space. Go to Jake Stine's web site for the DOS version.
138
139
140 CONTACT
141
142 You probably want to e-mail me at amstpi@freenet.tlh.fl.us as
143 this is an unsupported release of MikMod (that is, not supported by the
144 guy who officially owns MikMod now, Jake Stine)
145
146 offical Mikmod for Linux homepage is at
147 http://www.freenet.tlh.fl.us/~amstpi/mikmod.html
148
149 latest releases of Linux mikmod can also be found at
150 ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/players
151
152 The offical offical MikMod homepage is Jake Stine's
153 (this is for the DOS version that MikMod for Unix is based upon)
154 http://www.epix.net/~dracoirs/mikmod
155
156 Other relevant web pages/email addresses can be found in various
157 parts of the source tree and documentation...
158
159 Hope this brings you hours of mod-listening pleasure!
160
161 - Peter Amstutz
162 11:30pm 16 October 1997