@DATABASE SecondSpin.guide @WIDTH 78 @AUTHOR{-zuulikuuli / amiga@turboraketti.org} @NODE MAIN "SecondSpin guide" @{fg shine}-: -zk SecondSpin :-@{fg text} @{b}a giftware mpeg audio converter (mp1/mp2/mp3)@{ub} @{" Disclaimer " link "Disclaimer"} @{" Introduction " link "Introduction"} @{" Requirements " link "Requirements"} @{" Features " link "Features"} @{" Usage " link "Usage"} @{" Installation " link "Installation"} @{" Obtaining the LAME encoder " link "EncoderObtaining"} @{" Obtaining Timidity++ " link "Timidity"} @{" Screengrab " system "multiview SecondSpin_grab.jpg"} @{" Bonus util: RandomTracks " link "Randomtracks"} @{" SecondSpin encoder " link "Encoder"} @{" CDDB and SecondSpin " link "CDDB"} @{" MPEG Audio on Amiga info " link "mpega_on_amiga"} @{" AsimCDFS support " link "ASIM"} @{" The 'should be done' list " link "Future"} @{" How can you help? " link "Help"} @{" History " link "History"} @{" Problems / FAQ / Q&A " link "Problems"} @{" Supported CDROM drives " link "SupportedDrives"} @{" Thanks " link "Thanks"} @{" Credits " link "Credits"} @{" LAME encoder project " link "LAME"} @{" Shareware? Motivation? " link "Giftware"} @{" Author / About SecondSpin " link "About"} : -zuulikuuli / embassy - amiga@turboraketti.org (c) 1999-2001 @ENDNODE @NODE "Disclaimer" "Disclaimer" DISCLAIMER: No warranty of what-so-ever given. This is just a "simple" program which I made to make my life easier, it isn't meant to work perfectly; it does the job in my machine. I deny all my responsibility if you use this program, you're using this entirely with your own risk. Absolutely every legal resposibity are held by the user. The author provides this package to your use if you take all the possible legal responsibilities by yourself. This is not public domain so you aren't allowed to use any parts from SecondSpin without my written permission. Also, all reverse engineering is prohibited! SecondSpin may not be used for any commercial purposes or included with any commercial product without my permission. If you're an USA citizen, I'd suggest you to leave this alone. Or atleast contact your lawyer and ask for guidance. Either way, you can't sue me, as you've been warned. It may be distributed freely under the condition that no profit is gained from its distribution, nor from any other program distributed in the same package. This also means that SecondSpin may not be included without my permission to any commercial packages. I must be let to know about redistributions, eg. cd collections, magazine cover cd:s etc. REDISTRIBUTING THIS IN YOUR OWN COMMERCIAL COLLECTION CD REQUIRES A @{"GIFTWARE LICENCE" link "Giftware"}! THIS INCLUDES MAGAZINE COVER CDS! I must be contacted with all non aminet distribution issues! Bear in mind that encoding an cd audio does not make copying legal. Copyrights still apply! Using SecondSpin means that you're accepting this disclaimer. If you don't accept this, don't install or use the SecondSpin package. @ENDNODE @NODE "Introduction" "Introduction" INTRODUCTION: This is just a program I originally created in hurry as I needed it badly. I decided to make it a bit better so others could use it too. It just wasn't nice to use makecd, mpega, numerous shell applications plus lots of other stuff just to encode a freaking audiocd to mp3s or to transfer them to a cd. So SecondSpin was born. That's why I created this full featured audio mpeg processor :). See @{" Features " link "Features"} for more info... @ENDNODE @NODE "Requirements" "Requirements" REQUIREMENTS: - AmigaOS 3.0 or greater. - a supported(?) CDDA audio extraction capable cd-rom drive & drivers for it if you mean to encode directly from a cd. - 68020 and FPU, preferably a 68060 or PPC - Minimum of 640x480 with 2 colors. (*) - lots of patience, hdspace and free cpu cycles. - executive is recommended but not required as mpegencoding is really cpu intensive stuff it might help keeping the system more useable when encoding. - optionally, fully installed ppc os extensions (WarpOS / PowerUP) - optionally amitcp or miami (online), if you want to fetch cddb information from freedb.org. - optionally XPK or PowerPacker libraries for unpacking support - optionally Timidity++ installed for MIDI support - PIPE: device mounted. - ARexx system up and running. (*) SecondSpin defaults to Workbench screen, but you can create a new screen for SecondSpin with Triton-GUI preferences program. 640x256 or similiar resolution just isn't enough for SecondSpins GUI - and no plans to make any smaller has been made. @ENDNODE @NODE "Usage" "Usage" @{b}Encoding a track@{ub} After starting SecondSpin you will see the SecondSpin window. If you have not already done so, insert the Audio CD you wish to convert into your CD Drive. SecondSpin should automatically detect the presence of a suitable CD and list the tracks in it's window, I.E: #001: Unknown title ........................... (00:02:11) #002: Unknown title ........................... (00:04:24) .....(etc)..... The list contains the following information. o The track no (I.E #001) o The name of the track (If you have the suitable CDDB file available, or SecondSpin has been able to download the relevent @{"CDDB" link CDDB} file from www.freedb.org) o The track length (HH:MM:SS) At this stage, none of the tracks have been selected. To select a track, click on it with the mouse. A selected track will have a ">" on the left hand side of it, I.E: >#002: Unknown title ........................... (00:04:24) You can also select "All" or "None" of the tracks by clicking on the "All" or "None" button. When you have selected all of the tracks you wish to encode, select the way in which you want SecondSpin to work. SecondSpin can either Transfer the tracks only and save them as AIFF files and then possibly later convert them as MPEG with Convert already transfered tracks ("Offline" mode) or decode existing MPEG files and save them as AIFF files. @{b}Encoding files@{ub} Select "Input file selection" from the menu and select the files you'd like to handle. Currently supported fileformats are: - Standard AIFF and WAV soundfiles. Stereo / mono, preferably 48/44.1/32/22.05/16/11.025 kHz for good quality, but others will be resampled to nearest value. - Protracker, MED1-3, XM, S3M and MTM YES, you can convert these moduleformats to all the supported output formats of SecondSpin. - SID tunes - MIDI songs Requires installed and configured Timidity++ MIDI engine. It's available from the net. Try links on SecondSpin www pages. - MPEG Layer 1-3 Audio SecondSpin can be used to decode mp1/mp2/mp3 files to AIFF or re-encode them to a different bitrate, eg. converting 128kbps j-stereo mp3 to 24kbps mono mp3. - All the files can be XPK or PP packed if suitable packages have been installed. If a selected file will not appear on the listview, the fileformat isn't supported! The following sections apply for both cd mode and file mode. @{b}Description of GUI selections@{ub} You can choose to keep the "temporary" AIFF files as well by selected "don't delete samples" from the cycle gadget. Unless you have a desire to fill up your HD with 40Mb+ AIFF files, leave this set to the default "delete temporary sampless". This delete selection only affects to the AIFFs created by SecondSpin. It will NEVER delete any input etc. AIFFs. You can also select the bitrate you wish to encode the track at. Leave this at the default 192 kpbs unless you have a genuine reason to use a different bitrate. Greater value means better quality, some guide-default values have been given at the end of this page. If you wish, you can change the audio mode that the final MPEG will be encoded with. This will either be mono, stereo, or j-stereo. In most cases you will use stereo, or j-stereo. If you don't know what the difference is, try experimenting with both, and decide which you prefer. J-Stereo is a special trick to only create a one mono stream and adding the stereo data to the sound by only describing the differences of the Left/Right channels to the mono core. This mode is usually much better with lower bitrate stereo encodings, like 128kbps. J-Stereo will give better quality with lower bitrates, but it also is much slower than stereo! The MPEG Layer can either be layer 1, layer 2, layer 3 or the special layer 3 (fast) mode. There's also a HiFi layer 3 which gives slightly better audio quality but is about 20% slower than normal layer 3. Avoid layer 1 unless you want to really know what mangled Audio sounds like (This isn't SecondSpins fault, layer 1 really sounds that bad). layer 2 and layer 3 are perfectly good choices, but these day's most MPEG's are encoded with layer 3. Read the following @{"comparision" link mpega_on_amiga} for more information on these two modes. Layer 3 (NCoder) uses inferior to LAME encoding program called NCode to mpeg encoding. NCodeR is commercial program. The VRB (Variable Bit Rate) is a special trick to make better quality streams. If the data won't fit to the specific bitrate, SecondSpin won't try to force it, but gives extra bits to the frame instead and thus producing better quality. Files might come much larger though, so experiment with the VBR value, 0-9, where 0 means best quality possible. The VBR option is a bit hard to master. When using VBR, the bitrate selection indicates the lowest allowed bitrate! Maximum will currently always be 320kbps! A direct quote from LAME USAGE-textfile: >>Note: VBR is currently under heavy development. Right now it can often result in too much compression. I would recommend using VBR with a minimum bitrate of 112kbs. This will let LAME increase the bitrate for difficult-to-encode frames, but prevent LAME from being too aggressive for simple frames:>> Layer 3 (fast) mode is a special mode developed for SecondSpin. Basically, it is about 2 times faster than encoding in normal layer 3 mode. It does produce slightly larger files (only in the region of tens of k, however), and your results may very. However, layer 3 (fast) produces results which are sometimes just as good as the normal layer 3 mode under many circumstances. Test it out and if it produces lousy results, use normal modes instead.. But if you value very good quality, leave fast mode alone and use Normal/HiFi! Once you have selected the encoding options you wish to use, click the "start process" button, or select "Start Process" from the "Project" menu. You can cancel the encoding process at any time by clicking the "stop encoding" button or by quiting SecondSpin, but you cannot abort other functions! @{b}Some guidance default values@{ub} Normal quality (fast) ....: Layer 3 (fast), 128kbs, j-stereo Normal quality ...........: Layer 3, 128kbs, j-stereo Medium quality ...........: Layer 3, 160kbs, j-stereo/stereo HiFi quality .............: Layer 3 (HiFi), 192kbs, stereo Best possible quality ....: Layer 3, 320kbs, stereo If you're going to use bitrates < 112kbps, use mono. If you're going to use bitrates >128kbps, use normal stereo instead of j-stereo. @{b}Suggested notes conserning encoding speed@{ub} - It's actually a good idea to use 192kbps stereo mode with normal or HiFi setting - it gives very good results and actually very fast! - VBR slows down encoding. - j-stereo slows down encoding. @{b}Good tips@{ub} #1: Turn the VBR off if you're going to make small files. The VBR is meant to preserve audio quality in cases where the bitrate setting would cause the audio quality to drop dramatically. It's not a good idea to use vbr with standard mp3 files like 128kbps stereo / 64 or 32kbps mono. Use VRB off instead. However, if you wish to preserve the original quality, you should use VBR or atleast stereo 192kbps fixed bitrate. #2: About requester shows some extra information, like the current LAME core engine in use. #3: Edit external_commands/encode.script or external_commands/cddaread.script to suit your system better (ONLY IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!) If you'd like to use other LAME options than the gui allows, you can edit SecondSpin:external_commands/encode.script and add the necessary options to there. But don't do it if you aren't absolutely sure what you're doing nor what the heck I'm talking about! The default priority (-3) can be changed if it causes problems. Eg. with ppc cpus priority 1 could be better. #4: You can also repack mp3 files with secondspin to another bitrate. Just select the settings and choose the mp3 like you would choose other input files. #5: If cdda program won't work with your cd-rom drive, you can always edit cddaread.script to support other cdda readers. It'd be great if MakeCD had an arexx port, but... More to come... @ENDNODE @NODE "Encoder" "Encoder" The mpencoder in use is a special version of the LAME encoder. The development efforts I have made for the encoding parts have already been merged to the LAME project itself, so there isn't any special functions needed to make SecondSpin_encoder. LAME nowadays has a fast mode which was a crazy idea of mine as we were trying to reimplement lower layers to LAME and missed the psychoacoustic routi- nes.. the output actually sounded very good so I started to work with this fast mode which would give huge speedup without sacrifying too much audio- quality. Fortunatelly, Mark Taylor (LAME 3.x author) finished it. Other encoders or non modified LAME versions _WILL NOT_ work as the output is peeked directly via pipe: and the cli format is bit different because we need to parse the output. Layers 1 and 2 are supported but using pegase only. Please always check the output as SecondSpin and LAME are continuously developing, and you might end up with mpeg audio hearing like stupid boiling chipmunks. Feel free to experiment though, but layer 1 is obsolete shit and you'd better leave it unused, ok? If you'd like to make SecondSpin compatible Encoder engine, take a look the archive called 'HowToCreateEncoder.lha' which is included in the Encoder archive. It contains all the files and knowledge needed! - NOTE: Currently the 'HowToCreateEncoder.lha' is out of date!! CISC (the author of Amiga Port o' LAME) has made a special utility called LAMESpin. It will automagically create SecondSpin compatible executable of compiled LAME executables. If you're bored of wandering in da net to find SecondSpin_encoders, just recompile LAME or download it from official amiga sites and use LAMESpin! @ENDNODE @NODE "Features" "Features" FEATURES: - will easily convert audiocds (CDDA) to mpeg audio files or additio- nally only leech the tracks as aiff files. - supports AsimCDFS if specified. - has full mpeg tag editing possibilities for audio cd:s. - will easily convert your existing AIFF or WAV files to mpeg audio - will convert Protracker, XM, S3M, FastTracker modules to AIFF or mpeg audio files. * Also MED1-3 (MMD1/MMD2/MMD3) modules are supported, but through MED to XM conversion. - will convert PlaySID formatted SID tunes to WAV or mpeg audio files. - will convert MIDI songs to AIFF or mpeg audio files * requires installed and configured Timidity++ - also converts mpeg files back to AIFF for general use. - is able to directly convert existing mpeg layer 1-3 files to mpeg layer 3 format (eg. conversion of 128kbps jstereo file to 32kbps mono. - outputs mpeg audio layers 1, 2 and 3 with mono, stereo and j-stereo with bitrates of: layer 3: 320, 256, 192, 160, 128, 112, 96, 64, 32, 24, 16 or 8 kbps layer 2: 320, 256, 192, 160, 128, 112, 96, 64, 32 layer 1: 320, 256, 192, 160, 128, 96, 64, 32 - a full fontsensitive, functional and easy GUI - supports all amigas (with or without fpu) as well as amigas equipped with a ppc. - supports CDDB, so it's able to fetch track information from freedb.org site. - also has full CDID support including loading, saving, cddb to cdid converting and editing. - fully localized - has fully featured configuration editor - support for amiga crunching standards, XPK and PowerPacker - it's almost absolutely free :P @ENDNODE @NODE "Installation" "Installation" INSTALLATION: Unpack both archives (Install & optional mp3-encoder) to same directory and run the installer script provided! @ENDNODE @NODE "History" "History" HISTORY: v1.0 - a quick version for my own needs (30/Jan/1999) v1.1x - a better version :) (03/Feb/1999) v1.2x - first real release version candidate (yeah, sure ;)) (05/Feb/1999) v1.3x - added www.cddb.com support and mpeg audio tag system. All output- ted mpeg audiofiles will have a proper tag files and renamed accordingly to the cddb data. Also added a configuration file.. (28/Feb/1999 -> ) v1.4x - brushed up version with numerous internal additions. Also added many features, but no need to list them here as these still aren't release versions. (15/Mar/1999 -> ) v1.5x - jstereo mp3, encoder now always based on the latest LAME version. (15/May/1999 -> ) v1.6x - numerous little & bigger additions, like decoding of mpeg files, selection based track selection instead of the old range based, the ever-so-much-needed offline mode etc. (18/Jul/1999 -> ) v1.7x - too many things added and too many bugs fixed to be mentioned here. (21/Sep/1999 -> ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ v1.76 - the first public release version (released as public beta) (07/Nov/1999) v1.77 - some minor bugfixes, added 8/16/24 kbps modes. MPTAGs don't have underscores anymore if convert spaces to underscore is enabled. updated suomi/finnish catalog. keep those catalog files rolling! (06/Dec/1999) v1.78 - minor unvisible tweaks, added Save system information to the BETA VERSION MENU. If you're going to send bug/nag reports, send the file generated with this option with the mail! (09/Dec/1999) v1.79 - fixed some small bugs, including the typo in Install script which caused installed mpega.library to be overwritten by the Install process. Also fixed the bug which caused an unidentified error requester, if SecondSpin GUI couldn't be opened, instead of the more sophisticated one. (Thanks to Vadim Vlasenko for reporting them.) (13/Dec/1999) v1.80 - I was experimenting with some new stuff and found out some bugs if multiple cds were encoded in a row and some had cddb files downloaded and some didn't. Also tweaked some things which may have caused trouble. I'm studying a more sophisticated way to handle the cddb files. A central database and a to-be-downloaded queue maybe? (Thanks to all of you who gave suggestions, especially to ExiE and Gerd Schmidt.) (14/Dec/1999) v1.85 - Added full support for converting Protracker, XM, S3M and FastTracker modules to AIFF or MP3. Thanks to K-P Koljonen for PS3MREC. Usage is similiar to the usage of existing AIFF/WAV files, eg. Input File Selection. Also made good file identifying routines, no more extensions needed in input files. Many general bugfixes + changed the english and finnish locales a bit. MED support coming soon, but only with Jouko Pynnönens med2xm unless you help me and do a med2aiff converter! I also added some stuff to the guide. Maybe I should take a vacation for a few days. :P (17/Dec/1999) v1.86 - Added OS check. SecondSpin now requires AmigaOS 3.0 as it's way much easier for me not to even think about OS 2.x. Sorry :(. Also made some little bugfixes, but you wouldn't find them anyway :P. (27/Dec/1999) v1.87 - Took the first steps to TAG EDITING engine. Now all entries have proper author & name variables and SecondSpin tries to seek them in all ways. You can't yet edit them by hand, but this is a good start. This also caused the listview to change a bit. Added preliminary support for TAG stuff for mpegs created from modules, modulename is now properly added. Very good routines for module name seeking added. Hopefully I've fixed the mpega.library installation for good. Let me know if it still does something unwanted!! (02/Jan/2000) v1.88 - Due to some internal restrictions, the v1.87 release didn't work as it was intended. However, it's fixed now :). I had to move the internal english strings to an external file, but this should be of no problem. (08/Jan/2000) consider following as pre 2.00 releases, eg. v2.00 betas: v1.96 - I adopted some module author scanning routines from my old CNet utility called ZoolDIZ. Now all supported input modules are scanned for possible match on author name. The routines are very sophisticated but in no way perfect. I hope they'll get even better some day.. The authorscanning is quite fast, but you'll certainly notice some delays when selecting files or starting the converting, especially when you've selected many files. That's too bad, but hey: nothing's free you know.. I practically rewrote them + made them better in many ways when compared to the old version in ZoolDIZ. Now the module support is much more better. Thanks Halil Ýbrahim Taþova for motivating me. Implemented mp3 tag scanning. Author and name tags will be preserved if converted to another bitrate etc. I also added a PIPE: check as more and more people don't seen to understand that SecondSpin really needs PIPE mounted and working before it will work properly. Tweaked up some existing routines. And.. hmm, yes I also implemented MPEGA Library FPU check so if you're going to decode mpeg files SecondSpin will tell you that the MPEGA version isn't FPU. FPU versions deliver much better audio quality! Also added a few more progress bars to some routines. ... ooops :P The Decode Mode Only - menuselection didn't work at all. I implemented the routines, now it should be ok. PLUS! Layer 1 and 2 modes enabled and using the high speed Pegase by Didier Levet! The implementation is a bit kludgy, but that is because the Pegase isn't really intended to be used with SecondSpin or similiar packages.. Hope it works, ok. You need to have the latest Pegase (v1.6x) currently installed in C: for it to work. Thanks Didier! Currently mp3 files as input will be skipped if selected and layer 1/2 is output format. The speed display works correctly only with 44100 kHz 16bit stereo files. Now I hope that you stop comparing SecondSpin with Pegase as they have very different functions. SecondSpin is a full featured package for all mpeg and aiff conversions and Pegase is layer 1/2 encoder. You want speed, you use Pegase with SecondSpin :) The SecondSpin encoder is no longer required, you can use this in layer 2 mode only if Pegase is installed and the Lame base isn't. As usual, also fixed many bugs. Very many. Gee, I've been busy! Hope you enjoy! (14/Jan/2000) v1.97 - Added check for installed cdrom drive. If the selected drive isn't located, it won't be seeked until restarting SecondSpin. Now people without working cdrom drives can access SecondSpin easier. Added another simple check for succeeded trackleeching. Now SecondSpin shouldn't hang as ofter when trackleeching fails. Found a very stupid bug which caused the process to fail if cddb wasn't used. How silly of me. This was introduced in v1.96Beta. (15/Jan/2000) v1.98 - SecondSpin is now giftware. It's still 'free', but you should send me a small gift if you like this :) Read the docs for more info.. Fixed some stupid bugs, and made the interface a bit more accessible. Now you really can convert all fileformats to aiff files, and not only encode them. Also added preliminary, rude and ugly playsid module support which is 200% beta atm. It utilizes the fabulous SID4AMIGA player by Paul Heams, and is included. The songs default to length of 3:20 for looping songs and SID4AMIGA now has a end of non-looping song detection so nonloopin tunes will just be faded out when the song ends.. Use the discussion board to discuss how it should be made better. Also, I removed the filecomment thing. It actually wasn't meant to be used, I just forgot it there. Added progress display to module conversion. Found a bug that caused SecondSpin not to create proper directory from cddb data in all circumstances.. This was introduced a few versions earlier. Also added CDID support! Now you can use your existing CDID files with SecondSpin. You can specify your CDID directory with SecondSpin installer, or use the default 'SecondSpin:disks/' I've only tested CDID support a bit with OptyCDPlayer. I have no idea if it's 'standard' or does it work at all. Let me know! The TAG EDITING feature will use ENV variable cdid_path and should be 100% OptyCDPlayer compatible.. I finally decided to do that TAG EDITOR! It only works with audio cd:s, but is fully CDID compatible with save features and internal cd album year support (CDID doesn't support year data :(). Enjoy! I had introduced a new bug in v1.97Beta. This was caused because of some modifications I needed to do when I implemented Pegase support. MONO/STEREO/ JSTEREO/FORCE switch had no function with Layer 3 encodings! Only JSTEREO was used! OOOOOPS! :).. big thanks to Sébastien STASZAK for letting me know! Also added env variable for cdda track leech directory. This will be in config file in the future, but no proper config ed has been made so use this to select a different directory for cdda / moduleconversion / sid conversion output aiff/wav files. ENV 'cdda_path'. Added some variables to cfg saving. Now delete samples and programmode will be saved too. Also added config load menu selection. And.. SecondSpin is now as fast as the real LAME port on amiga! Thanks to Piru's little stderr->stdout hack. This means about 15-50% speedup with 060! Maybe even more with PPC! Thanks to CISC for his LAME port! (08/Feb/2000) v1.98a - Oh crap! One stupid shell script had stripped a part which caused multiple encodings to fail! Fixed. (09/Feb/2000) v1.98b - This can't be happening! I'm terribly sorry, but I had missed a part the same script had manipulated! So there was another bug which caused the cddb support to fail to get proper cd title data! I try to be more careful next time. Sorry again! But after all, there are all beta versions! Special sorrys to DrDick for not noticing it earlier.. (10/Feb/2000) v1.99 - Added CDID autosave option. This will automatically save CDID file from CDDB data! CDDB files aren't saved anymore unless specified, only CDID files. Special Pegase compiles are now included. Thanks to Didier Levet for releasing Pegase sources! Hmm.. the temporary samples delete cycle gadget defaulted to "do not delete".. it's now changed to "delete". Thanks again to Sébastien STASZAK! Also tweaked up the GetCDDB a bit. No more debug information outputted to the CDDB files and optimized it a bit.. I tracked down a bug which might have caused SecondSpin to save corrupted config files in some machines. Fixed. Tweaked up the output path handling a bit. There should be no more nested directories and if you save prefs, the cd title shouldn't be saved to the outputpath. Thanks to Tony B. for letting me know.. Please send me a mail about all bugs you might encounter! Next release will be v2.00 AMINET if this works ok. So it's very important that I am told about all bugs so that I won't upload a beta to aminet!! (14/Feb/2000) v1.99a Fixed the about requester error. Hmm.. The compiler stripped some tabs and I never thought those were important.. well, they were. :) Thanks to D.F. Duck for telling me! (15/Feb/2000) v2.00 1st Aminet release. (non beta) Fixed Install script bug. It failed to copy a pegase encoding script! Now, why did it took this long to report it?) Anyways, thanks to Klaus Wurzinger for telling me. Also disabled the TAG EDITOR menu entry when cd isn't inserted. Selecting would have caused an error. Thanks to SPlayer author :P Added an option for automatic cd tray ejection if selected program reset. Thanks to TonyB. for the request and Jakub Bednarski for the proggy. Changed Triton app tags a bit. Fixed a bug which caused some nonintended data to appear as track information if no CDDB / CDID data was available, like CD_TITLE1, CD_AUTHOR etc. Also, bogus track information isn't now automatically been saved. If you've got these corrupted CDID files with nonwanted disc information, delete or overwrite them. Adjusted exit code a bit. Should be cleaner & more secure now. It's now possible to use several copies of SecondSpin at same time. CDID v2 has now been finished. It's however not in use at the moment as new features of this scale would mean many new bugs and they're not wanted in this version :P. Contact me for developer information if needed. (24/Feb/2000) v2.09 Fixed a catalog problem if env:language had been set but no locale was actually in use. Fixed a problem in sample path. If no specific sample env variable (ENV:cdda_path) was not set, sample path wasn't always been taken from the current output path. Lot's of thanks to Ramlin for letting me know! I added a simple support for raw audio files. They're identified by extension, which must be .raw or .cdda for identification. I don't know if it works very well, but it must be better than nothing. The only raw type supported is 44.1kHz Stereo 16 bit, so don't even think of loading 8231Hz 8bit mono files as raw :P. I'm not sure how this works on different endians, it works with both of my drives (Intel endians), so if this doesn't work on your input files, let me know. I should implement a byteswapping option, but currently I'm too lazy :P. You can now use specific LameSpin program in Amiga LAME v3.56 or better by CISC to convert his LAME port to SecondSpin compatible one. Then copy the "SecondSpin_Encoder" file to "SecondSpin:external_commands/" and mp3 modes will be enabled! Thanks again CISC! Added output of WAV files as option for decoding instead of AIFF only. Tweaked the string gadget handling a bit. No enter/tab stuff should be needed anymore to feed new values. (Thanks to EkSOTiK for pointing that out) Added errorlist window for LAME, Pegase and some SecondSpin errors. Now it's much easier to figure out what went wrong. Error handling has been improved in general, filesystem read/write etc. errors won't cause SecondSpin to fail anymore. Hmm.. the limit to 31 was not so clever. It should have been limit to 30. So, now the limit is 30, but it's still called limit to 31 :) Thanks to Eike Biel for pointing that out. SecondSpin now has a special AsimCDFS support. Enable AsimCDFS support from the prefs and you can use AsimCDFS for the track leeching. Both direct encoding from a cd + standard leech are supported. No more wasted time to track leeching and more compatibility with different drives! Again, thanks to Eike Biel for requesting. Module 50% surround panning is now optional. I also made that full featured preferences editor. It's not yet 100% complete, but its certainly an improvement! :). Leeched tracks are now called with their real names, instead of cryptic 01-023df4234.aiff etc. they're now like 01-Unknown.aiff or 01-Song Name.aiff. Added iconify option. You can use either appicon or small window iconify modes. You cannot yet drop new files to the appicon, but this is in the works. cdda_path env variable can now be set within SecondSpin. I changed the CDDA program TOC listing stuff to ShowTOC. I hope this helps to support cdroms (in Asim mode) which do not work with CDDA program! Lots of thanks to Ralph Reuchlein for ShowTOC! PLEASE NOTE: As the TOC stuff has been changed, it may do slight changes to some problematic CDID names! So it may be that all previous CDID datas cannot be found! This is very unfortunate, but cdda program doesn't give 100% accurate information.. If this happens, you can always rename the nonworking CDID file.. Fixed a stupid bug which caused encoding of AudioCD:s fail if Modules or SIDs had been converted first. The 2ndspin.library is obsolete. The needed stuff is now included in the executable.. Also some small bugfixes I've already forgotten about.. (27/Apr/2000) v2.12 - Several small bug removals. Several small non-classified bugs removed. Some error handling stuff added. Prefs window still crashes on some machines. Please help me to track down which might cause it. My personal suspect is tritonrexx.library. Further development will lag behind a great deal until the bug is gone! AND I MEAN IT! Updated the Pegase executables to 1.86. As some of you still think that NCodeR encoder is better than LAME engine, which I disagree strongly, I decided to make SecondSpin NCode compatible. Now it's possible to use NCode executables with SecondSpin! Just select Layer 3 (NCodeR) from the gui and set NCode executable path from the Prefs window and you can use NCodeR as the encoding engine! I still strongly advice you to use LAME engine. It's far superior in almost all means! I've decided to drop support of older LAME versions and help me quickly utilize and implement advanced features of LAME v3.87 and above. I hope this will not be a problem. SecondSpin engine uses the v3.87 cli output with very minor changes. I'll update the developer information in the package. I hope that the LAME team won't be doing much changes to the output soon. It's really dull to re-implement cli output parsing with new LAME versions. Ofcoz SecondSpin mp3 functions gained huge speedboost and produces better quality! It's now possible to re-encode all supported layers, 1-3 to mp3. This is not suggested though as re-encoding with lossy formats produces crappy results. MED module support has finally been finished. It's very beta and utilizes med2xm by Jouko Pynnönen. Thanks for his support. Now you can convert MMD1/MMD2/MMD3 (all major Octamed formats) to all SecondSpin output formats. The conversion isn't perfect, read the med2xm.readme in bonus docs for more info. Please do not re-distribute songs made by other people converted from MED to XM unless you're 100% sure that the song was properly converted! I finally added XPK and PowerPacker support. Input files can now be packed with either one. This is handy for module->mp3 conversions as they're usually XPK'd. Ofcource, you'll have to have XPK or PowerPacker libraries installed for this feature to work. (01/Dec/2000) v2.15 - Experimental MIDI files support - MIDI files almost fully supported! Needs appropriate timidity++ installed with full instrument set. Tested only with eawpatch. This was requested by Craig Munro (Betatester-team member) Added an option to do cd-rom tray eject/load before leeching a track. This might be needed with some braindead cd-roms if you can only leech one track and rest fails. Requested by Jagge (Betatester-team member) Also tried to make wos and powerup to work again. Let me know! Tweaked the installer script, now it should be ok :) Cleaned the exit code a bit. Now multiple copies of SecondSpin shouldn't cause any problems. Prefs window still crashes on some machines. (22/Feb/2001) v2.16 - Changed OS recognition code. It may have failed under some VERY, VERY rare circumstances. If it fails now, I'd be very surprised. Changed the www.cddb.com support to freedb.freedb.org! This should fix the CDDB problems! (12/Mar/2001) v2.17 - sndfile.library now included in the distribution. SecondSpin is now able to output thorough debug information if errors occur. If you get errors, please save the Debug information and send it to me when you nag. Fixed a small bug with CDID paths. Thanks to Janne Peräaho for letting me know. Updated LAME support to 3.89Beta. (05/May/2001) v2.18 - Tweaked the startup code once again. Better error requesters should now pop up if errors occur during startup. Some small internal changes. The SecondSpin.info file was missing somehow in last release archive. it's fixed now. Thanks to Letti for reporting it. Several bugfixes. (20/Nov/2001) "xx/xxx/xxxx ->" means that the version was developed from xx/xxx/xxx to the next version date. @ENDNODE @NODE "Future" "Future" THINGS TO BE ADDED IN NEAR (OR NOT SO NEAR) FUTURE: - additional lame command line options - loading and saving of projects - cddbs to be downloaded queue - Somekind of an Tag Editor for input files, not only audio cd:s? - better decoding of mpeg audio files for mpeg2mpeg conversion purposes! - proper check of succeeded leeching(*) * this would be done by leeching the track twice and then comparing the data! - sid file length selection - proper med support (this is a hard case, please help me) - cdrom settings menu with buffer selection and speed tests. - cdid v2 support (genre, year, track specific author) for every part * 50% of code plus specifications done ----- THINGS _ABSOLUTELY NOT_ TO BE ADDED IN THE FUTURE: - skins (why on earth would someone want this? it only restricts the gui as you can see from NCodeR.) - tag editor for all outputted files * Just download a decent editor from aminet (AmTagEd is a good choice) and edit the outputted files with it. SecondSpin tag editing is meant for audio cd:s and it does it good enough :) @ENDNODE @NODE "Thanks" "Thanks" THANKS (in no particular order): - Michael van Elst for the cdda program. - cstar / Mike Cheng for the LAME project initialization. - Mark Taylor for LAME 3.x, jstereo capable GSPSYCHO model and for his coding etc. support. - Jesper Svennevid for his help with the pipe: support and LAME encoder modifications. - Kristian Van Der Vliet for betatesting, ideas, installation script and other nice stuff. Thanks!! - Teemu Suikki, zuikkis/#amigafin for mpeg encoder bonus coding, cddb implementation code and general help. Thank you! - Stéphane Tavenard for mpega - what would we do with audio mpegs, if we couldn't play them? - Jürgen Kohrmeyer for his fabulous arexx support libraries. - Didier Levet for pegase - why on earth would anyone bother to work on layer 2 encoder programming as you've made it near perfect! - Piru for his support code with stderr -> stdout conversion and other very great stuff he's done for me and SecondSpin project! I simply can't thank you enough! Thanks a lot pal! - Rolando Rivas for his latest efforts with the encoding engine and the compiles. Thanks man, you've really helped me a lot! - K-P Koljonen for his PS3MREC program.. Thanks! - Paul Heams for SID4AMIGA! - Steffen Häuser for being such a great guy. - Pauli Porkka for his SNext program he made for me years ago. - Sigbjørn (CISC) Skjæret for his amiga LAME port. - DrDick for some betatesting and ideas. - exie of czech amiga news for being so nice :) - Humanoid, Sly, Temen, BassCadet and rest of core embassy. Are you guys being overactive or what ;P - KureRNO / #amigafin for creating the SecondSpin title tune! - Jakub Bednarski for DSEject program. - All the people enjoying SecondSpin. - Al the freaks at #amigafin - the ultimate "amiga" channel. - The SecondSpin betatester team: Stéphane Payet, Eike Biel, Sébastien Staszak and Viper @ENDNODE @NODE "Credits" "Credits" SecondSpin uses software and routines by following people. CDDA implementation: Michael van Elst LAME mp3 encoding algorithms: Mike Cheng (cstar) Mark Taylor Rest of the people contributing to the LAME project! Additional LAME amiga port stuff: Sigbjørn (CISC) Skjæret Rolando Rivas Original installation script: Kristian Van Der Vliet CDDB coding help; Teemu Suikki (zuikkis/#amigafin) MPEGA mpeg audio decoding engine: Stéphane Tavenard TRITON and REXXSUPPORT arexx libraries: Jürgen Kohrmeyer TRITON main library: Stefan Zeiger Layer 1 and 2 implementation code and algorithms: Didier Levet PS3MREC module mixing program based: Jarno Paananen / Sahara Surfers (original ps3m playback code) K-P Koljonen (PS3MREC) SID conversion routines: Paul Heams + various people originally creating the routines.. Multichannel module support help: Pauli Porkka CD TOC routines Ralph Reuchlein CDROM Tray eject routine Jakub Bednarski Translations French Guide: Stéphane PAYET I dearly thank you all! @ENDNODE @NODE "mpega_on_amiga" "mpeg audio on amiga" This section is obsolete: @{b} [- Please note that this section is very outdated as SecondSpin has been developed a great deal since I made this and the output quality has been hugely improved. -] @{ub} Ok. You probably think that doing mpeg stuff with fpu is slower, but the mpeg quality is hugely improved if you use floats and its actually much faster to use fpu when encoding: _6-7_ times faster in my setup when encoding mpeg layer 3. The fact is that those free mp3 encoders available which are based to the original iso sources aren't that good. I made a test as I had to know how much original audio quality suffers when encoding them as mpeg audio: I encoded several techno tracks as mpeg audio with LAME and pegase: - Panasonic : Kulma / Tracks #2, #3 (minimalistic techno) - Jeff Mills : The Other Day / Track #1 (detroit techno) I chose these tracks as they're most likely going to suffer from mpeg encoding as they have huge variations of clear noise and dynamics. I encoded stereo mpeg layer 3 files with bitrates 128, 160 and 256 plus 128 kbps j-stereo mpeg layer 2 file with pegase. There was no need to use special equipment or programs to analyse the audiodata as I think that if you can't hear the difference, WHO CARES! When I had encoded the tracks (which was VERY slow, btw) I decoded them with mpega (I always use fpu as it has much better quality) to aiff files and compiled a audiocd with the encoded tracks as well as the originals. Then I just started playing with my hifi systems and I couldn't believe how much _layer 3_ distorted original Panasonic tracks. They were almost unusable! Jeff Mills however was quite good and the low bass and it's heavy dynamics were left almost untouched... bitrate didn't seem to make much difference (it didn't fix the distortions).. The most surprising was that layer 2 actually coped all the tracks much better, I'd say almost perfectly. The biggest problem with this test was that as layer 3 lacks j-stereo on amiga, so I couldn't test it. Anyway, it shouldn't matter with higher bitrates so the test should still be very much referrable.. Other problem is that I should test with more complex audio to see if complex sound reduces dynamics... So here are some hard facts I think you'd like to consider when encoding cds to mpeg audio: - mpeg layer 3: - is much slower than other layers - doesn't always have the best audio quality - it's the industrial standard but especially the free encoders available can deliver _very_ crappy results with certain audiodata or when the bitrate isn't high enough. - mpeg layer 2 files: - files aren't actually much bigger than mp3 and if they are, you can always lha them ;) - they're easier to decode as well as easier to encode (encoding times with those panasonic tracks 2.6:1 mp2, 40:1 mp3!) - can actually deliver better results! - can't always handle more complex audio correctly (might cut bass / treble) If you like to encode mpeg audio with your amiga, you should try how mpeg layer 2 j-stereo sounds. It's fast and can sometimes give the best results. @ENDNODE @NODE "Problems" "Known Problems / FAQ" First of all. SecondSpin has very extensive debugging features, which are extremely easy to interpret and won't need any explanations. To activate debug output to cli: 1) cd SecondSpin: 2) secondspin.exe DeBuG (<- case sensitive!) This might help you to find solution to some of your problems. Here's a simple example of debugging output: New Shell process 17 Stack set to 500.000 [17] System:)> secondspin: [17] Dev:SecondSpin)> SecondSpin.exe DeBuG - SecondSpin debugmode activated. [14:23:13] Debug Output: [14:23:13] Debug Output: SecondSpin v2.17ß (beta) (05-May-2001) started with port, SECONDSPIN.0 [14:23:13] Debug Output: [14:23:13] Debug Output: executed: 'c:version rmh.library >T:SecondSpin.51793' [14:23:13] Debug Output: [14:23:13] Debug Output: Support libraries loaded succesfully [14:23:13] Debug Output: [14:23:13] Debug Output: catalogfile='SecondSpin:catalogs/english/SecondSpin.catalog' [14:23:14] Debug Output: [14:23:14] Debug Output: uselocale='0' [14:23:14] Debug Output: [14:23:14] Debug Output: executed: 'SecondSpin:external_commands/flushtrx images >NIL:' [14:23:14] Debug Output: [14:23:14] Debug Output: cddaplanstring='plan=b' [14:23:15] Debug Output: [14:23:15] Debug Output: Using cybscsi.device,0 : TOSHIBA CD-ROM XM-6201TA [14:23:15] Debug Output: [14:23:15] Debug Output: External filechecks ok [14:23:15] Debug Output: [14:23:15] Debug Output: executed: 'version "c:SecondSpin_encoder" full >T:SecondSpin.51793' [14:23:15] Debug Output: [14:23:15] Debug Output: Lame CISC Hack Enabled [14:23:15] Debug Output: [14:23:15] Debug Output: 3.87beta / 68060 (2000-10-02) [14:23:15] Debug Output: [14:23:15] Debug Output: executed: 'version "c:pegase" full >T:SecondSpin.51793' [14:23:16] Debug Output: [14:23:16] Debug Output: Pegase Check: 1, 1.86 (2000-09-23) [14:23:16] Debug Output: [14:23:16] Debug Output: Encoder Check: 1, 3.87 [14:23:16] Debug Output: [14:23:16] Debug Output: executed: 'c:version "C:NCode" >T:SecondSpin.51793' [14:23:16] Debug Output: [14:23:16] Debug Output: NCodeR Check: 1, Ncode (68k) 1.5 [14:23:16] Debug Output: [14:23:16] Debug Output: Pipe check ok. [14:23:16] Debug Output: [14:23:16] Debug Output: executed: 'SecondSpin:external_commands/execcheck >T:SecondSpin.51793' [14:23:16] Debug Output: [14:23:16] Debug Output: Open Config [14:23:17] Debug Output: [14:23:17] Debug Output: Configuration loaded. [14:23:17] Debug Output: [14:23:17] Debug Output: executed: 'SecondSpin:external_commands/showtoc device=cybscsi.device unit=0 format="%n %y %sa %ea %da %02dm: %02ds:%02df" headformat="TOC START%\n%N Total 0 %fa %02fm:%02fs:%02ff" tailformat="TOC DONE" >T:SecondSpin.51793' [14:23:18] Debug Output: [14:23:18] Debug Output: Fake CDID, 1e-472a945 [14:23:18] Debug Output: [14:23:18] Debug Output: Amiga CDIDfile, SecondSpin:disks/ID30002FDA0472A9 [14:23:18] Debug Output: [14:23:18] Debug Output: check_cddb: [14:23:20] Debug Output: [14:23:20] Debug Output: MainWindow - 11 / TRMS_ACTION / 0 [14:23:21] Debug Output: [14:23:21] Debug Output: executed: 'SecondSpin:external_commands/flushtrx images >NIL:' [17] Dev:SecondSpin)> NOTE: If something goes wrong and you'll receive an error requester, please use the "SAVE" gadget and send me the debug infomation when you nag. :P Known Problems & Solutions : ===========================' PROBLEM: SecondSpin crashes when using Prefs editor -------' - This is a problem with system libraries colliding. There's nothing I can do to fix it :( PROBLEM: SecondSpin won't recognize inserted audiodisc. -------' - shouldn't happen.. recheck installation and preferences. PROBLEM: Audio file creation fails "Can't create xxx.aiff" -------' - You have most probably installed SecondSpin with CDRom mode not supported by your CDRom. * Try different CDRom CDDA mode selections from prefs (You might need to save and reboot, as wrong selection might have locked the scsi/ide bus) * If none of them works then you have two options 1) Use AsimCDFS mode instead. (Install ASIMCDFS and select AsimCDFS as CD-DA mode 2) Get another CDRom drive. PROBLEM: bad audio quality. -------' - some cd-rom drives output truncated audio packets which cause bad audio quality. - not all cd-rom drives support proper trackdownloading HINT: Download a recent demoversion of MakeCD. It is able to extract cdda tracks and you can easily see if you cd-rom drive sucks. Also see the list of @{"known working drives" link SupportedDrives} - the layer 3 fast mode is in highly experimental stage. It can result in decreased quality in all possible cases. Normal and HiFi modes always give better results... - if encoded mpeg files sound like some audio is missing now and then (one beat is missing etc.), it usually is caused by badly configured hd-filesystem. Try to download a track to ramdisk and to harddrive and test if the audio is ok. PROBLEM: The SecondSpin just freezes when it starts to encode a track -------' - The LAME engine might have got jammed because of corrupted input. Check the aiff file created by SecondSpin. If it's 0 bytes or very small, the audio grabbing (cdda leeching) process might fail. PROBLEM: When using AsimCDFS direct mode, the encoding goes well but I can't -------' use my system properly, eg. wb hangs etc. - you haven't enabled reselection and your cdrom takes over the scsi bus. PROBLEM: The track leeching / asimcdfs direct mode hangs -------' - your cdrom or scsi settings etc. suck.. my philips cdd-3600 did this but when taking care that scsi asyncron mode is on and reselection is also on, I could eliminate the problem.. PROBLEM: The SecondSpin encoder crashes. -------' - you might have installed a FPU version of the encoder although your cpu doesn't have one, or it isn't working properly. - you have found a bug in the code. please report it and hope it will be fixed when the next release comes. (yeah, sure) PROBLEM: Unable to initialize program GUI requester appears! -------' - SecondSpin cannot open a window for its GUI. You're most probably trying to run SecondSpin on too small screen. 640x480x1 is minimum. PROBLEM: When encoding layer 1 or 2 files the speed display is nonsense -------' - The speed display is correct only with 44100Hz 16 bit stereo files. PROBLEM: Converting a lot of files with SecondSpin, the process halts until -------' I select the window with mousepointer! - Yup, this may happen and I have no clue why! It's more secure to use iconified mode, then it works :( PROBLEM: I'm trying to handle med modules, but only some of them appear in the -------' list / none of them appear - SecondSpin doesn't support MMD0 modules (due to med2xm restriction). You'll have to load them into Octamed Soundstudio or older version which is able to save them as MMD1, MMD2 or MMD3. PROBLEM: When encoding directly from ASIMCDFS cd-rom device, my ram fills up! -------' - Disable Stream CDDA Audio in ASIMCDFS Prefs. PROBLEM: SecondSpin claims "unable to find lame x.xx or better" but I have -------' copied the latest LAME to correct path. - You're using a LAME engine not compatible with SecondSpin. Standard LAME compile (CISC:s / Jarmo Laakkonens) has to be converted first. Use LAMESpin utility in SecondSpin:external_commands/ to do this. GENERAL PROBLEM INFO: - LAME engine is under continuous development so it might very well hang your machine.. these things aren't caused by secondspin. So it's better to contact the LAME port author. - After encoding of one track has been completed, your system might lock up for couple of seconds. I have no precise idea what might cause it. - If you're going to send a bug/nag report, please tell these things too: a) Your configuration, including CPU & CD-ROM Drive! b) Send the information file, which is generated by SecondSpin: - Use BETA VERSION MENU / SAVE SYSTEM INFORMATION c) What audio cd / file were you encoding. d) If you receive an error, please save the debug information and send it to me @ENDNODE @NODE "RandomTracks" "RandomTracks" RandomTracks is a simple utility which renames all files in a directory randomly. This is very useful if you're creating a compilation audio cd from your mpeg audio files and and cannot decide the trackorder :). ... RandomTracks is still in Alpha state and isn't yet distributed. @ENDNODE @NODE "CDDB" "CDDB and SecondSpin" freedb.org is an internet service which contains the tracklistings for almost every audiocd ever made. The SecondSpin supports this server and utilizes it if you're connected to the internet and start SecondSpin. All downloaded trackinfofiles will be stored to SecondSpin:cddbs/ and can be used later on, so trackinfo will be downloaded only once. This means that you don't have to be connected when encoding files, you'll just need to start SecondSpin and let it download the trackinfo to your hd for later use. @ENDNODE @NODE "SupportedDrives" "Supported (proven to be working) cdrom drives" This list is in no way complete, but if you manage to get your cdrom drive(s) working, please send @{"me" link "About"} an email which describes the model, maker & modesetting you used to install it. Please send an email if you can't get a cdrom working with SecondSpin! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ WORKING CDROM DRIVES: - Philips CDD-3600 SCSI CD-RW, installed as 'Standard ATAPI / SCSI' (tested by SecondSpin author) - Toshiba XM-6201B(TA) SCSI CDROM, installed as 'Toshiba compatible' (tested by SecondSpin author) - Toshiba XM-4101TA SCSI CDROM, installed as 'Toshiba compatible' (tested by Kristian Van Der Vliet) - Plextor PX-40TS 1.01, installed as 'Sony compatible' (tested by (Rasmus ) - Yamaha 6416 CD-RW, installed as 'Sony compatible' (tested by (Kai Eckardt ) - BCD x32, ATAPI CDROM, installed as 'Standard ATAPI / SCSI' (tested by Manager ) NONWORKING CDROM DRIVES: - Goldstar CD-ROM GCD-R580B ATAPI CDROM, installed as 'Standard ATAPI / SCSI' This drive does not support CD-DA, which leads to poor quality/missing audio data. (tested by Kristian Van Der Vliet) @ENDNODE @NODE "EncoderObtaining" "How to obtain the Encoder archive" The mp3 Encoder cannot be distributed because of the legal licence terms, but you can create the Encoder with some simple instructions which are included in the archive as docs/HowToCreateEncoder.lha. CISC (the author of Amiga Port o' LAME) has made a special utility called LAMESpin. It will automagically create SecondSpin compatible executable of compiled LAME executables. If you're bored of wandering in da net to find SecondSpin_encoders, just recompile LAME or download it from official amiga sites and use LAMESpin! LAMESpin can be found from SecondSpin:external_commands/LAMESpin Then copy the "SecondSpin_Encoder" file to "SecondSpin:external_commands/" and mp3 modes will be enabled! @ENDNODE @NODE "LAME" "LAME encoder project" SecondSpin encoding routines have been based on the efforts of the LAME project, which is open source. The main LAME site can be located at http://www.sulaco.org/mp3/ @ENDNODE @NODE "Help" "How can you help me to develop SecondSpin?" - Read the @{"giftware" link "Giftware"} part - Tell me your suggestions & the problems you've encountered. - Make a catalog file for you language and send it to me to be included with the distribution. - Make sure you're using the latest version before you nag :P - Tell people about SecondSpin - I'd like as many as possible to use this. @ENDNODE @NODE "ASIM" "AsimCDFS support" SecondSpin supports AsimCDFS in a very comfortable way. You'll only need to install AsimCDFS and use the SS prefs window to select a AsimCDFS mode in "CD-DA Mode" selector. Then select the cd device, eg. CD0: / CD1: and voila'. @ENDNODE @NODE "Giftware" "Is SecondSpin shareware?" No, SecondSpin isn't shareware - It's giftware. This means that if you like SecondSpin, you should send me a small gift. This can be anything you think would motivate me to develop SecondSpin even further. You can consider this to be freeware, but if you'd like SecondSpin not to stop developing, you should consider the giftware thing to motivate me. As SecondSpin is a gift to the community, I hope the community sends gifts to me :) All the people in @{"Credits" link "Credits"} section can ofcourse think themselves giftware licenced! The gift could be anything from post cards, cool stuff you've made with SecondSpin (your own music as mp2/mp3 perhaps) and Registration keys (if you're an amiga developer) to VideoCDs, subsriptions to the magazine you might be featuring SecondSpin in, DVDs etc. Plain money will do too :) Actually, anything you can imagine that you think would motivate me to continue the development of SecondSpin. :) @{"Contact information" link "About"} @ENDNODE @NODE "Timidity" "Obtaining Timidity++" Timidity is a software based GNU MIDI to Sample converter, which requires extensive instrument set to full operation. You can download Timidity from aminet, and find archive called eawpatch as suitable instrument set. However, there's a link on SecondSpin www pages to a suitable ready-to-go Timidity archive for usage with SecondSpin. NOTE: The full Timidity files set is huge, about 20-30Mb! @ENDNODE @NODE "About" "About SecondSpin" SecondSpin DEVELOPMENT MACHINE: - Amiga 4000 with 144 mb of fast - Eizo Flexscan 21" monitor - 2.5Gb scsi-2 barracuda, 20Gb maxtor ide + 1Gb fujitsu scsi-2 - Cybervision 64/4mb classic - Cyberstorm mk-ii 060/50MHz & cyberscsi-ii module - Toshiba XM-6201B 32x SCSI cd-rom - Philips CDD-3600 SCSI cd-rw drive - Canon CanoScan 300 SCSI flatbed scanner - Epson Stylus Photo 700 printer - GVP DSS8+ sampler Yes, no PPC. :( Output quality etc. test equipment: - Yamaha RX-V592RDS amplifier - Yamaha CDX-390 cd-player - KEF Q35 speakers - Sony 32" 100Hz Wega (FD Trinitron) - Sony PlayStation console with VideoCD expansion - Spny PlayStation 2 AUTHOR: -zuulikuuli / embassy (Lauri Ahonen) www1....: http://secondspin.amigafin.org email...: amiga@turboraketti.org (if strictly SecondSpin) email...: amiga@turboraketti.org (otherwise) irc.....: zuulkuul/#amigafin or #amiga (IRCNet) snail...: Lauri Ahonen Poijutie 4A 00980 Helsinki Finland SecondSpin discussion board: http://members.boardhost.com/secondspin/ Use this to discuss about SecondSpin!! ------------------------------------------------------- -!- never underestimate the power of the arexx -!- ========================================================================== Please support your community with free software! ========================================================================== @ENDNODE