--------------------------- ModPlug Player User's Guide --------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- HOW TO USE MODPLUG PLAYER ? ----------------------------------------------------------------- [SOFTWARE INFORMATION] ModPlug Player is a freeware and may be freely distributed. As it is a freeware, I am not responsible for any problems that could be caused by the usage of this program. [SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS] - 486DX2-66 minimum (Pentium 100MHz highly recommended). - Windows 95 or Windows NT 3.51 or higher. - A soundcard with 32-bit drivers. [CONTACT] For any questions, or bug report, you can contact me at "olivierl@jps.net". ModPlug Player is completely freeware, but if you want to support further development of ModPlug Player, Mod-Plugin and ModPlug Tracker, you can send me money, (anything you want) in any currency (but preferably US dollars) at the following adress: Olivier Lapicque 470 Oak Grove Dr #306 Santa Clara, CA95054 USA [TECHNICAL INFORMATION] ModPlug Player is a 32-bit Windows 95/NT4 application, currently not using any hardware acceleration, but featuring a lot of options to create the best possible output (Up to 48KHz, 16-bit, stereo): - 32-bit internal precision for mixing, dithered to 16-bit. - Up to 32-bit,96KHz internal precision with MultiPoint oversampling selected (2x internal mixing) - MultiPoint spline resampling with MultiPoint oversampling selected. - Automatic click removal. - Volume Ramping option, to suppress pops and clicks due to sample offsets, and big volume changes (Also creates more relalistic volume slides). - Digital Bass Expansion digital low-pass filter (filter range and depth customizable in Advanced Player Options) - Dolby Pro-Logic Surround support (and it's not only negating the right channel) with custom delay and 100Hz-7KHz filter depth. - Basic Reverb Option (not echo), also with a 100Hz-7KHz filter with customizable depth and delay (2 delay lines are used). - Noise Reduction: attenuation of the very high requencies in the sound. - Stereo Separation option (25%-400%), useful for headphones. - 40-bands (Or 2x 19-bands) fourier spectrum analyzer, and VU-Meter. SETUP: ------ Clicking on the Setup button will bring a 4 property pages dialog: - Soundcard Setup / Soundcard Advanced Setup: --------------------------------------------- * Mixing quality: Select the output quality (A CD-ROM is 44.1KHz). If you don't want to take too much CPU, 32KHz is a good compromise between CPU and audio quality. A 32-channels IT module played at 48KHz,stereo can take up to 100% of the CPU on a DX2-66 (Especially with Spectrum Analyzer). Note: I noticed that 48KHz output can create noise on some sound cards, because the hardware is downsampling it to 44.1KHz. In this case 44.1KHz is much better (Come on, it's only 4KHz difference, you don't need to upgrade your sound card). * Stereo: This will create a stereo output. Playing in mono takes less CPU than in stereo. You need to have the stereo option enabled to hear panning effects and surround sound. * 16-Bit: You are strongly advised to use this option, unless your soundcard doesn't support stereo playback. Playing in 8-bit mode doesn't decrease the CPU usage. * Sound buffer length and Number of buffers: This option configure the size of the buffer sent to the soundcard. (Total length = SoundBufferLength*NumberOfBuffers milliseconds) If you are using a small buffer, the player will respond faster when you change the player options or move the Pre-Amp slider. At the same time, if the PC is very busy in a multitasking environment, the sound may get cut from time to time. The buffer length must be between 50ms and 250ms. The bigger the buffer length, the slower the spectrum analyzer will be updated. The default settings should work fine, but you may want to increase it if you are using CPU-intensive applications, or decrease it if you have a very fast PC. * Stereo Separation: This allows you to control the stereo separation between right and left channel. You may want to decrease it with headphones, or increase it to feel a stronger stereo. This works only in stereo mode. * Maximum Mixing Channels: This allows you to control the CPU usage of ModPlug, by limiting the number of channels simultaneously playing. It can make a big difference in CPU with IT modules using NNA effects. Typically, most modules (MOD/S3M and XM) don't go over 16 simultaneous channels, and IT modules usually don't go over 32 simultaneous channels. But mixing 32 simultaneous channels can take 100% of the CPU on a 486DX4-100, especially if you're using MultiPoint oversampling, or other DSP effects. This option will automatically take care of this problem. * Use Function Callback: Some drivers (and most Windows NT drivers) don't support the thread callback option: in this case, you will hear about half a second of sound and it will stop. If this happens, check this box. (ModPlug auto-detect NT, and check it under Windows NT) * Real-Time Priority: This option enables you to control if ModPlug uses a real-time thread or a regular high-priority thread. Depending on your sound driver, it may improve the response of the player when running in the background. Note: If you choose a setting that your soundcard doesn't support, the player will ignore it. - Player Setup: --------------- * Spectrum analyzer: When this option is checked, ModPlug Player will display the frequency spectrum of the sound (using Fourier analyzis). This takes more CPU and doesn't affect the quality of the sound. When the player window is behind another window or is minimized, the spectrum is not calculated and doesn't take any CPU. The frequencies in the spectrum display range from 86Hz to 11KHz (There is up to 40-bands). It takes about 15-20% of the CPU on a fast Pentium machine, so you shouln't use it with a 486. * Stereo Spectrum: When this option is checked, together with the Spectrum Analyzer, the player will display one spectrum for the left and right channels. (In this case, there is 2x19 bands in the spectrum, and the range for each channel is from 86Hz to 8KHz). It doesn't take more CPU than the mono spectrum analyzer. (You need to play in stereo mode to use this option, or else you'll see the same on each channels, duh!) * Reverb: This will create a reverb effect on the sound, using two delay lines, and two digital filters. It doesn't sound really good on all modules, but sometimes it does. That's why it's here (I noticed it sounds very good with guitar). You can change the reverb depth and delay in the Advanced Player Setup. * Pro-Logic Delayed Surround: This options sends 25% of the the sound to the Dolby Pro-Logic Surround channel (center + rear speakers) with a delay of about 50ms, filtering frequencies from 100Hz to 7KHz. This option works only with Stereo enabled. You can change the surround depth and delay in the Advanced Player Setup. * Disable Oversampling: This option will completely disable the oversampling. Unless you have a 486SX-25, you should use this option. Try without it, and if you don't hear a difference, go see your doctor. * Noise Reduction: Use this option only at 44.1KHz or 48KHz, or else it will filter all the high frequencies. * Bass Expansion: This option will make the player doing a 2x bass amplification of the sound at 50KHz (About 1.6x at 44.1). It takes a little bit more CPU, but not that much. If you like low frequencies, or just want to make you neighbour upset, that's the option you'll need. You can change the XBass depth and delay in the Advanced Player Setup. * Enable Multi-Point oversampling: You shouldn't use this option if you're working on other applications with ModPlug in the background, because it takes much more CPU for a small difference in sound quality (But i way be useful when recording WAV files). By default , the player is using a 256x linear oversampling to create a smooth sound. At the same time, the linear oversampling decreases a little bit the magnitude of the sound, especially on high frequencies. With Multi-Point oversampling, it enables two different algorithms for resampling. The first one will be used on good quality samples (compared to the mixing rate): if you play at 44.1KHz, the player will create a 88.2KHz sound internally, and downsample it to 44.1. It's twice more accurate than the linear oversampling. For low quality samples, the player will create a spline curve to smooth up the sound -> this is far better than the linear oversampling, but also takes a lot more CPU. * Use Volume Ramping: This option doesn't take much more CPU, and instead of jumping from one volume to the other, the player will use a volume ramping for start and end of a note, which will remove most of pops and clicks in the sound. It will also smooth volume slides, and volume envelopes. The volume ramping lasts for about 2 milliseconds. * Automatic Gain Control: When you open a module with this option enabled, the player will scan the song to find the highest volume level, and adjust the pre-amp slider to have the best Signal/Noise ratio (SNR). This also slows the loading time of modules. * IntroScan: Enter the maximum playing time of a song (in seconds) before the player jumps to the next song. You ac also enable/disable the IntroScan mode by the right-click menu. - Directories: -------------- * Songs Directory: You can enter the path where your mods are located, and the player will automatically go to this directory when running. * Register Extensions: This makes Windows use ModPlug player as the default player for all the modules recognized. After clicking this button, you can open a song just by double-clicking it in the Windows Explorer. If "Use DDE" is selected, each time you open a mod it will stay in the same window, or else Windows will open another ModPlug Player Window. * Clear PlayList When... The playlist can be automatically cleared each time you Drag&Drop Files in the player window, or when you use the open button. (It's always cleared if you open a .MOL file) - Packing: ---------- The slider allows you to control the quality of packing for the Pack As command, and give you information about which samples would be packed in the current song. The compression used to pack the samples is ADPCM, which can make the file size twice smaller. If the compression quality is low, more samples will be packed, but you may lose quality. If the compression quality is high, you probably won't lose any quality, but less samples will be packed. OPEN: ----- Opens a file or a module list. The following file types are supported in the current version: - *.669: UNIS 669, 669 Composer modules. - *.FAR: Farandole Composer modules (beta). - *.IT: Impulse Tracker modules. - *.MED: OctaMed modules. - *.MDL: DigiTracker 1.x modules. - *.MOD: ProTracker modules (4-32 channels, 15/31 samples). - *.MOL: Module lists, compatible with MOD4WIN. - *.MTM: MultiTracker modules. - *.NST: NoiseTracker modules. - *.S3M: ScreamTracker III modules. - *.STM: ScreamTracker II modules. - *.ULT: UltraTracker modules (in alpha). - *.WOW: Grave Composer modules. - *.XM: FastTracker modules. - *.WAV: Wave Files (smaller than 16MB). - All the above when zipped (*.MDZ, *.S3Z, *.XMZ, *.ITZ, *.ZIP). INFO: ----- This button will make the song information (comments and sample names) scroll in the LCD display. ABOUT: ------ Shows the current version of ModPlug Player. REPEAT: ------- This button will cause the song to play again. If you click 4 times on this button, the song will be repeated indefinitely. The repeat count is displayed in the LCD screen. SHUFFLE: -------- This button will cause a random song to be played after the current one. EDIT: ----- This button will bring a dialog allowing you to edit the playing list. You can double-click in the list to activate a song. SAVE AS: -------- This button will save the current song under a new name. You can use it to unpack/unzip a module, or to convert to a new format. SAVE WAV: --------- This button will create a .WAV file using the current song, and all the current player settings. PACK AS: -------- This button allows to save a module and pack the samples with ADPCM compression. Most players won't recognize the song anymore, but you can use it as a module in a Web page: it will be faster to download it. You can also ZIP the saved file to make it even smaller. If you want to unpack a previously packed module, just use the regular Save As button. DETAILS: -------- This will bring a window displaying more details about the song being played. Note that if the song changes while this window is open, you will have the information of the current song and the information of the new song mixed up (Sorry about that). SAVE LIST: ---------- This button saves the current playing list, as a .MOL file. CLR LIST: --------- This button is clearing the current playing list. REMOVE: ------- This button removes the current song from the list. The file is not erased from the disk. You should use Ctrl+D if you want to remove the file from the disk. ----------------------------------------------------------------- SHORTCUT KEYS ----------------------------------------------------------------- Ctrl-O: Open a file Ctrl-S: Save the current file Ctrl-D: Delete the current file (useful to remove crappy mods) Del: Remove the current file from the playing list Shift+Del: Clear the playing list Space: Jump to next song ----------------------------------------------------------------- HISTORY ----------------------------------------------------------------- Get the latest version at "http://www.castlex.com/modplugplayer" ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1.25: ----- - Fixed loop bug with some S3M modules having garbage after loopend. - Fixed XM bug with instrument + no note. - Song Slider is more precise. - Added more mixing rates in SoundCard Setup. - Higher priority when the "Real Time" option is checked. 1.24: ----- - Fixed bug with multiple pattern loops. - Fixed Tremor bug. - Improved reverb. 1.23: ----- - Finally fixed the NNA-Cut that wasn't cutting everything! - Fixed bug with 00 Retrig command - Increase maximum channels to 64 real and 80 virtual channels. - Added beta MDL support. - Fixed "NNA-fade + zero-fadeout + no volume loop" bug. 1.22: ----- - Fixed bug when saving IT modules. - Better Automatic Gain Control - Added TaskBar Controls option. - Added display of active channels (can be bigger than the actual number of channels in IT modules) - Better multitasking (use of critical sections) - Removed limit of 223KHz sample rate in XM/IT modules. - VU-Meter is always visible. - Faster 40-bands Spectrum Analyzer - Fixed glissando bug. 1.21: ----- - Faster VU-Meter. - If VU-Meter is too high, it means you should lower the PreAmp slider, or else the sound will saturate. - Fixed KeyOff bug with looping envelopes. - Fixed FadeOut bug with unused envelopes. - Fixed IT vibrato bug. - Better NNA congestion resolution - Added beta FAR support. - Added Auto-Clear PlayList options. - Added Buttons Custom Colors 1.20: ----- - Fixed bug with NNAs, DCT and DNA. - Fixed bug when end of volume envelope was reached. - Fixed volume envelopes in IT 1.x modules. - Fix for NT bug since v1.10 (v1.20.1 only) - Bigger buttons, and improved ffwd/rew (v1.20.1 only) 1.19: ----- - Increased maximum sample size to 16MB. - Added WAV file support. - Added Save Wav button. (It was quite confusing to use Save As to save as a WAV file). - Fixed bug with Note Fade NNA. - Fixed MED default tempo bug, and added more MED effects. - Fixed pattern delay bug. - Added Smooth Gradient option. - Added support for Drag & Drop of directories. - Added Fast Spectrum option. 1.18: ----- - Fixed volume ramping option (it was not working) - Fixed bug with IT volume column special effects. 1.17: ----- - Increased maximum patterns from 128 to 200. - Added MED tempo support. - Fixed bug in S3M loader. - Added IntroScan option. - Increased max number of files that can be opened at the same time through the Open command. 1.16: ----- - Added Volume Ramping option. - Added more custom colors. - Fixed IT linear slides bug. - Added maximum simultaneous mixing channels option. - Fixed bugs in IT player. 1.15: ----- - Fixed a HUGE bug in IT loader (Last channel was lost). - Added IT Tempo Up/Down effect in IT modules. - Fixed stereo reverb bug. - Fixed painting problem in VU-Meter. - Fixed Speed commands >32 in S3M/IT modules. - Fixed bug with multiple E6x/S6x commands on same row. - Fixed bug with S00/E00 command in IT/XM modules. - Fixed XM 8-bit Panning Command 8xx bug. - Improved MultiPoint Oversampling. 1.14: ----- - Added Advanced Player Setup - Fixed a bug in Pro-Logic Surround. 1.13: ----- - Fixed oversampling bug. - Improved surround and reverb effects. - Added Custom Colors for VU-Meter & Spectrum Analyzer. 1.12: ----- - Fixed bug with XM modules with more than 128 patterns. - Added Noise Reduction filter. - Added Pro-Logic Delayed Surround option. - Remove Filter Control option. 1.11: ----- - Added channels VU-Meters in ModPlug Mixer. - Better Bass Expansion (2x at 50KHz) - Minor other improvements 1.10: ----- - Added ModPlug Mixer. - Lots of small new features. - You can now Drag & Drop files into the edit list dialog. 1.09: ----- - Removed the Tri-Linear Oversampling option. - Added the Multi-Point oversampling, doubling the internal frequency. - Lowered the internal pre-amp when Bass Expansion is used. - Improved stability of the "Driver CallBack" option. 1.08: ----- - Added the "Bass Expansion" player option. - You can now select multiple files in the Open dialog. 1.07: ----- - Added the "Use Driver CallBack" option in SoundCard Setup. - Changed maximum mixing channels from 32 to 64 (32 more for NNA). - Fixed panning bug (command X) in S3M. - Improved ZIP support, skipping files other than mods. 1.06: ----- - Added stereo separation option. - Added stereo samples support in IT modules. - Fixed bug with ping-pong loop with a non-zero loopstart. 1.05: ----- - Added Ping-Pong loop support. - Fixed NNA bug with looping samples. - Fixed divide error when skipping to next mod in an empty list and shuffle. - Added beta STM loader. 1.04: ----- - Added automatic click removal. - Added Set 64K Offset support in IT modules. - Fixed bug in S3M detection function (some S3Ms were loaded as MODs) - You can now drag & drop list files (*.mol). 1.03: ----- - Fixed crash when loading IT modules with a lot of instruments. - Fixed problem with some files playing too low. - Added Tri-Linear oversampling option (P133+ recommended) - Fixed S3M bug with non-looping samples having a loopend < length. - Added Stereo Spectrum option. 1.02: ----- - Added "Edit" button. - Fixed finetune bug in XM modules. - Added "Details" button. 1.01: ----- - This version fixes most of the 1.00 bugs. - You can now use the Open button for both lists and modules. - Command line, Drag & Drop, and DDE bugs fixed. - Added NNA/DNC effects in IT modules. - Added beta ULT support. 1.00: ----- - First public release of ModPlug Player (Actually a beta)