FIVE TO FIVE Version 2.02
-------------------------
for ATARI ST/TT/Falcon
by Harald Sch”nfeld and Bernd Spellenberg
March 1995
'Five to Five' is a program to convert various sound file types, as used on
different computer systems. Some packing algorithms and the following file
types are currently supported by 525:
- DVSM (ATARI Falcon 'WinRec')
- AVR (ATARI)
- HSN (ATARI 'CrazySounds')
- FORTUNE (ATARI Falcon 'Fortune')
- SND, AU (Sun, Mac, NeXT)
- WAV (PC)
- AIFF (Mac, ATARI (Cubase))
- Raw data
Copyright
Copyright 1994-95 by Harald Sch”nfeld and Bernd Spellenberg.
The program 525 is now shareware. 525 may and shall be copied and spread
under the condition that all program- and text- files of this archive are
included. Commercial use (distribution, selling the program for money,
spreading via PD disk series or CDs) is not allowed. But the authors may
grant the permission for such use.
If you use 525 regularely you have to pay the shareware fee of DM 20 ($ 15,
œ 10). Payment can be done via EuroCheque (or other international money
orders if you pay the fee!) or remittance order.
Banking account:
Harald Sch”nfeld
Kto. 5117726, Vereinigte Sparkasse im Landkreis Frth, BLZ 76250110
or
Bernd Spellenberg
Kto. 122343, Raiffeisenbank Frth eG, BLZ 76260451
Please write your name in the comment field of the remittance order and send
us your name, address, email address and a remark to 525 V2.02 for ATARI
seperately (via mail or email). You will then recieve a personal key from
us that allows you to register yourself in all future versions of the
program for all supported platforms.
Contact address
Send suggestions, criticism, comments, bug reports and cheques to:
Harald Sch”nfeld
Email: Harald.Schoenfeld@rzmail.uni-erlangen.de
Post: Lerchenstraže 2, 90587 Veitsbronn, Germany
Bernd Spellenberg
Email: Bernd.Spellenberg@rzmail.uni-erlangen.de
Post: Frther Straže 11, 90617 Puschendorf, Germany
Beta testers
Thanks to Peter Sergedahl and Thomas Binder.
Exemption from liability
The programmers can not be held responsible for any errors which may occur
while using this software. We do not claim this software is useful for all
applications.
1. System requirements
525 runs on all ATARI computers of the 680x0 series, no matter if MultiTOS
or Magic is installed or not. 525 needs about 250 KB free RAM.
2. Installation
Copy the program (525G.PRG=german, 525E.PRG=english) onto your
harddisk.
If you own a resource editor, you can insert one of the included 525 icons
into the deskicon.rsc file. In the next step, you can install that icon as
the Five to Five desktop icon.
3. Usage
After starting the program, the 'Convert Sample' dialog is shown and the
525 menu appears. There are the following menu items:
Desk/about Five to Five...
Informs about the current version number and the regsistered user. To
register as a user, press the 'Register' button and follow the instructions.
After successfull registration the annoying copyright messages will no
longer appear.
File/Convert...
Here you can select samples for conversion and choose a new file type and
format.
"File name" is a PopUp to select the import file. Just click onto the PopUp
and select the file in the subsequent file select box. The file will be
opened and 525 tries to get all necessary information from the file header.
A brief information about the file will be shown on the right of the PopUp.
If 525 couldn't find a file header, a dialog box appears, where the format
of the sample data has to be defined manually:
- the frequency: Click onto the PopUp to select a predefined frequeny, or
type in any other frequency.
- the pack/data format
- the number format: Signed or unsigned
Many old ST samples are 8 Bit Mono unsigned.
To start the program, you can also drag a sound file icon onto the 525
program icon. The file will then be used as import file. Using MultiTOS it
is also possible, to drag a sound file icon from the desktop onto the 525
main dialog window to import the file.
"Analyse" will show a detailed information about the import file. If the
file was not yet analysed, the whole file will be scanned now. Then the
information about length, type, format and peak level will be shown. The
reported length is the length of the sample data (without any header).
To select the export file type, click onto the "File Type" PopUp menu. 525
currently supports 7 different file types:
- DVSM: For WinRec, Win Cut, Fortune (ATARI)
- CIT : For Fortune (ATARI)
- AVR : Many ATARI St/Falcon programs
- HSN : CrazySounds (ATARI)
- SND : Sun, NeXT, Mac
- WAV : PC
- AIFF: Mac, ATARI - also uncompressed AIFC
- AIFF-Cubase: 512 byte aligned, but according to AIFF specifications
- Raw data: Raw data for many different programs
To select the format of the export file, click onto the "Format" PopUp. For
every file type the possible file formats will appear in the menu. An actual
format consists of several basic formats:
- Stereo / Mono: Two or one channels
- Signed / Unsigned: With or without sign
- Motorola / Intel: For Motorola or Intel CPUs
- 16 / 8 Bit / Mu-Law / Deltapack: 16 or 8 Bit are uncompressed,
Mu-Law and Deltapack are compressed. Deltapack needs as much memory as
Mu-Law, but sounds much better.
If you select a format, an abbreviation of the complete format text will
appear in the PopUp.
Selecting 'Keep' in the PopUp menu ensures that the input format is used as
export format if this is possible (which depends on the different file
types). If it is not possible 525 chooses a format that does not use more
memory than the import format.
Please notice that it is almost useless to convert a worse format to a
better one. It only requires more memory but sounds the same. But it is
possible that other programms support only some formats.
Converting Mu-Law to deltapack can result in a slightly worse sound quality,
although deltapack is the better format.
If the peak level of the import sample is rather low, it is useful to use
"Maximize volume". Using this option, the file will be written with maximal
possible volume (and a peek level of about 99% to 100%). In this case the
file will be scanned once completely. If the following option is active,
too, the file will be even scanned twice.
"Fade In/Out" allows you to fade in and out the volume of the sample at the
beginning and end. This is very useful, as there are often some distortions
at this part of the sample. The duration of this effect can be typed in both
for the start and the end of the sample if the option is selected. You can
type in 1 to 9999 milli seconds. If 0 is used, the option has no effect.
To write the new file select the "Export" button. At first a file select box
appears to select the export file name. Then a visual progress indicator
tells you about the current status of the export operation. If the export
file name is the same as the import file name, a temporal file will be
created.
File/Quit
Quits the program.
4. Internals
One supported sample type is the DVSM-Format of the programs WinRec, WinCut
and Fortune. Those are programs for the ATARI FALCON.
A DVSM sample file has the following structure:
typedef struct
{
char magic[6]; /* "DVSM" */
int headlen; /* Headlen in Bytes*/
int freq; /* Sample freqency 0=8kHz 7=50kHz*/
char pack; /* 0 unpacked, 2=DVS packmethod*/
char mode; /* 0=Stereo 8Bit,1=Stereo 16Bit,2=Mono 8Bit,3=Mono 16*/
long blocklen; /* if pack>0: Length of a packed block*/
} DVSMHEAD;
followed by cookies and the sound data.
The sample frequencies 0 to 7 correspond to the following frequencies:
sam_freq[8]={8195,9834,12292,16390,19668,24585,32778,49170};
For further information refer to the WinRec documentation or take a look at
the article series 'Sound Sample Formate' in the german magazin ST Computer
(3/94 - 6/94).
5. Known Bugs
- The program can not be hidden using Magic.
- There might be a redraw problem on a Falcon with a 14MB MightySonic card.
6. Release History
12.04.93: Version 0.9
12.04.94: Version 0.91
- Correction in DVSM import
05.05.94: Version 1.0
- AES 4.02 3D support
- Copyright Maxon
27.11.94: Version 2.0
- Complete re write of the program.
- New file types: CIT (Fortune)
HSN (CrazySounds)
- Fade in/out time seperately adjustable
- Correct volume maximation in connection with fading
- Visual progress indicator
- Drag&Drop
1.2.95: Version 2.01
- New file type: AIFF (Mac, ATARI)
AIFF-Cubase (Cubase)
- Iconize bug with MultiTOS in monochrome mode fixed
- Bug in user defined message handling corrected
5.3.95: Version 2.01 for OS/2
12.3.95: Version 2.02 for ATARI
- Shareware registration dialog
- Icon for desktop resource file included
7. Future Plans
- Frequency conversion (in progress)
- More formats
.AIFC compressed
.WAVE 4Bit
.ADPCM
.Yamaha