Amiga Tools 1/Amiga Tools.iso/disk-tools/cd-tools/cddarip/cddarip.doc

Text File | 1994-06-06 | 9KB | 166 lines

           CDDARIP.DOC     DOCUMENTATION FOR CDDARIP

               Version 0.90 on May 12, 1993


    Cddarip is a new program that does the previously impossible.  It allows
one to extract audio samples directly from an audio CD (CDDA).  Until the latest
generation of drives (these expensive double speed drives), it was impossible to
read audio samples through a CD-ROM player.  Most units had provisions to play
the discs when it is not being used for computer data, and would often furnish
computer programs to emulate the buttons on a standard audio CD player.  However,
the units had their own DACs and audio was taken from a headphone or line output
connected to the drive.
    This program is intended for the Toshiba XM-3401B drive.  It MAY work on
similar models by Toshiba, and it is rumored the Apple CD300 is a similar drive
inside.  CDDARIP has not been tested thereon.  It will not likely work on other
manufacturers units, thought the latest Sony and NEC drives could have this
capability.
    This program came to being out of curiosity.  I had obtained the Toshiba
SCSI command manual to solve another problem(see fix_xa.lzh) and I discovered
command capability to retrieve CDDA digital audio.  I wrote a short program to
grab an arbitrary sample and save it as a raw 8 bit file.  I played back the
result and low and behold, it sounded something like the original.
    To make it usable, an interface had to be generated, and this was 70% of
the programming time.  Plus everything is in BCD and some code had to be written
to handle this.  The result is basically a CDDA control program (CDDARIP can
be used for this just fine).  This allows the user to browse his CD to set the
proper times to sample.  Then he can actually sample the data to disk.
    Data from this can be used with other programs, as it puts it out in the
standard IFF 8SVX format.  Think of it, your favorite guitar licks can come up
when there is a system message with 2.0 or above.
    Cddarip was compiled with SAS/C ® 6.02.  It is designed to work with all
68000 family processors.


REQIREMENTS:

TOSHIBA XM-3401-B or similar 3400 series drive.  Apple CD300 MAY work not tested.

SCSI Interface that supports SCSI direct.  Tested on Amiga 3000.

Headphones or amplifier/speakers on 3401's audio output.

WorkBench/Kickstart (TM Commodore-Amiga inc) 2.04 or greater.

Note: It should NOT require any CD ROM filesystem as it accesses SCSI directly.

Hard disk for saving larger samples.

USING CDDARIP:

    There is no special installation procedure.  Copy this file to any directory
though c: is a good place.  And this doc file where you can get to it easily if
you have questions later.
    This program is run from CLI or shell.  Type "CDDARIP" Unit [device] <CR>
where unit number is the SCSI number(0-6).  Device is entered if NOT using
a Commodore 2091 card or A3000.  If you have either of these, do not enter
a device.  For a GVP controller on unit 3, you would type "cddarip 3 gvpscsi.device""'
and so on.
    A window will pop up in Workbench screen.  At the top is fifty squares with
numbers in them.  These select a track on the disc.  If you have a CDDA disc
inserted when starting, the valid tracks are highlighted.  Click on one of these
with the mouse and it will start playing.  Just like my Sony player.  Below
that is a rectangle with a status line in it.  Watch this space, the program may
be telling you something.  During play, it will give the status, the track number,
then the time from disc start, and time into track.  If you make an error, it
will tell you.  If the drive is not connected correctly or wrong type of disc in
you will get a CMD Sense Error.  This is the drive saying it cannot complete the
command given it.  This is not a fatal condition, correcting the problem and
retrying will remove this.  The program also queries the CDROM every half second
or so to update status.  This will come up when changed.
    Next is a row of transport buttons.  These work like their counterparts on
an audio player and do not need much explanation.   There is start of track,
reverse scan, pause, play, forward scan, and next track.  Note there is no stop
button,  this is not in the command set for some reason, use pause instead.
    At the bottom, there are  four slightly longer buttons.  The  PLAY SEL
will play the portion selected to be sampled as a preview.  It and all playing
is done thru the Toshiba audio, NOT the Amigas.  When you are sure of what you
want to sample, press CONVERT.  This will create the IFF file.  In this mode
the double speed is disabled, and it takes whatever time the sample is to
convert, plus a little for overhead.  If you change your mind during a long
sample, hit ABORT.  Keep in mind the partial result may not be usable.
Keep in mind at the default 22KHz, that a five second sample is over 100K.
make sure there is enough room available.  I do not recommend saving directly
to floppies.  RAM may be used but be sure you have enough room.
    CHK DISC will update the track table AND SHOULD BE SELECTED ONCE AFTER THE
CD IS CHANGED OR INSERTED.   Future versions may autosense this.
    On the right side are some parameters.  First is the Output Rate, this sets
the sample rate.  Default is 22KHz or 1/2 the CD frequency.  11KHz can be selected
to save RAM in non critical applications but quality is poor.  44KHZ or full
rate can also be used but most all Amigas cannot play back this fast so pitches
will be flat.   Just below that is Output Mode.  This selects IFF MONO, which is
a mono mix of both channels.  Also, left only or right only can be selected.
Stereo was deleted because of format problems that require ALL left channel THEN
all right channel data instead of interleaving them.  It is possible to take a
left and a right sample and stitch them together in another program.
    The next two string gadgets set the path and the file name.  This determines
what the file created will be called.  This is pretty crude now and it is up to
the user to set this and not write over any previous work.
    The bottem right contains two string and two button gadgets.  Start time
is the time from start of disc that sampling will start at.  It can be set three
ways.  Hitting the button called 'NOW' to the right will set it to the current
play time in the status window.  Keep in mind this is not real accurate and will
usually be 0.5-1 second later.  The next way is using keys to fine adjust.  Using
the up and down arrow will add and subtract one frame (1/75 sec).  The PgUp and
PgDn will add or subtract one second.  Holding the shift key during all this
will multiply these by 8.  The third way is direct entry, click the mouse on
either the min, sec or frame and change it.  If an invalid combo is entered,
a BCD error message will appear and the previous value returned.  The sample
duration is set one of two ways.  First hitting the END button will set the
current play position to be the end point IF it is greater than the start time
else it is ignored.  This can be directly entered as well.  No keys have been
set to this yet, but may be in the future.

    The BCD format is:  MM:SS:FF     Where,
        MM= minutes, can be 00-74.
        SS= seconds, can be 00-59.
        FF= frames , can be 00-74.

    To exit, hit the close button in the upper left corner.  No requesters will
appear, and no one will bug you about shareware fee.  This is not shareware at
this point and would only become so if more complex features are added.  This
has been an exploration and mastry of SCSI.  Note that the CD will continue
to play even when stopped.  It may be desirable to hit pause first.


LEGAL:
    CDDARip is © 1993 Jim Boros, all rights reserved.
    This softaware is not public domain but may be freely distributed provided
that:
    1)  The program and documentation are not modified and are kept intact.
    2)  This is not sold for any cost other than connect time or resonable
        disk charge (<$6).
    3)  It is not included in any commercial product.

    No warranties of any type, expressed or implied are granted.  I will
not be liable for any damage to software or hardware, or any patent or copyright
infringement arising out of this product.    This program is able to copy commercial music, and is supplied for test and
educational purposes only.  Using samples from CD may require consent from the
copyright holder.  Especially for commercial or publicly visible application.

    The music industry probably has concerns about perfect duplication of CD and
other digital audio.  This will not happen with CDDArip since the quality is
degraded to 8 bits, less than a good analogue copy.   Also the cost of media and
drives for that magnitude of data would be many times the cost of the CD in a
record store.
    This may be distributed by Fred Fish, and by any BBS, and any redistributable
software library.  And it may be distributed anywhere in the world.

TO DO:

    Support for other audio formats, IE AIFF.  With slightly higher resolution.
    More likely as higher quality sound becomes available for Amiga.

    Clean up interface and make it a little easier to use.

    Fix any bugs.

CONTACT:

    I'm on BIX, the handle is jboros.  Leave any bug reports or suggestions
there.