PDTracker is an advanced desktop music player application which uses CD player like controls. It allows the playing of ProTracker/SoundTracker, Tracker, Coconizer and Digital Symphony tracks, all using the same easy to use controls. What’s more it also allows MultiPlay (CONTINUE and SHUFFLE modes) of an unlimited number of tunes whose formats can be freely mixed.
PDTracker features list
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With PDTracker, you can :
• play ProTrackers/SoundTrackers, Trackers, Coconizers & Digital Symphonies
• use the CD player like controls for PLAY, PAUSE, STOP, REWIND, FORWARD, SKIP etc.
• have MultiPlay of an unlimited number of mixed-format tracks in either CONTINUE or SHUFFLE mode
• skip to any track at any time by entering the number & pressing OK
• REPEAT a particular track, infinitely
• turn on INTRO SCAN which just plays the first sequence of each track
• toggle the status of the 8 channels, and alter the playback volume with the slider bar¹
• alter the stereo positions of all 8 channels
• get information on samples such as name, length, volume²
• save the samples off to disc in raw logarithmic format²
• have multiple ‘Setup files’ containing lists of tracks to use in CONTINUE or SHUFFLE mode
• automatically scan a disc or directory for tracks and save the resulting Setup file
• choose/search for a track by name from a scrolling ‘Track list’ window
• view 4-channel VU Bars in a desktop window for all track formats
• use a fixed block of RMA (or a Dynamic Area on the RiscPC) for tracks to stop RMA fragmentation
¹ these functions are not available on the RiscPC for Tracker modules due to a bug in the Tracker player module - see below
² doesn’t work with Digital Symphony tunes - sorry but the format is stupid
Setup files
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As mentioned PDTracker can have MultiPlay (CONTINUE or SHUFFLE) of any number of tracks. PDTracker is told which tracks to use by using Setup files. Setup files are of filetype &325 and contain several LF terminated lines which contain the full pathnames to track files. To define you own setup file, simply open a window in your editor (eg. StrongED or Edit) and Shift-Drag the files you want to this window. Their pathnames will be inserted. When complete, save the file as type &325 (PDTSetup), and load it into PDTracker. You can get PDTracker to scan a directory for you by dragging an application/directory onto PDTracker. You can also get it to scan a whole disc from the main menu. The resulting Setup file can be saved from the main menu.
Correct filetypes
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There is a lot of confusion about which filetype belongs to which type of track etc. With some, such as Symphony or Coconizer, there is no problem, but with Tracker and ProTrackers/SoundTrackers often the filetypes &001 and &CB6 are used inter-changeably. I have also seen the filetype &002 used for SoundTrackers. As I see it, the standard which has been adopted in the public domain, and by some commercial software houses, be it right or wrong, is to filetype ProTracker/SoundTracker (ie Amiga format) tracks as &001, and for Tracker format (ie Archimedes Tracker) &CB6. It is this method which PDTracker uses to decide which player module to use for a tune:
Filetype Player module
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&001 Queue The Music
&10B Digital Symphony
&365 Coconizer
&CB6 Tracker
There is also further confusion by the fact that (I think) DeskTopTracker uses the filetype &CB6 also! This isn’t a problem to me as I have no DTT tunes, and PDTracker can’t play them anyway (see later on in this file). In a later version I may provide auto-sensing of track types regardless of filetype.
Interactive Help
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PDTracker supports interactive help. To make use of this feature, load the !Help application supplied with your computer. Making use of this feature (which works on menus as well for RiscOS3) should help you to work out what everything does if you can’t guess. I have tried to make PDTracker easy to use and to write interactive help rather than an over-sized help file.
PLESE USE THE INTERACTIVE HELP - THAT’S WHAT IT’S THERE FOR. More information is available from interactive help than there is in this Help file.
RISC-OS 2
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PDTracker SHOULD run OK on RISC-OS 2, but I’m sure there will be bugs. If anyone out there still uses RISC-OS 2 then please let me know what the bugs are! (also several characters in this file will look stupid to RO2 users, such as ¨ and ’)
The Player Modules
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To allow PDTracker to play all the formats it does, it relies on four separate player modules, CoconizerPlayer, DSymphonyPlayer, QTMTracker and TrackerModule. These modules are all normally located within the !PDTracker.RMStore.DontLoad directory. This means that upon loading PDTracker, no player modules will be loaded into RMA - they will just be loaded (but not quit) as required. This is the ideal situation unless you don’t have a hard disc, in which case you should move the player modules you use up from RMStore.DontLoad into RMStore. These will then be loaded every time you run PDTracker.
Otherwise, when PDTracker loads a track and it can’t find the right player module it will try to load it first from RMStore (in case it has been killed by the user/another program), then from RMStore.DontLoad. It this fails or there isn’t enough memory to load it then PDTracker will tell you. For this reason PDTracker should be installed on your hard disc if you have one.
NOTE: You must only move these four modules (CocoPlayer, DSymPlay, QTMModule and TrackerMod), all of which are stored as squeezed absolute files. DO NOT move or alter any of the other modules/files.
You can also quit the modules manually from PDTracker’s iconbar menu, by using the Quit submenu - use interactive help if you get stuck.
Just to add to the confusion, TrackerModule 4.09 doesn’t work on the RiscPC. The latest version I can find which does is 4.00, but this does not allow control of the channels, the volume or the playing speed. For this reason I have included both 4.00 and 4.09 in this release, and 4.00 will automatically be loaded if running on a RiscPC, else 4.09. Sadly this means that RiscPC users can’t change the playing speed or volume of Trackers, unless they convert them to a better format such as ProTracker to use with the QTM player.
Dynamic memory management on the RiscPC
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If you are the lucky owner of a RiscPC, you can set an option in the Choices window to use a Dynamic Area to hold tracks. This will help to prevent RMA fragmentation. It is recommended to set this option if you can.
Desktop Trackers
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The new (well, not any more) desktop trackers may also be supported by PDTracker if requested. If anyone has the docs for the playroutine and file format of the new desktop trackers, then please send them to me so I can add desktop tracker support to PDTracker.
Recommended applications
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For users of machines before the RiscPC, the RMAManager program from Topix prevents RMA fragmentation. This module sadly does not work on the RiscPC.
If you want to convert all your tracks to one format and you don’t have Digital Symphony then the program for the job is TrackConv by Chris Davis. This program is shareware, registration £5.
Both these programs are available from the Datafile or from myself if you send a disc & SSAE.
Conditions
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This application may be distributed freely so long as no profit is made from it in any way, and that it is not tampered with in any way, ie ALL FILES ARE LEFT INTACT AND UNTOUCHED, and no extra files are added. You may not use any part of PDTracker in your own programs apart from the contents of the RMStore directory, excluding the ‘PDTrkUtils’.
The VU Bars application contained within PDTracker may not be extracted and re-distributed, although you may use it on it’s own for your own personal use if you so desire. It must be distributed with and only with the rest of PDTracker.
