#AmigaVision Probs/Bugs
9 messages in this thread
Has anyone encountered any problems/bugs with AmigaVision?
In particular, I have been toying with playing SMUS songs from DMCS. When
I save as SMUS in DMCS and then try to play them back in AmigaVision, it
seems as though AmigaVision is screwing up or misinterpreting the SMUS
file. The music plays too fast and notes are played incorrectly.
I double checked the SMUS file format by playing the file back with a SMUS
player from the FredFish collection. Think it was SMUS3.6a . It played
exactly as it did in DMCS.
Comments? Ideas? Help? I would really appreciate someone checking into
this. The examples from the Tutorial Disks all seem to play okay, but then
again those files could have been fixed to play properly.
I also heard (rumour) that there is a bug in the database section. Is
there any truth in this, if so how bad and what should I avoid.
Cheers!
Chester
Chester,
In general, the SMUS format is quite limited, and, whatever its
shortcomings, DMCS does an excellent job of playback when there are more
than 4 notes that want to be sounding at the same time.
What song were you attempting to play back with AmigaVision? (i.e. is it
one of the DMCS demo's or one that's in the DL's here that I could DL and
check for you.)
Check out my answer to Karl Sparklin in AmigaArts re: playing Cleopha (one
of the DMCS demo songs) with AmigaVision.
I didn't notice any problem in the speed, but, Cleopha doesn't have any
embedded tempo changes – that may be the problem.
David
The songs I was trying to play were: Mission Impossible and RaidersMarch
I am not sure if either are in the Audio Lib. I did try setting the Tempo
all the same plus a few other things. The one thing that I haven't tried
yet though is sending it out to MIDI device. This may work…have you
tried this?
Chester,
I'll check out the audio library in AmigaArts for the songs you mentioned.
The AV SMUS player seems to play the same notes out the MIDI port as to the
internals, so I doubt that this would help a poor sounding song much,
unless the cause was lack of channels.
i.e., sending out the MIDI port works, but, if the score is giving problems
to the player, you'll probably get the same results.
For best results the rules to follow seem to be:
1. Eliminate all repeats, 1st endings and 2nd endings by expanding them in
the score before saving in SMUS format.
2. Use a single note/track. (i.e. don't use chords)
3. Avoid tempo & time signature changes in the piece. (not certain about
this one, since I just noticed it yesterday & haven't had time to fully
check it out.)
SMUS stands for "Simple MUsical Score." The more complex things that
occur, the more problems seem to result. The best advice seems to be to
keep the score as simple as possible.
David
Chester,
I didn't have a problem with playing MISSION – just saved it as an SMUS
file. I expaned the repeat and split the chords in RaidersMarch and saved
it as an SMUS file, and it, too, played OK.
I did notice a couple of things. One, that the AV SMUS player does not
sound as good as DMCS. Two, that the AV player plays the music back
slightly faster. (Raiders took about 2:10 to play with DMCS or dplay,
while it only took about 2:01 in AV).
One major thing was that I found that I had to reboot my Amiga after using
DMCS, or the AV player didn't work properly. This may be the cause of
other messages about improper playback from AV. My guess is that DMCS is
leaving a 'calling-card' someplace in memory that is messing up the AV
player's timing.
Hope this helps, 8)
David
David,
Thanks for your the quick response to my query. It is really too bad that
SMUS had to stand for Simple…I mean after all the effort put into some of
the scores with chords, etc. to have to live with playing back only single
notes seems like a waste 🙁 Oh well, C'est la vie.
I didn't notice having to reboot my computer after loading DMCS to use AV.
I have noticed though that DMCS does seem to have a mind of it's own at
certain times. You know; Guru trying to load an instrument; guru just
after quiting; plus many more….
Do you know of or have you heard of any plans for an upgrade to DMCS Amiga?
Cheers,
Chester
Chester,
Glad to be of help. 8)
You, I, and many other people would welcome an upgrade to DMCS.
Unfortunately, every time they've been asked in the past, EA has indicated
that they have no plans to upgrade the program.
Keep an eye on Bars & Pipes – their Multi-Media kit may be the answer. It
contains a bi-directional SMUS <==> B&P format converter, which will allow
DMCS scores to be imported into DMCS. It also contains a MIDI player that
can play Bars & Pipes music under ARexx control. Melissa Jordan Grey has
indicated that it is now shipping. FYI – a new Bars & Pipes demo has
recently been uploaded to AmigaArts.
David
Chester:
I have had the same problems. Apparently, at this time, the AmigaVision
SMUS playing routines are not as robust or flexible as they might be. I
suspect that this will be fixed rapidly, tho that is a guess, not based on
anything more than common sense.
The way I get around this (i.e. when I come accross a SMUS file that
AmigaVision itself won't play correctly) is to use multitasking to have a
separate player utility run the music in the background. I have used by
DPLAY (a player designed to handle DMCS generated SMUS files with DMCS
instruments) and PLAY (a player designed for Sonix SMUS and instrument
files). They work just fine when launched from an EXECUTE icon as CLI
commands. I normally use "runback" to do this.
The only thing that is a bit kludgy is if you want to permit the user to
turn them off. It can be done by issueing a BREAK cli command through
another EXECUTE icon. However, you must know the number of the process
which is running the DPLAY or PLAY code. The way you can find this out is
to set up your AV script so that the music is running (make sure everything
prior to that point is also going). Then go to a cli and type the STATUS
command. In the application I do this in, the STATUS command will indicate
that process 2 is being used. So, I have the "stop music" button issue a
"BREAK 2 ALL" cli command, and the music will stop.
Here's why it's a kludge — the only way that the same process number will
be used by AV is if
_everything_else_your_system_has_or_is_doing_is_exactly_the SAME at the
time. So, NOTHING new or different can be up and running in the
background, or the number of the process being used to run you player
utility will probably be different. I hear that AmigaDOS 2.0 let's
processes have names, or some other way let's you sort them out so this
isn't a problem. The real fix, of course, is for AV to build a better SMUS
player (which I'm sure they will).
?|^] Ray Lewis
Thanks for the response. I figured that I would have to resort to an
external player.
I do hope that They fix it soon.
Chester