Conference hips::uk_audioo

417.0. "RRD42 control s/w" by LARVAE::TREVENNOR_A (A child of init) Thu May 06 1993 12:15

This seems a vaguely appropriate place o cross post this.........
    
    Alan T.
    |---------------------Xpost from Multimedia and CDAUDIO notes--    
    
    Here is the README file for the initial versions of my studio-12
    software for MIPS/ULTRIX and (mostly - see later) for ALPHA/OSF.
    
    
    Alan T/
    
     
                                    README

    This tarset contains a development version of the Compact Disc control
    programs of my Studio-X11 software.

    This file contains an outline description of the cd_annotator s/w and
    its associated player program. The last section provides some minimal 
    instructions on HOW TO USE THEM.

    The latest versions of this software will always be available from:

       mmserv::/usr/tmp/studio-12.tar

    (mmserv's DECnet address is 41.777 and ftp mmserv.bst.dec.com).
	
    AVAILABILITY:
    
    cd_play is available for ALPHA/OSF and MIPS/ULTRIX.
    
    cd_annotate (due to some unresolved issues) is only available for
    MIPS/ULTRIX. This means that you will need to annotate CDs on an
    ULTRIX box and transfer the files produced to an ALPHA. Hopefully,
    this state of affairs will not persist for too long!


    WHAT IS IT?
    
    CD annotator allows you to build a database of information about
    Compact Discs. (At the moment this data is held in flat UNIX files, but
    can later be a real  database). This is intended for use in various
    areas of industry. 

    CD annotator  is useful in any application which requires portions of a
    published  CD to be accurately, smoothly and repeatedly played as part
    of an overall programme. CD annotator has uses in announcement systems,
    where multiple announcements can be stored on CD and reproduced, in
    whole, in part or in combination - at will. It can be used in education
    systems where music or spoken segments can be played in from CD. In
    broadcasting (Music radio, TV and film production and post-production)
    a requirement is to be able to quickly and accurately locate a segment
    of a track, without the need to search each time you want to use it.

    The program automatically recognises discs which you have previously
    annotated and your previous annotations will be available to you for
    edit or use.

    The annotator allows you to pre-define up to 6 cue/starting points for
    each track, and a lead-out point. The player program (cd_play) provides
    you with the facility to play from a particular - previously defined -
    cue-point, with automatic time-until-vocal cuepoint calculation and
    display. In radio this  allows you to cut slow introductions which may
    impair the pace of your show, to play hook lines for trail or
    commercials making, or to play-from-vocal etc  etc.   When you have
    chosen the cuepoint you want to use, the player application will 
    display an endtime prediction which  helps you synch the ending of a
    music segment with a news  report, network join-point or other fixed
    time event. In education it allows you to play a precise segment of a
    CD track in  a seamless way, for  example as part of a computer based
    training course.

    Because the player program will be able to "recognise" the disc in your
    RRD42 it will, in future, be able to prompt you to insert the correct
    disc in the drive for a particular {course, show} etc.

    The software includes hooks (not yet implemented) for hard disc
    soundbytes to be played. This is intended to allow, for example, the
    words of a composer to be heard talking about a piece of work just
    prior the actual track being played from CD. This facility is also
    extensible, using Software Motion Pictures, to digitised movie clips -
    though the value of this is less clear for an audio facility!   

    ABOUT CD_ANNOTATE:
    I have been (unsuccessfully) trying to get funding to develop this
    program for Digital for some time, and have even been told that the
    idea has little value! Because I, personally, believe that there is a
    market for  this software I have taken the initiative and created it
    entirely in my own time at home. Because of these factors I intend to
    keep the sources to myself for now, and the binaries included here will
    stop working after a certain date. If the software is seen as useful or
    saleable by anyone in Digital, we can negotiate!


    HOW TO USE IT:

    Ensure that the file which represents partition c of your RRD42 has its
    protection set to enable read and write by "other". Although you cannot
    write on a CDROM, write access is required to enable control of the
    drive. To set the protection required, become the root user and issue 
    the following command (in this example the CDROM is connected as rz5):
	 
		chmod 766 /dev/rrz5c

    Now, having set the protection and dropped back to your original login
    session, type the following:

    1) Make sure you are in the directory where cd annotate has been loaded.
    2) Edit the  "go"  script and make CD_DBASE point to a directory where
       you want your annotation files to live.
    3) Type "go"

    The display should now appear on the screen, and after a few moments
    the message box at the bottom of the display will inform you as to
    whether the disk in your drive has been seen before. Always when
    starting the application, or when you insert a new disc, Track one of
    the CD is selected. Use the track select buttons  (the larger left and
    right  pointers to step to the track you want to annotate. You will see
    the  sliders which indicate the cue-point and lead-out points move as
    you  step through the tracks. When you reach the final track on the CD
    (as indicated by the f suffix) you can advance again and get back to
    track one. 

    Time on a CD is measured in MSF format. This is Minutes Seconds and
    Frames (there are 75 frames per second of audio - numbered 0 through
    74). 

    Select a track to annotate. Now, press TEST 1 button. This will start 
    the track playing, from its start point. Now, as you hear the remainder 
    of the desired cue-points go past (for example the vocal) press the
    other  set buttons at the right moment to set the cuepoint. NOTE: The
    cuepoint is actually set when you release the set buttons, not when you
    press the button. Either press the button for a short time or hold the
    button  down and release when you hear the desired cuepoint. 

    When all your cuepoints are set you can press "STOP" and then press the
    appropriate test buttons to see if your cuepoints are OK. If you want
    to change (fine tune) any of the cuepoints press "SNAP MODE" to change
    to fine-tune mode. Now, when you press a test button the sliders are
    set to the values stored under that cuepoint. You can use the "^" and
    "v" buttons to make small adjustments, or you can move the sliders to
    alter the cuepoint by a larger amount. After making an alteration to
    the sliders, press the appropriate SET cuepoint button to store your
    change in the cuepoints table. 

    Try the PLAY START and PLAY END buttons. 

    You have a volume control, but the lead-out facilities are as yet
    incomplete. Pressing COMMIT CHANGES will store the values , and they
    will be reloaded next time cd_annotate "sees" your CD. If you try to
    exit without saving your changes, a warning message appears in the
    message area.


    ABOUT THE CD_PLAY PROGRAM:
    cd_play is the program which endusers (students, producers, DJs etc)
    use to play discs which have previously been annotated by a developer
    or record librarian. The player program will play any disc, whether or
    not it has previously been annotated (in such a case you can only play
    the entire track) and for a disc for which CD annotations have been
    made it will play from any define cuepoint, and provide an endtime
    prediction, and a total playtime for the selected track. A
    time_until_vocal (accurate to 0.5 second) display is provided to allow
    perfect DJ voiceovers. cd_play has buttons to select the track to be
    played (uparrow and down arrow) and has "Play", "Stop" and "Wait" (ie 
    Pause) buttons.

    HOW TO USE THE CD PLAY PROGRAM.
    1) Make sure you are in the directory where cd play has been loaded.
    2) edit the go script and make the environment variable CD_DBASE point
    to a directory where you want to keep your annotation files.
    3) Type  "go"

    The rest is easy! Just press the buttons.

    Alan Trevennor
    April 14th 1993.