arp2 Files

Short:    Retargetable audio v6.0, Extra drivers Archive
Type:     hard/drivr
Author:   Martin Blom <martin@blom.org>
Uploader: Martin Blom <martin@blom.org>

This archive contains those AHI drivers that are not in the User's
Archive, but I have been given permission to redistribute.

Reason for a driver to be here and not in the User's Archive:

    * It's not open source.

    * It's written in a weird programming language.

    * It has not yet been ported from SAS/C to GCC.


If you are an author of one or more drivers that you would like to be
included here, just send me a mail.

(Similarly, if you are an author of one of the included drivers and
don't want it distributed as part of AHI anymore, just let me know and
I'll remove it.)


Included drivers
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concierto.audio   4.28 (1.11.98)    © 1997-1998 Village Tronic Computer
delfina.audio     4.07 (11.10.98)   © 1997 Petsoff Limited Partnership
maestropro.audio  2.3 (28.10.97)    © 1997 Richard Koerber
melody.audio      4.10 (31.07.98)   © 1998 Thorsten Hansen
melody1200.audio  4.10 (06.09.98)   © 1998 Kato Development (Thorsten Hansen)
paula.audio       4.30 (29.04.03    Public Domain
paula.audio (MOS) 4.30 (30.03.03)   © 2002-2003 Sigbjørn "CISC" Skjæret and 
                                    Harry "Piru" Sintonen
prelude.audio     2.30 (06.02.99)   © 1996 A.C.T.
toccata.audio     4.7 (19.06.2005)  Public Domain
wavetools.audio   2.11 (15.02.97)   Public Domain


Changes since last release
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    * paula.audio and toccata.audio have been updated slightly.

    * Except for that, basically nothing.

For a full log of everything that has been updated, see the
ChangeLog file.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TITLE

     AHI Audio system

VERSION

     Release 6.0

AUTHOR

     Martin Blom <martin@blom.org>

DESCRIPTION

     Retargetable Audio for AmigaOS
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     (When refering to this software, the correct term is
     'AHI audio system' or just 'AHI', never 'Audio Hardware
     Interface'! 'AHI' is pronounced 'atchii', as in 'God bless!'.)

     AHI now supports the PowerPC processor. Thanks to the users who
     donated money and Syscom & Mematex AB who sponsored the hardware,
     I was finally able you buy a Cyberstorm PPC card. The current
     version is for MorphOS only, but a WarpUp version will hopefully
     follow later.

     Version 6.0 supports 68020, 68030, 68040 and 68060 from
     the m68k family and 603 and 604 from the PowerPC family.

     Staring with version 6, the 68000 processor is no longer supported.
     68000 owners should use version 4 instead.

     Quick overview
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     * Driver based

     Each supported sound card is controlled by a library-based audio
     driver. For a 'dumb' sound card, a new driver should be written in
     a few hours. For a 'smart' sound card, it is possible to utilize an
     on-board DSP, for example, to maximize performance and sound quality.
     For sound cards with own DSP but little or no memory, it is possible
     to use the main CPU to mix channels and do the post-processing
     with the DSP. Available today are drivers for

     · Aura (sampler only)
     · Clarity (sampler only)
     · Concierto (Picasso IV sound module)
     · Delfina DSP and Delfina Lite
     · DraCo Motion
     · Maestro Pro
     · Melody Z2 and 1200
     · Paula (8/14/14c bit)
     · Prelude and Prelude 1200
     · Toccata
     · Wavetools
     · 8SVX (mono) and AIFF/AIFC (mono & stereo) sample render
     · ...and more.

     * Fast, powerful mixing routines (yeah, right... haha)

     The device's mixing routines mix 8- or 16-bit signed samples, both
     mono and stereo, located in Fast-RAM and outputs 32-bit mono or stereo
     (with stereo panning if desired) data, using any number of channels
     (as long as 'any' means less than 128...).  Tables are no longer
     used, which might affect performace slightly. Instead, version 6
     forcuses slightly more on the quality of the sound.
     
     * Support for non-realtime mixing

     By providing a timing feature, it is possible to create high-
     quality output even if the processing power is lacking, by saving
     the output to disk, for example as an IFF AIFF or 8SXV file.
     There are so-called HiFi mixing routines that can be used, which
     use linear interpolation and gives 32 bit output.

     * Audio database

     Uses ID codes, much like Screenmode IDs, to select the many
     parameters that can be set. The functions to access the audio
     database are not too different from those in 'graphics.library'.
     The device also features a requester to get an ID code from the
     user.

     * Both high- and low-level protocol

     By acting both like a device and a library, AHI gives the programmer
     a choice between full control and simplicity. The device API allows
     several programs to use the audio hardware at the same time, and
     the AUDIO: dos-device driver makes playing and recording sound very
     simple for both the programmer and user.

     * Future Compatible

     When AmigaOS gets device-independent audio worth it's name, it should
     not be too difficult to write a driver for AHI, allowing applications
     using 'ahi.device' to automatically use the new OS interface. At
     least I hope it wont.

     Funny how things turned out, isn't it? Sigh.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

     AmigaOS release 2.
     MC68020 processor or better.

AVAILABILITY

     Aminet, for example:
     ftp://ftp.germany.aminet.org/pub/aminet/dev/misc/ahi6dev.lha
     ftp://ftp.germany.aminet.org/pub/aminet/dev/misc/ahi6src.lha
     ftp://ftp.germany.aminet.org/pub/aminet/mus/misc/ahi6usr.lha

     WWW:
     http://www.lysator.liu.se/~lcs/ahi.html

PRICE

     Free. As in speech. And beer too! However, should you want to
     make a donation, my PayPal account is martin@blom.org.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

     Copyright ©1994-2005 Martin Blom.

     AHI version 6 is (L)GPL:ed. See COPYING and COPYING.LIB inside the
     archive for more information.