Hello folks!


This is libmikmod, version 3.2.0-beta1, a portable sound library for Unix
and other systems. Check out the file 'NEWS' for more history information.


>> BETA WARNING
---------------

This is a *beta* version of libmikmod. Although it should work fine on
almost all systems, there are likely a few last-minute errors or typos
in the source, and some parts have not received enough hours of testing yet.

Also, please note that all features planned for the final 3.2.0 release are not
available yet. Some structures or functions may change. This release is mainly
intended to the libmikmod developers to share a common base for adding new
features...

The library programming documentation (in docs/) is mostly up-to-date... It
lacks the Player_QueryVoices documentation, though.

If you're not scared, then you can proceed and enjoy fewer bugs than in the
previous version (-;


>> BUILDING LIBMIKMOD
---------------------

- If you're building libmikmod under MacOS, please refer to the 'README'
  file located in the 'macintosh' subdirectory.

- If you're building libmikmod under OS/2, please refer to the 'README'
  file located in the 'os2' subdirectory.

- If you're building libmikmod under Windows, please refer to the
  'README' file located in the 'win32' subdirectory.

- If you're building libmikmod under any other system which is not a
  Unix flavour, then be warned that this your platform is not supported
  and that libmikmod will probably not build out of the box; don't
  hesitate to drop me a note, and I'll see what I can do for this situation.

So you're on a good old Unix workstation, aren't you ?

You'll need an ANSI C compiler to build libmikmod. If your system does not
come with an ANSI C compiler, you might want to try the GUN C compiler, gcc.
If you're building on a 32 bit architecture, your compiler must provide a
64 bit integer type (usually 'long long').

To prevent clobbering the sources, I recommend building libmikmod in an
alternate directory, for example 'build':

  mkdir build
  cd build

In this directory, run libmikmod's configure script:

  ../configure

The configure script will attempt to guess correct values for various
system-dependent variables used during the build process, and will
create appropriate Makefiles for proper compilation.

If you're not familiar with configure scripts and their standard
options, you can find more general information about them in the file
INSTALL.

The default behaviour of the configure script is to create both a static
and a shared library, with as many drivers as possible, which are
dynamically loaded whenever possible. However, it can be given several
options to tweak your configuration of libmikmod:

The --enable-af, --enable-alsa, --enable-esd, --enable-oss,
--enable-sam9407 and --enable-ultra options will compile respectively
the Digital AudioFile, Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA),
Enlightened Sound Daemon, Open Sound System (OSS), sam9407 and Linux
Ultrasound drivers.

Since the configure script will search for the appropriate include files
and libraries, to compile as much drivers as possible, these options are
mostly useful in their negative form:
  ../configure --disable-esd
will configure libmikmod without the Enlightened Sound Daemon driver,
even if all the necessary files for compiling are present on the
system.

The --enable-dl option enables the dynamic load of the alsa, esd and
ultra drivers at runtime, if your systems support it. This option is
enabled by default if the build system supports it, so it is more useful
in its negative form:
  ../configure --disable-dl
will configure libmikmod without the dynamic loading facility.

The --enable-threads option enables the creation of a thread-safe
libmikmod library, if your system provides POSIX threads. This option is
enabled by default, so it is more useful in its negative form:
  ../configure --disable-threads
will configure for a non thread-safe version of libmikmod.

The --enable-shared and --enable-static options control whether a static
library, a shared library or both should be built.

The --enable-debug option creates a debug version of libmikmod.

After you've successfully run configure, simply run

  make

to get all things build. Then, run

  make install

to have the library installed. Depending on where you choose to install
it (using the --prefix= option to configure), you may need root
privileges for this operation.


>> DRIVER PARAMETERS
--------------------

Until a good place to put this information is found, here is the list of
parameters recognized by the drivers, as well as the driver alias list.
When specifying multiple parameters, use a comma (,) to separate the
different parameters, for example: somevalue=1,someothervalue=2

- AudioFile (alias "audiofile")
  machine=  same syntax as the AUDIOFILE environment variable.

- AIX ("AIX") [AIX only]
  buffer=   logarithmic size of the buffer, in the range 12-19. Default
            is 15.

- ALSA ("alsa") [Linux only]
  card=     card number. Default is first pcm-capable card. Replaces the
            ALSA_CARD environment variable, which is now deprecated.
  pcm=      pcm interface number. Default is first adequate interface.
            Replaces the ALSA_PCM environment variable, which is now
            deprecated.
  buffer=   logarithmic fragment size, in the range 2-16. Default is 4.
            Replaces the MM_NUMFRAGS environment variable, which is now
            deprecated.

- DART ("dart") [OS/2 only]
  buffer=   logarithmic fragment size, in the range 12-16. Default is
            computed to a bit more than 1/4" of playback.
  count=    fragment count, in the range 2-8. Default is 2.
  device=   waveaudio device number, in the range 0-8. Default is 0 (use
            default waveaudio device).

- DirectX ("ds") [Win32 only]
  buffer=   logarithmic size of the buffer, in the range 12-19. Default
            is 16.
  globalfocus
            always play music, even if the application has not the
            focus. Required for full-screen applications.

- EsounD ("esd") [Unix only]
  machine=  same syntax as the ESPEAKER environment variable.

- HP ("hp") [HP-UX only]
  buffer=   logarithmic size of the buffer, in the range 12-19. Default
            is 15.
  headphone redirects the output to the headphone port.

- MacOS ("mac") [MacOS only]
  buffer=   logarithmic size of the buffer, in the range 10-16. Default
            is 12.

- OS/2 MMPM ("os2") [OS/2 only]
  buffer=   logarithmic size of the buffer, in the range 12-16. Default
            is computed to a bit more than 1/4" of playback.
  device=   waveaudio device number, in the range 0-8. Default is 0 (use
            default waveaudio device).

- OSS ("oss") [Unix only]
  card=     card number. Default is the card whose driver was loaded
            first.
  buffer=   logarithmic fragment size, in the range 7-17. Default is 14.
            Replaces the MM_FRAGSIZE environment variable, which is now
            deprecated.
  count=    fragment count, in the range 2-255. Default is 16.
            Replaces the MM_NUMFRAGS environment variable, which is now
            deprecated.

- Piped output ("pipe") [Unix only]
  pipe=     Pipe command (mandatory).
 
- SGI audio library ("sgi") [IRIX only]
  fragsize= buffer size for libmikmod internal use.
            Replaces the MM_SGI_FRAGSIZE environment variable, which is
            now deprecated.
  bufsize=  buffer size for the audio library.
            Replaces the MM_SGI_BUFSIZE environment variable, which is
            now deprecated.

- Disk writers in raw and wav formats ("raw" and "wav")
  file=     Output file name. Default is music.raw for the raw driver
            and music.wav for the wav driver.

- Sun/Solaris/NetBSD/OpenBSD audio ("audio")
  [SunOS, Solaris, NetBSD, OpenBSD only]
  buffer=   logarithmic fragment size, in the range 7-17. Default is 12.
            Replaces the MM_FRAGSIZE environment variable, which is now
            deprecated.
  headphone on SunOS/Solaris only, redirects the output to the headphone
            port.
  speaker   on SunOS/Solaris only, redirects the output to the speaker.
  
- Linux sam9407-based soundcards ("sam9407") [Linux only]
  card=     card number. Default is first card.

- NoSound ("nosound"), Standard output ("stdout"), Ultrasound ("ultra"),
  Windows Multimedia ("winmm")
  These driver have no options.


>> ALSA DRIVER SPECIFIC INFORMATION (Linux specific)
-----------------------------------

The Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) project aims to provide
better sound facilities than the current OSS drivers. Although it is
still in beta, it appears to be very stable and very easy to program
compared to the OSS.
Besides, it works much better than OSS for Gravis-type soundcards.

You can find more information on ALSA, including an HOWTO, on the web:
  http://www.alsa-project.org

The Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) is still in beta, but its
API is stable, so this libmikmod version should work with future
versions of ALSA.

This version of the libmikmod ALSA driver works with either ALSA
versions 0.3.x (for Linux kernels 2.0.x) and 0.4.x (for Linux kernels
2.2.x and later).
The latest versions, 0.5.x and 0.9.x, are currently not supported natively,
although you can use the OSS emulation without problems.

If the sound comes out jerky, you can pass the "buffer=xx" option to the
driver, to tweak the ALSA settings. The default value (if this option is
not used) is 4; the slower your machine is, the greater this value has
to be, but the allowed range is 2 to 16. However, the ALSA generally
finds good settings for your configuration, so I doubt you'll have to
use this option.


>> ENLIGHTENED SOUND DAEMON SPECIFIC INFORMATION (Unix specific)
------------------------------------------------

The Enlightened Sound Daemon (EsounD) is still experimental and may
change a lot until it reaches the 1.0 release. Thus, this libmikmod
version might not work with future versions of EsounD.

You can find more information on EsounD on the web:
  http://www.tux.org/~ricdude/EsounD.html
However, this page is getting very out of date. Recent EsounD work can
be found on the GNOME project:
  http://www.gnome.org/applist/view.php3?name=esound
which not kept up-to-date either...

The version of the libmikmod EsounD driver coincides with the latest
EsounD release available when this version of libmikmod was released;
for the 3.1.10 release, this is EsounD v0.2.23, but libmikmod should
work with any version starting from 0.2.6, although the latest version
is recommended.

Please note that between 0.2.8 and 0.2.12 the server port and the
protocol have changed, thus clients compiled with libesd from 0.2.8 can
not communicate with 0.2.12 (and later) esd, and vice versa.

If the esd daemon dies, libmikmod will try to reconnect every 5 seconds
and every new module, if a module ends. So, you can safely restart esd
and wait 5 seconds, and voila! Sound is back...

If you run esd and a libmikmod application on the same machine,
everything should work fine. However, if there is a real network
connection, synchronization problems can occur.

If sound clicks or gets chopped, then you've likely got a
synchronization problem. Pausing the player for a second should cause
the problem to disappear.  If there's still problems, perhaps your
network is not fast enough. Lowering the playback rate will hopefully
solve the problem.

Also, the performance of the esd is really abominable if the esd
playback frequency can't be divided by the libmikmod playback rate. For
example, runinng a libmikmod application at 42000 Hz with esd at 44100
Hz will sound horrible, and take a lot of CPU time due to resampling.


>> SGI DRIVER SPECIFIC INFORMATION (IRIX specific)
----------------------------------

The SGI audio driver was written by Stephan Kanthak in 1996 and its
author grants to distribute it with the libmikmod package under the same
restrictions as the library.

If you encounter any problems concerning crackles or short stops while
playing, feel free to experiment with the values of the fragsize and
bufsize options of the driver. The default values are 20000 for fragsize
and 40000 for bufsize. Increasing bufsize might result in nonstop sound
on slow machines, but increases latency of interactive applications. The
value of fragsize should be set to about half of bufsize in most cases
and needs to be increased only if you own a very slow SGI.

Common problems

- libmikmod does not compile on my SGI?
  First check out whether you have the SGI audio library (libaudio) or
  not. If the audio library is missing you should upgrade to IRIX 5.3 or
  newer and you will obtain the media development package automatically
  with it. If you have the audio library installed, check out if it is
  in the linker path.

  Also, the audio API has been extended in recent IRIX releases (6.4 and
  later). The older API used by libmikmod is supposed to be still supported,
  please drop me a note if it is not on your IRIX release.

- Sound is _very_ noisy?
  Change sample size to 16 bits.

- Sound crackles or stops temporarily?
  Try to increase the value of the fragsize driver option (default value
  is 20000). Switch to mono mode if necessary.

- libmikmod applications only react very slowly?
  This is a typical effect on SGI machines because the audio library
  sets up an internal buffer that seems to be quite large on many
  installations. Try to decrease the bufsize driver option (default
  value is 40000).

How to contact the driver author:
Stephan Kanthak <[email protected]>
Please cc: me (miod), just in case.


>> SUNOS, SOLARIS, NETBSD AND OPENBSD DRIVER SPECIFIC INFORMATION
-----------------------------------------------------------------

The above mentioned systems use the same interface to the audio device.
The libmikmod driver for this interface is the Sun driver. It was coded
by Valtteri Vuorikoski <[email protected]> and updated to libmikmod 3 by Tor
Norbye <[email protected]>, and has been modified to work under NetBSD
and OpenBSD by the current maintainer.

This driver works with old sound hardware using 8 KHz mono ulaw, and
with modern hardware using pcm mono or stereo at any frequency. If your
settings aren't supported by the audio device, sound initialization will
fail. Refer to the audio(7) man page under SunOS/Solaris and the
audio(4) man page under NetBSD/OpenBSD for more details on your audio
hardware and its capabilities.

On Sun workstations, you might be interested in passing the "headphone"
option to the driver to force output on the headphones, since plugging
the headphones is not enough.

If you run NetBSD or OpenBSD, the driver does not support the headphone
and speaker parameters, but you can achieve the same effect with
audioctl(1), for example:
  audioctl -w play.port=1
will select the speaker, while a value of 2 would have selected the
headphone.

If sound is jerky, you can pass the "buffer=xx" option to the driver to
increase its internal buffer size. The default value (when this option
is not used) is 12; the slower your machine, the greater this value has
to be, in the range 7-17.

If you can't get libmikmod to work with your hardware, you can use its
raw disk writer driver, in 8 bit mono 8 kHz, and send the music.raw file
to /dev/audio with sox, using the following command line:
    sox -t raw -c 1 -r 8000 -u -b music.raw -t raw -U -r 8000 \
        -c 1 -b /dev/audio
(or use the piped output driver with this command line)

Or if you played in 16 bit stereo, you can convert the file to a .au
file:
  audioconvert -o music.au -f sun \
               -i rate=44.1k,channels=stereo,encoding=linear16 music.raw
and play the file:
    audioplay -p headphone -v 10 music.au


>> SAM9407 DRIVER SPECIFIC INFORMATION (Linux specific)
--------------------------------------

The SAM9407 driver provides an OSS-compatible driver for the soundcards
based on the sam9407 audio chip (MaxiSound 64 and Terratec EWS, among
others), and provides advanced features such as hardware module
playback.

You can find more information on this driver on the web:
  http://www.anime.net/~sam9407

The version of the libmikmod sam9407 driver coincides with the latest sam9407
driver release available when this version of libmikmod was released; for the
3.1.10 release, this is sam9407 driver v1.0.0.


>> THANKS
---------

I would like to thank everyone who contributed to libmikmod. Their names
are in the AUTHORS file for the significative contributions, but some
other names can be found in the NEWS file. Thanks a lot! Keeping
libmikmod alive wouldn't be much fun without you.


>> LICENSE
----------

The libmikmod sound library is covered by the GNU Library General Public
License as published by the Free Software Fundation (you'll find it in
the file COPYING.LIB); either version 2 of the licence, or (at your
option) any later version.

The GNU Lesser General Public License, version 2.1, in file
COPYING.LESSER, can be considered as a later version of the LGPL, and is
strongly recommended for people who will embed libmikmod in their
application as a shared library.

Parts of the library (in playercode/mdulaw.c) are derived from the files
libst.h and raw.c from an old version of the sox (SOund eXchange)
package written by Lance Norskog and Jef Poskanzer. The following
copyright notice applies to these parts:

   Copyright (C) 1989 by Jef Poskanzer.

   Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its
   documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided
   that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that
   copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting
   documentation.  This software is provided "as is" without express or
   implied warranty.


>> CONTACT AND DOWNLOAD INFO
----------------------------

* email:
  Please send all your libmikmod related e-mail to me, at:
    [email protected]

* web:
  libmikmod home page is located at:
    http://mikmod.raphnet.net