mplay 0.2 (formerly mtest)
--------------------------

Copyright (C) Hannu Savolainen, 1994, 1996, 1997.

This incomplete version is released just as an example program. You
may use it as defined in GNU General Public License (GPL). 
However using this library in other programs
is not recommended due to serious limitations in the design.
In spite of experimental nature of the program it's still very usefull
due to it's hardware independence.

This directory contains an early prototype of a library for loading and
saving MIDI files. This current version is a disaster but
it works in some cases. My goal is to make a library which works as a
work space for some GUI based sequencer programs. The current one is
capable to load a MIDI file correctly (almost) but the interface to
the client software is useless. 

I have included this package here just because it's the only program 
which uses the new /dev/sequencer2 interface. By default it outputs
to the synth device number 0 (GUS or OPL3 depending on your config). 
If you use this program with an internal synthesizer, you have to use
an external patch manager program.

I have usually used this program with a WaveBlaster. The device number
may be given as the first parameter (mtest [devno] midifile). The proper
device number (devno) can be found easily by looking at the /dev/sndstat
printout. The number before the device in the "Synth devices:" section
is the number to be used. For devices in the "Midi decvices:" section
you should add number of "synth" devices into this number. For example
if you have two devices in the "synth" section then number of the first
MIDI port will be 2+0=2.

Running "mplay" without arguments lists the available playback devices.

This version supports OSSlib which is also included this snd-util package
(in the OSSlib/ directory). OSSlib supports patch caching which
makes programming easier with some synthesizer devices such as GUS and SoftOSS.
OSSlib is enabled by default but can be disabled by editing Makefile.
If you use this program with OSSlib you should have OSS version
3.8-beta2 or later installed on your machine. In addition you will have
to compile and install OSSlib before compiling this program.

Hannu Savolainen
hannu@opensound.com
