Compose2

Compose2 is a music module player for DOS that plays the old .MOD tracked music files.
Since Windows 2000 and XP itself doesn't support real DOS emulation, we need to use DOSBOX, an open source project that is able to simulate real DOS environment, including (big surprise) emulation of all the sound devices i've implemented in Compose2 (DAC/Stereo/Disney/Covox/Pc-speaker). The sound is redirected to your default Windows sound card !
The best sound quality output you can get from the player at the moment is in Stereo, 8-bit mode. (Could compare it with a 9-bit mono mode)
SoundBlaster (SB) 16-bit is not yet finished since it is very buggy and I don't have much time the rewrite the whole stuff.
The Windows Sound System itself can play up to 16-bit sound quality or even higher (24-bit).

To compare, an audio CD can play sound at 44khz and 16-bit quality.

Features:

Normally almost all types of .mod/.NST files are supported,

  • 15 and 31 (8-bit) samples
  • from 2 to 32 channels/tracks (64 should also be possible)
  • Real-time mixing up to 65,5 khz !
  • Real-time Adjustable mix frequency !
  • Real-time sound device switching !
  • Overload detection and auto adjust freq, in real-time
  • Real-time song/music and sound tracking
  • All types of VU-meters/bars (Analog & Digital)
  • Waveform Oscilloscope
  • Sound quality improvement using (lineair) interpolation
  • Internal 32-bit mixing for highest quality output. (sound engine)
  • Module File format error- checking and correcting
  • Low memory usage.

    Configuration Dosbox

    Since everything is mixed in real time, you should know that the player takes a lot of CPU resources.
    You should increment dosbox speed by pressing CTRL+F12 !

    The name of the player is maybe very misleading, since it is not a composer for .mod music, but a player. However, I made another application (in DOS) that is able to compose music in real-time on the pc keyboard ! No need to have a midi or other synthiser. Soon I will release this composer in Public.

    Download

    Multi media Viewer package with Compose2 included: [Download] Size: 650 kb

    Music modules

    There is no example music-module distributed in the package because of it's size.
    There are many kinds of music types and compositions. Soon you will find links on this site for obtaining music-modules from various archives.
    Keep in mind that music-modules of file types .xm, .it , .s3m, ... are not supported by this player, only .mod and.nst, orginaly the files came from Amiga environment.

    Screenshots

    Some pictures of Compose2 for DOS and his visual effects in action (VJ mode):

    Main text screen
    Main text screen

    Real horizontal VU meters
    Graphic VU bars

    Real vertical VU meters
    Graphic VU bars in real-time bouncing

    Real-time Wave Oscilloscopes
    Real-time full screen Wave Oscilloscopes

    		Song samplesnames and real-time trace
    Song samplesnames and real-time trace

    Laser beam simulation
    An attempt to simulate laser beams

    Real VU Lights scopes
    VU flashing lights, the idea came from Visual Player,
    a spanish product, only this is in 320x400 graphic mode

    Attempt for FFT (Fast Fourier Transform
    It is an attempt to visualize the FFT spectrum, but is way to slow.

    Real analog VU meters
    Real analog VU meters

    Article Date: 30/07/2007, Author: Cool mind, language: English