ekaviel(1) Ekaviel (v1.53b) ekaviel(1)
NAME
ekaviel - music module player
SYNOPSIS
ekaviel [options] [filename] [...]
DESCRIPTION
Ekaviel plays music files (aka 'modules') via the computer's
audio channels. Modules are not just samples, but files that
contain a digital form of musical score, and the instruments
(often in the form of samples) built in. Such modules can be
produced with popular editors, such as SoundTracker and MED/
OctaMED
For further details, see the DETAILS section
OPTIONS
-bleed <0-255>
Simulate being in a room on headphones.
0 is pure stereo,
128 is 100% bleed (ie. mono)
255 is pure stereo, left and right speakers swapped
-gui/-nogui
Run ekaviel with/without gui (override default)
-interact <n>
Set the interactivity level:
0 is off (no keyboard input)
1 is minimal keyboard input checking
2 is most frequent checking of input; because of the
cpu-intensive nature, -outrate 8000 is implicit when
-interact 2 is set.
-limit Use a lookup table for extra speed. Nonstandard note
frequencies are not allowed. Is the default for Irix
4 machines. See also -unlimit
-loop Makes ekaviel loop round the songs in the song list,
until the ESCape key is pressed
** NOTE **: The ESCape key is ignored if -interact 0
has been specified
-outrate <speed>
Set the output rate in hertz (where hardware allows)
Large values (typically 44.1K, ie. CD quality) imply
greater CPU demand, which cannot necessarily be met;
if not met, this results in "stuttered" output.
Refer to the audio manual pages for the hertz values
that the hardware can accept. Default value ie 22050
unless full interaction has been requested
-repeat <times>
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Play (without reloading) the next named song a given
number of times. Zero means zero, not infinity.
-seq <list-posn>
Start the song from the given offset in the sequence
list (the default value is zero, which is always the
position number for the start)
-shuffle
Random play (initially generates a seed with time(2)
and uses random(3B) to make random-sized jumps round
a circular linked list of unplayed modules)
-stereo | -mono
Put the audio hardware in stereo or mono output mode
(where available). The -bleed setting has no meaning
where -mono has been specified.
-sync Enable synchronisation of audio and display
-unlimit
Forces Ekaviel to calculate all frequency values, at
the expense of processor time. Removes limits on the
values allowed that are normally imposed by software
See also -limit
-verbose <n>
Set verbosity level. Is a total of:
1: Don't display "playback" text
2: Don't display "status" text
4: Don't display "warning" text
-volume <0-63>
Specify the volume at which to play back the module.
The range of -volume is not connected with the audio
hardware. Use of -volume overrides any master volume
setting present in the music files.
It is a feature of Ekaviel that volumes of 64 and up
can be specified at run-time, thus allowing the user
to amplify quiet modules. Volume levels greater than
the recommended range will ordinarily produce output
that is saturated (akin to having corrupt samples).
CONTROLS
During playback, the following controls are available:
^N Jump to next song in list
^V Freeze/unfreeze scrolling display
ESCape Quit the player
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< Rewind to previous block in song
> Fast forward to next block in song
MENUS
The main menu can be recognised by the string '-EKAVIEL-' in
the top left hand corner of the screen. Activating sub-menus
is achieved by pressing a combination of the control key and
some other letter. For the '^Tune' menu, this is CTRL-T.
For the other menus, you will see something like '[TUNE]' in
the top left hand corner of the screen. The first letters of
the options (without CTRL) will activate them. At this point
the usual effects of pressing the keys alone are disabled.
DETAILS
Ekaviel runs in a curses-driven window, and has a basic menu
and keyboard-driven interface once started.
CAPABILITIES
Ekaviel is the successor to modplay, another player, and the
following additional facilities are provided:
o SGI audio is handled in a less dodgy fashion
o Ekaviel provides additional Soundtracker effect support
o Improved MMD0 support
o Additionally handles MMD1 format (OctaMED v3+)
o Supports loading of many popular compression formats
CAVEATS
o Ekaviel can't handle non-sample instruments (like modplay)
o Ekaviel's MMD2 support is buggy
Only displays four channels (not important yet)
The curses screen driver library (used for the "ekgui" front
end) may allow the stopping of ekaviel with ctrl-break. This
is a feature of the curses library on some platforms, not of
the ekaviel source code. In theory, a ctrl-break event could
stop ekaviel prior to its deletion of a temporary file...
FILES
~wills/bin/SG/ekaviel (Irix4 version)
~wills/misc/mods/*.mod.lha
~wills/misc/mods/*.mmd.lha
ENVIRONMENT
$MODPATH
Where to locate modules not in the current directory
COMPILE-TIME
-DDEFAULT_OUTRATE=<value>
Default outrate level for interactivity level 2
-DHAS_EKGUI
Use the curses sceen handling libraries (rather than
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stdin and stdout)
-DSLOWCPU
Use -limit by default, rather than -unlimit
-DSLOW_DISPLAY
Ekaviel normally maintains a buffer for each note of
the song, and sprintf() is used at load time to make
the text representation. If SLOW_DISPLAY is defined,
the sprintf() calls are mid-playback instead and the
memory requirement is less (but CPU demand greater).
BUGS
That blond fella? That's Henry off of Neighbours, that is!
But seriously:
Please mail me a bug-report if you find any. I suspect there
may be quite a few, so happy hunting! No reports for missing
effects, I know about those.
AUTHOR
William "Wills" Towle, wills@scs.leeds.ac.uk
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