This is the README for Resound.2.5.NIHS.b.tar.gz [Download] [Browse] [Up]
Resound 2.5
Sean Luke
February 14, 1998
What's Resound?
---------------
Resound is a modular sound editor for NeXTSTEP 3.x and 4.x, specifically
designed to be extendable through dynamically-loaded modules. Resound has
been compiled quad-fat.
Resound is not designed to be the end-all and be-all of sound editors.
Rather, it's designed to provide a framework for you to add your own
filters and sound-bending tools ("modules"). Think of it as Adobe
Photoshop for sound bites.
If you're currently using an earlier version of Resound, please upgrade to
Resound 2.5. Have fun!
Downloading Resound
-------------------
Resound has been uploaded to next-ftp.peak.org and to peanuts.leo.org.
However, the easiest way to get a copy of Resound is to download it from
Resound's home page, at http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/seanl/Resound.html
Installing Resound
------------------
Installing Resound is a simple 3-step process:
1) Put Resound.app into your /LocalApps directory
2) Make a directory called /LocalLibrary/Resound
3) Move all the files from Modules directory into /LocalLibrary/Resound.
These files have .rmod extensions and Resound looks for them when it
starts up.
If you're interested in developing modules for Resound, you'll want to
store the API and APIExamples directories as well.
What's New
----------
Resound 2.5 contains a myriad of changes over 2.4, some significant, some
relatively minor.
First, this release works around two bugs found in the NeXT SoundKit which
can cause Resound to crash. One bug concerns a sound's Info String.
NeXT's sound manipulation functions do not deal with a sound's information
string properly; as a result, Resou nd used to be crash when pasting into
a sound with an info string longer than 4 bytes, and longer strings cannot
be created and maintained properly. Resound now works around this by
storing the info string in Resound's sound views rather than in the soun
ds themselves.
The other bug concerns cutting and pasting sounds: NeXT's cut-and-paste
mechanism for sounds is "lazy": information is transferred to the
pasteboard only upon paste. However, if you cut or copy a sound to the
pasteboard, then close the window (freeing th e sound), then paste, an
application will crash. Resound gets around this by eliminating the
sound's element on the pasteboard before a sound is closed. This is a
rather ugly workaround, but it prevents crashes nicely. This bug was also
fixed in mainte nance release 2.4.1.
The release also extends the valid sound formats for many modules, or
allows them to gracefully convert formats. The release makes major
changes to the FFT module, and adds two new modules (Gate and Channel ).
Resound makes a few minor cosmetic feature s (changing "5-Decibel" to
"20-Decibel" in the Marks inspector, for example), and adds a Sound Light
to its app icon (try recording or playing a sound now!) Finally, the
release adds Module Info (help) windows (look under the Info menu).
Resound also makes changes to its module API, adding facilities for Fast
Fourier Transforms and other features. And Resound now provides RTF-style
API documentation.
Submitting Modules
------------------
If you'd like to add any modules you've made to the Resound distribution,
send mail to seanl@cs.umd.edu.
Will Resound be ported to Rhapsody or OpenStep?
-----------------------------------------------
It's being looked into. It's not a small job, though. If you're
interested in helping out, send mail to seanl@cs.umd.edu
Sean Luke
University of Maryland at College Park
seanl@cs.umd.edu
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Netfuture.ch.