PlayerPRO Freeware - MAC PlayerPRO is primarily a musical utility called a "tracker". Trackers are programs that generate music files called MODs. The MOD originated on the Amiga system, but quickly gained popularity, and now, software packages are available on almost every platform to compose and play these files. However, on the Macintosh, there are very few good trackers. A MOD file is significant, as it is a totally self-contained music file with a reasonable file size. It was intended originally as a compact way of storing background music for games and demonstration programs, but it has since grown to become a favorite file format for online music exchange. There are literally thousands of MODs available in the public domain, and they can be found on the Internet, AOL, and almost any good BBS (for a few sites where you can get MODs, check out our links page). Each MOD file contains two sections: patterns and samples. Patterns are the equivalent of a score for the conductor. Each pattern tells the computer what notes to play, how loud to play them, and just about everything else that can be done with a note. The samples are actual recordings of the musical instruments used to play the songs. Through a number of mathematical formulas, the computer can adjust the pitch and volume of the samples to make music. Composer PlayerPRO is more than just a tracker. It is a full-fledged composition tool. With many editing modes, including a block mode, digital view, and a traditional score view of the music, PlayerPRO has tools simple enough for a novice but robust enough to keep even the most technically advanced musician satisfied. PlayerPRO also supports many ways of entering music. First, the mouse can be used to click notes on to a score, which resembles any sheet music that you would find around. This is an easy way to put songs from sheet music into the computer. If you have a MIDI keyboard, you can do even more. The program can record notes from your keyboard. You can even record one note at a time or in real time, and you can see your music appear as you play. Even if you don't have a MIDI keyboard, you can still play music in real time into the computer. PlayerPRO can convert the keys pressed on your keyboard into musical notes, and you can even play chords by holding down more than one key simultaneously. Player Of course, PlayerPRO is also capable of playing and importing almost any music file that you can find. Unlike most programs, which either work with MIDI files or sampled files, PlayerPRO can deal with both. It supports different sound file formats as samples, as well, including the majority of popular Windows, Macintosh, and Unix file formats. It's hard to find a music file that PlayerPro doesn't support. PlayerPRO has three different ways to edit music and an extra way to view it- it works the way YOU want. Classical Editor (Musical Notation) PlayerPRO's main editor is a traditional musical score editor. This format is unusual in music editors, even though it is the most logical and the easiest to use. If you are a musician and you don't understand much about computers, you can create the music the way you know best, and if you're a computer guru, it makes a useful additional tool and a way to share your music with others. An example of the musical notation view. Click for a larger image (14K). The editor shows each track from top to bottom, and the different patterns go from left to right. A pattern is equal to about four measures, and each track is one note being played at a time. Different instruments can be assigned to each note in each track, or you can use the same instrument many times to make complex chord arrangements. Digital Editor The digital editor is a more sophisticated method of editing music files. It will be familiar to users of traditional Amiga tracker programs, as it uses a similar structure. The digital editor has several lines. Each line represents a certain fraction of a pattern (1/64th, as each pattern has 64 partitions). You can change the note value and different parameters in each of the five subcolumns, and each main column represents a track, much as the different lines in the score in the classical editor did. An example of the digital editor. Click for a larger image (32K). The five subcolumns for each track are: Instrument, Musical Note, Effect Setting, Effect Argument, and Volume. Each of these settings can be changed to equal the appropriate settings for a .MOD file or a file with similar options. An advanced user can use this editor to set every detail of their music and achieve fabulous effects. Box Editor The box editor resembles another style of music editor, common on the computer, called the "piano roll" format. This editor has small boxes representing the various notes and durations. An example of the box editor. Click for a larger image (14K). In this mode, you can easily see which notes are being played simultaneously and any patterns or trends in the melody. This can also be very convenient for laying out drum sounds, etc, as you can see the instrument number being played in each block. Wave Preview The wave preview mode is as its name implies. It shows you a preview of your song in wave format. This means that each track's raw musical sound wave can be viewed. While this doesn't have as much practical value as the other editors, it can be useful for an audio professional, and it can be a fun way to look at your music. An example of the waveform preview. Click for a larger image (15K). In the waveform preview, each track's wave is shown, with the patterns advancing from left to right and the tracks counting from top to bottom. Therefore, you can see the contribution that each instrument makes to the melody. MIDI Support If you have a MIDI keyboard, you can use it to play music for PlayerPRO. PlayerPRO supports MIDI In/Out and has GM compatibility with QuickTime 2.1. This way, you can even play music on a traditional instrument and record it to play back later. PlayerPRO can play the files that you have come to love and the files you will come to love. File Formats Supported Format Channels Samples Description MINS N/A 99 PlayerPRO Instrument format MAD 256 256 PlayerPRO Native MOD 4-8 15 / 31 Amiga Module S3M 16 99 (64) Scream Tracker OKTA 4-8 255 (64) Oktalyzer MTM 32 63 MultiTracker 669 8 64 Composer 669 XM 32 128 (64) FastTracker MED 4-8 32 MED/OctaMED ULT 32 64 UltraTracker IT 64 (32) 255 (64) ImpluseTracker AIFF N/A N/A Macintosh/SGI Sound File IMA 4:1 N/A N/A 16 Bits Compressed format AIFC N/A N/A Macintosh/SGI Sound File µ-law a-law N/A N/A Compressed UNIX format SDII N/A N/A SoundDesigner II format MPEG N/A N/A All audio MPEG, I , II & III AVI N/A N/A Digital Video format Quicktime N/A N/A All movies format available in Quicktime RAW N/A N/A Convert any raw data into sound DVC N/A N/A Digital Video format PAT N/A N/A Gravis Ultrasound format XI N/A N/A Instrument format in XM & IT MP3 N/A N/A Audio MPEG layer III WAV N/A N/A Windows Sound File MIDI N/A N/A MIDI PlayerPRO native file formats Standard cross-platform module files Audio sample files Non-sampled file formats Computer Systems Supported Supports any Macintosh computer (or compatible) from 68020s through Power PCs. Requires no special hardware. Supports all MacIntosh sound chips (ASC, AWAC, AWAC2, DSP). A special ASC driver is available for 68k Macintoshes, and a native PowerMac version is available.