A Freeware MacOS sound player and batch conversion utility.
Release Notes
March 21, 1999
What Is It?
Ever download a sound file from the Internet and not know what to do with it? Want to create a sound file for your WWW site or to give to your PC friend? SoundApp is the solution you have been looking for!
SoundApp can play and convert sound files from a variety of computer platforms and in many different formats. It can be used with WWW browsers to play sounds as SoundApp supports many more formats than any browser or other sound players.
SoundApp can play and convert from the following sound formats:
• SoundCap (including Huffman-compressed) and Studio Session Instruments
• SoundEdit (including stereo, MACE-3 and MACE-6),
• AIFF and AIFF-C (8-, 16-, 24- and 32-bit, MACE-3, MACE-6, IMA 4:1, µ-law and QuickTime codecs),
• System 7 sound and 'snd ' resource (including MACE-3, MACE-6, IMA 4:1 and µ-law),
• QuickTime MooV (soundtracks only, including MIDI movies),
• Sun Audio .au and NeXT .snd (including µ-law, a-law, 8-, 16-, 24- and 32-bit linear, 32- and 64-bit floating point, G.721 ADPCM and G.723 ADPCM),
• Windows WAVE (including GSM-, IMA- and MS ADPCM-compressed, µ-law and a-law, 8-, 16- and 32-bit linear),
• MPEG audio (layers I, II and III, requires a PowerPC processor for playback),
• Sound Blaster VOC,
• Atari AVR (including stereo and 8- and 16-bit),
• Many varieties of MODs, ScreamTracker 3 (S3M), Multitracker (MTM),
• Impulse Tracker (IT) (requires a PowerPC processor),
• MIDI (type 0, 1 and 2, including GS and XG; playback only),
• Amiga IFF/8SVX (including stereo and compressed),
• Sound Designer and Sound Designer II (including split stereo),
• Ensoniq PARIS,
• IRCAM (8- and 16-bit linear and 32-bit floating point), and
• Psion Series 3 and EPOC 32 (Psion Series 5) sounds.
Don’t know what those are? SoundApp does and will play them without you having to know!
What Does It Need?
SoundApp requires at least System 7.0 and Sound Manager 3.1 or greater (part of System 7.5.3). In addition, QuickTime features require QuickTime 2.0 or greater; however, QuickTime 2.5 or greater is recommended. Playback of MIDI files using GS instruments with QuickTime requires QuickTime 3.0 or later. If you wish to play MIDI files using an external MIDI synthesizer, then Opcode Systems’ Open Music System (OMS) MIDI driver version 2.1 or greater is required.
What Else Does It Do?
In addition to playing, it can convert sound files to the following formats: System 7 sound and sound suitcase (linear, µ-law, MACE-3, MACE-6 and IMA encodings), AIFF (linear, µ-law, MACE-3, MACE-6 and IMA encodings), WAVE (linear, µ-law, a-law and IMA encodings), Sun Audio and NeXT (linear, µ-law and a-law encodings), Sound Designer II, QuickTime (linear, µ-law, MACE-3, MACE-6 and IMA encodings), Psion Series 3, EPOC 32 (Psion Series 5) and PARIS formats. It also allows sample rate conversion, translation between mono and stereo and changing the bit-depth of samples. You can also group a set of conversion parameters and select them all at once from a menu. SoundApp comes with a setting to convert to the popular “.au” format used on the WWW.
SoundApp offers Play Lists which allow you to group a set of sounds together for playback or batch processing. Play Lists can be played in random order using the shuffle mode and/or can be set to repeat. Using the Get Info window, you can learn lots of technical information about a sound file.
SoundApp has extensive AppleScript support to allow you to use SoundApp as part of a custom solution. A feature only available to AppleScripters is the ability to play or convert portions of a sound file by defining start and end points. For more information on SoundApp’s AppleScript support, see the AppleScript topic in the Help window.
Playback is done smoothly in the background and you can pause and stop playback. By clicking in or dragging the progress bar, you can jump around in a sound file to skip over boring parts or listen to a portion again. SoundApp can also play MIDI files to your external OMS-compatible synthesizer or via QuickTime’s Musical Instrument facility.
How Do I Use It?
Launch SoundApp by double-clicking on it in the Finder. Then, select the SoundApp Help menu item from the Help menu and read the documentation that is displayed. The Help window has multiple topics which you can view by selecting them from the pop-up menu. You will also find extensive balloon help available throughout the application.
What’s It Cost To Use It?
Nothing! See below for distribution restrictions.
Translations
SoundApp is now available in the following translated versions:
• Japanese translation by Naotaka Morimoto at:
<http://www.naotaka.com/SoundApp/>,
• French translation by Franck Gazengel at:
<http://home.worldnet.fr/gazengel/>, and
• Swedish translation by Christofer Karlsson and Jonas Lindberg at:
<http://home3.swipnet.se/~w-32127/soundapp.html>.
What’s New?
The following is a list of changes for this version:
2.6.1, March 21, 1999.
• Improved the performance of MPEG playback with large buffers,
• Enhanced the ability to determine sound types when the Mac file type is set incorrectly,
• Added support for Iomega RecordIt files (which are AIFF files with MPEG layer II data inside),
• Fixed playback wihout double-buffering and 68K conversions of high bit-rate MPEG files,
• Fixed another problem that would cause a crash when aborting an MPEG conversion,
• Fixed a problem that would prevent sample rate conversion of 50 kHz sounds.
2.6, March 13 1999.
• Incorporated new ZSS library which supports IT files and limited random access jumping during playback,
• Added support for split-stereo files in either AIFF or Sound Designer II formats,
• Added conversion to the Ensoniq PARIS file format (8- and 16-bit only),
• Added support for variable bit-rate MPEG Layer III audio files created by the Xing encoder (a.k.a. AudioCatalyst),
• Added preliminary ID3v2 (version 2 and 3) tag support for displaying the track name in MPEG files (though tag compression is not supported),
• Added recognition of the file type used by MacAmp for MP3 files,
• Added a new conversion settings dialog for on-the-fly settings changes,
• Added a new “Prompt For Existing Folder” conversion output method,
• Added a new preference to create an untitled Play List when opened without any files to process,
• Double-clicking on an entry in a Play List while playing will now stop playback and start playing the selected file(s),
• Conversion to compressed WAVE files now includes the ‘fact’ chunk,
• Aliases in Play Lists are now created with relative path information so the Play List and associated files can be moved to a different volume,
• With no Play Lists open, the “Play” button in the Controls palette will now allow Play Lists to be opened,
• The Controls palette no longer hides itself when SoundApp is placed in the background,
• MIDI playback should be a little more friendly with memory usage in the Finder, especially on 680x0 systems, and
• Added the following AppleScript enhancements:
◊ Documents (a.k.a. Play Lists) can now be referenced by number according to their front-to-back ordering,
◊ Entries in Play List can now receive verbs to play, convert and obtain information on them directly, and
◊ The information record returned for sound files now contains a boolean flag which indicates whether the file is of the split-stereo variety.
• The following bugs were fixed:
◊ SoundApp would always use the same buffer size for MPEG playback regardless of the preference,
◊ Moving the progress bar in the Status window while paused would not update the Controls palette,
◊ A problem processing some AIFF files encoded with a QuickTime codec,
◊ A crash when cancelling the “Add…” dialog,
◊ A crash while converting multiple files with the “Prompt For Each File” option enabled when using Navigation Services,
◊ Playing some strange SoundEdit files would cause it to think mono files were stereo,
◊ The progress bar would not update properly when looping MPEG files,
◊ The operation of the “previous” button in the Controls palette was not consistent with the left-arrow key action,
◊ Netscape would not allow selection of a file type other than 'TEXT' when configuring SoundApp as a helper application,
◊ A slider was displayed in the Status window while loading sounds for playback with double buffering disabled,
◊ SoundApp would have problems displaying very large Play Lists,
◊ The volume would reset when looping a MIDI file, and
◊ SoundApp would leak small amounts of memory when performing certain tasks.
You expressly acknowledge and agree that use of SoundApp is at your exclusive risk. SoundApp, any related files and documentation are provided “AS IS” and without any warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.
If you wish to include SoundApp on a CD-ROM as part of a freeware/shareware collection, Web browser or book, I ask that you send me a complimentary copy of the product to the address in the Notes topic of this window. Also, if you are interested in licensing all or part of the SoundApp playback and conversion routines see the “Licensing” section of the Notes topic.
