11/29/99

OSRL Presents: A World Exclusive - SCAMP has arrived

SCAMP and the SCAMP file conversion process are Copyright  © 1999 
by Charles T. Turley.


After my past roasting years ago over the IIgs NoiseTracker VAMPS, NTV and
MegaMOD releases I made, I wouldn't normally post this and pat myself on the
back with the announcement at the same time. But, considering what I've been
able to do, I think I'm well justified in doing so now. Please read on and I'll
tell you why.

After weeks and weeks with what little spare time I had available to use, doing
lots of trial and error research working from my home, in a room full of Apple
IIgs and Mac computers, which I call my OmniSound Research Lab or OSRL for
short, with stereo sound file efforts, I've been able to develop a unique method
of presenting a "Stereo Computer Audio Multiple Platform" file, which I've named
"SCAMP. I've obtained a process on the Macintosh with the conversion of mp3
stereo music, sound and/or song files, using a newly developed method of making
multiple platform stereo music and sound presentation in a specific audio wave
file, that can be played on both the Apple IIgs and the Macintosh without the
need of any changes to the actual file.

It's sound quality is just as clean and clear as (if not somewhat clearer than)
an mp3. It's size is smaller than an mp3. And, it was derived and converted from
an mp3. I've made two SCAMP example files available for public review, listening
and comments, along with both of the actual mp3 (MPEG layer III coded) files,
that I made the SCAMP file conversions from for you to compare them - within the
following URL's folder.

ftp://tarnover.dyndns.org/cabi/Music.and.Sound/OVERSAMPLER.MUSIC.FILES/

or

http://tarnover.dyndns.org/cabi/Music.and.Sound/OVERSAMPLER.MUSIC.FILES/


After accessing the above folder by ftp or http, click to open the folder named:

FOR.both.GS.and.MAC

and then click to open the folder named:

SCAMP

Inside of the SCAMP folder you'll see four files named;

MTR.mp3 - 1,465k 
MTR.wav - 1,347k 
O.Canada.mp3 -1,652k 
O.Canada.wav - 1,519k

The files with a suffix of (.mp3) are the actual mp3 (MPEG layer III) files that
I converted to SCAMP files. You'll notice that indeed the SCAMP files are
smaller than the mp3 files. When you listen to the SCAMP files and compare their
stereo and audio clarity to the same with respect to the mp3 files, I'm sure
you'll agree that they are just as good in their stereo soundscape, audio
clarity and quality as the original mp3 files are (if not slightly better
sounding).

You can download the SCAMP (.wav) files as raw binary files, to play on the
Apple IIgs and/or the Apple Macintosh and decide for yourself. If you have the
proper MacOS, browser, plugin and player application you can play the two world
exclusive SCAMP example (.wav) files - from your web browser online, as well as
the mp3 files also.

These two converted SCAMP sound, music and song files are released as freeware
and are restricted for non-commercial use, personal listening, personal and/or
non-commercial distribution only. If you want to include the SCAMP files in any
commercial publication, CD or distribute them by any commercial method - contact
me by email for consent.


For Mac Users

The SCAMP file is a customized Mac QuickTime Pro v4.0.3 stereo Sound Track, WAVE
file type. It's not in an archive of any type. You can download it as a raw
binary file to your Mac desktop and it will set the proper type to allow you to
drag and drop it over your QuickTime Player application or it's alias icon for
auto load and play of file. As mentioned above, if you have the proper browser
application and version, with the proper QuickTime plugin assigned to play a QT
(.wav type file) you can click on this file and play it online via your browsers
QT plugin support.

For those who don't have the QuickTime, QuickTime Pro or the standard QT Player
app to use, that's no problem. Just download the Stuffit archive: Kevin's Fast
Player.sit (a fine freeware - also in this folder). It's a small but, very fine
Mac QT Player application that will load and play the SCAMP files, giving you
just as good (if not even better sound quality). It can also display smooth
animation for any version of Mac QT WAVE, MOVIE or AIFF sound, supported graphic
file format and/or animation file type - QuickTime could load, convert and
display.

The two SCAMP files in this folder with the suffix of (.wav) can be loaded and
played in the same manner as outlined in this text file on the Mac or the IIgs.


For IIgs Users

I suggest for ease of use with the two files in loading and playing each, that
you download the TurboBootGS 800k disk archive, to launch GS/OS v6.0.1, load
Oversampler (included on the disk) - with an unshrink program to unshrink it,
then load and play each of the two SCAMP example files, as noted with the
Oversampler program settings - specified below.

Remember to always download the SCAMP file as a raw binary file ONLY!  You can
only play the SCAMP files on the IIgs with the GS/OS application Oversampler.
You can leave them exactly as they are, without any need or reason to change the
file type at all. When you select and load each of the two SCAMP files with
Oversampler, make the following program settings within the Oversampler program,
before you select the play option.


Volume: 255

Frequency: 420

Echo Delay: 2

Oversampling: off


Stereo is the default sound mode. If you don't have a stereo card, present and
active in your IIgs, then you can't have stereo sound. Thus, you could set the
sound mode to Internal and avoid any needless demands to your IIgs CPU.

Rather than give a description of the nature of both SCAMP files music, sound
and song contents, I'll just say they were both selected by me in honor of all
our Apple IIgs and Mac users from Canada, who have a good sense of humor and
like the South Park TV series.

I have no time or desire to check the SCAMP files out for their playability on
the PC platform (i.e.; WINDOWS 98, 95, NT, etc.). So, if any PC users care to,
then download them and give them a try on your PC machine. Go for it and send me
your feedback on how it worked out for you and how they sounded on your PC.

I would certainly think, as the SCAMP file is a Macintosh QuickTime - Sound
Track, (stereo) WAVE file type and format and the PC platform can play that type
of file (if you make the proper load and conversion for use with the PC QT
player program) they could be played just fine on your PC, with an OS system and
any program supporting such.

For the needs and ease of listening to the SCAMP files on the IIgs, each has
been converted and saved as a stereo, 8 bit, sound track file with a sampling
rate of 11.025 Khz, to keep the best possible sound play quality and allow the
file to be small enough to permit a logical time with downloading each of them
to play for all of the IIgs users that care download them each to listen to.

If you have any problems with playing the SCAMP files or have any questions,
comments and so on about them - you can email me as noted below and I'll be glad
to reply, with any information I can provide. 


Cheers & Enjoy, 
Tom

----------------------- 
Charles T. Turley

Email: cturley@grin.net