00:00:06:OK.
00:00:20:Well, as I've managed to grab a microphone...
00:00:23:...a virtual one, but anyway.
00:00:25:The second and the last of my presentations today:
00:00:30:a program which I work hard on,
00:00:35:for a year (with some breaks).
00:00:39:DigiBooster Professional 3 (well, "professional" with a bit of irony).
00:00:47:I guess most of you know DigiBooster 2.
00:00:53:"Who knows DigiBooster 2?"
00:00:58:If someone haven't seen it, I can tell that it is a music composing software,
00:01:04:so-called tracker.
00:01:07:Trackers use specific music notation on tracks.
00:01:13:We can see tracks here as vertical columns.
00:01:18:There are all zeros now, just because there is no music loaded.
00:01:23:I will load something from disk.
00:01:32:The music score appears on the tracks.
00:01:37:I think people knowing trackers a bit, can see the general idea of the program already.
00:01:45:DigiBooster 2 has been written by brothers, Tomasz and Waldemar Piasta from Poland.
00:01:54:They sold the rights to the program in 1999...
00:01:59:to a German firm (well, it is a big word, let's say "group") APC&TCP.
00:02:07:They continued DigiBooster development.
00:02:10:They released a few small updates.
00:02:15:Starting from version 2.17 they moved to 2.21.
00:02:19:Then we had a silence since 2001 and the development stopped.
00:02:25:In the meantime new Amigas and clones appeared:
00:02:29:AmigaOne, Pegasos, later Efika and Samantha.
00:02:34:"Sorry, Pegasos is not an Amiga clone."
00:02:37:MorphOS and AmigaOS 4 have been released.
00:02:41:It turned out that DigiBooster 2 has serious problems on these new platforms.
00:02:45:It is because the program is bound to the classic Amiga hardware.
00:02:52:MorphOS developers managed to write a patch allowing for running and using DBPro 2 on MorphOS.
00:03:01:In the meantime APC&TCP announced, they are searching for a programmer to continue the project.
00:03:07:I've applied then.
00:03:10:DigiBooster 2 is written in M68k assembler.
00:03:18:"Super, cool."
00:03:21:Right, it is one nice source file, 928 kB long.
00:03:27:With a few comments here and there.
00:03:30:I've decided I write it from scratch in C, using MUI for the interface.
00:03:38:The program has 3 versions currently.
00:03:41:A version for classic Amigas (to be honest with current speed, it is for Amiga emulators rather than real Amigas).
00:03:50:I will try to make it faster.
00:03:52:A version for MorphOS and a version for AmigaOS 4.
00:03:56:These are both PPC native of course.
00:03:59:We have MorphOS version here.
00:04:01:The latest beta, even betatesters haven't seen it yet.
00:04:06:An absolute premiere.
00:04:08:"Except of rzookol."
00:04:09:Rzookol hasn't seen it too.
00:04:11:"But he sees it now."
00:04:12:He has seen it today.
00:04:14:Has seen it today, betaversion, so not all is finished yet.
00:04:21:Basic things for now, the most important is playback.
00:04:24:Let's demonstrate it.
00:04:29:It is a module by one of Polish scene heroes, XTD namely, known also as Lamesoft.
00:04:47:Let's play it.
00:05:22:"Krashan, it pulls the tape inside. ;-)"
00:05:25:What?
00:05:26:"It pulls the tape."
00:05:29:It has been a demonstration of one of features.
00:05:33:Tempo change without changing the pitch.
00:05:36:"...without changing the tempo."
00:05:39:Tempo change without changing the pitch.
00:05:42:Something for DJs.
00:05:43:"What happened with bars?"
00:05:45:What happened with what?
00:05:47:"What bars? Who asked this question?"
00:05:49:Ah, these bars, jumping level indicators on the tracks...
00:05:55:It was unique to ProTracker, DigiBooster had no bars.
00:06:04:"I won't buy it then."
00:06:06:I've implemented level meter, this on the top.
00:06:12:The famous ProTracker bars were rendered by hardware,
00:06:16:using Amiga graphics chipset directly.
00:06:18:Doing it here... well...
00:06:21:Bars are nice looking, and that's all about them.
00:06:25:Their real usability is low.
00:06:29:There is something instead, maybe not very well visible...
00:06:36:It is audio level meter.
00:06:38:This awful one is the default, used when there is no skin file.
00:06:49:I will try to load a bigger one.
00:06:54:I will show the configuration options by the way.
00:06:59:One can select audio mode here, priorities of processes.
00:07:05:Something for artists, all tracker colors are user definable.
00:07:14:Some detail. We all know that instruments are switched with numpad since ProTracker age.
00:07:22:"In Amiga 600 particularly."
00:07:23:In Amiga 600 particularly, a problem emerged when people started to use PC keyboard interfaces.
00:07:36:PC keyboards have different numpad layout.
00:07:39:DigiBooster 3 allows for selecting numpad layout, to ensure comfortable instrument selection.
00:07:49:Here we can load...
00:08:08:As you can see, the whole level meter is just an image.
00:08:13:Everyone can draw his own one. DB3 will have a general skinning system.
00:08:19:All settings, fonts, backgrounds, will be instantly changeable.
00:08:37:Of course DigiBooster 3 is fully backwards compatible with 2.x.
00:08:41:It means it loads and saves modules in the same format.
00:08:45:It also handles almost all ("almost" for now) sound effects of DigiBooster 2.x.
00:08:54:DigiBooster has about 3 times more effects than ProTracker.
00:08:59:So I had some work with the player.
00:09:04:Which musican do you prefer?
00:09:08:The choice is not very broad...
00:09:10:XTD has been presented already, maybe someone from Polish scene now.
00:09:16:"Extend is not from Polish scene?"
00:09:18:I mean, he has been presented, time for someone from Polish scene. But XTD is from Poland it seems.
00:09:25:"It seems so."
00:09:28:You're just better informed, I'm not a scener.
00:09:35:"But step by step..."
00:09:48:Who guesses the title? Well it is shown anyway...
00:09:52:Maybe it is not so visible.
00:09:54:Everything is visible.
00:09:57:Definitely more scene style sound in a moment.
00:10:07:This musican extensively uses effects wihch have been difficult to implement.
00:10:12:He motivated me to work.
00:10:29:All basic actions of course...
00:10:32:Stop, continue.
00:10:38:Many functions do not work yet, it's still a beta.
00:10:42:Playing with keyboard is implemented already.
00:10:50:Well, we have pre-sequenced instruments here.
00:10:55:The composer preferred to have them as such.
00:11:07:This sample is a perfect match for audi.
00:11:14:"No personal insults please!"
00:11:21:So, keyboard playing, I plan to support also MIDI input in some later version.
00:11:31:Then one can play with a real music keyboard instead of computer one.
00:11:36:This is much more comfortable for a musican.
00:11:42:"Much better."
00:11:44:"Will these keyboards have to get a 'Krashan certified' sticker?
00:11:48:Yea, "Designed for DigiBooster Pro 3" ;-).
00:11:52:Then for every approved model, the producer will have to pay me $20 000. ;-)
00:11:59:"You're cheap."
00:12:01:I'm entering the market, so doing promotions. ;-)
00:12:06:So, that is what it looks like...
00:12:08:Playlist editor is disabled for now.
00:12:12:Still work in progress, but this progress since a version presented on AmiZaduszki is quite big.
00:12:21:Editing music is now possible.
00:12:24:I can insert notes on any track.
00:12:34:I will "compose" something, there is an empty track.
00:12:42:This module is not very good for re-composing.
00:12:47:It is based on sequences instead of single samples.
00:12:52:I will load another module.
00:13:03:Well, a proof that it is beta, it just have hanged up.
00:13:12:I have no other choice than to reboot the machine.
00:13:20:"It worked for me."
00:13:25:We can check how it works under AmigaOS 4.
00:13:31:"No, no, no..."
00:13:33:"Suxx."
00:13:34:"Allergy turns on."
00:13:37:"It was so nice..."
00:13:38:"Marian, do you have to spread defeatism?"
00:13:41:"Is it some Linux loading or so?"
00:13:46:"It boots so long."
00:13:49:"Stop whining."
00:13:50:"A good system must boot long."
00:13:52:"The camera is still working, let's show it precisely."
00:14:02:"It boots quite fast."
00:14:04:Quite fast, but the picture is quite stretched.
00:14:08:"Panoramic..."
00:14:12:Let's fight with the matter anyway.
00:14:49:"Will commercial version allow us to launch it from an icon?"
00:14:56:"At additional charge."
00:14:59:A different configuration.
00:15:03:The program can be run in fullscreen mode, as shown earlier, and in a window as well.
00:15:08:The window may be opened on Workbench screen.
00:15:11:It is a new feature compared to DBPro 2.x.
00:15:15:I think a great advantage of DigiBooster 3 is scalable GUI.
00:15:23:DBpro 2.x has a fixed GUI width, 640 pixels.
00:15:27:Even on a 22" panoramic display.
00:15:31:This version allows for more tracks displayed, especially on panoramic monitors.
00:15:40:One can also use a narrow font for tracker.
00:15:49:The visibility is not good.
00:15:52:Screen resolution seems to be too high for the projector.
00:16:00:"Does OS4 allow for a resolution change?"
00:16:03:It does, but it is not so simple as on MorphOS.
00:16:08:"You have to launch 3 apps in a proper order."
00:16:12:"And edit a text file."
00:16:13:"It is out of the scope of presentation."
00:16:15:As you can hear, it plays the same.
00:16:20:It is an Ijon Tichy module.
00:16:32:Some interesting feature: one track only.
00:16:44:This module has more basic samples.
00:16:54:Some nice bass.
00:16:57:I can play some simple disco-polo using edit functions.
00:17:06:I have not implemented block edit operations yet.
00:17:14:All these features will come in the near future.
00:17:16:I'm clearing the track.
00:17:23:Then I can insert some simple disco bass line.
00:17:30:"In Bilgoraj style. Or Bialystok one."
00:17:34:I don't know Bilgoraj style.
00:17:37:"It is the same as Bialystok one."
00:18:13:I've entered something, I guess it will sound hopeless.
00:18:18:"Quite good!"
00:18:20:"A nice piece!"
00:18:22:"Cool beat!"
00:18:24:I've changed only one track.
00:18:27:"And you've achieved a great result."
00:18:31:"If even a demo allows for such things on one track..."
00:18:35:"If he would take it seriously, he could be the master."
00:18:39:"He is a talented composer."
00:18:41:"Vangelis, J. M. Jarre..."
00:18:44:"They would be wiped out. There would be Krashan only."
00:18:58:"Simple and brillant."
00:18:59:Simple and brillant, yeah.
00:19:01:Of course I haven't made this crap to show my musical "talent".
00:19:07:I wanted to show you DigiBooster edit functions.
00:19:09:"Sure, sure..."
00:19:11:"Only guilty need to explain."
00:19:12:There is also a live record possibility (as a sideeffect for now).
00:19:22:Then I can for example record a melody line while playing ready percussion and bass sections.
00:19:33:"Especially with MIDI keyboard."
00:19:35:Yes, with MIDI keyboard it will be much more comfortable.
00:19:38:I plan to add MIDI input, especially as it is not very difficult thing to do.
00:19:45:"And you have some music keyboard."
00:19:47:Yes, I do have one, not very advanced, but for keyboard tests it is enough.
00:19:53:Just some cable and DigiBooster 3 will get this nice feature.
00:20:02:The greatest achievement so far is the player engine.
00:20:08:Player of DBPro 2.x has AHI-based mixer and resampler.
00:20:16:It is AHI, what mixes and resamples instruments for DigiBooster 2.
00:20:20:The sideeffect of this is that there is no good DBM replayer for non-Amiga systems.
00:20:28:It would require to port a big part of AHI as well.
00:20:31:My DigiBooster 3 player is totally AHI independent.
00:20:35:It delivers a ready 16-bit stereo downmix on its output.
00:20:40:It can be easily ported to Windows or Linux.
00:20:44:I mean the player here, not the whole DigiBooster.
00:20:46:"Do you plan...?"
00:20:48:Windows replayer? Yes.
00:20:52:I think if DBM can be played on many platforms, it will increase the program popularity.
00:21:04:"Especially as you can bundle an emulator with DigiBooster."
00:21:10:Hmm, yes...
00:21:12:"And sell it as a Windows application."
00:21:14:I'm not sure how it fits WinUAE license.
00:21:16:"I'm sorry for my friend, he has drunk too much."
00:21:20:"And I will drink more!"
00:21:22:Says one, who didn't drink at all. ;-)
00:21:25:"He is not my friend, just a known face from the meeting."