MIDAS Sound System information / FAQ
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MIDAS Sound System is Copyright 1994 Petteri Kangaslampi and
Jarno Paananen. This file contains some information about MIDAS
Sound System and answers to some questions we have received
lately. It should be accurate, but as MIDAS is under constant
development some information here may already be out of date as
you see this file.

MIDAS Sound System is a music and sound system for Borland C,
Pascal and Assembler programmers. It features up to 32 channels
of digitized sound, with real-time mixing on soundcards that do
not support more channels on hardware. MIDAS mixing routines
allow freely selectable sampling rate, volume and panning on all
channels, so that they are suitable for music as well as sound
effects.

MIDAS currently supports Gravis Ultra Sound, Creative Labs Sound
Blaster series (normal SB, SBPro and SB 16), Media Vision Pro
Audio Spectrum series (normal PAS, PAS+ and PAS 16), and
Microsoft Windows Sound System. We will add support to any sound
card supporting digital sound without constant CPU usage (DMA or
similar), provided that we can get the programming information
and a soundcard for testing.

MIDAS mixing routines are fast, and use 16-bit mixing on all
soundcards for maximum quality. Coming in the near future is
faster raw 8-bit mixing for 8-bit soundcards (with lower
quality), and additinional sound amplifying for 8-bit higher
quality mixing routines for better sound quality.

MIDAS Sound System allows several different Module Players for
maximum compatability. There are currently two Module Players,
for Scream Tracker 3 and Pro Tracker modules, which are believed
to be the most compatible players on PC, naturally excluding
Tammilehto's own STMIK. Both Module Players implement a great
amount of undocumented features and bugs found in the original
players, so that all modules can be played correctly. Adding new
Module Players for other format is fast and easy, as the
existing ones can be used as a basis.

Although MIDAS Sound System is packed with features, it does not
take very much memory. All unwanted components, like different
Module Players, can be easily left out, and even the ones that
will be linked into the application can be reduced from
unnecessary data, such as module command names etc. In addition
to this, MIDAS fully supports EMS memory for both sample and
pattern data. Thus playing a 500kb module requires, when using
16-bit stereo, only approximately 35kb of memory plus the
executable code.

MIDAS also includes a timer system for playing the music in
background, featuring built-in screen synchronization. This way
it is possible to change, for example, the screen start address
and palette in interrupt, effectively using triple-buffering
etc, while still playing the music in background on all sound
cards. This also ensures that no Vertical Retraces will be
missed even on slow computer.

And most importantly: MIDAS will be available free of charge
with all source code included! We know that we are probably
crazy doing this, but we want to give all demo and free game
programmers a good music system to work with.

MIDAS Sound System may be used free of charge for free 
programs like demos or freeware games, but for commercial 
(including ShareWare) separate commercial licensing is
required. Prices for commercial licenses are from $500USD up
per product, depending on how much extra work is required 
from our part. Other licensing methods, including royalties 
or a larger one-time fee for unlimited use are also possible.
Contact us for details.

MIDAS Sound System is not available yet for the public, as it is
still under heavy development and testing. We are trying to get
it into beta testing condition as soon as possible, and will
release the beta version for public testing. It will at least be
uploaded to some of the bigger FTP-sites. We will post the
information at least to comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard,
comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos and rec.games.programmer when MIDAS is
available.


For more information about MIDAS Sound System, contact us:
email:
        pekanga@freeport.uwasa.fi (Petteri Kangaslampi)
        gurus2@freeport.uwasa.fi (Jarno Paananen)
        Jarno_Paananen@sonata.fipnet.fi (Jarno Paananen, 
                might be faster)

voice:
        +358-31-646764 (Petteri Kangaslampi)
        +358-31-3422147 (Jarno Paananen)
        Please restrict your calls to 10.00 - 21.30, Finnish
        time.

normal mail:
        Petteri Kangaslampi
        Simeoninkuja 4
        FIN-36240 Kangasala 4
        Finland

        Jarno Paananen
        Puskalantie 6
        FIN-37120 Nokia
        Finland