Amiga Zerius vocoder GUI

Play example modulatorfile
Play example carrier file
Play example vocoder result

Amiga Zeriusvocoder Help

Amiga Zeriusvocoder Help

Introduction

What is it?
From the home page of the UNIX-author:
This program is a software channel vocoder, which imposes vocal effects on a waveform. It can be used to make your voice sound "robot-like", to create a singing synthesizer, to disguise your voice, and many other fun things. This effect has been made popular by artists such as Kraftwerk and Laurie Anderson, and is overused by Daft Punk.

This is the Amiga MUI version of this nice program.

Special features

The main goal for the development of this program was user friendliness. Therefore the appoved Magic User Interface system has been used for the GUI.

Comfortable graphical user interface

The appearance can be adapted to the individual likes (GUI elements, patterns, fonts...)

Bubble Help - Place the mouse over a GUI element and you will get a short help

Fully localized. Additional to the build-in language (English) other languages are provided, for instance German and Spanish. Changing the language of the GUI is even possible at runtime! (i.e. no restart of the program necessary) The localization covers the whole program including all error messages of the internally used original UNIX-zerius vocoder.

The original UNIX-Program

This program is based on the UNIX zeriusvocoder by Emanuel Borsboom whom without the Amiga version would not have been possible. For the original program, a FAQ and further information please visit Emanuels page at http://www.epiphyte.ca. You can contact him at em@nuel.ca.

Installation

The installation of the program is simple. Just unpack the archive to a favorite place on your hard disk.

System Requirements

AHI V4 by Martin Blom
MUI V3.8 by Stefan Stuntz
openurl.library V4
urltext.mcc 18.9 by Alfonso Ranieri

Shareware

This program is shareware. You can test the program without restrictions. There is however a shareware reminder at the beginning and the end of the program. Please support the development of Amiga programs and register! You will get your personal keyfile. The keyfile will suppress the shareware reminders and the resulting delays when starting and finishing the program.

Program start

To start, double click the icon labeled zeriusvocodergui.

zv_icon

Operation

The MUI user interface is easy to use. All important control elements are accessible in the main window. Others are located in the menu strip.

The Menu

As in every Amiga program, you can access the menu by pressing the right mouse button when the program window is active.In order to select a certain menu item move the mouse over the appropriate menu item (with the right button still pressed) and then release the right mouse button.

The Project-Menu

About Zerius Vocoder

Shows an information window containing general information about this program.

About MUI

Shows the standard MUI information window.

Licence

Shows information about your keyfile.

Quit

Quits the program after asking for confirmation.

The Settings Menu

Load Settings

Sets the four sliders to the values saved before.

Save Settings

Saves the settings of the four sliders..

Restore Default Settings

Resets the sliders to their factory settings..

MUI

Opens the MUI-Prefs window. Here you can change for instance the font or select a pattern or a picture for the background.

All the buttons and sliders

Modulator File

Usually a speech sample

Carrier File

Usually a noise or a synthesizer sound.

Target File

The final vocoder sound.

Window Length

The length of the fft-window in ms. Internally a Fast Fourier Transformation is used for the calculation. This fft-window must have a length of a power of 2 samples. This requirement is not handy for the user, however. Therefore, simply enter a value in ms.. The program then adjusts the length automatically to the closest power of of 2 in order to meet this requirement.

Window Overlap

The fft-windows can partly overlap. Here you can select the amount of the overlapping in percent of the window length.

Band Count

Number of frequency bands that should be used for the calculation of the vocoder sound.

Output Volume

By using this slider the user can adjust the volume of the resulting sound file. 0 means no change of the volume, -100 means halve volume and +100 means doubling the output volume.

Vocode

Starts the calculation.

Vocode+Play

Starts the calculation. When the calculation has finished the resulting sound will be played automatically.

Help

Opens this help file in the configured Bowser.

Stop

Cancels the current calculation.

Play

Next to the file selection gadgets there are buttons labeled "Play". Press one of these buttons to start playback of the appropriate sound file via AHI. The text of the buttons changes to "Stop". By pressing the button again you can stop the playback .

play_stop-button

Personal Settings

Sliders

The menu items "Save Settings" and "Load Settings" enable the user to save and restore the values of the four sliders.

MUI

The Magic User Interface system allows the user to adapt the appearance of the program to his personal likes. You can for instance chose a backdrop picture or pattern for the program window. Open the menu item

menu mui setings

and press the button for Background Window

MUI-Settings

Possible problems

The program uses the openurl.library (4) and the external MUI class "urltext.mcc" version 18.9 or higher. If these requirements are not fulfilled the program will be aborted and a error message will be shown.

openurllib_error

The program uses the AHI system for sound playback. If AHI has not been installed properly or is currently not available no sound playback is possible. The program can however be used, just without playback.

If the two links at the bottom of the main window do not work most probably OpenURL has not been configured properly.

open homepage1

In this case your have to edit your settings in the OpenURL preferences program. Start OpenURL in your system:prefs/ drawer.

openurldrawers

Edit the settings according to your configuration. The same procedure may be necessary for for your mailer.

Helpfile made by Benjamin

This is a different help file, written by my son Benjamin during Christmas time 2003. At that time he learned in the first class for just 3 months. So he only knew a part of the letters.But he wanted to contribute nevertheless. The text is hard but funnny to read for Germans. I guess it is not well suited for non-native German speakers... :) If you want to try it, remark that many characters are used as spoken in German, so a single "t" for instance it used as "te". "Bit" should therefore mean "Bitte" ("Please") and so on...
Bennies Helpfile

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af_mksstv	Takes a picture as input and creates the SSTV-sound.SSTV is a picture transmission mode for radio amateurs. This sound can be sent via HF to other HAMs.
littlejedi.mpg	A self made StarWars movie, created on Draco and Amiga using Lightwave and TV-Paint.

Please visit http://selco.da.ru for other programs and updates.

Legal Information

The program has been tested carefully but of course there might be errors left somewhere. The program might not fulfill your needs.
There is no warranty under any circumstances. Use it on you own risc. I cannot be made responsible for any loss of data or other damages of software nor hardware.
The program is distributed as shareware. You may copy the program package without the keyfile. The keyfile must not be copied/distributed! Removing the shareware restriction is forbidden. You must not decompile nor manipulate the program itself nor the keyfile!
The program uses the original zeriusvocoder for UNIX, writtten by Emanuel Borsboom, em@nuel.ca.

Credits

to the author of the UNIX original program, Emanuel Borsboom. em@nuel.ca

Damian Gutierrez for the Spanish translation

Contact

For questions regarding the Amiga version of the zeriusvocoder, Amiga related error reports and registration requests please contact me at:
selco@freenet.de
http://selco.da.ru

I usually answer to every email, so if you don't get an answer please try again!