DATman(1)DATman(1)NAMEdatman - play and record audio tapes in DAT drive
datman-cd - play audio CD in CD-ROM drive through audio hardware
SYNOPSISdatman [-alert soundfile] [-cd] [-dev device] [-dbcdir dir] [-dbpath
dir,dir,...]
DESCRIPTION
DATman is a program for playing audio tapes and CDs. When called as
datman it works as a tape recorder. When the -cd option is specified,
DATman works as a CD player.
DATman -cd
DATman -cd plays audio CDs that are loaded in the CD-ROM drive. The
audio data is read from the CD via the SCSI bus and is played through the
16-bit audio hardware of recent IRIS systems. DATman -cd can also copy
audio data into disc files.*
DATman -cd is different from cdheadphones(2) which operates the CD-ROM
drive as a CD player, playing the audio through the headphone and line-
out jacks of the CD-ROM drive.
DATman
DATman plays and records digital audio tapes on the 4mm DAT drive. The
tapes are compatible with those used in commercial DAT recorders. The
audio data is read from the DAT via the SCSI bus and is played through
the 16-bit audio hardware of recent IRIS systems. DATman can also copy
audio data to disc files and can record audio data from disc files.*
* Subject to copyright laws.
OPTIONS-alert soundfile
specifies an alternate sound to use as the alert when error dialogue
boxes are popped up. The file must be an AIFF or AIFF-C file.
DATman searches for the file in the directory
/usr/share/data/sounds/prosonus. To specify a file somewhere else
you must give the full path name.
-dbcdir dir
specifies the directory in which to write new music catalog entries.
It defaults to ~/.cddb.
-dbpath dir,dir,...
specifies a set of directories to search for music catalog
information. It defaults to ~/.cddb.
-dev device
specifies the particular CD-ROM or DAT device to use, for example:
/dev/scsi/sc0d3l0 or /dev/mt/tps0d2nsv.
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DATman(1)DATman(1)-sm displays only the transport control section of the window.
-nofork
causes DATman to not fork itself into the background.
-noframes
causes DATman to start up with timecode frame display disabled.
-frames
causes DATman to start up with timecode frame display enabled.
OPERATION
DATman operates like many commercial CD and DAT players. Most operations
are straight forward. See the on-line help for full information. A few
operations need explanation. The Prev Prog button moves the current
location to the start of the current program. If play is within 2
seconds (on the CD, on DAT it is within approximately 10 seconds) of the
start of the program, the Prev Prog button moves the current location to
the start of the previous program.
Random searchs may be accomplished using the Cue button. To search for a
specific program number, type the program number into the program number
field of the display and press the Enter key or click the left mouse
button over the Cue button. Searches to particular locations in timecode
may be made in a similar manner by typing the desired location into one
of the timecode fields.
TIME CODES
DATman has three timecode displays. The type of timecode shown in each
display can be selected using the option button below the display.
CD
CDs have two time codes stored on them: absolute time and program time.
Timecodes are stored as three values: minutes, seconds and frames.
Absolute time is a continuously incrementing time code starting from zero
at the start of the disc. Program time is time code that increments from
0 at the start of each program (aka track) on the CD. DATman -cd can
also compute and display the remaining time. That is the time left to
play.
DAT
DATs can have as many as three time codes recorded on them: absolute
time, program time and running time. It is permissible and probable that
no time codes will be recorded on the tape. Timecodes are stored as four
values: hours, minutes, seconds and frames. Absolute time is a
continuously incrementing time code starting from zero at the start of
the tape. Program time is time code that increments from 0 at the start
of each program (aka track) on the tape. Running time is a continuously
incrementing time code starting from some arbitrary value at the start of
the tape. A variation of running time is used to record SMPTE time code.
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DATman(1)DATman(1)RECORDING CD/DAT TO DISK
To record to a file from CD or DAT, select Open "Record To" file from the
file menu. This will bring up a small recording control window, with
buttons to turn file recording on and off ("file record" and "file
stop"). When the CD or DAT is playing while "file record" is pressed,
DATman will be writing to the current file. Multiple "clips" of sound may
be appended into the same file by going back and forth between the "file
record" and "file stop" modes. Select Close file when done. The popup
window will ask you to confirm that you wish to close the file. Once the
file has been closed, nothing more can be appended to it.
RECORDING ONTO DAT
DATman can make recordings compatible with commercial DAT recorders. DAT
supports three sample rates: 48kHz, 44.1kHz and 32 kHz. DATman will not
record at any other sample rate. DATman can record from either the audio
hardware or from an AIFC file on hard disc. When the input source is the
audio hardware, the actual source and sample rate are set via the Audio
Control Panel (see apanel(1)). When the source is a disc file, the file
content determines the sample rate.
To record from a file, select Open "Record From" file from the file menu.
All recordings made with the file open will start from the beginning of
the file, and proceed until either the entire file is recorded to DAT, or
"Stop" is pressed. When done, select Close "Record From" file from the
File menu.
At present DATman has only limited support for recording subcodes. It
records absolute time code, program numbers and start-IDs. When the
record button is pressed DATman determines the current location in
absolute time code and current program number. It increments the program
number and records the new program number and the start-id bit for the
first 300 frames. It increments absolute time every frame and records it.
If the tape is at the beginning, DATman records a program number of one
and resets absolute time to zero. When DATman detects more than 2
seconds of silence during recording, it automatically increments the
program number.
MUSIC CATALOG
The music catalog stores titles, artists and program information for CD
and DAT tapes. When a CD or DAT is inserted in the drive, DATman
searches the music catalog for an entry containing catalog information
for that recording. If it finds one, it displays the information in its
large display panel. Data from the recording's table of contents is used
as the key for searching the music catalog. Very few DATs (even pre-
recorded ones) have a table of contents so DATman will only rarely be
able to match a tape.
New information is added to the catalog simply by typing it into the
appropriate fields of DATman's display. The catalog currently holds the
title of the recording, the artist's name and a title for each program on
the recording. DATman allows you to enter a different artist name for
each program. The artist name for program one becomes the artist name
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DATman(1)DATman(1)
for the whole recording. It will be displayed for all programs without a
per-program artist name. If an artist name is entered for any program
other than one, it will be displayed only while that program is played.
The format of the music catalog is different from that previously used by
cdplayer(1) in order to facilitate creation of shared, distributed music
catalogs. Existing catalogs can be converted to the new format using the
command cddbcvt(1).
When looking for a catalog entry, DATman searches a list of directories.
The default list is the single directory ~/.cddb. An alternate list can
be specified by either a command line option, an X resource or the shell
environment variable CDDB_PATH. The command line overrides the X
resource which overrides the environment variable. All of these methods
take as their value, a string which is a comma-separated list of
directories.
When DATman needs to create a new music catalog entry, it has to pick a
single directory. The default directory is ~/.cddb. An alternate
directory can be specified by either a command line option, an X resource
or the shell environment variable CDDB_WRITE_DIR. The command line
overrides the X resource which overrides the environment variable.
X RESOURCES
All the command line options can also be set via X resources. A command
line option will override the corresponding X resource setting. The
class name is DATman. The instance name is the program name so it's
either datman or cdman. DATman recognizes the following resources.
alert takes a string specifying the name of the sound file to use as
the alert tone. The default is instr/drm_clave.aiff.
autoFork is a boolean specifying whether DATman should fork itself into
the background. The default is True.
cdplayer is a boolean specifying whether DATman should work as a CD
player. The default is False.
databaseCDir
takes a string which is the path name of the directory in
which to create new music catalog entries.
databasePath
takes a string which is a comma-separated list of directories
to search for music catalog entries.
device is the device to use. As a DAT player the default is
/dev/nrtape. As a CD player the default is NULL. This
default makes DATman -cd use the first CD-ROM drive found by
getinvent(2).
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DATman(1)DATman(1)
smallDisplay
is a boolean specifying whether the window should show just
the small transport control section or the full DATman
display. The default is False.
frames is a boolean specifying whether the application should display
frames by default. The default is False.
FILES
~/.cddb default music catalog
BUGS
The music catalog feature is not yet implemented for tapes. DATman does
not yet make the necessary corrections to the frame number when
displaying SMPTE time code recorded in the running time field.
SEE ALSOcddbcvt(1), cdplayer(1), CDintro(3A), DTintro(3A)AUTHOR
Mark Callow
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author is indebted to Doug Cook and Erik Fortune for their enormous
contributions to DATman.
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