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*** Ecasound - README                                               ***
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 What is it?
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Ecasound is a software package designed for multitrack audio
processing. It can be used for simple tasks like audio playback, 
recording and format conversions, as well as for multitrack effect 
processing, mixing, recording and signal recycling. Ecasound supports 
a wide range of audio inputs, outputs and effect algorithms. Several
open-source audio packages, like for instance ALSA, OSS, mpg123, lame, 
libaudiofile and MikMod, are directly supported. One of the advantages 
of ecasound's chain-based design is that effects can easily be 
combined both in series and in parallel. Oscillators and MIDI-CCs 
can be used for controlling effect parameters. Included user-interfaces 
are ecasound - a versatile console mode interface, qtecasound - 
a Qt-based X-interface and various command-line utils suitable for 
batch processing.

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 Why?
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I've programmed ecasound for my own recording purposes. The first 
versions ran under IBM Os/2. I used them for finalizing my analog 
4-track recordings. My 4-track was a nice tool, but it had its limits.
So eventually I started to use Windows-based multitrack software. I
still used ecasound for fx processing and finalizing. When I 
ported ecasound to Linux, a lot of the code was rewritten from 
scratch. During this I also added multitrack capabilities
to ecasound. It took a lot of work, but in the end I was able to 
get rid of all my Windows recording software. Nowadays I use 
ecasound for all my music projects. Because of this, I also 
continue to improve and develop ecasound.

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 Requirements
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To run ecasound, you need...:

- POSIX compliant UNIX system; tested with Linux 2.2.x and 2.4.x, glibc 2.1.x
- POSIX threads; tested with linuxthreads 0.7 (libpthread, comes with glibc)
- for soundcard input/output: OSS, OSS/Lite or ALSA drivers
- for mp3 support, mpg123 (input) and lame (output) packages
- for tracker module support, mikmod package
- for .aiff and .au/.snd support, libaudiofile (SGI audio file) library

To compile ecasound, you also need...:

- standard C++ build environment; tested with gcc 2.91.66 and 2.95.2
  (STL and exceptions need to be supported)
- GNU make, automake and autoconf packages

To run qtecasound, you need...:

- qt 2.x development environment and runtime libraries

To compile qtecasound, you also need...:

- qt 2.x development environment

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 Installing 
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First of all, you should first try to use the binary-rpm release.
It's probably the easiest and the most straigthforward way to 
install this software. 

If you need to compile ecasound, the file 'INSTALL' contains detailed 
instructions. To compile from rpm source packages, "rpm --rebuild 
ecasound-x.y.xRt.src.rpm".

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 Documentation 
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Ecasound documentation is updated whenever new features are added 
or old features have been modified. Some things are not documented
in great detail, but on the other hand, all documentation is kept
up-to-date.

- user's guide
- programmer's guide
- man pages
	- ecasound(1)
	- qtecasound(1)
	- ecatools(1)
	- ecasound-iam(1)
	- ecasoundrc(5)
- misc HTML-formatted docs
- command line help
	- ecasound --help

Probably the best place to start is the examples section of 
ecasound HTML-documentation (Documentation/examples.html).

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 Mailing lists
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ecasound-announce@wakkanet.fi:
	A read-only list for announcements concerning
	ecasound and ecawave.

ecasound-list@wakkanet.fi:
	A general discussion forum for ecasound/ecawave
	developers and users. Announcements of new versions, bug warnings, etc 
	will be posted to this list. If you have problems compiling,
	installing or using ecasound/ecawave, this is a good place to ask for
	help. Reports of working software/hardware combinations are also welcome.
	You can browse the message archives at
	http://www.wakkanet.fi/~kaiv/ecasound/ecasound-list/current/ 

You can join the lists by sending subscribe message to
majordomo@wakkanet.fi. You can also join using the following 
web front-end: http://www.wakkanet.fi/~kaiv/ecasound/mlists.html

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 Web sites
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Ecasound home site
- http://www.ecasound.cx

Distribution packages
- http://ecasound.seul.org/download/

Eca projects page (links, apps based on ecasound, etc)
- http://www.eca.cx

Sculpscape, music recorded and mixed with ecasound
- http://www.wakkanet.fi/sculpscape/

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 About free software development
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You should always keep in mind, that development of free software
doesn't work in the same way as commercial development. Every
succesful free software project has an active userbase behind it. This
means that your comments, ideas and bug reports are extremely
important. If something doesn't work, or some feature is missing,
please mail me about it. Thank you in advance! You can send ecasound
related mails to me at mailto:k@eca.cx. If you want see/hear ecasound
in action, you can listen to some of my material at Sculpscape. All
the newer ones are recorded and mixed with ecasound! 

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 Stable and development versions
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Although publically released versions are called stable, this is not 
a guarantee of any kind. I use a small test-bench to check that all 
essential features are working and I use these versions myself, but 
that's it. And note that this isn't a temporary solution. As ecasound 
is open-source software, it will become more stable as more people 
start using it and bugs are found. So join the fun! :) 
	 
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 Author 
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Kai Vehmanen -	mailto:kaiv@wakkanet.fi
		http://www.wakkanet.fi/~kaiv

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 Contributors / credits / thanks to 
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Barton-Davis, Paul - Quasimodo and Hdr have given me a lot of ideas.
Dyson, John S. - Wrote the original advanced compressor (-eca) core.
Endersz, Viktor - For sending me the adv.compressor source code!
Fendt, Stefan - Original code for reverb (-ete) and RC-lowpass filter (-ef4).
Hall, Jeremy - Extensive testing, many design ideas.
Hamara, Arto - Ecasound logo, lots of great ideas!
Lavalle, Marc - Rpm-spec for Mandrake.
Laydier, Antoine aka SMF - layer.cpp (interprets mp3 headers)
Petit, Bertrand - Helped with POSIX-compatibility issues.
Philips, Dave - Linux Sound+MIDI keeps Linux audio going strong!
Smith, Richard A. - Helped in solving the "gcc 2.95" bug.
Sousa, Rui - OSS bug fixes.
Tkachenko, Vadim - Autoconf magic. :)

all LAD members - Always a great source of inspiration!
nic.cx - For eca.cx, ecasound.cx and ecawave.cx domains.
SEUL - For hosting ecasound ftp, http and CVS sites.
WakkaNet Oy - For hosting ecasound web site.

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 Licensing/distribution policy
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Copyright (C) 1997-2000 Kai Vehmanen

Ecasound is freely distributable according to the terms of the 
GNU General Public License (see the file 'COPYING').

This program is distributed without any warranty. See the file 
'COPYING' for details. 

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