SYNAESTHESIA v1.6

Introduction
============

This is a program for representing sounds visually (from a CD or line
input). It goes beyond the usual oscilliscope style program by combining
an FFT and stereo positioning information to give a two dimensional
display. Some of the shapes I have observed are:
  * Drums: clouds of color, fairly high
  * Clean guitar: several horizontal lines, low down
  * Rough guitar: a cloud, low down
  * Trumpet: Lots of horizontal lines everywhere
  * Flute: A single horizontal line, low down
  * Voice: A vertical line with some internal structure

Surround sound decoding has been added in version 1.1. Ambient noise is
shown in orange.

X-Windows support has been added in version 1.3, as well as a major redesign
of the interface. The intention is to make Synaesthesia a fully functional
CD player, suitable for use while working.

Version 1.4 adds support for play lists and viewing recorded samples.
Support for the Simple DirectMedia Layer library has also been added.
(http://www.devolution.com/~slouken/SDL) 

Version 1.6 adds support for FreeBSD, as well as better keyboard support.

Usage
=====

Synaesthesia should compile on Linux and FreeBSD systems. There is also
a Windows version, available from 
 http://yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au/~pfh/synaesthesia.html 
 
Compile Synaesthesia by typing "make" then following the instructions 
displayed.

You will need to run Synaesthesia as root if you compiled it with
svgalib. Other varieties can be run by any user providing you provide 
permissions on /dev/dsp, /dev/cdrom, and /dev/mixer.

Synaesthesia creates a configuration file you can edit, named
~/.synaesthesia.  You can edit this to set the device names of your sound
card and CD-ROM drive, default brightness, volume and X-Window position 
and size.

Note to FreeBSD users: You will have to edit ~/.synaesthesia to set the
appropriate device name for your CD-ROM drive (run the program with no
parameters first in order to create this file).

Run Synaesthesia with no parameters for further information on how to 
use it.


Authors
=======

This program is free. If you like it, or have any suggestions, please
send me (Paul Harrison) an email (pfh@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au).

Thanks to Asger Alstrup Nielsen for many great suggestions, and for 
writing optimized 32 bit loops for fading and drawing to screen.

Thanks to Ben Gertzfield and Martin Mitchell for some small fixes to the
CD controlling code. 

Thanks to Simon Budig for an improvement to the X code.

Many thanks to Sebestyen Zoltan for the FreeBSD port.

Changes
=======

1.1 - Added surround sound decoding.
1.2 - Fixed a bug in the ioctl calls to /dev/dsp.
1.3 - Asger Alstrup Nielsen's optimizations added.
      Added X-Windows support.
      More options, redesigned interface.
1.4 - Bug fixes, including a great reduction in
      "Sound: Recording overrun" warnings.
      New command line options: play lists and piping.
      Support for SDL.
1.5 - Support for new SDL.
1.6 - Support for keyboard, FreeBSD
