

                                         SoundExtractor
                                       
                                        by Alberto Ricci


SoundExtractor is shareware and copyright by Alberto Ricci. If you use it or keep it, please send me $5 (checks or cash). If you think thats too much, send me whatever you think its worth, or a postcard, but please do send me something. If you dont like it (I cant believe its possible!), pass it along to your friends or trash it.
Please always include this document with the SoundExtractor application when you distribute it.

My address is:
Alberto Ricci
Corso De Gasperi, 45
10129 Torino, Italy

Id also be very glad to receive suggestions, bug reports, etc.. You can reach me on Internet as FRicci@polito.it or on CompuServe as 100010,3275 (on CompuServe probably only until August, 1992).
When you register, please send me your mail address and an e-mail one, if you have it (Internet, CompuServe, AppleLink, etc.), so that I can notify you of new versions.



 Distribution
You can (and are encouraged to) distribute SoundExtractor to anybody through electronic services or on disks. Shareware Authors, until Jan 1994, had the exclusive rights to distribute it on CD-ROMs, but it doesnt any more. You can now include SoundExtractor on any CD you like.



 What is SoundExtractor?
Do you remember those sound suitcases created with utilities like SoundMover or SoundEdit? Each of them contained one or more sound resources. They were (and still are) a very popular way of storing sounds.
When System 7.0 was released, we saw that one of the new Finders features was to play a sound by clicking on its icon. So, for example, to hear a sound in the System file you just have to double-click on the System file, and you can see the sounds installed in it. To play one, you just need to double-click on it.
The problem is that this cant be done with sound suitcases. Here is where SoundExtractor comes in.
Just open one of these sound suitcases with the Open choice in the File menu of SoundExtractor or drag its icon on top of SoundExtractors, and a new folder will be created. This folder will have a custom icon of a folder with a little speaker on it, and it will contain all the sounds that were in the sound suitcase. But now, double-clicking on the sounds will play them!
If you check the option Prompt for Destination in the Preferences menu, SoundExtractor will ask you where you want to create this sound folder. Otherwise it will create it next to the sound suitcase.

You arent restricted to sound suitcases, though. You can also extract sounds from applications, stacks or other files. You can choose whether to look for standard sounds of type snd  or other custom types, or sound data files.

If an error occurs while you are extracting sounds from a sound suitcase, SoundExtractor wont stop. Instead, it will skip that sound and ask you if you want to go on extracting the other sounds. You can choose whether to interrupt the extraction (by clicking on Stop), to continue (clicking on Continue), or to continue without bothering you if other errors occur (clicking on OK, No More Alerts).



 Version History
 Version 1.0, October 25, 1991
First release.
 Version 1.1b1, November 3, 1991
Version 1.1b1 was distributed locally, and it shouldnt have gone too far. It still had some bugs that have been fixed in 1.1b2.
 Version 1.1b2, November 23, 1991
More options added: a Progress Window, and the option to delete sounds as theyre converted.
Balloon help added.
You can now drag a file on top of SoundExtractor, and itll be processed.
Preferences are now stored in a separate file in the Preferences folder in the System folder, so you should be able to run SoundExtractor from a locked disk or a read-only shared volume.
 Version 1.1, November 28, 1991
The Delete after Extracting option now works properly.
Custom Sound Resource Types option added.
Memory watch window by Alessandro Levi Montalcini was added.
 Version 1.2, January 12, 1992
You can now extract sounds from the data fork of a file.
SoundExtractor now handles Apple Events.
You can interrupt the extraction progress by typing Command-Period.
Cosmetic changes.
 Version 1.21, January 17, 1992
A bug that required twice the RAM while extracting sounds from the data fork was fixed.
A bug in creating the Preferences file introduced in version 1.2 was fixed.
Cosmetic changes.
 Version 1.3, March 5, 1992
SoundExtractor now automatically recognizes the sampling rate of data sounds.
SoundExtractor recognizes stereo data sounds and extracts them properly.
It renames sounds with the same name.
It doesnt interrupt the extraction any more when an error occurs.
A progress bar was added to the Progress Window.
More preferences for stereo sounds were added.
Some memory bugs were fixed.
 Version 1.31, April 22, 1992
SoundExtractor wont create a sound folder for a file containing just one sound resource.
More preferences added: you can now have an audio feedback of what SoundExtractor is doing. It can play the sounds it is extracting, and/or beep when it has finished.
You can stop the playing sound by clicking the mouse button at any time, otherwise youll have to wait until it has finished playing. If you check the option Stop Playing After .5 Seconds, only the first half second of each sound will be played.
When you are asked to choose a sampling rate, either because there was insufficient sound information in the file or because you selected Prompt for Sampling Rate, you can specify a custom rate. Just type the rate in hertz (i.e. 22 KHz = 22000 Hz; however, most Mac sounds are sampled at 22.254 or 11.127 KHz, so type 22254 or 11127 in the appropriate field). The Sound Manager in current Macs can play sounds at any rate up to 64 KHz.



 Plans for Next Version:
Extract compressed data sounds correctly.
Downsampling, i.e. converting a sound from 22KHz to 11KHz or, in general, halving the sampling rate and/or the size of the sound.
Under certain conditions, for example when the destination disk becomes full, and the Delete after Extracting preference is active, SoundExtractor will delete the sound from the original even if it cant extract it. Ill fix this.
Option to always add a sound header to custom resource sounds. This may be useful for non-standard sound resource types which do not include a sound header (some ASNDs, I think).



 Thanks to:
Alessandro Levi Montalcini and Fabrizio Oddone for their invaluable help and beta testing.
Craig ODonnell for great ideas and suggestions, as well as for information and help with stereo sounds.
 and to all registered users for supporting SoundExtractor and giving suggestions for future versions!