Open Beat Box : A Virtual Drum Machine
           ______________________________________________

   Table of Contents
   Introduction
   Copyright
   Licence
   Portability
   Installation
   Known Bugs
   Fuses
   Running OBB

Introduction

   Open Beat Box (OBB) is a virtual drum machine. It is a program
   to  make  songs  with  music  sample  in  loops instead of the
   traditional method with scores and instruments.

   This is our fourth public release. This release is less broken
   than  the  last  one  but  we are still far from a usable drum
   machine.  Until we release this full featured beat box you are
   all  waiting  for,  try this one and let us know what you like
   and what we should work harder on.
     _________________________________________________________

Copyright

   Copyright 2002-2003 Yannick Gingras <ygingras@ygingras.net>

   Copyright 2002-2003 Vincent Barbin <vbarbin@openbeatbox.org>
     _________________________________________________________

Licence

   This  program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
   modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
   published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of
   the License, or (at your option) any later version.

   This  program  is  distributed  in  the  hope  that it will be
   useful,  but  WITHOUT  ANY  WARRANTY; without even the implied
   warranty  of  MERCHANTABILITY  or  FITNESS  FOR  A  PARTICULAR
   PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

   You  should  have  received  a  copy of the GNU General Public
   License  along  with  this  program; if not, write to the Free
   Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston,
   MA 02111-1307 USA
     _________________________________________________________

Portability

   We  want  OBB  to  be portable. We have been reported that OBB
   runs  on  GNU/Linux,  Windows and IRIX. As far as we know, OBB
   should  run on most flavors of UNIX, on Windows and on Mac. We
   are  really  interested in volonteers to test source snapshots
   on  any of those OS. Even if you don't want to test snapshots,
   if you sucessfully launched OBB on any OS other than GNU/Linux
   and Windows, please let us know.
     _________________________________________________________

Installation

   OBB  now  runs  on  officially  runs on Windows and UNIX so we
   kicked   installation   instructions  from  this  README.  See
   INSTALL-GNU-Linux.txt    for    GNU/Linux   instructions   and
   INSTALL-Windows.txt for Windows instructions. There is also an
   unofficial INSTALL-IRIX.txt out there...
     _________________________________________________________

Known Bugs

   We  prefer  to  have  only a few features but to be mostly bug
   free. There are a few bugs that we did not fixed at the moment
   for  various  reasons.  Most  likely  we  left them there even
   though  we  know  they exists because they are part of modules
   that will be completely rewritten in future versions.

   We know the existence of the following bugs :

     * OBB won't prompt you for saving when you quit.
     _________________________________________________________

Fuses

   Under  no circumstances the OBB development team will sell you
   fuses.  We  are  not  associated  with  anybody  responding to
   "Messenger".  We  really super desperately need new propaganda
   for our hate campaign. : D

   The  OBB  development  team  would like to remind you that you
   should  never go outside late at night with a 12 gauge shotgun
   looking for a messenger without the supervision of a parent.
     _________________________________________________________

Running OBB

   There  is a script called obb in the directory where you found
   this README. Just run it :
     sh obb

   or:
     ./obb

   on  UNIX  or  click on the file OBB.py in the src directory on
   Windows.

   The  green  buttons  with  the weird shape at the right of the
   eight holder bars are the hit buttons. The diamond shaped ones
   on  the  left of the tool bar are the command buttons. You can
   click  play  now.  The  red flashing lights indicate which hit
   buttons are being played.

   Each  holder bar has a different sound but all the hit buttons
   on  the  same  holder bar plays the same sound. Click on a hit
   button to activate it. It will be brighter. The red light will
   record  it's  state  a few "hits" before it pass on it and OBB
   will play the sound at this position.

   The button with the speaker on it preview the sample loaded on
   it's  holder  bar.  You can change the settings of this holder
   bar  by  clicking on the "settings" button. It the one next to
   "preview".  You  can  change  this  sample  by clicking on the
   button with a folder on it.

   The slider next to the "open" button is the balance slider you
   can adjust on witch stereo channel you want the sample to play
   by double clicking on it you'll wet it on it's default value.

   You  can  change  the tempo with the amber spinbox. It support
   mouse  wheel, it's the fastest way to change it quick. You can
   change  the  master output volume by draging the handle on the
   slider next to the tempo spinbox.

   When  you  are happy with your pattern, click on the floppy to
   save  it  with the name scrolling around or on the floppy with
   the  ugly blurry arrow to change it's name. If you have messed
   up  your pattern and would like to start from scratch, hit the
   white page button.

   That's  about it for now. We have to implement the rest of the
   functionalities.  How  did you like it ? We'd like to ear from
   your impressions.

   Please contact us : http://openbeatbox.org/contact .

   Thank you for trying OBB !
