SampleTank has a built in sound search, but it can become quite slow once you have loaded many libraries into the plugin. This page provides a database-style search for the following SampleTank libraries: SampleTank sounds database
Old slower search: SampleTank sounds database

SampleTank 2.5
Expansion Tanks Concert
Grand Piano
Film Orchestra
Film Orchestra 2
Bonus Sounds/Expansion Tanks
Bonus Sounds/Instrument and Vocal Licks
Bonus Sounds/Miroslav Orchestra Performances
Bonus Sounds/Sonik Capsules
Miroslav Philharmonik
Sonic Tanks
Sonik Synth
SR Sound Libraries Capsules
Best of Sonic Strings

While listening to many long audio files from the Ambient Brothers jam sessions, I wanted to keep track of the best sections for later editing. I came up with this quick and dirty method Autohotkey script for transferring Rockbox bookmarks  into a Reaper audio project.

Unfortunately most mp3 players don’t have options for bookmarking, and I have installed the Rockbox replacement firmware on my player, which has very good bookmarking features. Rockbox has many features that are an improvement over the built-in firmware, so I highly recommend it.

As I listen through a jam, I can simply make a bookmark at the start and end of the best sections. These bookmarks are stored in a plain text bookmark file, which looks something like this:

1;1419197;0;0;72436;0;0;/MUSIC/Ninjam/;20080522_2344.ninjam.mp3
1;60716417;0;0;3209055;0;0;/MUSIC/Ninjam/;20080522_2344.ninjam.mp3
1;60086404;0;0;3165363;0;0;/MUSIC/Ninjam/;20080522_2344.ninjam.mp3
1;49452868;0;0;2556431;0;0;/MUSIC/Ninjam/;20080522_2344.ninjam.mp3
1;44347593;0;0;2275225;0;0;/MUSIC/Ninjam/;20080522_2344.ninjam.mp3

We are interested in the 5th field (eg, the value ’72436′ in the first bookmark), which indicates where our bookmark is placed in terms of the number of milliseconds from the beginning of the file .

The script reads each bookmark line from the bookmark file, reads the millisecond value and converts this value to seconds. Autohotkey then  switches to Reaper and sends the  ‘Jump to Time’ Ctrl+J key combination and pastes the bookmark time value, creating a marker in the project timeline. This is repeated for all bookmarks in the file.

The setup procedure:

If you don’t already have Autohotkey, download and install it.

Before beginning, create a hotkey in Reaper for  “View: Time Unit for Ruler: Seconds” and set it to Alt+T. This will allow Autohotkey to change the Reaper time unit to seconds before sending the bookmarks.

Load the matching audio file into a Reaper project, and leave Reaper open.
<Depending on the script version, may also create hotkey for loading file instead – did this actually work?>

Drag your Rockbox bookmark file onto the Autohotkey script.

The script should do everything else automatically. You should now have matching bookmarks in your reaper project!

Autohotkey script: <SCRIPT>

I also had a method for automatically cutting out selected sections of the jams  in Reaper and saving them as mp3 – I’ll have to locate that macro.

You find yourself wandering in a dark and uninhabited world of brick and stone. The only sounds are your weary footsteps echoing in the stale air of endless hallways and immense abandoned chambers. Each day’s beginning is a clawing in your empty stomach. Each day’s end is marked by a collapse into the nearest dust filled niche. You have lost all track of time, and the meaning of your wandering has begun to fade. You have vague recollections of persecution and depression and unbearable loss, but all thoughts have begun to seem dreamlike. Only the idea of escape is strong, renewing itself at the turn of every corner, the opening of every door, only to be denied with another cavernous room or stale passageway. Stairs lead to nowhere, tunnels turn back upon themselves. Where are the inhabitants? It seems like a week since you ate your last morsel of food, and the water just ran out. You have to get out…

These prisons were created as the architecture for a game project called ‘Dystopias’ for the Thief 2 engine. The designs draw inspiration from Piranesi’s Carceri engravings of impossible prisons, and the graphic stories of Schuiten and Peeters. The Thief engine is a good match for the atmosphere, as it emphasizes awareness of darkness and keeping to the shadows, and a slow exploration approach.

A recreation of Waddington’s strategy boardgame 4000 AD for the Vassal game engine. This game appeared in my life during my early teens, and the colours and simplicity of the design and hidden 3D movement along with the possibility of travelling between the stars with fleets of tiny ships really caught my imagination. The game involves no chance element, and combined with a fairly long play time meant that my family only played it once or twice,  and was consigned to that all-too-common realm of unrequited game love.

From the game rules:

“An interstellar conflict game based on the concept of star travel by hyperspace for 2-4 players.”  4000 AD is a unique game of strategy set two thousand years in the future, when men have spread to the planets of other stars hundreds of light-years from the earth.  An interstellar conflict between worlds is its subject.  The concept of star travel by hyper-space is the basis of its unique playing character. 4000 AD is pure strategy of movement, with no chance element. Two to four players may play independently or in alliance with others.

 Vassal module: <LINK>

You should own the original game if you are going to use this module.

Reaninjam doesn’t offer any method to sync to Reaper in a sample accurate way, but I often want to have Reaper match the tempo of the Reaninjam plugin, so that my VST delays, loops and drum patterns are in time/sync with the Ninjam server.  Here’s a quick rundown of how to get the tempo to match as closely as possible.

I’ll assume that you are already familiar with Reaper and know how to insert the Reaninjam plugin into a track, as well as connect to a Ninjam server. 

Once you’ve connected to the server with Reaninjam, make note of the tempo and the number of beats in the interval.  In this example, we see that the tempo is 120bpm and there are 16 beats per Ninjam interval, which in most cases means 4 bars (4 beats per bar x 4 bars = 16 beats).  You’ll notice the green meter at the bottom of the plugin advances with every beat, and shows the current beat number of the current interval (beat 9 of 16 in this example). If you can’t hear the Reaninjam metronome, unmute it by pressing the ‘M’ button in the Metronome area of the plugin.

Going back to Reaper, set the tempo to match the Ninjam server tempo, in this case 120, and rewind the transport so that it is set to bar 1, beat 1 in reaper (the furthest to the left)

Activate the Reaper click/metronome button.

Now the tricky part:

While listening to the Reaninjam click and following the visual cue of the meter in the plugin, wait until beat 1of the interval is reached and press play on the Reaper transport (or press the associated hot key – by default it is the spacebar).

You should now hear both the Reaper and Reaninjam metronomes playing.  If you timed it properly, they will both be playing at the exact same time, and they are in sync as much as is possible.  If the clicks are slightly apart, then press stop on the Reaper transport, rewind it to 1/1 and try again.  I usually get it after a couple of attempts.

Now you should be able to jam, and anything that is synced to Reaper’s tempo will be in-time on the server as well.

Another optional thing that you can do is set a loop in reaper that matches the ninjam interval.  I’ve done this in the above example, with a four bar (16 beat) cycle set in the main window.  When the ninjam server starts back at beat 1, so does my loop.  This is great if you have midi patterns or short loops that you want to place on a track and cycle.

Complete listing of Ghost Recon, Desert Seige, and Island Thunder weapons

First, locate the file no_restrictions.kil in your Ghost Recon directory. It should be located in the ..\Ghost Recon\Mods\Origmiss\Kits folder.

Make a copy of this file and save it somewhere safe, but not in your Ghost Recon directory. This is the file that we will be adjusting to allow us to choose our own kits for our AI teams. If you run into trouble, or would like to restore the original kits, you can just move the copied file back into this directory. We could also alter any of the other .kil files (no_explosives.kil, no_sensors.kil, etc.) in this directory to allow default kits for these play modes, but the no_restrictions option suits our purposes here.

Once you have saved the backup file, open the original no_restrictions.kil file in a text editor. It should look like the listing in below. The file is layed out similar to an HTML file. Between each <Actor>….</Actor> qualifier is the list of kits available to that particular actor (soldier). Take a look at the line: <Actor Name=”mp_plt1_asl.atr”> indicated as #1, where mp = multiplayer, plt1 = platoon (team) #1, asl = assault (rifleman):

<KitRestriction Name=”No Restrictions”>
<Actor Name=”mp_plt1_asl.atr”> #1
<Kit Name=”rifleman-01.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”rifleman-02.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”rifleman-03.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”rifleman-04.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”henry_ramirez-01.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”henry_ramirez-02.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”henry_ramirez-03.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”henry_ramirez-04.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”lindy_cohen-01.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”lindy_cohen-02.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”lindy_cohen-03.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”lindy_cohen-04.kit”/>
</Actor>
<Actor Name=”mp_plt1_dem.atr”>#2
<Kit Name=”demolitions-02.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”demolitions-01.kit”/>………etc.

In multiplayer games, there are four separate teams (platoons), each of which can have nine soldiers. In the case of our AI teams, each human player would be in control of one team. By making changes to this <Actor> we can effect the default weapons kit that all riflemen in team (or platoon) #1 will have. When playing multiplayer with AI backup, the computer will assign you 3 riflemen, 3 demolitions, and 3 support. By changing the rifleman kit (mp_plt1_asl.atr), we change the kit for all 3 riflemen in team #1. You may have noticed that the computer doesn’t equip you with a sniper. Have no fear! You do get to choose one soldier before you start a multiplayer game, so you can choose a sniper at that point.

A little further in no_restrictions.kil we see (#2): <Actor Name=”mp_plt1_dem.atr”> which is the beginning of the kit descriptions for our demolitions expert from team #1. Take some time to look through no_restrictions.kiland familiarize yourself with the layout.

As you move further into no_restrictions.kil, you will see the remaining <Actor>’s for team #1, followed by the <Actor>’s for the remaining three teams. By changing each of these individually, we can create different default kits for each member of the four teams. Next we will begin making the changes.

<Actor Name=”mp_plt1_asl.atr”> is the rifleman for platoon or team #1
<Actor Name=”mp_plt2_asl.atr”> rifleman for platoon/team #2
<Actor Name=”mp_plt3_asl.atr”> rifleman for platoon/team #3
<Actor Name=”mp_plt4_asl.atr”> rifleman for platoon/team #4
<Actor Name=”mp_plt1_dem.atr”> demolitions for platoon/team #1
<Actor Name=”mp_plt2_dem.atr”> demolitions for platoon/team #2
<Actor Name=”mp_plt3_dem.atr”> demolitions for platoon/team #3
<Actor Name=”mp_plt4_dem.atr”> demolitions for platoon/team #4
<Actor Name=”mp_plt1_hvywep.atr”> support for platoon/team #1
<Actor Name=”mp_plt2_hvywep.atr”> support for platoon/team #2
<Actor Name=”mp_plt3_hvywep.atr”> support for platoon/team #3
<Actor Name=”mp_plt4_hvywep.atr”> support for platoon/team #4
<Actor Name=”mp_plt1_snip.atr”> sniper for platoon/ team #1
<Actor Name=”mp_plt2_snip.atr”> sniper for platoon/ team #2
<Actor Name=”mp_plt3_snip.atr”> sniper for platoon/ team #3
<Actor Name=”mp_plt4_snip.atr”> sniper for platoon/ team #4

Now we need to determine which kits we like and want to add as our default kit. Click here to look at all of the weapons kits for each soldier type. Note that this table also includes all of the weapons for the Desert Seige and Island Thunder add-on packs. If you added these mods in the accepted order (first DS then IT), the list should match up to the kits available to you in the Player Setup area of the game. If you don’t have these add-ons, just ignore those sections of the tables.

You may also see the statistics of the available weapons.

You will see something similar to this on the weapons selection page:

This will be the kit of choice for our example. We would like to replace the default kit for our riflemen with the MP5-SD rifle and Claymore mines, which is kit #5 from the weapons selection page. The text below the kit, <Kit Name = “henry_ramirez-01.kit”/>, is what we have to add to no_restrictions.kil to change our default kit. You can highlight the text with your mouse and copy it, or type it manually into the .kil file. <Kit Name=”henry_ramirez-01.kit”/>

Going back to no_restrictions.kil, add the copied text <Kit Name=”henry_ramirez-01.kit”/> as the first item in the rifleman <Actor> for team #1, shown below. It is important that this is added as the first item, as the first item for each <Actor> is what the computer uses as the default weapons kit.

<KitRestriction Name=”No Restrictions”>
<Actor Name=”mp_plt1_asl.atr”>
<Kit Name=”henry_ramirez-01.kit”/>__this has been added
<Kit Name=”rifleman-01.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”rifleman-02.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”rifleman-03.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”rifleman-04.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”henry_ramirez-01.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”henry_ramirez-02.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”henry_ramirez-03.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”henry_ramirez-04.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”lindy_cohen-01.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”lindy_cohen-02.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”lindy_cohen-03.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”lindy_cohen-04.kit”/>
</Actor>
<Actor Name=”mp_plt1_dem.atr”>
<Kit Name=”demolitions-02.kit”/>
<Kit Name=”demolitions-01.kit”/>……etc.

That’s all there is to it! Now you can use the weapons table to select the kits you would like for your demolitions, support, and sniper and add these to the appropriate actors:

<Actor Name=”mp_plt1_dem.atr”> demolitions for team #1
<Actor Name=”mp_plt1_hvywep.atr”> support for team #1
<Actor Name=”mp_plt1_snip.atr”> sniper for team #1

This will complete the new kits for team #1. You can change the other teams (plt2, plt3, plt4) now if you wish, but it is not required for our testing.

Save no_restrictions.kil, overwriting the original.

You can now run Ghost Recon and select your newly equipped team.

Be sure that both the server and players using the new kits have put a copy of the adjusted no_restrictions.kil file into their ..\Ghost Recon\Mods\Origmiss\Kits folder, or they won’t be able to utilize the new teams.

In order to take advantage of the changes we are making, we will have to select several options from the Multiplayer Server Setup screen when setting up our game (only the player hosting the game has to do this).

On the Gameplay tab, choose No Restrictions for our Available Kits, and check the AI Backup option. If the AI backup option isn’t available, you will have to turn off respawning in the respawn tab of the server setup.

IMPORTANT: Also be sure to set the Available Teams colors as shown (Team #1 Blue, #2 Red, #3 Green, #4 Gold), otherwise you will not get the proper kits.

Once the server options are set, you can proceed to the Player Setup screen, and click the Roster tab. Under the Team Selector, click on the blue team #1 tab, click on one of the EMPTY slots and check off the box to the right of your name. This assigns you to Team #1, which should contain the new kit.

Switch to the Soldier tab, and click the arrows at the top until it says “A Rifleman”. You now have the MP5-SD rifle and Claymore as your default kit!

Be sure to save the file any time you make any changes, and restart Ghost Recon after each change.

Good Luck!

This tutorial is a step by step explanation of how to setup Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games to play on modern PC’s and for setting it up to play multiplayer games via the internet. This has been impossible until the recent release of DosBox version 0.63, which adds the ability to use a tunnelling IPX network server/client via TCP/IP internet connections.

Initial Setup

Install Jagged Alliance – Deadly Games, and make note of the path to the install directory.

Install DosBox. You will need at least version 0.63 as previous versions did not support the IPX multiplayer setup options.

Install D-Fend (v2 or later), a GUI for DosBox . This tutorial makes heavy use of the windows version of D-Fend.

Setting up a D-Fend Profile

Run D-Fend. From the profile menu, choose the add profile wizard.

Give the profile a name. Leave the checkboxes unchecked.

In the Game EXE field enter the location of the Deadly Games executable (DG.EXE).

In the Setup EXE field enter the location of the Deadly Games sound setup executable (SETSOUND.EXE)

On the next screen, Cycles and Video card, just choose the defaults. You can always edit these values later in D-Fend.

Click Auto Configure on the next screen to configure the mounts automatically.

On the following screen, configure the Soundblaster. I had no success using the Soundblaster16 (sb16) option here, so I’ve chosen the SoundblasterPro (sbpro1) option, which works fine. Leave the remaining fields as default shown here.

On the following screen uncheck the Enable GUS checkbox. We won’t be needing this soundcard emulation.
Ensure both boxes are checked on the configure MIDI screen, and that the device drop down is set to default. This will use your default windows midi player for the in-game music. It should be better sounding music than any of the old soundcard options available in DOS games.

On the Configure PC screen, disable the Disney Sounds Source box, but leave the PC speaker enabled. Apparently some DOS games won’t run with the PC speaker disabled, so leave this checked.
Leave the Memory Requirements at the default settings. You can play around with these later if you like.

Click Finish to store your profile. You should see your game profile in the D-Fend window. You could double click on this to play the game, but we should take care of a few more things first.

Setting up the Sound

In order to have the sound work properly, we have to set up the soundcard hardware using the DOS setup, SETSOUND.EXE. This will allow us to choose a sound card that DosBox will emulate.

From the D-Fend run menu, click on Run Setup

This will launch the DOS soundcard setup. Once you reach the menu screen highlight the Digital Sound option and press enter

Choose the Sound Blaster Pro option

Select “No” for the Auto-Detect card option. Then choose 220 for the port setting, 7 for the IRQ setting, and 1 for the DMA channel. You will recall these were the default options we chose when setting up our D-Fend profile using the profile wizard. This matches up the DOS hardware selection to the DosBox soundcard emulation.

Returning to the main menu, Select Card for Music

Choose the Roland MPU401/General Midi option. This matches up with our choice for using midi within the D-Fend profile setup.

Again say no the the soundcard Auto-Detect. For the Port setting I chose 388, just so I would have no conflict with the port used by the Soundblaster. I’m not sure if it matters, as there is no setting for this in the D-Fend profile.

Once back at the main menu, choose Save Settings, and then Exit to DOS. This will take you back to D-Fend.

Playing the Game

You can double-click on the profile in D-Fend to play the game now. By default the sound options are turned off in Deadly Games, so once you are in the game, click on the Options tab, where you can independantly activate the sound and music, as well as control their volumes.

While in the game, you can press ALT+ENTER to switch between windowed and full screen modes. CTRL+F10 will lock and unlock the mouse within the DosBox window. CTRL+F11 and CTRL+F12 change the speed of the DosBox emulation, which can speed up the game somewhat. It can get unstable at very high speeds, but I had no problems on my computer at 6000-7000 cycles. You can read the emulation speed at the top of the DosBox window.

Multiplayer Setup

Now for the best part, playing Jagged Alliance-Deadly Games via the internet! Version 0.63 of DosBox lets you play multiplayer games using the IPX protocol via the internet (TCP/IP) using a tunnelling IPX server/client system.

In order to do this, you must make some changes in your D-Fend profile for Deadly Games. Highlight your profile, then from the Profile menu, choose Edit Profile.

In the profile box, you can see many of the options that were set during the profile wizard setup. Click on the Communication tab, and check the IPX box. This enables the IPX multiplayer option.

Now you have two choices: to be the host (server) or a client.

Click on the Autoexec tab.

To set up a server, type IPXNET STARTSERVER in the text box. Click OK. Now the next time you start the game, it will start an IPX server, using your internet connection IP address as the server address. Then it will run the game. Within the game, you can click on Multiplayer, then Network Game, and Lead a Network Game. Set your various game options. You won’t be able to start the game until at least one player has joined, and chosen a colour.

To join a server as a client, type IPXNET CONNECT xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx in the text box. The xxx indicate the IP address of the host. You will have to communicate with the host in advance to get the IP address. Click OK. The next time you start the game, it will connect to the IPX host located at the IP address you have entered. The game will start, where you can choose Multiplayer, then Network Game, then Join a Network Game. Once it finds the server, you will be able to click on the server name and join. Choose a color for your team, and you will enter the game lobby.

You might want to have separate profiles for server and client. You can use the Export Profile option in the File menu to save a profile then import it again and give it a new name right away. Then use this new profile to change the Autoexec options.

I hope this tutorial can be of some use. Thanks to the DosBox and D-Fend creators for their great work.

That’s it, you’re ready to play!