CD Importer - Disky (CDBONK)
============================

EVAL COPY ONLY - NOT FOR RE-DISTRIBUTION
TEKLAB PROVIDES NO SUPPORT FOR THIS SOFTWARE, AND NO WARRANTY.  USE
IT AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Please be aware that this version of CDBONK is *ALPHA* software.  That's
right, I'm personally not finished testing it.  You guys are helping me out by
paving the way for the beta of Disky1.2 in the very near future, but please dont
pester me with bug reports or problems right now - if CDBONK breaks something
or you lose data, or you can't make it work - then *WAIT* for the final release
of Disky1.2.  This document is *all* I can provide right now in terms of setup
support and help with using it.  Personal email to me about problems setting
up CDBONK will deter me from getting any work done on Disky1.2, and thus it's
probably best that if you don't know what you're doing with SCSI, and don't 
feel comfortable running Alpha software, then don't use CDBONK.

Where to get CDBONK:
-------------------

I'm putting it on my personal webserver here:

	http://lab1.teklab.com/~jay/DISKY_CDBONK.zip

Maybe if I get time, I'll set up a proper web page for it, but frankly I'd prefer
to spend the time getting Disky1.2 ready for its first public beta.

Basic Instructions:
------------------

This special version of Disky is being released to assist the process of
testing the Sample CD import capabilities of the full Disky package.  Most
of the regular features of Disky have been disabled in this special 
version - the Volume Tree, CD Tools and Syslog windows are the only functional
windows in this version.

First, some definitions of special terms are in order.  Please read these
definitions carefully, as the rest of the documentation uses these phrases
to describe what's going on:

	A-Sampler = a Yamaha A3000, A4000, or A5000 Sampler.  We used to refer
	to the Yamaha A3000 as an "A3k", and that was good enough.  Now there
	are more A-series samplers on the market, and rather than say something
	like "A3k/A4k/A5k", which is hard to type and annoying to say, we simply
	refer to any one of the 3 samplers as an "A-Sampler".

	A-Disk = a SCSI disk (hard disk, Zip, Jaz, etc) that has been formatted
	by an A-Sampler for use by the sampler itself.  The format of this
	disk is special to Yamaha, and only Disky and A-Samplers can read these
	disks.

	A-SampleCD = a Sample CD that has been designed to be used specifically
	with an A-Sampler.  A-SampleCD's are formatted in a special way so
	that A-Samplers can read them, and they contain files that are key
	to the way that A-Samplers store samples.  Disky can make A-SampleCD's,
	and as of right now it's the only software available that can do this.
	Note that you *can* make A-SampleCD's with the new A4000/A5000 Samplers,
	though these actually load more slowly than A-SampleCD's made with Disky.

	All of the A-Samplers included at least one A-SampleCD (in the case of
	the A4000/A5000, *10* CD's were included).  If you don't have a SCSI
	CD-ROM drive, you can't use those disks - until now.

	CDBONK = this special version of Disky which is designed only for
	messing around with A-SampleCD's ... thus, its called "CDBONK".  Hey,
	it was late at night when I had to think of a name for it, and it
	seemed fitting at the time, so it stuck.

Install:
-------

Install is really, really simple.  Make a folder, unzip the contents of 
DISKY_CDBONK.zip to it, and double-click "DISKY_CDBONK.exe".  Make
whatever shortcuts you feel comfortable with, but remember: this is not
finished software.  Don't get too attached to it!  :)

What you can do with CDBONK:
---------------------------

	1. Make A-SampleCD's directly from Volumes stored on an A-Disk.

	2. Import Volumes from an A-SampleCD directly to an A-Disk.  This means
	you can use your PC's IDE CD-ROM drive to put samples from an A-SampleCD
	onto an A-Disk - which also means you do *not* need to purchase a separate
	SCSI CD-ROM drive in order to use A-SampleCD's with your A-Sampler.

What you can't do:
-----------------

	CDBONK is *not* Disky1.2.  It's a subset of the features available in Disky.
	Disky has tons more features, including sample import plugins, drag and drop
	of samples to/from Programs/Sample Banks/Volumes, saving and loading of 
	.TAF/.A3K archive files, integration with SampleLibrary.Net, etc.

	When Disky1.2 is released, I'll most likely also release a shareware or 
	demo version with the CDTools capabilities enabled, and thus CDBONK will 
	become obsolete.

How to use CDBONK:
-----------------

CDBONK assumes that you have the following setup:

	1. A PC with a SCSI controller in it, which is somehow connected to 
	a SCSI disk of some variety, formatted as an A-Disk.

	2. Your PC has an IDE CD-ROM drive in it.

	3. You have A-SampleCD's that you want to transfer to your A-Disk,
	using the IDE CD-ROM drive.

	4. CDBONK will do this for you.

When you first start up CDBONK, it'll scan your SCSI system for A-Disks, and
any A-Disks that it finds will appear in the Volume Tree window.  There are 3
main windows in CDBONK:

	CDBONK Main - this contains a bunch of buttons, most of which are
	disabled in this version.  Use these buttons to turn windows off 
	and on.

	Volume Tree - this is a list of all A-Disk Volumes that were found 
	on your SCSI system, separated by Partition, separated by Disk.  
	CDBONK can mount 8 separate A-Disk SCSI devices, each with 8 
	partitions, etc.

	CD Tools - this is where all the fun happens.  There are two functions
	for the CD Tools window - make A-SampleCD's ("CD Builder"), and
	import A-SampleCD's ("CD Importer").

	SysLog - this is a running log of everything that's going on with CDBONK.
	It's handy if you want to copy a list of volumes in a disk into a text
	document, etc.  Its also where I send msg's to myself so I can figure
	out what's going on in Disky, etc.

Note that when you first start up CDBONK, the window placement will probably be
a little bit messy, and you'll probably need to click the "CD Tools" button to
open that window.  The full version of Disky1.2 has a sophisticated window
management scheme which allows a user to create 'screensets' for different
activities (similar to Logic Audio, if you're familiar with that), and the
arrangement of windows can be totally tweaked and customized to suit your
layout tastes/screen sizes/personal flair.   This layout manager is broken
in this version of CDBONK, though it works pretty well in Disky1.2.

You should get all windows open (Volume Tree, CD Tools, Syslog, and the main
window) and arrange them comfortably.

The Volume Tree window shows a list of all A-Disk partitions it has found on
your SCSI bus, and each partition will have its Volumes listed.  Note that
there is a different icon for "Partition" and "Volume", though right now
there's not really much else to differentiate a Partition in the Volume Tree
from a Volume.  (This will be fixed in the final release of Disky1.2 when I
completely redesign the icons and change the color scheme ... I'm mentioning 
it here only to make it easier for you to figure out what's going on with 
CDBONK right now, so please don't complain about the colors! :).

In the CD Tools window, you have two functions, each separate on their own tab.
Hit the "CD Importer" tab, put an A-SampleCD in your PC's CD-ROM drive, and
select the drive in the drive list pulldown (wait a few seconds if your PC
needs to mount the CD-ROM drive first).

When CDBONK finds an A-SampleCD that it can understand, it'll show you a list
of *Volumes* that are available on that CD.  If the CD has multiple partitions
(some A-SampleCD's do), these will be displayed as well, each with the volumes
in the partition.

To import a Volume from the CDTools "CDImporter" window, just select the volume
with the mouse, and drag it onto the *partition* you want it on the Volume Tree.
Oila!  CDBONK will copy the Volume over, and you'll be able to then load it
from the hard disk using your A-Sampler.

*PAY ATTENTION TO THE SYSLOG WINDOW DURING THIS PROCESS*

There's no GUI for this drag 'n drop operation yet.  You know, stuff like "Cancel",
or "Rename Volume if it already exists", etc.  If something doesn't work - like
you tried to copy a Volume that already existed on the destination partition,
the Syslog window will tell you ... you won't get any dialog messages or anything
like that yet.  The GUI code for all of the abort conditions of a Volume copy
is still being worked on ... there's a lot of mundane stuff that needs to be
done first, such as checking for necessary disk space, making sure the Volume
doesn't already exist, and if it does, giving the option to abort, rename the
Volume being copied, or merge contents (which is *incredibly* complicated), etc.

For this reason, there is no fancy GUI-feedback for the Volume copy operation.
Syslog is all there is, so watch it carefully ...

Also, there's some funky debug code still left in the Syslog window.  Ignore all
that, unless you're working on the code with me here at TekLab.

Some cool stuff:
---------------

The other function in the CD Tools window is the "CD Builder".  This is a bit 
more mature, and you can actually use this to make A-SampleCD's right now if
you're up to it.  Most of the GUI in "CD Builder" is self-explanatory ...

One other thing which you might find extremely cool (and which I'm going to 
have a lot of fun explaining properly in the Disky1.2 end-user documentation)
is that CD Builder and CD Importer can actually be used together to create
a massive PC-hosted *archive* of material.

Say you have a 21gig Hard drive, and it's blank (formatted as a PC disk), and
you've set it up so that it's accessible as drive "G:".  You can copy all
the A-SampleCD contents to drive G: (copy to the G:\ directory, though), or
export all of your Volumes from your work A-Disk using the CD Builder to the
G:\ directory, then select "G:" in the CD Importer window ... CDBONK will list 
each CD as if they were a separate Partition ... which means you can take 
that 10-CD set of CD's you got from Yamaha with your A4000/A5000, or all 3 
of the TekLab Wizard CD's, copy them to a blank disk in your PC, and import 
them to your work A-Disk at will whenever you need them.

Guess what?  This also works for network drives.  So if you're in a film 
production house and you've got 4 musicians on your network, and they all
need access to your massive A-SampleCD-based sound effects library, just 
mount a network drive containing all of the A-SampleCD's to each 
workstation, give each musician a copy of Disky1.2 (or CDBONK, if you need
to do this *right now*) and away you go...

I told you it was cool ... :)

Conclusion:
----------

That's about it.  It's "fly-by-wire", "trial-by-fire" code, and it's not for the
faint of heart, but if you're up to the task CDBONK will replace the need for
a dedicated SCSI CD-ROM drive.  Plus, you can make A-SampleCD's with it too.

If you've got feedback, let me know: jay@teklab.com

--
Jay Vaughan
Disky Lead Developer
TekLab
jay@teklab.com
