DAP 2.1.5 review

DAP is a digital audio processor for Unix, originally developed for SGI

License: GPL (GNU General Public License) File size: 283K Developer: Richard Bruce Kent

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DAP is a digital audio processor for Unix, originally developed for SGI. It now supports Solaris, Linux and ships with several distributions of the Linux operating system.

Here are some key features of "DAP":
Amplitude

Amplitude / balance / normalize
Fade in / fade out / bounce
Ramp amplitude & balance
Wrap overloaded amplitude operations

Buffers

Eight independent buffers
Open, clear, copy and move buffers
Mixplay for multiple buffer playback in real time
Two, four and eight channel mixplay
Mixplay control over volume, loop and pan controls
Mix down from mixplay to file

Conversion

8 bit / 16 bit
Mono / stereo / quadro

Display & Zoom

Fast and accurate display modes
Horizontal and vertical zoom
Scrolling
Zero searching
Manual data edit
Zoom to in, out, all, range, 1::1
Clock

DSP

Save and load DSP effects to file
Complete control over DSP parameters
Multiple loop playback while processing
Complex DSP processing engine including :-
Reverb (Moorer, Schroeder, multi-tap)
Delay (stereo, modulated, multi-tap, multi)
Flanger
Phaser
Distortion
Filter
Auto Pan
Gate
Compressor / Limiter

Edit

Undo / redo
Cut / copy / paste / delete / remove / keep / trim
Overwrite / mix
Add workspace
Clear clipboard

Files

Load and save AIFF
Import and export RAW and WAV
8 bit and 16 bit
Mono, stereo and quadro
Rate 8kHz to 48kHz (sound-card dependent)

Looping

Separate sustain and release loops
Zero searching
Forwards and forwards/backwards loop modes
BPM counter
Set loop to range

Macros

Macro (for connectivity to external programs)
Pipe as raw (binary), raw (text), AIFF (temp), AIFF(save)
Pipe current buffer / all buffers
Interleaved or separated samples
Pipe buffer, range, either or none
Output to buffer, dialog or none

Main Limitations

No direct-to-disk so limited by main and virtual memory
Unintelligent undo buffers - use a lot of memory
Lacking in keyboard shortcuts and toolbars
Cannot handle 24 bit audio
Cannot handle MP3 files
No help, tool tips or manual
No DSP effects parameters documentation
Effects incomplete (gated reverb, EQ, parametric EQ)
No noise reduction, filter based DC removal or convolution
No colour preferences
Not multi-threaded - GUI can pause audio
No spatialisation (3D audio)
No drag and drop
No MIDI support

Miscellaneous

Sample rate
Textual details
Clear undo buffers

Mixer (not SGI)

Complete OSS mixer panel to control sound-card mixer
Control over volume (left and right), mute and record channel

Playback

Play sample, range or display
Control over hardware levels and rates
Manual release for loops
Automatic scrolling

Preferences

Display as dots, lines or filled
Axis display on or off
Display frames or time
Quick or accurate display
Compatibility options for Sox and WAVs
Automatic setting controls
Undo buffers on or off
Range behaviour
Text size & border width
Device filenames
Idle times
Temporary directory

Ranges

Single & multiple channel range selections
Zero searching
Range all, display, clear, sustain, release
Reverse / invert / zero
Channel swap & copy
Duplicate
Panorama
Adjust DC

Record

Record sample, range or display
Automatic DC correction
Control over hardware levels and rates
Input meters
Recording trigger
Automatic scrolling

Resampling

Full time stretch and non-time stretch resampling
Control over rate, duration and pitch

Requirements:
Latest release of xforms
XPM library
Open Sound System drivers (for Linux, NetBSD and Solaris)