Orchestra-90/PC 1.3 is a simple, no-frills program that plays original Orchestra-80/85/90 
and Piano-85/90 ASCII files on a PC using a sound card. It is launched from the command 
line with:

	"orch90 [-{o|p}] filename.orc"

or via a file association that runs ORCH90.EXE when an .ORC file is selected.

The command line switches -o and -p are optional. -o forces Orchestra-90 mode wherein all 
JATx and Lx parameters in the score are ignored. -p forces Piano-90 mode wherein the 
default decay rate is JAT6, the same as the TRS-80 version of Piano-85/90. If neither 
switch is set, Orchestra-80/85/90 scores will compile and play in Orchestra-90 mode; 
Piano-85/90 scores with an initial JATx parameter will compile and play in Piano-90 mode; 
Piano-85/90 scores that relied on the default JAT6 setting will compile and play in a 
mixed mode, the Lx parameter is recognized but the default decay rate is JAT0, no decay. 
(That's what the -p switch is for.)

Hitting any key will terminate the program.

Continuous play is possible by using a batch file containing this line:

	for %%f in (*.orc) do orch90 %%f

If Orchestra-90/PC finds an error in the music file it displays a message with an error 
number similar to the original TRS-80 program. Any other problem results in an error exit. 
The exit code may give you a clue as to what the problem is.

exit(1)	file: not found/can't open/can't read/etc.
exit(2)	memory: can't allocate/etc.
exit(3)	error: compilation error.
exit(4)	wave: can't open/etc.

Overall, I think you will find the quality of the sound significantly better than the
original TRS-80 versions. This is due a faster sample rate and the vastly increased 
computational power of the today's CPUs. For example, where the TRS-80 versions used 8-
bit, integer arithmetic to generate the wave tables, the PC version uses double-precision, 
floating point math. This improvement comes at a price, though, and some Orchestra-85/90 
transcriptions that pushed the limits with percussion effects may not sound the way they 
did on the TRS-80.

To use Orch-90/PC with David Browder's front end program just rename orch90.exe to orch.exe.

A large collection of Orchestra-85/90 and Piano-85/90 music files can be found on the 
World Wide Web in Ira Goldklang's TRS-80 pages at: 	
	http://w3.infonorth.com/~ira/trs80-o.htm.

Orchestra-90/PC is also available as a Win32 DLL.

Enjoy,

Jon Bokelman
jmlpartners@nmhu.campus.mci.net
