DDFA GUI Readme

Licensing

 The DDFA GUI is written in Minos. [http://bigforth.sourceforge.net]

 To access the SPI interface, it uses the FTDI 2232 USB
 controller. [http://www.ftdichip.com/Products/EvaluationKits/DIPModules.htm#DLP-2232M-G]

 Minos is © 1998-2012 by Bernd Paysan, the DDFA GUI is © 2007-2012 by
 CSR plc, both licensed under GPL version 3
 [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html], and can be redistributed
 under GPL version 3 or (at your option) any later version. This
 package also contains the proprietary FTDI D2XX driver
 [http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/D2XX.htm], and a proprietary DLL
 that allows to access the driver in bit bang mode. As a special
 permission, we allow to distribute this program together with the
 FTDI driver, and to link the program to the DLL that is part of the
 driver.

Install

 Double-click the ddfa-gui.exe installer. You need admin rights for
 that. Confirm the few questions. You can plug in the amplifier and
 start the GUI in any order. If the GUI does not connect to the
 amplifier, it will show "disconnected" in the title bar, and allow
 you to connect later from the direct input page.

Usage

GUI organization

 The GUI is separated into four main tabs: 

 * Direct input for loading files and directly sending commands
 * EQ DSPs for DSP controls
 * STAMPs for STAMP controls
 * Global for global control

 The GUI tries to keep in sync with the hardware by reading out values when necessary. 

GUI Operation

 The GUI offers some help for typical audio applications. 

 * Shift: Stereo mode. Where possible, the corresponding stereo
   channel is set to the identical value.
 * Ctrl: Opposite operation. The corresponding other element moves
   into the opposite direction. This works for the tone control, where
   bass and treble move into opposite directions, and for the mixer,
   where moving one channel up moves the other channels down
   (cross-fade).

 Shift and Ctrl can be combined.

Files

 The GUI can write configurations in .spi files. The "Direct
 input" tab lets you load and save such files. The GUI keeps track of
 interactive changes - if you want to save changes, enter a file name,
 and click on "Save". You can also save equalizer coefficients into a
 file with "Coeff". If you want a configuration to be loaded at
 startup, save it as init.spi. Use the "Clear" button to reset the
 change tracking if you want to save incremental configurations.

Some hints about MINOS

 Number input fields provide different bases: '%' switches into
 binary, '$' into hex, and '&' back to decimal. '-' negates the
 number, so it works only when there's a non-zero number in the field.

 Sliders accept to type in the position (backspace erases last digit,
 if the range is exceeded, the first digit is dropped off). Like
 number input fields, '-' negates the position. Cursor keys work as
 well (just try them).