	Hi, and thanks for your interest in amSynth. ;-)
	     http://amsynthe.sourceforge.net/amSynth
	------------------------------------------------

amSynth is a real-time analogue modelling synthesizer.
It currently uses the OSS/ALSA audio and midi devices for its input and output,
and can do JACK audio too!

	** Welcome to the third release candidate (rc3) of amSynth **

The basic structure of amSynth is not forseen to change - amSynthe (same 
homepage) has a different goal of a more complex and powerful engine, but it has
not yet been started. Work is now underway on turning amSynth into a plugin 
shared library, which will make it easy to integrate with many software 
packages.

I hope that amSynth works well for you, and you can get the sounds you want to
create! Good luck!

- Nick Dowell


Running amSynth
---------------
read INSTALL for installation instructions!!

Once youve compiled and installed amSynth, run it with the -h flag to get a list
of command-line options.

For more in-depth discussion of using amSynth, please visit the web-forum at
http://amsynthe.sourceforge.net/amSynth/forum


Configuration
-------------
To save passing command-line options every time, you can set the options in the
~/.amSynthrc file. Also, there are some options which can only be set in this 
file, so it is recommended to customise it.


Presets
-------
Presets are stored in a bank file, "~/.amSynth.presets" by default
You can specify another file using the 'amSynth -b <file>' command line option
You can also load other bank files from the application's menu.
!! Whenever you exit amSynth, the bank you are using is automatically saved !!


Known problems
--------------
I have tested this software on my setup, and for me it seems to work fine..
So far I've used it succesfully with:
+ Cubase (Atari ST) running on another machine
+ seq24 running on the same machine
+ MuSE running on the same machine
+ Rosegarden 4 running on the same machine
+ vkeybd (virtual keyboard program) running on the same machine

Although I've been using this software myself for a while without many problems,
I am aware of some issues which have arisen in the past :-

+ Careful with the polyphony! If you play too many notes at once for your CPU, 
  two things can happen:
  + If you aren't running amSynth SUID root (i.e. with realtime priority) you 
    will experience (continuous) buffer dropouts, which will sound like horrible
	distortion.
  + If you are running SUID root, you will also experience dropout, plus your
    system will appear to be locked. This is because amSynth is eating up *all*
	the CPU time, and running at highest priority.
  Experiment with the "polyphony" setting in .amSynthrc or with the `-p' option
  on the command line.
  
You have been warned!

But more importantly, have fun ;-)

	!! IMPORTANT !!
	!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you find a bug in amSynth, or just something plain annoying, please give some
feedback, this is the only way the software will improve, and you want that, 
don't you? ;-)
Send messages to the mailng list: amsynthe-main@lists.sourceforge.net
or discuss on-line: http://amsynthe.sourceforge.net/amSynth/forum
