The World of Computer Software/The World of Computer Software.iso/sound9.txt

Text File | 1993-01-15 | 26KB | 582 lines

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|                  The Sound Site Newsletter                        |
|                                                                   |
| Issue #9                Spring 1992                       (X)     |
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|     Copyright (C) 1992 by David Komatsu  All Rights Reserved.     |
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|  This may be distributed to bulletin boards, FTP sites or other   |
|  media as long as there is no charge to receive the newsletter    |
|  o Submissions for next issue being accepted now                  |
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Note from the Editor
--------------------

Well here is the spring issue of the Sound Newsletter.  As many of you
have noticed our issues are a little more spread apart now.

We are looking for column authors as well as a programming expert
to start a programmers corner in the Sound Newsletter.  If you
would like to do this or add any other input please contact me.

Please use the two addresses below to send comments and
submissions to the Sound Newsletter.

[e-mail]
[e-mail]

The Sound Newsletter is also posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc as well
as rec.games.misc on USENET.  We are also a part of SB-Net.  See
bottom for list of BBS and FTP sites that carry the Sound Newsletter.

-----> Dave

In this issue
-------------
o Special Thanks
o Do you want to announce a new product?
o Feature Articles & News
  o The new Sound Blaster Pro
  o Comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard appears on USENET
  o Adlib files for Bankruptcy
o Sound Bits
  o ScopeTrax
  o CD-Box
o New Products
o Product Specifications:
  o Video Blaster
o Anonymous FTP sound Sites

Special thanks to the following for supporting the Sound Newsletter
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeffrey Belt
  ([e-mail].)    : Author CD-Box
Mark J. Cox
  ([e-mail])         : Author Modplay
Chris S Craig
  ([e-mail])        : Author Scope Trax
Michael Minakami            : Video Blaster
Mike Moffat                : Feature Article
Jim Oldroyd
  ([e-mail])            : Saffron FTP Site Admin

And to all the FTP sites and bulletin boards carrying the Sound
Newsletter and of course all the dedicated readers who make it worth
the effort.

Do you want to announce a new product?
---------------------------------------

If you have written a sound related program that is SHAREWARE,
FREEWARE, or PUBLIC DOMAIN and would like to announce your program
contact us.  We can feature it and help distribute it.  You can mail
me at [e-mail].

If you wish contact me and I will upload your program to Saffron and
post an announcement of release.   Please include a brief description
of your software program to be used in the sound newsletter.

Alternatively you can mail all sound program to me on a 3.5" disk Low
or High Density to:

David Komatsu
Sound Program Submission
4826 Likini Street
Honolulu, HI  96818

Sound FTP Sites
---------------

A lot of people have been asking where to find sound files.  At the
end of this newsletter there is a complete listing of FTP sites.  The
sites with the most files are:

abcfd20.larc.nasa.gov   128.155.23.64  This is an Amiga site that contains
                       many MOD and Protracker MOD files.
ccb.ucsf.edu            128.218.1.13   Contains mainly SND files and
                       SND players

saffron.inset.com       192.94.75.2    This is our main site containing
                       MOD, Protracker MOD, STM, SND files
                       as well as all types of sound player
                       programs, sound analyzer, convert
                       programs, sound newsletters, adlib
                       and soundblaster utilities.

Feature Article
---------------

                   **************************************
                   *    The New Sound Blaster Pro V2    *
                   *  a feature Article by Mike Moffat  *
                   **************************************

How many of you have heard rumours of the "New Sound Blaster Pro" ? If you
haven't then you've missed out on some quite astonishing information.

It got to the stage where it was hard to tell fact from fiction, it seemed
as though we might have three or four different Sound Blaster Pro style
cards, as well as the many variations of the original Sound Blaster,
for anyone looking to buy a sound card for there pc, i'm SURE they'd have
been having nightmares... Now, finally, we KNOW what the new Sound Blaster
Pro is and has..

The Sound Blaster Pro V2, although theorectically the same card, has
undergone MAJOR renovations. The Pro V2 is an all new design, using
many surface mount components, and a much shorter PCB, infact, its
not that much larger than the standard Sound Blaster!

Gone are the twin, big, space waisting 24pin FM chips, the amplifier ic's,
and other 'garden variety' chips, instead in there place are new, custom
made surface mount devices. The two FM chips have been replaced by the
much vaunted OPL-3 stereo FM chip, which provides better panning for
stereo effects. As well as being fully compatible with the previous Sound
Blaster and Sound Blaster Pro, the OPL-3 has 15 melodies using two
operators plus five percussion sounds, or six melodies using four
operators, three melodies using two operators plus five percussion sounds.

The analog to digital sampling rates remain as on the original Sound
Blaster Pro, from 4kHz to 44.1kHz in MONO or 22.1kHz for stereo.
Perhaps as a result of new, custom designed ic's, or an all new,
shorter and redesigned pcb ( or both ) i find that samples sound
a little clearer, and where previously i would pick up interference
from the computer or hard drive ( never worked out what it was ) now
i just get a nice, clean sample. With my original Sound Blaster Pro V1,
using VocEdit's "Scan Input" with my Hi-Fi connected to the LINE input
and NO AUDIO at all, the "WaveForm Window" would show a slight, random
signal, and recorded samples seemed to have a "click" that could be
heard in the quiet parts of a sample, the "click" seemingly in time to
when the hard drive had saved that chunk of the sample. Nothing i did
would cure it, moving the card from slot to slot, moving cables and
even a different power supply! However, the Sound Blaster Pro V2 had
NONE of those problems, and now i can sample to my hard drive's limit!

Another point, i seem to get less noise comming through the hi-fi when
i'm using the PC with the amp still on, no more "top ten data transfers"!

The rest of the card is basically the same as the V1 Pro. You have line,
mic and cd-rom audio and pc speaker inputs, back mounted volume control
and audio outputs. At-BUS style CD-Rom interface and the same jumpers
for IRQ,DMA,Port Address and so on ..

On last note on the subject of hardware, the MIDI BOX is *NOT* included in
the SB-Pro V2 package. Like the standard Sound Blaster, it is again an
option. At the time of writing, the Sound Blaster Pro V1 (with midi) and
Sound Blaster Pro V2 (without midi box) are identical in price.

The software has also undergone some changes. As well as the usual packaged
software, the "Voice Utilities" have been added to. New additions are

VOC2WAV - convert your VOiCe samples into a form usable by Multi-Media
          (.wav) sound programs.

WAV2VOC - the reverse of the above

PLAYCMF - Plays .CMF music files

Also included is a program called the "Sound Blaster Standard Programming
Tool". Here i will quote from the book, as i have not been able to
test the software due to a floppy drive controller failier.

* Relief from the drudgery of loading and unloading Sound Blaster
  sound drivers.

* Flexability of choosing the driver to load for your application.

* Easy programming method for playing .CMF and .VOC files with a simple
  and consistant command set.

* Access to the same piece of music or voice from different DOS applications
  at the same time.

* Full use of extended memory to play VOC files, taking advantage of
  SBSIM's close coupling with the CT-VOICE driver.

Basically, it provides a "script" language for playing the various types of
music files associated with the Sound Blaster and SB-Pro, allowing easy
selecting of the driver and alteration to the settings of that driver.
It seems you can load any one, or ALL of the drivers, and unload any one
at any time. It should be quite useful to those preparing presentations
allowing a wide variety of effects which previously would have been
labour intensive.

Lastly, apart from the new drivers, there is an additional program to play
.MID midi files from DOS.


The manual has undergone a dramatic change! For one thing, it is no longer
spiral bound, which should mean your manual will remain intact if you
reference it alot. The mistakes have been fixed, including the most serious
of them all, the chapter dealing with connecting the PC speaker output
to the pc speaker input on the Sound Blaster Pro's PCB .. It has also
lost that "toy" manual look. The there are more pictures of the pcb when
dealing with jumper location, alteration and connection points and the style
of print gives the book a much more professional look and feel. There us
also a good deal more information in there too, which means the manual
can really lay claim to the "Users Reference Manual" boldly printed on
the front cover.


CONCLUSION!

Overall, the Sound Blaster Pro V2 is a much better card than the previous
Pro. With its improved design, sampling suffers less from intereference,
the sound output seems a little clearer, the pcb layout and design looks
much neater, the manual is not only now accurate but is also easier to
read and there have been some useful additions to the supplied software.

If you have had problems with a interference, or werent impressed with
the sampling quality of the V1 Pro, i suggest you wonder down to your
local computer shop and get them to demo the new Pro.

I have sold off my original Sound Blaster Pro (with its midi kit) and
now own the V2 SB-Pro, and LOVE IT!

** FootNote : It appears that in the not to distant future Creative Labs
              will have an SCSI version of the Pro V2.

                                                        Mike Moffat

For additional Information contact:

Creative Labs
2050 Duane Avenue
Santa Clar, CA 95054
Phone: [phone]
FAX  : [phone]

Comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
-------------------------

The Sound Newsletter is pleased to announce the formal creation
of a USENET newsgroup dedicated to the discussion of sound cards
for computers.  By the time you read this comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
should have been created to provide an active forum to discuss the
specificiations, applications, programming and so forth of the
sound cards on the market.  Below is the official announcement

--------

I have the pleasure to announce that the vote for the newsgroup
comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard was successful. There was a high vote
turnaround which indicates the necessity of such a newsgroup.

I scanned through the mail received and I did not notice any
obviously bogus addresses. There were a few people who sent votes
twice (for both YES and NO) and even one who sent then from
different addresses (you know who you are). Duplicate messages
were deleted and only the last vote was kept.

Here are some statistics:

Total number of votes: 414 (100%)
Number of YES votes  : 395 (95.41%)
Number of NO votes   :  19 (4.59%)

Name: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
Status: Unmoderated

CHARTER:

Up to a couple of months ago, it was very hard to find appropiate hardware and
programming information on soundcards since the information was disseminated
among several newsgroups (comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware, rec.games.misc, etc).
Finally, a month ago, the "Soundblaster programming project" was started and a
mailing list set in place. The project was so well received that the traffic
on the mailing list greatly increased in a few days only. Not long ago,
the alt.sb.programmer newsgroup was setup but a great number of people have
complained that their organizations do not receive alt.* groups and therefore
the mailing list is still very much in use. This is a serious subject that
belongs in the comp.* hierarchy.

The new newsgroup will be a forum to discuss hardware and software aspects
relating to the different sound cards that are available for the IBM PC
and compatibles. Some of the topics that will be covered by the newsgroup
are:

    o hardware specifications and questions
    o sound card reviews
    o programming questions under DOS, OS/2 and UNIX
    o posting of sample programs (these will usually include sample
      portions of code, the full programs will be available through
      anonymous ftp).
    o general questions (eg: drivers for applications)

Christian Vandendorpe
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
= [e-mail]        | "I only know that I know nothing" =
= [e-mail]        |          - Socrates        =
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Adlib gone?
-----------

According to PC Magazine the company that pioneered sound cards on the PC
has filed for bankruptcy.  Adlib the makers of the popular Adlib sound card
as well as the new Adlib Gold card was one of the leaders in the sound
field.  Thousands of software products proudly proclaim "Support Adlib" and
even their competitors in the sound card market proclaim "Adlib compatible".
With the sound standards constantly changing one can only wonder how many
of the small startup companies could face the same fate at Adlib.  Within
the last year several companies have put out similiar sound boards driving
a price war.

This is all we know as of this point.  If you have additional information
please e-mail us.


Sound Bits
----------

DISCLAIMER: The Sound Newsletter provides no guarantee on the
performance of the software or products mentioned in this newsletter.
The information is provided to give the reader an idea on how the
products operate.

**********************************************************************

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                   #
                   #

I have just finished making a new PC Sound Editor Package.
Here is a description of some of its features:

        ScopeTrax is another one of those programs that plays 8 bit sound
files on an IBM PC/XT/AT, and compatible 86s, 286s, 386s, 486s ....  Some
features that set this program apart from the others include the following:

         * Plays sounds/samples directly through the PC's speaker without
       using extra hardware.
         * Supports Sound Blaster, JDAC and other parallel port DACs.
         * Plays Sound Blaster VOC files, Amiga IFF files, and RAW files(.snd)
         * Displays a realtime oscilloscope when PLAYING or RECORDING samples
                (286 or better recommended).
         * Samples can be played in background on fast computers.
         * Provides about 14 editing function, including MIX and ECHO.
         * Samples can be played back at virtually 1000 to 65000Hz.
         * Independent hardware rate and sample rate.
         * Low sample rates can be played through PC speaker with little or no
                noise (although slow 86s are still noisy, I think).
         * Graphically displays the sample and allows for HIGH DETAIL zoom.
                (EGA or VGA required)
         * Supports both mouse and keyboard (requires Microsoft mouse driver).
         * Corrects 'time loss' problems associated with sound players.
         * No features are disabled.
         * No recurring 'registration' messages.
         * Package is FREEWARE
         * Also included:
                a sound compression program
                uLaw to snd converter (beta version)
                Expanded memory player
                complete documentation
                several samples

This is my first attempt at making a sample player/editor, so I will
need a lot of advice and support to improve and expand the package.
If there is enough support, I'll begin work on an enhanced 2.0 version.

Chris S Craig
[e-mail]

-------------------------------------------------------------

***************************
*  CD-Box (PC - FREEWARE) *
***************************

- CD-Box requires a VGA card (it runs in 320*200*256 colours), a
   Microsoft compatible mouse, and at least an Adlib Music Synthetizer
   Card or compatible (a SoundBlaster card is better, it can play more
   song formats).

- CD-Box supports .CMF, .MOD, .MUS, .ROL and .VOC formats (.CMF, .MOD
   and .VOC work on SoundBlaster only). Whatever the format, CD-Box
   treats all songs as equal, and offers an uniform interface for all.

- Songs can be stored in .ZIP files to save space; CD-Box will extract
   them as needed, and remove the exploded versions from the disk
   afterwards. All this is transparent for the user too.

- The graphics are pretty, and there is some nice animation as you
   select songs (the song titles scroll, a CD pops up and down), as
   well as random animated sequences to break the monotony (I'll let
   you discover those).

- CD-Box displays song titles rather than filenames. Song titles (and
   bank files, for .ROL and .MUS) can be changed directly within
   CD-Box, there is no need to exit and edit a data file. Also, CD-Box
   knows intrinsically about 200 songs, so that it can supply the
   proper title - but it can learn and remember many more.

There are some restrictions, though. CD-Box can only play the song
   formats for which you have the corresponding player programs and/or
   drivers; other songs will be detected and displayed, but will not
   be playable (except for .CMF files, which CD-Box can always play,
   as long as you have the driver which comes with the SoundBlaster).
   Also, AdLib owners will only be able to play .MUS and .ROL song
   files. The complete list is MP.COM, PLAY.EXE, SBFMDRV.COM,
   SOUND.COM, SPUTROL.COM, VPLAY.EXE, and also optionally PKUNZIP.EXE,
   but I have it in all properly explained in the documentation, with,
   I hope, the appropriate acknowledgments.

All in all, CD-Box is intended to play songs of different formats
   without hassle and with nice graphics, too (it incidently is a good
   way to show off with your music card). I'm afraid I sound like an
   advertisement like those in travel brochures, but I quite sincerely
   think a lot of users will like this program - it's also the only
   one I know of that can play multiple song formats.

There it is, then. CD-Box comes with a complete documentation I've
   tried to make as lively as possible, and I may even throw in
   another small utility program I made, for converting between
   Macintosh sound files (.SND) and SoundBlaster files (.VOC).

Jeffrey Belt
[e-mail].


******************************
* Hardware Products Specs    *
******************************
* Video Blaster              *
******************************

Entering the field of multimedia, Creative Labs, the makers the the
very sucessful Sound Blaster personal computer sound card, introduced
the Video Blaster.  The Video Blaster is a board used for displaying,
editing, and fram-capturing full-motion video.

The card is a 16-bit card and will run on an IBM or compatible 286 (or
higher) machine.  It also requires MS-DOS 3.1 (or higher) and VGA
display.  It will work with Microsoft Windows 3.1 which contains drivers
co-developed by Microsoft and Creative Labs.  The board is prices at
$495 which is a lower price than many competing products.  This would
leave the street price at about $300-375 bringing PC sound/video
capability into the hands of the mass market.

The Video Blaster allows users to combine full motion video from the
NTSC or PAL format.  It can use images in the BMP(bitmap), TGA (Targa),
MMP (m-motion) or EPS (Escapsulated Postscript).  These images then
can be manipulated to produce the desired effects.  It is also possible
to switch between up to 3 video sources (VCR's, Videodis player,
Video camera's, Camcorders etc).  The Video Blaster is capable
of displaying approximately two million true colors on an interlaced
VGA display.  Hue, saturation, brightness and contrast can also be
adjusted.

Audio can be channeled in up to 4 inputs through external sources with
the company's CD-ROM and audio cards (Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro).
There is also a digital and analog mixer that has both individual
and master volume controls that are programmable.


------------------------------
| Anonymous Sound FTP SITES  |
------------------------------

To connect to an anonymous FTP site do the following (we are using the
sound-site as an example)

ftp ccb.ucsf.edu     or    ftp 128.218.1.13
name: anonymous
password: <vemail-address>

If you know of any other Sound ftp sites please forward the information
this way.  If you know the administrators of the below sound sites or
you are in charge of one of the below sound sites please e-mail me so
we can join efforts.  Your input to this sound-list would be greatly
appreciated. (*) denotes sites carrying Sound Newsletter & back issues.

Name                    IP#             What
------------------------------------------------------------------------
abcfd20.larc.nasa.gov   128.155.23.64  amiga sounds
calvin.nmsu.edu         128.123.35.150 Sounds from Tiny Toond
                                       dir: pub/toon-gifs/sounds
ccb.ucsf.edu            128.218.1.13   (.snd), players. (*)
                                       directory: Pub/Sound_list
garbo.uwasa.fi          128.214.87.1   (.stm), players (*)
ems.media.mit.edu       18.85.0.104     csound
ftp.ee.lbl.gov          128.3.112.20   sounds (au files)
                                       directory: sound/*.au
saffron.inset.com       192.94.75.2    SoundBlaster/Adlib, (*)
                                       (.mod, .stm, .snd) [Rogue]
sciences.sdsu.edu       130.191.224.2  sounds
snake.mcs.kent.edu      131.123.2.222  SoundBlaster & Adlib stuff
                                       directory: pub/SB-Adlib
sumex-aim.stanford.edu                 (.snd) files
terminator.cc.umich.edu 141.211.164.8  sounds and misc archive site
ucsd.edu                128.54.16.1    sounds for sparc
uop.uop.edu             138.9.200.1    Modplay
xanth.cs.odu.edu        128.82.8.1     startrek sounds
                                       dir: pub/star-trek/stsounds.
wsmr-simtel20.army.mil  192.88.110.20  Sound players (*)


Attention Bulletin Board owners and FTP site administrators
-----------------------------------------------------------

You can carry the sound newsletter on your site FREE of charge.  For
FTP sites please contact me at: [e-mail].  You can either
obtain it from one of our sites or we can mail it to you on Fido Net,
CompuServe or Internet.

The following Bulletin board systems carry the Sound Newsletter and
Back Issues.  The (*) boards also specialize in multi-media.

United States

Board                       Speed         Phone            Sysop
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Graphics Plus               38.4K        [phone]    Eric Lui
Network One Systems
  Fantasy Island            9600 (HST)   [phone]    Ken Ludwig
  Listening Post            9600 (HST)   [phone]    Lou Braun
Midnight Run BBS (*)        2400     [phone]    Luis R. Garcia
  (Fido 1:367/27)
The Patchbay (*)            38.4K (Dual) [phone]    Daniel Bise
Round Table BBS             2400         [phone]    Kevin Keyser


Abroad (All contain sound programs also)

Board                        Speed        Phone            Sysop
--------------------------------------------------------------------
1B Systems Managment Ltd.    19.2k       [phone]    Ken McVay
  (Waffle/XENIX)
1B Systems Managment Ltd.    2400        [phone]    Ken McVay
  (Waffle/XENIX)
1B File request from ftn     14.4K       [phone]    Ken McVay
  FrontDoor 2.0/c
  (IMEx 89:681/1)                        [phone]
  (HST 14.4)
BCG-Box                      9600        [phone]   Kim Heino
  V32/42/42bis, MNP2-5
  (FidoNet: 2:222/151.0)
Einstein BBS                 2400        [phone]    Kjetil Krag
Greyhawk BBS (UK)            9600        [phone]    Alan Coates
  (Fido: 2:250/404)
System - X             9600        +(61-2) 368-1320  Scot Art
  (Fido: 3:712/634)

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| Introducing the sister sounds sites, twice as good, twice as fun       |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| ccb.ucsf.edu:         15 megs of SND files for REmac and PlayBwc       |
| saffron.inset.com:    80+ megs of STM, MOD, SND and MultiMedia         |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| [e-mail]                |  Editor the the Sound Newsletter   |
| [e-mail]      |  Spreading the word about the      |
| -----> Dave                       |  latest in sound technology        |
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