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The SPUTTER Sound System for the PC
v1.11
VersaWare
30 Jennifer St
Littleton, MA 01460
508-486-3083
SPUTTER is a set of programs, that form a full featured sound system that
allows you to manage and play back many different types of sound files, on
a variety of different devices. All conversions are handled automatically,
regardless of the type of device used to create the sound file.
These are some of the major features of the SPUTTER Sound System:
* Point-and-Play shell with pull-down menus and complete file
management capabilities to let you play digitized sound
files, synthesized music files, and text to speech files all
from within the same program.
* Allows you to attach any of these types of sound files to events
on your PC such as Program Execution, File access, Disk access,
Alarm clock settings and replacing the original beep sound.
* Supports many different output devices, including the PC internal
speaker, Speech Thing, Voice Master, Sound Master, Sound Blaster,
AdLib Music Card and any other Digital to Analog Converter.
* Supports many different digitized sound file formats including
Covox (Speech Thing, Voice Master, Sound Master), Creative Labs
(Sound Blaster), Tandy, Macintosh, Amiga and IBM CVSD files.
Also supports .ROL synthesized music files (Adlib & Sound Blaster)
and text to speech synthesized sound.
* Can randomly select sound files to provide variation without
having to change batch files regularly.
* Can resample digitized sound files, to change the playback rate
of a file so that it can be played on slower machines.
* Includes enhanced support for DESQview and runs as a well-behaved
program in a DESQview window.
The documentation is divided into the following sections:
1. Installation Guide
2. Quick Start User Guide
3. Reference Manual
3.1 SPUTTER - File Manager
3.2 SPUTMON - Event Monitor
3.3 SPUT - Sound & Text Player Utility
3.4 SPUTROL - ROL File Player Utility
3.5 SPUTWAVE - Waveform Viewer
3.6 SPUTST - SmoothTalker Utility
4. Miscellaneous
*************************************************************************
SECTION 1 - INSTALLATION GUIDE
*************************************************************************
Installation of SPUTTER is very simple, just execute the following steps.
1) Place all of the Sputter programs and required files in a directory
that is contained in your PATH statement. Those files are as follows:
SPUTTER.COM File Manager
SPUTMON.COM Event Monitor
SPUT.COM Sound & Text file player
SPUTROL.COM ROL file player
SPUT.PHD Voice file for text-to-speech
SPUT.DIC Sample Dictionary file for text-to-speech
SPUTMON.DEF Sample Event definition file
SP-PIF.DVP DESQview PIF for player window
The following files are required if you will be playing ROL files, and
are included with the Sputter Demonstration files:
SOUND.COM AdLib Sound driver
STANDARD.BNK AdLib Instrument Bank file
The following files are also included in the distribution, but are not
necessary for execution:
SPUTTER.DOC Sputter documentation file
PHONES.TXT List of Phonemes from the Doc file
SAMPLES.TXT Samples of the Phoneme-functions
WHATS.NEW Description of the latest changes
FUTURE.TXT What's planned for future releases
USES.TXT Some ideas for using Sputter
2) Add a line to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file to define the path in which
your sound files are stored similar to the following example:
SET SPUTDIR=C:\SND
3) If you are using any sound device other than the PC Internal Speaker,
you must add a line to define the port address of your sound board:
For VoiceMasterKey I SET SPUTARG=/P1 (or 2,3,4)
For VoiceMasterKey II SET SPUTARG=/P5 (or 6,7,8)
For SpeechThing SET SPUTARG=/P5 (or 6,7,8)
For SoundBlaster SET SPUTARG=/P220-S/IR3 (or 230,240,250,260)
For AdLib card SET SPUTARG=/P388-A
You may also include any permanent switches you want to define for
the sound file player:
SET SPUTARG=/Q2
4) If you are using a SoundBlaster or AdLib card, add a line to define
the path to your ROL files:
SET SROLDIR=C:\ROL
and you may optionally add a line to define any permanent switches
you want to define for the ROL file player:
SET SROLARG=/Q2
*************************************************************************
SECTION 2 - QUICK START USER GUIDE
*************************************************************************
SPUTTER File Manager:
To start the Sputter Sound System, you must be at the DOS prompt. Type
'SPUTTER ' followed by the drive:directory that contains your sound files
or ROL files, then press the ENTER key:
SPUTTER C:\SND <enter>
From the File Manager, just place the highlight bar on the file you want
played and press the ENTER key. Many other functions are available
within the File Manager, which can all be found in the pull-down menus.
SPUTMON Event Monitor:
To setup the Event Monitor, you must first create an event definition file.
A sample event definition file SPUTMON.DEF has been included in the
distribution which may be modified to your preferences.
To load the Event Monitor, type 'SPUTMON ' followed by the name of the
event definition file, then press the ENTER key:
SPUTMON SPUTMON.DEF <enter>
Now you can enjoy your sound files!
*************************************************************************
SECTION 3 - REFERENCE MANUAL
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
SECTION 3.1 - SPUTTER File Manager
*************************************************************************
This section describes the point-and-play file manager named SPUTTER.
From the File Manager, sound files can be played, viewed in waveform,
viewed in ascii/hex mode, copied, renamed, moved and deleted, either
individually or in tagged groups.
SPUTTER [d:] [\directory] [/E] [/S] [/D] [/T] [/O]
To start the File Manager, simply type 'SPUTTER' at the DOS prompt and
SPUTTER presents an alphabetized listing of the current directory with
a menu on the right. An optional drive and directory may be specified
as the directory to be used, instead of the current directory.
Optionally, the /E,/S,/D,/T and /O command line switches sort the
initial directory listing by Extension, Size, Date (/D and/T are the
same), or Original DOS order. Once on screen, function keys can be
used for subsequent sorts.
Once started, SPUTTER will initialize the display as follows:
. The top line is the Menu line, and is activated with the F10
function key or the slash key (/).
. The second line shows the currently displayed drive & directory.
. The large window on the left is the directory window and contains
a list of files in the current directory.
The file attributes (Archive, Hidden, Read-only and System) are
shown by the appropriate letters to the right of the time for
each listed file. A period is displayed for any file attributes
that are not set.
. The mid-sized window on the upper right is the info window and
contains various counters, and the state of the toggle switches.
. The smaller window on the lower right is the preview window
and gives a peek at the contents of the currently highlighted file.
. The line below the windows is the message line and displays
various prompts and messages.
. The next line is the input line, used for entering data.
. The last line is the function key menu.
DOS wildcards ? and * are supported for COPY, MOVE and DELETE operations.
Once SPUTTER has been started, the following keys have meaning:
A-Z
Pressing a letter, moves the highlight bar to the first (then sub-
sequent) filename beginning with that letter.
Up & Down
The Up and Down arrow key moves the highlight bar up or down one
line at a time.
Home & End
The Home and End keys go to either the first or last file in the
directory.
PgDn & PgUp
The Page-Up and Page-Down keys allow you to scroll up and down
through the entire directory.
Ctrl-PgDn & Ctrl-PgUp
The Ctrl-Page-Up and Ctrl-Page-Down move to the top and bottom of
the current display page (21 files).
Left-Arrow & Right-Arrow or Grey+ & Grey-
These keys are used to mark and unmark files. After marking or
unmarking a file, the highlight bar is automatically moved in the
same direction that it was moved last.
Multiple files may be tagged for group playing, viewing, copying,
moving or deleting.
F1 (Help)
This key activates the Help pull-down menu.
F2 (Args)
This key displays the SPUT help screen.
F3 (Dir)
This key will cause SPUTTER to reread the current directory.
This is useful if files have been created or added to the
current directory since starting SPUTTER.
F4 (Chdir)
This key provides a way to change the current drive and
directory without leaving SPUTTER.
F5 (Mark)
This key will cause all previously unmarked files to be marked.
Files with an asterick are considered marked. To remark files
with an asterick, press F6 to clear all marks, then F5 to mark
all files.
F6 (Clear)
This key will unmark all files including those with astericks.
F7 (Pause)
This key will toggle the state of the Pause-after-output switch.
F8 (Output)
This key will toggle the state of the Output switch.
F9
This key is currently unused.
F10 (Menu)
This key invokes the top line menu.
ESCAPE
Pressing this key exits SPUTTER, and returns to the DOS prompt.
F10+File or Alt-F
This key activates the File menu.
F10+Sound or Alt-S
This key activates the Sound menu.
F10+Options or Alt-O
This key activates the Options menu.
F10+Help or Alt-H
This key activates the Help menu.
F10+Quit or Alt-Q
This key activates the Quit menu.
F10+Sound+Play or Enter
The Play function initiates the playback process for either
the highlighted or marked file(s). This option requires the
appropriate player program to be located in a directory that is
listed in your PATH statement.
The player programs used are SPUT.COM for digitized sound files,
and text to speech files and SPUTROL.COM for .ROL synthesized
music files.
When a marked file is successfully played, it's marker arrow is
replaced by an asterisk.
F10+Sound+Quick or Ctrl-Enter
The Play with Quick-arguments function initiates playback for the
highlighted file, after prompting for an argument string.
The prompt will appear in the message line, and you can enter
any valid player switch with slashes. (See the appropriate
section of the documentation for SPUT and SPUTROL switches).
Note that if the /W switch to SPUT is used to create an 8-bit PCM
file, or the COPY function is used to create files in the same
directory, those files will not appear in the directory listing
until you press F3 to re-read the current directory.
F10+Sound+Last or Ctrl-P
The Play with Last-arguments function initiates playback for the
highlighted file, using the previously defined argument string.
F10+Sound+Argument or Ctrl-A
This key invokes the Argument selection menu. CTRL-A will invoke
the Argument selection screen for sound files.
F10+Sound+Clear
This key clear any previously defined argument string.
F10+Sound+Text
This key invokes the interactive text-to-speech mode.
F10+Sound+Information or Ctrl-I
Displays complete file information without playback, for the
highlighted or marked file(s). Requires SPUT.COM to be in a
directory that is listed in your PATH statement.
F10+Sound+Wave or Ctrl-W
Views the highlighted or marked file(s) as a wave form using the
SPUTWAVE utility. Requires SPUTWAVE.EXE to be located in a
directory that is listed in your PATH statement.
F10+File+Copy or Ctrl-C
Initiates the copy process for the highlighted or marked file(s),
after prompting for a destination. Wildcards ? and * are supported
and renaming while copying is permitted.
When a marked file is successfully copied, it's marker arrow is
replaced by an asterisk. If the target disk(ette) becomes
filled, during a copy operation, SPUTTER automatically attempts
to find other marked files that will fit, stopping when there are
none. Changing the target diskette, and hitting F1 again, will
copy the remaining marked files.
F10+File+Move or Ctrl-M
Moves the highlighted or marked file(s), after prompting for a
destination. Wildcards ? and * are supported and renaming while
moving is permitted.
When a marked file is successfully moved, it's marker arrow is
replaced by an asterisk. If the target disk(ette) becomes
filled, during a move operation, SPUTTER automatically attempts
to find other marked files that will fit, stopping when there are
none. Changing the target diskette, and hitting F1 again, will
move the remaining marked files.
F10+File+Rename or Ctrl-R
Renames the highlighted file, after prompting for a new filename.
F10+File+Delete or Ctrl-D or Delete
Deletes the highlighted or marked file(s), after prompting for
verification. Wildcards ? and * are supported.
F10+File+View or Ctrl-V
Views the highlighted or marked file(s). Requires LIST.COM to
be located in the PATH.
F10+File+marK or Ctrl-K or F5
Marks any files that were previously unmarked.
F10+File+cLear or Ctrl-L or F6
Clears marks on all files.
F10+Options+Output or Ctrl-O or F8
Enables or disables the option of seeing the output from the player
utility during playback. When a file is played with this option
enabled, the center of the screen is cleared and the player utility
output is displayed there. Pressing this key a second time disables
the option and it defaults to enabled.
F10+Options+Pause or F7
This toggles the state of the Pause-after-playback option.
F10+Options+snoW
This toggles the state of the Video-snow-suppression option.
F10+Options+Verify
This toggles the state of the Verify-after-copy option.
F10+Options+Unsorted or Ctrl-U
Displays the directory in it's original unsorted order.
F10+Options+Name or Ctrl-N
Sorts the directory list by filename.
F10+Options+Extension or Ctrl-E
Sorts the directory list by extension.
F10+Options+Size or Ctrl-Z
Sorts the directory list by file size.
F10+Options+Date or Ctrl-T
Sorts the directory list by date.
F10+Help+Short
Displays a help screen of short cut keys.
F10+Help+Function
Displays a help screen of function keys F1 thru F10.
F10+Help+Navigation
Displays a help screen of keys used for moving the highlight bar
within the directory window.
F10+Help+Player or Ctrl-S or F2
Displays the SPUT help screen. Requires SPUT.COM to be in a
directory that is listed in your PATH statement.
***************************************************************************
SECTION 3.2 - SPUTMON Event Monitor
***************************************************************************
This section describes the program named SPUTMON, which stands for (SPUT)ter
Event (MON)itor. SPUTMON is a small memory resident utility (under 5k)
that lets you attach sound files to events that occur on your PC.
Typing 'SPUTMON ?' at the DOS prompt, will display the program version and
an abbreviated help screen.
When using SPUTMON the Event Monitor, it is recommended that you keep a
copy of the player utilities SPUT.COM and SPUTROL.COM on a RAM disk.
This will reduce system overhead associated with playback at the time
the events occur.
----------------------------
SPUTMON SWITCHES & OPERATION
----------------------------
?
Entering a question mark on the command line, will tell SPUTMON
to display a short help screen.
/B
This switch toggles the state of the bells-on-error & retry option
and defaults to enabled.
When this feature is enabled and SPUTMON is unable to play a file
at the time an event occurs, a high-pitched bell will sound every 30
seconds to alert you that what you are doing is preventing playback
to occur.
If the retry feature has been disabled with the /R switch, SPUTMON
will play a low pitched buzzer to indicate that playback has been
cancelled for that event only.
Entering a number after the /B switch, will change the frequency of
the error/retry bells from 30 seconds to the new value. Setting
the value to 0, disables all bells.
/C
This switch toggles the state of the command-line playback feature
and defaults to enabled. This method of playback is only used if
DESQview is not running, or the /W window playback feature is
disabled.
When at the DOS prompt, you are actually running COMMAND.COM which
allocates all of memory to itself. If an event is triggered, there
is no available memory for the player program to run or load the
sound file. This feature causes the player program to be run from
the DOS prompt (although you won't actually see the command).
If you are in the middle of typing a line when an event is triggered,
SPUTMON will not interrupt you. The playback will just be delayed
until you enter a carriage return.
If you are idle at the DOS prompt, SPUTMON will print the following
message on the screen
<SPUTMON is ready to play, press <CTRL-SHIFT> to cancel, <CTRL-ALT> to begin>
then SPUTMON will wait approximately 5 seconds. If you do nothing,
or press <CTRL-ALT>, playback will occur. If you press <CTRL-SHIFT>
playback for that particular event only will be cancelled.
In both cases, a new DOS prompt will appear, and you may continue
as usual.
/D
This switch will disable event monitoring, and SPUTMON will
remain in memory.
/E
This switch will reenable event monitoring.
/G
This switch controls weather the DESQview player window will run
in the foreground or background. The default is background.
/I
This switch is used to reinitialize the event table. All counters
are reset to zero, and any events that were marked for playback
are cancelled.
/M
This switch toggles the state of the multiple event triggering
feature, and defaults to disabled.
Normally, when an event occurs, SPUTMON searches the event table
for a match. If a match is found, the remainder of the table
is not checked. Enabling this feature, tells SPUTMON to check
the entire table for additional matches.
This switch normally will not affect type T timer events, since
many clock interrupts will occur for each actual second of time.
Example: If you have the following events defined in your event file
P DX.EXE SHEESH.SND
P * AHH.SND
With /M disabled, running DX would only play SHEESH.SND. With
/M enabled, running DX would play SHEESH.SND and AHH.SND.
/Q
This switch toggles the quiet screen output feature, and defaults
to enabled.
Normally SPUTMON sends the appropriate switch to the player program
to suppress screen output. Disabling this feature will cause all
screen output from the player program to be displayed. This can
be very useful while writing event definition files.
/R
This switch toggles the state of the retry playback feature and
defaults to enabled.
When an event occurs, and SPUTMON is unable to play the sound file,
in the normal way, or using the /W (DV window) or /C (command line)
methods, it looks at this switch to decide how to handle the event.
If the retry feature is enabled, SPUTMON will remember that the
file should be played, and will keep retrying playback until
successful. A short high pitched jingle will be heard every 30
seconds to remind you that a playback is pending.
If the retry feature is disabled, playback will be skipped for
that particular event only, and you will hear a low pitched buzzer
if the beep-on-error feature is enabled with /B.
/S
This switch prints the event table on the screen, which is a list
of all events being monitored.
TRIGG - is the number of times the event has triggered playback.
ERROR - is the number of times playback has failed.
CODE - is the error code encountered during the last attempted
playback. The first 2 digits are a number representing
the process that encountered the error. A 10xx indicates
a player program error. Any other number is the
number of the interrupt handler that encountered the error.
(ie: 2108 means playback was attempted by the INT21 handler
but failed because of insufficient memory).
ST - is the status of the event, with 01 meaning that the event
has been marked for playback.
T - is the type of file to be played where:
1 = Sound file for SPUT.COM (blank or #S)
2 = ROL file for SPUTROL.COM (#R)
3 = Text file for SPUT.COM (blank or #T)
4 = Command for COMMAND.COM (#C)
INT AH AL Disp Trigg Error Code St T Filename Arguments
---------------------------------------------------------------------
29 FF 07 0C91 00000 00000 0000 00 1 e:\snd\spc\*.ani
08 FF FF 0C98 00000 00000 0000 00 1 10-19-1990 13:15 255 *.tun
08 FF FF 0C98 00000 00000 0000 00 1 10-19-1990 13:30 255 *.*
08 FF FF 0C98 00000 00000 0000 00 1 10-19-1990 12:45 255 *.sfx
08 FF FF 0C98 00000 00000 0000 00 1 10-19-1990 13:0 255 /ti/r145
08 FF FF 0C98 00000 00000 0000 00 2 10-19-1990 12:45 255 *
08 FF FF 0C98 00000 00000 0000 00 2 10-20-1990 12:0 1 bumblbee
08 FF FF 0C98 00000 00000 0000 00 2 10-19-1990 17:0 1 airnite
08 FF FF 0C98 00000 00000 0000 00 1 10-20-1990 0:0 1 bed1a
08 FF FF 0C98 00000 00000 0000 00 1 10-20-1990 0:15 8 bed2a
08 FF FF 0C98 00000 00000 0000 00 1 10-20-1990 2:0 30 timeup
21 4B FF 0E07 00000 00000 0000 00 1 CP.EXE certnly
21 4B FF 0E07 00000 00000 0000 00 1 DC.EXE sheesh
21 4B FF 0E07 00000 00000 0000 00 1 DIRNOTES.COM exc2
21 4B FF 0E07 00000 00000 0000 00 1 DX.EXE notsfast
21 4B FF 0E07 00000 00000 0000 00 1 FGREP.COM gotit
21 4B FF 0E07 00000 00000 0000 00 1 LINK.EXE goodheav
21 4B FF 0E07 00000 00000 0000 00 1 LIST.COM heynot
21 4B FF 0E07 00000 00000 0000 00 1 MAPMEM.EXE theyrehe
21 4B FF 0E07 00000 00000 0000 00 1 MASM.EXE ridic
21 4B FF 0E07 00000 00000 0000 00 1 MV.EXE yeah
21 4B FF 0E07 00000 00000 0000 00 1 NU.EXE fearnot
21 4B FF 0E07 00000 00000 0000 00 1 PKUNZIP.EXE waitmin
21 4B FF 0E07 00000 00000 0000 00 1 Q.EXE mistaks
21 4B FF 0E07 00000 00000 0000 00 1 QU.EXE hereicom
21 FF FF 0E53 00000 00000 0000 00 1 * ahh
Enabled: MONITOR BELLS:30 RETRY QUIET WINDOW/BG COMMAND ■ Disabled: MULTI
Date/Time: 10-19-1990 12:31:58.10 ■ Active Timers: 10
/U
This switch will cause SPUTMON to remove itself from memory.
This can only be done successfully, if no other programs have
become memory resident since SPUTMON was loaded.
/W
This switch toggles the state of the DESQview player window
feature and defaults to enabled.
This section is only applicable when DESQview is running.
If this feature is enabled when an event occurs, a separate
DESQview window will be started in which to run the player program.
This window will run in the background, and close when playback is
finished. It will appear as a 2x2 character box in the upper left
hand corner of the screen.
All of the attributes of the DV player window can be changed by
using the DESQview "Change A Program" utility to modify the DVP
template file SP-PIF.DVP that comes with SPUTTER. This DVP file
must be located somewhere in the PATH, in order for SPUTMON to find
it when becomming memory resident.
Disabling this feature will cause playback to occur in the same
window in which the event occurred.
<eventfile>
This is the name of the event definition file. If no filename is
specified, the default of SPUTMON.DEF will be used. If no directory
is specified, the current directory is searched, and then the PATH.
-----------------
EVENT FILE FORMAT
-----------------
The event definition file is a simple ascii file, that can be modified
with any text editor. The maximum size of the file is limited to 64k
bytes, including comments.
Each line in the event file defines a single event. The first "word" of
each line, defines the event type and the remainder of the line describes
the particular event to trigger on.
-----------
EVENT TYPES
-----------
B <soundfile>
This is the BEEP event, and will trigger playback of the
specified soundfile in place of the normal speaker beep.
Example: 'B CHICK.SND' plays a short clip of peeping chicks
instead of the normal speaker beep.
T <sdate> <stime> <idate> <itime> <repeat> <soundfile>
The TIMER event will trigger playback whenever the set time
<sdate><stime> occurs. Then the repeat <repeat> is
decremented, and the increment <idate><itime> is added to
the set time to create the next alarm setting.
Alarms and repeat counts are reset automatically.
Examples:
T 00-00-00 12:00 00-00-00 00:00 0 YEAH.TUN
at noon every day
T 06-25-90 17:00 00-00-00 00:05 5 WOW.TUN
from 5:00pm to 5:25 every 5 minutes on 06-25-90
T 07-11-90 00:00 00-00-00 00:01 0 wow.tun
every min for 1 day
T 07-11-90 12:00 00-01-00 00:00 2 wow.tun
at noon for 2 days
T 07-00-00 12:00 00-01-00 00:00 0 wow.tun
at noon every day in July
T 00-11-00 12:00 01-00-00 00:00 0 wow.tun
at noon on the 11th of every month
T 07-00-90 00:00 00-00-00 01:00 0 wow.tun
every hour in July
T 00-11-00 00:00 00-00-00 01:00 0 wow.tun
every hour on every 11th day
P <progname> <soundfile>
The PROGRAM execution event will trigger playback whenever
the specified program is run. The program name follows the
same rules for filenames.
Example: 'P Q.EXE MISTAKS.V8' plays Stooge Moe saying "Now
don't make any more mistakes!" when Qedit is run.
or: 'P LIST.COM DOC.TUN' plays Bugs Bunny saying "Whats
up Doc?" whenever LIST is used to view a file.
FO <filename> <soundfile>
The FILE-OPEN event will trigger playback whenever the
specified file is opened in read-only mode.
Example: 'FO * CERTNLY.V8' plays Stooge Curly saying
"Certainly!" when any file is opened for reading.
FC <filename> <soundfile>
The FILE-CREATE event will trigger playback whenever the
specified file is opened for write access. The DOS COPY
command will not trigger this event because of insufficient
memory.
Example: 'FC CONFIG.SYS HEYNOT.V8' plays Stooge Curly saying
"Hey not that!" when any program attemps to open
CONFIG.SYS for write access.
FR <filename> <soundfile>
The FILE-RENAME event will trigger playback whenever the
specified file is renamed. The DOS REName command will not
trigger this event.
Example: 'FR AUTOEXEC.BAT MEANING.TUN" plays Bugs Bunny
saying "Whats the meaning of this?" when any program
attempts to rename AUTOEXEC.BAT.
FD <filename> <soundfile>
The FILE-DELETE event will trigger playback whenever the
specified file is deleted. The DOS DELete command will not
trigger this event.
Example: 'FD * AHH.TUN' plays Yosemite Sam yelling "Ahhhhh"
whenever any file is deleted by any program.
The following events are called the INT events. They are more
complex to setup than the above events, but are much more powerful.
As a reference, I highly recommend "The Interrupt List" by
Ralf Brown. It is available on most BBS's as INTER290.ZIP.
I <int> <ah> <al> <soundfile>
The vanilla INT event will trigger playback whenever the
specified interrupt <int> occurs, with <ah> matching the AH
register and <al> matching the AL register.
Example: 'I 21 4C FF THATS.TUN' plays Bugs Bunny saying
"That's that" whenever a program terminates.
IA <int> <ah> <al> <filename> <soundfile>
The INT-ASCIZ event will trigger playback whenever the
specified interrupt <int> occurs, with <ah> matching the AH
register and <al> matching the AL register. An additional
check is done between <filename> and the filename pointed
to by the DS:DX register.
Example: 'IA 21 43 01 MYFILE CERTNLY.V8' plays Stooge Curly
saying "Certainly!" whenever the file attributes of
the file named MYFILE are set.
IF <int> <ah> <al> <filename> <soundfile>
The INT-FCB event will trigger playback whenever the
specified interrupt <int> occurs, with <ah> matching the AH
register and <al> matching the AL register. An additional
check is done between <filename> and the filename in the
File-Control-Block pointed to by the DS:DX register.
Example: 'IF 21 15 FF MYFILE HEYNOT.V8' plays Stooge Curly
saying "Hey, not that!" whenever a sequential
write is done to the file MYFILE.
ID <int> <ah> <al> <drive> <soundfile>
The INT-DISK event will trigger playback whenever the
specified interrupt <int> occurs, with <ah> matching the
AH register and <al> matching the AL register. An additional
check is done between <drive> and the DL register.
Example: 'ID 13 05 ff 01 WARNING.V8' plays the Robot from Lost
in Space saying "Warning Warning" anytime a format
disk track is executed on the A drive.
--------------------
EVENT FILE ARGUMENTS
--------------------
The event type is followed by additional arguments that describe the event
on which to trigger playback.
Arguments may be separated by commas or any number of spaces. They may
appear in upper or lower case.
The arguments used are different for each event type. All are described
below:
<filename>
A filename that may be up to 12 characters in length, and must
include a period and extension. It may be a single * to indicate
a match of any filename.
<soundfile>
The name of the soundfile to be played at the time the event occurs.
It may include a full path specification and any valid player
switches. If the sound file will be played using SPUT, you may
also use *.* to invoke random soundfile selection.
<int>
This is the interrupt number in hexadecimal to monitor.
Only interrupts 13 and 21 are supported at this time.
<ah>
This is the hexadecimal contents of the AH register to be
checked at the time of the interrupt. Use FF to indicate
a match on all values.
<al>
This is the hexadecimal contents of the AL register to be
checked at the time of the interrupt. Use FF to indicate
a match on all values.
<drive>
This is the hexadecimal driver number, with 0 being the
A drive, and 1 the B drive. Use FF to indicate a match on
any drive.
<sdate>
This is the first date that the alarm should trigger in the
format MM-DD-YY. 00 in any field, matches every value.
06-00-90 means every day in June 1990.
<stime>
This is the first time that the alarm should trigger in the
format HH:MM. 00:00 means midnight.
<idate>
This is the increment to add to <sdate> to determine the
next date that the alarm should trigger. The format is
MM-DD-YY. 01-00-00 means add 1 to the month for the next
alarm date. 00-00-01 means add 1 to the year.
<itime>
This is the increment to add to <stime> to determine the
next time that the alarm should trigger. The format is
HH:MM. 00:05 means 5 minutes later. 01:00 means 1 hour
later.
<repeat>
This is the number of times to add the increment to the
set time and reset the alarm. A value of 0 means non-stop.
-------------------------------------------------------------
USING SPUTROL.COM FOR FM MUSIC ON SOUND BLASTER & ADLIB CARDS
-------------------------------------------------------------
To use SPUTROL to play a ROL file when an event occurs, just insert '#R'
before the <soundfile> argument.
Example: 'P MYPROG.EXE #R LINUS.ROL'
or: 'T 00-00-00 12:00 00-00-00 00:00 1 #R LINUS.ROL'
SPUTROL.COM will be used to play LINUS.ROL whenever MYPROG.EXE is
executed, and every day at 12:00 noon.
This does not require that the sound driver SOUND.COM already be loaded,
SPUTROL can automatically load SOUND.COM and unload it when playback is
completed thereby saving valuable memory. If you plan to use this feature,
it is recommended that you keep SOUND.COM on a RAMdisk for quicker access.
SOUND.COM v1.51 is Copyright by Ad Lib Inc.
------------------------------------------------
TRIGGERING OTHER PLAYERS, PROGRAMS & BATCH FILES
------------------------------------------------
The Event Monitor also has the ability to start other sound file players,
programs and batch files when an event occurs.
To use this feature, just preceed the <soundfile> argument with '#C'.
Example: 'FD DEMO.TMP #C TEST.BAT'
runs TEST.BAT when the file DEMO.TMP is deleted.
-----------------------------------------
USING SMOOTH TALKER SOFTWARE WITH SPUTMON
-----------------------------------------
To use Smooth Talker text to speech software, you must add the following
line to your CONFIG.SYS file and reboot your system:
'DEVICE=STDRIVER.SYS SV3 CRE TTD'
Then load SPEECHV3 into memory. (If using SPEECHV2, you must enter SV2
instead of SV3 on the above line added to CONFIG.SYS).
Now you can use the #C file type to convert text files to synthesized speech
using your Smooth Talker Software.
Example: 'FD DEMO.TMP #C COPY MESSAGE.TXT ST'
Smooth Talker will convert the text file MESSAGE.TXT to synthesized
speech whenever the file DEMO.TMP is deleted.
If your STDRIVER is also used by other software supporting Smooth Talker
and gets set into a different mode so that the COPY command no longer works,
you can use the SPUTST utility to reset it without having to reboot your
system. Just type the following command at the DOS prompt:
'SPUTST SV3 CRE TTD'
SmoothTalker is Copyright by First Byte Software.
---------------------------
USING SPUTMON WITH DESQVIEW
---------------------------
SPUTMON can be run in any DESQview window, and will only see events that
occur in the same window. Separate event definition files can be created
for each application that runs in a DESQview window, or all windows can
use the same event definition file.
All timer events can be monitored from a single DESQview window.
If the DESQview player window feature is enabled (/W), a separate window
will be started in which to run the player. This window will run in the
background, and close when the player exits.
If the player program runs too slowly in a background window, you can use
/W to disable the window-player feature. This will cause playback to occur
in the same window that the event occured, and should then be at the correct
playback speed.
Currently, SPUTMON does not run properly when loaded before DESQview.
---------------------
SPUTMON Error messages
---------------------
Not Installed
Cannot Uninstall
Uninstalled
Already Installed
Event table initialized
Event Monitoring enabled
Event Monitoring disabled
Bells on error & retry enabled
Bells on error & retry disabled
Bells frequency changed to every N seconds
Retry playback enabled
Retry playback disabled
Quiet screen enabled
Quiet screen disabled
Multiple triggers enabled
Multiple triggers disabled
DESQview player window enabled
DESQview player window disabled
Command line playback enabled
Command line playback disabled
Background window enabled
Foreground window enabled
Invalid Filespec
Failed to find SPUT.COM in current path
Failed to find Event file
Event file read error
No events found
Syntax error - on line n of Event Definition File
Invalid hexadecimal number - on line n of Event Definition File
Invalid decimal number - on line n of Event Definition File
Invalid event definition type - on line n of Event Definition File
Invalid program or filename - on line n of Event Definition File
Invalid soundfile argument - on line n of Event Definition File
Invalid date/time format - on line n of Event Definition File
Invalid date/time increment - on line n of Event Definition File
DVP file not found - DESQview player window disabled
DVP file read error
-----------------------------------------------
TROUBLE SHOOTING PROBLEMS WITH EVENT TRIGGERING
-----------------------------------------------
** No playback occurs at the defined event
If playback does not occur when you expect it should, try the following
steps to isolate the problem:
1) Enable the beep-on-error option with the command 'SPUTMON/B'.
(You can check the state of the switch with SPUTMON/S)
2) Reinitialize the event table counters with the command 'SPUTMON/I'
2) Perform the same sequence of commands that should cause
playback to occur.
3) Display a status with the command 'SPUTMON/S' and make a note
of the CODE field. This is the error code.
4) Continue reading to find the problem.
** Hear a buzzer instead of playback and Error Code = xx02
An error code of xx02 indicates that SPUTMON could not run the player
utility. When SPUTMON is initially loaded, it searches the current
PATH found in the environment, to find all of the player utilities.
If these files are later moved or deleted, SPUTMON will no longer be able
to call upon them to play soundfiles.
To resolve this problem, replace the player program that was moved
or deleted, or unload and reload SPUTMON.
The supported player programs are SPUT.COM, PLAYROL.EXE, TRAN.EXE and
COMMAND.COM.
** Hear a buzzer instead of playback and Error Code = xx08
An error code of xx08 indicates insufficient memory. This means that
the currently running program already has all of available memory
allocated to it, and there is not enough remaining memory to run the
player utility.
This error will only occur if you have disabled the DESQview-player-
window feature (/W) and the command-line-playback feature (/C) and
the retry feature (/R). Reenabling any of these features will solve
this problem.
If you choose not to enable these features, an alternative solution
is to use the PROGRAM execution event to trigger playback when the
offending program is run, instead of triggering on what the program
is doing. Other than this, nothing else can be done to solve this
problem, unless you have access to the source code of the offending
program.
** Buzzer instead of playback and Error Code = 10xx
An error code of 10xx indicates that SPUTMON ran the player utility, but
the player encountered an error. Refer to the section on the SPUT utility
for a list of SPUT error numbers and messages.
Normally, SPUTMON runs the player utility with the proper switches so
there will be no screen output while other programs are running.
Disabling this feature with the /Q switch, will allow the player to
display all it's normal screen output, including error messages.
** No playback when event is caused by any of the SPUTTER utilities
This has been done intentionally, otherwise invoking any of the SPUTTER
utilities causes multiple soundfiles to be played. Enough is enough I say.
All SPUTTER utilities issue a special command to SPUTMON to temporarily
disable triggering of events caused by the SPUTTER utilities.
Triggering and playback of type T timer events will continue uninterrupted.
** Here is a list of other possible error codes that can be returned from
DOS when attempting to execute the Player Utility SPUT:
01h function number invalid
02h file not found
03h path not found
04h too many open files (no handles available)
05h access denied
06h invalid handle
07h memory control block destroyed
08h insufficient memory
09h memory block address invalid
0Ah environment invalid (usually >32K in length)
0Bh format invalid
0Ch access code invalid
0Dh data invalid
0Fh invalid drive
10h attempted to remove current directory
11h not same device
12h no more files
13h disk write-protected
14h unknown unit
15h drive not ready
16h unknown command
17h data error (CRC)
18h bad request structure length
19h seek error
1Ah unknwon media type (non-DOS disk)
1Bh sector not found
1Ch printer out of paper
1Dh write fault
1Eh read fault
1Fh general failure
20h sharing violation
21h lock violation
22h disk change invalid
23h FCB unavailable
24h sharing buffer overflow
25h reserved
26h (LANtastic) cannot complete file operation
27h-31h reserved
32h Network request not supported (DOS 3.1 + MS Networks)
33h Remote computer not listening
34h Duplicate name on network
35h Network name not found
36h Network busy
37h Network device no longer exists
38h Network BIOS command limit exceeded
39h Network adapter hardware error
3Ah Incorrect response from network
3Bh Unexpected network error
3Ch Incompatible remote adapter
3Dh Print queue full
3Eh Queue not full
3Fh Not enough space to print file
40h Network name was deleted
41h Network: Access denied
42h Network device type incorrect
43h Network name not found
44h Network name limit exceeded
45h Network BIOS session limit exceeded
46h Temporarily paused
47h Network request not accepted
48h (DOS 3.1 + MS Networks) Print/disk redirection paused
49h (LANtastic) invalid network version
4Ah (LANtastic) account expired
4Bh (LANtastic) password expired
4Ch (LANtastic) login attempt invalid at this time
4Dh-4Fh reserved
50h file exists
51h reserved
52h cannot make directory
53h fail on INT 24h
54h (DOS 3.3+) too many redirections
55h (DOS 3.3+) duplicate redirection
56h (DOS 3.3+) invalid password
57h (DOS 3.3+) invalid parameter
58h (DOS 3.3+) network write fault
59h (LANtastic) function not supported on network
5Ah (LANtastic) required system component not installed
**************************************************************************
SECTION 3.3 - SPUT Soundfile Player UTility
**************************************************************************
This section describes the program named SPUT, which stands for (S)oundfile
(P)layer (UT)ility. SPUT is the foundation of the entire SPUTTER Sound
System.
Typing 'SPUT' with no arguments at the DOS prompt, will print the version
number and a short help screen.
If you are an unregistered user, you will also see the following message
whenever playback is completed
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ Thank you for trying The Sputter Sound System │
│ If you use Sputter, please register │
│ │
│ Registration will remove this message & delay │
│ and give you additional features │
│ │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
---------------------
SPUT FILE INFORMATION
---------------------
SPUT displays the following information on the screen each time it
is run.
SPUT v1.11 Player Utility - Copyright 1990, VersaWare / Adrienne Cousins
File:E:\SND\TRYAGN.V8 Size:9439/9423 Form:0008/0 Port:022F Driv:1
Rate:180 Over:1 Freq:15495hz Ampl:0+ Time:0.6s
Samples Output:9423 Silence groups:0 Timer Adjust:11
or for Macintosh files, the Title from the header is included:
SPUT v1.11 Player Utility - Copyright 1990, VersaWare / Adrienne Cousins
File:.\HOWYA.SND Size:11648/11008 Form:0038/0 Port:022F Driv:1
Rate:152 Over:1 Freq:11363hz Ampl:0+ Time:1.0s Title:HowYouDoin'?
Samples Output:11008 Silence groups:0 Timer Adjust:17
or silence encoding statistics are shown when applicable:
SPUT v1.11 Player Utility - Copyright 1990, VersaWare / Adrienne Cousins
File:F:\SND\EXECUTE.V4S Size:2682/2666 Form:0084/0 Port:022F Driv:1
Rate:152 Over:1 Freq:11363hz Time:0.2s
Samples Output:12675 Silence groups:10 Timer Adjust:20
File:
This is the name of the file entered on the command line to SPUT.
Size:
The first number is the size of the file in bytes, the second
is the actual byte size of the data to be played.
Form:
The first number is the file format (see /F for definitions)
The second number indicates Macintosh file compression:
0 - non-compression
1 - run length encoding (RLE)
2 - Dynamic Lempel-Ziv,Weiss compression
3 - Huffman compression
Port:
This is the hex address of the port being used for output.
Driv:
This is the driver number used to drive the output device.
Rate:
This is the playback rate, specified on the command line, or taken
from the header record, or recalculated for oversampling.
Over:
This is the oversampling factor currently being used.
Freq:
This is the frequency (samples per second) that the file is being
played at.
Time:
This is the approximate time it will take to playback the file
at the current settings.
Title:
This only appears when playing Macintosh sound files and comes
from the internal header record of the sound file.
Samples Output:
This is a count of the bytes actually sent to the output device and
includes all bytes reconstructed as a result of silence encoding,
and compression. In third example above, the file uses only 6508
bytes of disk space to store a file that originally contained
12126 bytes of sound.
Silence groups:
This is how many periods of silence were found in the file, and
expanded back to their original length.
--------------------------
SPUT ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
--------------------------
SPUTARG
This allows you to setup any permanent switches that you would
like SPUT to use every time it's run, without having to enter
them on the command line. Any switches specified on the command
line, will override the switches in the SPUTARG variable.
You can set this value at the DOS prompt, or by including a line
in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file with the following command:
set sputarg=/p220s/ir7
This tells SPUT to send all output to a Sound Blaster card
at port 220 (hex), using interrupt number 7.
SPUTDIR
This defines the default directory to find sound files. If a
filename is given on the command line with no drive or directory,
SPUT will look for the file in the directory defined by the
SPUTDIR variable.
You can set this value at the DOS prompt, or from your AUTOEXEC.BAT
file with the following command:
set sputdir=c:\sound
This would tell SPUT to look in the SOUND directory on the
C: drive for all sound files.
To force SPUT to play a file in the current directory without
having to enter the complete path, use the following command:
sput .\filename
------------------------
SPUT SYNTAX AND SWITCHES
------------------------
Syntax: SPUT <soundfile> [/switches]
ESCAPE key
Pressing the ESCAPE key during file playback, will cause SPUT to
immediately stop playback and exit. This will not disturb any
type ahead already in the keyboard buffer.
?
Entering a question mark on the command line, will tell SPUT to
display a short help screen.
<soundfile>
This is the name of the sound file to be played. If no directory
is specified, the directory specified by the environment variable
SPUTDIR will be used. If the SPUTDIR variable does not exist, the
current directory is assumed.
Specifying a directory as part of the filename, will override
any directory specified by the SPUTDIR environment variable. Use
".\filename" to indicate the current directory and ignore the
SPUTDIR environment variable.
Wildcards within the filename, tell SPUT to randomly select and
play a file that matches the wildcard mask. This provides a
way to have SPUT vary the sound files that are played without
always having to change your batch files.
Sound files can be categorized in two different ways, the first
is by directory, where sound files are categorized and stored in
separate directories, with a different directory for each category.
To randomly play any file of a particularily category, just specify
the directory. The command "SPUT \SND\CARTOONS\*.*" would randomly
select and play a file from the CARTOONS sub-directory and the
command "SPUT \SND\ERRORS\*.*" would randomly select and play a
file from the ERRORS sub-directory.
The other method of categorization is by file extension. This
method keeps all sound files in the same directory, with files of
the same category having the same file extension. Then the command
"SPUT \SND\*.MUS" would randomly select one of the files with the
.MUS extension from the SND directory. The command "SPUT *.*"
would then select and play a file from any category.
Note that the filename and extension hold no special meaning
for SPUT. Any information needed for playback is retrieved
from within the file. Any reference to extensions within the
SPUTTER documentation, is simply to aid you in determining the
file format. SPUT can always determine the file format from
the contents of the file regardless of the filename & extension.
/An
This switch will enhance the amplitude, or volume, of a soundfile.
Using this switch, causes more processing to be performed on each
sample of the soundfile, and may actually slow down the playback
speed on slower processors. The higher the N value, the more
processing being done on each sample.
If using this switch, slows the playback speed on your system,
you can use the /A switch in conjunction with the /W switch to
write the file to disk. The new file will play properly with
no switches, and the amplitude will be elevated.
Another alternative is to resample the file to a lower playback
rate using the /U and /W switches. Then you can replay the new
file using the /A switch without bogging down your system.
/Cn
This will cause the selected file to be played N times, in a
continous loop. A value of 0 will play indefinetly, until a
key is struck. This is most useful for listening to the quality
of a very short sound clip, or can be used as an alarm
triggered SPUTMON the Event Monitor.
/Dn
This switch is used to select the method of output to be used
on the currently selected output device.
The Internal Speaker has 4 drivers, the default is #1.
1 - This method uses a software timing loop to drive the
8253 Programmable Interval Timer chip. The routine
calibrates itself by polling the Timer chip while
outputting the first 64 bytes of the file.
This driver gives the best results, since no additional
background noise is caused by interrupts or sampling.
It will not cause crashes on slower systems, but it's
speed is slightly less accurate than the other methods.
2 - This method polls the Timer chip while outputting the
sound file. It's speed is accurate, and like method 1
will not cause crashes on slower systems, but it generates
slightly more noise than method 3 (interrupts).
3 - This method uses Timer interrupts to output the sound file.
It's speed is accurate, it generates slightly more noise
than method 1 (software timing), but it may crash slower
systems when using too fast a speed or oversampling factor.
When this method is used in DESQview, the keyboard is
automatically disabled to prevent crashing the system.
4 - This method uses the 8255 Peripheral Interface Controller
to generate sound. It's speed is accurate, but the sound
quality is appreciably lower than the other methods, since
only a single bit of each 8-bit sample is actually output.
The Sound Blaster has 2 drivers, the default is #1.
SPUT will automatically select the correct Sound Blaster
driver depending on the environment it is running in, and
the file format that is being played.
1 - This driver uses the direct mode of output to the Sound
Blaster DAC port. This is completely CPU driven and can
be interrupted by background processing in a multitasking
environment.
This driver has the capability of sending ANY file format
from any other source to the Sound Blaster card, but does
NOT support formats 42,44,45.
2 - This driver uses the DMA mode of the Sound Blaster DAC port.
It cannot be used in a multitasking environment, since there
would be a conflict between the DMA and memory paging.
This is also true of the VOUT.EXE utility that comes with the
Sound Blaster card. (This will be resolved in a future
release of SPUT.)
This driver can handle formats 42,44,45,48 and any other 8-bit
file format (08,28,38), and provides the /SHELL function,
but does NOT support any of the other compressed file formats
(01-04,11,21,31,81-84).
/DE
Normally SPUT assumes that other processes already running, are
more important than sound playback, so if other tasks are running
when SPUT attempts to play a file, playback may be slightly slower
than expected. This is done mainly to not disrupt any communications
tasks that might be running when SPUT is started.
You may use /DE to force SPUT to run in dedicated mode and pause all
other tasks in order to play the soundfile correctly.
/DI
This switch is used to specify an alternate dictionary file. The
default dictionary filename is SPUT.DIC. The file is assumed to be
located in the current directory or in the PATH.
This file is used during text-to-speech translation and contains
any pronounciation corrections or user definitions.
See the next section for a description of this file.
/Fnn
The /F switch is used to force SPUT to use a specific file
format. This may be necessary when the file is missing a
proper header record, which SPUT needs to determine the
file format automatically.
If you play a file with no switches, and it does not playback
correctly, try using all possible /F switches until the file
plays correctly. If SPUT still fails to playback the file
with any of the /F switches, you may have a file format that
SPUT doesn't know about.
SPUT has the capability of playing ANY file format on ANY device
that it supports, not just the device that the file format may
have been created on. The only exception to this are formats
42,44,45 which can only be played on a Sound Blaster card.
If you find a file format that SPUT doesn't understand, please
send me a copy of the file and any others similar to it, so that
I can try to decipher the format and add it to a future release
of SPUTTER.
File formats:
01 - Covox 1-bit ADPCM with 16-byte header (.V1)
Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation is a technique
of encoding the original waveform into a smaller file.
This format uses a series of 16 byte groups with the first
byte being an amplitude byte and the remaining 15 bytes
are data. Each data byte contains 8 1-bit samples. Each
of these 16-byte groups decodes into 120 8-bit samples.
This format yields a 1:8 or 1/8 compression ratio.
02 - Covox 2-bit ADPCM with 16-byte header (.V2)
This format uses a series of 2 byte groups where 1 bit of
each of the two bytes is combined to form a 2-bit sample.
Each two byte group contains 8 of these 2-bit samples.
The 2-bit samples are then decoded into 8-bit samples before
playback. This format yields a 2:8 or 1/4 compression ratio.
03 - Covox 3-bit ADPCM with 16-byte header (.V3)
This format uses a series of 3 byte groups where 1 bit of
each of the three bytes is combined to form a 3-bit sample.
Each three byte group contains 8 of these 3-bit samples.
The 3-bit samples are then decoded into 8-bit samples before
playback. This format yields a 3:8 or 3/8 compression ratio.
04 - Covox 4-bit ADPCM with 16-byte header (.V4)
This format uses a series of 4 byte groups where 1 bit of
each of the four bytes is combined to form a 4-bit sample.
Each four byte group contains 8 of these 4-bit samples.
The 4-bit samples are then decoded into 8-bit samples before
playback. This format yields a 4:8 or 1/2 compression ratio.
08 - Covox 8-bit PCM with 16-byte header (.V8)
or Covox 8-bit PCM with 128-byte header (.VMF)
or Covox 8-bit PCM with no header (.VMD)
or any other 8-bit PCM file
Uniform Pulse Code Modulation stores a waveform as a
sequence of 8-bit numbers representing different amplitudes.
Amplitude levels -128 to -1 are represented by the numbers
0 to 127, level 0 is represented by 128 and levels 1 to 128
are represented by the numbers 129 to 255.
Programs that use this format:
. Deskmate Software by Tandy for 1000SL/TL/2s computers.
. Tandy Sound Digitizer by KSH Software.
10 - Text files
Any text file to be translated into speech.
11 - IBM 1-bit CVSD format files
Continously Variable Slope Delta Modulation records the
direction of the waveform bit by bit. If the wave goes up
from the previous sample, a "1" bit is recorded otherwise
a "0" bit is recorded. Absolute silence is recorded as
"01010101...". The bit stream is stored from right to
left in each data byte.
This format yields a 1:8 or 1/8 compression ratio.
Programs that use this format:
. IBM's education software such as "Writing to Read"
with a 128-byte header.
. Compton's Multimedia Encyclopedia program on CD ROM.
21 - Digicorder 1-bit CVSD format files
This format is similar to format 11, except that the bit
stream is stored from left to right within each data byte.
This format yields a 1:8 or 1/8 compression ratio.
Programs that use this format:
. Digicorder & Mimic by Eletech Electronics with a numeric
extension indicating the recording rate in bits-per-second,
and no header record.
28 - Amiga 8-bit PCM with 8SVX variable length header (.SND)
or Amiga 8-bit PCM with Sonix 64-byte header (.SND)
or Atari 8-bit PCM files (.SND)
This format is similar to 8-bit PCM, but stores the actual
amplitude level with polarity intact. Negative amplitudes
are represented by -128 to -1, level 0 is represented by 0
and positive amplitudes are represented by +1 to +128.
Programs that use this format:
. Perfect Sound by Sunrize Industries for the Amiga
with a 128-byte 8SVX style header record.
. Audio Master for the Amiga, with a 128-byte 8SVX header.
. Sonix for the Amiga, with a 64-byte header record.
31 - Voice Toolkit 1-bit format files
This format simply takes bit-4 of each original 8-bit sample
and stores the bit stream from left to right within each
data byte.
This format yields a 1:8 or 1/8 compression ratio.
Programs that use this format:
. Digitized Voice Toolkit for the PC, by Farpoint
Software; Alan D. Jones, with a .VOI extension.
NOTE: This shareware package includes the schematics
for a build-it-yourself digitizer that is attached to
any COM port for recording.
38 - Macintosh 8-bit PCM with MacBinary FSSD 128-byte header (.SND)
This file format is the same as format 08, with a different
type of header record. No compression is currently supported.
42 - Creative Labs 2-bit ADPCM with 16-byte header (.VOC)
This is a compressed file format, that is automatically
decompressed by the hardware, and can only be played
on a Sound Blaster card.
44 - Creative Labs 4-bit ADPCM with 16-byte header (.VOC)
This is a compressed file format, that is automatically
decompressed by the hardware, and can only be played
on a Sound Blaster card.
45 - Creative Labs 2.5-bit ADPCM with 16-byte header (.VOC)
This is a compressed file format, that is automatically
decompressed by the hardware, and can only be played
on a Sound Blaster card.
48 - Creative Labs 8-bit PCM with 16-byte header (.VOC)
This format is the same as format 08, with a different type
of header record, and can be played on any device.
This format is used by the Sound Blaster and Game Blaster
cards from Creative Labs.
81 - Covox 1-bit ADPCM with silence encoding (.V1S)
This format is the same as format 01, but includes the use
of silence encoding.
Silence encoding is a form of compression that uses 3 bytes
to represent up to 32640 multiple continous bytes of silence.
This technique can save a considerable amount of disk space
without affecting the sound quality. Many periods of silence
occur between words and syllables and at the beginning and end
of sound files.
DEMO123.V8S is an example of a silence encoded file. You can
play it back with no switches for normal playback, or you can
use the /F8 switch to hear just the non-silent passages. The
little cracks you'll hear with the /F8 switch are the places
where silence has been encoded into just a few bytes.
Currently, only sound files created by Covox programs have
silence encoding, but a future release of SPUTTER, will include
a utility to rewrite any sound files using silence encoding.
82 - Covox 2-bit ADPCM with silence encoding (.V2S)
This format is the same as format 02, but includes the use
of silence encoding.
83 - Covox 3-bit ADPCM with silence encoding (.V3S)
This format is the same as format 03, but includes the use
of silence encoding.
84 - Covox 4-bit ADPCM with silence encoding (.V4S)
This format is the same as format 04, but includes the use
of silence encoding.
88 - Covox 8-bit PCM with silence encoding (.V8S)
This format is the same as format 08, but includes the use
of silence encoding.
/Hi,r
This switch will cause high-pass filtering to be applied to the
data before being played. This technique is known as Differential
Quantization & is based on the fact that there is considerable
correlation between adjacent speech samples. The interval <i>,
determines the distance between samples to be differentiated.
Using a repeat value <r> greater than 1 will heighten the effect.
This switch can only be used on 8-bit PCM data with no compression
or silence encoding. Using the switch with any other file format
will produce an error message. To apply high-pass filtering to
any other file format, you must first use the /W switch to write
the desired file out into 8-bit PCM format, and then use the /H
switch on the new file.
/I
This switch will display on screen, all the file information that
is normally displayed when the file is played, but without any
playback occurring.
/IRn
This switch allows you to specify the Interrupt Request line that
your Sound Blaster card is set for. The default is 3, with valid
values being 2,3,5,7.
/K
This switch will cause SPUT to ignore all keyboard input while
playing a soundfile.
/Li,r
This switch will cause low-pass filtering to be applied to the
data before being played. This technique is known as Integration.
The interval <i> determines the distance between samples to be
integrated. Using a repeat value <r> greater than 1 will heighten
the effect.
This switch can only be used on 8-bit PCM data with no compression
or silence encoding. See /H for directions on applying low-pass
filtering to other file formats.
/N
This switch will generate very low-level noise in place of dead
silence, when playing back files with silence encoding.
Sometimes, when periods of silence are obvious, this can help
make it more natural sounding.
/On
The /O switch is used to invoke the oversampling option for the
internal speaker only. This can be used to help eliminate
sampling whine in files that were recorded at a sampling rate
below 12000 samples-per-second.
When the /O switch is used alone, or before the /R switch on
the command line, SPUT will use the specified playback rate to
calculate a new playback rate to be used while oversampling.
For example, if a file plays correctly at a rate of 132 (9622hz)
but yields high sampling whine, using the /O2/R132 switches will
cause SPUT to double the playback rate from 9622hz to 19244hz
and oversample by a factor of 2. This causes the file to be played
back twice as fast, but each byte is being played twice now, so
it sounds the same with the sampling whine removed.
The switch is ignored, when sending output to any port other
than the internal speaker.
/Pnnn
This switch allows selection of the desired output port.
Port Values:
0 - Internal speaker (default)
1-4 - Voice Master (VM0-3)
5-8 - Speech Thing (LPT1-4)
9 - Sound Master (SM)
nnn - hex port address of any other Digital to Analog Converter
nnn-A - hex port address of an AdLib music card
nnn-S - hex port address of a Sound Blaster card
/PH
This switch will cause SPUT to display the phonemes used to
form words during text-to-speech translation.
/Qn
This switch is used to set the desired level of screen output.
/Q0 display all output
/Q1 display none
/Q2 display errors only
/Rnnn
The /R switch is used to force SPUT to use a specific playback
rate. This may be necessary when the file is missing a proper
header record, or the playback or record rate is not available.
When the playback rate is not available, it will default to
152 for Macintosh files and 182 for all other files.
When the /R switch appears before the /O switch on the command
line, SPUT will use the specified playback rate for oversampling
and not perform any other calculation.
When the /O switch appears before the /R switch on the command
line, SPUT will use the specified playback rate to calculate
a new playback rate to be used while oversampling. See the /O
switch for details.
Rate Frequency Approximations:
1 4679hz 152 11473hz 202 22096hz
66 6279hz 161 12559hz 212 27118hz
110 8172hz 171 14037hz 222 35094hz
132 9622hz 182 16124hz 232 49716hz
140 10286hz 192 18643hz 242 85227hz
/RSnnn
This switch tells SPUT to resample the selected sound file
while writing it to disk. It is only applicable when used in
conjunction with the /W switch.
Resampling is a process where the playback rate of the specified
soundfile is changed to the rate you specify with the /RS switch.
Now virtually any sound file can be played on virtually any
machine, no matter what the speed of the machine. If a file
will not play properly on a slower machine, just resample it
down to a rate that runs properly on that machine.
Resampling also has the pleasant side effect of reducing the
size of the sound file. The greater the reduction in playback
rate, the greater the reduction in file size.
/RU
This switch will cause SPUT to display the rule numbers used
when forming words during text-to-speech translation.
/SH
You lucky Sound Blaster owners can use this switch to shell to
the DOS prompt while SPUT is playing your sound file in the
background.
As soon as playback is started, SPUT will start a DOS shell and
print the following message:
** Type EXIT anytime to return to SPUT **
You will then see the familiar DOS prompt where you can run any
program, to do whatever you like (including running SPUT as long
as you access a different sound port).
Whenever you decide to quit the shell, just type 'EXIT' at the DOS
prompt and you will return to SPUT.
If playback is finished, SPUT will end and return to whatever
task it was called by, otherwise SPUT will display the following
message and wait for playback to complete before exiting:
** Waiting for playback to finish (press ESCAPE to abort) **
/T
Use this switch to enhance treble output of a sound file.
This uses 3 level non-uniform quantization, which divides the
entire amplitude range into 3 ranges and assigns the same amplitude
value to all samples falling in the upper and lower ranges.
All samples in the low range are set to 0, all samples in the
high range are set to 255 and all samples falling in the middle
range are doubled up to 127. Samples in the middle range above
127 are clipped.
/TI
This switch will cause SPUT to digitize the current time.
/TX
This will cause SPUT to enter interactive text mode and display
a prompt (>). Any words typed will be digitized when the
ENTER key is pressed. Press CTRL-C to exit interactive text
mode and return to the DOS prompt.
During interactive text mode, phonemes and phoneme-functions may
be entered along with regular text to be digitized.
/V<f>
This switch is used to specify an alternate voice file. The
default voice filename is SPUT.PHD. The file is assumed to be
located in the current directory or in the PATH.
/W<f>
This switch will cause all output to be redirected to a disk file
instead of being played. The format of the output file is
always 8-bit PCM with a 16-byte Covox style header record.
All file formats are converted to 8-bit PCM just before being
output to the selected device. This switch causes that 8-bit
PCM data to be captured to a disk file, which can then be
manipulated much more easily than the other file formats.
The captured file can be replayed with SPUT using the /H and
/L switches for high/low-pass filtering, or the waveform of the
file can be viewed with SPUTWAVE, or the file can be edited
with a sound file editor.
Keep in mind that the samples in the output file will reflect
all switches that were active at the time the file was created.
If /T is used for treble enhancement, then playing the new file
with no switch will sound the same as playing the original with
the /T switch.
---------------------------
SPUT DICTIONARY FILE FORMAT
---------------------------
The dictionary file is used to correct SPUT's pronounciation
errors or change any other attributes of a word like volume or
speed. You can also use the dictionary to translate words and
abbreviations into complete words and phrases.
The format of the file is straight ascii created with any text
editor program. Each entry is 2 lines.
The first line is the english word and may be in any case.
The second line is the correct phoneme string to be used to
pronounce the word, and may also contain simple text, Smooth
Talker style phonemes and any special phoneme functions that
are described in the following section.
The following is an example of a simple phoneme definition to
correct a mis-pronounciation:
COW
~k-ow
The following example uses SmoothTalker style phonemes:
diaper
<<~dAY4EYp3ER>>
The following example uses phoneme-functions to make the second
syllable louder:
FANTASTIC
~f-ae-n-a3+-t-ae-s-a0-t-ih-k
The following example uses phoneme-functions to make the entire
word softer:
WHISPER
~a4--wh-ih-s-p-er-a0
The following example uses simple text to define an abbreviation
expansion:
DAC
digital to analog converter
------------------------
SPUT PHONEME DEFINITIONS
------------------------
Phoneme strings always start with the tilde character (~) followed by each
of the phonemes separated by dashes. A space or any control character
ends the word. (eg. ~v-ey-p-er is the word VAPOR)
SPUT phonemes are not case sensitive, and are compatible with TRAN phonemes.
SmoothTalker phonemes are supported so that any files that already contain
SmoothTalker phonemes will be interpreted correctly by SPUT.
Many of the SmoothTalker phonemes have the same name as the SPUT
phonemes, but those marked with an asterisk (*) are differrent.
To create a SmoothTalker phoneme string, start the word with 2 less than
signs, followed by the tilde character, then the string of phonemes,
followed by 2 greater than signs to end the word. (eg. <<~vEYpER>> )
SmoothTalker phonemes are case sensitive.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPUT Phonemes SMOOTH TALKER Phonemes
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AE fAt AE short 'a' last
AH fAther *AA short 'o' cot
AW lAWn *AO intermediate 'o' caught
AY hIde AY dipthong ice
B soB b plosive in bin
BB Back
CH CHurCH CH in chin
D soD d plosive in din
DD Dime
DH eiTHer DH 'th' in then
EE bEEt *IY long 'e' beet
EH gEt EH short 'e' best
ER mURdER ER 'ur' 'er' in further
EY gAte EY dipthong in ace
F Fault f fricative in fin
G doG g plosive in give
GG Goat
H How h in hit
IH bIt IH short 'i' fit
JJ Jar j in jin or jug
J juDGe
K Coat k plosive in kin
L Laugh l in light or love
MM Moat
M suM m nasal in might
NN Note
N suN n nasal in night
NG suNG NG nasal in sing
OH lOne *OW long 'o' dose
OO fOOl *UW long 'u' lute
OR fOR
OW hOW *AW dipthong loud
OY tOY OY dipthong noise
P Pack p plosive in pin
R Rate r in rate
S Sue s silibant in sin
SH SHoe SH silibant in shin
T Time t plosive in tin
TH eTHer TH fricative in thin
U fUll *UH 'u' sound in book
UH About *AH short 'u' up
V Vault v in vim
W Wear w in wait or water
WH WHere WH in which or where
Y Young y in yet or yes
Z Zoo z in zen
ZH lieSure ZH in pleasure
SPACE
The following SmoothTalker phonemes (on the right) have no SPUT
equivalents, so the closest sounding phonemes have been substituted.
UH AX schwa 'a' in against
EH IX duration tween IH,AX in David
T DX 't' in butter
K KX non-aspirated 'k' ice cold
T TX non-aspirated 't' misstate
T PX non-aspirated 't' white spot
----------------------
SPUT PHONEME FUNCTIONS
----------------------
The special phoneme-functions may be used at the > prompt, in a text file
or in the exception dictionary. The changes caused by a phoneme-function
remain in effect until another matching phoneme-function is processed.
They may appear alone as in the following example:
~A2 loud ~A3 louder ~A3 even louder ~A0 back to normal
or as part of a phoneme string as in this example:
~F-AE-N-A3+-T-AE-S-A0-T-IH-K.
An The amplitude function is used to vary the amplitude or volume
of the created speech.
Use n or n+ to increase the amplitude
n- to decrease the amplitude
0 to return to normal amplitude
~A1+ or ~A1 increases the volume 1 step.
~A1- decreases the volume 1 step.
~A0 sets the volume back to normal.
Example: At the > prompt type "this is ~a3 louder"
or "this is ~a3- softer"
or "this is loudly" (LOUDLY is in the dictionary file)
or type "SPUT .\SAMPLES.TXT" to hear more examples.
Rn The rate function is used to vary the rate of the speech.
Use n to set a new rate
n+ to increase the current rate
n- to decrease the current rate
0 to return to the normal rate
~R10+ increases the rate by 10 (relative to current rate)
~R10- decreases the rate by 10 (relative to current rate)
~R202 sets the rate to 202 (absolute setting)
~R0 set the rate back to normal.
Example: At the > prompt type "this is ~r10+ faster"
or "this is ~r10- slower"
or type "SPUT .\SAMPLES.TXT" for more examples.
Mn The mode function is used to change between word and letter modes.
Use 1 to switch to letter mode
0 to switch to word mode (default)
Example: At the > prompt type "this is ~M1 letter mode"
or "~M0 this is word mode again"
or type "SPUT .\SAMPLES.TXT" for more examples.
Pn The punctuation function is used to change the amount of punctuation
that will be pronounced.
Use 0 to pronounce no punctuation (none)
1 to pronounce some punctuation (default)
# $ % & = @ + < > ! /
and . (point) if followed by a character
2 to pronounce most punctuation
all level 1 punctuation and
" ' ( ) * , - : ; ? [ \ ] ^ _ ` { | } ~
and . (period)
3 to pronounce all punctuation
all level 1+2 punctuation
and all control characters (not yet implemented)
-------------------
SPUT ERROR MESSAGES
-------------------
(01) Command syntax error, type 'SPUT<enter>' for help
(02) Invalid amplitude, use /An or /An- n=1-255
(03) Invalid playback rate, use 1-255 default=182/152
(04) Invalid file format, use 1-88 default=8
(05) Invalid oversample value, use 1-10 default=1
(06) Invalid port, use 0-9 or any hex address
(07) Invalid high-pass filter, use /Hi,r where i=interval and r=repeat
(08) Invalid low-pass filter, use /Li,r where i=interval and r=repeat
(09) Invalid continous play value, use 1-254 0-infinite
(0A) Filtering disabled, only applicable for 8-bit PCM files
(0B) Not enough memory available, file will be truncated
(0C) Invalid data length in header record, file has been truncated
(0D) Error releasing unused memory
(0E) Memory allocation failure
(0F) Sound file not found <filename>
(10) File read error
(11) Error opening output file
(12) Error writing header
(13) Error writing file
(14) Unknown file format, default format 08 may be incorrect
(15) Oversampling calculation error, use a smaller Rate or Oversample value
(16) File format not supported for this device
(17) Invalid driver, for SPKR use 1(software) 2(polling) 3(ints) 4(8255)
for SOUND BLASTER use 1(direct) 2(dma)
(18) New rate must be smaller than old playback rate
(19) New frequency is too small (max frequency reduction is half)
(1A) Voice file not found - <filename>
(1B) Insufficient memory to load Voice file
(1C) Voice file read error
(1D) Sound Blaster initialization failure
(1E) Text to phoneme translation error
(1F) Dictionary file not found - <filename>
(22) Macintosh Resource Fork is missing, default rate of 152 may be incorrect
(23) Missing or unknown header record, default rate of 182 may be incorrect
(24) Digitizing text files is only available to registered users
(25) Another SPUTTER player utility is already running
---------------------------------------
TROUBLE SHOOTING PROBLEMS WITH PLAYBACK
---------------------------------------
** File plays too slowly (with or without any optional switches)
This is simply the result of trying to play a file with too high a
playback rate on too slow of a machine. A RATE of 180 seems to be
the fastest rate that an 8mhz AT machine can play, with no SPUT switches.
Adding switches causes more processing to be done, and will slowdown
playback even further.
The solution is to run the file through SPUT with the /RS and /W switches
to resample the file down to a lower playback rate that the machine
can handle (ie: SPUT file/RS100/Wfile2). If the new file still plays
too slowly, then try the process again using a lower playback rate.
****************************************************************************
SECTION 3.4 - SPUTROL ROL File Player Utility
****************************************************************************
This section describes the ROL file player program named SPUTROL.
Very little memory is required to run SPUTROL, only 12k for the program,
and enough additional memory to read the BANK file and the ROL file.
That's it! To play a 5k ROL file with a 10k BANK file requires only 27k
of memory. If you plan on letting SPUTROL load the AdLib sound driver
SOUND.COM, then an additional 18k of memory will be required, but only
for the duration of the song playing. All memory is released when the
song is finished.
Another feature of SPUTROL is intelligent instrument substitution. When
an instrument is not found in the Bank file, SPUTROL will attempt to find
a close match instead of defaulting to PIANO1. You can also specify
your own instrument substitutions if you prefer.
Typing 'SPUTROL' with no arguments at the DOS prompt, will print the
version number and a short help screen.
If you are an unregistered user, you will also see the following message
whenever playback is completed.
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ Thank you for trying The Sputter Sound System │
│ If you use Sputter, please register │
│ │
│ Registration will remove this message & delay │
│ and give you additional features │
│ │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
------------------------
SPUTROL FILE INFORMATION
------------------------
SPUTROL displays the following information on the screen each time it
is run.
SPUTROL v1.11 ROL Player - Copyright 1990, VersaWare / Adrienne Cousins
Sound driver V1.51 (C) Ad Lib Inc. 1987, 1989
Sound driver successfully installed.
BNK File: D:\VOX\STANDARD.BNK v1.0 253/256 entries
ROL File: E:\ROL\BUMBLBEE.CLS Mode:0 TPB:8 BPM:2 Tempo:152 TemEvents:1
Voice Length Inst Instrument Names (VolumeChanges/PitchChanges)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 1572 11 VIOLIN1 SYN4 ELGUIT1 CLAR1 SYNBASS1 CLAR1 (38/60)
2 1498 8 CLAR1 ELGUIT1 SYN4 VIOLIN1 CLAR1 SYN4 (35/58)
3 1608 6 ELGUIT2 ELGUIT2 MARIMBA2 ELGUIT2 MARIMBA2 ELGUIT2 (58/1)
4 1592 6 ELGUIT2 ELGUIT2 MARIMBA2 ELGUIT2 MARIMBA2 ELGUIT2 (49/1)
5 1592 6 ELGUIT2 ELGUIT2 MARIMBA2 ELGUIT2 MARIMBA2 ELGUIT2 (38/1)
6 1608 5 ELGUIT2 ELGUIT2 PIANO1 MARIMBA2 ELGUIT2 (22/1)
7 1608 5 ELGUIT2 ELPIANO2 PIANO1 ELPIANO2 PIANO1 (15/5)
8 1346 2 ELGUIT2 SYN2 (3/1)
9 1251 3 PIANO1 TRUMPET4 SYN4 (7/1)
10 0 1 PIANO1 (1/1)
11 0 1 PIANO1 (1/1)
Time to play: 1:19 ■ Loading song into driver ■ Playback has started
1st line:
This is the program title, version and copyright statement.
2nd and 3rd lines:
These lines will only be displayed when the AdLib sound driver
SOUND.COM has not been loaded prior to running SPUTROL. In this
case, SPUTROL will automatically find and load SOUND.COM and then
remove it from memory when playback is completed. When using this
feature, it is recommended that you keep a copy of SOUND.COM on a
RAMdisk if available. The sound driver should also be in a
directory that is in the current path statement.
BNK File:
This is the name of the bank file that is being used for playback.
Also displayed is the version number of the bank file format, and
the number of used/total entries in the bank file. The PATH is
automatically searched to find STANDARD.BNK if a bank file is not
specified on the command line.
ROL File:
This is the name of the ROL file that is being played.
The extension is not required when specifying a file to be played,
and files may be renamed using any convenient extension.
Mode:
This is the mode of the file being played. Zero is melodic mode
which uses voices 1-8 and one is percussive mode, which uses voices
1-6 in melodic mode and voices 7-11 in percussive mode.
TPB:
This is the number of ticks-per-beat defined for this song.
BPM:
This is the number of beats-per-measure defined for this song.
Tempo:
This is the tempo that the song is being played at, and may be
changed with the /T switch.
TemEvents:
This is the total number of tempo changes that occur in the song.
Voice Length Inst Instrument Names (VolumeChanges/PitchChanges)
One line of information is printed for each of the 11 voices and
contains the following information:
Voice - the voice number.
Length - the length of the voice in ticks.
Inst - the number of instrument changes for this voice.
Instrument Names - The names of the instruments for this voice.
An instrument name followed by a slash and another instrument
names indicates that a substitution has been made.
(VolChanges/PitChanges) - The number of volume and pitch changes.
Time to play:
This is the estimated time that the song will take to play.
Loading song into driver:
This indicates that SPUTROL is in the process of loading the song
into the AdLib sound driver.
Playback has started:
This indicates that SPUTROL has filled the AdLib sound driver
buffer and the driver has started to play the song.
-----------------------------
SPUTROL ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
-----------------------------
SROLARG
This allows you to setup any permanent switches that you would
like SPUTROL to use every time it's run, without having to enter
them on the command line. Any switches specified on the command
line, will override the switches in the SROLARG variable.
You can set this value at the DOS prompt, or by including a line
in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file with the following command:
set srolarg=/q2
SROLDIR
This defines the default directory to find ROL files. If a
filename is given on the command line with no drive or directory,
SPUTROL will look for the file in the directory defined by the
SROLDIR variable.
You can set this value at the DOS prompt, or from your AUTOEXEC.BAT
file with the following command:
set sroldir=c:\rol
This tells SPUTROL to look in the ROL directory on the
C: drive for all ROL files.
To force SPUTROL to play a file in the current directory without
having to enter the complete path, use the following command:
sputrol .\filename
-------------------------
SPUTROL SYNTAX & SWITCHES
-------------------------
Syntax: SPUTROL <rolfile> [<bankfile>] [/switches]
<rolfile>
This is the name of the ROL file to be played. Any valid DOS
wildcards may be used to have SPUTROL randomly select a ROL file.
The extension is not required, and ROL files may be renamed using
any convenient extension.
If no path is specified, the drive:directory specified by the
SROLDIR environment variable will be searched, otherwise the
current directory is assumed.
Specifying a directory as part of the filename, will override
any directory specified by the SROLDIR environment variable. Use
".\filename" to indicate the current directory and ignore the
SROLDIR environment variable.
[<bankfile>]
This argument is optional, and if used is the name of the bank file
to be used. The default name is STANDARD.BNK in the current
directory, or any directory in the PATH statement.
[/switches]
All switches are optional. The SROLARG environment variable is
checked first for any permanent switches. Any switches given on
the command line will then override the SROLARG switches.
The valid switches are listed below.
ESCAPE key
Pressing the ESCAPE key during file playback, will cause SPUTROL to
immediately stop playback and exit. This will not disturb any
type ahead already in the keyboard buffer.
?
Entering a question mark on the command line, will tell SPUTROL to
display a short help screen.
/An
This switch can be used to modify the amplitude or volume of
a song. Using a positive number (/An or /An+) will increase the
volume, and a negative number (/An- ) will decrease the volume.
/Cn
This will cause the song file to be played N times, in a
continous loop. A value of 0 will play indefinetly, until the
ESCAPE key is struck.
/I
This switch will display on screen, all the file information that
is normally displayed when the file is played, but without any
playback occurring.
/IF
Normally when SPUTROL detects an invalid ROL file, an error message
is displayed and the song is not played. This switch can be used
to force SPUTROL to play an invalid ROL file format.
/ISold1=new1,old2=new2
This switch is used to specify instrument substitutions, where
OLD1 is the name of the original instrument and NEW1 is the name
of the instrument to be used in its place. Up to 5 substitutions
may be specified, separated by commas.
/IN
Normally, only the first 6 instruments are displayed for each voice
so that the file information will all fit on a single screen.
Use this switch to force SPUTROL to display all instruments used
for each of the voices.
/K
This switch causes SPUTROL to kill the song that was left playing
in the background.
/Mn
This switch can be used to change the mode of the song. Zero is
melodic and uses voices 1-8, and one is percussive and uses voices
1-6 in melodic mode and voices 7-11 in percussive mode.
/NW
This is the NOWAIT switch tells SPUTROL to exit as soon as the
entire song is loaded into the SOUND driver, and leave the song
playing in the background. This switch can only be used if the
AdLib sound driver SOUND.COM was already loaded before SPUTROL was
run.
/Pnnn
This switch allows selection of the disired output port. The
default port address is 388 hex. No switch is required for
either the AdLib or SoundBlaster cards.
/Qn
This switch is used to set the desired level of screen output.
/Q0 display everything
/Q1 display nothing
/Q2 display errors only
/Tn
This switch can be used to change the default tempo of the song.
/Vnnn
This switch can be used to specify a single voice or list of voices
to play. /V246 would play only voices 2, 4 and 6. This is most
useful for proofreading music while creating ROL files, and
hearing the balance between instruments. It is also handy for
determining which voice is playing a particular part for which
you may want to change an instrument.
----------------------
SPUTROL ERROR MESSAGES
----------------------
(01) Error releasing unused memory
(02) Insufficient memory to load ROL file
(03) ROL file not found - <filename>
(04) ROL file read error
(05) Invalid ROL file format - <filename>
(06) BANK file not found - <filename>
(07) BANK file read error
(08) Invalid BANK file
(09) Insufficient memory to load BANK file
(10) Command syntax error, type 'SPUTROL<enter>' for help
(11) Instrument not found <instrument>
(12) SOUND.COM driver not loaded, loading temporarily
(13) Invalid amplitude, use /An or /An- (n=1-255)
(14) Error loading Tempo Events
(15) Error loading Instrument Events
(16) Error loading Volume Events
(17) Error loading Pitch Events
(18) Insufficient memory to load instruments
(19) Another SPUTTER player utility is already running
(20) Insufficient memory to load SOUND driver
(21) Error loading SOUND driver
****************************************************************************
SECTION 3.5 - SPUTWAVE Waveform viewer
****************************************************************************
This section describes the utility SPUTWAVE, which displays an 8-bit
PCM sound file as a wave form on the screen. An EGA display adapter
or better is required and it supports the following syntax & switches:
sputwave [<drive:>]<filename> [/On] [/Ln]
/On
N is a byte offset into file where display should start.
/Ln
N is the length of data to display in bytes. This number must
be at least the pixel width of the current screen mode
(usually 640), and must not be a value that would exceed the
end of the file or a run-time error will occur. The default data
length displayed is 1 meg.
****************************************************************************
SECTION 3.6 - SPUTST Smooth Talker Utility
****************************************************************************
This section describes the Smooth Talker Device Driver utility named
SPUTST. This program can be used to send commands to the Smooth Talker
Device Driver called STDRIVER.SYS loaded in the CONFIG.SYS file.
Simply type 'SPUTST' at the DOS prompt followed by any of the allowed
three letter commands, separated by spaces.
SPUTST cm1 cm2 cm3
Typing just 'SPUTST' or 'SPUTST ?' will print a short help screen.
SPUTST v1.11 Smooth Talker Utility - (C) 1990 VersaWare / Adrienne Cousins
Voice Master Mode Commands:
EVM enable Voice Master Mode (digitized data)
RDH read VMF file header (supress playback)
PLY playback data file in buffer
SPE set playback speed 0-255
VOL set playback volume 1-8
CKE use 8253 timer for playback speed
CKD use software timing for playback speed
DAC enable alternate port address 0-65535 (def 408+409)
WRA set repeat playback 1-255 0=key
USR use alternate user address 100h-1FFh
Smooth Talker Mode Commands:
SV2 enable Smooth Talker Mode (SPEECHV2)
SV3 enable Smooth Talker Mode (SPEECHV3)
ENG input will be English strings
PHO input will be phonetic strings
XEP convert next string from English to Phonetics
TTE enable echo of string data to screen
TTD disable echo of string data to screen
CRE enable carriage returns as string terminator
CRD disable carriage returns as string terminator
FLU flush the 255 byte string buffer
TON set voice tone 0=low 1=high
SPE set speed of playback 0-9
PIT set pitch of playback 0-9
VOL set volume of playback 0-9
Use "COPY <filename> ST" for text files in Smooth Talker Mode
Use "COPY <filename>/B ST" for digitized files in Voice Master Mode
****************************************************************************
SECTION 4 - MISCELLANEOUS
****************************************************************************
----------------
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
----------------
I'd like to thank the following people for their wonderful suggestions
and help, without whom the SPUTTER Sound System would not be what it is
today.
Marty Peter, who first got me thinking about writing my own
playback program, instead of relying on other player programs
to play my custom sound files. And for his great suggestion
about a point-and-shoot interface that gave birth to the
SPUTTER File Manager.
Rich Wilson, for his suggestion of adding the BEEP event type to
SPUTMON the Event Monitor, his suggestion to invoke playback from
the DOS prompt, and for his support and friendship.
Bernie Parent and Randy Bechtel, who's feedback made me realize
the need to support the slower machines running at 4 and 8mhz.
This prompted me to develop additional internal speaker drivers
to support these machines.
Tom Peters, for his sound clips and text files that mentioned the
technique of resampling sound files. This gave me the idea to
implement the resampling algorithym, so that the playback rate
of a soundfile can be changed so that it can be played on ANY
speed machine.
Dan Dubbs, for his suggestions to support the Sound Blaster,
and AdLib music cards, the ability to spawn user defined programs
and batch files from SPUTMON the Event Monitor, and offering many
other neat suggestions.
Bruce Tomlin, the author of SoundMaster for the Macintosh, for
his help in locating the playback rate in Macintosh sound files.
Thank you all !!
---------------------------
SPUTTER FUTURE ENHANCEMENTS
---------------------------
See the file FUTURE.TXT for a list of enhancements that I'm planning on
implementing in future releases.
----------------------
SOURCES OF SOUND FILES
----------------------
Check out the Amiga & Macintosh conferences of your favorite BBS.
These areas are usually chuck full of sound files. Both types of files
usually have the playback rate stored within the file.
Some of my favorites are Exec-PC in Milwaukee WI at 414-789-4210 and
Channel 1 in Cambridge MA at 617-354-8873. I can always be reached
on either of these systems.
If you find an especially good source of sound files, let me know and
I'll add it to this section, so others can enjoy them too.
----------------------
SPEAKER OUTPUT QUALITY
----------------------
If the output volume of your speaker is so low that you can't hear much,
the solution is to attach an inexpensive amplified speaker similar to
those sold by Radio Shack. These usually have a volume control knob, and
some also have a tone control knob. Most run on batteries, and some can
use an optional AC adapter. All you need to do is attach the two wires
from the external speaker to the two wires on the internal speaker, or
you can attach mini jacks.
For even better playback quality, you can purchase any of the Digital to
Analog Converters available on the market. Let me know if you have a board
that Sputter doesn't already support, and I'll see about adding support for
it.
------------
REGISTRATION
------------
You may use the SPUTTER Sound System free of charge for a period of
10 days. If after that period of time, you find it useful and
continue to use it, a $25 registration fee is required.
During this evaluation period, the SPUT and SPUTROL Player Utilities
will display a shareware message and pause for a few seconds after
playback of each file.
When you register, you will receive your own registration number and
instructions for unlocking the SPUTTER Sound System and removing this
message and delay. You will also be able to unlock all future shareware
releases of The SPUTTER Sound System.
I always appreciate any feedback you might have about the SPUTTER Sound
System, and would be interested in seeing any files that SPUTTER is not
able to playback correctly. You can either mail them to me, or upload
them to one of the BBSs listed in the above sections.
----------
DISCLAIMER
----------
All of the SPUTTER programs and this documentation are Copyright 1990
by VersaWare and Adrienne Cousins, all rights reserved.
VersaWare hereby disclaims all warranties relating to this product,
whether express or implied, including without limitation any implied
warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
VersaWare cannot and will not be liable for any special, incidental,
consequential, indirect or similar damages due to loss of data or any
other reason, even if VersaWare or an authorized VersaWare agent has
been advised of the possibility of such damages. In no event shall the
liability for any damages ever exceed the price paid for the license to
use software, regardless of the form and/or extent of the claim. The
person using the software bears all risk as to the quality and performance
of the software.
-------------------------------------------