Cream of the Crop 1/Cream of the Crop 1.iso/EDUCATE/BMSTR301.ARJ/BMASTER.DOC

Text File | 1991-03-29 | 15KB | 255 lines

==============================
     Blaster Master V.3.0
  for the CMS Sound Blaster
 (C) by Gary Maddox 02/15/91
==============================

The CMS Sound Blaster is the best IBM sound card available today. One of
the outstanding features of the Sound Blaster is the ability to sample
sound and play it back. BLASTER Master is a tool kit for working with
RAW, UNCOMPRESSED Sound Blaster VOC files. BLASTER Master includes many
features available on Digital Audio Workstations costing many thousands
of dollars. The current features supported by BLASTER Master include:


  Slow It Down!
    This program extends the time domain without effecting the frequency
    domain... in plain english, you can re-sample a VOC file that will
    play back at approximately 1/2 speed without effecting the pitch.
    Imagine you are a guitar player and want to learn the latest white
    hot guitar licks from Joe Satriani or Eric Johnson... Slow it Down!
    makes listening and learning MUCH easier!

  Speed It Up!
    I couldn't have a "slow down" program without a "speed up" one too.
    Unlike Slow It Down!, Speed It Up! includes a "slider" for selecting
    how much of a speed increase is desired.

  Digital Delay
    This program adds echo or delay to a VOC file to give it a richer,
    fuller sound. It is also great for adding special effects. Two para-
    meters are used to determine the type of echo desired. The number of
    milliseconds before the echo starts sets the "size" of the effect.
    Delays of 60-100 sound like a large room. Larger delays, upto 200
    milliseconds, will sound like a cavern or canyon. The second parameter
    is the mixture, i.e., how loud should the echo be mixed in. This also
    has an effect on the type of echo desired. A 30-60% mixture will sound
    more realistic than using a higher volume for the delayed sounds.

  Volume Control
    This program can either increase or decrease the amplitude of VOC
    files. One way to get a very clean sample is to make your sample
    at a fairly low volume and then re-sample up to a higher volume.
    The Sound Blaster has a tendency to introduce distortion as you
    increase the volume used for sampling. This works very well for
    sampling directly from a CD or tape deck.

  The Mixer
    This program blends two VOC files into a single sample. There is
    also a volume mix parameter that controls how loud the mixed in
    sample will be. The volume mix can be a number between 1 and 100.
    50 to 60 is often a very good mixing level. The Mixer is a great way
    to add special effects to your sound files. This program does not try
    to adjust the sample rates if the two files are different.

  Reverser
    This program reverses the playback of a VOC file. It is effectively
    the same as playing a tape backwards. See for yourself if "number 9"
    says "turn me on, dead man" backwards. (for older Beatles fans) This
    is a great tool for televangelists to search for those pesky satanic
    references in rock & roll songs! Did you know that the famous Tarzan
    yell sounds the same backwards as forwards? Try it.

  Down Sample
    This program allows a VOC file created with a high sample rate to be
    "down" sampled to a lower sample rate. Some PC's have problems playing
    VOC files with the higher sample rates, this is a way to change the
    sample rate to something more compatible with your PC. It is also a
    good way to make files smaller without the degradation associated with
    compression. A VOC file recorded at 12,000khz+ down-sampled to 8000khz
    will probably sound better than if it had been originally recorded at
    the slower rate. Sound files originally sampled on the MAC at 22,000khz
    can be down-sampled to 12,000khz  or less with almost no loss in clarity.
    This program is also capable of "up" sampling, although you WILL NOT
    gain any noticable resolution. Approximating the "missing" byte is just
    not the same as having the original bytes in all cases.

  Sound Equalizer (EGA/VGA/Mouse only - 80486 or Math chip recommended)
    Earlier versions of BLASTER Master included a program that attempted to
    provide a hi-pass/low-pass filter. This was a faster, but far less ef-
    fective program than this graphic equalizer. Sound Equalizer is a 64
    frequency band graphic equalizer. The display is presented as a mouse
    controlled "picket fence". Drawing the red bars above the white center
    line effectively boosts the selected frequencies. Pulling the red bars
    below the white center line cuts the selected frequency. The frequency
    of each "band" is displayed as the mouse cursor passes over it. The
    left mouse button selects the band. The frequency that each band controls
    will change with different sample rates. This is the most mathematically
    demanding of all of the BLASTER Master functions and a fast machine with
    a math co-processor is recommended. Even a relatively small file requires
    thousands of computations to complete. Because of the time required to
    process files, there is a close estimate of the time required. Pressing
    ESC will abort the process if you wish to wait until another time.

  Sound Edit (EGA/VGA/Mouse only)
    This program is a very fast graphic editor to help you tailor your sound
    files. Useless and noisy sample data at the beginning and endings of VOC
    files can be quickly removed. Sections from within the sample can be saved
    as a new sample file. The entire sample is displayed and a grid is drawn
    that divides the sample into seconds to aid in selecting the "cut points".
    A zero-crossing/phase approximation method is used to select the bytes that
    are displayed to help in choosing the "cleanest" points for processing.
    Where needed, cross-fading is applyed to splice points. Function keys
    F1 - F4 changes the pallettes used to control the colors used to display
    the screen. During playback, a pulsing index line displays the position
    of the file being played. If a sound file is not specified when starting
    the editor, a file selection dialog box will appear. The current path can
    be changed by selecting the top input box and entering a new path, such
    as:  C:\SB\VOC\*.VOC. Specifying the "*.VOC" will select all files with an
    extension of VOC in the chosen path.
    To select a section of the sound file to be removed, saved, heard or
    zoomed, position the mouse cursor over the graph at the first desired cut
    point and press the LEFT mouse button. Position the mouse cursor again
    over the second cut point and press the LEFT button. Once a section has
    been marked with the blue box, you can HEAR that section, CUT if from the
    sample or save it as a new file. The ZOOM option will display the marked
    section across the screen and allow you to select a new block from the
    zoomed area. You can zoom the file until the resolution reaches 1:1. The
    current resolution is displayed just about the options selection box. By
    using the ZOOM feature, you should be able to edit sound files with
    surgical precision.
    If you have one of the older EGA cards, you may need to start BMASTER or
    SBEDIT with "/EGA" to tell the program not to attempt to page swap. If
    you wish to run the oscilloscope program from DOS, add "/SCOPE".
    * AN EXCEPTION TO THE RULE: The editor program should work on all single
    block compressed data. This does not include silence encoding. The graphic
    representation of the sound data and the time length will not be accurate.

  BLASTER Scope (EGA/VGA only)
    This program graphically displays sample input real-time. Speak into a
    microphone and see what your voice looks like or play music directly
    into the Sound Blaster. This program is particularly effective on faster
    machines. Function keys F1 - F4 changes the pallettes used to control
    the color used to display real-time sample data. To run the oscilloscope
    from DOS, type "SBEDIT /SCOPE".

  BLASTER Scope CGA (CGA/EGA/VGA)
    This is a CGA version of BLASTER Scope. It also is different enough to
    offer some features to EGA/VGA graphics users.

  Sound Graph (EGA/VGA only)
    This program will display a sound file like it would look like on a
    very expensive color oscilloscope. Function keys F1 - F4 changes the
    palettes to control the colors used to display the PCM data. This
    program also supports other sound file formats besides VOC files.

  Select a File (only from BLASTER Master shell)
    This option allows VOC files to be easily selected. The "audition"
    function is fully integrated with BLASTER Master and does not require
    that VPLAY.EXE or CT-VOICE.SYS be present. I have also added a "/Pxxx"
    command line switch to force BLASTER Master to use a particular port
    address (see below)

  Record a File (only from BLASTER Master shell)
    This option does a virtual sample to disk from within BLASTER Master.
    It offers very few advantages to using VOXKIT other than mouse support
    and a digital read-out of sample and time length. It was added to make
    BLASTER Master a more complete sound utility.

  Hi-Res Sampler (an 80386 is strongly recommended)
    The Sound Blaster can be "pushed" to actually sample at a higher rate
    than 13khz. The main limitation is the speed of the machine running
    this program. I have optimized this program to push the Sound Blaster
    and your PC to the absolute maximum of their capabilities! To do this,
    I had to cut some corners. Unless otherwise specified, all of available
    memory will be used for sampling. A smaller amount of memory can be
    selected by using the "/Sn" command line switch. Enter "SAMPLE ?" at the
    DOS prompt to see all available commands. THIS PROGRAM CAN ONLY BE RUN
    FROM THE DOS PROMPT.


These features can be accessed by running BMASTER.EXE (with the exception of
the 80386 Hi-Res Sampler and internal features like Audition and
Record) or separately from the DOS command line.

PLEASE NOTE:
There is a parameter that can be set from the command line to force BLASTER
Master to use a certain I/O port address. BLASTER Master ordinarily scans for
the Base address and IRQ. It is possible that some peripheral cards could cause
the system to freeze up from being polled. If you are using a base address
other than the recommended H220 and you find that your system hangs when you
execute BMASTER.EXE, try this:

     BMASTER /P230     (or 240, 250, 260, 210 which ever port you are using)

This will force BLASTER Master to use the port specified.

Most of the episodes of users having problems with BLASTER Master has been the
result of trying to re-process COMPRESSED or LOOPED files. This also includes
silence compression files. BLASTER Master can only process RAW 8 bit sample
files. The example file FROGS.VOC is a looped file and will not work with any
of these utilities. If the VOC file you are trying to re-sample sounds bad or
locks up your computer after playing it, then it is probably NOT a raw file.
If you do find a bug, please report it in as much detail as possible so that
I can fix it in the next version. I need to know which specific function you
were using, where the VOC file originated from and the sample rate.
---
Suggested Reading:
If you are interested in learning more about how BLASTER Master works, you
should read the following books:
  "Principles of Digital Audio" by Ken C. Pohlmann
     Howard W. Sams & Co., 1985, 1989 second edition
        This is an excellent introduction to everything from fundamental
        accoustic theory to the way compact disks work. Some chapters are
        relatively easy to understand and others are definitely NOT for
        the faint of heart.
  "Musical Applications of Microprocessors" by Hal Chamberlin
     Hayden Books, 1985, 1987 second edition
        This is absolutely the best edition ever published in the field
        of digital sound production and is universally considered a
        classic. This book is 800 pages long and an understanding of
        advanced mathmatics is required.
   "Elements of Computer Music" by F. Richard Moore
      Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1990
        This is also an excellent source of information about digital
        sound re-production. It is especially good for C programmers as
        all of the examples are working C routines.
   "An Introduction to Digital Signal Processing" by John H. Karl
      Academic Press, Inc. 1989
        This is a very good crash study course in DSP and assumes the
        reader is familiar with higher mathmatics.
---
Distribution BBS Numbers
  These BBS's should always have the latest release. BLASTER Master is also
  available on hundreds of other BBS's around the world.

   CompuServe      GO MIDI             Channel One     617 354-3137
   Data Dimension  404 921-1186        Musical Chairs  416 438-1688
   New Dimension   408 274-5550        Rusty & Eddy's  216 726-3589
   User-to-User    214 492-6565

---
BLASTER Master is the result of many, many hours of programming, study and
experimentation (not to mention 6 years of college). If you find this program
to be interesting and of use to you, then please register BLASTER Master and
help support future development towards more applications of sound files. I
would like to take this opportunity to thank the individuals and institutions
that have already registered. Your support has made Version 3.0 possible. As
long as you continue to support BLASTER Master, I will continue to release new
versions. All future updates are free. One registration will automatically
register future versions. Please mention the version number in your letter.
I would also like your telephone number and your computer system hardware.
I would also be interested in knowing which BBS you downloaded it from and
hearing any suggestions for future enhancements. When I receive your payment,
I will send you your registration number and instructions on installing it.

To Register, send $29.95 to Gary Maddox
                            1901 Spring Creek #315
                            Plano, TX 75023

Thank you for using my Sound Blaster software.

* Sound Blaster is a registered trademark of Creative Labs, Inc
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     BLASTER Master (C) 1990, 1991 by Gary Maddox, all rights reserved.
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