--------------------------------------------------------------------- | The Sound Site Newsletter | | | | Issue #9 Spring 1992 (X) | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | Copyright (C) 1992 by David Komatsu All Rights Reserved. | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | This may be distributed to bulletin boards, FTP sites or other | | media as long as there is no charge to receive the newsletter | | o Submissions for next issue being accepted now | --------------------------------------------------------------------- Note from the Editor -------------------- Well here is the spring issue of the Sound Newsletter. As many of you have noticed our issues are a little more spread apart now. We are looking for column authors as well as a programming expert to start a programmers corner in the Sound Newsletter. If you would like to do this or add any other input please contact me. Please use the two addresses below to send comments and submissions to the Sound Newsletter. sound@ccb.ucsf.edu davek@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu The Sound Newsletter is also posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc as well as rec.games.misc on USENET. We are also a part of SB-Net. See bottom for list of BBS and FTP sites that carry the Sound Newsletter. -----> Dave In this issue ------------- o Special Thanks o Do you want to announce a new product? o Feature Articles & News o The new Sound Blaster Pro o Comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard appears on USENET o Adlib files for Bankruptcy o Sound Bits o ScopeTrax o CD-Box o New Products o Product Specifications: o Video Blaster o Anonymous FTP sound Sites Special thanks to the following for supporting the Sound Newsletter ------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeffrey Belt (belt@tinos.alcatel-alsthom.fr.) : Author CD-Box Mark J. Cox (m.j.h.cox@bradford.ac.uk) : Author Modplay Chris S Craig (chris3@irma.cs.mun.ca) : Author Scope Trax Michael Minakami : Video Blaster Mike Moffat : Feature Article Jim Oldroyd (jr@inset.com) : Saffron FTP Site Admin And to all the FTP sites and bulletin boards carrying the Sound Newsletter and of course all the dedicated readers who make it worth the effort. Do you want to announce a new product? --------------------------------------- If you have written a sound related program that is SHAREWARE, FREEWARE, or PUBLIC DOMAIN and would like to announce your program contact us. We can feature it and help distribute it. You can mail me at sound@ccb.ucsf.edu. If you wish contact me and I will upload your program to Saffron and post an announcement of release. Please include a brief description of your software program to be used in the sound newsletter. Alternatively you can mail all sound program to me on a 3.5" disk Low or High Density to: David Komatsu Sound Program Submission 4826 Likini Street Honolulu, HI 96818 Sound FTP Sites --------------- A lot of people have been asking where to find sound files. At the end of this newsletter there is a complete listing of FTP sites. The sites with the most files are: abcfd20.larc.nasa.gov 128.155.23.64 This is an Amiga site that contains many MOD and Protracker MOD files. ccb.ucsf.edu 128.218.1.13 Contains mainly SND files and SND players saffron.inset.com 192.94.75.2 This is our main site containing MOD, Protracker MOD, STM, SND files as well as all types of sound player programs, sound analyzer, convert programs, sound newsletters, adlib and soundblaster utilities. Feature Article --------------- ************************************** * The New Sound Blaster Pro V2 * * a feature Article by Mike Moffat * ************************************** How many of you have heard rumours of the "New Sound Blaster Pro" ? If you haven't then you've missed out on some quite astonishing information. It got to the stage where it was hard to tell fact from fiction, it seemed as though we might have three or four different Sound Blaster Pro style cards, as well as the many variations of the original Sound Blaster, for anyone looking to buy a sound card for there pc, i'm SURE they'd have been having nightmares... Now, finally, we KNOW what the new Sound Blaster Pro is and has.. The Sound Blaster Pro V2, although theorectically the same card, has undergone MAJOR renovations. The Pro V2 is an all new design, using many surface mount components, and a much shorter PCB, infact, its not that much larger than the standard Sound Blaster! Gone are the twin, big, space waisting 24pin FM chips, the amplifier ic's, and other 'garden variety' chips, instead in there place are new, custom made surface mount devices. The two FM chips have been replaced by the much vaunted OPL-3 stereo FM chip, which provides better panning for stereo effects. As well as being fully compatible with the previous Sound Blaster and Sound Blaster Pro, the OPL-3 has 15 melodies using two operators plus five percussion sounds, or six melodies using four operators, three melodies using two operators plus five percussion sounds. The analog to digital sampling rates remain as on the original Sound Blaster Pro, from 4kHz to 44.1kHz in MONO or 22.1kHz for stereo. Perhaps as a result of new, custom designed ic's, or an all new, shorter and redesigned pcb ( or both ) i find that samples sound a little clearer, and where previously i would pick up interference from the computer or hard drive ( never worked out what it was ) now i just get a nice, clean sample. With my original Sound Blaster Pro V1, using VocEdit's "Scan Input" with my Hi-Fi connected to the LINE input and NO AUDIO at all, the "WaveForm Window" would show a slight, random signal, and recorded samples seemed to have a "click" that could be heard in the quiet parts of a sample, the "click" seemingly in time to when the hard drive had saved that chunk of the sample. Nothing i did would cure it, moving the card from slot to slot, moving cables and even a different power supply! However, the Sound Blaster Pro V2 had NONE of those problems, and now i can sample to my hard drive's limit! Another point, i seem to get less noise comming through the hi-fi when i'm using the PC with the amp still on, no more "top ten data transfers"! The rest of the card is basically the same as the V1 Pro. You have line, mic and cd-rom audio and pc speaker inputs, back mounted volume control and audio outputs. At-BUS style CD-Rom interface and the same jumpers for IRQ,DMA,Port Address and so on .. On last note on the subject of hardware, the MIDI BOX is *NOT* included in the SB-Pro V2 package. Like the standard Sound Blaster, it is again an option. At the time of writing, the Sound Blaster Pro V1 (with midi) and Sound Blaster Pro V2 (without midi box) are identical in price. The software has also undergone some changes. As well as the usual packaged software, the "Voice Utilities" have been added to. New additions are VOC2WAV - convert your VOiCe samples into a form usable by Multi-Media (.wav) sound programs. WAV2VOC - the reverse of the above PLAYCMF - Plays .CMF music files Also included is a program called the "Sound Blaster Standard Programming Tool". Here i will quote from the book, as i have not been able to test the software due to a floppy drive controller failier. * Relief from the drudgery of loading and unloading Sound Blaster sound drivers. * Flexability of choosing the driver to load for your application. * Easy programming method for playing .CMF and .VOC files with a simple and consistant command set. * Access to the same piece of music or voice from different DOS applications at the same time. * Full use of extended memory to play VOC files, taking advantage of SBSIM's close coupling with the CT-VOICE driver. Basically, it provides a "script" language for playing the various types of music files associated with the Sound Blaster and SB-Pro, allowing easy selecting of the driver and alteration to the settings of that driver. It seems you can load any one, or ALL of the drivers, and unload any one at any time. It should be quite useful to those preparing presentations allowing a wide variety of effects which previously would have been labour intensive. Lastly, apart from the new drivers, there is an additional program to play .MID midi files from DOS. The manual has undergone a dramatic change! For one thing, it is no longer spiral bound, which should mean your manual will remain intact if you reference it alot. The mistakes have been fixed, including the most serious of them all, the chapter dealing with connecting the PC speaker output to the pc speaker input on the Sound Blaster Pro's PCB .. It has also lost that "toy" manual look. The there are more pictures of the pcb when dealing with jumper location, alteration and connection points and the style of print gives the book a much more professional look and feel. There us also a good deal more information in there too, which means the manual can really lay claim to the "Users Reference Manual" boldly printed on the front cover. CONCLUSION! Overall, the Sound Blaster Pro V2 is a much better card than the previous Pro. With its improved design, sampling suffers less from intereference, the sound output seems a little clearer, the pcb layout and design looks much neater, the manual is not only now accurate but is also easier to read and there have been some useful additions to the supplied software. If you have had problems with a interference, or werent impressed with the sampling quality of the V1 Pro, i suggest you wonder down to your local computer shop and get them to demo the new Pro. I have sold off my original Sound Blaster Pro (with its midi kit) and now own the V2 SB-Pro, and LOVE IT! ** FootNote : It appears that in the not to distant future Creative Labs will have an SCSI version of the Pro V2. Mike Moffat For additional Information contact: Creative Labs 2050 Duane Avenue Santa Clar, CA 95054 Phone: (408) 986-1461 FAX : (408) 986-1777 Comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard ------------------------- The Sound Newsletter is pleased to announce the formal creation of a USENET newsgroup dedicated to the discussion of sound cards for computers. By the time you read this comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard should have been created to provide an active forum to discuss the specificiations, applications, programming and so forth of the sound cards on the market. Below is the official announcement -------- I have the pleasure to announce that the vote for the newsgroup comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard was successful. There was a high vote turnaround which indicates the necessity of such a newsgroup. I scanned through the mail received and I did not notice any obviously bogus addresses. There were a few people who sent votes twice (for both YES and NO) and even one who sent then from different addresses (you know who you are). Duplicate messages were deleted and only the last vote was kept. Here are some statistics: Total number of votes: 414 (100%) Number of YES votes : 395 (95.41%) Number of NO votes : 19 (4.59%) Name: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard Status: Unmoderated CHARTER: Up to a couple of months ago, it was very hard to find appropiate hardware and programming information on soundcards since the information was disseminated among several newsgroups (comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware, rec.games.misc, etc). Finally, a month ago, the "Soundblaster programming project" was started and a mailing list set in place. The project was so well received that the traffic on the mailing list greatly increased in a few days only. Not long ago, the alt.sb.programmer newsgroup was setup but a great number of people have complained that their organizations do not receive alt.* groups and therefore the mailing list is still very much in use. This is a serious subject that belongs in the comp.* hierarchy. The new newsgroup will be a forum to discuss hardware and software aspects relating to the different sound cards that are available for the IBM PC and compatibles. Some of the topics that will be covered by the newsgroup are: o hardware specifications and questions o sound card reviews o programming questions under DOS, OS/2 and UNIX o posting of sample programs (these will usually include sample portions of code, the full programs will be available through anonymous ftp). o general questions (eg: drivers for applications) Christian Vandendorpe -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- = vandendo@qucis.queensu.ca | "I only know that I know nothing" = = vandendo@qucdn.queensu.ca | - Socrates = ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adlib gone? ----------- According to PC Magazine the company that pioneered sound cards on the PC has filed for bankruptcy. Adlib the makers of the popular Adlib sound card as well as the new Adlib Gold card was one of the leaders in the sound field. Thousands of software products proudly proclaim "Support Adlib" and even their competitors in the sound card market proclaim "Adlib compatible". With the sound standards constantly changing one can only wonder how many of the small startup companies could face the same fate at Adlib. Within the last year several companies have put out similiar sound boards driving a price war. This is all we know as of this point. If you have additional information please e-mail us. Sound Bits ---------- DISCLAIMER: The Sound Newsletter provides no guarantee on the performance of the software or products mentioned in this newsletter. The information is provided to give the reader an idea on how the products operate. ********************************************************************** ## # ## ###### # ## ## # # ## ########### # ## # # ## # # # ## ### ### # ## ### # # ### ### # # # # # # # ## # ##### # ## # # ## ## # # # # ## # # # # # ## ## ### ### ### # ## ### # # ### # # # # # I have just finished making a new PC Sound Editor Package. Here is a description of some of its features: ScopeTrax is another one of those programs that plays 8 bit sound files on an IBM PC/XT/AT, and compatible 86s, 286s, 386s, 486s .... Some features that set this program apart from the others include the following: * Plays sounds/samples directly through the PC's speaker without using extra hardware. * Supports Sound Blaster, JDAC and other parallel port DACs. * Plays Sound Blaster VOC files, Amiga IFF files, and RAW files(.snd) * Displays a realtime oscilloscope when PLAYING or RECORDING samples (286 or better recommended). * Samples can be played in background on fast computers. * Provides about 14 editing function, including MIX and ECHO. * Samples can be played back at virtually 1000 to 65000Hz. * Independent hardware rate and sample rate. * Low sample rates can be played through PC speaker with little or no noise (although slow 86s are still noisy, I think). * Graphically displays the sample and allows for HIGH DETAIL zoom. (EGA or VGA required) * Supports both mouse and keyboard (requires Microsoft mouse driver). * Corrects 'time loss' problems associated with sound players. * No features are disabled. * No recurring 'registration' messages. * Package is FREEWARE * Also included: a sound compression program uLaw to snd converter (beta version) Expanded memory player complete documentation several samples This is my first attempt at making a sample player/editor, so I will need a lot of advice and support to improve and expand the package. If there is enough support, I'll begin work on an enhanced 2.0 version. Chris S Craig chris3@irma.cs.mun.ca ------------------------------------------------------------- *************************** * CD-Box (PC - FREEWARE) * *************************** - CD-Box requires a VGA card (it runs in 320*200*256 colours), a Microsoft compatible mouse, and at least an Adlib Music Synthetizer Card or compatible (a SoundBlaster card is better, it can play more song formats). - CD-Box supports .CMF, .MOD, .MUS, .ROL and .VOC formats (.CMF, .MOD and .VOC work on SoundBlaster only). Whatever the format, CD-Box treats all songs as equal, and offers an uniform interface for all. - Songs can be stored in .ZIP files to save space; CD-Box will extract them as needed, and remove the exploded versions from the disk afterwards. All this is transparent for the user too. - The graphics are pretty, and there is some nice animation as you select songs (the song titles scroll, a CD pops up and down), as well as random animated sequences to break the monotony (I'll let you discover those). - CD-Box displays song titles rather than filenames. Song titles (and bank files, for .ROL and .MUS) can be changed directly within CD-Box, there is no need to exit and edit a data file. Also, CD-Box knows intrinsically about 200 songs, so that it can supply the proper title - but it can learn and remember many more. There are some restrictions, though. CD-Box can only play the song formats for which you have the corresponding player programs and/or drivers; other songs will be detected and displayed, but will not be playable (except for .CMF files, which CD-Box can always play, as long as you have the driver which comes with the SoundBlaster). Also, AdLib owners will only be able to play .MUS and .ROL song files. The complete list is MP.COM, PLAY.EXE, SBFMDRV.COM, SOUND.COM, SPUTROL.COM, VPLAY.EXE, and also optionally PKUNZIP.EXE, but I have it in all properly explained in the documentation, with, I hope, the appropriate acknowledgments. All in all, CD-Box is intended to play songs of different formats without hassle and with nice graphics, too (it incidently is a good way to show off with your music card). I'm afraid I sound like an advertisement like those in travel brochures, but I quite sincerely think a lot of users will like this program - it's also the only one I know of that can play multiple song formats. There it is, then. CD-Box comes with a complete documentation I've tried to make as lively as possible, and I may even throw in another small utility program I made, for converting between Macintosh sound files (.SND) and SoundBlaster files (.VOC). Jeffrey Belt belt@tinos.alcatel-alsthom.fr. ****************************** * Hardware Products Specs * ****************************** * Video Blaster * ****************************** Entering the field of multimedia, Creative Labs, the makers the the very sucessful Sound Blaster personal computer sound card, introduced the Video Blaster. The Video Blaster is a board used for displaying, editing, and fram-capturing full-motion video. The card is a 16-bit card and will run on an IBM or compatible 286 (or higher) machine. It also requires MS-DOS 3.1 (or higher) and VGA display. It will work with Microsoft Windows 3.1 which contains drivers co-developed by Microsoft and Creative Labs. The board is prices at $495 which is a lower price than many competing products. This would leave the street price at about $300-375 bringing PC sound/video capability into the hands of the mass market. The Video Blaster allows users to combine full motion video from the NTSC or PAL format. It can use images in the BMP(bitmap), TGA (Targa), MMP (m-motion) or EPS (Escapsulated Postscript). These images then can be manipulated to produce the desired effects. It is also possible to switch between up to 3 video sources (VCR's, Videodis player, Video camera's, Camcorders etc). The Video Blaster is capable of displaying approximately two million true colors on an interlaced VGA display. Hue, saturation, brightness and contrast can also be adjusted. Audio can be channeled in up to 4 inputs through external sources with the company's CD-ROM and audio cards (Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro). There is also a digital and analog mixer that has both individual and master volume controls that are programmable. ------------------------------ | Anonymous Sound FTP SITES | ------------------------------ To connect to an anonymous FTP site do the following (we are using the sound-site as an example) ftp ccb.ucsf.edu or ftp 128.218.1.13 name: anonymous password: If you know of any other Sound ftp sites please forward the information this way. If you know the administrators of the below sound sites or you are in charge of one of the below sound sites please e-mail me so we can join efforts. Your input to this sound-list would be greatly appreciated. (*) denotes sites carrying Sound Newsletter & back issues. Name IP# What ------------------------------------------------------------------------ abcfd20.larc.nasa.gov 128.155.23.64 amiga sounds calvin.nmsu.edu 128.123.35.150 Sounds from Tiny Toond dir: pub/toon-gifs/sounds ccb.ucsf.edu 128.218.1.13 (.snd), players. (*) directory: Pub/Sound_list garbo.uwasa.fi 128.214.87.1 (.stm), players (*) ems.media.mit.edu 18.85.0.104 csound ftp.ee.lbl.gov 128.3.112.20 sounds (au files) directory: sound/*.au saffron.inset.com 192.94.75.2 SoundBlaster/Adlib, (*) (.mod, .stm, .snd) [Rogue] sciences.sdsu.edu 130.191.224.2 sounds snake.mcs.kent.edu 131.123.2.222 SoundBlaster & Adlib stuff directory: pub/SB-Adlib sumex-aim.stanford.edu (.snd) files terminator.cc.umich.edu 141.211.164.8 sounds and misc archive site ucsd.edu 128.54.16.1 sounds for sparc uop.uop.edu 138.9.200.1 Modplay xanth.cs.odu.edu 128.82.8.1 startrek sounds dir: pub/star-trek/stsounds. wsmr-simtel20.army.mil 192.88.110.20 Sound players (*) Attention Bulletin Board owners and FTP site administrators ----------------------------------------------------------- You can carry the sound newsletter on your site FREE of charge. For FTP sites please contact me at: sound@ccb.ucsf.edu. You can either obtain it from one of our sites or we can mail it to you on Fido Net, CompuServe or Internet. The following Bulletin board systems carry the Sound Newsletter and Back Issues. The (*) boards also specialize in multi-media. United States Board Speed Phone Sysop ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Graphics Plus 38.4K (808) 531-6509 Eric Lui Network One Systems Fantasy Island 9600 (HST) (808) 689-0040 Ken Ludwig Listening Post 9600 (HST) (808) 689-8583 Lou Braun Midnight Run BBS (*) 2400 (809) 720-3833 Luis R. Garcia (Fido 1:367/27) The Patchbay (*) 38.4K (Dual) (818) 441-3965 Daniel Bise Round Table BBS 2400 (312) 777-9480 Kevin Keyser Abroad (All contain sound programs also) Board Speed Phone Sysop -------------------------------------------------------------------- 1B Systems Managment Ltd. 19.2k (604) 753-9960 Ken McVay (Waffle/XENIX) 1B Systems Managment Ltd. 2400 (604) 753-9964 Ken McVay (Waffle/XENIX) 1B File request from ftn 14.4K (604) 754-2928 Ken McVay FrontDoor 2.0/c (IMEx 89:681/1) (604) 754-2928 (HST 14.4) BCG-Box 9600 +358 21 404 036 Kim Heino V32/42/42bis, MNP2-5 (FidoNet: 2:222/151.0) Einstein BBS 2400 +47 4 53 46 18 Kjetil Krag Greyhawk BBS (UK) 9600 +44 332 756414 Alan Coates (Fido: 2:250/404) System - X 9600 +(61-2) 368-1320 Scot Art (Fido: 3:712/634) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Introducing the sister sounds sites, twice as good, twice as fun | |------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ccb.ucsf.edu: 15 megs of SND files for REmac and PlayBwc | | saffron.inset.com: 80+ megs of STM, MOD, SND and MultiMedia | |------------------------------------------------------------------------- | sound@ccb.ucsf.edu | Editor the the Sound Newsletter | | davek@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu | Spreading the word about the | | -----> Dave | latest in sound technology | --------------------------------------------------------------------------