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Southern California Distribution Issue 01 Part 07
The Sound of Music
by
The Skylord
Sweat is pouring off your face as you reach the top of the hill.
You've almost made it to safety when three choppers spot you. You've only
got one chance to make it... so you take it. The first chopper seems to
buzz the top of your head, while the other two fire a volley of explosive
tipped shells in the clearing behind you. "BLEEP POP BLEEP BOOP POW!!"
the miniscule PC speaker spits out.
Judging that this is the beginning of the 90's, these hand-held
LCD video game sound effects will no longer cut it in the entertainment
world.
It has become evident to me that by all the posts I've seen, people
still can't grasp the concept on the latest sound cards. They DO provide
an incredible gaming environment. Ever since I came from the Amiga world,
I've dreaded IBM sound. But with the information that I will present in
this article, you'll soon see that although IBM has some weak sound, it's
catching up quickly, and is threatening one of Amiga's only strongpoints.
Besides the sound, there has been nothing on the Amiga that appeals to me
like there has been on the IBM... So even though the Amiga users may talk,
feel rest assured that your IBM has more of a place in the American home
Amiga and Atari combined. I mentioned this solely because many IBM users
expressed concern in rag wars. Seems that most Amiga users like to play
with the heads of IBM users. I know, because like all my other Amiga friends
I used to do it too! I haven't even come close to figuring out why only
on the Amiga do people get SOOO defensive when you say that it's a game
machine or something. Sheesh. In any event, the IBMers have nothing to
worry about since we aren't the underdogs...
There are three sides to good entertainment:
1) Playability (The game HAS to keep you interested)
2) Graphics (*** Will be covered in an upcoming issue ***)
3) and Sound
Here's a little insight on the sound cards and what they offer.
Some advantages and disadvantages are listed, plus how I would rate them
for the average user.
COVOX which happens to be the worst out of all the sound cards is
still actually being bought! This sound card is most likely represented as
giving "Tandy 3-voice sound" to IBM's 1 voice speaker. OH JOY! At it's
price of $100, it IS a ripoff, and I would frankly not recommend this to
anyone!
Advantages: Every single game supports it
If it's not COVOX specific it emulates a TANDY (EWW!)
Disadvantages: PLENTY! It's costly for what you get. No power.
A composer's worst nightmare.
Not much improvement over the PC Speaker.
ADLIB is second worst. I would rank this in the worst category mainly
because it's so "metallic" sounding. Lot of clanking sounds. Don't expect
any effective mood music from this baby. Prices differ, but in general, you
can expect to find it around $50 cheaper than the SoundBlaster.
Advantages: Adlib is supported quite a bit more than the SoundBlaster
(That will soon change... it already has been)
Disadvantages: That damn "metallic" sound. Doesn't rank very high
in sound quality, but is substantially better than
the PC Speaker.
SOUNDBLASTER which tends to be the most popular for its price and
power. It's rated $50 more than the Adlib card and can play all the same games
and sounds that the Adlib can... Plus it can digitize. Okay, so it's only
8 bit sampling... but so the MAC and Amiga sound chips are also 8 bit.
Only difference is the SoundBlaster is lacking in power for quality recording,
and is far from CD quality.
Hooking up an attenuating cable is HIGHLY recommended for digitizing... in fact
it's practically required!
Depending on what boards you call, some of you may have noticed how
good the quality of the samples I upload are. Just record at a low volume,
and edit the sample to up the volume level later.
Advantages: It can digitize from a mic or inline to a CD player,
radio, etc... It can play C/MS (Chips have been removed from the new versions
of the SoundBlaster. Don't fret... C/MS sucks!) and is 100% compatible with
the Adlib. For this reason, it makes me wonder why anyone would buy an Adlib
unless they were too dense to know any better.
Disadvantages: Still pretty choppy sounding. If you turn the volume
up and the SoundBlaster is connected there's a lot of interference, which
frankly, can get very annoying. The older wares like BnT's Excellent Adv.
really show off how pathetic the SoundBlaster CAN handle files. For the most
part the Soundblaster tends to open the VOC, play it, and abruptly stop...
If the volume is up loud enough, this can sound quite a bit like grabbing the
needle on a record player and removing it with a slight scratching noise.
Since I compose, this is not anyway in my liking.
ROLAND MT-32 & LAPC-1 are the BEST in any music for any computer out
on the market today. I'm going to discuss the differences between the two.
Many users cannot see why the Roland MT-32 is better than the LAPC-1... The
Roland MT_32 is a L/A Music synthesis Multi Timbre Sound Module... If you're
lost already... put simply... it's using state of the art technology that
Roland is still using today in the D70's.
Differences:
The Roland MT-32 is external where as the LAPC-1 is an internal IBM card.
Right there is an obvious advantage. If you wanted to sell the MT-32 at a
later date, you could sell it to anyone. Where as, the LAPC-1 you could only
sell to fellow IBM users.
The LAPC-1 has some sound effects that are not part of the ROM on the MT-32.
Big fucking deal! The MT-32 has a ram bank that the software companies take
advantage of anyway. So you still get the sound effects in the long run.
The main obvious disadvantage of the LAPC-1 is that you have no feeling of
control. It's like having an internal HST... (which I would never get)...
There's no feeling that it's there, working! At least I can play with knobs
and read the LCD display, so you can mess with it without having to be in
software all the time.
Here is the main thing most people... in fact everyone I talked to, doesn't
know about the two items. The Roland MT-32 is choice for programmers because
you can divert the data flow to other devices (such us drum machines, etc.)
You CANNOT do that on the LAPC-1 without going through it first. A SEVERE
disadvantage for programmers.
The Roland MT-32 is obviously my favorite for these reasons.
Prices range vary drastically on the MT-32. I've seen prices as high as $550!
But I don't know anyone (short of it being "hot") that got a better deal than
I did of $269 for it. (NEW, straight outta the box)
M/SOUND - perhaps what is going to make Amiga sound bite the bullet!
It's a new market item, and there are still many things I don't know about it.
But two new features introduced to the card are:
A) 16 bit sampling (FINALLY!)
B) and sampling in STEREO (SoundBlaster samples in mono)
This basically sums up the confusion users have made for themselves on the
sound card issue, and as far as recommendations go... Well, I'd recommend the
SoundBlaster first... and if you have the extra money and are dedicated, get
the MT-32! The SoundBlaster is most likely to retain itself better than
M/SOUND will. M/SOUND is too new right now, and at this day and date I would
not purchase it.
[Okay... Hope this helped some of you work out the differences between the
sound boards and if you're shopping for one, this article really should help
ya out. NEXT ISSUE, I will be taking a trip back through memory lane into
THE GOOD OLE DAYS OF PIRATING/CRACKING/and BBSING in general. Damn, I
figured I should make my column for the next issue on this particular
subject due to the stolen crack (Space Ace). Rumors abound... but if it
happened like it said, THG is one lame group. I have nothing personal
against THG. In fact their cracks are great and have never given me any
hassles, but there is something called TRUST and all I have to say is if INC/PE
earned the right to that crack, then fucking give it to them. Face your loss
dudess... You did more harm than good by stealing INC's goods. Shit, whatever
happened to everyone fighting in support of piracy... Now bbs life is shit and
it's every group for themselves!]
before I forget... the Hi's and Ho's:
INC - Eh, nice loaders! Just be sure and reset the VGA palette...
seems to fuck with a lot of the games colors.
NEUA - Congrats! You guys made a big jump from Mickey Mouse to
Savage Empire... Heh. Nice to know you've dumped just
cracking the kiddie shit.
PE - Not too much to say to you guys... don't have a lot of your
cracks. Why? Because I hate Euro-shit! Euro-warez have 0
playability (for the most part)
And remember.. Piracy ethics - Software for FREE is software not worth
buying!
Couple of questions... Post answers on Celeritynet please.
1) Who the hell is The Syndicate?
2) and did C-MEN vanish or WHAT?!?! Haven't seen them around
Latez,
Skylord
