Creative sound monthly 2
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CREATIVE SOUND MONTHLY
A Monthly Magazine For Sound Blaster and
Sound Blaster Pro Enthusiasts.
Issue 2
April 1992
Edited and Published By: Allan DibTable of contents
- From The Editors Desk
- How To Contact Me
- Included Files
- Readers Questions and Comments
- Have You Written A New Product ?
- Advertisements
- Commercial Game Review- Eco Quest
- Shareware/Public Domain Review- ModPlay
- Using The STMIK Package With Assembler
- The Sound Blaster Pro 2
- What Is Multimedia ?
- Undocumented Secrets About The Sound Blaster
- That's All Folks
- Credits
You may freely distribute/copy this and all the included files, to whomever you wish, as long as you don't profit from it, and that all files that have been included are distributed. You may not in anyway modify this text file or any accompanied files/programs. You may not in part or whole re-publish or include any part of this text file into your own work without permission of the editor (Allan Dib).
From The Editors Desk
Well, I am really pleased with the some of the great responses I have got regarding this magazine. I've received mail from all around the place and it is really great to hear the encouraging comments of interested readers. Most mail that was sent to me, was readers telling me to keep up the good work and that they were looking forward to the next issue of Creative Sound Monthly (without the support of people like that I would not be writing this). Thanks again to all the people who let me know that this magazine is a worth while effort.
The only complaints I've received so far are a few minor spelling errors (which the spell checker did not pick up), I'll try proof reading this issue more thoroughly (or get a new word processor), I have more time to proof read the magazine this month did last month. Another thing a few readers winged about was that they couldn't print out the rating form without having to print out the whole magazine, this has been dealt with in this issue as I have got the Rating and Comments Form in a totally separate text file (RATINGS.DOC) which you can all print out to your hearts delight.
Well I guess that's it from the editors desk this month, Enjoy issue 2 of Creative Sound Monthly ....
Allan.
How To Contact Me
Please feel free (even encouraged) to write me mail about queries or problems you may have regarding your Sound Blaster or Sound Blaster Pro. The mail that I think should be published, will be in the next possible issue of Creative Sound Monthly under the "Readers Questions and Comments" section. ALL mail that is sent to me will be answered, but only the mail I think should be published, will be. You may send me mail, leave me a message at any of the Bulletin Boards listed in the text file NODELIST.TXT or ring me by voice.
Mailing Address:
CREATIVE SOUND MONTHLY
c/o Allan Dib
19 Ondine Drive, Mulgrave
Melbourne Vic 3170
Australia.
Telephone:
(61-3) 560-3963 - Outside Australia
(03) 560-3963 - Within Australia
Ask for Allan Dib.
NOTE: See the text file NODELIST.TXT for a full list if all the bulletin boards in SBC net. Leave me a message at ANY one of the bulletin boards listed in NODELIST.TXT for a prompt answer (usually between 1-5 days).
Included Files
I have included the following files inside the archived file that this magazine came in.
NOTE: You may not distribute this magazine if all accompanied files aren't distributed with it, it must also be in it's original archive which is, CSM-002.??? Where ??? is ZIP, ARJ, PAK, ZOO, or ARC
CSM.002 - This magazines main text file (Your reading it !!!!).
VIEW.EXE - Views text files.
CSM-002.EXE - Views CSM.002 with VIEW.EXE.
RATINGS.DOC - The rating and comments form for Creative Sound Monthly. (simply print it out, fill it in and send it to me).
NODELIST.TXT - This is a full list of all the Bulletin boards in SBC net. You may leave me mail at anyone of them for a reply taking 1-5 days.
SUNSHINE.MOD - This is a .MOD file which can be played using ProMod which was included in last month's issue of CSM. If you liked this .MOD file and would like more, simply send me some blank disks and I'd be happy to fill them for you with .MOD files. You may send me 5.25" 360k and 1.2M disks or 3.5" 720k and 1.44M disks.
NOTE: You must pay for postage and handling costs.
STM.ZIP - This "Zip" file contains, NUFFIN.STX, STM.ASM and STM.EXE NUFFIN.STX - This is a music file (The type that will be used in Scream Tracker version 3.0).
STM.ASM - This is the assembly source code for playing NUFFIN.STX. Routines for this have been taken from the Scream Tracker Music Interface Kit (STMIK). See the article - "Using The STMIK Package With Assembler" for details.
STM.EXE - This is a compiled version of the above.
MOONLITE.EXE - Advertisement for Moonlight Shadow BBS, ANSI but has very nice AdLib music.
Readers Questions and Comments
From Gordon Craick......
I found out that Musician for the Sound Blaster uses .NOT files which you didn't know anything about. NOT files are 11 voice songs that can only be played on the Sound Blaster using Musician. The files are reproduced using the FM chips inside the Sound Blaster. The instruments are stored in a .BNK file very similar to the AdLib .ROL Bank. The quality from these .NOT files are as good as .CMF songs and the musician program is also very good in itself. Musician uses standard musical notation. Maybe you should do a review on it ??
I also managed to find out a bit about those .SUN files you mentioned. Sun files come from the SUN family of minicomputers and workstations. They are 8 bit and can be converted to .VOC with the program SUN2VOC. SUN2VOC should be lying around bbs's somewhere, if it isn't I'll upload it soon. The extension end in .AU. This might also give an idea to those .NXT files you mentioned. My theory is that they come from the NeXT computers but it is only a guess!!
One thing you forgot to mention was that Blaster Master can also read and write .IFF and .WAV files. .WAV files are meant to be the multimedia format so all new sound cards should support them if they want to be labelled 'Conforms to Multimedia Standards' They can also be stereo.
I've also found out a sound file format you haven't mentioned. .CPZ files, These files are used by the Compoz sound editor and can be converted to .CMF files. They are alpha-numeric files and use .SBI instruments. When you convert them to .CMF it adds the SBI instruments into the module.
Reply From Me.....
Thanks a lot for all the information you've sent in regarding sound file formats. What I think I might do is put an update of the article "Music and Sound File Extensions" into Creative Sound Monthly every few months or so as undoubtedly there will be new formats and new information. I will also consider reviewing Musician if I'm ever stuck for something to review. The only thing that is putting me off doing so is that it has been around for a fair while and I like to keep this magazine well up to date.
Well thanks again for your help, and if you find out more info about sound file formats or anything else for that matter please don't hesitate to send it in..... (Share it with the rest of the world).
Thanks,
Allan Dib (Editor).
Have You Written A New Product ?
If you have written a new shareware or public domain Sound Blaster or Sound Blaster Pro related program and would like it reviewed and/or included with the next issue of Creative Sound Monthly (assuming it's not too big), please write to me or leave me a message at any of the many Bulletin boards In SBC Net. See the section "How To Contact Me" for details.
Advertisements
This section is provided for anyone wanting to advertise a bulletin board or hardware they want to sell (NOTE: all hardware for sale must be sound related, e.g. Sound Blaster Pro or Adlib card). Advertising doesn't cost anything, all you have to do is send me on disk or via modem your ad in ASCII (text) format. If your advertising a bulletin board, mention what you specialize in, phone number, maximum baud rate etc.
Welcome to .\\usic .\\an's
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ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ¿ƒƒƒŸƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ¿ƒƒŸƒƒƒƒ¿ƒƒƒŸƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒfl€€flƒƒƒ
Music Support BBS Hoppers Crossing, Victoria
61-3-749-5556 (24 Hours)
SBC 15:4100/204.0
AMF 21:300/10.0This new BBS has been introduced to support the music programmers, those of you who actually produce .MOD, .ROL and MIDI music files (or would like to be able to!).
There are also files areas for Radio Amateur Operators and Basic programmers.
Sound FX system hardware: 286-16
70Mb HDD (another one due soon!!)
DOS 5.0
Monochrome Monitor
Maestro XR Modem (300-1200-2400)
Sound FX system software: RemoteAccess
IMail
FrontDoorThe system is used solely for the BBS and is not used for any purpose other than that stated above.
-=<*>=-
I hope to develop the `How to do it' .MOD, .ROL and MIDI message areas with some assistance from experienced users and offer the inexperienced SB or MIDI users some help in their quest to make music.
If you are into .MOD's, there are a few Music Man productions available from some of the Melbourne boards and more on the way too!!
If you are into music, give us call and see what we have to offer!! You may even have something to offer us.
.\\usic .\\an
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S O U N D B L A S T E R S U P P O R T
At +358-0-387817 with 14400 HST Dual Standard /w v.42bis
14:1500/0@sbcnet.eur 42:1200/101@supernet
2:220/530@fidonet.org 666:1/3@sikanet.fun
Largest Sound Blaster software library in ScandinaviaCommercial Game Review- Eco Quest
Written By: Allan Dib
Eco Quest is one of the newest Sierra games on the market, I had a look at it. Like all of the new Sierra games it has VGA graphics, Sound Blaster support, and the icon interface. The graphics unlike Police Quest 3 are not photo realistic but more cartoon style. I won't tell you anything about the actual storyline or game so as not to ruin it for you when you play it, but as you may have guessed from the name it's a game where you're an environmentally conscious dude, and your father is a marine biologist (or something along those lines). To be honest it has pretty good graphics and very nice sound but the game play was a bit disappointing, it gets a bit boring. You get your first 70 or so points in the one room (the room where the game starts off). But I suppose that's the price you pay for having a smaller game, unlike Kings Quest V and other new Sierra games it's not very big (only about 4.5 meg or so). Anyway it's good to see sierra put out a new series (yes there will be an Eco Quest 2).
Retail Price:
$69.95 (Australian)
Sound Capabilities:
MUSIC - Sound Blaster/Adlib, Roland MT-32, MT-100, LAP-I, CM-32L, CM-64, Game Blaster, Tandy 3 voice, IBM PS/1 Audio/Joystick card and PC Speaker.
SPEECH and SOUND EFFECTS - Sound Blaster, IBM PS1, Tandy with DAC, Pro Audio Spectrum and Disney Sound Source.
This is the first time in a Sierra game that I see speech/sound effects devices like the Disney Sound Source and Pro Audio Spectrum being supported, this is especially good for people who have two separate cards, because they will be able to use them simultaneously.
Graphics Capabilities:
VGA 256 colours, VGA gray-scale. EGA versions are also available.
RATINGS
Sound Blaster Sound:
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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Graphics:
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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Gameplay:
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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10A little bit boring.
Creativity:
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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Could have been better.
Originality Out Of Ten:
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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Well I can't say that I've seen to many games where you go around saving dolphins and see gulls :-)
Overall Value Out Of Ten:
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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Shareware/Public Domain Review- ModPlay
Written By: Allan Dib
With last months issue of Creative Sound Monthly I included a .MOD file player for the Sound Blaster Pro. Unfortunately not all of you have a Sound Blaster Pro, so for the sake of all Sound Blaster owners I looked through many, many Public Domain and Shareware .MOD file players. The two best ones I found were WOW and ModPlay. WOW has a brilliant VGA interface, but unfortunately it didn't have as many options and functions as ModPlay.
ModPlay is a brilliant program and would be the best one I have seen for the Sound Blaster, and according to many other Sound Blaster users this statement is accurate. The many features of ModPlay range from online help to playing ProTracker modules (properly). ModPlay can also play modules through a Covox (or D/A converter), PC Speaker, and Disney Sound Source. ModPlay also comes with a detailed documentation which gives step by step instructions on how to build a D/A converter. ModPlay has many, many options and functions (too many to mention), here are just the main highlights of ModPlay:
- Might work on 8086 8Mhz machines (if you set mixing-speed to 6000).
- ARJ, ZIP, LZH, ZOO multiple files in archives support.
- .GIF file viewer in VGA 320*200*256 mode.
- Graphic scope over a .GIF file when playing on VGA.
- Global volume control.
- F1 for help display even when playing a .MOD file.
- Protracker compatible - that's an extra 20 commands.
- Spectrum Analyser mode, Its REAL SPECTRUM ANALYSIS - not one of these fake ones you find on other .MOD file players.
- Have up to 1000 modules in a directory.
- Full Hercules screen support.
- Gives estimated time display for each module.
- Command line option for people with slower/faster machines.
Well to sum it all up the writer of ModPlay (Mark Cox), has done great job. He has put in features that you would never dream of in a .MOD file player, therefore making it one of the best of it's kind.
Retail Price:
$0 (Australian) This is a Public Domain Product.
Sound Capabilities:
Sound Blaster, D/A converters (stereo and mono), PC Speaker, Disney Sound Source, Stereo-On-1 and Quadrophonic DACs.
Graphics Capabilities:
VGA, EGA, CGA and Hercules.
RATINGS
Sound Blaster Sound:
Obviously this depends on the .MOD file being played.
Graphics:
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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10This is a .MOD file player and no one should expect any brilliant graphics, after all it is a sound program.
Gameplay:
N/A
Creativity:
************************************
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Well I haven't seen very many (if any) .MOD file players that display a .GIF picture while playing a .MOD file.
Originality Out Of Ten:
*****************
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10There quite a few .MOD file players around the place but this is one of the best I've seen.
Overall Value Out Of Ten:
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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10It's FREE !!!
Using The STMIK Package With Assembler
Written By: Craig Hart
Welcome to the first of our new CSM programming articles. In this series we will be attempting to enlighten everyone about just how the hell one goes about making the Sound Blaster do something other than sit on your desk and look droll.
Perhaps the most widely used and available piece of usable code is the STMIK (Scream Tracker Music Interface Kit) package by Sami Tammilehto. This package is callable both from C and Assembler and we will be looking at how one uses it from ASM in this article. A solid knowledge of assembler is assumed - so read on, but beware that if you don't know the importance of the CS from the DS then don't expect to get much out of this!!!
We could have documented usage in C however the original STMIK package offers a reasonable amount in this respect and appears to be the language used for testing the STMIK. Oh, and while it says the STMIK can be called from Pascal, don't believe it! At least not With Borland Turbo Pascal anyhow, because TP (Version 6.0) requires all the external procedures to be declared "Public" at (the external procedure's) compile time. The STMIK does not do this, and so using the STMIK from Turbo Pascal is (at this time) impossible. One would assume that Sami was not aware of this when he was writing his documentation. He's obviously not a Pascal Programmer; We hold hope for the future!
The STMIK package consists of a single .OBJ file that one links with one's code and has a number of callable functions which surprisingly enough one calls in order to make sound! The package is severely limited and suffers greatly from what appears to be a major "rush job" with little intent to produce a solid, easy to work with set of routines. However, it is usable with some thought.
The STMIK is based on the forthcoming Scream Tracker Version 3.0 routines, and uses a new file format, that of the .STX. .STX is basically a derivation of .STM, and the STMIK comes supplied with a .STM -> .STX converter. One writes in .STM and plays in .STX, got it? (I said it was a limited package!).
There are 2 public versions of the STMIK readily available - STMIK020 and STMIKFIX - I recommend you acquire BOTH packages as the FIX only supplies updates and no documentation. The STMIKFIX solves a couple of niggly bugs that resided in 020 including incorrect conversion of .STM -> .STX and occasional cashes on play-back.
Any how, armed with this knowledge, take a gork at the STM.ASM file in your CSM package... go on, do it now...
Horrid, eh?
The first thing you should note that the STMIK leaves it entirely up to the programmer to load the .STX into memory! This is the first hassle and I have supplied a very crude loader to take any size .STM (up to 256k) and bung it in memory starting at absolute address 6000:0000. Why there you ask? The silly STMIK requires the .STX to be loaded at a segment boundary. Read 1000,2000....8000,9000h only!! It will not play if it is not loaded at a segment boundary. God only knows why but it is absolutely the worst piece of programming I've ever seen (And I've written some pretty bad code in my time :-) ).
Well, having got our .STX into memory, all that is required is a far call to the STMIK package to do something. To make things simple I followed Sami's manual and declared the stmik_asm as an EXTRN of far type. This make calling the STMIK very much like doing an int 21 interrupt... instead of loading registers and calling the int, one simply loads the registers and executes CALL STMIK_ASM.
The STMIK provides several routines for our use. I will list them here by function:
Function 0 - Initialize STMIK
AX=0
BL=[Mode]
BH=[Irq]
CX=[Load]
DX=[Mixspeed]where
- [mode] - Always 1 - to be further developed later - rumour has it that PC speaker and D/A's etc will be supported with different selections here in the future.
- [Irq] - SB's IRQ (yes, no auto-detect!)
- [Load] - SB's port address (usually 220h)
- [Mixspeed] - Mixing speed - normally at 16,000 can be between 8,000 and 20,000 the higher the number the better quality, but needs faster PC. 16,000 is good for a 12MHz AT.
Function 1 - Play Song
AX=1
BX=[moduleseg]where
[moduleseg] - Memory segment of the start of the .STX file.
Function 2 - Stop song
AX=2.STX is stopped playing. All pointers are reset (this is stop, not pause).
Function 3 - set POLLMIX type
AX=3
BX=[Flag]where
[flag]
- when 0 means that the STMIK will play all of it's own accord without your program needing to manually hand over time.
- when 1, you need to manually call the POLL function at least 10 times a second or the STMIK will crash with unpredictable results. This is good if you absolutely must have all CPU time sometimes and want to make sure that STMIK is not going to steal some time, which it might if using mode 0.
Function 4 - POLL
AX=4See function 3 - this is what one calls when using POLLMIX mode 1.
Function 5 - NEQUINFO
AX=5Supposedly returns a pointer to a node EQU info table but once again this table and the registers used are not documented! The manual more or less states "read our demo source code and work it out for yourself" because we're too lazy or cunning to tell you.
Function 6 - SONGPOS
AX=6Supposedly returns a pointer to how far into the .STX the player is in, but the actual registers used are not documented! Furthermore the apparent pointer is about a quarter second too early - in other words the section pointed to will be played about 1/4 of a second later.
One can see with a little study that this is indeed a poor programming attempt with only a very "bare bones" structure to the thing as a whole. The package lacks at least the following (and probably much more):
- No documentation to the last two function calls.
- No Docs on the Note EQU info table.
- No function to pause a playing .STX.
- No way to glean a list of sample names, song name or any other song data. For this one must examine the loaded file in memory and glean from it what one can. If one can work out the .STX file format which has not been documented either!
- Limited memory management - Loading at a segment boundary only is not only a huge memory waste but will lead to all sorts of problems with memory allocation, especially in <640k PC's.
- No stereo support. I'm not sure if the .STM/.STX file format actually allows stereo at all. MOD's are certainly stereo, with tracks 1, 2, 3, 4 being L, R, R, L channels respectively but as yet .STM/.STX appears not to be.
Example program
The demo program was included both for completeness and to act as a starting point for those of you wishing to try the STMIK for yourselves. The source assembles "as is" using MASM 5.0 and LINK as supplied with DOS. To make your own executable, follow the following make formulae:
MASM .STM;
LINK /E .STM STMIKFIX; - or - LINK /E .STM STMIK020;
The source compiles to an 8k .EXE (when using EXEpack [/E] option) so it's quite small overall.
My source code is extremely crude and underdeveloped. It has no error checking on the loading of the file, so if the file's not there everything falls down. It's hard coded for NUFFIN.STX by the way! My source code assumes a 640k PC that has memory between segments 6000h and how ever long the .STX is. Furthermore STM.ASM assumes that this memory is not allocated in any way.
As such my source code should be burned at the stake. It was never written to be anything more than demonstrative, therefore I release it for complete free use by anyone who wants to with no credit to me what so ever. If you feel guilty about using this info, please don't be, the whole idea is to get more people into SB programming in the first place :-) If you really want to do something send me a postcard and consider yourself forever absolved and forever welcome to use my code as you feel like it.
My Address:
Craig Hart
94 Latrobe St.
Mentone, Victoria
Australia, 3194
- or -
Via the SBC Net on your local BBS. Post mail to Craig Hart.
- or -
Call my BBS - Communications Barrier +61-3-585-1112 V32 V42 V42bis 24hrs
- or -
Give as much as you feel reasonable to the Salvation Army or other favourite Charity in your area.
Remember, however that by using the STMIK you are bound by it's original copyright statement which may be found in the original STMIK documentation by Sami Tammilehto.
CONCLUSION
Although the STMIK is a pretty poor package, one can with a little effort load and play an .STX. The player is even quite efficient - you'd be surprised how little it slows down a major piece of code. Try inserting your own code in place of the CX loop (loop_again - loop_pause) and notice how well it performs.
As a universal player, it does not suffice, and I would not suggest attempting to create <say> an .STM/.STX general purpose player out of it. The STMIK's real value lies in use in demo's where one is writing highly optimized code and doesn't really care about any fancy procedures.
Overall I give it a 6 out of 10. Useful to demo writers, but not much else. The pure lack of anything else of comparative ability makes it my reluctant choice, but I'll abandon it as soon as anything else comes along.
Craig.
A Word From The Editor (Allan Dib)
If you are having trouble obtaining the STMIK (Scream Tracker Music Interface Kit) from your favourite local Bulletin Board, then feel free to contact me and I'll send you a copy of it. I would have included it in this month's issue of CSM, but unfortunately it is just too big.
NOTE: You must supply the blank disk (my system can take - 5.25" 360k and 1.2M disks or 3.5" 720k and 1.44M disks). Also you must pay for all the postage and handling costs.
The Sound Blaster Pro 2
Written By: Allan Dib
Well if you are like me and went out and bought a Sound Blaster Pro before mid-March (or even in most cases after March), you would probably be outraged about the fact that there is newer Sound Blaster Pro Released! The purpose of this article is to kill any false rumours going around about this topic. Anyway I rang Computamart who are the Australian distributors of the Sound Blaster and a very helpful guy by the name of Stuart answered the phone, I asked him quite a few questions regarding the new Sound Blaster Pro and apparently there is no upgrade offer available to owners of the old Sound Blaster Pro as the new one has totally different circuitry.
Unfortunately the only suggestion he could give me was to sell my old one and get a new one. Well I'm not going to do that in much of a hurry as the new changes are good but not really something worth upgrading for, well not for me anyway. I find a lack of support for the existing version of the Sound Blaster Pro without going out to buy an even newer version. I'll probably consider selling my old one and getting a new one when heaps more of programs start supporting the Pro, until then I'm happy with my existing version. Here is a list of all the new features and changes in the Sound Blaster Pro 2.
- The two mono FM chips have been dropped and has been replaced by a Stereo Yamaha OPL 3 4Phase FM chip.
- Replacing the two mono FM chips with one stereo one will enable true 16 bit sound quality and much smoother panning from the left to right channels and visa versa.
- Also in this newer version of the SB Pro the MIDI kit has been dropped to make the price more competitive, this is because Creative Technology have realized that 99% of all SB Pro users will never use the MIDI kit.
What is even worse is that this new SB Pro will soon also be surpassed by an even newer SB Pro which will have the following specifications
- A SB Pro DAC Compatible with the SB Pro.
- A Yamaha 12-bit DAC Compatible with the AdLib Gold (when it's released).
- Yamaha OPL 3 4Phase Stereo FM chip.
This even newer SB Pro will be like two sound cards in one, it will be a Sound Blaster Pro that has AdLib Gold compatibility.
Recommendation - Don't be in a rush to buy a SB Pro until Creative Labs work out exactly what's happening. You could get stuck with an obsolete sound board.
What Is Multimedia ?
Written By: Allan Dib
Multimedia...... A weird word, but what exactly does it mean ? Many people including me are, or were at some stage confused as to what multimedia actually is. I did a bit of research on the topic and I came up with a pretty good definition and understanding of multimedia. Multimedia is the integration of sound, video and high quality animation into the PC. For the PC to fully function as an extension of our minds, it must be made to capture, store and process the type of data that is used in human communication. This includes video images and sound. So you ask, what do I have to do to have multimedia on my computer ?
Microsoft have created software called the Multimedia Extensions to Windows 3.0. This includes Windows device drivers that access the additional hardware of the multimedia PC. That's right Microsoft have defined a minimum hardware standard for a machine called the 'Multimedia PC', but more about that later on. You can get these Multimedia Extensions from the manufacturers that sell Multimedia PCs or upgrade hardware. You install the extensions on top of an installed version of Windows 3.x.
Microsoft have also put together a Multimedia Development Kit (MDK). Programmers use it in conjunction with the Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) to create programs that take advantage of the Multimedia Extensions. The MDK includes additional C header files, import libraries and tools for creating multimedia applications. The MDK is shipped on a CD-ROM. Microsoft have also published three books that provide programmers' references to this. They are available in book shops.
Earlier I mentioned that Microsoft have defined the standard 'Multimedia PC'. The minimum standard Multimedia PC is a 10 Mhz 286 equipped with a 30 Meg hard disk, 2 meg memory, a 3.5" high-density disk drive, a standard 16-colour VGA graphics adapter and a mouse. Many people would hardly consider this a standard for running Windows itself. In addition, the Multimedia PC must include several other pieces of specialized hardware. It needs to include a CD-ROM drive, primarily to allow software vendors to ship their Multimedia Windows applications on CD-ROM rather than heaps of floppy disks. (Yes, Multimedia applications are often very large).
Not all CD-ROM drives on the market qualify for the Multimedia PC. The drive must have an internal look-ahead buffer to achieve a continuous transfer rate of 150k per second. It must also have an audio output for playing music CDs.
The next addition is hardware to sample and digitize audio input through a microphone and play it back (Microsoft have called this 'waveform audio'). On the input side, the minimum standard sampling rate is 11.025 kHz with an 8 bit sample size. On the output side, the hardware must be capable of 11.025 and 22.05 kHz rates, again at 8 bits per sample. Another requirement is a music synthesizer board that implements the industry-standard Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI).
The board also must be capable of three simultaneous voices with six note polyphony each a percussion channel with five note polyphony. The sound board must also include MIDI Out and MIDI In ports. The audio outputs from the waveform hardware, the MIDI hardware and the CD-ROM must be mixed together and fed to an amplifier and speakers or self-amplified speakers. The final hardware requirement is a joystick port for two joysticks.
All of the above requirements can be satisfied with Creative Labs' Sound Blaster card or Sound Blaster Pro card with the optional MIDI Connector box installed. This is the only audio board supported under the first version of Multimedia Windows right now, but I expect a lot more support in the future.
Anyway I hope this article has helped everyone gain a better idea of what Multimedia is.........
Undocumented Secrets About The Sound Blaster
Written By: Craig Hart
This article contains notes, bugs, fixes, differences and design faults in Sound Blaster Cards.
There have now been 5 different models of Sound Blaster released on the market and each has it's own, personal differences and bugs... Here I will attempt to document some of the variations between the different models.
Sound Blaster 1.0
Initial sound card release. This is the earliest model of SB available, and is easily recognisable by virtue of having the CM/S chips soldered into the circuit board, and a serial number less than 50,000. There were no intrinsic bugs in this card as such, however it had very poor input digitizing quality - it's frequency response was tailored to that of a standard voice microphone (300Hz - 3KHz) so sampling on this card is not exactly clear!
Sound Blaster 1.5
At or about card number 50,000 for reasons internal to Creative Labs, it was decided to omit the CM/S chips and sell them separately at further cost (all without changing the basic retail card price). Mystery surrounds this decision, but it has been made and we must allow for the possible absence of CM/S in our software.
Sound Blaster 1.5b
Somewhere after serial number 64439 (mine) but before serial number 84263 (a friend's) Creative Labs decided to slightly modify the AGC circuitry on the SB 1.5. I call this model SB 1.5b but it's purely my number for it. The modification was to connect a 4.7k resistor between pins 4 and 14 of the LM324 op-amp IC - U5. This modification helps improve sampling quality a little. I made the modification myself and found that I did get slightly higher dynamic range and slightly lower noise & distortion. Modification of your card will of course void warranty, but it might be the little extra quality you need.
Sound Blaster 2.0
Sound Blaster 2.0 is the current release version of the SB and as far as I know, carries no bugs. This model is now being marketed as the budget version with most emphasis on the PRO card. It has the hi-quality digitizing circuitry as found on the PRO models and some refined driver software, but apart from that the programming and general feel of the card is pretty much identical to the 1.5.
Sound Blaster Pro 1.0
The very early Sound Blaster Pro's suffered from a bug in the hardware, that meant that if the PC was reset, the card would continue to play the last note(s) programmed into the card! Very very, annoying! The fault was soon discovered and rectified, but still at least a few batches were sold and are in use. This model is actually a dual-mono arrangement rather than true stereo. They basically took the guts of 2 SB's and put them side by side on one circuit board, however they incorporated no inter-channel mixing capability so it's just like 2 mono radio's tuned to different stations - the sound is different on each side but one can hardly call it harmonious stereo! There is also one nasty mistake in the documentation supplied with the Sound Blaster Pro.
In the section advising on how to wire the PC Speaker up to the SB Pro it mentions something about hooking the +5V DC line to the GND line on the joystick port. Those electronically minded would know that connecting 5v to ground would short out your power supply and do anything from killing the PSU, motherboard, SB card and possibly other things to just blowing your fuse box. So be very wary when hooking things up and consult an electronic person if you're lost. I'm not aware of the correct method of doing things, apparently Creative Labs just swapped the wording round and one has to use the other wire.
Sound Blaster Pro Stereo
This is a very new release (March 1992) of the SB Pro and involves some new circuitry. The older SB pro was best described as "dual mono" - one either has sound coming out the left speaker, both or the right speaker. There is no way to very smoothly pan a sound from one side to the other (baring tricky software!). This new model features a true stereo IC instead of the dual mono arrangement and one of the features of the new chip is the ability to do proper panning across from one side to the other. The other new feature of this card is the inclusion of 16 bit D/A converters instead of the older 8 bit system. This allows the reproduction of much higher quality samples and will basically mean clearer sound. Creative Labs have not however upgraded the A/D so in effect the card can play back much higher quality than it can record.
General concensus has it that this card was released purely to compete with the forthcoming AdLib Gold card and others. It is supposedly priced more competitively than other models and with 16 bit reproduction capability at a slightly lower price than the old card it should be a good buy.
Sound Blaster's and MIDI
The international inter-manufacturer standard for MIDI is known as MPU-401. It defines just about everything that one needs to know about MIDI in order to support it. Creative Labs decided to ignore this standard when designing the MIDI port for the SB and instead cooked up their own "kinda" MIDI compatible format. The glaring difference is that the original MPU-401 specification was designed with real-time bidirectional applications (like live performance) in mind, whilst the SB can only transfer MIDI data one way at a time. Thus you can tap away on your keyboard, recording on the PC, then play back later on but to do real time processing and reproduction: No way!
It amazes me that Creative Labs could actually ignore what until then was a universally accepted standard and instead inject it's horrid non-standard, but that's what's happened.... anyone looking at MIDI would be well versed to buy a separate MPU-401 compatible card for themselves as the Sound Blaster certainly isn't what I'd call useful, and what's more I hear rumours that the Sound Blaster won't run most popular sequencer software for the same reason.
Well that about wraps it up .... The information I have listed here has been compiled by my own personal observations and use of the different cards, and therefore it is not written in stone, but noted for your interest only. There may be more bugs, if you let me know about them - there may be other reasons for how Creative Labs did things, or alternatively I might be completely wrong... I provide this information and leave you to take what of it you will.
That's All Folks
Well everyone, this issue has been a really great experience for me, I've received a lot of encouraging comments and helpful suggestions from all over the place. It's really great to see people willing to lend a hand, contribute articles, ideas and files. We've got quite a few really interesting articles lined up for next months issue of CSM, so look out for that. Hopefully all future issues of Creative Sound Monthly will be as successful as these first two have been. And remember if you have some information or anything sound related write in to Creative Sound Monthly and share it with the rest of the world ....
Thank You,
Allan Dib (Editor).
Credits
Craig Hart (Sysop Of The Communications Barrier) - Craig contributed a lot of things to get this issue of Creative Sound Monthly going including - the article on how to use the STMIK with assembler, the article on bugs in releases of Sound Blasters. He also wrote the sample program to access .STX files from assembler using STMIK (included in this issue). Also he wrote the program that generates the file NODELIST.TXT and also checked the magazine for any technical errors. Thanx heaps dude !!!
Bob Crockford (Sysop Of Sound FX BBS) - Another really great dude who is always willing to help out. Bob contributed the .MOD file SUNSHINE.MOD to this issue of CSM, a really good piece of music !
Gordon Craick - Gordon wrote in and told me about the .NOT, .SUN, .CPZ, .WAV and .NXT file formats...Some very helpful info.
Computamart (The Australian Distributors of the Sound Blaster) - Computamart gave me valuable information on the new Sound Blaster Pro 2.
All The People Who Sent In The Rating and Comments Form - I'd like to give a special thanks to all the people who took the time to send in the Rating and Comments form.
Everyone In SBC Net - Last but definitely not least, everyone in SBC Net who distribute stuff like this magazine and other Sound Blaster related programs, files and info WORLD-WIDE !!!.....Good stuff guys, and keep up the good work.
REMEMBER: Without the above people this magazine would NOT be possible.
Send All Mail To:
CREATIVE SOUND MONTHLY
c/o Allan Dib
19 Ondine Drive, Mulgrave
Melbourne Vic 3170
Australia.
Telephone:
(61-3) 560-3963 - Outside Australia
(03) 560-3963 - Within Australia
Ask for Allan Dib.
STM.ASM
EXTRN stmik_asm:far
code SEGMENT para public 'CODE'
ASSUME cs:code, ds:code, es:code
codestart: jmp main
filename db 'nuffin.stx',0
handle dw 0
memseg dw 0
main proc far
push cs ; ds=cs
pop ds
mov ah,03dh ; load file
mov al,0
mov dx,offset filename
int 021h
mov word ptr cs:[handle],ax ; starting at
mov word ptr cs:[memseg],06000h ; offset 6000h
load_more: mov dx,word ptr cs:[memseg]
push dx
pop ds
mov dx,0
mov ah,03fh
mov bx,word ptr cs:[handle]
mov cx,0ffffh
int 021h
cmp ax,0ffffh ; eof?
jnz end_load
mov dx,word ptr cs:[memseg]
add dx,01000h
mov word ptr cs:[memseg],dx
jmp load_more
end_load: push cs
pop ds
mov ah,03eh
mov bx,word ptr cs:[handle]
int 021h
; sb starts here..
mov ax,0 ; init STMIK
mov bl,1 ; SB is output device
mov bh,07h ; IRQ 7
mov cx,0220h ; Port 220h
mov dx,18000 ; mix speed
call stmik_asm
mov ax,3 ; poll mode - make stmik do it all
mov bx,0 ; by itself
call stmik_asm
mov ax,1 ; begin to play song
mov bx,06000h
call stmik_asm
; mov ax,4 ; uncomment this if manually polling
; call stmik_asm
loop_again: mov cx,0ffffh
loop_pause: loop loop_pause
mov ah,1 ; look for keypress
int 016h
jz loop_again
end_it: mov ax,2 ; stmik off (Shuddup!)
call stmik_asm
exit: mov ax,03h ; cls & exit
int 010h
mov ax,04c00h
int 021h
main endp
code ends
end codestart
