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Text File | 1996-12-22 | 17.1 KB | 367 lines

Notes about the sound drivers Be sure to check the driver screen (Shift-F5) of your soundcard! ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Driver Summary Driver Def/Max Quick- Stereo Bits Mixing Rate/Resolution Channels select MIDI Input available? PC Speaker 64/256 /S1 No 5-7 12->44kHz DAC on LPT 64/256 <none> No 8 12->44kHz GUS, Hardwave * 32/32 /S7 Yes 16 19->44kHz (A) GUSMAX, Software 64/256 <none> Yes 16 8->64kHz Interwave, Hardware * 32/32 /S8 Yes 16 44kHz, MIDI Sound Blaster 1.0 * 64/256 /S2 No 8 12kHz->22kHz Sound Blaster 2.0 * 64/256 /S3 No 8 12kHz->44kHz Sound Blaster Pro * 64/256 /S4 Yes 8 6kHz->22kHz (B) No 8 12kHz->44kHz (B) Sound Blaster 16 * 64/256 /S5 Yes 16 12kHz->44kHz, MIDI Sound Blaster AWE 32 * 30/30 /S6 Yes 16 44kHz, MIDI Pro Audio Spectrum 64/256 /S9 Yes 8 12->44kHz Pro Audio Spectrum 16 64/256 /S10 Yes 16 12->44kHz Windows Sound System * 64/256 /S11 Yes 16 8->64kHz Disk Writer * 256/256 /S20 Yes 16 8->64kHz * = Driver will play in the background of Windows '95 Notes A) Depends on number of channels used. The hiquality GUS driver reinitialises the GUS continually to use as few channels as necessary. Some GUS cards cannot cope with this, and you will need to use the alternative ITGUSLO.DRV instead. B) The mixing rate of the SBPro depends on whether playback is stereo or mono ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── PC Speaker (ITPCSPKR.DRV) Nothing much else to say here, except... GET A SOUND CARD! :) Note: On the info page, using the 'variables' display WILL distort PC Speaker output. Also, it has been found that the Info Page screens and the Pattern Editor cause a noticeably higher amount of hiss through the speaker. Note: This driver will *NOT* necessarily work on laptop's piezo-electric speakers. Note: No driver screen available. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── DAC on LPT 1/2 Drivers These drivers are almost exactly the same as the PC speaker drivers, with only minor modifications. To use these, run IT /sITLPT1.DRV or IT /sITLPT2.DRV - depending on which LPT you have your DAC plugged into. Note: No driver screen available. Note: On the info page, using the 'variables' display WILL distort PC Speaker output. Also, it has been found that the Info Page screens and the Pattern Editor cause a noticeably higher amount of hiss through the speaker. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Gravis UltraSound, Hardware mixing (ITGUS.DRV) This file actually contains two drivers in one file. The first is accessed just by using IT (with no command line parameters, or with /s7 for Gravis UltraSound). This is equivalent to the original internal driver that came with previous versions of Impulse Tracker. The second driver is selected by providing the correct IRQ for the GF1 chip. (The second-to-last number of your ULTRASND environment variable). This is an IRQ driven routine, which means that it'll work in the background of Windows '95. But note that the timing for this is NOT as accurate as the timing in the first driver. There is also a possibility that multitasking OSs can sometimes (although rarely) cause some settings to the GUS to be missed (which will cause a note to play unexpectedly). This can be fixed just by restarting playback. There is NO check for the correctness of the IRQ provided. The Gravis UltraSound *CANNOT* cope with 16-bit samples greater than 256k-bytes. This is equivalent to 128k-length samples. Also, 16-bit samples cannot cross 256k boundaries on the GUS, meaning that the amount of memory you have on the card may decrease by more than you expect when you load a 16-bit sample. You cannot choose the mixing rate for the GUS - the mixing rate is dependent on the number of channels playing. This driver continuously reinitialises the GUS to use as few channels as possible. You can further restrict the number of channels used with /Lxx on the command line of Impulse Tracker. Gravis UltraSound 2, Hardware mixing (ITGUS2.DRV) If the first Gravis UltraSound driver clicks continuously when nothing is supposed to be playing, use this driver ("IT /sITGUS2.DRV"). This driver file also contains two drivers - check above on how to access the second driver. Gravis UltraSound Lo-freq, Hardware mixing (ITGUSLO.DRV) Only use this driver if notes do *NOT* finish playing off correctly on your GUS. ("IT /sITGUSLO.DRV" or copy ITGUSLO.DRV over ITGUS.DRV) ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Gravis Ultrasound MAX - Software mixing (ITGUSMAX.DRV) This device has ONLY been included because it works for SOME people. It has NEVER worked under Win95 with GUS drivers installed as far as I know. If it doesn't work for you - I'm sorry, you'll have to use the hardware drivers. Don't write to me and complain if they don't work for you. To USE this driver, you have to specify your GUSMAX's Codec IRQ *AND* DMA on the command line as: IT /sITGUSMAX.DRV /i<irq> /d<dma> If you want to specify a port (which should be auto-detected OK), the port is of the Codec, NOT the GUS's Base Address. (ie. 32Ch NOT 220h) ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── InterWave Driver - Hardware mixing (ITIW.DRV) (This includes GUS PnP, GUS PnP Pro, WavExtreme 32 Pro + more) You *NEED* to have RAM onboard your soundcard to use this driver, otherwise your Interwave card will NOT be detected. This file actually contains two drivers in one file. The first is accessed just by using IT (with no command line parameters, or with /s8 for AMD Interwave IC). This is similar to the original internal GUS driver that came with previous versions of Impulse Tracker. The second driver is selected by providing the correct IRQ for the Interwave chip. (This is the value given in Windows'95/settings/ control panel/system/Interwave SYNTH/IRQ). This is an IRQ driven routine, which means that it'll work in the background of Windows '95. But note that the timing for this is NOT as accurate as the timing in the first driver. There is also a possibility that multitasking OSs can sometimes (although rarely) cause some settings to the GUS to be missed (which will cause a note to play unexpectedly). This can be fixed just by restarting playback (or reinitialising in severe cases). There is NO check for the correctness of the IRQ provided. The Interwave driver contains handlers for two different memory modes on the Interwave - the more memory efficient mode is where the amount of ram is directly compatible with the interwave, the second is where the DRAM configuration is NOT directly compatible with the interwave and the driver has to handle the RAM slightly more explicitly, which causes the loss of memory-usage efficiency. Here are the modes directly compatible with the interwave: Bank 0 Bank 1 Bank 2 Bank 3 Total 256Kb 0 0 0 256Kb 256Kb 256Kb 0 0 512Kb 256Kb 256Kb 256Kb 256Kb 1MB 256Kb 1MB 0 0 1.25MB 256Kb 1MB 1MB 1MB 3.25MB 256Kb 256Kb 1MB 0 1.5MB 256Kb 256Kb 1MB 1MB 2.5MB 1MB 0 0 0 1MB 1MB 1MB 0 0 2MB 1MB 1MB 1MB 1MB 4MB 4MB 0 0 0 4MB * 4MB 4MB 0 0 8MB * 4MB 4MB 4MB 4MB 16MB * These modes cannot be handled by the first driver, so are actually handled in the second mode. The mixing rate for the Interwave driver is fixed at 44100Hz (CD quality) Bug warning: If the sound does NOT play properly, you may need to run IWINIT before running Impulse Tracker ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Sound Blaster 1.0 driver (ITSB.DRV) The Sound Blaster has a mixing range of 12000->21739 Hz. You CANNOT hear any stereo (or surround) effects with this driver, because the Sound Blaster does NOT support stereo. Hardware detection routines are used for Address (eg. 220h), environment is checked for IRQ and DMA. Command line arguments for IRQ and DMA are NOT checked but assumed correct IF this driver is explicitly selected (IT /s2 or IT /sITSB.DRV). Sound Blaster 2.0 driver (ITSB2.DRV) The Sound Blaster 2 driver is basically the same as the Pro driver with stereo options removed... (ie SB2 cannot do stereo). The mixing range is from 12000 to 43478 Hz. Hardware detection routines are used for Address (eg. 220h), environment is checked for IRQ and DMA. Command line arguments for IRQ and DMA are NOT checked but assumed correct IF this driver is explicitly selected (IT /s3 or IT /sITSB2.DRV). Sound Blaster Pro driver (ITSBPRO.DRV) The Sound Blaster Pro has a mixing range of 12000->43478 in mono mode, or 6000->21739 in stereo mode. Hardware detection routines are used for Address (eg. 220h), environment is checked for IRQ and DMA. Command line arguments for IRQ and DMA are NOT checked but assumed correct IF this driver is explicitly selected (IT /s4 or IT /sITSBPRO.DRV). Sound Blaster 16 driver (ITSB16.DRV, ITSB16B.DRV) The Sound Blaster 16 has a mixing range of 12000->45454 in either mono or stereo modes. If you specify this driver ( IT /s5 or IT /sITSB16.DRV ) AND an IRQ or DMA, IT will try to *FORCE* the SB16 to use the IRQ/DMA. eg. On my system, I have my SB16 configured to IRQ 2, DMA 5, but I can force it to use IRQ 7, DMA 0 with IT /s5 /i7 /d0 Hardware detection routines are used for all Address, IRQ and DMA. Note: If you select either of the 32-bit mixing modes, then volumes between 0->32768 are used internally instead of 0->128. The second driver, ITSB16B.DRV is a cut down version of the main driver which does NOT have the advanced mixing options - the only benefit of this is that it requires less memory. To use this, type: "IT /sITSB16B.DRV". If you want to have this file automatically used just copy it over ITSB16.DRV. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Sound Blaster AWE 32 driver (ITAWE32.DRV) The Sound Blaster AWE 32 driver directly uses the EMU8000 synth chip. This synth chip has several limitations which you should be aware of: ∙ It can only use 16-bit samples. 8 bit samples are automatically converted by IT (so that's not a problem), but your free memory may decrease by double of what you expect. (eg. you will need at least 1MB of memory to load 512k of 8 bit samples) ∙ It doesn't support ping pong loops or no loops. IT will automatically expand ping pong loops and will pad non-looped samples with silence, but this makes sample sustain loops impossible to implement fully. It also means that ping pong looped samples could take up to double the memory of forwards looped samples. Sustain loops will NOT operate on the AWE32 driver. Instead, they will be treated as NORMAL loops. If you change the loop type from none->forwards or forwards->ping pong or ping pong->none, you WILL need to reload the samples each time (Ctrl-G). If you change the loop points on a sample, you *will* have to reload the samples (Ctrl-G) ∙ Has a limited frequency range - from the programming information, it seems that it is impossible to play a note at above 176kHz. This equates to any notes 2 octaves above middle C (or higher) for a sample at 44kHz. This should not cause problems for *MOST* people, but if you have some notes that won't play, this may be the reason. Note: The Address used for the SB AWE 32 is the address of the EMU8000, NOT the address of your SB. (for command line params, eg A660) Note: This driver is NOT used as a default, as many users would benefit more from the SB16 driver. (I recommend having at least 2MB of memory if you want to use this driver). Run "IT /s6" if you do want to use this driver. Note: This driver can operate in Win95. In this mode, it uses a different mechanism which allows the playing of music in the background, but timing is *NOT* as accurate here (accurate to around 100 milli seconds as opposed to 800 nano seconds per frame) ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Pro Audio Spectrum (ITPAS.DRV) Pro Audio Spectrum 16 (ITPAS16.DRV) BIG thanks to Pelusa for VITAL programming information for this!! BIG thanks to MZ/PoP for lending me a PAS16 to stuff around with!! Note: These drivers will *NOT* work in the background of Win95, although they will work fine in the foreground. Note: You NEED to have the MVSOUND.SYS driver installed for these to operate or a Window's system driver. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Windows Sound System (ITWSS.DRV, ITWSS2.DRV) Again, BIG thanks to Pelusa for VITAL programming information for this! ITWSS is a 16-bit driver, with output frequencies ranging from 8kHz to 64kHz (!). Mixing speeds above 48kHz *MAY* not work on all Windows Sound System Cards. ITWSS.DRV is a completely IRQ driven routine. Although this may not be compatible with *ALL* soundcards, it permits background playback in Windows'95 and is FAR MORE EFFICIENT than ITWSS2.DRV. ITWSS2.DRV should be used if ITWSS doesn't operate properly. Note: There is *NO* autodetection on IRQ/DMA. You *will* need to set these on the command line if they are not IRQ7/DMA1. If you *DO* specify IRQ and/or DMA, then it must be DMA 0, 1 or 3, and IRQ 7, 9 10 or 11. Impulse Tracker will attempt to SET the DMA/IRQ of your WSS card to these values, in a similar manner to how the SB16 driver operates. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Disk Writer The ITWAV.DRV included with distribution IT is a mono-only example device. To use it, run IT /sITWAV.DRV or IT /s20 The full ITWAV.DRV file which *IS* capable of stereo output is NOT available for public distribution. Contact me if you wish to obtain this - it will NOT be made available without some sort of (monetary) agreement. Details ■ 16 bit Stereo/Mono output ■ 22kHz to 64kHz output frequency ■ 16 bit interpolation (65536x 'oversampling') ■ 32 bit mixing ■ Software volume ramping The disk writer also uses volumes ranging between 0 and 32768 instead of the standard 0 to 128 to provide the smoothest output possible. To use the disk writer, run: "IT /sITWAV.DRV" or "IT /s20". The files will be created in the same directory as IT.EXE ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────