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Text File | 1996-08-14 | 14.6 KB | 336 lines

Notes about the sound drivers Note: "Mix data not allocated" messages mean that you do NOT have sufficient (conventional) memory to run the driver. Be sure to check the driver screen (Shift-F5) of your soundcard! ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Driver Summary Driver Def/Max Chan. Stereo Bits Mixing Rate/Resolution GUS, Hardwave 32/32 Yes 16 19->44kHz (A) GUS, Software * 64/256 Yes 16 19->44kHz Interwave, Hardware 32/32 Yes 16 44kHz Interwave, Software * 64/256 Yes 16 Sound Blaster 1.0 64/256 No 8 12kHz->22kHz Sound Blaster 2.0 64/256 No 8 12kHz->44kHz Sound Blaster Pro 64/256 Yes 8 6kHz->22kHz (B) No 8 12kHz->44kHz (B) Sound Blaster 16 64/256 Yes 16 12kHz->44kHz Sound Blaster AWE 32 30/30 Yes 16 44kHz Pro Audio Spectrum 64/256 Yes 8 12->44kHz Pro Audio Spectrum 16 64/256 Yes 16 12->44kHz PC Speaker 64/256 No 5-7 12->44kHz DAC on LPT 64/256 No 8 12->44kHz Disk Writer 256/256 Yes 16 22->64kHz Notes A) Depends on number of channels used. The hiquality GUS driver reinitialises the GUS continually to use as few channels as necessary. B) The mixing rate of the SBPro depends on whether playback is stereo or mono Drivers with * next to them have NOT been completed... ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 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 /s4 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. Completed. 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. Completed. 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 Mixed Driver Not finished. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── InterWave Driver - Hardware mixing (ITIW.DRV) (This includes GUS PnP, GUS PnP Pro, WavExtreme 32 Pro + more) You *NEED* to have RAM onboard 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 /s6 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 Completed. Interwave Mixed driver (This includes GUS PnP, GUS PnP Pro, WavExtreme 32, WavExtreme 32 Pro + more) Not finished. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 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 /s1 or IT /sITSB.DRV). Completed. 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 /sITSB2.DRV). Completed. 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 /s2 or IT /sITSBPRO.DRV). Completed. Sound Blaster 16 driver (ITSB16.DRV) The Sound Blaster 16 has a mixing range of 12000->45454 in either mono or stereo modes. If you specify this driver ( IT /s3 or IT /sITSB16.DRV ) AND an IRQ or DMA, IT will try to *FORCE* the SB16 to use this 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 /s3 /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. Completed. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 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. 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. (eg. for command line params) 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). IT /s7 to use this if you DO have an AWE32 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 tick) Completed. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 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. Completed. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 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. Completed. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 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. Completed. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Disk Writer This RAW file writer 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 (set at 500th of a second or less) The disk writer also uses volumes ranging between 0 and 32768 instead of the standard 0 to 128. Completed. ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────