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OS/2 Shareware BBS: 14 Text
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14-Text.zip
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sound_as.zip
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1993-07-30
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The following is a high level overview of Sound Cards and how they
function under OS/2. This document is not an endorsement of any
particular sound card.
OS/2 terms:
Multi-instance: the ability for more than one application at once
to open the sound card. This is important if you want to do any
serious activity with multimedia. For instance, a multi-instance
driver will allow you to open the digital audio editor and hear
system sounds or open a MIDI application. Without this, you must
close each application down before starting another (very
inconvenient).
MediaVision (PAS 16)
(Spectrum, Studio, and Basic).
The OS/2 drivers for this card have the most function of any sound
card. They are multi-instance, support simultaneous MIDI and audio
playback and are quite stable.
Mediavision offers an excellent os/2 mixer (called promix/2) which
allows one to change volume, bass etc.
Since the Mediavision card is also SoundBlaster compatible, you can
load the SoundBlaster driver for Windows while simultaneously
accessing the hardware with OS/2.
The differences between cards is that the Studio has improved
signal/noise ratios (i.e. improved sound) and the BASIC does not
have a SCSI port. The SCSI port on the PAS16 works with popular
CD-ROMs like the Toshiba 3401B and Texel drives.
ISA only.
------------------------------
Creative Labs
(Sound Blaster, Pro, 16 and 16 ASP)
The OS/2 drivers for these devices are all single instance and can
only play one MIDI or WAVE file at a time.
Currently, they offer no OS/2 mixer.
You cannot access the card simultaneously under OS/2 and DOS.
The SB16 ASP does offer hardware compression and decompression
which can ease the burden on the CPU.
If you have an older SB card (i.e. pre-2.0) and receive a SYS1201
on boot up, you must upgrade the DSP module (available from
Creative Labs).
The CD-ROM interface on this card is proprietary, however, it
support many popular CD-ROM drives.
ISA only except for the Pro which is also Microchannel.
-----------------------------
IBM Maudio card
The Maudio drivers are multi-instance.
There is no OS/2 mixer currently available.
It utilizes a DSP (digital signal processor) so advanced hardware
compression and decompression is possible.
This card is not SoundBlaster compatible.
ISA and Microchannel versions are available.