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1991-01-29
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701 lines
SPUTTER Sound System v1.12 changes:
SPUTTER File Manager changes:
. Fixed display problems when used with video BIOS accelerators.
SPUTMON Event Monitor changes:
. Fixed ^Z in event definition file causing "Syntax error" message
for a non-existent line number.
. Fixed #C shell command problems when using 4DOS.
. Fixed INT25/INT26 handlers causing CHKDSK to hang.
. Added K event type to attach soundfiles to keystrokes.
. Added /F switch to toggle fast command line playback.
SPUT Sound File Player changes:
. Fixed digitizing text file with "/W<filename>" switch overwriting
SPUT.DIC dictionary file and then causing "memory alloc error".
. Fixed "Sound Blaster init failure" not restoring vectors properly
and causing "Another SPUTTER player already running" errors.
. Fixed SoundBlaster DMA problems when running in mapped memory.
This problem was only seen when running in a mapped DESQview window
or when SPUT was loaded in high memory.
. Fix SoundBlaster /SHell switch problems when used with 4DOS.
. Fixed screen output messing up certain display adapters.
. Fixed confusion when /P is given on the command line in addition
to being specified by the SPUTARG environment variable.
. Added support for SampleVision .SMP 16-bit digitized sound files.
. Added support for 12-bit digitized sound files.
SPUTROL ROL File Player changes:
. Fixed bad lookup of first instrument in bank file.
. Fixed screen output messing up certain display adapters.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPUTTER Sound System v1.11 changes:
. Improved documentation with new Installation & User Guide sections.
. The SPUTTER Sound System is no longer limited in any way. Now,
a shareware message is displayed when file playback is completed,
and a short delay will occur. This message and delay is removed
when you register your copy.
. Added a new ROL file player described in detail below.
. Added a complete Text-to-Speech package described in detail below.
. Redesigned the File Manager interface using windows and
pull-down menus.
. Miscellaneous enhancements and bug fixes described below.
SPUTTER File Manager changes:
. Redesigned screens using windows & colors, and added pull-down
menus with on-screen help.
. Added information display box with files-marked, bytes-marked
counters, and state of toggle switches.
. Added menu line at top of screen, invoked with F10, or the
slash key.
. Added function key line at bottom of screen with new functions.
(All the CTRL key functions remain the same).
. Added option to not pause after playback when output is enabled.
This may be toggled with F7.
. Added ability to re-read current directory with F3, or change
drive/directory with F4. Hitting ENTER with the bar placed on a
directory will also change to that directory.
. After mark/unmark commands, bar is moved in same direction as last
up/down arrow command.
. Added ability perform an operation on a single file even when
multiple files are tagged.
. Added separate argument selection screens for SOUND, TEXT and ROL
files.
. Added preview window to display short excerpt of file contents.
This is only filled in if the bar remains stationary for at least
one second. As long as you move the bar faster than this, no files
will be read and no disk accesses will occur.
. Added display of error messages, instead of just beeping on errors.
. Added enhanced support when running under DESQview.
. Now executes SPUT to play text files instead of TRAN.
. Now executes SPUTROL to play ROL files instead of PLAYROL.
. Fixed not finding player programs properly when located in the
root directory of a disk or ramdrive.
. Fixed not finding player programs properly when an environment
variable exists that contains the word 'PATH' in addition to the
normal PATH variable (ie. Brief's BPATH variable).
. Fixed playing a file with arguments sometimes scrolls to the end of
the file list and hangs.
SPUT Player Utility changes:
. Added ability to play digitized sound files on the AdLib card.
Only 6-bit sound is possible through this port, so the quality
of sound is not much better than the PC internal speaker, but
the volume will be much better. The AdLib port is selected by
using the /P388-A switch.
. Added ability to determine the correct playback rate for Macintosh
sound files. This only works if the Resource Fork was included
when the file was unarchived from the .SIT stuff-it file.
If the Resource Fork is missing, a warning message is displayed.
. Added the ability to resample sound files while playing them
instead of just when writing to disk with the /W switch.
The file statistics now display the new playback rate and
frequency instead of the old information.
. Added oversampling capability to all device driver routines
instead of just the internal speaker.
. The interrupt driver for the internal speaker (selected with /D3)
automatically adjusts the playback rate if the desired playback
rate is too fast for the current system. This will prevent system
lock-ups which occur when trying to use too high a rate for that
machine. A warning message is displayed, and the file can then be
resampled to the rate in the warning message.
. Effects of oversampling with /O switch are now preserved when
used with the /W switch to write a new sound file.
. Removed the SPUTPOR environment variable, since this function
is duplicated by the SPUTARG variable. (ie: SPUTARG=/Pnnn)
. Removed 30k byte limit on playback for unregistered users, and
added a shareware message and delay that is removed upon
registration.
. Added code to auto select the proper Sound Blaster driver depending
on file format and switches. Formats 42,44,46 and the /SH shell
switch require the DMA driver (/D2). Use of any switches
that modify the data (/A/H/L/O/RS/T) requires use of the DIRECT
driver (/D1). You cannot use any of the switches that modify
the sound data with file formats 42,44,46 or the /SH switch.
. Added check for other Sputter utilities already running before
starting file playback, to eliminate playback of multiple sounds
occurring at the same time.
. File extensions are no longer required. 'SPUT file' will perform
a wildcard lookup on FILE.*. This is most useful when defining
events for SPUTMON in the Event Definition file.
. Added complete Text-to-Speech package with the following features:
. Can digitize any combination of text & phonemes entered at
the SPUT > prompt in interactive mode.
Registered users can also digitize any text file.
. Text may include phoneme strings to correct pronounciation
of words. Smooth Talker phoneme strings are also recognized
and supported. The SPUT phoneme string for the word "vapor"
is ~V-EY-P-ER (case is not important). The SMOOTH TALKER
phoneme string for the word "vapor" is <<~vEYpER>> (case is
important).
. Text may also include special functions to fine tune some
of the parameters that affect the digitized sound.
~An to vary the amplitude (volume),
~Rn to vary the rate (speed),
~Pn to determine how much punctuation to pronounce,
~Mn to set word or letter pronounciation.
These functions can be used to change the inflection of
syllables, words, phrases or the entire file.
. Interchangable voice files can be selected from the SPUT
command line with the /V switch. A temporary male voice
has been provided with this release. The next release
will contain an improved male voice and a female voice.
. Interchangable dictionary files can be selected from the
SPUT command line with the /DI switch.
The exception dictionary can be used to correct SPUT's
pronounciation of a word, expand abbreviations, or add
inflections to any word or phrase.
. The /PH and /RU switches can be used to tell SPUT to
display all phonemes & rule numbers used in forming
digitized words.
. The /TI switch can be used to have SPUT digitize and say
the current time.
. The /F10 file format switch has been added for text files.
SPUTMON Event Monitor changes:
. Removed 1 hour limitation for unregistered users. The Event
Monitor is no longer limited in any way.
. Removed bells that played just before playing a sound file at
the DOS prompt.
. The event definition file can now be found anywhere in the Path.
. Cleaned up summary display so long lines will be truncated instead
of wrapping to the next line.
. Changed all PLAYROL references to now call SPUTROL.
. Changed all TRAN references to now call SPUT.
. Added check for other Sputter utilities already running before
starting a second player utility. Retry bells will also be
suppressed when another player utility is already running.
. Added display of active timer count to summary line.
. Fixed incorrect counters that sometimes caused files to be played
minutes late, or prevented playback from the DOS prompt.
. Fixed not passing environment to SPUT when started via the #C
function. This caused SPUT to not find it's environment variables.
. Fixed BELL character sometimes hanging system when no BELL event
was defined in event definition file.
. Fixed presence of a T event in event file causing error messages
for non-existent line numbers.
. Fixed not finding player programs properly when located in the
root directory of a disk or ramdrive.
. Fixed not finding player programs properly when an environment
variable exists that contains the word 'PATH' in addition to the
normal PATH variable (ie. Brief's BPATH variable).
. Fixed code to find DOS critical-error-flag to work with Compaq DOS.
SPUTROL ROL File Player (New!) with the following features:
. Automatically loads & unloads AdLib driver SOUND.COM
if not already loaded. Useful when memory is a prime
consideration.
. Plays ANY song correctly even with a small AdLib sound buffer.
. Has random file selection capability.
. Allows user defined instrument substitutions with /IS.
. Attempts to pick a close match for missing instruments.
. Allows playback of any combination of voices with /V
. Can change tempo from command line with /T switch.
. Can change relative playback volume with /A switch.
. Allows continous or repeated playback with /C switch.
. Default directory can be set via the SROLDIR variable.
. Default switches can be set via the SROLARG variable.
. File extension is not required. A default extension of
.* is assumed if missing, and a wildcard lookup is
performed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPUTTER Sound System v1.10 changes:
SPUT Player Utility changes:
. Added support for the Sound Blaster DAC port in both direct
and DMA modes. This means you can play ANY file format that
SPUT supports on a Sound Blaster card in either direct or
DMA mode. It also means that SPUT can now handle all the
Creative Labs VOC file formats.
. Added /SH switch to shell to DOS while playing files on the
Sound Blaster in DMA mode.
. Added optional SPUTARG environment variable to setup permanent
switches for SPUT. Particularily useful for specifying Sound
Blaster port and interrupt number (ie: SPUTARG=/p220s/ir7).
. Changed /D switch (dedicated) to /DE.
. Changed /Sn switch to /Dn (driver number).
. Changed /U switch to /RE (resampling rate).
. Fixed sometimes hanging while waiting for screen display to
complete before starting playback.
SPUTEM Event Monitor changes:
. Added type T timer events. You can specify a date/time for the
alarm and a repeat, along with an incremental date/time so SPUTEM
will compute the next alarm setting.
. Added ability to playback .ROL files to the Sound Blaster FM port
and AdLib music card when an event occurs.
** Currently, you must have an ROL file player named PLAYROL.EXE
in order to use this feature. Support for the .ROL file format
will be incorporated into a future release of the SPUT Player
Utility.
. Added ability to play text to speech synthesis when an event occurs.
** Currently, you must have a text to speech conversion program
named TRAN.EXE to use this feature. Support for text to speech
synthesis will be incorporated into the next release of the SPUT
Player Utility.
** Smooth Talker software by First Byte is also supported.
. Added ability to run ANY program or batch file when an event occurs.
. Added ability to perform playback in a separate DESQview window,
and the /W switch to enable & disable this feature.
. Added ability to start the DESQview player window in the background
or foreground, and the /G switch to control this feature.
. Added ability to initiate playback from the DOS prompt when an
event occurs, and /C switch to enable & disable the feature.
. Added use of custom fluttering bells to indicate error & retry
conditions instead of using the dull old system beep.
. Added optional number value to /B switch to set the frequency
for playing bells on retries, or disable bells all together.
. Added ability to enter multiple switches on the command line.
. Added /M switch to allow events to trigger multiple playbacks.
. Fixed problem where ansi escape sequence for clear screen was
printed on the screen when ANSI.SYS wasn't loaded.
. Fixed just about every possible way of crashing the system that
existed.
. And a bunch of other minor enhancements.
SPUTTER File Manager changes:
. Added ability to differentiate between digitized sound files for
SPUT, text files for TRAN.EXE, and ROL files for PLAYROL, and invoke
the correct player program automatically.
. Added SPUTTRN environment variable to setup permanent switches
for TRAN.EXE.
. Changed the way the player tasks are started so it will work
in a networking environment.
. Setup screen colors instead of just using default colors, which
is just white on black if ANSI.SYS not loaded.
. Fixed wiping out menu & loosing startup directory on first PLAY
command.
. Fixed multiple PLAY commands with ARGUMENTS scrolling to the end
of the file list and hanging the system.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPUTTER Sound System v1.09 changes:
SPUT Player Utility changes:
. Added /U switch to indicate new playback rate to use while
rewriting the file with the /W switch.
I'm really excited about this new feature. Now virtually ANY
sound file can be played on ANY speed machine. If a file plays
too slowly, it means that the playback rate is too high for the
machine to handle. Resampling the file with the /U switch will
allow you to lower the playback rate to something that your
machine can handle more easily.
. Added support for Sound Blaster .VOC 8-bit PCM format files.
. Added optional values 1 and 2 to /Q switch, to set desired
level of quiet. /Q or /Q1 disables all output, /Q2 will print
error messages only.
. Fixed incorrect time calculation for non 8-bit file formats.
. Added trouble shooting section to documentation for SPUT.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPUTTER Sound System v1.08 changes:
Also, read CUSTOM.TXT for new reduced rates on custom digitized
sound files.
SPUT Player Utility changes:
. Added code to adjust system time of day after playback completed.
. Added format 21 for Digicorder 1-bit reverse CVSD format.
. Added format 31 for Voice Toolkit .VOI 1-bit format.
. Added /A switch to apply amplitude variations to sound files.
This actually increases the volume of sound files.
. Added /D switch for dedicated sound in a DESQview window.
By default, background tasks will now continue to run.
. Added /S switch to select an internal speaker driver.
Four different methods of driving the internal speaker are
available. Each is appropriate in a different situation.
. Changed abort key from any key to the ESCAPE key only.
This allows aborting playback without disturbing type-ahead.
. Removed /X switch. This has functionally been replaced by
the /S4 switch which uses the 8255 chip to drive the speaker.
. Numbered all error messages so that an error-number can be
returned to SPUTTER File Manager and SPUTEM Event Monitor.
. Changed all SPUT console output from INT21 to INT10 calls.
This prevents console output from crashing the system when
called from the Event Monitor SPUTEM with /Q disabled.
. Fixed crashing system when file was truncated because of
insufficient memory. Too much of the file was being read.
. Fixed playback to internal speaker causing DESQview to crash.
This was caused by the interrupt method speaker driver (/S3).
Three more speaker drivers are now available when in DESQview.
. Fixed playback to internal speaker crashing slow systems.
This was caused by the interrupt method speaker driver. Three
other speaker drivers are now available for slower systems.
. Fixed "divide overflow" when rates >238 were selected.
Now all rates 1-255 are handled correctly.
SPUTEM Event Monitor changes:
. Added more specific error messages for definition file errors.
. Added trigger & error counter fields to event table.
. Added /S switch to display event table summary.
. Added /I switch to reinitialize event table & counters.
. Added /R switch to enable event playback retry.
. Added code to catch remaining bell events via INT10 & INT29.
. There were many different causes of system crashes in v1.07,
that either hung the system or printed "divide overflow".
Changes made to eliminate these problems were as follows:
- Added code to check available memory before asking DOS to
run the Player Utility SPUT. There appears to be a bug
in the way DOS handles the case of insufficient memory.
The first failed attempt returns an error code properly,
but the second attempt hangs the system.
- Rewrote the INT08 and INT21 interrupt handlers.
- Added check for disk-I/O active before attempting playback.
- Added check for when called from DOS so we don't reenter.
- Switch to our own internal stack instead of using callers.
- Save & restore DOS extended error information.
- Save & restore PSP & DTA for current task before playback.
- Changed all SPUTEM console output from INT21 to INT10 calls.
SPUTTER File Manager changes:
. Fixed DELETE prompt overwriting marked file count & menu box.
. Added code to display error code from executed programs.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPUTTER Sound System v1.07 changes:
. It's here!! A new memory resident utility called SPUTEM
(SPUT Event Monitor) to allow you to attach sound files to
events on your PC. You can define which events you want to
attach sound files to and what sound files should be played
when the event occurs. The definitions are made in an ascii
file. Events supported in this release are Program-execute,
File Open (read-only), File Create, File Rename, File Delete,
Beep, and a special event type to attach sound files to any
INT13 or INT21 function.
SPUT Playback UTility Changes:
. Added /C switch for continous play. Most useful when trying
to hear the sound quality of short sound clips.
. Fixed incorrect upper case hexadecimal command line parsing.
SPUTTER File Manager Changes:
. Added VIEW function to view files in ascii hex mode.
. Added display of Bytes-used at bottom of screen.
. Changed MARK-ALL function from ^A key to ^K key.
. Added ^A key for PLAY-ARGS function.
. Added ^Z key for SORT-SIZE function.
. Rearranged menu to group all sound related functions together.
. Fixed GREY+ and GREY- keys not working properly.
. Fixed file information messed up on screen after renaming a file.
. Fixed wiping out menu & exiting to root instead of starting
directory, the first time it was run.
. Fixed ^P prompting for arguments when it shouldn't.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPUTTER v1.06 changes:
. Added a new Point-and-Play full-screen interface with complete
file management capabillities. From the File Manager, files
can be played, viewed in waveform, copied, renamed, moved and
deleted. The directory can be viewed in name, extension, size
or date order. The new File Manager module is named SPUTTER.
. Added a /I switch to SPUT, to display file information only
without actually playing the file.
. Added code to SPUT to pickup the playback rate from the header
record of Covox .VMF format files.
. Added code to SPUT to recognize ? on the command line as a plea
for help, and print the help screen.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPUTTER v1.05 changes:
. Added random file selection capability using wildcards within
filename. I added this because I got tired of hearing the same
sounds every morning as my system booted up, and didn't feel
like constantly changing the batch files either. Now my batch
files just say "SPUT *.*/q" and I hear a different file each time.
. Check for the case of the length of the sound data in the header
record being incorrect. This only happens when the file has
somehow been truncated, but caused SPUTTER to play beyond it's
allocated memory. Now a warning message will be printed.
. More documentation has been written, and a section for sources
of sound files has been added.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPUTTER v1.04 changes:
. Added support for Covox 1-bit ADPCM format files and the
/F01 and /F81 switches.
. Added support for Covox 2-bit ADPCM format files and the
/F02 and /F82 switches.
. Added support for Covox 3-bit ADPCM format files and the
/F03 and /F83 switches.
. Added support for Covox 4-bit ADPCM format files and the
/F04 and /F84 switches.
. Pickup playback speed and file format from the header record
of Amiga 8SVX format files.
. Identify Amiga/Sonix files and pickup playback speed from the
header record.
. When a key is struck during playback, only flush a single
keystroke, instead of the entire keyboard buffer.
. Fixed Internal Speaker playback routine sometimes not detecting
end of file properly.
. Fixed time calculation of encoded files still not correct.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPUTTER v1.03 changes:
. Added support for 1-bit CVSD format files used by IBM.
. Added /F11 switch for CVSD format files.
. Added /W switch to redirect output to a disk file.
. Added /H switch for high-pass filtering (Differentiator)
. Added /L switch for low-pass filtering (Integrator)
. Fixed replaying first part of buffer for files over 65535 bytes.
(This problem was accidently re-introduced in v1.02)
. Fixed printing of Macintosh title hanging system.
(This problem was accidently introduced in v1.02)
. Fixed Macintosh title printing even with /Q switch.
. Fixed calculation of playback time for compressed files.
. Removed Missed Sample messages. This was for debugging
only, and was inadvertently left in.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPUTTER v1.02 changes:
. Added support for silence encoding. This is analagous to
repeat character encoding known as RLE and can save
a considerable amount of disk space without any noticable
difference in sound quality. A soon to be released utility
will allow you to rewrite any sound file with silence encoding.
DEMO.V8S is an example of a silence encoded file. You can play
it back with no switches for normal playback, or you can use
the /F8 switch to hear just the non-silent passages. The little
cracks you'll hear with the /F8 switch are the places where silence
has been compressed into just a few bytes.
. Added /F88 switch to support 8-bit PCM silence encoded files.
. Added /N switch to generate noise inplace of dead silence
when playing files with silence encoding.
. Added display of total bytes output, and number of silence
groups processed.
. Added SPUTPOR environment variable to change the default
output port without having to enter it on the command line.
. Added SPUTDIR environment variable to define a default
directory for sound files.
. Added /Q switch to enable quiet mode, and not print any
text on the screen.
. Rewrote keyboard handling to be safer and more consistent.
. Implemented a temporary solution for the problem of hanging
when run under DESQview. It is now safe to run SPUTTER in
DESQview.
. Set limits on oversampling to avoid system lock-ups.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPUTTER v1.01 Enhancements:
. Added /P switch to allow selection of output device.
(Internal Speaker, SpeechThing, VoiceMaster, SoundMaster)
. Added /T switch to invoke treble enhancement.
. Added /X switch to force SPUTTER to drive the Internal speaker
using the DAC routine or vice-versa. This just produces
another variation of playback.
. Changed /F values to allow for expansion of support for
additional file formats (1->8 2->28 3->38).
. Just print a warning if file format is unrecognized, and continue
with playback anyway.
. Changed Macintosh oversample default from 2 to 1 just for
consistency.
SPUTTER v1.01 Bug Fixes:
. Fixed the playback time calculation when oversampling is used.
. Fixed incorrect parsing of hex port addresses.
. Fixed problem of reading too few bytes into memory for
files larger than 65535 bytes. This caused garbage to play
in place of the end of the file.
. Fixed problem of playing files larger than 65535 bytes that
caused SPUTTER to play beyond the end of the buffer and then
hang the system.
. Fixed problem of overflowing buffer when reading a file into
a buffer that's been truncated because of insufficient memory.
SPUTTER v1.01 Known Bugs:
Yes there really are two known bugs. The only reason I'm releasing
this version of SPUTTER with 2 known problems, is that there are
users waiting for fixes provided by this release.
Both bugs are easily avoidable, but not so easily solvable. Both
problems should be resolved in subsequent releases of SPUTTER.
Problem 1: SPUTTER hangs the system when run in DESQview. So
don't run it in DESQview until this problem is fixed.
Problem 2: When too high a rate or oversample value is selected
the system hangs. The limit seems to be around 220
samples per second on a 20mhz PC, but may vary on
other systems depending on CPU speed. To help work
around this for now, SPUTTER limits playback rate to
215 samples-per-second.