The Best of Select: Multimedia 5

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============================== BLASTER Master v5.0 for the Sound Blaster and compatibles Copyright (C) by Gary Maddox ============================== BLASTER Master is for serious PC soundcard enthusiasts interested in getting the most from their PC audio card. One of the great features of the Sound Blaster and other PC audio cards is the ability to sample sound and play it back. BLASTER Master is a tool kit for working with Sound Blaster type VOC files, .WAV files and .SND files. BLASTER Master includes many features available on Digital Audio Workstations costing many thousands of dollars. BLASTER Master requires EGA/VGA graphics, a mouse, a hard disk and preferably a fast PC. Unregistered versions will only process a 25 second sound file. The registered version will process any size sound file. OVERVIEW: -------- This program is a very fast EGA/VGA graphic editor to help you tailor your sound files. Useless and noisy sample data at the beginning and endings of VOC files can be quickly removed. Sections from within the sample can be saved as a new sample file. The entire sample is displayed and a grid is drawn that divides the sample into seconds to aid in selecting the "cut points". A zero-crossing/phase approximation method is used to select the bytes that are displayed to help in choosing the "cleanest" points for pro- cessing. Where needed, cross-fading is applyed to splice points. Function keys F1 - F7 changes the pallettes used to control the colors used to display the screen. During playback, a pulsing index line displays the position of the file being played. The various digital processes can be sel- ected using the mouse or in most cases, ALT+the first letter of the option can be used. Example: ALT-P will select to "PLAY" the currently selected sound file. (ALT-P means hold down the ALT key and press the "P" together) NOTE: BLASTER Master will function without a soundcard being present, but the PLAY, RECORD and SCOPE functions will be disabled. SELECTING A SOUND FILE: ---------------------- If a sound file is not specified when starting the editor, a file selection dialog box will appear. The current path can be changed by selecting the right selection box and selecting a new path. From this dialog box, you can PLAY the sound file, RECORD a new sound file, DELETE an unwanted sound file, ACCEPT the file to process or CANCEL the program and return to DOS. Choosing the PLAY option to Audition a file will also display useful information about the file. The various options can be selected using the mouse or in most cases, ALT+the first letter of the option can be used. Files can be selected by double-clicking your mouse. If you accept a sound file that is multi- blocked, BLASTER Master will allow you the option of removing the blocks and converting to a RAW VOC file. IMPORTING A SOUND FILE: ---------------------- Choosing this option from the File Selection Dialog Box will allow importing .WAV, .NTI, .8SV and .SND format files into BLASTER Master. A .WAV file is the Microsoft Multi-Media format and is supported by the Pro Audio Spectrum and the ATI Stereo F/X sound cards and others. SND files are completely raw wave data files that do not include any header information. NTI files are Amiga sample files as used by Tetra Compositor. VOC type files can also be saved in these three formats. 8SV is the extension normally used for Amiga IFF sound files. You can import Amiga IFF sound files, but you can not save a file in Amiga IFF format currently. RECORDING A SOUND FILE: ---------------------- Selecting RECORD from the File Selection Dialog Box displays the Record Dialog Box. Enter the name of the VOC file you wish to record. NOTE: If you specify a VOC file that already exists, it will be OVER WRITTEN. Using a mouse, select the sample rate to use when recording (13,000-4000 if using a Sound Blaster, 44,000-4000 if you are using a Sound Blaster Pro). The higher the sample rate, the better the file will sound. When using the various digital processes, a higher sample rate will also produce a much better sounding file. The SCOPE selection button will display a graphic scope that is very useful for setting the volume of the device you are recording directly from. Select the RECORD button to begin recording. Press the ESC key to stop recording. Your file will be displayed on the Editor screen for modifying. NOTE: Sound Blaster Pro users will also be given options for selecting the recording input source, input filter selection and MONO or STEREO recording. EDITING A SOUND FILE: -------------------- To select a section of the sound file to be removed, saved, heard or zoomed, position the mouse cursor over the graph at the first desired cut point and press the LEFT mouse button. Position the mouse cursor again over the second cut point and press the LEFT button. Once a section has been marked with the blue box, you can HEAR that section, CUT it from the sample or SAVE it as a new file. The ZOOM option will display the marked section across the screen and allow you to select a new block from the zoomed area. You can zoom the file until the resolution reaches 1:1. The current resolution is displayed just above the options selection box. By using the ZOOM feature, you should be able to edit sound files with surgical precision. The MOVE option allows the selected block to be moved to a new section of the same file. The COPY option (Vanishing Menu only) will move a copy of the selected block to a new section of the same file. SETTING A MARKER: ---------------- Sometimes it is desirable to pre-select a point in the soundfile. Using the right mouse button will place a white arrow on the blue bar just below the sound file grid. TOOLS: ----- There are special process that operate on a block of data. Selecting the TOOLS button pops up a selection menu for special block functions: LOOP: ---- This allows the block to be repeated upto 10 times. This can be used to add a Max Headroom type stutter to the file. MUTE: ---- This replaces the block with silence bytes. Very usefull for removing glitches and other un-desirable noises without effecting the playback time. REVERSE: ------- This reverses the block to playback backwards. PITCH: ----- This changes the pitch of the block. The Pitch can be either lowered or raised. This function effects the playback time. ECHO: ---- This adds echo to the block. The parameters are the same as the Echo function for whole files. VOLUME: ------ This adjusts the playback volume of the block. The parameters are the same as the Volume function for whole files. NOTE: The editor program should work on all single block compressed data. This does not include silence encoding. The graphic representation of the sound data will not be accurate. The time display should be very close. SPECIAL PROCESSES: ----------------- BLASTER Master includes several special digital processes to modify your sound files. The special processes supported are: SCOPE, ECHO, REVERSE, INSERT, FAST, SLOW, RATE, VOLUME, PITCH, PACK, FADE and MIXER. All of the processes are not displayed at the same time on the Wave Edit screen. Sel- ecting the MORE button will display the next set of options. The various options can be selected using the mouse or in most cases, ALT+the first letter of the option can be used. EXAMPLE: ALT-E will select to "ECHO" the currently selected sound file. (ALT-E means hold down the ALT key and press the "E" key simultaneously) The NEW button can be used to select a new file when in the Editor screen or to un-mark a block when in the Cut/Save/Zoom screen. A list of the special processes are described in detail below: SCOPE: ----- This process graphically displays sample input real-time. Speak into a microphone and see what your voice looks like or play music directly into the Sound Blaster. This program works particularly well on faster machines. This is also an excellent way to check the quality of your system. With no sound input, you should see a straight, flat line that is exactly even with the white line on the sound file grid. Any spikes you see are noise. Any key will cancel the scope and return you back to the editor. ECHO: ---- This process adds echo or delay to a VOC file to give it a richer, fuller sound. It is also great for adding special effects. Two para- meters are used to determine the type of echo desired. The number of milliseconds before the echo starts sets the "size" of the effect. Delays of 60-100 sound like a large room. Larger delays, upto 200 milliseconds, will sound like a cavern or canyon. The second parameter is the mixture, i.e., how loud should the echo be mixed in. This also has an effect on the type of echo desired. A 30-60% mixture will sound more realistic than using a higher volume for the delayed sounds. How the echo will repeat can be changed by selecting either INFINITE or FINITE. REVERSE: ------- This process reverses the playback of a VOC file. It is effectively the same as playing a tape backwards. See for yourself if "number 9" says "turn me on, dead man" backwards. (for older Beatles fans) This is a great tool for televangelists to search for those pesky satanic references in rock & roll songs! Did you know that the famous Tarzan yell sounds the same backwards as forwards? Try it. INSERT: ------ This process will allow a another sound file to be inserted into the sound file being edited. Selecting INSERT will once again bring up the File Select Dialog Box. From here, you can select a VOC file, RECORD a new sound file or CANCEL the INSERT process and return to the Edit screen. Once a VOC file for insertion is selected, use the mouse to select the point in the original sound file to INSERT the new sound file. If the sample rate of the new sound file does not match the original file, the sample rate will be adjusted to blend in correctly. Care should be used to select a new sound file that is not packed, contains silence compression or is a multi-block file. The resulting sound file will not be usable. SLOW: ---- This process extends the time domain without effecting the frequency domain... in plain english, you can re-sample a VOC file that will play back at approximately 1/2 speed without effecting the pitch. This function will double the size of the original sound file. Imagine you are a guitar player and want to learn the latest white hot guitar licks from Joe Satriani or Eric Johnson... SLOW makes listening and learning MUCH easier! It is also very useful for muti-media presentations. Sound files with sample rates above 12khz produce a more natural sound. FAST: ---- I couldn't have a "slow down" process without a "speed up" one too. Unlike SLOW, FAST includes a "slider" for selecting how much of a speed increase is desired. This function will decrease the size of the original sound file accordingly. Like SLOW, sound files with higher sample rates produce better results. RATE: ---- This process allows a VOC file created with a high sample rate to be "down" sampled to a lower sample rate. Some PC's have problems playing VOC files with the higher sample rates, this is a way to change the sample rate to something more compatible with your PC. It is also a good way to make files smaller without the degradation associated with compression. A VOC file recorded at 12,000Hz+ down-sampled to 8000Hz will probably sound better than if it had been originally recorded at the slower rate. Sound files originally sampled on the MAC at 22,000Hz can be down-sampled to 12,000Hz or less with almost no loss in clarity. This process is also capable of "up" sampling, although you WILL NOT gain any noticable resolution. Approximating the "missing" byte is just not the same as having the original bytes in all cases. VOLUME: ------ This process can either increase or decrease the amplitude of VOC files. One way to get a very clean sample is to make your sample at a fairly low volume and then re-sample up to a higher volume. The Sound Blaster has a tendency to introduce distortion as you increase the volume used for sampling. This works very well for sampling directly from a CD or tape deck. Enter either "I" to Increase the volume or "D" to Decrease the volume. The numeric value entered next will determine the amount of change in the resulting file. When increasing the volume, values of 10-50 will have a subtle effect on the resulting sound file. Values of 50-200+ will have a more dramatic effect. When decreasing the volume, values of 1-99 will cause the resulting file to have volume of approximately the percent of the number entered. Entering "50" will produce a sound file that is only 50% as loud as the original. If a value greater than 100 is entered, the effect will be to INCREASE the volume, even though DECREASE was selected. MIXER: ----- This process blends two VOC files into a single sample. There is also a volume mix parameter that controls how loud the mixed in sample will be. The volume mix can be a number between 1 and 100. 50 to 60 is often a very good mixing level. You can also select the point within your original file to begin mixing. Choose the farthest point to your left to start at the beginning of your file. The Mixer is a great way to add special effects to your sound files. This process does not try to adjust the sample rates if the two files are different. PACK/UNPACK: ----------- These processes will either pack or unpack a sound file, depending on its current state. The previous functions only work on unpacked files and a great many of the available file come packed. Once unpacked, all of the special BLASTER Master features can be applied. PITCH: ----- This process alters the sample rate value contained within the VOC file. Raising or lower the pitch can be accomplished by selecting the slider. Altering the pitch will also effect the playback time, but not the size of the file. FADE: ---- This process allows the begining and ending of a sound file to fade in or fade out in volume. When choosing this function, you can choose the amount of time to fade in and fade out. Either times can not exceed 1/2 of the total time of the sound file. If for instance, you wish to only fade out a sound file, use zero as the fade in time. When combining multiple files, a little fading can make the switch between sounds less abrupt. This can be especially effective when one sound file has alot of background noise and the joining sound file does not. USING THE VANISHING MENU: ------------------------ While editing a sound file, moving the mouse cursor to the top of the screen or holding the SHIFT key, will reveal a drop down menu bar. All of the button functions are available from the Vanishing Menu. Many other useful functions are also available: FILE MENU: --------- SAVE: Save the current sound file. If the current sound file is UNTITLED, you will be prompted for a file name. SAVE AS...: Save the current sound file by a new name. QUIT: Quit to DOS immediately. If the current sound file is UNTITLED, you will be prompted for a file name. OPTIONS MENU: ------------ LOOP PLAY ON/OFF: Choosing this option causes playback to be single or looped. SAVE SCREEN COLORS: Choosing this option saves the current screen colors. See the sections below about Changing and Saving Default sceen colors for more detail. BLOCK PLAY ON/OFF (Block Edit Only) Choosing this option will play either the whole sound file or selected block. This function is not supported in ZOOM. HELP: ---- Choosing this option displays a short help file that briefly details the various functions. You can access these menus quickly from the keyboard by using SHIFT and the first letter of each option, i.e., Shift-F for FILE, Shift-H for HELP, etc... CHANGING SCREEN COLORS: ---------------------- BLASTER Master's graphic screen colors can be changed by pressing any of the first 10 Function keys. A listing of the Function Keys and the colors they effect are listed below: F1 - Background Default = Cyan F2 - Wave, Fileselect Playbox Default = Red F3 - Time Grid Default = Brown F4 - File Info text, Hilited text, Vanishing Menu text Default = White F5 - Field labels, Vanishing Menu background, Dialog Box backgrounds Default = Blue F6 - Vanishing Menu Bar background, Pipe shading Default = Bright Blue F7 - Button Hilites, Pipe shading Default = Bright Cyan F8 - List Box Hilite, Fileselect Playbox text Default = Yellow F9 - Wave Tip Hilite Default = Bright Red F10 - Helter Skelter Default = ???? If you have color VGA graphics, you can choose from 256 colors. EGA users can choose from 64 separate colors. Keep in mind that the way certain colors interact with each other should effect your color choices. A good example is the way F4 and F5 interact. A poor choice of screen colors here could result in unreadable dialog boxes and help screens. SAVING SCREEN COLORS: -------------------- Your current screen colors can be saved from the Options Menu available from the Vanishing Menu. Choosing this option will save the colors in a file named BMASTER.CFG. You can return to the Default screen colors by renaming or deleting this file. NOTE: When renaming BMASTER.CFG, always use the file extension .PAL. future versions of BLASTER Master may include support for point and click PAL file selection. USING PAL FILES --------------- I have included several small files with the file extension .PAL. These are saved screen color files. To use a PAL file, copy it to BMASTER.CFG. Example: COPY OLDMOVIE.PAL BMASTER.CFG NOTE: Some PC's have peripheral cards that could conflict with the way BLASTER Master scans for the Base Address. If when you try to run BLASTER Master and you get the message "Scanning for Base Address" and then it locks up, try setting this ENVIRONMENT parameter: SET BMPORT=XXX Where XXX is the Base Address of your Soundcard, i.e., SET BMPORT=220. This should help in most cases when this problem occurs. NOTE: It is possible that BLASTER Master might not correctly identify your graphics interface. If BLASTER Master tells you you don't have EGA/VGA graphics, and you know you do, try using the command line switch "/G". This switch will force graphics mode and by-pass the interface check. NOTE: BLASTER Master will use available EMS memory for screen manipulation. Some EMS software might not be compatible. You can turn EMS use off by using the command switch "/NOEMS". REPORTING TROUBLE: ----------------- If you find a bug, please report it in as much detail as possible so that I can fix it in the next version. I need to know which specific function you were using, where the VOC file originated from and the sample rate. If the problem is hardware related, such as the video display or mouse functions, please include information about the system you are using. Support beyond that will only be given to registered users. COMMON PROBLEMS: --------------- ERROR 5 - This is a DOS error that means Illegal Function Call, which could mean just about anything. The most common occurance of this happens when you try to run BLASTER Master on a PC with a graphics card that does not properly support 640x350x16 HI-RES EGA graphics mode. If you get this error immediately after typing BMASTER, then it is probably your graphics card. The only fix is to change your graphics card. MOUSE CURSOR ERASE SYNDROME - I have recently heard of 3 or 4 instances of the mouse cursor seeming to erase the screen when it is moved. This is a problem with your mouse driver. I only make calls to the Mouse API, I don't re-paint the screen. Switching mouse drivers has fixed this in every case so far. ERROR 11 in line 918 - If you get this message at start up, then you don't have enough available memory to run BLASTER Master. BLASTER Master requires about 550K of RAM if you are not using EMS. PERFORMANCE TIPS: ---------------- BLASTER Master works best on a very fast PC. That means a fast processor, fast graphics and fast hard drive. I use mostly floating point operations for accuracy. A Math Co-Processor speeds up most of the functions by as much as 40%. Mixing two 50K files requires over 1,000,000 calculations for example. A slow graphics card can cause wait states on your processor. That bargain price VGA system may not be such a bargain if you saved $50 and slowed your PC down by 40-60% in graphics mode. BLASTER Master is based on using "virtual memory", i.e., using your hard drive where ever possible. This is slower but much more reliable and supports a wider system base. It also easily supports HUGE file sizes. If you are lucky enough to have several megabytes of RAM, try running from a RAM Disk or at least use an extended/expanded memory Disk Cache. It makes a big difference in performance. Disk fragmentation can also lessen performance, regardless of what software you are running. SUGGESTED READING: ----------------- If you are interested in learning more about how BLASTER Master works, you should read the following books: "Principles of Digital Audio" by Ken C. Pohlmann Howard W. Sams & Co., 1985, 1989 second edition This is an excellent introduction to everything from fundamental accoustic theory to the way compact disks work. Some chapters are relatively easy to understand and others are definitely NOT for the faint of heart. "Musical Applications of Microprocessors" by Hal Chamberlin Hayden Books, 1985, 1987 second edition This is absolutely the best edition ever published in the field of digital sound production and is universally considered a classic. This book is 800 pages long and an understanding of advanced mathmatics is required. "Elements of Computer Music" by F. Richard Moore Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1990 This is also an excellent source of information about digital sound re-production. It is especially good for C programmers as all of the examples are working C routines. "An Introduction to Digital Signal Processing" by John H. Karl Academic Press, Inc. 1989 This is a very good crash study course in DSP and assumes the reader is familiar with higher mathmatics. Distribution BBS Numbers: ------------------------ These BBS's should always have the latest release. BLASTER Master is also available on hundreds of other BBS's around the world. CompuServe GO MIDI Channel One 617 354-3137 Data Dimension 404 921-1186 America Online PC MUSIC New Dimension 408 274-5550 Rusty & Eddy's 216 726-3589 User-to-User 214 492-6565 GEnie IBMPC Music Connection 214 596-2827 EXEC-PC 414 789-4360 BLASTER Master is the result of many, many hours of programming, study and experimentation (not to mention 6 years of college). If you find this program to be interesting and of use to you, then please register BLASTER Master and help support future development towards more applications of sound files. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the individuals and institutions that have already registered. Your support has made this version possible. As long as you continue to support BLASTER Master, I will continue to release new versions. All future updates are free. One registration will automatically register future versions. Please mention the version number in your letter. I would also like your telephone number and your computer system hardware. I would also be interested in knowing which BBS you downloaded it from and hearing any suggestions for future enhancements. Think of it this way, when you register BLASTER Master, you aren't paying for the version you are cur- rently using, you are helping to finance the next release. When I receive your payment, I will send you your registration number and instructions on installing it. To Register, send $29.95 in US dollars to: Gary Maddox 1901 Spring Creek #315 Plano, TX 75023 USA Foreign orders mailed directly to me should include $5.00 for the extra postage and PLEASE, send payment in US dollars only. To Register in Germany, send 59 Deutche Marks plus handling fee to: CDV Ettlingerstr. 5 D-7500 Karlsruhe 1 Germany I suggest you contact CDV to find out the current handling charges and to obtain a catalog of their other excellent shareware offerings. To Register in the U.K., send 16 pounds Sterling to: Carl Ricketts 54 St. Anne's Road Tankerton Whitstable Kent CT5 2DR England You can drop me a line on Prodigy at KTSM62A, GEnie at G.MADDOX or CompuServe at 76711,547. Thank you for using my Sound Blaster software. * Sound Blaster is a registered trademark of Creative Labs, Inc ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BLASTER Master Copyright (C) 1990,1991,1992 by Gary Maddox, all rights reserved -------------------------------------------------------------------------------