dar@cblpf.ATT.COM (David A. Roth) (11/28/87)
A strange thing happened that I can't explain or reproduce. I was using my UNIX-PC in vi and noticed that the 'bells' that sound when you hit the escape key sounded very different. Almost like a buzzer instead of the beep you normally hear. So I got out of vi and did some other things that would make the bell sound and it still sounded strange. I can't recall exactly what I did but the strange sound went away and it returned to normal. All this made my wonder if they speaker in the UNIX-PC was capable of making other sounds other than the beep. I recall being shown how the Burroughs B20 was able to play music and produce synth speech without the aid of a chip to do so. I recall it had something to do with the forming of a wave pattern in 8086 and it would produce any sound you wanted, so I was told. My question is can this be done on the UNIX-PC? If so how and has anyone done it or have an example they could send me. Thanks in advance. AT&T Bell Laboratories David A. Roth Columbus, Ohio uucp: cbosgd!cblpf!dar
lenny@icus.UUCP (11/28/87)
In article <877@cblpf.ATT.COM> dar@cblpf.ATT.COM (David A. Roth) writes: > >A strange thing happened that I can't explain or reproduce. >I was using my UNIX-PC >in vi and noticed that the 'bells' that sound when you hit the escape >key sounded very different. Almost like a buzzer instead of the beep >you normally hear. So I got out of vi and did some other things that >would make the bell sound and it still sounded strange. I can't recall >exactly what I did but the strange sound went away and it returned to >normal. > This seems to happen when the internal speaker for the modem/bell isn't set back to normal status. When you dial out, the touchtones/ dialtones/busy/etc... signals are directed through the speaker. Sometimes you terminate the dialling abnormally and the speaker stays to "ON" status. Now someone dials in... and you hit a CONTROL-G (bell), the bell noise is blended with the 1200 baud carrier noise from the person communicating on the modem. This usually is fixed when the person logs off and the speak is put back to its normal state. I haven't seen this happen in anything but HDB (HoneyDanBer UUCP) for the UNIX PC, but I assume it could happen in both. >All this made my wonder if they speaker in the UNIX-PC was capable of >making other sounds other than the beep. I recall being shown how the >Burroughs B20 was able to play music and produce synth speech without >the aid of a chip to do so. I recall it had something to do with the >forming of a wave pattern in 8086 and it would produce any sound you >wanted, so I was told. > As far as making rudimentary music or synthesis, I'm not sure. The Voice Card is the way to go for something like that. -Lenny -- ============================ US MAIL: Lenny Tropiano, ICUS Computer Group IIIII CCC U U SSSS PO Box 1 I C C U U S Islip Terrace, New York 11752 I C U U SSS PHONE: (516) 968-8576 [H] (516) 582-5525 [W] I C C U U S AT&T MAIL: ...attmail!icus!lenny TELEX: 154232428 IIIII CCC UUU SSSS UUCP: ============================ ...{uunet!godfre, mtune!quincy}!\ ...{ihnp4, boulder, harvard!talcott, skeeve, ptsfa}! >icus!lenny "Usenet the final frontier" ...{cmcl2!phri, hoptoad}!dasys1!/
jeff@cjsa.UUCP (C. Jeffery Small) (11/28/87)
In article <877@cblpf.ATT.COM>, dar@cblpf.ATT.COM (David A. Roth) writes: > > A strange thing happened that I can't explain or reproduce. > I was using my UNIX-PC > in vi and noticed that the 'bells' that sound when you hit the escape > key sounded very different. Almost like a buzzer instead of the beep > you normally hear. On the UNIX-PC, the beep (ie. bell) is generated through the built-in modem speaker. The problem with this is that there is a conflict when uucico is running through the modem. The distorted buzz you heard in place of the normal beep occurs when uucico data transfer is operating in the background. (Such as when your feed site transfers news.) The problem I have found is that the "beep" generated by the application program distorts the data being transferred - just like noise in the line. The transfer programs attempt to recover from this bell/noise, but if you keep at it long and hard and make the bell ring too often, uucico will just quit and terminate the data transfer. The best solution I have found to the problem is to attempt to relegate data traffic through the built-in modem to the wee hours of the night when there is little keyboard activity. Of course, you can always become a better typist and just stop vi from complaining :-). -- Jeffery Small (203) 776-2000 UUCP: uunet!---\ C. Jeffery Small and Associates ihnp4!--- hsi!cjsa!jeff 123 York Street, New Haven, CT 06511 hao!noao!---/
ford@crash.UUCP (11/29/87)
In article <877@cblpf.ATT.COM> dar@cblpf.ATT.COM (David A. Roth) writes: > >A strange thing happened that I can't explain or reproduce. >I was using my UNIX-PC >in vi and noticed that the 'bells' that sound when you hit the escape >key sounded very different. Almost like a buzzer instead of the beep >you normally hear. So I got out of vi and did some other things that >would make the bell sound and it still sounded strange. I can't recall >exactly what I did but the strange sound went away and it returned to >normal. The Unix PC "beeps" by activating the phone speaker and generating a tone with the dialer chip. This has two noticable ramifications: 1) Depending on the c_feedback settings of /dev/ph?, if there is an active call, you may hear the actual sound from phone line (i.e. "modem squawk"). This is probably what you heard. It only seems to happen at certain times; I think it is when an incomming uucp call is in progress. 2) When the phone is actually being dialed, the dialer is not available for "beeping." At these times, beeping does not occur. -- Mike Ditto -=] Ford [=- P.O. Box 1721 ford%kenobi@crash.CTS.COM Bonita, CA 92002 ford@crash.CTS.COM
lenny@icus.UUCP (Lenny Tropiano) (11/29/87)
In article <60@cjsa.UUCP> jeff@cjsa.UUCP (C. Jeffery Small) writes: |> |> [...reduced a little for brevity...] |> |>On the UNIX-PC, the beep (ie. bell) is generated through the built-in modem |>speaker. The problem with this is that there is a conflict when uucico |>is running through the modem. The distorted buzz you heard in place of the |>normal beep occurs when uucico data transfer is operating in the background. |>(Such as when your feed site transfers news.) The problem I have found is |>that the "beep" generated by the application program distorts the data |>being transferred - just like noise in the line. The transfer programs |>attempt to recover from this bell/noise, but if you keep at it long and ||>hard and make the bell ring too often, uucico will just quit and terminate |>the data transfer. |> I think you are a little wrong about the "bell" generating noise back into the modem. If that were true, every time you hit a bell online to another computer (or a bell was sent back) you would get line noise?! True, the distorted buzz has to do with uucico not handling fixing the speaker, and the noise you hear is 1200 baud noise + bell noise, at least that is what I believe?! -Lenny -- ============================ US MAIL: Lenny Tropiano, ICUS Computer Group IIIII CCC U U SSSS PO Box 1 I C C U U S Islip Terrace, New York 11752 I C U U SSS PHONE: (516) 968-8576 [H] (516) 582-5525 [W] I C C U U S AT&T MAIL: ...attmail!icus!lenny TELEX: 154232428 IIIII CCC UUU SSSS UUCP: ============================ ...{uunet!godfre, mtune!quincy}!\ ...{ihnp4, boulder, harvard!talcott, skeeve, ptsfa}! >icus!lenny "Usenet the final frontier" ...{cmcl2!phri, hoptoad}!dasys1!/
wtm@neoucom.UUCP (11/29/87)
I have had the same bugs with the bell on my 3b1. Occasionally when uucp is doing something in the background, the speaker will emit a strange squwack instead of the customary "beep!". The funny thing is that the noise that comes out sounds suspiciously like 1200 bps modem carrier! Appararently there are a few bugs in the code that sets the electronic switches that decide what to connect for the source of sound emitted by the speaker! (Or else, there are a some hardware bugs.) --Bill
vanam@pttesac.UUCP (Marnix van Ammers) (12/03/87)
In article <785@neoucom.UUCP> wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew) writes: > >I have had the same bugs with the bell on my 3b1. Occasionally when >uucp is doing something in the background, the speaker will emit a >strange squwack instead of the customary "beep!". The funny thing >is that the noise that comes out sounds suspiciously like 1200 bps >modem carrier! Appararently there are a few bugs in the code that >sets the electronic switches that decide what to connect for the >source of sound emitted by the speaker! (Or else, there are a some >hardware bugs.) Well this explains what that occassional loud squwak (SP?) sound was that I used to get. I also had occassional crashes with "PANIC: kernel addressing error" (or something close to that). But I called AT&T and got a new mother board and I haven't had any of those symptoms since. No squacking, no crashes for about a month now. Previously I noticed a sqauck about once a week. Sometimes the squacks would come in a group with 3 or 4 squacks within a 10 minute period. It also seemed like they would be at full volume, no matter where my volume control was set. They would happen even when I wasn't at the computer, with nothing running (though it's possible that there were incomming calls to the modem at the time). After explaining all this, I'm not sure if my problem was the same as described, but it certainly seems like it was related. Marnix --- -- Marnix (ain't unix!) A. van\ Ammers Work: (415) 545-8334 Home: (707) 644-9781 CEO: MAVANAMMERS:UNIX WORK UUCP: {ihnp4|ptsfa}!pttesac!vanam CIS: 70027,70 HOME UUCP: pttesac!Marnix!vanam
rlf@mtgzy.UUCP (XMRN10000[saf]-r.l.fletcher) (12/03/87)
Yes I had this strange occurrence also, and I did finally isolate it to the internal modem. Somehow the speaker gets attached to the the phone line and you hear whatever sounds are on the line at the time. On the subject of music and sound making, there must be a way, though I don't know it (yet). Since the dialer can send touch-tones out, there must be a way to at least use those tones in a C program. I think you may have to do some assembly programming to do any more than that. I will be investigating this further since a game I am writing for the UNIXPC will want to have sound effects.