smsmith@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Stephen M. Smith) (02/02/91)
A couple months ago someone posted a note about a new sound board
that is supposed to do everything a Soundblaster and Adlib can do,
only better. They said it was being manufactured by Leading
Technologies (1-800-999-5323).
After calling Leading Technologies 3-4 times they finally returned
my call and confirmed that they have the board and will be shipping it
at the end of February.
Here's some info on it. (Please note that I don't know anything
about the Soundblaster and Adlib, and "midi" to me is a mystery,
so I'm just trying to mimic what the gentleman was saying...
if you have further questions call the toll free number above.)
Name: "Audioware"
Packaging: will be bundled with board, software, *and* stereo speakers
(no, not big ones :) ).
Sound: stereo with built-in 4 watt amplifier. Can be hooked up to
your stereo for bigger, better sound.
Soundblaster compatible: will do everything the SB can do including
the digitized voice stuff and the talking parrot.
It will have the midi interface like the SB, but you need a midi
box like SB too. I asked him specifically if it was Roland
compatible and he didn't know. (!!)
Will have a VOX kit with it. (I'm not familiar with this.)
I forgot to ask about CMS chips.
Adlib compatible: will work for all games designed to utilize the
Adlib card.
Externals: joystick port, volume control (on external port of card)
PRICE: $299 retail, approximately $150 wholesale.
My comments: From what I've heard about the Soundblaster and the
Adlib, the new Audioware doesn't *seem* to do anything more.
I asked him what advantage it had over the Soundblaster, and he
said "it can do anything the Soundblaster can." Since it will
cost about the same as the SB, what's the advantage (except
the added speakers)? Is Leading Technologies offering something
which can do more, or are they just wanting to get a piece of
SB's lucrative market?
The gentleman said they have already been selling the board bundled
in their systems, so if any of you have one already maybe you can
give us some more info.
S. "Stevie" Smith \ + /
<smsmith@hpuxa. \+++++/ " #*&<-[89s]*(k#$@-_=//a2$]'+=.(2_&*%>,,@
ircc.ohio-state. \ + / {7%*@,..":27g)-=,#*:.#,/6&1*.4-,l@#9:-) "
edu> \ + /
BTW, WYSInaWYG \ + / --witty.saying.ARC cad@ptvxs1.claremont.edu (Cad DeVaughn) (02/02/91)
Yo Netters! Just when you thought the choioce between sound boards would become easier, Walt Disney Computer Software is throwing a new punch at you. According to the Feb issue of PC Mag, the Sound Source is an 8-bit digital voice module that connects to the parallel port on your computer. It retails for about (get this) $30. The first software to support this will be Disney's educational games, but John Dvorak is convinced that the Sound Source will become the new pc sound standard and will be supported by all games. So, what do you think? Cad DeVaughn |'And my spinning head is slowly slowing down. Computer Lab Manager |At least my lonely bed is in my favorite Pitzer College |town.' cad@pitzer.claremont.edu |HotHouse Flowers - Home
nan@math.ksu.edu (Nan Zou) (02/02/91)
smsmith@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Stephen M. Smith) writes: AudioWave specs [...] >My comments: From what I've heard about the Soundblaster and the > Adlib, the new Audioware doesn't *seem* to do anything more. > I asked him what advantage it had over the Soundblaster, and he > said "it can do anything the Soundblaster can." Since it will > cost about the same as the SB, what's the advantage (except > the added speakers)? Is Leading Technologies offering something > which can do more, or are they just wanting to get a piece of > SB's lucrative market? Besides being compatible with existing sound boards, what's new here? Notice the list price is higher than a Sound Blaster, about the same street price. I don't see any special advantage choosing this board over the SB. My guess is that people will stick with the established standard unless some thing groud-breaking comes along. About the Sound Source from Walt Disney, I saw an ad selling it for $20. I'm skeptical at anything this cheap. If anyone has tried this please post your opinions. -- Nan Zou | Bitnet : nan@ksuvm Kansas State University | Internet: nan@math.ksu.edu #include <std_disclaimer.h> | nan@phobos.cis.ksu.edu
ong@d.cs.okstate.edu (ONG ENG TENG) (02/03/91)
From article <10614@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>, by cad@ptvxs1.claremont.edu (Cad DeVaughn): > Yo Netters! > > Just when you thought the choioce between sound boards would become easier, > Walt Disney Computer Software is throwing a new punch at you. According to > the Feb issue of PC Mag, the Sound Source is an 8-bit digital voice module > that connects to the parallel port on your computer. It retails for about > (get this) $30. The first software to support this will be Disney's > educational games, but John Dvorak is convinced that the Sound Source will > become the new pc sound standard and will be supported by all games. > > So, what do you think? Let's look at the facts. There are many many sound cards like Sound Source that did not make it (like Covox, Innovation, etc, under and over $100, I own many of them, and they are currently collecting dust). Sound Blaster already has close to 100,000 installed in the US. Microsoft has accepted it as part of its Multimedia Window extension (that means big potential in commercial installation). Almost all the game makers have decided on Sound Blaster/Adlib standard. (Note that some major game companies has yet to support Roland even after they have decided to support Sound Blaster/Adlib standard, like Spectrum Holobyte with their Flight of the Intruder and Stunt Driver). Seeing that games today needs 25MHz 386 to run, you certainly don't want to be stucked with a technically inferior card. If Sound Source uses the parallel port, that means the computer has to STOP everything to do sound, whereas Sound Blaster uses DMA to do sound so that the CPU can continue to do other things like graphics concurrently. Sound Source can use interrupt to do sound but that will take a lot of CPU power away. On Sound Blaster, CPU performance only slow by 5% with the DMA doing sound. Also, SB has 11-voice FM music, a joystick port (important to PS/2 users as the cheapest PS/2 joystick port (only) cost $50), microphone voice input (potential for voice-command), optional 12-voice stereo music, MIDI, etc, and comes with a voice synthesizer. Lastly, I bet Sound Blaster for PC retail will drop to under $100 in a few months.
sichermn@beach.csulb.edu (Jeff Sicherman) (02/04/91)
The Disney people usually have an 'only invented here' attitude about a lot of things, but this may reflect more an intent to make the product capable among a broad range of computing platforms (with different cabling mainly) and for machine that are slot poor or whose owners dont want to fiddle inside the computer case. It's a low end game market product for the unwashed masses probably, at that price it can be an impulse purchase or bought with the game.
rr@mips.COM (Robert "Bob" Rodriguez) (02/04/91)
I have the Disney Sound Source and it really works. It is not stereo but as far as getting all the sounds necessary for playing games and hearing people (or mice) talk it really works. It seems fast and simple and it is cheap. -- Robert Rodriguez rr@mips.com Workstations forever!
rosen@tristar.samsung.com (MFHorn) (02/05/91)
In article <1991Feb4.020629.7563@d.cs.okstate.edu> ong@d.cs.okstate.edu (ONG ENG TENG) writes: > For people who are willing to spend only $20 on sound card, do you > think they will spend $30 to $50 for a game? Most likely not. Let's flip it around: For people who are willing to spend $30 to $50 for a game, do you think they will spend $20 on a sound card? Most likely yes. Do you think they will spend $100 - $150+ for on a sound card? Maybe. -- Andy Rosen | rosen@samsung.com | "I got this guitar Samsung Software America | ...!uunet!samsung!rosen | and I learned how One Corporate Drive | (508) 685-7200 | to make it talk" Andover, MA 01810 | | -Thunder Road
jennifer@bertha.jpl.nasa.gov (Lorini) (02/05/91)
Just a note: Interplay Productions will be supporting Disney's Sound Box by the end of the year. I haven't had a chance to query the other vendors' on CIS's GAMPUB forum, but will once we (hubby and I) are serious about replacing our Adlib card. 8 digital voices for $20 sounds pretty good to me, particularly without use of a slot on the IBM. Lorini use the addresses below for mail, please! jennifer@jato.jpl.nasa.gov or elroy!jato!jennifer@csvax.caltech.edu 72466.3413@compuserve.com Voice:(818) 354-8617 "Great Leaders are rare, so I'm following myself"
ong@d.cs.okstate.edu (ONG ENG TENG) (02/05/91)
From article <ROSEN.91Feb4121856@tristar.samsung.com>, by rosen@tristar.samsung.com (MFHorn): > think they will spend $20 on a sound card? Most likely yes. Do you > think they will spend $100 - $150+ for on a sound card? Maybe. Hhhmm, let see, $30 to $50 each game, that could come to $200 to $400 a year, with the conservative number of 5 to 10 games per year (I spend about $1,000 a year on games, so does many in netland as I was told). With that kind of money on games, would you stick with an inferior sound card? I mean, that's like buying a 486 machine with a CGA card/monitor! Before you go on, let examine the facts. Everybody is talking as if the Sound Source is as hardware-competant as say the DMA-driven voice channel in the Sound Blaster. It's no where near. I don't have the card myself but I have spoken to hardware engineers who had taken the new sound card apart. What can you expect from a card that takes (by my estimation) $5 to make? Remember, the $5 includes labor, packing, and bulk-shipping cost. On the other hand, do you think Disney, a big corporation, is going to mess with a $20 card? (that is $5 to make it, $5 for the dealer, $5 for the distributor, $5 profit?). I predict the price will go up. With the Sound Blaster coming down below $99 in a few months (my own prediction), I doubt there is a question which is the sound standard now, and in the future.
) (02/05/91)
In article <6082@mahendo.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>, jennifer@bertha.jpl.nasa.gov (Lorini) writes: > Just a note: Interplay Productions will be supporting Disney's Sound Box > by the end of the year. I haven't had a chance to query the other vendors' > on CIS's GAMPUB forum, but will once we (hubby and I) are serious about > replacing our Adlib card. 8 digital voices for $20 sounds pretty good > to me, particularly without use of a slot on the IBM. > > Lorini use the addresses below for mail, please! > jennifer@jato.jpl.nasa.gov or elroy!jato!jennifer@csvax.caltech.edu > 72466.3413@compuserve.com Voice:(818) 354-8617 > "Great Leaders are rare, so I'm following myself" Can someone please tell me where I can find out more information about this Sound Box? I currently have the SoundBlaster, but if this card doesn't require a slot, then I'd rather use it. Thanks. -- +------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Santanu Sircar BITNET: ssircar@umaecs.bitnet | | University of Massachusetts/Amherst INTERNET: ssircar@ecs.umass.edu | +------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
MMK102@psuvm.psu.edu (02/06/91)
Just a note on Disney's Sound Box. This idea hase been around for years
and years. The device is just an 8 bit D/A converter with very little
logic what-so-ever. The program just dumps the DIGITIZED sound to the
printer port and the D/A does the rest. I made one for my computer for
about $13 two years ago. The problem with these type of devices is
the massive amounts of data that must be dumped to the printer port
to get any type of sound (8K / second for ONE voice - or about that).
OK - here is what all this means. 1. The computer does no "musical"
work except dump the data to a printer port. 2. The music/voice/sounds
can be as complex or as simple as Disney wants. 3. The sound will
take up more disk space that Windows 3.0 (for anything real complex)
NOTE - This might not be a factor if a game needs 5 or 6 sounds all
about 0.5 seconds long. 4. There might be copyright problems with
a company called Covox who has been selling this product for years
now.
All in all, Disney's device will sound as good as a mono SB, if
someone takes the time to program the sounds correctly (8 bit D/A
sounds pretty good). Good luck to Disney.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Kercsmar | GO
MMK102 @ PSUVM (BitNet) | Speed Racer
mmk102 @ psuvm.psu.edu (Internet) | GO!
|jal@acc.flint.umich.edu (John Lauro) (02/07/91)
In article <91037.094240MMK102@psuvm.psu.edu> <MMK102@psuvm.psu.edu> writes: >OK - here is what all this means. 1. The computer does no "musical" >work except dump the data to a printer port. 2. The music/voice/sounds >can be as complex or as simple as Disney wants. 3. The sound will >take up more disk space that Windows 3.0 (for anything real complex) >NOTE - This might not be a factor if a game needs 5 or 6 sounds all >about 0.5 seconds long. 4. There might be copyright problems with >a company called Covox who has been selling this product for years >now. There is no reason why you can't have the computer do musical work. You just digitize the instruments, and let the computer adjust the frequencies and merge multiple tracks. It's the instruments that take up the bulk of the data. For a hundred K of storage, you can have many minutes of music. The less instruments the better. Obviously the better the quality, the more memory it will generally take. (This is far from new technology. The Radio Shack color computer which only has 6 bit D/A can produce reasonably good music with 4 voices this way. I even have some software that produces 8 simultaneous voices on the the CoCo.) > All in all, Disney's device will sound as good as a mono SB, if >someone takes the time to program the sounds correctly (8 bit D/A >sounds pretty good). Good luck to Disney. True, with the exception it will take more CPU power to do anything else at the same time because of no DMA. (In other words, not as good for arcade games on slow machines.) (This is without knowing exactly what hardware is in the box. Does the computer or the box determine the timing? Is there any buffer at all in the box?) - John
kmeis@drutx.ATT.COM (Kevin J. Meis) (02/09/91)
I just bought a Disney Sound Source bundled with ABC's and it works fine but how do I make it Soundblaster/Adlib compatible as the Subject line suggests? Is there a driver I would have gotten if I hadn't bought it in the bundle? Thanks, Kevin Meis att!drutx!kmeis
sigma@jec302.its.rpi.edu (Kevin J Martin) (02/09/91)
kmeis@drutx.ATT.COM (Kevin J. Meis) writes: >I just bought a Disney Sound Source bundled with ABC's and it works fine >but how do I make it Soundblaster/Adlib compatible as the Subject line >suggests? Is there a driver I would have gotten if I hadn't bought it >in the bundle? No, no. Back up. This Subject line seems to have merged two threads, one of which was discussing a new card which is pretty much a clone of the Soundblaster (only it includes speakers at the $150 price), and the other which was discussing the much-hyped (thanks, Dvorak) Sound Source module. As I understand it, the Sound Source plugs into your parallel port and nothing more - there's no way you're going to get something hooked to a parallel port to interface via the I/O ports used by Adlib and Soundblaster, or to do any real non-CPU driven sound such as digitized voice. If a salesperson let you think you were buying a $30 substitute for the $100 and $150 cards, I'd go back and give 'em a piece of my mind. -- Kevin Martin sigma@rpi.edu "i feel true blue and real"
tts@ttank.ttank.com (Karl Bunch) (02/10/91)
In <1991Feb6.223133.15170@engin.umich.edu> jal@acc.flint.umich.edu (John Lauro) writes: >In article <91037.094240MMK102@psuvm.psu.edu> <MMK102@psuvm.psu.edu> writes: >>OK - here is what all this means. 1. The computer does no "musical" >>work except dump the data to a printer port. 2. The music/voice/sounds >>can be as complex or as simple as Disney wants. 3. The sound will [stuff deleted] >There is no reason why you can't have the computer do musical work. Still a lot of CPU being wasted. I looked into this box for fun to use under Xenix. (The thought of Mickey Mouse saying "You have new mail. ha ha") kinda of struck me. So I got a hold of one (via a friend at a local store, okay it was my Mother but I'll never tell..) >> All in all, Disney's device will sound as good as a mono SB, if >>someone takes the time to program the sounds correctly (8 bit D/A >>sounds pretty good). Good luck to Disney. >True, with the exception it will take more CPU power to do anything >else at the same time because of no DMA. (In other words, not as good >for arcade games on slow machines.) (This is without knowing exactly >what hardware is in the box. Does the computer or the box determine >the timing? Is there any buffer at all in the box?) I found only what looked like about $5 in parts. It has NOTHING more than a Amp and a battery in the box it'self and maybe a A/D chip in the connector that goes between the cpu / printer. I didn't even bother running the software since I wanted to use it under Xenix. Oh well. :-) I didn't bother trying to figure out what chips etc were in it but you could count them on one hand. :-) BTW while we are on the subject. How easy is it to get SoundBlaster Technical/Programming information? If it turns out to be a good board I would like to build a device driver for it under Xenix or Unix. Thanks, Karl -- % ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- % Karl Bunch ||| UUCP: ..!uunet!zardoz!ttank!karl % Think Tank Software ||| INTERNET: karl@ttank.com % "...you'd be suprised how far a hug will go with Geordi, even Worf!" -- Riker
tom@syssoft.com (Rodentia) (02/14/91)
In response to the speculation that the Sound Source is only a D/A, I have been mucking with this a little, and am not fully convinced that that is all there is to it. The only chip in it is an ASIC, and it would be possible to have some registers in there for more complex operations. Granted there may not be such a thing. Disney is willing to license code to drive the thing, but they won't give out technical specs (at least not last time I called). If anyone can come up with more detailed information than this, please post it or e-mail me. Thanks. -- Thomas Roden | tom@syssoft.com Systems and Software, Inc. | Voice: (714) 833-1700 x454 "If the Beagle had sailed here, Darwin would have | FAX: (714) 833-1900 come up with a different theory altogether." - me |