strobl@gmdzi.gmd.de (Wolfgang Strobl) (02/11/91)
becap@cs.mcgill.ca (Brian CAPSON) writes: >There's a couple of new WinApps on CICA that I think (IMHO) >are worthy of note, but haven't yet received any comments >on the NET. [...] >The other program is one that I know I've been eagerly awaiting >and is finally available is a sound driver for Adlib and >Soundblaster cards for Windows. This driver allows all of >your regular Windows sounds to be played in Stereo from >you sound card. [...] As far as I know, the Adlib compatible part of the Soundblaster doesn't do real two channel Stereo. The actual FM.DRV from Monty Schmidt uses the Adlib part only, not the Stereo Gameblaster part. > I realize that this probably only effects the >few people who have these cards, but it will probably make >alot of people buy them. You can taylor the standard windows >beep to any one of about 50 included instruments, and can >play sound files in the background. But much more importantly, >the developers of the driver have said that they will be >announcing libraries that will allow WinApps to call the >sound routines on the card. We'll soon see Windows games with >great stereo sound, [...] There are some, already :-). Monty mentioned in the announcement of the FM driver, that my Klotz game makes quite interesting noise, if played with his driver. I just loaned an Adlib card from a friend to give it a try. The driver itself and the two application programs included in the pack are impressing. There is a player program which uses standard Adlib sound bank files and plays standard Adlib .ROL music files. Much better than the Adlib jukebox program. The second program is an instrument editor, which allows to edit the instrument definitions contained in a sound bank file. The save functions are disabled. It is possible to load any defined instrument into the sound card, by selecting an instrument in the instrument editor and playing a note - there is a button for it. This changes the standard Windows beep, too, because the FM driver plays it using whatever instrument is loaded into the first voice of the sound card. My Klotz game uses the first voice channel and doesn't change the instrument, too. So you can try different sounds by running Klotz (version 2.11a) and the FM instrument editor at the same time: Turn Klotz's sound off, select another instrument in the sound editor, and turn the sound on again. I found the instrument BOING contained in the BNK835.BNK sound bank which comes with the FM driver pack especially nice, if used with Klotz. Wolfgang Strobl #include <std.disclaimer.hpp> PS: the FM driver is at cica.cica.indiana.edu, in -r--r--r-- 1 9000 20 66736 Jan 22 01:01 util/fmsound.zip