smsmith@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Stephen M Smith) (05/16/91)
Here's a generic file I composed:
(Current as of May, 1991)
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The Soundblaster has more potential than you probably know. Below
is a brief survey of what the sb can do and where to get PD and
shareware software for the sb:
The Soundblaster is 100% adlib compatible. If you are thinking
of buying the adlib card, DON'T, because you will be very disappointed
if you do. The sb comes with a 4 watt internal amplifier which means
you can plug headphones or small speakers directly into its external
jack without using an additional amplifier. The sb also has stereo
capabilities, but in order to get stereo sound you have to install
CMS chips (about $20), and even then you will only hear stereo
with certain software (the older Game Blaster software, I think).
The sb has an excellent analog joystick port which blows away any
competition. People who have for years had trouble with their
joysticks find them solved by using the sb joystick port instead.
The major difference between the sb and the adlib is sb's digitizing
features. You can play digitized sound files as well as digitizing
your own stuff by simply plugging a microphone into sb's microphone
jack.
The sb also has midi capabilities. If you buy the midi adapter
(about $99, or about $5 if you know how to build one yourself!)
you can hook up a midi keyboard or instrument and use your computer
as a midi (NOTE: the sb is NOT Roland MPU-401 compatible).
The sb has text to speech synthesis provided by Creative Lab's
software. Thus the sb can read any ascii text entered at the
DOS prompt, and it can read any ascii file.
There are a couple other fun programs which come with sb: Voxkit,
Talking Parrot (it mimics what you say), and Dr. Sbaitso (psychiatrist).
In addition, there are lots of PD and Shareware programs available
for the SB. Here's a few:
kfps-roble6-dynamic.stanford.edu (36.80.0.138-162: the last number
varies and moves around a lot!). When you try to connect to
this site the system attempts to connect you to a number of
viable addresses. Be patient--sometimes it has to try about
15 or 20 addresses before it finally connects. If it doesn't
work at all try again later during non-peak hours. If ftp'ing
to kfps-roble6-dynamic.stanford.edu gives you a 'connection
refused' message, you can try it the hard way by starting
with 36.80.0.138 and trying to connect to each possible
address up through about 36.80.0.162 (I can't remember what
the last working number is).
This site has probably the most sb stuff available via ftp.
There are .rol, .cmf, .mod, .sts/.stm, and .snd files here:
.rol files: use fmplayer to play these under Windows 3.0
.cmf files: use playcmf.exe to play these (playcmf.exe came
with your sb)
.snd files: these are raw digitized files. Convert them to
.voc files with voc-hdr.exe (which came with your
sb; .voc files can then be played with Voxkit)
.mod files: these are AMIGA sound files, and they sound
FANTASTIC--real digitized instruments and voices!
Use jmplayer or trakblaster to play these--read
the 'rogue-in.fo' file in the main directory.
.stm/.sts files: more AMIGA sound files, but these are to be
played with screamtracker.
Again, I want to say that YOU MUST GET THOSE AMIGA SOUND FILES
BECAUSE THEY ARE THE VERY BEST THING YOU CAN HEAR ON THE SB!!!
The best thing to do at this site is to look around a lot; every
time I ftp from there I find something new.
ab20.larc.nasa.gov in /amiga/music/modules/st-nt: Amiga sound files
which have been compressed into .lzh files; use lharc.exe to
uncompress them (available at wuarchive.wustl.edu in
/mirrors/msdos/arc-lbr as LH113C.EXE. See the 00-read.me
file for descriptions of the archiving utilities in that
directory).
snake.mcs.kent.edu in /pub/SB-Adlib: Look around--in /pub/SB-Adlib/
players there is a nice composer for the sb called musician.zip.
ccb.ucsf.edu (128.218.1.13): Lots of sound files! Look in
/Pub/Sound_list. There are further subdirectories.
garbo.uwasa.fi (128.214.12.37) in /pc/win3/sound: sb files for
windows (the best site for windows stuff is cica.cica.indiana.edu
so you should probably look there first because it has the
latest versions of things like the fmplayer).
msdos.archive.umich.edu in /msdos/sound: more sound files. These
files have the .sou extension, but they are simply raw
digitized files just like .snd files. See above how to
convert them to .voc files. There are also some compressed
files here (.arc files, for example).
cica.cica.indiana.edu: Windows 3.0 stuff! Look in
/pub/pc/win3/util/sounds for the lastest version of fmplayer
(called fm10.zip because the latest version is 1.0). Fmplayer
plays .rol files which are basically .cmf files converted for
playing under windows.
Stephen M. Smith \ + /
<smsmith@magnus. \+++++/ " #*&<-[89s]*(k#$@-_=//a2$]'+=.(2_&*%>,,@
acs.ohio-state. \ + / {7%*@,..":27g)-=,#*:.#,/6&1*.4-,l@#9:-) "
edu> \ + /
BTW, WYSInaWYG \ + / --witty.saying.ARC