Re: AE Sonic Blaster

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

sagochangi@aol.com (Sagochangi) wrote:

>anyone know where to find the drivers?  all i have right now is the card. 
>also, i'm really interested in taking my iigs audio to a new level.  what's
>some really great tracking software?  MIDI, MOD, commercial, freeware...
>anything.  in fact, *is* there any good music software?  i'll even hook up a
>parallel-to-MIDI box if that's what it takes.

Hi, the Sonic Blaster plugs into a slot and the cable plugs into
the Ensoniq connector on the motherboard (J25, I think).
You do not need drivers and you do not need to set the card
to 'your card.'  The Sonic Blaster is just an
amplifier/demultiplexer.  It works completely transparently.

If you want to compose MIDI, the best commercial program
currently available is Music Composer.  Prior to that, there
were professional level programs such as Master Tracks
(a MIDI sequencer) and Music Writer (sheet music program).
You need to find them on the used market, but they are worth
getting.

For MOD composition, there is NoiseTracker GS 2.0, which
I think can be found on Dr. Tom's ftp server.  It is freeware.
It will play MODs and allow you to create them.

There are some IIGS specific trackers too that produce GS
specific MODs (SoundSmith, the original NoiseTracker).
These can only be played back on the IIGS (there is a
program to play back SoundSmith on a Windows PC though,
but not on Macintosh).

However, if you just want to record a MIDI song, then just
plug in a serial to MIDI box that is commonly sold for
Macintosh.  Then you can record via MIDI to the IIGS using
just the synthLAB program.  The only problem is that you
can't edit in synthLAB so you must be a good (mistake free)
piano/keyboard player.

Now if you want to record sounds/instruments using the
Sonic Blaster's input jack, something like SoundShop
or Audio Zap is in order.