Info: Play digitised sounds on a II!

[misc176@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (Philip Lamb)]

This item will be auto-posted weekly to the newsgroup comp.sys.apple2 to
inform readers of the program "IISound" for the Apple II range of
computers.
This post last updated: 15 December 1994

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Do you own an Apple II? Envious of users of other computers whose machines
talk and play music, sound effects and noises? There is no need to be!
There is a program for THE APPLE II computer range that lets you too
create this magic WITHOUT ADDING ANY HARDWARE!

IISound is (and I may say with a little pride) a pretty nifty program. It
currently allows almost noise-free playback of digitised sounds such as
those available on a variety of platforms like the IIGS, Macintosh, Amiga
and IBM. Huge volumes of digitised sounds are posted daily to Usenet
Newsgroups. IISound plays back sound at a rate of 11.025kHz, with 5 bits
of precision. Not quite CD quality, but still outstanding for an
unassisted II! This magic is achieved through a software
digital-to-analogue converter written by Michael Mahon, and requires only
a standard II. I wrote the program IISound which allows up to 16 sounds to
be loaded into memory and keyed for instant playback, and which recognises
additional auxiliary slot memory in a IIE allowing much larger files to be
loaded and played back. Before non IIe users start shouting "hey! The II+
doesn't have an auxiliary slot! Does it run on a II+?" the answer, at the
moment is no, but there is no reason it should be!

The problem is that I have all these great ideas for additions, extensions
and modifications to IISound, but I cannot yet justify putting in the time
to imnplement and debug them. But YOU can change this. Each registration
of a copy of IISound enables me to put in another 2 hours work on it. Just
20 registrations and I can justify spending an entire working week
creating more fantastic software for Apple II users to enjoy! Its so
simple! I bet that you could name 5 other people who have Apple II's. If
you could convince them to make the small effort required, then this piece
of software will continue to grow in leaps and bounds. I am capable of
making IISound into a package rivaling those on mucher bigger and faster
platforms, with your support! Registration is just $20 NZ or $15 US.

These are the features currently implemented in IISound v4.2, which
requires an Apple IIe with 128k or better:
   o 11kHz playback of digitised sound
   o 2 times oversampling to eliminate carrier noise
   o Up to 15 sounds loaded in memory at once
   o Instant playback of any loaded sound
   o Automatically recognises and uses RamWorks-style add-on memory
   o File selection dialogue
   o Revised mousetext interface
   o Output out either internal speaker or cassette port
   o Ability to unload sounds
   o Will load 11.025kHz, 22.05kHz or 44.1kHz sound data
   o Loads and plays most IIGS, Mac and IBM .wav files just fine!
These are features I can add real soon, if people send me money!
   o Provision for editing of files, inluding cut and paste
   o Loading and saving of ADPCM compressed files
   o (Soon!) A version for 64k Apples including the II+
   o Release of sourcecode modules for use in system programs
Further down the track:
   o Loading and saving of Audio-IFF and IBM .wav files in native format

Apart from registrations of the program, people are more than welcome to
send donations if you REALLY want to see this program grow. Also, email
just saying you like my program is a real boost (and a bigger boost with a
promise of a cheque!) I can be reached via Internet as below:
             email:  p.lamb@csc.canterbury.ac.nz
       finger/talk:  misc176@cantva.canterbury.ac.nz

And my address for registrations, donations and standard mail is:
              mail:  Philip Lamb
                     30a Blighs Rd
                     Bryndwr
                     Christchurch 8005
                     New Zealand

You can retrieve the latest version of IISound from most popular Apple II
ftp sites on the Internet, notably cco.caltech.edu and
grind.isca.uiowa.edu. Please make an effort to get IISound by ftp; because
in NZ all Internet traffic is charged by volume, it costs me considerably
to send copies via email. The other alternative is to send a 5.25" disk,
and a stamped self addressed envelope to my address, and I will mail the
latest copy of IISound to you. The documentation that comes with the
package contains more information about how the program operates, and how
to register. So pick up a copy, and give it to everyone you know and most
importantly KNOCK THEM ON THE HEAD UNTIL THEY REGISTER!
-- 
--  Philip Lamb --                           \ Q) What do you call a series of
p.lamb@csc.canterbury.ac.nz      (mail)       \ fdiv instructions on a Pentium?
misc176@cantva.canterbury.ac.nz  (talk/finger) \ A) Successive approximation.