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Apple II Csa2 FAQs: Sound & Music, Part 19/25 (2/2)
[continued from previous message]
You need to go to the GS Control Panel and change the Slots
setting for
the Slot your MB card is in to "Your Card".
The 'standard' place for a MockingBoard is Slot 4. A few early
programs
require that the board be there in order to work; but, most programs
which use
MB will let you specify the Slot. A few games and other wares require
modifications or interface
software to work with MB on a GS.
---------------------------
011- I have a Mockingboard Sound II board installed in my GS but
cannot get it to work with Ultima IV and Ultima V. How can
I play these games with MockingBoard music and sound effects?
U4MOCKV2.SHK is a collection of programs which will let you play
Ultima IV
on your GS with MockingBoard sound. You can also set game speed and
border
color.
For playing Ultima V with MB sound, check out U5MBONGS.SHK.
Both of these wares take care of activating the MockingBoard Slot
without
changing Control Panel settings. You can find them on Ground in the AOL
area:
ftp://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/2/apple2/Collections/AOL/Games/Adv./Roleplay/
____________________________
From: Tom Mage
012- How can I get 'regular Apple sound' (like BEEPs, etc.) to play
through my Mockingboard's outputs?
I recently got a Mockingboard C, which, it turns out, has a plug
and cable
specifically for connecting in sound from the Speaker! (Most likely,
the MB A
has a similar connection.)
----------------------------
From: Rubywand
Evidently, older Mockingboards (like our Sound II) do not include
the
built-in Speaker connection; so, users with these boards will need to
do a
simple mod.
The Apple II speaker is in the Collector circuit of the sound
output
transistor-- one end of the spkr goes to a resistor and capacitor
connected to
the output transistor Collector and the other goes to +5V (not ground).
To get
an audio output
signal, the spkr must be in place; or, you can substitute a 1 watt
resistor--
something in the 22-39 Ohm range.
The output should come from the side of the spkr (or 1 watt
resistor)
going to the resistor & capacitor connected to the transistor-- i.e.
the side
which is _not_ the +5V side. The output goes through a coupling
capacitor to
the center lead of your
RCA plug. The Ground side of the RCA plug goes to ground.
"Ground" is DC ground = any motherboard trace area which is
connected to
the ground side of the power supply. For example, the outside "shell"
of the
composite video output is soldered to ground.
Here is a rough picture ...
+5V side
|
|
[]< Speaker or 27 Ohm resistor
|
|---------------------|(--)|------------------------ Output
| 10uF 10uF to Amplifier
| 2 caps connected as bi-polar capacitor
|
Transistor _________________ Ground
side |
DC Ground
You can get a bi-polar coupling capacitor at Radio Shack or make
one by
connecting two 10uF caps neg end to neg end. The value is not
critical, a
2uF-5uF bipolar cap or two 5uF caps connected back to back is fine.
Voltage
rating should be 10V or
better.
----------------------------
From: Michael Mahon
For the vast majority of connections to external amplifiers, a
non-polarized capacitor is not required in this circuit, precisely
_because_
the transistor side of the capacitor never goes below ground. A 4.7 uF
capacitor, with the (+) side toward
the transistor collector and the (-) side toward the amplifier will do
the job
nicely.
____________________________
From: Mitchell Spector
013- Are there any GS programs that will let me play
MIDI files that I get from the web?
The best one out there is MIDISurgeon 2.0, formely available from
EGO
Systems. It lets you convert and tweak (very finely if need be) MIDI
files into
MIDIsynth format, what most people heavily associate with synthLAB.
MIDIsynth
is really the best
way to hear MIDI sequences, though it is very limited these days: 7
voices and
64K worth of patches maximum (choosen from a small number of instrument
banks
out there, with a sparse selection). If you have MIDI files that are
under 7
voices and only use
a cou
ple of instruments it is passable.
There is also the freeware MIDIConvert program, but it isn't very
flexible.
WaveLAB (another program by Dave Tribby) is also worth
downloading, it
allows you to create new instrument banks.
You should be able to get MIDIConvert from the TFFE and Ground FTP
sites.
SynthLAB/MIDIsynth is part of System 6, downloadable from Apple's FTP
site. As
for MIDISurgeon, you'll have to contact Dave Tribby to find out its
status.
I personally just use a MIDI connection between my Apple IIgs and
PC with
one end running synthLAB and the other CakeWalk Express, then have one
side
"play" the other and I record that. Makes editing much easier and
faster.
----------------------------
From: Edhel Iaur, Esq.
Apple's SynthLAB may be necessary for many solutions. Check out the
following
URLs for related midi wares:
ftp://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/2/apple2/apple16/Music/Applics/
ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/apple2/gs/music/
---------------------------
From: Clayburn Juniel/Effective Software Solutions
Hey, what about Music Composer? It's much better than synthLAB
for doing
MIDI playback.
Just a note. Music Composer* does use the MIDIsynth tool to play
the
music, and to do some editing. MIDIsynth does a lot that synthLAB
doesn't use.
It was always my impression the that synthLAB was never finished.
_______________________
014- Would FExt.NDA let you play thru Synthinit if you
placed Synthinit in the System.Setup folder?
OK, I guess it's shameless plug time :) FExtNDA will allow you to
use
SynthInit from any desktop program. Place SynthInit in your
System.Setup
folder, and FExtNDA in your Desk.Accs folder (of course :). Then, in
FExtNDA's
preferences, check 'Send
finderSaysIdle'. If you want to be able to use keypresses to change
songs, also
check 'Send finderSaysKeyHit'. For more useful information on using the
two
together, check the docs in FExtNDA.
PS: SynthInit isn't the only Finder Extension that will work: IR,
DeskTracker,
FinderView, FinderSounder, TeacherReader, EGOed, etc. etc. etc. all
work.
________________________________
From: Charles T. Turley
015- Can I play .WAV files on my GS?
Yes. Download and check out 'Universal Sound Edit'. It's a GS
sound editor
that handles virtually every type of sound format from just about all
computer
platforms.
You can read the documentation file and download the program
archive--
USE.SHK -- from the GS.AUDIOWARES/ folder at ...
ftp://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/2/apple2/Collections/1WSW/GS.WorldView/ .
________________________________
From: Dave Huizing
Related FAQs Resources: R011SNDFMTS.TXT (Text file)
016- What formats are used for audio files?
See the Audio File Formats Guide FAQs resource file
R011SNDFMTS.TXT .
________________________________
From: Charles T. Turley
Related FAQs Resources: R012echo.txt (Echo mini-manual Text file)
017- How do I use my Echo speech synthesizer to produce speech?
See the Echo II Speech Synthesizer Mini-Manual FAQS resource file
R012echo.txt .
A complete set of Echo II disks was made available in the February
and
March 2000 issues of GS WorldView. The disks, in ShrinkIt whole-disk
(.sdk)
form, along with a Text info file are available for download in
EchoCollection.zip
from Asimov at ...
ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/incoming/.
You can find the complete collection of 5.25" disks in .dsk disk
image
form on
Asimov at ...
ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/utility/sound/echo_disks/
.
________________________________
From: Ian Schmidt
018- What types of sound files are used on the GS?
Several types of sample files are used. Here are the most common.
Name Ext. FType Description
---------------------------------------------------
Raw no std. BIN Contains only raw sample data. The
auxtype is normally the sample rate
divided by 51. (See section CA for
more on why this is).
ACE .ACE $CD Contains raw sample data compressed with
ACE, Apple's Tool029 sound compressor.
ASIF no std. $D8 Contains sample data plus additional data.
Notable due to its use by SoundSmith.
AIFF .AIFF $D8 Interchange format popular on the
Macintosh. Not used much on the IIgs.
Hyper
Studio no std. $D8 Contains raw or ACE compressed data plus
additional information.
rSound no std. $D8 Resource fork contains one or more rSound
and rResName resources. Used by HyperCard
IIgs and the Sound CDev.
--------------------------------
Related FAQs Resources: R015SNDNMUS.TXT (Text file)
019- Where can I find more info on cards, editing, digitizing, ...?
See the Sound & Music info FAQs resource file R015SNDNMUS.TXT .
________________________________
From: Rubywand
020- What is "old Apple" sound and how is it produced?
All Apple II computers can produce "Old Apple" sound without any
special
boards or add-ons. The system BEEP you hear upon a Reset is an example.
The sound is produced by code which addresses memory location
$C030. Each
time $C030 is referenced the output of a flip-flop going to a simple
audio
amplfier stage changes state.
For example, in BASIC, X= PEEK(49200) will produce a single click.
In
machine code, so would AD 30 C0 (Load Accum from address $C030).
Duration and
Frequency of sound can be set by placing the address reference
instruction
inside a loop and using
other loops to control speed of references.
Although the signal going to the internal amplifier is always a
square
wave, creative coding by music enthusiasts, game developers, and other
users
has produced remarkable effects ranging from two-voiced music and game
sounds
to speech.
________________________________
From: Mitch Spector
021- What is a good source for .WAV and .BNK files?
Have a look at ftp://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/apple16/Music and
you
should find a couple of different custom made instrument banks for
MIDIsynth. A
couple to look for: 'Europe.bnk', MIDI.bnk', 'InstF.bnk', 'InstA.bnk',
'GrandPiano.bnk', 'Jazz.bnk',
'MT32.bnk'.
________________________________
From: Rick Diffley
022- How can get more System Sounds for my GS?
IF you have HCGS (HyperCard GS) then, one way to get System Sounds is
to place
a HCGS stack with rSounds in the Sound folder. You'll have plenty of
new sounds
to use with the Sound CDev.
Making a new stack and moving sounds into it works fine, but so does
making a
COMPLETELY EMPTY file of type $55/$0001 (HyperCard Stack -- you can
save an
empty text file and then change its file type to do it) and then moving
the
sounds into THAT.
Afterwards, you can change the file type of that file to $D8/$0003
(Sound
Resource) so HyperCard won't try to actually open it as a stack. This
saves
about 7K of space.
Also, sound files that are placed in the */System/Sounds folder can be
directly
used by HCGS v1.1! You don't need to install those sounds into a
stack!
There's a smaller and much more manageable hammer. All that's required
is
HyperCard GS and some
utility to change file types.
To get sounds out of a HCGS stack and into a system sounds file, with
NO
OVERHEAD whatsoever, do the following:
1) Create an empty text (or binary, or whatever) file on disk.
2) Change the file type of that file to $55/$0001 (HyperCard
GS stack).
3) Use HyperCard's XCMDs (or Hang's sound stacks) to copy sounds
into that file that used to be a text file.
4) Change the file type of that file to $D8/$0003 (Sound resource).
5) Throw that file into your system Sounds folder.
You could also just create a new stack from within HCGS and do the same
thing,
but it'll be about 7K larger, due to the information HCGS puts in a
stack's
data fork when it's created.
____________________________
From: Rubywand
023- How do I get System 6.0.1 to run Music Studio 2.0 from hard disk?
A problem which seems to trip up many users is placement of the
WAVES
folder. You can put most of Music Studio in a folder named "AppleMusic"
(or
whatever); but, the WAVES folder needs to be in the main directory of
the
volume.
----------------------------
024- Using Sound Shop and similar utilities, I get static and
scratchiness on my GS sound samples and, sometimes, hum.
What's wrong and how can I get better recordings?
There are several ways to get "static" when recording sounds on
your GS.
One is to have incorrect settings for the sound recording program. If
input
level is set too low, you may be recording relatively more noise than
sound. If
input level is set
too high, you may be getting "clipping"-- the signal gets chopped at
the
peaks-- which can sound like static.
Also, check the Sampling Rate setting. A too-low sampling rate can
result
in glitchiness which sounds like static. If you have not already done
so, try
experimenting with your sound recording program's settings.
If your sound input board has more than one input, then, one may
be for
"Line Input" for recording from a tuner, tape deck, etc. and another
may be for
"Mic". If there is a choice, be sure your sound source goes to the
right input.
For example, to
record using a microphone, it should be plugged into "Mic".
Hum usually indicates a different problem. Almost always it
indicates a
broken or very poor Ground/shield connection. Check your connector
jacks and
plugs. Sometimes just turning a cable plug in the socket/jack will
establish a
good contact and end
hum.
If you are using a microphone, it could be the source of problems.
Static
can come from a mic which is damaged, has some sand, etc. sitting on
the
diaphram, has an intermittant ON/OFF switch, has a damaged cord, or has
a loose
connection at the plug.
Or; you may be using a perfectly good microphone which is badly
mismatched
to your sound input board. For example, a high quality mic may deliver
a very
low output. Your input circuit may auto-boost amplification to try to
compensate; but, the
result may be to obtain an audible recording with greatly increased
noise.
(Your signal-to-noise ratio at the input is too low.)
By the way, the mic supplied with Hyperstudio (the Apple IIgs
version) is
not an especially high quality unit; but, it works fine with
Hyperstudio's GS
sound input board. If you are not sure that your mic is okay and is the
right
sort for your sound
input board, try swapping in one from a tape recorder, etc..
----------------------------
025- Squeals and other noises spoil my GS stereo board sound? A fix?
An unshielded cable going to J-17 can pick up some noise; but, it
is not
likely to be noticeable except at higher volume settings when no
music/sound is
being output. Rerouting the cable may help.
Really bothersome noise probably comes from the Slot bus feeding
the Slot
your stereo board is plugged into. The problem is noticed more often on
Rom-01
GS's than ROM 3's because the latter seem to have heavier power traces
and this
helps reduce
noise. However, any GS may exhibit Slot noise when a few power-sucking
boards
(e.g. an accelerator) are plugged in.
For ways to reduce noise see the Power Supplies and Cooling FAQs
file
CSA2POWER.TXT. Check Q&A related to power supply enhamcements and/or
possible
swaps. Also check Q&A 019.
----------------------------
026- My IIgs has no sound from the internal speaker. How can I fix
this?
The fix _may_ be fairly easy. Try plugging Stereo headphones into
the
Sound Output jack on the back of the GS. Whatever you plug in
(headphones, a
connec--- Fruity Dog 6.2