From: Brian Hechinger <wonko AT fubar DOT bk DOT psu DOT edu>
Subject: Re: Sound Blaster under DJGPP?
To: michaels AT vsl DOT com DOT AU (Michael Snoswell)
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 93 8:50:48 EST
Cc: djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu

> 
> 
> Has anyone used a Sound Blaster under DJGPP? Or know where I can get src code
> to do this? I'm after some way to produce sound in the background of a
> program I'm writing, sound that doesn't rely on the CPU to pump data in all
> the time. I know nothing about how the Sound Blaster works but understand
> that this should be possible. Something like, "Play this waveform or series of
> waveforms until I tell you otherwise."
> 
> Later I would like to add speech. I understand the SB comes with software that
> does this but I want to do it under program control, in the background, within
> a DJGPP compiled program. Any ideas on wavetable data sites for phonemes and
> text-to-speech software that uses this data that would work under DJGPP would
> be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Thanks
> 	Michael Snoswell
> 

from the little i have learned since i have gotten my Pro Audio Spectrun-16
this can be done, but don't expect to be able to do too much.  i have seen
some pretty intense demos, but the most they doing is simple graphics algos
or displaying pics.  this is a rough guess at what i know about sound cards.

Sound Blaster and PAS take roughly 60% of the CPU to run.  you HAVE to pump
data into them continuously.  there is no way to store information on them.

if you want a sound card that you don't have to pump data into you should look
into working with the Gravis Ultra Sound.  i have not played with one of these
yet, but here is a quick run down on it.  it has anywhere from 256k to 1M of
memory on the  card.  you can load all your sound data into the cards memory
and then all you have to do is tell the card  play this sound, play that sound
blah blah blah, or somethin got that effect.

HOWEVER!!!!!!  like myself, not everyone owns a Gravis Ultra Sound (GUS for 
short) or even a Sound Blaster.  (the PAS-16 can emulate SB but not SB-Pro
so no stereo emulation, stuck in mono mode.)  since i am not familiar with the
audience you are aiming at (maybe i do, are you the same person who is working
on the cyberspace program?? if so 'HI' and sorry i haven't mailed you in so
long)  then i can't tell you if you should look at a GUS or what.  if games
can use some of the intense sounds that they do and still have great gfx then 
maybe i should just shut up because i don't know what i am talking about.
but if you are who i think you are, then supporting as many different sound
cards is also a really good idea.  i don't know.  if you are still interested
after all this babble mail me and i will try to point you towards some people
who have much more of a clue than i do.

-wonko

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Wonko the Sane/KLF               aka:                     Brian Hechinger
wonko AT fubar DOT bk DOT psu DOT edu                               blh115 AT psuvm DOT psu DOT edu 
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"For every complex problem, there is a simple solution.  Which is wrong."