Subj:  Elvira Sounds..Wav Zip file
Date:  October 13, 1995
From:  Rainteam8

File:  ELVIRA.ZIP (70154 bytes)
DL time (19200 baud): < 1 minute
Download count: 7133

NEEDS:     .wav player or  WAOL 2.5

This file contains all the Elvira Sounds zipped into a single file.



AMERICA ONLINE FOR WINDOWS:  ONLINE SOUNDS!
by Rob O'Daniel

With the introduction of the new America Online for Windows, PC users can
finally even the score!  Macintosh and Apple IIgs users have had their
America Online sessions filled with sounds for years and now, with WAOL, so
can PC users!  What's more, PC users can even exchange sounds with their
Macintosh and Apple-owning friends on America Online.

So how does this work?  Well, the simplest introduction to this new feature
is the Welcome sound you hear when signing-on!  There are others that play
automatically as you enjoy your online session, such as those alerting you to
the receipt of New Mail or Instant Messages.  If you have a sound card or the
Windows PC speaker driver installed, you'll hear a friendly voice informing,
"You've got mail!" when you receive E-mail.  Similarly, when you receive an
Instant Message, you'll hear a chime.  Plus, the announcement "File's Done!"
will let you know your download has finished.  Like any regular Windows 3.1
sound event, you can replace the default America Online sounds with your
favorite Star Trek quote, a funny sound, or even your own voice.

But the best is yet to come...  During any online chat or conference, you can
"send" sounds to other members in the same room.  First, be sure you've
enabled Chat Room sounds in your selection of Preferences.  Then, you simply
type {S FILENAME.WAV} and press ENTER.  Anyone in the room who has AOL for
Windows, an Apple IIgs, or a Mac system can hear that sound.  Well, there is
a hitch - in order to hear the sound, the other members must have a sound
file with the same name.  And this makes sense once you know how the feature
works.  You see, technically, AOL doesn't "send" a sound file - it simply
triggers the playback of a sound on the systems of the members present in the
chat room.  So, if I type {S BEAM.WAV} and you have a WAV sound file on your
system with that name, it will be played; however, the sound must be in your
WAOL or WINDOWS directory or in the path specified in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
If your BEAM.WAV sounds different from mine, you'll hear yours.  The FILENAME
is the key here.

You're now on your way to having a cacophony of online sounds, but there's
still a minor problem.  With DOS filenames being limited to 8 characters,
it's difficult to remember that ARSENIO.WAV is actually a sound clip of
Arsenio Hall saying, "It's a night thing!"  The crafty folks at America
Online have provided a way around that problem!  You can assign a string of
text with a filename by placing a line in your WIN.INI file under the
[Sounds] section like this:

It's a night thing!=C:\WINDOWS\SOUNDS\ARSENIO.WAV

Then you can type:
   {S It's a night thing!}
   {S ARSENIO}

and get the same results.  By the way, the WAV extension and the ending
bracket are optional plus the line is not case-sensitive, so you could also
type
   {S it's a NIGHT THING!
   {S arsenio

to send the same sounds.  Remember, you must spell the filename or the
associated string precisely or WAOL will not find the file to play it.

Of course, you'll want to customize this to your system to tell Windows
exactly where you keep your sound files.  And be sure to add that same
directory to your path.  This way, you don't have to clutter up your WAOL or
WINDOWS directories with sound files.  Instead, you can place your WAV sounds
in their own directory, as shown in the WIN.INI line above.

Now that you know how to use the sounds, you'll no doubt want to collect a
few WAV files so you can have some fun in the chat rooms.  The LaPub staff
and the Windows Forum have teamed-up to provide some great collections of
sounds, plus the new Events WAV Library contains a number of short WAV files
aptly suited for this purpose.  The LaPub collections are mostly converted
Macintosh sounds and provide a handy way to make sure you have many of the
same sounds as your Mac & Apple buddies.  To find these files, simply use
keyword QUICKFIND and search for "WAOL and WAV" or Browse the Event Sounds
Library under the Music & Sound item on the main menu of the Windows Forum
(keyword WIN) or Music Forum (keyword PMU).

{S Enjoy!!!}