Sound Blaster AWE32 and Sound Blaster 16 Drivers ------------------------------------------------ Disclaimer ---------- The Sound Blaster AWE32 and Sound Blaster 16 Drivers and related files provided in this package are provided 'as is' without any warranties from Creative Technology Ltd, expressed or implied with respect to the files. Creative Technology Ltd. would not be responsible for any kind of damage, caused directly or indirectly, by using these drivers and the related files. Proceed with the installation, only if you agree to the above terms and conditions. *WARNING* --------- THE INSTALLATION PROGRAM REQUIRES THAT YOU HAVE INSTALLED EITHER SOUND BLASTER AWE32 OR SOUND BLASTER 16 WITH MMPM/2. IF YOU ARE USING SOUND BLASTER PRO OR ANY OTHER SOUND CARD, USE 'Selective Install' TO INSTALL SUPPORT FOR SOUND BLASTER AWE32 OR SOUND BLASTER 16 AND THEN RUN THIS INSTALLATION PROGRAM. ALSO NOTE THAT, TO INSTALL THE DRIVERS CORRECTLY, USE THE INSTALLATION PROGRAM. SIMPLY COPYING THE DRIVER FILES AND UPDATING THE CONFIG.SYS IS NOT ENOUGH. THE INSTALLATION PROGRAM UPDATES YOUR CONFIG.SYS AND MMPM2.INI AND CREATES OTHER INITIALIZATION FILES AS REQUIRED. What's New ---------- New DLL+SYS Architecture ------------------------ The Sound Blaster drivers now come in two parts. A ring 3 driver in the form of a DLL(VSD) and the traditional ring 0 PDD. These drivers implement most of the new features and interfaces introduced with Warp. DART ---- These drivers behave properly with DART enabled applications. DART provides a high performance audio interface for games. AWE32 SoundFont Support ----------------------- The Sound Blaster AWE32 drivers now include support for SoundFont loading. The control panel application, can be used to load SoundFont files into the banks. Detection of Various Vibra Chipsets ----------------------------------- These drivers also include support for the latest series of Vibra chipsets. Unlike old drivers, the support for different Vibra chipsets are built-in and there's no need for a driver specific for Vibra. Support for Advanced Power Management(APM) ------------------------------------------ These drivers include Advanced Power Management support. On systems with APM support, the drivers would suspend and resume correctly. CSP Codec Support ----------------- CSP support has been added in. You can use the same CSP files used in Windows. Copy the CSP files to \MMOS2\DSP directory. The drivers look for the CSP files and if the required CSP file is not present, it would use the DSP files shipped with Warp. The CSP files provide better recording/playback quality than the ones shipped with Warp. CONFIG.SYS DEVICE= Line Syntax ------------------------------ The new drivers use a different command line syntax from the original Sound Blaster drivers installed with Warp MMPM/2. The new DEVICE= line syntax goes like this, DEVICE=\SB16D2.SYS /C:n /D:n /H:n /I:x /A:xxx /B:n /M:xxx /N:SBAUD1$ [/Q] [/EXT] /C: - Card Number, this would be set to 1 in most cases /D: - 8-bit DMA channel, Valid values - 0, 1 & 3 (Sound Blaster cards that use Vibra chipset do not have 0). Default value - 1. /H: - 16-bit DMA channel, Valid values - 5, 6 & 7 (Sound Blaster cards that use Vibra chipset do not have 6). Default value - 5. /I: - IRQ number, Valid values - 2, 5, 7 & 10. Default IRQ - 5. /A: - Base addresss, Valid values - 220, 240, 260, 280 Default value - 220. /B: - Buffer size in KB, Valid values - 1-24. While any value in this range would work fine, to get the best results use either 8 or 16. Default value - 8. /M: - MPU port address Valid values - 300 & 330 Default value - 330. /N: - driver name, set this to SBAUD1$ /Q - quiet mode flag, OPTIONAL Setting this option disables initialization messages. If not specified the initialization messages are displayed during boot-up. /EXT - use MPU port instead of internal synth for MIDI, OPTIONAL By default the drivers are configured to use the internal synthesizer. But if you have a daughterboard attached to your Sound Blaster card and you want MIDI playback to use the synthesizer in the daughterboard, specify this flag. THE NEW DRIVER DOES NOT RECOGNIZE THE OLD POSITIONAL SYNTAX. The installation program would make the necessary chages to your CONFIG.SYS. But make sure that you have a valid existing Sound Blaster AWE32 or Sound Blaster 16 support installed in MMPM/2(See *WARNING* above). A sample CONFIG.SYS statement looks like this:- DEVICE=C:\SBAWE32\SBAWED2.SYS /C:1 /D:1 /H:5 /I:5 /A:220 /B:8 /M:330 /N:SBAUD1$ Using 8-bit DMA Channel for 16-bit DMA -------------------------------------- Some systems come without 16-bit DMA support. In such systems, the drivers can be configured to use 8-bit DMA channels for 16-bit DMA. Just set the 16-bit DMA Channel parameter(/H:) to use one of the 8-bit DMA channels(0, 1 or 3). Reporting Driver Problems & Bugs -------------------------------- If you find any problem or bugs in the driver, please do report them. If you have internet access, please post a message on the comp.os.os2.multimedia newsgroup. This is the best way to ensure that the bug report reaches the driver developer. If you do not have internet access, please report the bug to Creative Technology/Creative Labs technical support and they will inform the developer.