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Soundcards & Multimedia

PC Notes
Published May 1996

If you thought you had hassles finding a CD‑ROM drive to work with your PC, you haven't entered the soundcard zone. Brian Heywood offers a cautionary tale...

I had a bit of an odd problem last month. I was setting up a multimedia development system on a 486DX4/100 PC, and needed a soundcard for capturing and testing audio files. I also found that I could get quite good results dropping AVI files down to video tape using a Creative Labs TVCoder External. The problem was that although the PC's main circuit board had six or seven 'full length' expansion slots, not all of them could be used for full‑length cards. Since the machine was fitted with a clock 'tripled' processor (x4 in Intel‑speak), it needed to have a fan to keep the CPU chip cool enough to operate. Unfortunately, this fan is tall enough to interfere with all but three of the expansion slots, all of which were taken up by a video capture card (VideoBlaster RT300), an accelerated graphics card and a high‑speed VL bus disk controller.

The problem, then, was to get a soundcard that had a high enough performance to give a decent sound quality on both recording and playback, but was short enough to fit into one of the remaining 'short' slots. As most soundcards tend to come with bundled CD‑ROM interfaces, they tend to be full‑length, and the built‑in interface tends to be an unnecessary complication when setting up the machine. In fact, I always install SCSI CD‑ROM drives in my PCs, as they give you the option of adding on additional SCSI devices — such as SyQuest removable cartridges and scanners — at a later date.

After checking out various alternatives, I settled on a Turtle Beach TBS2000 soundcard. Not only does it fit in the restricted space, but it has decent digital audio converters — by Crystal — and has been designed by a company that has a reputation for audio quality to protect. There are a few additional extras which could be quite useful as well. For instance, it has both a Wavetable and a FM synthesizer section, allowing you to test any MPC MIDI files against both a decent quality soundcard and the lowest common denominator (ie. SoundBlaster‑compatible FM). It can even simultaneously record and play back digital audio, should I ever need the facility.

It does have a IDE CD‑ROM interface, but this doesn't seem to have caused any of the complications common to the other types of interface. The card is not even terribly expensive, costing less than £150, so I'm rather chuffed with the choice. It's even compatible with SoundBlaster games, should I ever find the time to try one out! The card is available from Et Cetera Distribution, who can be contacted on 01706 228039.

Loopisms And Twiddly Bits

While I'm on the subject of multimedia development, it can be quite time‑consuming to put together a soundtrack that captures the mood required, especially if you need a piece of music that is not your usual style. Two audio products that can help you out — in different ways — are the Loopisms and Workstation sample CD‑ROMs from D‑Zone, and Twiddly Bits MIDI files from Keyfax software. D‑Zone's sample and loop CDs have recently been re‑released in CD‑ROM and WAV format, and a number are also available in AWE32.

D‑Zone audio files can be used in two ways; the drum 'loops' can be used on an audio track of a digital audio sequencer (eg. Cubasis Audio, Procyon Audio), or downloaded to a soundcard's sample RAM to be triggered by MIDI, and used as the basis of a rhythm track. Or, you could use the instrument samples — recorded from popular synthesizers — with a RAM wavetable (eg. AWE32, Gravis Ultrasound) card to create a musical instrument. Obviously, in both these cases you would need to 'master' your multimedia sound files to WAV file somehow — perhaps by mixing down to a decent tape format (DAT or DCC) and recording the material back onto your hard disk. Or, if your PC is powerful enough, by using the simultaneous record and playback facilities on your soundcard to mix the music straight down onto your hard disk.

The D‑Zone CD‑ROMs also have demo versions of various music applications such as sample editors and MIDI/audio sequencers, so you can try before you buy. Most of CD‑ROMs in the series also contain at least one playable demo version of a popular computer game — Doom, for instance — for those with plenty of free time on their hands. Prices start from around £13, so they're very good value for money. To find out more, call D‑Zone on 0181 651 2222, or email solo@diverse‑media.co.uk.

Keyfax's 'Twiddly Bits' MIDI files take a different approach: rather than providing the raw sounds, their disks contain MIDI performances from top session musicians, which you can include in your own sequences. It's like getting a virtual session musician to play on your songs. The disks are made up of MIDI files with various short sections of music, categorised by type. So for instance, there will be a file of funk bass riffs, or conga patterns and so on, with each file containing 16 examples, ie. one on each MIDI channel.

There are 25 different style disks in the range, with such luminaries as Bill Bruford and Steve Hackett showing off their chops. Since the files are MIDI data, they don't take up much space and are supplied on 3.5‑inch floppy disks, with comprehensive sleeve notes describing the contents. The range is quite large and the prices pretty reasonable — check them out by contacting Keyfax on 01734 471382.

Cyberspace Corner

  • GET YOUR CiX ON ROUTE 66

If you want to look at the screen shots for the items in this column, or link to the Web sites listed in this (and previous columns), point your web browser at the PC Notes area on Route66 at:

www.compulink.co.uk/~route66/sos/

If you want to find out how to get access to the Internet (and thus the World Wide Web) from virtually anywhere in the UK at local call rates, call CiX on 0181 296 9666 or email:

sales@cix.compulink.co.uk.

The PC Music Handbook

I guess that if you're reading this column there's a good chance that you will be interested in the musical applications of the PC. This gives me an ideal opportunity to plug the 2nd Edition of The PC Music Handbook, which is being released this month by PC Publishing. The book was co‑authored by Roger Evan — an experienced jazz pianist, synthesist and music copyist — and myself, and covers all the basic technologies involved in using the PC to make a cheerful noise. It also gives examples of system configurations for various musical applications. The book is available (using MasterCard/Visa) direct from the publisher (PC Publishing) on 01732 770893 (fax: 01732 770268) or via the World Wide Web from their on‑line catalogue (www.compulink/~route 66/publish/pcp/books.htm). Members of CiX who are 'joined' to the Route66 conference can get it at a discount by looking at the 'books' topic.

THE PC MUSIC HANDBOOK (2nd EDITION)

ISBN 1 870775 42 2 o £10.95

by Brian Heywood and Roger Evan

  • 192 pages (approx).
  • 216 x 135mm.
  • Turn your PC into a MIDI music machine.
  • Use sequencers and other music software.
  • Covers synchronisation, FSK and MTC.
  • Soundcards, sampling and hard disk recording.
  • Multimedia on the PC.
  • Appendices on MIDI, internet, contacts.
  • Windows 95‑compatible.

Create sophisticated music by running sequencing software, make your own sounds with a soundcard, use your PC as a sound librarian or sample editor, even use it as a hard disk recorder or sampler. Sound in multimedia is covered, plus advice on which PC is best for you. Learn to incorporate keyboards, sound modules, sequencers, drum machines, multitracks into your system, how to connect to the net, and where you can contact other PC music freaks worldwide!