Apple II Music & Sound Conference March 28, 1990 10:00 ET Subject: AO Soundmaster program Guest: Joe Schober Forum Leader: Tim Barwick AFL TimB Welcome to the Apple II Music and Sound Chat. In a last minute change of topic, tonight's subject will be AO Soundmaster. We'll be giving away three sets of diskettes of some great America Online sounds. Courtesy of the Apple II Productivity Forum. AO Soundmaster is a new CDA from Joe Schober. It allows you to hear and play sounds online with a simple {S soundname} command. You'll need a GS and the GS version of America Online. That and some digitized sounds (unshrunk/uncompressed) and you're in business. AO Soundmaster IS shareware, the cost is a mere $10. Let's get to your questions. Sumwill Can file type $D8 be converted to AO Soundmaster files ? JSchober Sumwill: You can use $D8 directly. No conversion needed. AFA Gene FYI: JSchober is Joseph Schober, the author of SoundMaster. A GibberFC That 3mb of sounds..... Will those disk be available for Download, if one is willing to spend the download times? AFL TimB Gibber, many of them will eventually be. Nuke Em Tim, as I recall, most of the sound files, separately are very short aren't they? Say 1-4 minutes download time at 2400 baud. AFL TimB Well we decided to have two libraries, one is the new America Online that basically contains files from 5K to 70K that are unpacked and unshrunk along with Forum sound packages. The other is the current and existing Digitized SOUnds library. Major difference is that many of the digitized sounds are ACE'd and have to be un'ACED before they can be used. KevinC23 How do we get to download the sounds? AFL TimB Kevin, go to the AMS software library you'll see America Online sounds that's where the sounds are. Just d/l them straight into your Sounds folder and you'll be able to play them immediately. JSchober >> DO NOT << download FROM a chat room directly into your Sounds folder with Soundmaster ON... accck! LindsayGS Tim - if I have a GS and use America Online with the 5.25 disk will it work? AFL TimB Joey, 5.25? JSchober AO on 5.25"?? I doubt it'd FIT. Uhhh, it SHOULD work, though. Never tried it. LindsayGS That is you said the GS version of AO - is size the problem? AFL TimB Worth experimenting with! LindsayGS The CDA doesn't go on the system disk? JSchober Yeah, size would be the only problem, although the speed would also be annoying, 5.25"s are SLOW! If you have enough memory, try putting SM on your /RAM5 volume. AFA Parik Where do we d/l Soundsmaster, or do we order it from you? and someone asked me to ask whether all Hyperstudio sounds are supported. AFL TimB Soundmaster is available in several places. Apple II Music and Sound New Files, America Online Sounds and Apple II Utilities New Files. Hyperstudio sounds are supported. (Sound Shop format). KevinC23 Is there data /instructions with the files to let us know how to run files? AFL TimB Kevin, the dox are pretty extensive. JSchober Kevin: Yes, AFL Marty did a great job with the docs. AFL Marty The dox are -perfect-. AFL TimB I'm giving away the prizes on a totally arbitrary basis. There are three identical sets of America Online Sounds, 1 meg each. AFC JoyceM Joey, when we send you the $10, do we get some sound files too? JSchober WHEN YOU SEND IN YOUR SHAREWARE FEE, you get the most recent version of SM sans Shareware notice, a few sounds, and anything else that I feel like putting on the disk. KevinC23 But are they with the files or separate file name? AFL TimB {S PROTOCOL! This is a protocol chat! Give us a ? for a question and a ! for a comment. AL Orphan No sounds at this end... must have it installed wrong! A GibberFC I have one comment on Marty's perfect Docs. Could future version include the comment that the sounds folder must reside in the same folder as America.Online on a Hard disk :) I started out with sounds on my root directory and then realized that it had to be in my AO Directory. AFL Marty I wrote that down. Thanks Gibber. Damselfish Yes, I would have liked a MENTION of Hard Drives. AFL TimB OK we have our first winner. Kevinc23. Congratulations Kevin. Email me your address and you'll have 1 meg of AO sounds on their way to you. BCS Frank Sounds like I'd save dn/ld time by just sending you the shareware fee. Yes? JSchober Yes, that's true. I hope you send the ShareWare fee anyway, though. AFL TimB But the d/l is VERY quick!!! JSchober Right, <1 minute estimated>. WinkieJim Oh...how many sounds are on the disk you send out to honest people? JSchober Jim: I dunno. I haven't made up that disk yet. AFL TimB I have said this once before, this is a product worth the shareware fee!!! KevinC23 So let me get this straight, I should d/l sounds then load/install to AO disk? JSchober Kevin: You can download directly to your AO/Sounds folder if you want. Or you can download to another disk and copy the files over later. Whatever. AFL Marty I just wanted to echo your comments regarding the shareware fee. Soundmaster is worth the $10 fee even if new features are never added, in my opinion. AFL TimB Think of the fun you've had so far. Wasn't THAT worth $10? Psycosis Okay. I've been having some trouble with getting the complete sounds to play every time they're invoked: often I only get the first few syllables. I'm running off of a floppy disk: is this the definite cause? JSchober Psy: We solved that tonight. Turn ON IRQ enable on your TWGS. AFL TimB Psy, you have a TWGS? Psycosis Yep. What's an IRQ enabler? JSchober Don't worry about it. Just turn it on on the TWGS CDA. A GibberFC The AppleTalk IRQ JSchober Like Tim said, not your fault. Just make sure the IRQ request is enabled. It lets interrupts from the serial port (I guess) come through correctly. AFC JoyceM Joey, what prompted you to write this program? AFL TimB Humility? JSchober Well, the first paragraph of the docs pretty much sum it up. I saw all those Mac users playing with sounds online, and I couldn't figure out a good reason why we (GS'ers) couldn't do the same thing. There IS no good reason, as it turns out... so I did it. AFC JoyceM Thank you...I like! AFL TimB Psycosis won prize 2 folks! Psy, email me your address ok? AL Orphan Can someone send one of the basic sounds so I can check this out! WinkieJim {S Welcome} JSchober Orphan: You can find all SORTS of online sounds for Soundmaster in the NEW America Online Sounds category of the AMS Software Libraries. AFL Marty I want to also mention that one of the 4 people who left the room within the last 5 minutes would have won some sounds if they had stayed longer. sigh! AFC JoyceM I think this will be a great asset for AOnliners, and will improve online use. AFA Parik Have you talked to Quantum about buying this bodacious mod so they'z can do one of their cool "on the fly disk updates" so everyone can without CDAs? JSchober Oh, =without= CDA's. That's a different story. WinkieJim They could have added it a lot easier than Joe did it. AFC JoyceM AFL TimB I like the user-based enthusiasm of the A2 market! I think I'd rather have this from Joey than from AO. AFA Gene Okay, is anybody in this room right now using SoundMaster successfully from a non-HD 3.5" disk-only setup, and if so, what version of Apple System Software are you using? I for one can't get this sucker to run off of 3.5" after zillions of attempts. AFL TimB Sumwill just won a prize, please email me your address. Psycosis Yes.. I'm using it off of a 3.5 JSchober I =have= successfully run it off 3.5" disk under 5.0.2, though I'm not doing so now. AFA Gene What system vers Psyhosis AFL Marty I have run Soundmaster from a 3.5 disk with System 3.2. AFA Gene Oh... forgot to mention... I didn't mean only from a 3.5 disk, BUT I meant off a 3.5" replacing the America Online program disk with a bogus disk filled with sounds in a path /America Online/Sounds. AFL Marty Scott has run it that way also. JSchober I've run with a "bogus" America Online 3.5" disk under both Sys 3.2 and 5.0.2. AFL Marty That feature (switching disks) was not implemented when I ran the 3.5. AFA Gene Switching disks didn't make a difference. Oh well. If anyone encounters this problem, PLEASE post in the Music Forum's let's discuss / Sound Digitizing. AFL Marty (The software has also passed AO Quality Assurance, by the way). ELECTMUSIC Does this open the doors to other improvements to AO software by independent developers? JSchober I'd strongly suggest Bill answer that question. AFL TimB Bill, any comments on other improvements to AO? BillP Improvements?? We will continue to give away even MORE free hours in the future. AFL TimB Exter just won. Exter email me your address and we'll send you 1 meg of AO sounds. Exter Okay, is there something wrong with the "standard" AO sounds. JSchober Not that I'm aware of, Exter. AFL TimB In what way? Exter I can't get one to work. It's the boing one. Wrong format. JSchober Boing is a $D8 file, but it still works. AFL TimB Boing is VERY quiet too! Exter Okay. Works. JSchober People with the Mac BOING get quiet. People who downloaded BOING in the "Std Online Sounds" archive in America Online Sounds, get a GOOD BOING! AFC JoyceM Will there be some AMS exclusive sounds available soon? AFL TimB Joyce, that will be the subject of an upcoming contest. AFL TimB HsBoyElroy has won a set of AO Sounds, please email me your address. Exter How about suggestions for the next version. JSchober I'm open to suggestions. The next version isn't "imminent", tho. Exter How about a way to store which sounds are available instead of checking the disk all the time. Saves on wear and tear. JSchober Also requires LOADS of memory. AFA Gene A Suggestion folder can be created in AMS/Lets discuss/Sound Digitizing. AFL TimB Gene, which forums is that? AFA Gene AMS and AUT, Tim AFL TimB AMS AO Sounds as well? WinkieJim Exter...print out a listing of your sounds Damselfish What is the easiest way to convert Mac sounds so we can use 'em? Aren't they binary too? JSchober Mac digitized sounds (those that AREN'T AO sounds) can be used directly -- just download and go. Mac =ONLINE= sounds can be used by extracting them from their resource forks with "Resource Spy" on the IIgs -- you can find Spy in the AUT forum here on America Online. It works well -- that's how I got quite a few sounds in the IIgs Online Sounds Lib. Psycosis I just got sent to the (shudder) text feedback center again - for the second time since I've had Soundmaster installed, are there a few things on AO you can't/shouldn't do with Soundmaster on? WinkieJim PSy, that's happened to me to, but only when I had a bad sound file. AFL TimB Psy, yes you should NOT download a file while your in a chat room if your sound is turned on. Psycosis Just now I was trying to enter ATB from the AMS via keyword APPLE JSchober Psy: I dunno. I haven't had that problem. Lemme know if it repeats, and if so, what the error screen says. Denyce How does one get this program? How do I get the program for the sounds? JSchober Denyce: Look here in the AMS Software Libraries, "NEW FILES" area. It's called Soundmaster. KevinC23 Is 1.25 meg enough memory to run the sounds? JSchober Kevin: Yes, quite enough. Exter Where exactly was the Resource Spy? Definite location, please. AFL Dennis AUT Utils Forum JSchober Exter: AUT/Software Libraries/IIgs Utilities/Misc, I believe. AFC JoyceM Can actual music files be used, sounds, not voice? JSchober Joyce: Not at this time; only digitized sounds for now. In the future, especially with the MIDI Synth tool on the way, music sequences might be possible. We'll see. AFL TimB Bill, what would you think about MIDI Synth music online? BillP Well... it wouldn't be the first time its been done online, anything is possible KevinC23 Can you receive sounds without having the program? AFL TimB Kevin, no. AFL TimB Anyone who's heard the new MIDI SYnth tools would know that this would be a great match for AO. AFL Wiggy Tim, the Synth tools would be awesome here. AFL Marty I've noticed a general trend, people seem to want to blame Soundmaster when they are disconnected or otherwise crash. Scott and I tested Soundmaster out extensively, we tried to crash the software deliberately. We were unable to do it except under very remarkable and extreme circumstances. JSchober Right Marty -- thanks. BillP Welcome to the world of software development! Everyone testing SM also have a meg or more memory. HsBoyElroy Can you use sounds in E-Mail? And why doesn't the chime go off when I get IM? AFL TimB HsBoy, you need to name a file IM to hear a sound from IMs. JSchober Elroy: No. Sounds only work in chat rooms. Any sound in your SOUNDS folder NAMED "IM" will play when you get an IM, =IF= option 3 is turned on. AFL Marty I do know that MANY of the questions the I have been asked could easily have been answered by READING THE DOCS. AFL TimB Damselfish just won the last disk in our contest. Please email me your address. JSchober For all those counting, Soundmaster has now been downloaded 208 times, and counting. BillP I think also tonight, we're seeing people send more sounds than what we normally will see. AFL TimB Thank you Joe for coming to our chat this evening and discussing your new and exciting program, AO Soundmaster. Reminder that this program and various sound files are available in the AMS library under NEW FILES. Night everyone. America Online - 1990