This is a set of C++ source code to allow PC programmers to make use of the
Sound Blaster card, in particular the digitised sample recording and playback
modes. It uses classes so that your code can be independent of the particular
sound driver being used; the only driver included is for the SB card but it
is easy to add others. The driver supports version 2.0 of the Sound Blaster,
meaning that you can achieve a 44kHz playback rate and can record at 15kHz.
A feature of the software is that it supports double-buffered DMA routines
implemented within a single memory area - basically this means you can have
continuous playback (or recording) while doing something else, (accessing
the disk, updating the screen, etc).

The device-independent class is called SoundDevice. As well as providing
virtual functions for access to derived classes, it contains two useful
functions of its own. The first is file_dma, which lets you play sound files
of unlimited length straight from the hard disk. This makes full use of the
double buffering, and also keeps statistics on the length of time needed to
access the disk so that you can keep an eye on its progress and see how much
time is spare. The other function is monitor_input, which displays a bar
graph along the top of the screen representing the input levels coming from
the Sound Blaster. If it reaches 80 characters then you know that you've
hit the maximum input level (255).

The SB-specific class is called SbDevice. It is derived from SoundDevice, so
you don't need to call it directly. If you are simply looking for information
about the details of programming the SB card, you will find everything in
there. If you intend to use the class you might want to modify some of the
functions, particularly process_keys which defines what action is taken if
a key is pressed during the DMA wait.

Two demonstration programs are provided. The first is play_rec.exe which
will play/record sample files through the Sound Blaster using the file_dma
function. You can select any sample rate using the "-s" option. Note that
this isn't a proper .voc or .wav file player. It doesn't read any specific
file format headers - it just plays the whole file, so you might hear some
strange noise at the beginning if you're not playing a raw sound file.

The second program is monitor.exe, which (you guessed it) just uses the
SoundDevice monitor_input function to give you a real-time display of your
sound input.  Note that you can also set the sampling rate in this program,
which will change the rate of update of the display.


Acknowledgements

Much of the specific SB programming details (and some of the code) came from
the Sound Blaster Freedom Project, available as /pub/msdos/sound/sbf?.zip
(where ? is the version number). In particular the dma_code.asm file originated
from there (although I have since modified it) and a few parts of SbDevice.cpp
contain SBF code. You might like to take a look at the SBF package as a source
of further information about the Sound Blaster.


Distribution policy

You may freely examine/use/modify/distribute this software, as long as you
leave all attributions intact (ie you can't replace my name with yours and
redistribute it). If you release any software which is based on (or uses
ideas from) my code, please include an acknowledgement either in the
documentation, or the program itself.


File contents

readme           You're reading it
sounddev.cpp     SoundDevice class
sbdevice.cpp     SbDevice class
sndclass.h       Definitions for all the sound class functions
dma_code.asm     Assembly code for the DMA controller
play_rec.cpp     Source file for play_rec.exe
play_rec.exe     The first demo program
monitor.cpp      Source for monitor.exe
monitor.exe      The second demo program
makefile         How to rebuild the software

The programs are designed for use with Borland C++. If you're using another
compiler you might have to make a few changes. Note that dma_code.asm uses
the "Ideal" mode of TASM, which won't go down too well with MASM.

The tab size is meant to be set to something small (eg 2 or 4). Also, make
sure you select a far data pointer model such as compact or large.


Author

Christopher M. Box
Computer Science Department
University of Warwick, England.

From October 1993 until July 1996, you should be able to contact me
indirectly by sending mail to 'J.M.Box@warwick.ac.uk', who will know my
current address.