==================================== B L A S T E R Master v5.2 for the Creative Labs Sound Blaster and true compatibles by Gary Maddox Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992 ==================================== Version 5.2 - 09/05/92 ----------------------- Because of the ever increasing memory requirements of BLASTER Master, I have gone to an uncompressed, overlayed EXE file. This should reduce the main memory requirements. It does cause the BMASTER.EXE to be 40% larger. Support for XT's was also dropped, an 80286 at least is required. Moved the MORE button to the lower right corner position. Added exiting the SCOPE by clicking any mouse button. Fixed the problem with deleting the last VOC file in a directory. The SB Pro Mixer functions are now active during playback from the File Select dialog box. Added a function to remove VOCALS from stereo files. Fixed problem with Import/Export of stereo WAVE files. Added FM based chimes and warning sounds. Added F10 key color change for the wave graph background color. Added control-F2 key color change for the actual wave graph. Added a /PXXXXX.PAL command line switch to use a color palette file. (Where XXXXX.PAL = the PAL file name.) Added CD player controls for users with the MultiMedia kit. These controls WILL NOT work with other CDROMs. Added an environment parm to set some defaults for sampling with the SBP: Input Source Input Mode Filter Rate CDROM SET BMDEFS= {CD/MIC/LINE} {STEREO/MONO} {LO/HI} {NN} {ROMx:} Added the ability on the Import dialog box to double-click on a file to select it for importation. Added support with the INSERT function to specify the insert point from the marker, a time value or a sample point value. Fixed problem with cutting very small files. Added a playback time display to the Edit screen during play. Version 5.1 - Unreleased ------------------------- My hard disk crashed and I lost one months work on this version. All I have left is a BETA version. Oh well... Version 5.0 - 04/17/92 ----------------------- The biggest enhancement to v5.0 is full support for the Sound Blaster Pro. Added vanishing drop down menus with SAVE and SAVE AS functions. Added a COPY BLOCK function on the BLOCK menu. Added an infinite echo option to ECHO. Finally added the option to select a point in the file to begin Mixing. Fixed bug in 2 bit packing of very small files. Fixed problem upsampling. Added online help. Added options for loop playing, block or all playing and saving screen colors. Added EMS memory support for screen memory saves. Changed to BMASTER.Dxx external sound drivers. Version 4.8 - 02/01/92 ----------------------- Fixed problem with LOOP adding a pop when selecting the far right side of a sound file. Improved the File Select Dialog box to support drives and paths, double-click file selection and to display more files. Added VOLUME function to Tools. Fixed a pop that sometimes occured when reversing a very small file. Added support to Import Wired for Sound .SND files. Improved ECHO algorythm to be faster and more stable. Improved formatting and content of BMASTER.DOC file. Added support for the Sound Blaster 2.0. Improved the sensitivity of the oscilloscope. Changed the CANCEL button to QUIT. Improved the RATE function to be faster. Version 4.75 - 12/10/91 ----------------------- Added Import function to support Amiga IFF sample files. Added the F-10 "Surprise Key". The BMPORT environment variable will work better on some machines. Added a /G command line switch to force graphics mode. This effectively bypasses the graphics card scanning. Fixed a problem with importing files not saving the file. Version 4.7 - 12/01/91 ---------------------- Added a 64 level UnZoom stack to redisplay the last Zoom. Added an Echo tool to the BLOCK EDIT section. Added a check for files that BM currently can't do, i.e., stereo, etc... Since the newer versions of Voxkit always records a Multi-Blocked file, I added a conversion function that will convert to RAW files. It also support silence encoding. If a Multi-Blocked file is selected, a dialog box pops up and you have the option to convert to a RAW file. The original file is left intact. Replaced the RECORD LEVEL from the Recording dialog box and replaced it with the SCOPE function. Added a Block Move function to move a block from one point in a file to another. Added Import/Export functions to load/save .WAV, .NTI & .SND files. Added a guage to show how much remains to be processed. Finally added a function to set a marker. Pressing the right mouse button sets a white arrow on the blue bar just below the wave graph. Added support for the ATI Stereo F/X card. (Use "/SFX" on the command line) Added support for editing soundfiles without having a soundcard. Added an ENVIRONMENT parameter to set the Base Address. Some PC's lock up when BM tries to scan for the Port. Version 4.6 - 10/15/91 ---------------------- Skipped versions 4.3-4.5 because somebody circulated a hacked v4.5. Fixed bug that wouldn't allow NEW to be selected after packing a file. Added Volume controls and a monitor control for SB Pro users. Added a TOOLS button to the BLOCK EDIT section. Now you can cause a Block to loop, i.e., repeat itself upto 10 times, adjust the pitch of a block and reverse a block. Fixed the problem with ZOOM after a 1:1 ZOOM/UNZOOM. Removed the click from Inserting that sometimes occured. Dropped the VOC compiler from lack of interest and dropped the Hi-Res Sampler because it should be very well distributed by now. Version 4.2 - 09/15/91 ---------------------- Added Sound Blaster Pro and Thunder Board support. "Pro" support will increase as I can get more information. No one seems to know very much about the Pro yet. Added a Fade in/Fade out function. Added a REVERSE function in the block edit section. Extended the time grid to zoomed blocks and added a playing time and data size display for blocks. Version 4.1 - 08/02/91 ---------------------- Fixed the VOLUME function problem. Added PACK/UNPACK and PITCH. Improved the user interface to better support the keyboard and to no longer require a file name after each function. Added a warning message when disk space is low. Dropped the EQ program until I can incorporate it into the main program. Added VCOMP which will convert a .VOC file into a self-playing .EXE file. Fixed a problem with the ECHO aborting on certain files. Made too many little improvements to mention. Version 4.0 - 07/04/91 ---------------------- This version represents the most significant enhancements to BLASTER Master yet. The individual modules were imbedded into the editor for a much better user interface and an over-all reduction of about 400K in file size. New functions like INSERT and MUTE were added. All of the limited functions were extended to a 30 second maximum and the Hi-Res Sampler was completely un-crippled. A great deal of debugging and re-programming went into v4.0. Most of the problems with process- ing small VOC files should be fixed. I would also like to thank all of the folks at Paul Mace Software and Media Vision for their support! Version 3.1 - 05/20/91 ---------------------- Dropped the old CGA Scope program and added a "new" real mode scope program. Added the DELETE option on the BMASTER program. Added an error message screen to most of the functions. Added a choice of which file to edit after a CUT or a SAVE to the editor. Added a recording module with a volume level graph. Version 3.0 - 03/30/91 ---------------------- Fixed problem with recorder. Version 2.8 had a corrupted EXE file. When I started "fixing" what I thought was a bug, I broke it for real!!! Fixed problem with down sampler not processing the last segment of each file. Added an /EGA switch to BMASTER and SBEDIT to support older 64K EGA cards. Incorporated SBCOPE into SBEDIT to make the over-all package smaller. Added the much asked for "ZOOM" feature in the editor. Dropped the "Mark" or "Cut" button from the editor. Dropped the SBGRAPH program from the package. The "ZOOM" feature of the editor should handle this now. Updated the Hi-Res Sampler to work better in 33mhz mode. Version 2.9 - 02/15/91 ---------------------- Quick bug fix version. I recently rewrote the record function to work with my '486 and to make it a bit more reliable. Someone was having lock ups on their machine. The version 2.8 recorder would probably ONLY work on a '486! Version 2.8 - 02/15/91 ---------------------- Improved the digital delay program. Dropped the SBFILTER program and added an FFT based graphic equalizer. Made several enhancements to the editor, including a file selection dialog box and a playback position index. Fixed some in-compatiblity problems with certain graphics cards in the scope programs. Added a Range Bar to the Sound Graph. Added Radio buttons to the shell to Exit & Shell to DOS. Fixed minor bugs reported to me by my users. Version 2.7 - 12/15/90 ---------------------- More bugs! Fixed several problems including problems with the Mixer program. Added a speed up program to go along with the slow down program. Added an Auto-Desk Animator/VOC file player for multi-media presentations. Added a command line switch to BMASTER.EXE to select the Sound Blaster port instead of scanning for it. Added a command line switch to SBEDIT.EXE to allow the passing of a file name, and made the temporary edit file function much faster. Added automatic detection of math co-processor chip and support. Tried to improve the documentation and also increased some of the time-outs to 25 seconds. Version 2.6 - 11/17/90 ---------------------- Bug fix release. I found a very esoteric bug in an updated compiler I switched to that caused an error message when aborting a file. This error didn't cause any damage, but it was totally unacceptable. Version 2.5 - 11/15/90 ---------------------- Added a graphic sample editor (EGA/VGA/Mouse Req.), Hi/Lo-Pass Filter module and a CGA version of the oscilloscope. Added an improved math function library to all modules that speeded up calculations. Reduced the size of all modules by 7-10K each. Version 2.0 - 10/15/90 ---------------------- Added Down Sampling, BLASTER Scope and integrated playback and recording. Included the sample Reverser on the BMASTER.EXE shell. Also included a stand-alone "hi-res" sample module for fast PC's. Fixed bug that would not allow File Select to read root directories from floppy drives. Fixed a bug in Slow it Down! that caused certain files to "get stuck". Added support for small files with Digital Delay. Generally improved the speed of most functions. Version 1.0 - 09/01/90 (officially released 09/15/90) ----------------------------------------------------- First version, first release. Very well received and supported.