SOUND BLASTER PRO LATEST INFORMATION
====================================
This file contains information that is not available during the
printing of the manual. Please read all the sections before you
proceed with any installation procedure .
This file contains the following sections:
1. Software installation
2. CD-ROM Device Drivers Installation
3. Software Package Listing
4. Features for Future Enhancement
5 MIDI Files
6. SBSIM Support for MIDI
7. New Commands for MMPLAY
8. Upgrading of Sound Blaster Pro Mixer for DOS
9. Trouble Shooting for Installing Windows 3.1 Drivers
1. SOFTWARE INSTALLATION
The installation program, INST-HD.EXE, will modify your
AUTOEXEC.BAT and rename your original file with a B~K extension.
The program also allows you to add a command that runs the
WINSETUP.EXE program to your Windows 3.1 WIN.INI file. This
program (WINSETUP.EXE) automatically sets up the Sound Blaster
Audio Drivers and Windows 3.1 applications when you run Windows.
The procedure for the installation is as follows.
a. Test your Sound Blaster Pro card with the program TEST-SBP.EXE.
This program can be found on DIsk #1.
b. Run the program INST-HD.EXE from DOS prompt. This program can
be found on Disk #1.
c. Select "Begin Installation" and follow the instructions on the
screen.
d. Quit the installation program when it completes successfully.
e. REBOOT YOUR SYSTEM.
f. If you choose to have the installation program modify your
WIN.INI file, Sound Blaster Audio Drivers and Windows 3.1
applications will be set up. Otherwise, follow the procedures
below.
i. From the FILE menu in Program Manager, choose RUN.
ii. Type "C:\SB16\WINSETUP" and press ENTER, assuming you
have installed Sound Blaster software onto drive C.
iii. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the
installation.
iv. Restart Windows.
NOTE
====
WINSETUP will NOT set up the drivers and applications properly if
your BLASTER environment string is incorrectly set. Please make
sure that the BLASTER environment string is set up properly before
executing WINSETUP.EXE. You may enter "SET" at DOS prompt to
check the environment settings. Refer to your Sound Blaster
manual for more details on the BLASTER environment string.
In normal cases, WINSETUP.EXE only needs to be run once. If you
happen to change the hardware settings of your Sound card, you
should use the DRIVER applet in CONTROL PANEL to change the
settings of your Windows drivers. Refer to your Windows manual
for more details on the DRIVER applet.
2. CD-ROM DEVICE DRIVERS INSTALLATION
To run any CD-ROM programs, you need to have the following drivers
installed:
- SLCD.SYS
- MSCDEX.EXE
The driver MSCDEX.EXE is not included in this Sound Blaster
software package. It should come with your CD-ROM drive in a
separate diskette.
A program SETCDDRV.EXE is included to set up the commands in
your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files so that every time you boot
up your computer, the drivers will be loaded. This program will
check for the presence of the above drivers (SLCD.SYS and
MSCDEX.EXE) in the \SBPRO\DRV sub-directory. Therefore, you
should copy the driver MSCDEX.EXE into this directory before
running this program. After you have set up the CD-ROM drivers,
this program will not be needed unless you change the hardware
settings of your sound card.
NOTE
====
If you have 3 or more logical or physical drives installed in
your system, you must specify the LASTDRIVE command in your
CONFIG.SYS by adding the following line.
LASTDRIVE=?
Where:
? specifies the last drive letter available for use
ranging from A to Z.
An example will be:
LASTDRIVE=P
Please refer to your DOS manual for more details.
MORE ON SLCD.SYS
================
SLCD.SYS is a hardware dependent device driver for SONY CD-ROM
drive that you need to include in the CONFIG.SYS file. To install
the driver manually, add the following line to your CONFIG.SYS
file.
DEVICE=[drive:][path]SLCD.SYS /B:xxx /D:name /M:x [/V] [/C] [/T:x]
Where
/B:xxx xxx specifies the Base I/O address of your CD-ROM
interface. If the base address of your Sound Blaster
Pro card is set at 220, then xxx will be 230. If the
base address of your Sound Blaster Pro card is set at
240, then xxx will be 250.
/D:name name specifies the device driver name which must be
the same as the one used in MSCDEX.EXE. Example
MSCD001.
/M:x x specifies the data transfer mode. P for polled I/O
mode and D for DMA mode. Using the D option will
require the /T:x parameter.
/T:x x specifies the DMA channel used for the CD-ROM data
transfer when /M:D parameter is used. x must tally
with the jumper setting at JP8 to JP13.
/V Turns on the verbose mode of the driver to display
information at installation time.
/C To display the drive configuration at boot-up time.
/K Enables a sector caching mechanism to improve the
drive performance. Default is disabled.
An example will be:
DEVICE=C:\SBPRO\DRV\SLCD.SYS /B:230 /D:MSCD001 /V /C /M:P
MORE ON MSCDEX.EXE
==================
MSCDEX.EXE is the program used for Microsoft CD extension. It can
be placed in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file so that it will be installed
every time you boot-up. To install the driver manually, add the
following line to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. You can also run this
command from the command line.
[drive:][path]MSCDEX /D:name [/M:x][/E][/V][/L:drive_letter]
Where
/D:name name specifies a device name which must be the same
as the one used in SLCD.SYS. Example: MSCD001.
/M:x x specifies the number of 2K block cache buffer to be
used for CD-ROM operation.
Typically, each drive should have a minimum of 4 to 5
buffers. The larger this number, the less your PC
will have to read directly from the CD-ROM drive.
/E tells MSCDEX.EXE to use expanded memory if your
system has expanded memory.
/V specify this switch if you wish to display
information about memory usage.
/L:letter specifies the drive letter you wish to assign to the
first CD-ROM drive. The default is the next drive
letter available.
An example will be:
MSCDEX /V /E /D:MSCD001 /M:15 /L:f
3. SOFTWARE PACKAGE LISTING
The following are files contained in the distribution diskette(s):
INST-HD.EXE - Hard disk installation program
README.COM - Program to display the README.TXT file
README.TXT - This file
TEST-SBP.EXE - Sound Blaster Pro card test program
INSTALL.00? - Installation data files
DISK.ID - Disk identification file
The following are files that will be installed to your hard disk.
In the \SBPRO sub-directory:
README.COM - Program to display the README.TXT file
README.TXT - This file
TEST-SBP.EXE - Sound Blaster Pro card test program
INST-DRV.EXE - Program to reinstall drivers settings
SBP-MIX.EXE - Sound Blaster Pro mixer controller
SBP-SET.EXE - Sound Blaster Pro
SET-ENV.EXE - To set the BLASTER environment variable in
AUTOEXEC.BAT
SBFMDRV.COM - Resident driver for FM music
SBMIDI.EXE - Resident driver for playing MIDI files
SETCDDRV.EXE - Program to set up your CD-ROM driver in your
CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files
WINSETUP.EXE - Sound Blaster Windows 3.1 drivers and
applications set up program.
WINSETUP.INF - WINSETUP program information file.
*.BAT - Batch files
In the \SBPRO\DRV sub-directory:
BLASTER.DRV - Driver for Sound Blaster Text to Speech
applications
CT-VOICE.DRV - Loadable driver for voice memory version
CTVDSK.DRV - Loadable driver for voice disk version
AUXDRV.DRV - Auxiliary driver for controlling volume
ORGAN.DRV - Driver for PRO-ORG
SLCD.SYS - SONY CDU31A CD interface driver
In the \SBPRO\MMPLAY sub-directory:
MMPLAY.EXE - MMPLAY program
MMPLAY.ACT - Script file for MMPLAY
MMDEMO.BAT - MMPLAY demo batch file
*.VOC - Sample voice files
*.CMF - Sample CMF files
*.FLI - Sample image files
In the \SBPRO\PARROT sub-directory:
PARROT.E? - Talking Parrot picture files
PARROTV.VCB - Talking Parrot voice file
VOICE.DRV - Talking Parrot voice driver
MAKEPV.EXE - Program to create Parrot voice
PARROT.EXE - Talking Parrot program
In the \SBPRO\PLAYCD sub-directory:
CDPLYR.EXE - CD player program
In the \SBPRO\PLAYCMF sub-directory:
PLAYCMF.EXE - CMF music file player
*.CMF - CMF music files
In the \SBPRO\PLAYMIDI sub-directory:
PLAYMIDI.EXE - MIDI files player
*.MID - Sample MIDI files
In the \SBPRO\PRO-ORG sub-directory:
PRO-ORG.EXE - Sound Blaster Pro Intelligent Organ program
*.ORG - Sample organ files
In the \SBPRO\SBSIM sub-directory:
MUSIC.EXE - Music file player
VOICE.EXE - Voice file player
SBSIM.CFG - Configuration file for drivers
SBSIM.COM - SBSIM driver
SOUNDFX.EXE - Effect controller
In the \SBPRO\SBTALKER sub-directory:
SBAITSO2.EXE - Dr. SBAITSO program
SBTALKER.EXE - Memory resident program to load the BLASTER.DRV
SBTALK.BAT - Batch file to install SBTALKER into memory
REMOVE.EXE - Program to remove SBTALKER from memory
READ.EXE - ASCII Text reader program
SBTEST.TXT - ASCII text file
SET-ECHO.EXE - Program to set SBTALKER echo effect
In the \SBPRO\VEDIT2 sub-directory:
VEDIT2.EXE - Voice Editor program
JOINTVOC.EXE - Program to join voice files
VOC-HDR.EXE - Program to add a header to raw voice files
VREC.EXE - Program to record voice into a file
VPLAY.EXE - Program to play a voice file
VOC2WAV.EXE - Voice to Wave converter
VOC2WAV.TXT - Documentation on VOC2WAV and WAV2VOC utilities
WAV2VOC.EXE - Wave to Voice converter
*.VOC - Sample voice files
In the \SBPRO\WIN31 sub-directory:
MIDIMAP.CFG - Windows MIDI Map configuration
MMJBOX.EXE - MultiMedia Jukebox (.MID player)
SBPMIXER.EXE - Sound Blaster Pro mixer program
OEMSETUP.INF - Windows set up file
SBPSND.DRV - Wave & MIDI Driver
SBP2FM.DRV - MIDI FM Driver
SBPAUX.DRV - Auxiliary driver
VSBPD.386 - Windows Virtual Device Driver
4. HARDWARE FEATURES FOR FUTURE ENHANCEMENT
The setting of IRQ3 & IRQ11 on your sound card are for future
enhancement purposes. Please do not use these two settings now as
most of the software may not support them yet.
The hardware selectable interrupt settings for the CD-ROM are also
meant for future enhancement purposes. Please ignore these
settings for the moment as the current CD software driver does not
make use of these interrupts yet.
5. MIDI FILES
When playing MIDI files with MMJBOX, a warning message in a dialog
box may appear. The message is only an indication of whether the
MIDI file conforms to Microsoft MIDI standard.
Even if the file conforms to the standard, the message may still
appear if the code defined by Microsoft is not indicated in the
MIDI file. Please ignore the message if the MIDI files created
conforms to the standard.
For more information on how to indicate the code in your MIDI
files, refer to the "Microsoft Windows Software Developer Kit".
For a start, you can try out the MMJBOX application with the MIDI
file CANYON.MID which can be found in your Windows directory. The
MIDI files provided in the sub-directory \PLAYMIDI are created to
support the MIDI MAPPER and they comply fully to the Multimedia PC
rules. When you use MMJBOX in WINDOWS 3.1 to play these files,
make sure that your MIDI MAPPER is set to either the SBP2 EXT FM
or SBP2 BASIC FM. Using it with SBP2 ALL FM will cause the song
to sound "cluttered".
Refer to the manual for more information on MIDI file format and
MIDI Mapper.
6. SBSIM SUPPORT FOR MIDI
SBSIM (SB Simplified Interface Module) has now been updated to
include support for the MIDI driver SBMIDI. To make use of the
MIDI support, include a new section titled [MIDI] in your
configuration file. The available keywords, and their default
values, are as follows:
[Midi]
BufferSize=32 ; Specifies the size of the buffer
; to allocate for MIDI files, in
; Kbytes
MidiMap=0 ; Specifies the type of MIDI file
; to be played:
; 0 = General MIDI files
; 1 = Basic MIDI files
; 2 = Extended MIDI files
; Note that types 1 and 2 are as
; defined in Multimedia Windows.
Note that you need to load SBMIDI (the Sound Blaster MIDI
driver) before you invoke SBSIM.
The Music player program, MUSIC.EXE, has also been updated to play
MIDI files. The command set is the same, except that the commands
/REPEAT, /TEMPO, /TRANSPOSE and /WAIT are not available when
playing MIDI files. Also, a new command is implemented to allow
switching of MIDI modes.
The resulting command set of MUSIC.EXE is as follows:
Usage: MUSIC [ /Q ] option..
where option is one of:
/PLAY:filename +
/STOP +
/PAUSE +
/CONTINUE +
/WAIT:n #
/TEMPO:percentage #
/TRANSPOSE:semitone #
/REPEAT:count #
/MIDIFMT:midiformat *
midiformat: GEN, BAS, EXT
(+ = for CMF and MIDI files, # = for CMF files only,
* = for MIDI files only)
IMPORTANT :USE EITHER SBMIDI OR SBFMDRV DRIVER ONLY (NOT BOTH).
7. NEW COMMANDS FOR MMPLAY
MMPLAY (Multimedia Presentation Player) has now been extended to
include the following commands:
.REM
- Adding remarks to the program. Lines preceding with this
command will not be executed.
.PLAYMIDI <MIDI filename> [Extended] | [Basic] |
[General <DrmChnl>]
- Playing MIDI files with the MIDI file type specified. Default
is type Extended. If type specified is General, DrmChnl
indicates the drum channel used ranging from 1 to 16. Default
is 10 if DrmChnl is not specified.
8. UPGRADING OF SOUND BLASTER PRO MIXER FOR DOS
We have upgraded the mixer (SBP-MIX.EXE) described in the chapter
"Voice Utilities" of the Sound Blaster Pro User Reference Manual.
There are two changes in this version compared to the earlier
version:
a. The < Stereo on/off > option is now removed. This function is
controlled directly by the software drivers.
b. A new feature has been added:
<Hidden mode on/off> : Default is ON.
With the Hidden mode set to ON, the user can control all the
volumes from the keyboard in the background - without popping
up to mixer screen.
To control the volume, use the key combinations of
CTRL+ALT+u - for volume increase
and CTRL+ALT+d - for volume decrease
To toggle on/off the sound output use the key combinations of
CTRL+ALT+q
To select the channel in-order to control its volume, use the
key combinations of
CTRL+ALT+m - for Master
CTRL+ALT+l - for Line
CTRL+ALT+f - for FM
CTRL+ALT+c - for CD
CTRL+ALT+v - for VOC
CTRL+ALT+i - for Mic
The pop up mode is still working in the same way as before.
9. TROUBLE SHOOTING FOR INSTALLING WINDOWS 3.1 DRIVERS
A program "WINSETUP.EXE" was included to install the Windows 3.1
drivers for Sound Blaster. This program can be found in your
Sound Blaster directory. However, if you prefer to install these
drivers manually in Windows, please refer to the User Reference
Manual. If somehow you are having problems installing the
drivers, here are some points to check before you call Technical
Support.
a. If you installed Windows 3.1 using the "Express Installation,"
Windows scanned your hard disk for programs to be installed.
As a result, older versions of the Jukebox were installed if
they were on your hard disk at the time of installation.
Please remove these icons. To do this, click on the icon once
to select it, then press the delete key. Windows will ask you
for confirmation. Repeat for each icon.
b. Open the Driver applet in Control panel. You should at least
have the following driver names in the Installed Drivers list:
Creative Sound Blaster *** Auxiliary Audio
Creative Sound Blaster *** MIDI Synthesizer
Creative Sound Blaster *** Wave and MIDI
MIDI Mapper
Timer
[MCI] CD Audio ;this is only for owners of CD-ROM drives
[MCI] MIDI Sequencer
[MCI] Sound
where *** correspond to the type of card you are having.
If one or more of these drivers do not exist, you must install
the driver(s) using the Driver applet in Control Panel (See
the Windows manual for more details).
c. Check your SYSTEM.INI by choosing RUN from the File menu of the
Program Manager, and typing SYSEDIT in the command line box.
Examine the [drivers] and [sndblst.drv] sections. They should
look something like this:
[drivers]
Timer=timer.drv
Midimapper=midimap.drv
Aux=sbpaux.drv
MIDI=sbp2fm.drv
Wave=sbpsnd.drv
MIDI1=sbpsnd.drv
[sndblst.drv]
port=220
int=7
dmachannel=1
d. If Windows refuses to install a device driver or you get the
error message "Device not found" when playing a Wave or MIDI
file or a CD, be sure you have the following settings in the
[mci] section of SYSTEM.INI
[mci]
WaveAudio=mciwave.drv
Sequencer=mciseq.drv
CDAudio=mcicda.drv ;this is only for owners of CD-ROM drives
If one or more of these do not exist, you must install the
driver(s) using the Driver applet in Control Panel (See the
Windows manual for instructions). Do not type in the entries
into the SYSTEM.INI because the files have to be installed into
your SYSTEM directory by Windows.
********* End of README *********
Download Driver Pack
After your driver has been downloaded, follow these simple steps to install it.
Expand the archive file (if the download file is in zip or rar format).
If the expanded file has an .exe extension, double click it and follow the installation instructions.
Otherwise, open Device Manager by right-clicking the Start menu and selecting Device Manager.
Find the device and model you want to update in the device list.
Double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
From the Properties dialog box, select the Driver tab.
Click the Update Driver button, then follow the instructions.
Very important: You must reboot your system to ensure that any driver updates have taken effect.
For more help, visit our Driver Support section for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.