Manuals

Usage: Sound Blaster� AWE64 Value Sound Card User's Guide

Connecting a Joystick • Connecting a MIDI Device • Connecting the DRAM Upgrade • Testing the DRAM Upgrade • Creative 3D Stereo Enhancement • Creative WaveSynth/WG • MPU-401 MIDI Emulation

Connecting a Joystick

The joystick port on the audio card is a standard PC game control adapter or game I/O port. You can connect most analog joysticks with a 15-pin D-sub connector to the port; it works with any application that is compatible with standard PC joysticks.

If you need to run two joysticks, a Y-cable is available from Creative Labs' Customer Service (Y-cables from other sources may not work). Some sophisticated joysticks may require the MIDI adapter or Y-cable to work with the audio card.

Connecting a MIDI Device

The audio card supports the following MIDI standards:

• MPU-401 UART
• Sound Blaster MIDI

To connect a MIDI device to the audio card, you need a MIDI cable adapter. The MIDI cable adapter allows you to attach both a MIDI instrument and a joystick at the same time. Contact your local dealer or Creative Labs' Customer Service for more information.

Connecting the DRAM Upgrade

Your audio card's memory is upgradeable for loading SoundFont samples (digital instruments or sound samples).

Figure 1. Installing the DRAM Upgrade Module

To install the DRAM upgrade module, take the following steps:

1. Turn off your computer, and disconnect the power cable.
2. Disconnect the monitor and other devices that are connected to the back of the computer.
3. Remove the computer cover, and unplug any devices connected to your audio card.
4. Remove the audio card from your computer.
5. Mount the DRAM upgrade module on the audio card.
6. Reinsert the audio card in your computer.
7. Reconnect your speakers and devices to the audio card.
8. Replace the cover, reconnect all devices, and turn on the computer.

Testing the DRAM Upgrade

To text the DRAM upgrade module installation, perform the following steps:

1. Ensure you have installed the audio card's software (see Installing and Testing the Creative Software.)
2. Start the AWE Control and download sample files. From the memory status bar, you should be able to see the changes in the available memory onboard.
3. Run your downloaded files to ensure your DRAM upgrade module is working properly.

Creative 3D Stereo Enhancement

Creative 3D Stereo Enhancement eliminates speaker crosstalk when two speakers are placed close together. This results in a sound with more depth and breadth—enhanced mono and stereo output.

Creative 3D Stereo Enhancement can be enabled or disabled in Microsoft� Windows� 95 or DOS. By default, Creative 3D Enhancement is disabled. Do not enable Creative 3D Stereo Enhancement if your speakers have an enabled 3D stereo feature.

In Windows 95

To enable or disable the effect in Windows 95, perform the following steps:

1. Right-click the My Computer icon on your desktop, and select Properties. The System Properties dialog appears.
2. Click the Device Manager tab. A list of devices in your system appears.
3. Double-click Sounds, video, and game controllers. A list of multimedia devices appears.
4. Select your audio card, for example, Creative AWE64 16-bit Audio.
5. Choose Properties. The audio card's properties dialog appears.
6. Click the Settings tab.
7. Select the option to enable or disable the Creative 3D Stereo Enhancement effect.
8. Choose OK until all system property dialogs are closed.

In DOS

To enable or disable the effect in DOS, perform the following steps:

1. At the DOS prompt, change to the directory containing your audio card's software. For example, type CD C:\SB16, and press <Enter>.
2. Type CT3DSE ON to enable the effect, or CT3DSE OFF to disable the effect, and press <Enter>.

Creative WaveSynth/WG

Creative WaveSynth/WG, software wave-table synthesis, allows you to take advantage of the power of today's personal computers and Intel's multimedia-extended (MMX) instructions. Even with the advanced technology, however, software wave-table synthesis has certain limitations:

• You cannot record a WaveSynth/WG MIDI playback.
• While WaveSynth/WG plays a MIDI file, you cannot open Creative Mixer's LED display, and vice versa.

WaveSynth/WG has additional constraints that are specific to the operational mode: Full-duplex and Half-duplex.

Full-duplex Mode

Full-duplex mode allows you to record and playback audio data simultaneously. It is useful for audio conferencing and telephone applications. However, there are some constraints:

• To playback and record simultaneously, you must use uncompressed files—that is, Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) data.
• You cannot add reverb to a wave file (including DirectSound) during playback.
• While playing a MIDI file, you cannot playback a wave file (including DirectSound).
• WaveSynth/WG outputs 16-bit sound at 22 kHz. If you record a wave file at another sampling rate, WaveSynth/WG cannot play a MIDI file—the playback and recording rates must be the same.

Sound Blaster cards that use one 8-bit and one 16-bit DMA channel for either playback or recording have the following additional constraints:

• WaveSynth/WG cannot play a MIDI file while recording a 16-bit wave file.
• You cannot record an 8-bit wave file while playing a MIDI file (WaveSynth/WG uses the 16-bit DMA channel for playback).

Half-duplex Mode

In half-duplex mode, you can playback a wave file (including DirectSound) while WaveSynth/WG plays a MIDI file. There are, however, other constraints on using half-duplex mode:

• You cannot play an audio file and record another at the same time.
• Wave files recorded using the Creative FastSpeech codec are not supported.
• Wave playback uses sampling rates supported by Microsoft's Audio Compression Manager (ACM). ACM converts the sampling rate during playback—you must have ACM to play 8 kHz wave files.
• You cannot play wave files with Creative Mixer's LED active. (To disable the LED, refer to Creative's on-line help.)
• The Volume Unit display of Microsoft Volume Control is not available.

Enabling/Disabling Full-duplex

In Windows 95, take the following steps to enable or disable full-duplex:

1. Right-click the My Computer icon on your desktop, and select Properties. The System Properties dialog appears.
2. Click the Device Manager tab. A list of devices in your system appears.
3. Double-click Sounds, video, and game controllers. A list of multimedia devices appears.
4. Select your audio card, for example, Creative AWE64 16-bit Audio.
5. Choose Properties. The audio card's properties dialog appears.
6. Click the Settings tab.
7. Select the Allow Full-duplex operation option to enable or disable.
8. Click the OK button.

In Windows 3.1/DOS, take the following steps to enable or disable full-duplex:

1. From the File Manager, locate the SYSTEM.INI file in the Windows directory.
2. Double-click the file. A text editor displays the contents of the file.
3. Under the section [sndblst.drv], look for the line Fullduplex=x. To enable the feature, Fullduplex=1; to disable it, Fullduplex=0. Add this line if it is not present.
4. Save the file, and restart your system for the drivers to be updated.

MPU-401 MIDI Emulation

MPU-401 MIDI Emulation allows most games that do not support wave-table synthesis to play wave-table music from the audio card. The MIDI output from the game is sent to the wave-table synthesizer rather than the MPU-401 interface.

In Windows 95

To enable or disable the MPU-401 MIDI Emulation feature, perform the following steps:

1. Click Start in the task bar; select Programs, Sound Blaster AWE64, and AWE Control from the menus. The AWE Control opens.
2. Click the Device button in the AWE Control. The Device Selection dialog appears.
3. Select Allow MPU401 Emulation on this device option, and click the Select button.
4. Click the Quit button to exit the AWE Control.

In Windows 3.1/DOS

To enable or disable the MPU-401 MIDI Emulation feature, perform the following steps:

1. If your audio card is installed, turn off your computer and connected devices, and remove the computer cover and audio card.
2. Enable or disable the MFBEN jumper according to the settings shown.
   
   Figure 2. Enabling/Disabling the MFBEN Jumper