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Subject: I'm proud to present: The Aria Programmers Resource v0.10
To: aria
Date: Sat, 10 Dec 1994 14:50:13 +0100 (MET)
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For all those who had questions about programming Aria, ordering Aria SDKs and
the contents of the Aria SDKs, here are the answers:

=============================================================================
===             THE ARIA PROGRAMMERS RESOURCE VERSION 0.10                ===
===                                                                       ===
===                 Copyright 1994 Daniel R. Tauritz                      ===
===                   Released on 10 December 1994                        ===
=============================================================================

COPYRIGHT   Distribution of this document by individuals for
            non-commercial purposes is permitted.  Commercial use of the
            information contained requires the explicit permission of the
            author. Parts of this document may be included in other
            non-commercial works provided the author is acknowledged.

DISCLAIMER  In no way is the author liable for any damage resulting from the
            use of the information contained in this document.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
INDEX
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 - INTRODUCTION
 1.0 - Declaration of Intention
 1.1 - What's new !
2 - ARIA PROGRAMMING MATERIALS
 2.0 - Software Development Kits
 2.1 - Freely available programming materials
 2.2 - Commercial libraries
3 - PROFESSIONAL USERS OF ARIA
 3.0 - Software companies
 3.1 - Mytec Technologies (Greg Schmidt)
4 - THE FUTURE OF ARIA
 4.0 - Current projects
 4.1 - What YOU can do to HELP !
Appendix A: Locating Aria related documents
Appendix B: Aria Mailing List
Appendix C: Aria World Wide Web Page
Appendix D: Aria Software Development Kit Order Entry Form

=============================================================================
===                         1 - INTRODUCTION                              ===
=============================================================================

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.0 - Declaration of Intention
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This document was specifically created with the purpose of getting
programmers to support soundcards based on the Aria chipset. It is aimed at
programmers of all levels and all those owners of Aria soundcards who would
program if they knew how simple Aria programming could be!

This is the first incarnation of where I think this document should be
heading, any suggestions for evolving this document into its definitive form
will be very much appreciated. I've set up the Aria Mailing List which is
intended to be a forum for this document, besides of course providing for
those with questions, suggestions, etc. concerning Aria soundcards in
general. Other documents concerning Aria are the Aria FAQ and the Aria
Support List by the same author, see Appendix A.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.1 - What's New !
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the first public release. Please let me know what you think of it and
what you would like to see added. Contributions are of course most
appreciated! I wish to thank Greg Schmidt from Mytec Technologies for
providing the first contribution to this document.

=============================================================================
===                 2 - ARIA PROGRAMMING MATERIALS                        ===
=============================================================================

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.0 - Software Development Kits
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sierra Semiconductor Corporation (from now on just Sierra), the maker of the
Aria chipset, also offers three Aria SDKs (SDK=Software Development Kit). The
first one is called the SSDK (Synthesizer Software Development Kit) and costs
$50. The second one is called the LSDK (Listener Software Development Kit)
and costs $100. The third one is called the LSDK Upgrade Kit and upgrades a
SSDK to a LSDK, it costs $50.

Following are the descriptions of the basic kit (SSDK and part of LSDK) and
the listener kit (rest of LSDK and LSDK Upgrade Kit), the conditions of
purchase, ordering information and some notes concerning Aria Listener source
code.

Basic (SSDK/LSDK)
-----------------
Contents: Manual (version 2.2) + 3.5" disk (version 2.5)

Disk contents:
 - DOS Applications Interface Library Source Code (see manual; chapter 6)
 - Interrupt handlers in assembly (Make files for Microsoft & Borland)
 - User function calls in C (Make files for Microsoft & Borland)
 - Source code for ARIATEST, CDVOL, ECHOMIDI, PLAYMIDI, PLAYWAVE, RECWAVE,
   SBVOL and VOLUME
 - Synthesizer Patch Bank Editor

Manual contents:
 Chapter 1: Introduction
 Chapter 2: Installation
 Chapter 3: Communication Interface
            3.1 - Registers
                  3.1.1 DSP Registers
                  3.1.2 Sound Blaster Registers
                  3.1.3 MIDI Registers
                  3.1.4 Joystick Registers
            3.2 - Memory
                  3.2.1 System ROM Configurations
                  3.2.2 Memory Layout
            3.3 - Music Synthesis
                  3.3.1 Aria Synthesizer
                  3.3.2 Sound Blaster Emulation
            3.4 - Digital Audio
                  3.4.1 Data Transfer Procedure
                  3.4.2 Direct Input and Output
                  3.4.3 Direct Memory Access
            3.5 - DSP Commands
                  3.5.1 System Configuration Commands
                  3.5.2 Digital Audio Recording and Playback Commands
                  3.5.3 Aria Synthesizer Commands
                  3.5.4 Mixer Commands
                  3.5.5 Audio Effect Commands
 Chapter 4: Voyetra Sound Factory
 Chapter 5: Microsoft Windows Multimedia Extensions
            5.1 - Audio Driver Features
            5.2 - Driver Configuration
            5.3 - Waveform Output
            5.4 - Waveform Input
            5.5 - MIDI Output
            5.6 - MIDI Input
            5.7 - Auxiliary Audio
            5.8 - Extended Aria Control Interface
 Chapter 6: DOS Application Interface
 Chapter 7: Tools
            7.1 - Patch Editor
            7.2 - Patch Bank Utility
            7.3 - Play MIDI Utility
            7.4 - Echo MIDI Utility
            7.5 - Play Wave Utility
            7.6 - Record Wave Utility
            7.7 - Aria Board Test Utility
 Appendix A: Patch Bank Formats
 Appendix B: ROM Wave Libraries
 Appendix C: Specifications
 Glossary
 References
 Index


Listener (LSDK/LSDK Upgrade Kit) [Including 90 days of telephone support]
--------------------------------
Contents: Manual (version 1.1) + six 3.5" disks (version 1.00)

Disk contents:
 Games API for DOS
 Speech Recognition API for Windows (SRAPI)
 Windows Developers Examples for SRAPI
 SRAPI Step Debugger
 Vocabulary Development System (2 disks)

Manual contents:
 Section   I: GoodListener Cookbook
 Section  II: Speech Recognition API Programmer's Guide
 Section III: Speech Recognition API Functional Specifications
 Section  IV: Aria Listener Game API Functional Specifications
 Section   V: Vocabulary Development System Manual Version 3.1


Ordering information
--------------------

If you are interested in purchasing one of these kits, please contact
Sierra's Customer Support group at:

SIERRA SEMICONDUCTOR CORPORATION
2075 North Capitol Avenue
San Jose, California 95132, USA
Phone: +1-408-263-9300
Fax  : +1-408-263-3337


Conditions of purchase
----------------------
- There are no royalties involved.
- There are no restrictions on the use of the materials included in the SDKs
  except that you may not make them public and distribution of source code is
  only allowed if a majority of the code is of your own creation, not simply
  copied from the development kit. So, for example, it is perfectly
  legitimate to write an audio driver for Aria using the SDK and distributing
  its source code as Public Domain, Shareware, on a commercial basis or any
  other way you see fit.
- When ordering please provide purchase order number. All orders are shipped
  COD, or you may charge on VISA or MASTERCARD. Please reference your phone
  and fax number so Sierra can reach you should they have any questions.
  To order one of the above mentioned kits fill in the order entry form found
  in appendix C completely, notimg that you found it in the Aria Programmers
  Resource, Copyright 1994 by Daniel R. Tauritz, and fax it to
  +1-408-263-3337.

Aria Listener source code
-------------------------
Though the Aria Listener manual states that the source code for the Games API
is included, it isn't, nor can Sierra provide it. However, if you have a
legitimate reason requiring this code you can contact Dave Corley, director
of Customer Support at Voice Control Systems, Inc., and request a copy.
Contact information: E-mail address: dave@vcsi.com
                     Phone number  : +1-214-386-0300
                     Address       : 14140 Midway Road
                                     Dallas, Texas 75244, USA

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.1 - Freely available programming materials
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ftp.wi.leidenuniv.nl:pub/audio/aria/programming
- ariainit.zip : initialization code replacing soundcfg.sys
- ariawave.zip : digital audio playback programming example

This section is still under construction.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.2 - Commercial sound driver libraries
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* AIL, MIDPAK & DIGPAK
* DSMI

This section is still under construction.

=============================================================================
===                    3 - PROFESSIONAL USERS OF ARIA                     ===
=============================================================================

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.0 - Software companies
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Software based on the AIL and/or MIDPAK/DIGPAK libraries potentially supports
Aria in native mode. As does software based on the DSMI (=Digital Sound Music
Interface). Also, increasingly software with in-house Aria support code is
being produced. The following companies have produced software specially
crafted to take advantage of the speech recognition capabilities of Aria
Listener:
- Globalink (VoicePower)
- Impressions (When Two Worlds War)
- Interplay (Startrek 25th Anniversary Special Aria Edition)
See the Aria Support List for more info on them.

If YOU know a company offering software specially crafted to take advantage
of Aria Listener then please contact me so I can add it to the list.

The following sections are devoted to companies employing Aria themselves.
If YOU know of such a company which not has been included below, then please
contact me so I can add another paragraph.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.1 - Mytec Technologies (Greg Schmidt)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mytec Technologies is a Toronto, Ontario, Canada company developing a
fingerprint verification device.  Our president, George Tomko, requested that
the prototype device be capable of recognizing voice input, as a way of
adding some pizzazz to demonstrations (he envisioned the user stating his or
her name, but that would require separate vocabulary training for each user,
so we have settled on the user simply saying his or her PIN number, for
example "one two three").  As the software engineer, I was given the job of
getting this working, as well as a deadline of about three weeks to find an
appropriate product, order it, and implement the desired functionality.

I began by looking through several newsgroups, eventually discovering
comp.speech.  I posted a short description of my situation, and Daniel R.
Tauritz replied with a message about Aria. After an exchange of mail, I was
convinced that Aria could handle my problem.  I ordered the Aria 16SE from
Prometheus Products as well as the Aria LSDK from Sierra Semiconductor Corp.,
which arrived shortly.  I now had about a week to finish the implementation.

I ran into a bit of a problem, in that the provided library was only in
medium memory model, and I needed large.  Dave Corley at Voice Control
Systems was very helpful, and I managed to get all the requisite tools,
with one day to go.  The API was so easy to use that I finished in time.
(I feel like a commercial for laundry detergent!)  A vocabulary trained
by less than 20 utterances each of about twenty words (including four
different people) was capable of recognizing any of the words spoken by
anyone with a very high accuracy (it had problems with "eight", but more
training solved that).

We are unsure as to whether customers will want this functionality in the
product, but it is a possibility.  If they do, it is very easy to add a
couple of functions that allow speech recognition.

                                        Greg Schmidt (gschmidt@hookup.net)

=============================================================================
===                       4 - THE FUTURE OF ARIA                          ===
=============================================================================

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.0 - Current projects
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the next edition I'll hopefully have finished chapter 2 and created more
programming examples.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.1 - What YOU can do to HELP !
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you can add insights not yet included in this document, then please E-mail
the information to:

                        dtauritz@wi.leidenuniv.nl

and hopefully it will be included in the next update of this document!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix A: Locating Aria related documents
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aria Internet Department            - ftp.wi.leidenuniv.nl:pub/audio/aria
Usenet Soundcard Newsgroup Archives - rtfm.mit.edu:pub/usenet/comp.sys.ibm.pc
                                      .soundcard
Internet Soundcard Starting Point   - ftp.netcom.com:pub/jo/jonin/soundcards
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Document                  | Aria Internet Department
--------------------------|--------------------------------------------------
Aria FAQ                  | docs/aria1_05.faq
Aria Support List         | docs/aria2_08.lst
Aria Programmers Resource | docs/aria0_10.res
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Document                  | Usenet Soundcard Newsgroup Archives
--------------------------|--------------------------------------------------
Aria FAQ                  | Aria_Soundcard_Faq_v1.05
Aria Support List         | Aria_Support_List_v2.08
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Document                  | The Internet Soundcard Starting Point
--------------------------|--------------------------------------------------
Various soundcard FAQS    | faqs

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix B: Aria Mailing List
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can subscribe to the Aria Mailing List by sending E-mail as follows:
  To     : aria-request@wi.leidenuniv.nl
  Subject: subscribe
Leave the rest of the message (the body) empty!

To post to the Aria Mailing List send E-mail to: aria@wi.leidenuniv.nl
When you reply to a message from the list you reply as default to the list.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix C: Aria World Wide Web Page
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Aria World Wide Web (WWW) Page is under construction. Via a WWW user
interface such as Lynx, Mosaic or Netscape you can view it by going to:
  http://www.wi.leidenuniv.nl/aria/
At the moment this will give you access to all the messages ever sent to the
Aria Mailing List. An automatic script adds new messages sent to the list
to this page within minutes. You can also view and retrieve files from the
Aria Internet Department via WWW by going to:
  http://www.wi.leidenuniv.nl/FTP/audio/aria/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix D: Aria Software Development Kit Order Entry Form
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

ARIA SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT KIT - ORDER FORM
(From the Aria Programmers Resource maintained by Daniel R. Tauritz)

COMPANY NAME  :                        Order Date  :
Contact Person:                        Ship Via    :
Address       :                        Date Shipped:

Telephone     :                        Fax #:

SHIP TO:                               BILL TO:
__________________________________     ______________________________________
__________________________________     ______________________________________
__________________________________     ______________________________________
__________________________________     ______________________________________
__________________________________     ______________________________________

SSC PART NO.        DESCRIPTION             QTY         PRICE       TOTAL

_________________   ____________________    ________    _________   _________

Customer Request Data                           Sierra Commit Data
_____________________                           _____________________________

=============================================================================

PAYMENT TERMS:

P.O.#____________________________
Credit Card Name__________________________________________
   Card #_________________________________________/Exp.Data__________________
C.O.D.______________________________________       C.I.A.____________________
Ship Via____________________________________   Shipping Charges______________
SierraContact________________________________________ Date___________________

