From sfleinen@sean.jersey.ingr.com  Thu Jan 12 23:38:57 1995
Return-Path: <sfleinen@sean.jersey.ingr.com>
Received: from sean.jersey.ingr.com (sean.jersey.ingr.com [129.135.125.180])
          by mailhost.WI.LeidenUniv.NL (8.6.9/FHM-1.20-M) with SMTP id XAA14033
          for <aria@wi.leidenuniv.nl>;  Thu, 12 Jan 1995 23:38:52 +0100 (MET)
Received: by sean.jersey.ingr.com (5.65c/1.921207)
	id AA24415; Thu, 12 Jan 1995 17:38:09 -0500
From: sfleinen@sean.jersey.ingr.com (Sean F. Leinen)
Message-Id: <199501122238.AA24415@sean.jersey.ingr.com>
Subject: Re: Sound Blaster compatible?
To: aria@WI.LeidenUniv.NL
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 95 17:38:08 EST
Cc: mvlauw@ntmtv.com (Wilkie Lau)
Reply-To: sfleinen@ingr.com (Sean F. Leinen)
In-Reply-To: <9501121810.AA08489@jupiter.mtvyp>; from "Wilkie Lau" at Jan 12, 95 10:10 am
X-Mailer: ELM [version 07.05.00.00 (2.3 PL11)]

In Message-Id: <9501121810.AA08489@jupiter.mtvyp>,
mvlauw@ntmtv.com (Wilkie Lau) writes:

> Hi everyone,
> 
> I have purchased the ViVa Maestro 16VR for about a year now. It sounds
> great for any games that make use of it in native mode. However, I have
> been having a lot of problems with it when the games only support Sound
> Blaster compatible mode and especially when it requires the digital 
> speech capability of SB. To solve this problem, I put another SB clone
> board in the system. But I paid the price of occupying two slots for
> sound and now my system has only one 8 bit slot left which leaves me no
> room for expanding.  So, I am wondering did anyone out there figure out
> a way to solve the "not so SB compatible" problem? In theory, since the
> aria is a DSP board, if someone write some SB digital speech emulation 
> code and upload it to the board and redirect all the SB sound command 
> to such emulation code, shouldn't it work?
> 
> Thanks in advance for any valuable comment.
> 
> Wilkie.

WILKIE:
------

You're in luck - I have the very same sound board you have
and have already gone down this road (a while back).

You are exectly right about the DSP on the MaestroVR!  It can
be reprogrammed with a simple utility.  The utility you want
is "SB199.ZIP" on the Aria ftp site:

   ftp://ftp.wi.leidenuniv.nl./pub/audio/aria/upgrades/sb199.zip

When you unzip this file, you will have "SB199.COM" and a
README.TXT file.  The "SB199.COM" will reprogram the
MaestroVR's DSP with SB emulation version 1.99.  I've found
that the SB201.COM (beta) doesn't work with the MaestroVR,
because of the DSP version.  The 1.99 version is the last
*released* version from Sierra anyway, and definitely makes
a huge difference in the sound quality.  The sound under
games like "The 7th Guest" with SB199.COM is just *so* much
improved!

I found out long ago that I was using the MaestroVR for both
SB emulation and MIDI applications, and the card isn't designed
to run both simultaneously - it has to be "switched" on the
fly.  I've created two DOSKEY macros in my C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
which make this *so* easy:

   doskey sbmode=miditsr2/s $T sb199 $T sbvol 63 63
   doskey ariamode=miditsr2/a

The "MIDITSR2.EXE" has already been loaded into high memory
earlier-on in the C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT.  By merely typing-in
"sbmode" I can switch the MaestroVR into SoundBlaster mode,
reprogram the DSP to version 1.99, and adjust the volume to
the maximum value of "63" in one shot.  Similarly, by typing
"ariamode", I can switch the MaestroVR into (as it's name
implies) "Aria" mode for use with native applications and
General MIDI.

If you plan to use the MIDI portion of the MaestroVR for
"General MIDI" (for regular MIDI use, or for games), then
you'll probably want to pull over a copy of Danny Tauritz's
excellent "The Aria Support List v2.08" and "The FAQ v1.05"
from:

   http://www.wi.leidenuniv.nl./aria

These two documents discuss the "MIDITSR2.EXE" I'm using
above, as well as the required MIDI loopback cable to use
with it (you can either purchase this, or make one yourself
from directions in "The Aria Support List v2.08").  Games
such as DOOM/DOOM II sound utterly awesome in General MIDI
mode on the MaestroVR.

If you have trouble getting the above two documents (or do
not have access to a web browser), let us know and one of
us will send you a copy through e-mail.

-SEAN
-- 
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Sean F. Leinen                    VOX: (201) 460-7427             |
| NY/NJ Senior Systems Specialist   FAX: (201) 460-0801             |
| Intergraph Computer Systems      UUCP: ...!ingr!jersey!sfleinen   |
| One Meadowlands Plaza            ARPA: sfleinen@ingr.com.         |
| East Rutherford, NJ 07073        HTTP: ftp://ftp.jersey.ingr.com. |
| MAILSTOP: NJRUT                  Compu$pend: 75453,1411           |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

