     

       VOICE BLASTER  2.0 Copyright (c) 1989-1993 Mark E Cowan
                             for Dos
                  by MILLENNIUM SOFTWARE PRODUCTS
                       Author: MARK E. COWAN

        Mailing address: PO Box 163, West Alexandria, OH 45381
        Voice Phone: (513) 839-4674  Compuserve ID: 70303,2050 

                         README.TXT (12/13/93)

     

                         PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
                         ===================
     
     Voice Blaster Version 2.0 is a Dos program which allows you to
     queue up any combination of digitized audio (.VOC) and FM music
     (.CMF) files.  Then you can begin listening to hundreds of
     music and voice files without having to select a file each
     time! Record (.VOC) files with unlimited file lengths, and
     select the input channel and filter settings for SB Pro and SB
     16 cards!
     
     You can pause, continue, and queue up all audio files in
     multiple drives and directories and listen to hours of voice
     audio and FM music from your computer while you work!  This
     version fully supports the Sound Blaster Pro and Sound Blaster
     16 compatible cards.  Volume controls for all settings are
     provided for SB Pro and SB 16 series cards!  Complete with On-
     Line Help for playing files and instructions for how to
     register this product.

     Options for playing now include:

     Loop mode   - Continuously play selected files until you
                   stop the playing!

     Random mode - Play selected files at random!

     ***********************************************************
     Read about ** Voice Blaster Sr and Voice Blaster Jr ** for
     Windows 3.1 in the file 'REGISTER.TXT', which provides playing
     .MID and .WAV files and .WAV recording in Windows!.  You get
     these programs and more free when you register this program!
     ***********************************************************
        
     
        
        CALL NOW (513) 839-4674 AND REGISTER WITH YOUR VISA 
        OR MASTERCARD FOR IMMEDIATE SHIPMENT!  
     
     
                                                         - 2 -
                            SHAREWARE
                            =========
     
     Please try this program out and see for yourself how easy it is
     to use. Voice Blaster is a shareware program. If you decide to
     use this program after evaluating it, please send in your
     registration. You will receive more programs and a manual (see
     the REGISTER.TXT file, or read the 'REGISTERING' section of
     Voice Blaster by selecting the 'HELP' button after running
     VBLASTER.  If you decide to use VBLASTER, you must register to
     receive your license to use the program.  Your registration
     will go towards development of future versions, and you will
     receive update notices.  Please feel free to distribute Voice
     Blaster to your friends or upload it to your favorite BBS as
     long as you distribute all the files named below under FILE
     DESCRIPTIONS.

                       VERSION DESCRIPTION
                       ===================
     
     VERSION 2.0 (This version)
     
     This version uses the loaded Sound Blaster or Sound Blaster Pro
     drivers shipped with your sound card.  This insures that
     whatever features are in the Sound Card you may have will be
     supported with the VBLASTER program including stereo, and any
     data compression Creative Labs is using for playing .VOC files.
     This program will search for the .VOC driver in the directory
     specified by the SOUND environment variable (this should be set
     up by the SB Card installation software), and if not found,
     will use one of the drivers supplied with this program 
     depending on you card type. VBLASTER uses the double buffering 
     disk voice driver.  The voice driver searched for is called 
     CTVDSK.DRV. The FM Music driver SBFMDRV.COM will be run by the 
     VBLAST.BAT file at startup.
     
     Loop mode, and random mode options were added
     
     Added SB Pro input mixing controls for selecting stereo or mono
     mode recording, and input channels (Mic, line in, or CD in)
     
     Added SB Pro volume controls for all channels
     
     VERSION 1.1
     
     Various bug fixes, used embedded voice and music drivers, did
     not support stereo files.
                                                         - 3 -
                            SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
                            ===================

     * IBM PC/XT or compatible
     * Min of 384 KB Ram
     * Dos 3.3 or Higher
     * Color Monitor
     * Mouse recommended but not required
     * Sound Blaster compatible series card (SB, SB Pro, SB 16)

                          FILES DESCRIPTION
                          =================

     VBLASTER.EXE   Voice Blaster Dos program file (VBLASTER)
     VBLASTER.D20   Sound Blaster 2.0 CTVDSK.DRV voice driver
     VBLASTER.DPR   Sound Blaster Pro CTVDSK.DRV voice driver
     VBLASTER.D15   Sound Blaster 1.5 CTVDSK.DRV voice driver
     VBLASTER.D16   Sound Blaster 16 CTVDSK.DRV voice driver *
     VBLASTER.MXR   Sound Blaster Pro AUXDRV.DRV mixer driver
     VBLASTM.HLP    Help file for Main program help
     BLASTP.HLP     Help file for Play Dialog
     BLASTR.HLP     Help file for Record Dialog
     VBLASTER.PCX   PCX Graphics file of VBLASTER screen
     README.TXT     Description of VBLASTER and installation
     VENDOR.DOC     Text file for Shareware Vendors for VBLASTER
     DESCRIBE.DOC   Description of VBLASTER program
     FILE_ID.DIZ    VBLASTER description file for BBS
     BBS.DOC        VBLASTER info for BBS operators
     REGISTER.TXT   Text file describing how to register VBLASTER
                    and warranty statement
     INVOICE.DOC    An invoice form which may be printed to make
                    it easy to register

     * NOTE: A bug was found in the CTVDSK.DRV driver that was 
     shipped with SB 16 cards.  The included driver VBLASTER.D16
     has this bug fixed.  Generally, you may assume that your 
     CTVDSK.DRV driver is OK if it has a later date than 10/25/93.
     
     ============================================================
     To get a hard copy printout of the Text files above, type:
                copy readme.txt prn  (At the Dos prompt)
     or:   copy readme.txt com1 (if printer is connected to com1)
     ============================================================
                                                         - 4 -
                             INSTALLATION
                             ============

     VBLASTER will run from a floppy drive, but it is recommended to
     install it onto your hard drive.

     Installation of VBLASTER to a hard drive is easy. Here is what
     you do:

     First, if you received VBLASTER on a disk from a Shareware
     Vendor, then following their installation instructions.
     
     If you have received VBLASTER from a BBS, or if their are no
     installation programs that came with this program, then follow
     the instructions below:
     
     1) Make a directory for VBLASTER
     2) Copy all the above files to the new directory,

     Here is an example where C:\VBLASTER is the desired directory
     [PATH] = C:\PCPLUS\DWN ([PATH] is the directory where the
     VBLASTER files reside). If the files were on the "B:" drive,
     then substitute "B:" where you see [PATH].

     PROMPT        YOU TYPE THIS

     C:\           MD C:\VBLASTER
     C:\           CD C:\VBLASTER
     C:\VBJR\      COPY [PATH]\*.*

     Since VBLASTER is shareware, all the above files must be kept
     together.  Of course, it would be better to use a file copy
     utility to copy the VBLASTER files, but the above example was
     given for clarity.
     
     If you have received this package from a BBS, then it would be
     better to unzip all the files directly into the new directory.
     Here is an example of unarchiving the files into the new
     directory:

     PROMPT            YOU TYPE THIS

     C:\PCPLUS\DWN     MD C:\VBLASTER
     C:\PCPLUS\DWN     PKUNZIP VBLAST20.ZIP C:\VBLASTER
                                                         - 5 -
                          ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
                          =====================
     
     Before running VBLASTER.EXE, make sure your environment
     variables are setup.  There are two variables, one points to
     the directory of your main Sound Blaster programs, the other
     sets up the port address, interrupt, DMA number, and the Sound
     Blaster card type.  VBLASTER uses the card type to determine
     which voice driver to load if it cannot find the driver in the
     directory specified by SOUND.  Here is a description:
     
     SOUND=C:\SBPRO
     
     This specifies C:\SBPRO as main directory, then the directory
     search for the CTVDSK.DRV is C:\SBPRO\DRV as dictated by
     Creative Labs.  Make sure this is set by your AUTOEXEC.BAT
     file. You can type:  SET   at the Dos prompt to see all
     environment variables.
     
     The second environment variable specifies the I/O configuration
     and card type.  Here is an example:
     
     BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T2
     
     where:  A - specifies the base I/O port used
             I - specifies the interrupt request line
             D - specifies the DMA channel
             T - specifies the card type:
                    1 for SB 1.5
                    2 for SB Pro
                    3 for SB 2.0
                    4 for SB Pro 2.0
                    6 for SB 16
     
     Make sure this is setup correctly for your card.  It probably
     is if you have a SB Pro or higher.  If you have a SB 1.5 or SB
     2.0, you will need to set this up in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file so
     that you will not get the warning message at the beginning of
     the VBLASTER screen every time.  Use the above BLASTER=...
     example, changine only the 220 for port address, 7 for the
     interrupt, 1 for the DMA channel, and 2 for your card type.
     Refer to your SB card manual to find out which card type you
     have.  You probably can use the above example changing only the
     2 for the correct card type for your card. Here are some
     examples, exactly as they should appear in AUTOEXEC.BAT
     
     EXAMPLE CODE               DESCRIPTION (do not include)
     =====================      ============================
     BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T2      (for SB Pro)
     BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T1      (for SB 1.5)
     BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T3      (for SB 2.0)

                                                         - 6 -

                        RUNNING THE PROGRAM
                        ===================
                                  
     To run this program, you must first change to the directory
     that you installed VBLASTER, such as the example above by
     typing:
     
     PROMPT            YOU TYPE THIS
     
     C:\               CD C:\VBLASTER
     C:\VBLASTER\      VBLAST
     
     The VBLASTER batch file will first load the FM Music driver
     SBFMDRV.COM, and then run VBLASTER.EXE.  After exiting
     VBLASTER, the SBFMDRV.COM driver will be removed.  You should
     change VBLAST.BAT batch file to load the SBFMDRV.COM that is
     shipped with your card.  It should be located in the directory
     specified by the environment variable SOUND.  For example, if
     your SOUND=C:\SB   then change the two lines in the VBLAST.BAT
     file to this:
     
     C:\SB\SBFMDRV
     VBLASTER   (no change)
     C:\SB\SBFMDRV /u
     
     Also, if you so desire, you can manually run the SBFMDRV.COM
     program first, and then run the VBLASTER.EXE program.  By
     running the VBLAST.BAT batch file, the SBFMDRV.COM driver is
     automatically removed from memory after exiting the VBLASTER
     program.
     
           MILLENNIUM SOFTWARE PRODUCTS AND THE AUTHOR
           ===========================================

     Millennium Software Products is a company dedicated to
     quality and superior Multimedia and Educational software.  We
     hope you enjoy our products, and hope you will register so
     that we can tell you about our new and exciting products. The
     author of the Voice Blaster Products is Mark E Cowan.  He has
     been developing software for over 10 years, and has managed
     an electronic/software development teem for over 8 years.
     Mark E Cowan is the owner of Millennium Software Products and
     can be easily contacted via E-mail or phone:

        Voice Phone: (513) 839-4674  Compuserve ID: 70303,2050 

     Or send your comments, suggestions, and registrations to:

                     MILLENNIUM SOFTWARE PRODUCTS
                              PO BOX 163
                       WEST ALEXANDRIA, OH 45381

(12/13/93)  readme.txt

