Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!stat!sun13!fsu!prism!gt0228b
From: gt0228b@prism.gatech.EDU (FALCO,VINNIE)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Sound and other tidbits
Message-ID: <9972@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Date: 31 May 90 03:17:09 GMT
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 64


   Here is what I have found out about the Sound Manager and about people
   in general :

 There is a big Word file describing the Sound Manager at Apple.com. I
 just recently figured out that you can ftp Apple.com with account
 'anonymous' and password 'guest', and I believe there are many other
 Macintosh users on the net who do not know this. Since no one bothered
 to tell me, I assume that everyone who DOES know thinks that everyone
 in general knows (this must be false :)

 As for the Sound Manager : I have not successfully been able to include
 sounds into any of my programs without one of three things happening :
 a) no sound at all is generated
 b) the computer makes obnoxious clicks like an old Apple II
 c) I hear my sound a few times, never asyncrhonously, and then
    I receive a lame SYSTEM ERROR, and for some reason the
    restart button *never* works, but just makes the video card insane.

 All of my code has followed Inside Macintosh guidelines as well as
 the Sound Manager addendum guidelines, but to no avail. In desperation
 I have tried commands at random, trying to permute every possible combination
 of Sound Manager calls, but this does not work.

 Also, I am a little in the dark as to what sound hardware actually exists
 in all post SE Macs. All I hear from Apple is that "The programs should not
 be concerned with the sound hardware itself, but rather, deal with the
 synthesizers instead, since the sound capabilites of the Macintosh are
 likely to change". This is of course, the most ridiculous thing I have
 every heard. If someone wrote a music program according to this, and 
 programmed in a 
 Bach Concerto in eight voices, poor Mac users would only hear four of the
 voices!.

 I would like to know if it is indeed possible to have four simultaneous
 digitized sounds going on at the same time, and exactly what kind of
 sound capabilities the Macintosh has. Studio Sessions, with some amazing
 trick, allows SIX SIMULTANEOUS DIGITIZED VOICES!!! (!) Why the 32k limit
 on instruments, I do not know. I also am wondering why I have not seen
 a quality music program written as of late that uses 'snd ' resources
 (so you can make your own instruments). Deluxe Music Construction Set
 is by far the best program in terms of quality output and notation,
 but has the lamest sounding instruments, and you cannot import 'snd '
 resources into it.

 There must be some facility to compose a tune using (at least four)
 digitized sounds at once, and then in your program, start the song
 (presumable while the user is saving the galaxy from space invaders,
 or entering some dungeon or another) while the program continues.


 SoundEdit, which is part of the software that comes with the Farallon
 MacRecorder (an excellent device, cheap, and useful, since sounds
 are like fonts and graphics on the Mac, that can be used in many places),
 is an excellent program, so good that I have actually constructed
 sounds from scratch by layering effect on effect and mixing in different
 sine waves and their harmonic overtones. I am wondering what kind of
 'snd' resource (type 1 or type 2) it produces, and how to use those
 in a program, since it is by far the most useful.

 If everyone who knew a few tidbits about the Sound Manager, the sound
 hardware, and sound in general, would contribute a couple of scraps of
 knowledge here and there, I would appreciate it very much.
 T.I.V., Vin