Warp Sound Tips

Last Updated: 4th January, 1995

The following note was received from Larry Bell (LarryB8649@aol.com):

Here are some things that I did to get sound running satisfactorily in Warp with my Soundblaster 16.

set the notebook settings for fastload (if you use it) for AUDIO ADAPTER SHARING to OPTIONAL. Do the same for all seamless windows you will be running in the fastload session.
get a copy of SNDWORKS.ZIP and put it on your system. It provides an interim solution to some problems (notably getting sounds from applications running within the fastload session). The author says IBM is working on a fix. I believe that file is in the OS/2 section on AOL. It is FTP'able from several OS/2 FTP sites (ftp.cdrom.com; ftp-os2.nmsu.edu; hobbes.nmsu.edu; software.watson.ibm.com).
leave the AUDIOVDD.SYS entry in the CONFIG.SYS for OS/2. Many people are commenting it out (I did also until I got SNDWORKS).
set notebook setting for all separate sessions and full screen sessions to AUDIO ADAPTER SHARING REQUIRED. This will allow AUDIOVDD.SYS to catch a separate session attempting to get to the soundcard if fastload or another session already has the card.

Bear the follwing in mind:

OS/2 and Windows sessions still cannot share the card. But, it is a simple matter of taking the Windows sessions down and enabling OS/2 sounds when you need to. Be sure and turn off OS/2 sound before bringing up fastload session again. I put a shadow of the sound folder on my desktop to make it easier to switch OS/2 sound on and off.

Windows applications running within a fastload session can share the card since they are essentially running under the Windows session created by fastload. Separate sessons and full screen sessions can't share because you then have several copies of Windows trying to run.

By the way, it may be confusing at first that, even though applications running within the fastload session generate sounds, the only opening and closing sounds you get is at start and close of the fastload session. When you realize that the fastload session IS the Windows session, then it s easy to understand: the other sessions within fastload session are not starting Windows. It s already running.

I have found a few of my sound applications still can t get to the ound card even with these workarounds and even though they bear the Creative Labs name. But, I think these applications (like a talking schedular) came with a Microsoft package and may have been written this way on purpose. The schedular and other apps that came with the sound card work fine.

For multimedia, there are some things you can do with the CDFS file system to improve audio playback. Increase the buffers and such by changing the line in onfig.sys:

   IFS=E:\OS2\BOOT\CDFS.IFS /C:8 /m:20 /q

Finally, ever get aggravated trying to play an AVI (movie) file from a Windows app in OS/2? OS/2's Digital Video player doesn't like the format. A file named APMSVC1.ZIP is available on the FTP sites for OS/2 (and on AOL) that makes it possible to watch the Windows AVI's in OS/2's digital video sessions. It does lock up if you try and resize the video window while the video is playing, and in some cases locks of you have mouse movement while the video is playing, but maybe the author will get those things worked out. It's a fine addition to Warp.

Larry Bell (LarryB8649@aol.com)

The Warp Pharmacy