Creative AWE64 - Value Sound Card Getting Started Manual
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Creative AWE64 - Value Sound Card Getting Started Manual

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Getting Started
Quick Start for INTERNETed Audio Tools
Plug and Play Install Tips
Notes for WaveSynth/WG Users
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Summary of Contents for Creative AWE64 - Value Sound Card

  • Page 1 Getting Started Quick Start for INTERNETed Audio Tools Plug and Play Install Tips Notes for WaveSynth/WG Users ®...

  • Page 2: Getting Started

    It is against the law to copy the software on any other medium except as specifically allowed in the license agreement. The licensee may make one copy of the software for backup purposes.
  • Page 3 Compliance This product conforms to the following Council Directive: Directive 89/336/EEC, 92/31/EEC (EMC)

  • Page 4: Table Of Contents

    Setting Up the Audio Card Drivers...............2-1 Installing the Applications................2-3 Testing the Installation...................2-3 Uninstalling the Applications................2-5 Installing Software in DOS/Windows 3.1x Installing the Software...................3-1 Testing the Installation...................3-2 Optimizing Memory Usage................3-3 Using Memory Managers ..............3-3 Bypassing the Loading of the Low-Level Drivers......3-3...
  • Page 5 Understanding the Environment Variables..........B-3 SOUND Environment Variable............B-4 BLASTER Environment Variable........... B-4 MIDI Environment Variable............B-5 Understanding the Installation Program in Windows 3.1x......B-5 The AUTOEXEC.BAT File Settings ..........B-6 The CONFIG.SYS File Settings............B-7 Changing Audio Card Settings Enabling/Disabling Creative 3D Stereo Enhancement Effect....

  • Page 6: Introduction

    (WaveSynth) and physical model-based waveguide (WG) synthesis. With your AWE64 Gold audio card installed in an Intel Pentium 90 MHz (or higher) computer, the sample-based wavetable synthesizer allows you to play high quality music and sound effects via software (instead of hardware) in any Windows-based multimedia application.

  • Page 7: Before You Begin

    If you do not want to use WaveSynth/WG, you can disable it through the WaveSynth/WG Control Panel. Then, your MIDI and audio tasks will be handed back to the appropriate hardware in your computer. The combination of these features, along with our award-winning EMU8000 hardware wavetable synthesizer, will allow you to enjoy hours of fun listening to and creating music on your PC.

  • Page 8: Getting More Information

    Getting More Information Refer to the online User’s Guide for MIDI specifications and connector pin assignments, as well as instructions on how to use the various applications found in your package. Document Conventions This manual follows certain conventions to help you locate and identify the information that you need.

  • Page 9: Icons

    Icons In this manual, icons are used to highlight areas of text that require extra attention (see Table ii). Table ii: Icons. Icon Tip or useful information. Warning.

  • Page 10: Setting Up Your Audio Card

    Setting Up Your Audio Card This chapter is organized as follows: Knowing Your Audio Card Installing the Card and Related Hardware Setting Up Your Audio Card 1-1...

  • Page 11: Knowing Your Audio Card

    Knowing Your Audio Card Your audio card has the following jacks and connectors which allow you to attach other devices to your card: PC Speaker connector Connects your motherboard’s speaker connector (refer to “Redirecting PC Sounds to External Speakers” in the online User’s Guide for details).
  • Page 12 DAT machine. Figure 1-2: Connection of SPDIF Out jack to SPDIF connector. The end of the cable attached to the SPDIF Out jack must be connected to the SPDIF connector on your audio card. The digital audio signals from the SPDIF Out jack contain audio output from the EMU8000 wavetable chip mixed with digital voice playback if the playback is in 16-bit stereo mode, 44.1 kHz CD...

  • Page 13: Installing The Card And Related Hardware

    Installing the Card and Related Hardware If you want to install this Plug and Play (PnP) card in a non-PnP environment such as DOS/Windows 3.1x or Windows 95 MS-DOS Mode, you must first install a PnP configuration manager. For more details, refer to the documentation that comes with your PnP configuration manager.
  • Page 14 PC joystick. To use two joysticks, you need a Y-cable splitter. 9. Replace your system’s cover. 10. Plug the power cord back into the wall outlet. Switch on the system. Setting Up Your Audio Card 1-5...
  • Page 15 2. Start the AWE Control Panel and download SoundFont banks. From the memory status bar, you should be able to see the changes in the available memory onboard. 3. Play your SoundFont banks to make sure your DRAM Upgrade daughterboard is working properly.

  • Page 16: Installing Software In Windows 95

    You may encounter the following messages, which may not be in the sequence shown. If a message similar to Figure 2-1 appears, just take note of it and wait for the next message to appear.
  • Page 17 If a dialog box similar to Figure 2-2 appears, click the second option, and then click the OK button. Figure 2-2: Driver installation dialog box in which the Windows default driver option is NOT available. 2-2 Installing Software in Windows 95...

  • Page 18: Installing The Applications

    Testing the Installation After the applications are installed, you can use Windows 95 Media Player to test if your audio card is working properly. If you do not have Media Player, follow the instructions below to install it. To install the Media Player: 1.
  • Page 19 The Windows Setup tabbed page similar to Figure 2-3 appears. Figure 2-3: The Windows Setup tabbed page. 4. Select the Multimedia check box and click the Details button. 5. In the Multimedia dialog box, select the Media Player checkbox, then Volume Control, Audio Compression and Sound Recorder, and click the OK button.

  • Page 20: Uninstalling The Applications

    The Media Player appears as shown in Figure 2-4. Figure 2-4: The Media Player interface. 2. On the Device menu, click Sound. 3. In the Open dialog box, select a sound from the list, and then click the Open button. 4. On the Media Player, click You should hear the selected sound being played.
  • Page 21 To uninstall the applications: 1. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel. 2. Double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon. The properties sheet similar to Figure 2-5 appears. Figure 2-5: The Add/Remove Programs Properties sheet. 3. Select Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold and click the Add/Remove button.

  • Page 22: Installing Software In Dos/Windows 3.1X

    Installing Software in DOS/ Windows 3.1x This chapter shows you how to install the audio software in DOS/Windows 3.1x after installing your card. It comprises the following sections: Installing the Software Testing the Installation Optimizing Memory Usage Installing the Software To install the software: 1.

  • Page 23: Testing The Installation

    This program checks the base I/O addresses, IRQ line, and DMA channels used by the audio interface of your audio card. It then displays a menu to let you test the card’s sound and music output.

  • Page 24: Optimizing Memory Usage

    With this feature, several sessions can be made available for selection during bootup. One session can contain settings that load the drivers into memory. If you do not want to load these drivers, you can select another session that allows you to boot up the systemwithout them.

  • Page 26: General Specifications

    Programmable sampling rates, 5 kHz to 44.1 kHz in linear steps. Your audio applications may support only selected ranges of sampling rates. High and Low DMA channels using a single interrupt for audio playback and recording Dynamic filtering for digital audio recording and playback...
  • Page 27 PC Speaker at 4 levels in 6 dB steps All sources at 32 levels in 2 dB steps Treble/Bass control at 15 levels from -14 dB to 14 dB in 2 dB steps Full software control of fade-in, fade-out, and panning...

  • Page 28: B Understanding The Installation

    Understanding the Installation Program in Windows 3.1x Understanding the Software-Configurable Settings Your audio card supports the Plug and Play (PnP) 1.0a standard. This allows a PnP system to assign the necessary resources such as I/O addresses, interrupt lines and DMA channels to your card when you install it.

  • Page 29: Input/Output (I/O) Addresses

    Table B-1 lists the default I/O address ranges assigned by the PnP system to various devices on your audio card. Table B-1: Possible default I/O addresses occupied by the audio card.

  • Page 30: Interrupt Request (Irq) Lines

    An IRQ line is a signal line a device uses to notify your computer’s central processor that it wants to send or receive data for processing. Table B-2 lists an example of an IRQ line that may be assigned to the audio interface on your audio card.

  • Page 31: Sound Environment Variable

    SOUND= path where path is the drive and directory of the card’s software (e.g., C:\SB16 ). No space is allowed before and after the equal sign. BLASTER Environment Variable The BLASTER environment variable specifies the base I/O address, IRQ line, and DMA channels of the audio interface.

  • Page 32: Midi Environment Variable

    MIDI Environment Variable The MIDI environment variable specifies the MIDI file format used and where MIDI data is sent to. MIDI data can be sent to the internal stereo music synthesizer or MIDI port. Generally, there are three MIDI file formats: General MIDI, Extended MIDI and Basic MIDI.

  • Page 33: The Autoexec.bat File Settings

    You can also choose to set up your Windows applications at a later time by running INSTALL in the audio software directory on your hard disk. INSTALL also allows you to selectively set up components that were not installed previously.

  • Page 34: The Config.sys File Settings

    Windows applications or playing DOS games, you can delete the above two statements from the CONFIG.SYS file using a text editor. At a later time, you may discover that you need the low-level device drivers for your software application. You can load them into memory by typing DIAGNOSE /A at the DOS prompt and pressing <Enter>.

  • Page 36: C Changing Audio Card Settings

    With this effect enabled, mono and stereo sounds produced by your speakers will have increased depth and breadth. This effect can be enabled or disabled in Windows 95 and MS-DOS. If your pair of speakers or another device already has a built-in 3D sound technology, do not activate this feature in both devices.

  • Page 37: In Ms-Dos/Windows 3.1X

    To disable the effect, type CT3DSE OFF. Enabling/Disabling Full Duplex Operation Full duplex is a feature in your audio card that allows you to record and play back audio data simultaneously. It is useful for audio conferencing and telephone-like applications. When it is enabled, you can play back and record at the same time.

  • Page 38: In Windows 95

    In Windows 95 To enable or disable full duplex in Windows 95: 1. Repeat steps 1 - 7 of “In Windows 95” on page C-1 under “Enabling/Disabling Creative 3D Stereo Enhancement Effect”. 2. To enable full duplex, select the Allow Full Duplex Operation check box in the Settings tabbed page.

  • Page 39: In Windows 95

    3. In the Device Selection dialog box, select the Allow MPU401 Emulation On This Device check box, and then click the Select button. 4. In the AWE Control Panel, click the Quit button to close the AWE Control Pane. In MS-DOS/Windows 3.1x To enable or disable the feature in MS-DOS: 1.

  • Page 40: Enabling/Disabling Joystick Interface

    Windows 95 and MS-DOS/Windows 3.1x. In Windows 95 To enable or disable the interface in Windows 95: 1. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel. 2. In the Control Panel window, double-click the System icon.

  • Page 41: In Ms-Dos/Windows 3.1X

    3. On the Menu menu of the Creative Plug and Play Configuration Utility screen, click PnP Cards. 4. In the List of PnP Cards list, click your Creative Plug and Play card. In the List of Devices list, click Gameport.

  • Page 42: Troubleshooting

    Troubleshooting This appendix provides some tips for solving some problems you may encounter with your audio card during installation or normal use. Problems Installing Audio Card Software from CD-ROM Problem In Windows 95, the installation program does not run automatically when you insert the CD-ROM into the drive.

  • Page 43: Problems With Sound

    No output from both the 8-bit and 16-bit digitized sounds when running the test program. Causes 1. The volume knob on the speakers is not set properly. 2. The external amplifier or speakers are connected to the wrong jack. 3. The speaker amplifiers are in the On position.

  • Page 44: Problems In Ms-Dos

    The system environment space is used up. Solution Add the statement SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM /E:512 /P to the CONFIG.SYS file. /E defines a new size for the system environment space. You can choose a higher value if the environment size is already 512 bytes.

  • Page 45: Problems In Windows 3.1X

    Problem No sound is heard when running your audio card’s Windows applications. Cause One or more of the sound drivers might not be included in the SYSTEM.INI file. Solution Check the SYSTEM.INI file. To do so: 1. On the File menu in Program Manager, click Run.

  • Page 46: Resolving Conflicts

    HDmaChannel=5 The values shown in the [sndblst.drv] group may be different in your system. If one or more of the statements are missing, run INSTALL in DOS. INSTALL rewrites SYSTEM.INI to set up the drivers and the Windows applications. Resolving Conflicts Conflicts occur when two or more peripheral devices contend for the same resources.

  • Page 47: Resolving Conflicts In Windows 95

    To change the resource setting: 1. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel. 2. In the Control Panel window, double-click the System icon.

  • Page 48: Technical Support

    For the latest technical support information, please refer to the ‘Creative Technical Services’ leaflet, supplied with your product. We are committed to giving you the best product as well as the best technical support. Please enter the following information in the table below and have it ready when you contact Technical Support.
  • Page 49 For quick and easy reference, it is advisable that you write down the following numbers of your card and other hardware devices, if installed in your system in Table E-1 and Table E-2. Table E-1: Model and Serial Numbers of your hardware.

  • Page 50: Inside Europe

    By Fax For fast and efficient Technical Support solutions, please use our telephone service in the first instance. If you decide to write or fax us then please send your correspondence ONLY to our Ireland address. Please allow up to two weeks processing and postal time for a response.
  • Page 51 To install the accompanying applications for Windows 95: 1. Ensure that your CD-ROM drive is installed and working properly. If not, refer to the document that comes with your drive to solve the problem. 2. Load the installation CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive.
  • Page 52 Setting Up Microsoft Internet Explorer If you have installed Microsoft Internet Explorer, you need to configure Windows 95 and set up Microsoft Internet Explorer for your Internet Service Provider. Before you proceed to set up Microsoft Internet Explorer, get the following ready: 1.
  • Page 53 To set up Microsoft Internet Explorer, you need to do the following: Set up the dialing and Service Provider information. Set up a dial-up script (if a dial-up script is required by your Service Provider). Setting Up the Dialing and Service Provider...
  • Page 54 10. Enter your user name and password and click Next. 11. In the IP Address dialog box, select “My Internet Service Provider automatically assign me one” and click Next. 12. Enter the addresses for DNS Server and Alternate DNS Server. The address is made of four numbers separated by periods, e.g.,...
  • Page 55 \Program Files\Accessories\ of your system. This is usually provided by your Internet Service Provider. If you do not have a dial-up script, check with your Internet Service Provider whether you need one and where can you download one to your system.
  • Page 56 Installing Software for Windows 3.x To install the accompanying software for Windows 3.x: 1. Ensure that your CD-ROM drive is installed and working properly. If not, refer to the document that comes with your drive to solve the problem. 2. Start Windows.
  • Page 57 WPSETUP 6. Follow the instructions on the screen to finish installing your application. 7. Repeat steps 4 to 6 until you have installed all the desired applications. Setting up Microsoft Internet Explorer When you have installed Microsoft Internet Explorer, you need to configure your modem to be recognized under Windows 3.x and set up Microsoft...
  • Page 58 2. Click Next on the Install New Modem dialog box. Windows will query all COM ports for the presence of a modem. This may take a few minutes to complete. 3. Windows should detect your modem on the correct port. If it cannot uniquely identify the modem, select the manufacturer and model from the list provided.
  • Page 59 Microsoft Exchange to handle your Internet mail. Select your choice, fill in the necessary details and click Next. 14. You will be prompted to select whether you want to set up an Internet News account. Select your choice, fill in the necessary details and click Next.
  • Page 60 The interrupt setting can only be set to interrupt 3 or 4. You should ensure your modem is using one of these interrupts.If you have an internal modem that uses COM3 or COM4, such as a Creative Labs Phone Blaster or a Creative Labs Modem Blaster, it may select interrupt 10 or 11 as its default setting.
  • Page 61 Please enter all your User Information. If it is inaccurate, you will be misrepresented in NetSpeak’s Information Assistance and other Creative WebPhone users will not be able to find you to call you. In addition, your ‘Caller ID’ information will be incorrect when you place outbound calls.
  • Page 62 You will not need to enter your password each time you use the Creative WebPhone, but you will need to enter your password if you reinstall the Creative WebPhone for any reason, so take care not to lose your password.
  • Page 63 “mailhost” which is used along with his provider’s domain name to construct the POP and SMTP Server addresses: “mailhost.provider.net”. If you do not know or are not sure of the values for some of these parameters, check your E-Mail program’s (e.g., Eudora) setup screen, check your Web browser’s (e.g., Netscape) setup screen or consult your Internet Service...
  • Page 64 WebPhone requires control of the sound card (to play a sound effect or to allow conversation with a party) and the sound card is in use, it will attempt to terminate the sound being played. If Creative WebPhone cannot gain control of the sound card, it will display a dialog box informing you “Sound...
  • Page 65 Bandwidth and your Answering Machine If you have a 14.4Kb modem and have your answering machine enabled, when you are talking to a party on a Line and one or more parties call and engage your answering machine, your answering machine will play an OGM to each of the parties in the background.
  • Page 66 IN USE or LISTEN, then you must raise your Voice Activation Level (the VOX slider in the flip door) so Creative WebPhone can detect silence and allow the remote party to talk (this is will not be the case if both you and the remote party have full duplex sound cards).
  • Page 67 No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of Creative Technology Ltd. Copyright © 1996 Creative Technology Ltd. All rights reserved. Webphone is a trademark of the NetSpeak Corporation.
  • Page 68 Installation Tips Welcome to the world of Plug and Play (PnP). If you are going to install your Creative PnP card in a PnP system like Windows 95, you only need to “plug” the card into your personal computer and the card will “play” shortly after the system reboots.
  • Page 69 If you add this line to CONFIG.SYS manually, please make sure that this line is placed after the statement (if any) that loads the other PnP configuration manager in your system. The installation program will also add the following lines to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file:...
  • Page 70 Creative PnP cards. CTCU will run in silent mode and update the parameters needed by your Creative and Windows drivers. It will also update the BLASTER environment variable if it detects a Creative audio card in the system. For more details on how the CTCM and CTCU commands work, please read the sections “Using CTCM”...
  • Page 71 Your PnP cards’ settings do not work properly. For example, some systems do not support high DMA (Direct Memory Access) and one of your PnP devices is set to use high DMA. Then you need to run CTCU to select another set of configuration which does not use high DMA.
  • Page 72 To pull down the CTCU menu using your keyboard, press <ALT> followed by a key. For example, to pull down the Menu, press <ALT, M>. To select an item in a menu or box, use the arrow keys to move your screen cursor to that item.
  • Page 73 When you select the PnP Cards section from the CTCU menu, the Plug and Play window will appear, listing the PnP cards in the system. Choosing a card here will, in turn, display a list of logical devices on that particular card.
  • Page 74 The Direct Memory Access window displays the current DMA resource setting and a list of possible settings. To change this setting, select one from the list. Make sure it will not conflict with the other cards’ settings. Then double-click the new setting or click the OK button.
  • Page 75 Once you have reconfigured the resource settings of your card, select the setting and click the Test button in the resources window. CTCU will test the settings allocated to your device and inform you of the outcome. If the testing is not successful, you should reconfigure and test the settings again.
  • Page 76 Direct Memory Access channel (DMA) 32-bit Memory Range (Mem) You must enter the card’s name in the Card Name field. The other fields can be left blank if the card does not use that resource(s). Remove Button Clicking this button in the Legacy window removes a selected card’s settings from your system.
  • Page 77 Clicking this button in the Legacy window opens the Change window which displays the current resources that have been reserved for a selected legacy card. You can also change any of the resources as well as the card’s name here.
  • Page 78 PCI devices in your computer. When you select the PCI Devices section from the CTCU menu, the PCI Devices window appears. You can view one or all of existing PCI cards' resource settings by clicking one of these buttons:...
  • Page 79 — such as input/output address spaces, interrupts, Direct Memory Access channels or memory spaces — for the card. You must also make sure that there is no hardware conflict, that is, the resources reserved by one card are not used by another card in the same system.
  • Page 80 PnP System BIOS The PnP system BIOS is the lowest level of your PnP system. Its main functions are to provide information on the resource settings of your system devices and to configure PnP cards. Some PnP system BIOS configure PnP cards automatically. Other BIOS give you an option in their setup utilities to disable their PnP configuration capability.
  • Page 81 PnP Configuration Drivers and Utilities If you do not have a PnP operating system, you need to install a PnP configuration driver and utility to perform the allocation and configuration functions of a PnP operating system. A PnP configuration driver determines the resource settings of all your...
  • Page 82 However, due to the compatibility problem mentioned earlier (please refer to the note in the section “PnP Concepts on page 12), you may encounter one of the following error message or problems when you use ICM version 1.43 to configure your PnP card: “Error: Failed NVS write, Error=82h”...
  • Page 83 CTCM can get the resource settings of PnP cards and system devices from the PnP cards and BIOS. But you need to use CTCU to enter the resource settings of all the legacy cards in your PC, and then run CTCM to configure your Creative PnP card.
  • Page 84 Creative PnP card in the DOS/Windows 3.1x environment. General Questions Question I have a PnP BIOS as well as a PnP operating system or a PnP configuration driver and utility. Which one should I use to configure my PnP card? Answer...
  • Page 85 CTCU Question Question Can I run CTCU to change or disable my card settings if I have ICM in my system? Answer No, do not use CTCU to change or disable your card settings since CTCU does not access or update the resource settings database used by ICM.
  • Page 86 Answer The memory area of your PnP BIOS machine is probably mapped by EMM386 using the HIGHSCAN option and thus, can get corrupted easily. When it does, CTCM will not work properly. To solve this problem, remove the HIGHSCAN option in the EMM386 statement in the CONFIG.SYS file.
  • Page 87 No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of Creative Technology Ltd. Copyright 1996 Creative Technology Ltd. All rights reserved. Microsoft, MS-DOS, Windows 3.1x, and Windows 95 are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
  • Page 88 Creative WaveSynth/WG. Since the technology is relatively new, it currently has some limitations. Due to these limitations, it is necessary to have two modes of operations for Creative’s sound system — full-duplex and half-duplex modes. Each mode caters to different needs but has some constraints (which are explained in this leaflet).
  • Page 89 (To disable LED, refer to Creative Mixer’s online help.) The Volume Unit display of Microsoft Mixer is not available. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of Creative Technology Ltd.

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