From: gilles@cannes.Eng.Sun.COM (Patrick-Gilles Maillot)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: Media Vision Pro AudioSpectrum 16
Date: 15 Aug 1992 22:34:53 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
NNTP-Posting-Host: cannes
Keywords: multimedia 16-bit media vision

In article <BszALr.M7w@news.cso.uiuc.edu> holloway@clio (Bryan Holloway) writes:
>Has anyone had any experience with Media Vision's AudioSpectrum 16?
>I've been looking around for an inexpensive quality multimedia board
>for some time, and ran across what could be a real gem.
>
>It claims to have the following features:
>
>1) True 16-bit 44.1kHz sampling.
	Watch that CPU flying like crazy! Better have a 486/50Mhz if
	you want to sample stereo sound at that rate, and still be
	able to see the mouse cursor moving!

>2) MIDI compatiable (although you need this $60 MidiMate thing that
>   connects to the board's "game port".
>3) A SCSI connector for adding on CD-ROMs in other MultiMedia applications.
>4) Dual on-board FM Synthesizers with 22 note stereo polyphony.
>
>If anyone has worked with one of these boards, I have a couple of questions:
>
>  Are the sampling inputs balanced or not?
	What do you mean, balanced analog inputs? No, just standard asymetric
	inputs.
>
>  Did anyone acquire the MidiMate, and if so, how many I/O/T's does it
>  provide?
	1 port to the joystick/midi port of the Pro16,
	1 Midi in, 1 midi thru, 2 midi out
	1 joystick port.
>
>  Is the SCSI connector truly useful?  Can I daisy chain a number of
>  SCSI devices?  (In other words, would this replace a stand-alone SCSI
>  interface?)
	I don't use it. Anyways, it isn't fast enough to support fast SCSI
	devices (ex hard disks). It is unclear how many CDrom drives can be
	supproted (I'd think one only). MediaVision doesn't provide anything
	with the standard board purchase to use the SCSI port. You have to 
	buy from them another piece of equipment (the cable!) to get the
	drivers. In other words, not a good deal if you need a real SCSI
	device.
>
>  What kind of audio outputs does it provide...differential or single-ended?
>
	single ended.

>  Is the software that comes with any good?  and on a similar note, is
>  there any third-party software available?  It claims to be compatible
>  with SoundBlaster and AdLib software, although I don't really know what
>  this implies.  I thought the SB and AL boards didn't do sampling.
>
	There, it hurts. The software bundled with the board isn't as nice as
	the ad says... it is DOS software and doesn't run under windows.
	There is a DOS version of the Voyetra junior midi sampler. Not too
	bad, but the doc is bad, the user interface is ugly and it doesn't
	come even close to cakewalk for example. There is also StereoFX, 
	or something like that. It's another DOS app without too much of
	interest, unless you want to spend hours to cut and paste pieces
	of sampled sound and stare at the waveforms displayed on the screen.
	And there is a directory called tbpro (trackBlaster pro), another
	DOS-useless piece of software that mixes sounds from four tracks
	not too good. The las one is Pro Speech "Advanced text-to speech 
	synth.". Doesn't work with any of the CD (DOS) software that I have
	such as encyclopedia, The speech is low quality. 

	The only software that is provided for Windows is a mixer panel.
	A simple conclusion: Don't buy the board for the bundled software. 
	The board feature excellent sound quality and that's worth any
	usellable dos software included. Then get a decent windows-based 
	application that supports and takes advantage of the board, and then
	buy the board.

	Now, for the SB and Adlib compatibilities, I used to have some pro-
	blems with the proAudio Spectrum (the 8 bits board). This one works
	just fine with every SB game I tried, except "Where in the world is
	Carmen San Diego", the CD version, when the game is started from 
	Windows. Something weird happens and it's around the sound driver, from
	what the tech support guys of Broderbund say. Doesn't mean it the fault
	of the ProAudio.

>For the price, this board seems superior to any other I've seen so far.
>The only other decent 16-bit card I've seen is the one from TurtleBeach
>for around $800.  I'd like any info from people who have used the board,
>or anyone who could recommend an equally good card for a simliar price.
>
>Thanks!!

	You're welcome. All these opinions are mine, of course, not Sun's.


-Patrick-Gilles Maillot
IMPS/SMCC.
Newsgroups: comp.music