The HARDWARE
============

Please read Mark J. Cox' file HARDWARE.DOC in this directory which is included
with his kindly permissions if you want to know how simple you can built
DACs and the famous Stereo-on-One device!
The archive sndpics.zip contains gif pictures of all the decribed circuits,
thanks to Theo Wunderlich.

PCSEL configuration utility
===========================

pcsel should be used to configure your /dev/pcsp at system startup or
for testing new devices. It accept the following options:

	pcsel [-d device] [-p port] [-r rp -l lp] [-s Hz] [-SM]
	      [-b real samplerate] [-v volume]

	-d device	set the output-device:
			'Sto1' : Stereo-on-One
			'DACm' : Mono DAC
			'DACs' : Stereo DAC
			'PCSP' : PC-Speaker
	-p port		the lp port to use (0-2) for single DAC
	-r rp -l lp	the lp ports for two DACs
	-s Hz		set the speed to Hz; this is only needed if
			you want access /dev/pcsp with cat or dd 
	-S		set Stereo if possible
	-M		set Mono
	-e on|off	enables or diables the 16bit stereo emulation
	-b real samp...	set the real samplerate for playing thru PC-Speaker,
			this MUST be less than the maximal samplerate which
			is measured by the driver;
			'pcsel -b max' set the maximum possible samplerate
	-v volume	set the volume for PC-Speaker in %, more than
			100 are possible if the /dev/mixer-support
			isn't installed
	-h		usage information

	pcsel		with no options report the actual output-device

Note that Stereo-on-One is autodetected at kernel-startup and switched to
default device (otherwise PC-Speaker is chosen). If you switch to
Stereo-on-One there is no need to specify the lp-port (wrong ports will
be rejected).


Digitized Audio Utility for Linux ver. 1.2
==========================================

vrec and vplay
--------------

These programs can be used for recording and playing:
  CREATIVE LABS VOICE files
  MICROSOFT WAVE file
  raw audio data. 

Both programs accept the same options:

	vrec  [-qvwrS] [-s speed] [-t seconds] [-b bits] [-o device] [filename1 ...]
	vplay [-qvwrS] [-s speed] [-t seconds] [-b bits] [-o device] [filename1 ...]

	-V		say version
	-S		Stereo (default is mono).
	-s speed	Sets the speed (default is 8 kHz). If the speed is
			less than 300, it will be multiplied by 1000.
	-t seconds	Sets the recording (or playback) time in seconds.
			(Default is no time limit).
	-t bits		Sets sample size (bits/sample). Possible values are
			8 and 16 (default 8).
	-o device	the audio device
        -v              record a CREATIVE LABS VOICE file (default)
        -w              record a MICROSOFT WAVE file
        -r              record raw data without header, force raw modus
        -q              quiet mode

        The options for speed, time etc. take only effect if you playing
        raw data files (or recording). VOC and WAVE-files include this
        information in their headers/internal structure. However, you can
	enforce to raw mode using the -r flag.
	If no filenames are given, stdout (vrec) or stdin (vplay) is used. 
        The -t parameter applies to each files. For example

		vrec -r -t 1 a b c

	records one second of audio data to each of the files a, b, and c and

		vplay -t 1 a b c

	plays the first second of each of the files a, b and c (if its
        raw audio).

Don't use higher recording speeds than your card supports. This error is not
always detected by the driver.

vplay supports:
  - the full CREATIVE LABS VOICE structure:
    Silence, Repeat loops (on seekable input), Stereo, ASCII blocks,
    blocks with different sampling rate, 16 bit records 
  - on non-stereo cards (SB 1.0 - 2.0) 8 bit stereo files will be
    played as mono (by mixing both channels)
  - on non-16-bit cards, 16 bit files will be played as 8 bit
    (you can really play on a SB 1.0 (or thru PC-Speaker, although PCSP
    has his own faster mixer :-) a 16 bit stereo WAVE file, or buy ...)

unsupported:
  - packed VOC files (because /dev/dsp can't it)
  - the full RIFF specification (yet I'm working on it)
  - not PCM coded WAVE files


Michael Beck			beck@dgroup.de
