Frequently Asked Questions for SB AWE64/AWE 64 Gold =================================================== This is a frequently asked question document for the Creative SB AWE64/AWE64 Gold sound cards. In this document, SB AWE64 and SB AWE64 Gold are collectively known as SB AWE64 unless otherwise specify. If you have a question, please check this file before calling Creative Technical Support as you may find the answer contained in this document. This FAQ is organized into the following sections: [A] SB AWE64 in General [B] SoundFont(TM) Banks [C] How do I ... Before you continue ... This document assumes you have a basic understanding of how MIDI works, the different MIDI messages, and how your MIDI sequencer works. If you are not familiar with these topics, please consider consulting a friend who has experience with MIDI, or consulting books on MIDI. Contents ======== Section A - SB AWE64 in general ------------------------------- 1. How does SB AWE64 differ from the SB AWE32/SB32? 2. What are the differences between AWE64 and AWE64 Gold? 3. Can I upgrade the memory on my SB AWE64 card? 4. What are the uses of the DRAM on the SB AWE64? 5. Would adding DRAM to the SB AWE64 increase the performance of WAVE file editing or manipulation? 6. What MIDI sequencers will work with SB AWE64? Are special drivers required? 7. What is 'CC0' documented in Appendix of SB AWE64 manual? How are these variation tones accessed? 8. What 'drum kits' are available in GS mode? 9. Does the SB AWE64 respond to MIDI Aftertouch? 10. My PC system does not have a working NMI. What can I do to use AWEUTIL? 11. Is there a WaveBlaster upgrade option on the SB AWE64? 12. Is it possible to load AWEUTIL into high memory? 13. Does AWEUTIL have to stay memory resident? 14. Will software written for the SB AWE32 work with the SB AWE64? 15. What are the different reverb and chorus variations available on the SB AWE64? Section B - SoundFont Bank -------------------------- 1. What are SoundFont collections? 2. How do SoundFont banks work? 3. What can I do with SoundFont Banks? 4. Will having more memory on the SB AWE64 improve the sound quality ? Section C - How Do I ... ------------------------ 1. How do I make use of RPN documented in the SB AWE64 MIDI Implementation chart? 2. How do I select the SB AWE64's reverb and chorus variation type through MIDI? 3. How can I maximize my system's memory so that I still have plenty of room to run games after installing the SB AWE64? 4. How do I load a SoundFont bank? 5. How do I setup my sequencer software to access the user bank that I have downloaded into the RAM ? 6. How do I get the latest drivers for the SB AWE64? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Section A - SB AWE64 in general =============================== 1. How does SB AWE64 differ from the SB AWE32/SB32? The SB AWE64 has additional 32 polyphony compare to SB AWE32/SB32. The EMU8000 synthesizer that is used on SB AWE64 and SB AWE32 family cards provide up to 32 polyphony. The additional 32 polyphony is implemented using Creative WaveSynth/WG. 2. What are the differences between AWE64 and AWE64 Gold? Below is a simplify comparison chart between these two cards : AWE64 AWE64 Gold ===== ========== 1)SPDIF connector No Yes 2)Onboard RAM 0.5 MB 4 MB 3)Power Amp Yes No 4)Line Out Yes No 5)RCA out No Yes 3. Can I upgrade the memory on my SB AWE64 card? The Sound Blaster AWE64 has memory header socket that allow user to upgrade special memory module by Creative. It can be upgraded up to maximum of 28MB RAM. 4. What are the uses of the DRAM on the SB AWE64? The on-board DRAM is used to hold samples. In GS/MT-32 synthesizer mode, it is used to hold the sound effects of GS/MT-32. In GM synthesizer mode, the DRAM is free, so it can hold SoundFont banks containing samples. Applications that support 3D Positional Audio will download 3D sound sources to the DRAM also. 5. Would adding DRAM to the SB AWE64 increase the performance of WAVE file editing or manipulation? Addition of DRAM to the SB AWE64 will allow you to accommodate more SoundFont bank data. This, however, will not increase the performance of WAVE file editing or manipulation as the latter does not make use of the DRAM on the SB AWE64. 6. What MIDI sequencers will work with SB AWE64? Are special drivers required? The AWE package ships with a Windows AWE MIDI driver. Therefore, the AWE can be used with any Windows based MIDI sequencer software. For DOS, the sequencer software needs to have native AWE support. 7. What is 'CC0' documented in Appendix of SB AWE64 manual? How are these variation tones accessed? CC0 is short form for Continuous Controller 0 (zero), which is MIDI Bank Change. The SB AWE offers Sound Canvas compatibility by including the user bank instruments found on the Sound Canvas. User bank instruments are simply instruments of a similar class or variation. For example, General MIDI instrument number 25 is the Steel Acoustic Guitar, and its variation is the Ukulele. A user bank tone is just like any other General MIDI instrument. Take for example the Ukulele variation tone. Lets assume you are currently doing MIDI editing under Cakewalk Apprentice, and you sequenced a track that uses Steel Acoustic Guitar. You play the track back, and feel that the Steel Acoustic Guitar does not quite cut it, so you decide to give Ukulele a try. What you would need to do is to insert a MIDI bank change of value 8 (the user bank for Ukulele) in that track, follow immediately by a program change of 25 (Steel Acoustic Guitar) to select the user bank tone. What you have just accomplished is to set the MIDI channel in which the Steel Acoustic Guitar instrument is playing to the user bank instrument 'Ukulele'. 8. What 'drum kits' are available in GS mode? A drum kit is a collection of percussive instruments (snare drum, bass drum, hi-hats) laid across the entire MIDI keyboard. Under General MIDI, MIDI channel 10 is reserved for percussion instruments. General MIDI defines only one drum kit, which is the Standard Kit. Under the 'GM' synth mode of the SB AWE, channel 10 automatically uses the 'Standard Kit'. MIDI music would be very boring if everybody used the same drum kit in every MIDI song. Imagine all MIDI songs using the same snare drum and the same bass drum, and you will have an idea of how similar every MIDI song will sound. Under the 'GS' synth mode of the SB AWE there are 11 (including the Standard Drum Kit) different drum kits you can use on MIDI Channel 10. These drum kits are: Name Program Description Number Standard/ Standard General MIDI drum kit. Jazz 0/32 Jazz is similar to the Standard drum kit. Room 8 Similar to that of the Standard kit except that it has more room ambiance. Power 16 Again similar to that of the Standard kit, but with more power kick and snare drums. Electronic 24 Electronic drum kit. Most of the percussion instruments in this drum kit are reminiscence of old analogue and digital rhythm machines (such as the Roland TR-707 and TR-909 rhythm machine) TR-808 25 Electronic drum kit, reminiscence of the Roland TR-808 rhythm machine. Brush 40 Similar to the Standard kit except that brushes have been added. This kit is mostly used for Jazz MIDI pieces. Orchestra 48 An immense collection of concert drums and timpani. SFX 56 A collection of Sound Effects. CM-64/32L 127 Same as the Roland MT-32 drum kit. This drum kit contains standard percussion at the lower range of the keyboard, and sound effects at the higher range of the keyboard. Drum kits are very easy to access under MIDI. Each drum kit is essentially an instrument and you select a drum kit by selecting an instrument, just as if you would select a melodic instrument. For example, if you want to select the TR-808, all you have to do is to perform a program change to 25 on MIDI channel 10. After the program change, all percussion sounds will be played back through the TR-808 drum kit. 9. Does the SB AWE64 respond to MIDI Aftertouch? Yes. SB AWE Windows MIDI driver support MIDI Aftertouch. 10. My PC system does not have a working NMI. What can I do to use AWEUTIL? One of the most common causes of a system not having a working NMI is that the system’s memory parity checking has been turned off. You can check your system’s memory parity checking status by activating your system’s BIOS setup. Consult your system’s user manual on how to activate BIOS/CMOS setup and memory parity checking. If your system does not have a working NMI or you have a DOS protected mode game, then you can only play games using FM music. Note that this NMI problem only applies to DOS games or applications, not to Windows games or applications. Under Windows, all applications play music and sound effects through the standard SB AWE Windows drivers. 11. Is there a WaveBlaster upgrade option on the SB AWE64? No. The WaveBlaster was originally created as an upgrade option for non-wavetable card, such as SB16. It is also meant as an upgrade option of wavetable card, such as SB AWE32 to have additional polyphony. With SB AWE which can provide up to 64 polyphony, the WaveBlaster header is no longer needed. 12. Is it possible to load AWEUTIL into high memory? AWEUTIL automatically searches for high memory and will attempt to load itself high if enough high memory is available. 13. Does AWEUTIL have to stay memory resident? AWEUTIL serves two purposes; to initialize and control the reverb and chorus effects of the FM hardware on the SB AWE card, and to provide NMI MIDI Feedback. AWEUTIL /S will initialize and set the reverb and chorus effect of the FM hardware, and then terminate. It will not stay resident in memory. If you want to activate NMI MIDI Feedback, then run AWEUTIL /EM:XX (XX = GM, GS or MT32) before starting your game. When you finish the game, remember to run AWEUTIL /U to unload AWEUTIL from memory. 14. Will software written for the SB AWE32 work with the SB AWE64? Yes. The SB AWE64 is fully compatible with SB AWE32. Games or application software that support SB AWE32 will be able to work on SB AWE64. 15. What are the different reverb and chorus variations available on the SB AWE64? Reverb and chorus effects add warmth and movement to MIDI playback. There are eight reverb types and eight chorus types available on the SB AWE64 when using EMU8000 synthesizer. Room 1 - 3 This group of reverb variation simulates the natural ambiance of a room. Room 1 simulates a small room, Room 2 simulates a slightly bigger room, and Room 3 simulates a big room. Hall 1 - 2 This group of reverb variation simulates the natural ambiance of a concert hall. It has greater depth than the room variations. Again, Hall 1 simulates a small hall, and Hall 2 simulates a larger hall. Plate Back in the old days, reverb effects were sometimes produced using a metal plate, and this type of reverb produces a metallic echo. The SB AWE's Plate variation simulates this form of reverb. Delay This reverb produces a delay, that is, echo effect. Panning Delay This reverb variation produces a delay effect that is continuously panned left and right. Chorus 1 - 4 Chorus produces a 'beating' effect. The chorus effects are more prominent going from chorus 1 to chorus 4. Feedback Chorus This chorus variation simulates a soft 'swishing' effect. Flanger This chorus variation produces a more prominent feedback chorus effect. Short Delay This chorus variation simulates a delay repeated in a short time. Short Delay (feed back) This chorus variation simulates a short delay repeated (feedback) many times. These effect variations can be selected by the following sysex messages: Reverb sysex macro F0 41 10 42 12 40 01 30 XX 00 F7 where XX denotes the reverb variation to be selected. The valid values for XX are 00 - Room 1 01 - Room 2 02 - Room 3 03 - Hall 1 04 - Hall 2 05 - Plate 06 - Delay 07 - Panning Delay Chorus sysex macro F0 41 10 42 12 40 01 38 XX 00 F7 again, XX denotes the chorus variation to be selected. The valid values for XX are 00 - Chorus 1 01 - Chorus 2 02 - Chorus 3 03 - Chorus 4 04 - Feedback chorus 05 - Flanger 06 - Short Delay 07 - Short delay (FB) Section B - SoundFont Bank ========================== 1. What are SoundFont collections? E-mu SoundFont collections are CD-ROMs that contain SoundFont banks of varying sizes (0.5 MB to 8 MB). E-mu's SoundFont banks include both instruments and sound effects. Many of E-mu's traditional instrument sounds are included (for example Proteus 1-3) as well as some new sounds. 2. How do SoundFont banks work? SoundFont banks can be loaded into RAM on the SB AWE64. They can then be used in conjunction with a MIDI sequencer to create soundtracks or other kinds of audio creations. 3. What can I do with SoundFont Banks? You can: a.Load SoundFont banks of your choice into the RAM of your SB AWE64 and use this set of sounds as you compose with a MIDI sequencer. b.Create your own SoundFont bank with SoundFont objects from various SoundFont banks you already have using Vienna SF Studio software. c.Edit individual SoundFont parameters with Vienna to create your own version of the sounds and then assemble your own SoundFont objects into a SoundFont bank. Creating your own SoundFont objects and banks gives you the freedom to create your own unique instruments and sound effects to differentiate your soundtracks. 4. Will having more memory on the SB AWE64 improve the sound quality ? The more RAM memory on your SB AWE64, the larger and fuller the sound samples you can include in your SoundFont Banks. Section C - How Do I ... ======================== 1. How do I make use of RPN documented in the SB AWE64 MIDI Implementation chart? RPN is a short form for 'Registered Parameter Number'. Registered Parameter Numbers are used to represent sound or performance parameters. MIDI 1.0 specified three RPNs: RPN 0 for Pitch Bend Sensitivity, RPN 1 for Coarse Tune and RPN 2 for Fine Tune. The SB AWE implements only RPN 0, Pitch Bend Sensitivity. Before going into how to set pitch bend sensitivity, let's go into how pitch bending is used in MIDI. Pitch Bending is normally used to pitch shift (that is, make the pitch go higher or lower) a sustained note to achieve a 'pitch gliding' effect. The default pitch bend sensitivity of the SB AWE is +/- 2 semitones, that is, you can go high or low of the current note by 2 semitones when using the pitch bend wheel. If you desire a more dramatic pitch bending effect, then you would need to change the pitch bend sensitivity to a higher value. Following are step-by-step instructions to set a pitch bend sensitivity value other than the default 2 semitones. Cakewalk Apprentice will be used as an example. 1. Bring up the 'Event List' window for the track you want to set pitch bend sensitivity. 2. Go to the top of the event list (page up) and insert a MIDI controller event, with controller number 101 and a controller value of 0 3. Insert another MIDI Controller event immediately, with controller number 100 and controller value of 0. 4. Insert another MIDI controller event immediately, with controller number 6, and set the controller value to the desired pitch bend sensitivity. 2. How do I select the SB AWE64's reverb and chorus variation type through MIDI? You can select the reverb and chorus variation via sysex. The SB AWE Windows (not DOS) driver recognizes two strings of sysex; one for selecting reverb variation, and the other for selecting chorus variation. Reverb sysex string: F0 41 10 42 12 40 01 30 XX 00 F7 Where XX indicates the reverb variations (from 0 to 7). Chorus sysex string: F0 41 10 42 12 40 01 38 XX 00 F7 Where XX indicates the chorus variation (from 0 to 7). 3. How can I maximize my system's memory so that I still have plenty of room to run games after installing the SB AWE64? There are two drivers (CTMMSYS.SYS and CTSB16.SYS) you can remove from CONFIG.SYS. These two drivers provide digital playback and recording interface under DOS. They are not used by the EMU8000 subsystem. By removing these two drivers, you will not be able to run PLAY.EXE, RECORD.EXE under DOS, but you will gain approximately 30K of memory. 4. How do I load a SoundFont bank? Loading SoundFont Banks is easy. Just use the SB AWE Windows Control Panel Applet, as follows: 1.Use the up or down arrow keys next to the user bank number to select the desired bank. A dialog box appears. 2.Select the directory that contains the *.SBK/*.SF2 files. 3.Double-click the desired file to load it into the particular user bank. 5. How do I setup my sequencer software to access the user bank that I have downloaded into the RAM ? In order for a sequencer software to access the user bank, you will need to issue MIDI Continuous Controller 0 (which is a MIDI Bank Select) at the channel that you need to access the instrument. After that, follow by a MIDI Program Change to select the patch/intrument within the user bank. Using the SAMPLE.SBK that is bundled with the SB AWE64 as an example, we will illustrate how this can be done. The patches contains in SAMPLE.SBK are : 0 - bubble 1 - dog 2 - door 3 - carstop 4 - carpass 5 - laughing 6 - screaming 7 - punch Supposing that you would like to use the 'door' sound in Channel 5 of a piece of music. Here is the step-by-step guide that what you should do : 1. Activate the SB AWE Control Panel 2. Download the SAMPLE.SBK as user bank 1 ( Note : you can download to any user bank that is empty ranging from 1 to 127. Bank 0 is ALWAYS reserved for Syhthesizer Bank. ) 3. Activate sequencer software 4. Insert MIDI CC0 1 at Channel 5 ( CC0 1 means do a Bank Select to Bank 1. We do it at Channel 5 since we wish to apply it to this channel. ) 5. Insert MIDI Program Change 2. ( Since 'door' patch number is 2. Please take note of the numbering convention used in your MIDI sequencer. It can be either from 0-127 OR 1-128. If you are using numbering convention from 1-128 , then you should do a MIDI Program Change 3 instead of 2 ) If you do any Note On in Channel 5 now, you will be able to hear the 'door' sound. 6. How do I get the latest drivers for the SB AWE64? The latest SB AWE drivers, utilities can be found at the following sites: Inside U.S.A., Canada and South America Creative Labs, Inc. BBS : (405)742-6660 Inside Europe CL-UK BBS : (44)743-360287 CL-Germany BBS : (49)2131-919820 Inside Asia Pacific Creative Technology Ltd BBS : (65)776-2423 CompuServe type GO BLASTER to enter the Creative Labs Forum Internet http://www.creaf.com