Port/Able Plus Sound system

Tecmar has delayed the ProSound soundboards until September. Last I
heard they were considering adding wave table synthesis capability.
Mark Hutchinson of Tecmar should be able to tell you more, (800)624-8560.

Anyway, here's a review of the PortAble sound device by
Fractalman ():

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DIGISPEECH PORT*ABLE SOUND PLUS REVIEW
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Setup:
Toshiba T4400C with 486DX/25 CPU
4 megs RAM, 120 meg hard drive
QEMM386 6.04

Just picked up a Port*able Sound Plus device for fun. The Port*able
Sound Plus is actually in two parts, both about the same size, about
3"x6"x2" high. The slightly thinner one plugs into the parallel port and
the thicker one is the speaker/microphone/battery pack. Digispeech also
sells the Port*able Sound (non-plus model) which doesn't come with the
speaker device, but then you'll need to use the 9v adapter. With the
plus setup the parallel port device can either use the 9v adapter or
draw power from the speaker. That way the Port*able Sound can be a
totally portable setup. The speaker unit is connected to the parallel
port using a telephone cable type of cable which might break easily. You
can use your own speakers which might be better since you'll be able to
get stereo sounds, the built-in speaker can only do mono (obviously).
There's a power switch on the speaker device which you must remember to
turn on otherwise the parallel port device won't be detected by the
software drivers. The speaker unit is big but okay for a speaker unit,
but the parallel port part is way to big. Eventhough it can fold up but
the one I bought has a loose hinge so it won't stay up.

The Port*able Sound claims to be Adlib and Soundblaster compatible. This
is the featuer that I'm most interested in. Media Vision's AudioPort
also claim to be Adlib/SB compatible but it only works in a DOS box
under Windows. Not so with the Port*able Sound, it works directly from
DOS. The included drivers crashed my machine but newer drivers can be
downloaded from their BBS (at 2400, ugh!). After disabling QEMM (the
drivers only work with himem.sys) I loaded the drivers and tried out
some SB compatible games. It works fairly good with some exceptions.
Right now I'd say that the Port*able Sound is only Adlib compatible and
SB compatible to a certain extent. I've tested the unit with various
shareware and commercial games. I've made a little table at the end of
the article. Take a look. One problem is that the Adlib/SB emulation
driver will only work with XMS so games that need EMS or need lots of
free low memory won't really work. But, if you really need those you can
run Windows and then open a DOS box. But the speed is a bit slower this
way. I didn't like the AudioPort because of this, but the Port*able
Sound's emulation speed is much faster than AudioPorts. The SB emulation
in the DOS box works slightly better but most games that don't work
using SB emulation in DOS most likely won't work in the DOS box.
Programs that use DMA usually don't work correctly, this includes most
of those graphics/sound demos and things like MOD players.

Under Windows the drivers work just as expected and supports both WAVE
and MIDI files. QuickTime and AVI (Microsoft Video) files play back
smoothly with sounds. I'm not really interested in testing out the
capabilities of the Port*able Sound under Windows since the MediaVision
AudioPort works pretty well in Windows. If I just need sounds in Windows
the AudioPort could do the job for a lot cheaper. (But the AudioPort is
an 8-bit mono device while the Port*able Sound is 16-bit stereo and has
a much 'cleaner' sound.)

Okay, babbling as usual again. If you need more info on the Port*able
Sound, AudioPort, or any laptop devices feel free to e-mail me. I'll try
to answer to my best capabilities.

-Fractalman


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Port*able Sound compatibility chart
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These are just some of the programs that I tested, if you need to know
if a certain specific program would work send me mail and I'll try to
find that program and try it out for you.

Wolfenstein 3-D SB
Kaeon SB
Flashback Adlib, very slow
Prince of Persia Adlib
Prince of Persia II Adlib
Carmen Sandiego/Space Adlib
The Incredible Machine SB
Dvorak on Typing doesn't work
Ultima Underworld II Adlib, only works in Windows (EMS required)

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Some blurbs taken the manual without permission

ZDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD?
3 Technical Specifications 3
@DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDY

General Features
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Complete integrated external audio solution
- Microsoft Windows 3.1 compatible
- Supports all MPC programs designed for Microsoft Windows 3.1
- Works with both standard and PS/2 Microchannel PCs
- Supported by Voyetra Sound Factory MS-DOS digitized
audio/synthesized music drivers
- Stereo or mono playback, 16 or 8 bits per channel
- Sampling rates from 4KHz to 44.1KHz
- Superb digital audio quality suitable for business applications
- External design eliminates noise from internal PC circuits
- Supports DVI (IMA) ADPCM, OKI ADPCM and SoundBlaster ADPCM
compression and decompression in real time
- Simultaneous synthesized music and digitized audio playback
- Works with SoundBlaster/Adlib compatible programs (requires 386 or
higher CPU with at least 2MB RAM memory)
- Synthesized music, 9 melodic or 7 melodic and 4 percussive voices
- Software-programmable volume controle and recording level control

Hardware Specifications
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Effective Bandwith:
Playback: 16KHz
Recording: 3.4KHz

Line-Out:
D/A Single Frequency Distortion: -60dB @ 1KHz
-55dB @ 10KHz
Max Level: 1.3V RMS
Signal to Noise Ratio (unweighted): -72dB

Built-in Speaker:
Single Frequency Distortion: -54dB @ 1KHz
-50dB @ 10KHz
Signal to Noise Ratio (unweighted): -70dB

Headphone Out:
Single Frequency Distortion: -57dB @ 1KHz
-54dB @ 10KHz
Signal to Noise Ratio (unweighted): -70dB
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--
Teemu Mottonen
Dept. of Computer Science
Univ. of Helsinki, Finland

: Was in egghead today and saw a Port/Able Plus Sound System.
: The box said it had Sound-Blaster/Adlib support. Reason this is in
: c.s.i.ps2.h is it uses a parallel port connection, and was only ~$180,
: instead of $250 for a MCA SBPro. Does anyone out there have one/tried one?
: How is the sound-blaster support? Thanks for any info.

Please post or e-mail me as well...I've inherted(sp?) a second
Model 70 and I want to set it up as computer for my wife...but she
want's the sounds and all in her programs...windoze and OS/2.. I've
got a Soundblaster 2.0 in my 70, but I'm not willing to shell out $250
for stereo sound and a quirkey sound cardI've had enough headaches
witht the SB and windoze...so any info on this option would be greatly
appreciated, also what happened to the Techmar Pro Sound that was
supposed to come out...wasn't going to be made into a MC version and
retail around $250...???

Thanks for your help and info

Greg

Greg Knoch |"I hope, when they die, cartoon characters
New Mexico State U. | have to answer for their sins"
|
Go Dolphins !!!! | (Jack Handey -- Deep Thoughts)

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