Breaking the pc sound barrier: take advantage of Windows' audio capabilities - Windows Watcher - Tutorial

Home Office Computing, August, 1992 by Kay Yarborough Nelson

Windows 3.1 comes with sound capabilities built in--but how do you take advantage of them? This month's column will show you how you can start to add sound to your system, assign sounds to events, record your own sounds, and make voice-annotated documents. Hard? Not at all. Installing a sound board is probably the toughest step, but if you can use a screwdriver, you can install a card without much heartache.

Sound without hardware. You can play sounds without extra hardware, but you're limited to just a few. The secret is to install the PC Speaker driver. You can download it from CompuServe (GO MSL; browse through the WDL libraries for Speaker). If you're not on CompuServe, you can call the Microsoft Windows Support BBS ([206] 637-9009) or order the Windows Resource Kit from Microsoft ([800] 426-9400, $20); the PC Speaker driver comes with it. You can also add cardless sound by buying a program such as Wired for Sound ($49; Aristosoft, 6920 Koll Center Pkwy., Suite 209, Pleasanton, CA 94566; [510] 426-5355, [800] 338-2629).

The hardware you'll need. To play the sounds that accompany Windows, you'll need a sound card and speakers. If you want to record sounds of your own, you'll also need a microphone.

Sound setups aren't expensive if all you want to do is have a little fun--and do a little serious work. You can acquire a whole setup (card, speakers, and mike) for $125 or less. Sound Blaster 2.0 costs only $200 and will let you record sound, create synthesized music, and read aloud from text files (Creative Labs, 1901 McCarthy Blvd., Milpitas, CA 95035; [408] 428-6600, [800] 998-5227). Sound cards that let you do sophisticated samples and manipulations usually cost at least $300.

Unless you're going to create music (and I'm assuming you're not), you can use a mono microphone. Prices at Radio Shack start at $17. And if you're not going for high fidelity, don't get your speakers in the computer section of your electronics store: Go to the radio section and get a pair of Walkman-type speakers. They're cheap--less than half the price of those you'll see in the computer section.

Installing the sound driver. The next step is to tell Windows you've got a sound card. You'll need to start Windows and install the sound card's device driver. Keep the sound card's manual handy, because Windows is going to ask you about which I/O address and which interrupt it uses. Windows is also going to ask you for one of its installation disks, or for the installation disk that came with your sound card.

After you've installed the driver, click on Restart to start Windows again so that you can hear the sounds.

Click on an event or keyboard action to assign the currently selected sound to it. For example, whatever sound you assign to the exclamation point or asterisk will play whenever you get a warning message. To turn off a sound for an event, select the event and then click on None.

Recording sounds. It's a lot of fun to record your own sounds. Open the Sound Recorder accessory and switch on your microphone. Then click on the on-screen microphone button (it's in the lower-right corner of the Sound Recorder accessory, which looks like a tape deck). Speak, make your dog bark, or play music into the mike; Windows will tell you how much time you' ve got, which depends on how much memory you have. Then click on Stop (it's the square button next to the microphone on the "tape deck").

To save your recorded sound after you're satisfied with it, choose Save from the File menu and give your sound a name--the extension WAV will be added automatically. That's it! Now you can use it for any of the Windows events--start-up, exit, questions, whatever.

Adding voice annotations. Say you're preparing a report and want to remind yourself about an important letter that should go out or particular details you've dictated. You can embed a sound in the document and just double-click on the embedded sound icon to hear your annotation later.

In any Windows program that supports OLE, put the cursor where you want the sound icon to appear in the document. Using the Insert Object function from the Edit menu will embed a sound at the cursor. From then on you can just double-click on the sound's icon to hear the message.

Amazing, isn't it? Windows 3.1 is not only a sound investment; it's an investment in sound. Have fun!