First post, by NY00123
This thread is a place for reporting about examples of hypervisors, emulators, compatibility layers and similar programs, which support audio recording from a host input device (e.g., a microphone) using an emulated Sound Blaster. This also includes partial support, say if only early SB cards are emulated and just one DOS program is usable with a host input device.
Please limit yourselves only to working examples; Basically, any environment which can pass the data received from host mic input (or any other actual audio input device) to an emulated SB.
This is a follow-up to the following recent discovery of mine, emphasis on the words "Shortcomings in PCM/Wave Playback and Recording" from the VMware page:
VMware DOS sound improved.. now is finally possible to play FX + FM together! -> https://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-40539
I'm going to start with two DOS programs, and the levels of compatibility with one hypervisor and one compatibility layer.
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DOS programs
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CTHUGHA: A program which processes incoming sound and displays graphics synced to the sound. More details are given here: http://www.afn.org/~cthugha/archives.html
For a download, look for "cthug53.zip", which should come from around 1995-06-24 21:56:04 and have the size of 401430 bytes.
I've attached a backup, which is the ZIP file itself compressed again as a 7Z in order to preserve the file's timestamp (while also reducing the attached file's size a bit):
After starting CTHUGHA and waiting for loading to complete, press on 'C' for configuration and select Mic as the input device. You may then try to control the recording level using the "Level" buttons. Press Esc to get back, and then try to use the microphone.
RS: A command-line utility powered by the Apogee Sound System, based on Simple sound player (PS.EXE) from James R. Dose. Records unsigned 8-bit mono sound to a RAW PCM formatted file. I actually came up with it for testing audio recording under VMware Player. Was admittedly never tested with vintage DOS hardware, so your mileage may vary. Archive with last binary and source is currently available at: https://ny.duke4.net/files.html; git repository link: https://gitlab.com/NY00123/audiolib-rs
This player requires DOS4GW.EXE or a compatible extender. Once it's ready, enter "RS" for usage instructions. Generally, though, "RS OUTFILE.RAW" should be sufficient.
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Environments with SB emulation
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VMware Workstation Player 15 (15.5.1 build-15018445) with FreeDOS:
- RS is working as expected while using the Sound Blaster as the card (should be the default).
- Under CTHUGHA's configuration screen, the received sound's volume seems to be correctly reported after it's set up as described above.
DOSEMU2 (Jan 12 2020 build) with fdpp (FreeDOS plus-plus):
- RS is not working as expected.
- CTHUGHA seems to work as under VMware, with one difference: In addition to processing the sound, the recorded input is redirected to the output (e.g., the speakers). The exact volume depends on the recording level set as described above, and it'll keep to work after after leaving CTHUGHA. I'm not sure if this is an instance of an original Sound Blaster feature (e.g., a mixer one) being emulated or not.