Interesting - particularly given the the response I got to my specific query about the format back in 2003 (see this thread for details). Makes me wonder who "earwaxcandle" is and how they came by this information...

Yes I remember reading that thread before, glad to see you again on this thread.
Indeed I already googled earwaxcandle 😉 but it did not make me any wiser.
The document seems as if it is written by an insider, not a reverse engineer.
I do have a slight tendency to email him, and the awave studio people for that matter, or this guy:
http://www.programmersheaven.com/mb/sound/291 … eadmessage.aspx

I have programmed two converters before, simple ones. But this ecw format seems like quite a complicated thing. and then one would also need to master a format to convert it from/too, like dls/sf2..

In that reply you got from creative in 2003: Ain't it a bit odd that ensoniq did not have the rights to make an editor or release the format. They programmed a very impressive software emulator and then made it all dependable on a format that they can't use how they see fit.... it is either not true or it is stupid. IMHO

I just send an email to FmjSoft (Awave Studio) about the ECW format specification. Hope I get a reply, hope they are interested in supporting the format. I will update this thread if I have any news.

EDIT 28-06-07:
I got a reply from a fellow of FmjSoft; it seems he is certainly interested in the format and also suprised it is available.

One thing that is not really clear to me is that the $120 awave studio licence, probably aimed add midi composers, is not a very attractive price if all you want to do is a single conversion of a quality soundfont/dls to a new ecw. Although it might make me a popular guy if I share it 😉

Not to BUMP an old post, but I think I might know who "earwaxcandle" is...and more about the whole .ECW thing... a little more info is at http://engelmann.brinkster.net/software/ecw/index.html

AudioPCI was definitely a disappointment for MIDI quality. I "upgraded" to one from a Ensoniq Soundscape and it didn't sound better in my DOS games. Even the 8 MB set is not very good. It took a while for them to get the 8 MB set out, so I'd imagine they were having problems getting better quality out of it.

The older Soundscape cards use 2 MB ROMs and have a real hardware synth + CPU. Elite has a very nice DSP daughtercard that is very flexible (buggy software toolkit tho). They were obviously much more costly to build. AudioPCI was, on the other hand, absolutely built to be cheap. A last ditch effort to save the company, IMO, with super high volume by appeasing OEM PC makers. AudioPCI sure did sell, but it didn't make much money apparently. Creative obviously liked the thing alot though and used it in many other cards for years.

Still, now we know a 16MB ECW would be nice just to round out the sets 😉

(Good link, though).

That is an interesting article indeed. Thanks for the link!
Must add that quite soon after my initial post I started to get me some recommended midi hardware, and with that became aware that things like the audio PCI would never be satisfying ever again...
At that time I also encountered my first motherboard that did not support the 'NMI hack' that the Audio-PCI drivers use for DOS compatibility (asus A7V600).
Which made it clear that it is not such a reliable method as I thought it to be.

Despite all that, the audio-pci served me well for years though.