LGR Oddware - Covox Speech Thing LPT Sound Device
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Problem #1: The Covox, as you mentioned, ate up a lot of CPU. On our 286 we could only get up until 4000Hz out of it using it for playback of mods. Maybe 8000, but then the sound would sometimes get choppy. So up until the arrival of the 386 (and 486) it wasn't really a great device, and then it took off. You could purchase a copy (or DIY) for maybe 10 bucks and get decent sound quality.
Problem #2: The adaptation of the device was low. Not many games used it, but as it started to become popular in the demo scene, the device found its way to some of the games created by (ex-)demo sceners.
Problem #3: when the price of aging sound cards (Sound Blaster 2) dropped below the 100 dollar mark, the popularity dropped again. I vividly remember replacing my Covox in late 1993 with a Gravis Ultrasound. I kept the device as a backup if the Ultrasound did not work in a game/demo.
Another funny remark: I only switched from the Amiga to the PC, once I heard the sound of the Ultrasound. Before that I was still doubting about upgrading to an Amiga 3000 or 4000. Naturally the PC was quickly becoming a better deal. So I bought a PC, a Covox as a temporary solution till I had enough money to buy the Ultrasound.
Date: 2022-04-14
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Comments and reviews: 9
Gregg
Covox made a Sound Master and Sound Master II. The Sound Master combined a Speech Thing with a pair of joystick ports for Atari 2600 compatible sticks - and I forget what else. The Sound Master II dropped the stick ports, kept the Speech Thing and added some other stuff. Been a loooooong time since I owned either of those cards. There was a Soundblaster emulator driver for Windows 3. 1 for the Sound Master II, so maybe it had some type of FM synthesis.
The trick to getting the Sound Master cards to work like the external Speech Thing was the parallel port settings. You had to make sure that the IRQ and memory range for LPT1 was free, either by disabling your existing LPT1 or changing it to LPT2. If you had any software that could only work with LPT1, well then you either couldn't use it or had to play musical- parallel ports anytime you had to use the software that couldn't work with LPT2.
When I was able to get a real Soundblaster I kicked the Sound Master cards to the curb and sold them for whatever I could get. Kinda wishing I still had them.
-Like the kids' game with the chairs
reply
Covox made a Sound Master and Sound Master II. The Sound Master combined a Speech Thing with a pair of joystick ports for Atari 2600 compatible sticks - and I forget what else. The Sound Master II dropped the stick ports, kept the Speech Thing and added some other stuff. Been a loooooong time since I owned either of those cards. There was a Soundblaster emulator driver for Windows 3. 1 for the Sound Master II, so maybe it had some type of FM synthesis.
The trick to getting the Sound Master cards to work like the external Speech Thing was the parallel port settings. You had to make sure that the IRQ and memory range for LPT1 was free, either by disabling your existing LPT1 or changing it to LPT2. If you had any software that could only work with LPT1, well then you either couldn't use it or had to play musical- parallel ports anytime you had to use the software that couldn't work with LPT2.
When I was able to get a real Soundblaster I kicked the Sound Master cards to the curb and sold them for whatever I could get. Kinda wishing I still had them.
-Like the kids' game with the chairs
reply
Nitro
I know thats an ancient video, but if anyone is interested:
The Covox is a purely passive device, a simple R2R-DAC. Extremly cheap, but needs sophisticated programming to archive a steady sample rate.
The DSS uses a designated DAC chip playing at a fixed sample rate of 7 kHz and containing a small buffer, too. So the data have to be sent there fast enough, but nowhere near the Covox requirements. This chip does signal back when the buffer is ready to accept data, also it needs a strobe signal for every sample. If you try a DSS game with a Covox, that -ready- signal will never come and it won't play.
If you use a Covox game with a DSS, it will either not work at all too, since the strobe is missing, or get very choppy and sounding wrong since the sample rate isn't going to be the exakt 7kHz needed.
reply
I know thats an ancient video, but if anyone is interested:
The Covox is a purely passive device, a simple R2R-DAC. Extremly cheap, but needs sophisticated programming to archive a steady sample rate.
The DSS uses a designated DAC chip playing at a fixed sample rate of 7 kHz and containing a small buffer, too. So the data have to be sent there fast enough, but nowhere near the Covox requirements. This chip does signal back when the buffer is ready to accept data, also it needs a strobe signal for every sample. If you try a DSS game with a Covox, that -ready- signal will never come and it won't play.
If you use a Covox game with a DSS, it will either not work at all too, since the strobe is missing, or get very choppy and sounding wrong since the sample rate isn't going to be the exakt 7kHz needed.
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Tadesan
A flash DAC!
The propagation through it is linear at all states. That means that no matter what pattern of bits show up at the input, the output shows up as fast as the propagation delay of the circuit.
The main limit of -bit rate- or bandwidth is gonna be the fact that as the fresh bits arrive from the next sample, the output state will faithfully change: The arrival order and timing of these bits will be unpredictable and this will cause the output of the DAC to vary wildly during these transitions. The output will have to be filtered to remove this noise and this will define the maximum bitrate.
If you buffer the signal, this bandwidth could be very high however buffering is filtering the input rather than the output and different but analogous limitations still apply.
Cheers: )
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A flash DAC!
The propagation through it is linear at all states. That means that no matter what pattern of bits show up at the input, the output shows up as fast as the propagation delay of the circuit.
The main limit of -bit rate- or bandwidth is gonna be the fact that as the fresh bits arrive from the next sample, the output state will faithfully change: The arrival order and timing of these bits will be unpredictable and this will cause the output of the DAC to vary wildly during these transitions. The output will have to be filtered to remove this noise and this will define the maximum bitrate.
If you buffer the signal, this bandwidth could be very high however buffering is filtering the input rather than the output and different but analogous limitations still apply.
Cheers: )
reply
John
There was an external speech synthesizer for the Apple II that was designed as an accessibility peripheral for blind and visually impaired people. The voice was the standard 80s Stephen Hawking but it actually worked pretty damn well and was surprisingly responsive and quick. I used it throughout elementary school but couldn-t tell you the model number. Definitely worth investigating if any of them is still floating around somewhere, although ancient accessibility tech must be nigh impossible to find.
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There was an external speech synthesizer for the Apple II that was designed as an accessibility peripheral for blind and visually impaired people. The voice was the standard 80s Stephen Hawking but it actually worked pretty damn well and was surprisingly responsive and quick. I used it throughout elementary school but couldn-t tell you the model number. Definitely worth investigating if any of them is still floating around somewhere, although ancient accessibility tech must be nigh impossible to find.
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strayblackcatsmeow
The covox voicemaster took analogue speech or sounds and converted them to digital for editing and playback and for use in programs. That device looks like the means to play it back on soundless computers. My voicemaster was for my C64. Sound files could be played back without the voicemaster attached using the C64 built in digital to analogue ability. Covox also made a C64 5 dollar talking disk to demonstrate the voicemasters potential in software programming.
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The covox voicemaster took analogue speech or sounds and converted them to digital for editing and playback and for use in programs. That device looks like the means to play it back on soundless computers. My voicemaster was for my C64. Sound files could be played back without the voicemaster attached using the C64 built in digital to analogue ability. Covox also made a C64 5 dollar talking disk to demonstrate the voicemasters potential in software programming.
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Palmtop
I used to have a game on PC that gave digitized sound on the PC speaker, with no additional hardware.
The tech was called RealSound: (from wikipedia: RealSound is a patented (US US5054086 A) technology for the PC created by Steve Witzel of Access Software during the late 1980s. [1] RealSound enables 6-bit[2] digitized PCM-audio playback on the PC speaker by means of PWM drive, allowing software control of the loud speaker's amplitude of displacement. )
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I used to have a game on PC that gave digitized sound on the PC speaker, with no additional hardware.
The tech was called RealSound: (from wikipedia: RealSound is a patented (US US5054086 A) technology for the PC created by Steve Witzel of Access Software during the late 1980s. [1] RealSound enables 6-bit[2] digitized PCM-audio playback on the PC speaker by means of PWM drive, allowing software control of the loud speaker's amplitude of displacement. )
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Dean
I remember building one of these from a diagram in a magazine back in the day and using it on my 386sx25, then playing pinball fantasies and being in absolute awe at the fact that the little machine could play that game in a strange semi high-resolution non-standard VESA mode (wasnt it like 320x400) with smooth scrolling and output reasonable quality digital audio over a parallel port simultaneously. and not even frameskip
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I remember building one of these from a diagram in a magazine back in the day and using it on my 386sx25, then playing pinball fantasies and being in absolute awe at the fact that the little machine could play that game in a strange semi high-resolution non-standard VESA mode (wasnt it like 320x400) with smooth scrolling and output reasonable quality digital audio over a parallel port simultaneously. and not even frameskip
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jilmarit
Lifting up an old video: -. Funniest thing happened in 2005 when I was driving car and turned on the car radio. I couldn-t believe the music from 3D Mark 05 was playing! That was when the composer of -Space Debris- Markus Kaarlonen, a. k. a. -Kapu- (eng. Captain, had put out first record with their latest band Poets Of The Fall. That was the song -Lift- (titled -Lift Me Higher- in the end credits of 3D Mark 05.
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Lifting up an old video: -. Funniest thing happened in 2005 when I was driving car and turned on the car radio. I couldn-t believe the music from 3D Mark 05 was playing! That was when the composer of -Space Debris- Markus Kaarlonen, a. k. a. -Kapu- (eng. Captain, had put out first record with their latest band Poets Of The Fall. That was the song -Lift- (titled -Lift Me Higher- in the end credits of 3D Mark 05.
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MouseGunner
Rewatching all the oddware/hardware videos, because they are so interesting. Must admit I have learned a lot from you LGR and although I remember having/using computers from the late 80s and on, I can't remember any of the details and it is fun seeing this stuff talked about and explained. Wish I could remember what model my first family computer was, just remember it being a Packard Bell.
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Rewatching all the oddware/hardware videos, because they are so interesting. Must admit I have learned a lot from you LGR and although I remember having/using computers from the late 80s and on, I can't remember any of the details and it is fun seeing this stuff talked about and explained. Wish I could remember what model my first family computer was, just remember it being a Packard Bell.
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