************************************************************************* Important Hints to the Marc 8 Midi driver version 2.13 for Windows NT 4.0 ************************************************************************* 1. System Requirements 2. Installation 3. What's new 4. Attention: Windows System Sounds ------------------------------------------ 1. System Requirements ------------------------------------------ * Windows NT 4.0 Build 1381 (Service Pack 3) ----------------------------------------- 2. Installation ----------------------------------------- * Ensure that you are logged on with administrator rights at Windows NT * First remove an older Siena or Marc 8 Midi driver by use of "Control Panel->Multimedia->Devices" and restart the Windows system. Once again logon at Windows NT as an administrator. * Now install the new Marc 8 Midi driver by use of "Control Panel->Multimedia->Devices->Add->From Disk". * Change to the language directory of the driver disk, acknowledge this directory and choose a driver version from the subsequent appearing list. * In some cases (update) Windows NT requests you to restart your system. In this case - restart your system really. * After the installation the Marc 8 Midi Sound System is ready to operate. ------------------------------------------ 3. What's new ------------------------------------------ Version 2.13: * Because of legal reasons the name "Siena" cannot be used anymore. The existing hardware and related drivers are now part of the product "Marc 8 Midi". * MME Interface: synchronous buffer return improved Version 2.12 * Support of 32 Bit Audio Data Transfer for MME devices * Improved synchronous playback buffer return for MME applications * Gain/Volume conflicts between the Siena Manager and other comparable applications solved Version 2.10 * Some Users told us about the driver message "Card memory check failed" on Windows Start. (most of them are AMD-Users). This problem was caused by an incompatibility between the PnP BIOS and the Siena PCI Controller. In consequence the audio data couldn't read/write from/to the Siena RAM. This driver version is able to walk around this problem but at cost of the IRQ sharing. Therefore you may get the error message "IRQ could not be occupied" or another system component which uses the same IRQ like the Siena will not work. In this case change the IRQ of the Siena to another value which is not used by another system component. Do this by using the PnP BIOS. Version 2.08: * Full featured "BusSync" between multiple Siena's. This allows a Start/Stop and Clock Synchronzation. You need a BusSync cable for 2 or 3 or 4 cards which you can get from SEK'D. * Midi Input problem while running wave audio solved * Improved hardware functionality tests * Improved Midi Device Reset * Improved Midi In Performance * Developers Interest Only: - Call of several waveOut-fuction by DevId ------------------------------------------ 4. Attention: Windows System Sounds ------------------------------------------ * After the first installtion of an audio device driver, Windows NT switchs on the Windows System Sounds per default. The system will playback these sound if a message box appears or a windows will be minimized or maxminized. The use of this system sounds may cause some problems in conjuction with running audio applications. * Per default the driver takes care of a synchron start and stop of all analog devices of the Marc 8 Midi. This is a really important feature for each multichannel harddiskrecording program but it may cause conflicts with the windows system sounds. If a running playback- or recording session will be interrupted by a system sound (because of a message box or window actions) the playback- or recording session will STOP too and the related audio application will hang (under specially circumstances) in a undefined state . You can solve this behavior by switching off the system sounds (Control Panel->System Sounds) or by deactivating the Start/Stop Synchronization Option of the Marc 8 Midi driver. (Taskbar->Marc 8 Midi Icon Doubleclick->Settings) . Leipzig 01-17-02