OS5 Sound Libraries?

[redvette_ragtop]

I emailed a developer concerning his music keyboard application and how I noticed that on my NX, the pitches were flat (under pitch). I asked him about it and this is what he said:

The Palm OS allows me to put in a precise pitch. However, as you have found out, it can be rather inaccurate, especially on OS 5 devices. I'm looking into a calibration option but I'm not sure how effective that will be over the whole range. With the Tungsten T, I am able to play polyphonic chords and have learned how to make pitches as perfect as they can get. I plan to make those perfect pitches in the piano as well. However, Sony decided not to include the OS 5 sound libraries so this improvement will not be seen in your device.

What is meant by the sound libraries? And what does he mean by the TT playing polyphonic chords? Does that mean that the TT can play multiple notes simultaneously, a true chord? And that the Sony can only arpeggiate chords (strike each note of a chord separately)?

And does anyone know why Sony didn't include the sound libraries? It seems to me that on a multi-media device, this would be something you'd want.

Brad

[redvette_ragtop]

(And what's up with the formatting of my posting, anyway? Never had this happen before.)

Oh, fixed it, nevermind.

[kdn102]

What he means is that Sony is not releasing the API for the sound hardware.

However, on Zap 2016, it seems they have figured out how to use Sony sound. It sounds just awesome.

And yes, as far as I can tell by listening to Sony sound enhanced programs it does play true chords.

[hansschmucker]

You can continue to use the old
Clié API calls which allow for playing of PCM, ADPCM and MP3 samples, but I guess if you want to modulate the samples, there's no way of doing it right now. A simple way would be creating a PCM buffer in internal memory and playing it through the usual routines

[Eric S]

kdn102, Palm has an official API for CD-quality sound that Sony chose not to implement. That is what the developer was referring to.

[OcellNuri]

Sony has not used the standard sound library that PalmSource developed for OS5. They are using their own sound API. They will not release it for free like PalmSource will release the OS5 sound API. Sony requires developers to sign a NDA to get the APIs, saying that they will not distribute them. This way Sony can control which apps use the hardware. Astraware seems to be one of the developers Sony feels okay with.

So basically... Sony has it's own sound library, where other OS5 units will have a standard sound library.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by OcellNuri
Sony has not used the standard sound library that PalmSource developed for OS5. They are using their own sound API. They will not release it for free like PalmSource will release the OS5 sound API. Sony requires developers to sign a NDA to get the APIs, saying that they will not distribute them. This way Sony can control which apps use the hardware. Astraware seems to be one of the developers Sony feels okay with.

So basically... Sony has it's own sound library, where other OS5 units will have a standard sound library.

Yes, that is more or less it. It is not Astraware that Sony feels OK with, but more likely their apps - which are games.

Sony wants to have good (playing high quality sounds) 3rd party games that runs on the CLIEs.

What Sony does NOT want is any 3rd party multimedia applications that runs on the CLIE's. Like camera, video, sound recording and sound playing ( mp3) applications.

Why? Beats me... most likely they dont want 3rd party apps that does anything better then the current clie model, otherwise us users wouldnt upgrade to the newer clies with better multimedia software, if we could do the same thing on our old devices.

This basically sucks.

[redvette_ragtop]

Originally posted by Unregistered

What Sony does NOT want is any 3rd party multimedia applications that runs on the CLIE's. Like camera, video, sound recording and sound playing ( mp3) applications.

Why? Beats me... most likely they dont want 3rd party apps that does anything better then the current clie model, otherwise us users wouldnt upgrade to the newer clies with better multimedia software, if we could do the same thing on our old devices.


If this is true--AR-R-R-R-GH!!! Why do corporations do such stupid things? (Oh, yeah, perceived increase in profit.) :rolleyes:

Thanks to all who replied and contributing to my better understanding of the issue. I'm sure the developer knows all of this, but maybe some of this info may be useful to him.

[Unregistered]

it's not completely true. ocellnuri and the other unregistered assumed a little too much. the correct portion of their posts was that Sony did not implement Palm's sound library yet, and that an NDA is required for access to a sound library that works on the clie.

[Unregistered]

Well they didnt to it on the NR70V either, but then the Sound Library was documented. So I am not getting your point unreg2 =)

[n2ifp]

Sony does a few things that basically suck:mad:!

[nekrataal]

Screw Sony, somebody should hack out the standard libraries for Clies and distribute it.

[Massman82]

Originally posted by nekrataal
Screw Sony, somebody should hack out the standard libraries for Clies and distribute it.

This is possibe. Let's ask ayasin for help. If they could figure out how to develop CF card drivers then they could easily figure out how the sound API works.

I'll ask some developers who figured out the API by themselves and see if they will tell me.

[jmrtnko]

i've tried to get some info about a similar question, but so far have failed. what i did uncover is that the nx line has a standard built-in yamaha sound generator (YMF761-Q i believe). it's a 16-note polyphonic 2-op/4-op FM synthesizer with a standard GM library.

so yes, it can play chords. several at once, in fact. most of the alarms that come with the clie are actually SMF midi files (except for the birdsong).

i know the yamaha mobile chips are programmable, but i haven't been able to find any data on it yet. this chip in particular seems to be discontinued. it'd be great to be able to program in your own patches. add a good sequencer and you'd have a pretty amazing handheld music machine...

jmar

[Sicarius]

I'm not sure if this will help anyone, but I have an older copy of a Sony Clie OS5 SDK that just happens to include a file named "SonySndLib.h".

I have a later copy of the SDK which does not include that file.

Could this be what we're looking for?

[archangel]

This is the problem Audible has. Sony won't give them access to their sound API so no Audible player for Sony devices.