1. Introduction

      2. Save time & sound great! Audio ToolBox lets you batch process and convert your digital audio files to and from industry standard formats. Audio ToolBox is a professional quality conversion utility for the MS-DOS® and Microsoft Windows® operating systems.

      1. Do You Need To:
To convert to and from a wide variety of audio formats?
To "chop" a sequence of recordings into separate files?
To adjust the volume across all your voice prompts?
To automatically crop silence from the beginning and ending of files?
To filter touch-tones from your files?
To add conversion capabilities to your Windows and DOS programs?

If your answer is YES!, you can make your job a lot easier — and the results sound better — with Audio ToolBox.

      1. A Must for Developers

        2. Are you having problems working with sounds recorded in different formats on different devices? Do you want to improve the way you produce your voice prompts? Would you like to simplify the maintenance of incoming prompts? Would you like to improve the quality of your existing prompts?

        Audio ToolBox makes converting and cleaning up your sound files a breeze. It can clean up all of your prompts with just one command, leveling out the volumes, removing dead air and background noise. Most voice developers find the Audio ToolBox a must when creating a voice system. It makes the system sound like a million bucks — with very little effort on your part.

        You can automatically chop a single recording session into separate files, normalize the volume across multiple files, and recombine them into an indexed file. You can add dynamic compression / expansion for improved sound, auto-crop silence from both ends, even filter DTMF Touch-Tones to eliminate "talk-off" application errors. And Audio ToolBox handles files of any length — in less than 400K of memory!

        You can even record, edit and review prompts with your multimedia system, then batch process and transfer them for enhanced fidelity!

        Audio ToolBox is the ONLY professional quality conversion utility for the MS-DOS® and Microsoft Windows® operating systems — and the only tool that does all this!

      2. Automatically Improve Your Recordings

        3. The basic reason to use Audio ToolBox is that you simply want your audio presentations to sound good. If you develop for voice processing, or if you only change, fix, and improve your voice prompts, you’ll find Audio ToolBox just about indispensable.

        Let’s say you’re running a computerized dating service. Your callers leave messages, perhaps thousands of them each day, and you need to ensure that the messages sound as good as possible. With Audio ToolBox, simply run the program every evening to automatically adjust the volume and trim the dead space from each message — without any intervention from you.

      3. More than 50 Audio ToolBox Options

        4. With the six main tools and 50+ command options, and the almost uncountable combinations you can make, you have virtually unlimited ability to shape your messages. But all to what end?

        1. With Audio ToolBox You Can Do It

          2. This innovative program gives you the capability to do with spoken words, music, and sound effects what you can do with a word processor macro command. Word processor macro languages equip you to automatically cut, insert, replace, and change written words. Audio ToolBox lets you to do the same with spoken words, only more. A lot more.

          You’ve probably discovered that downloading a cool sound file off the Internet can be a problem when it comes to using it. There are so many sound file formats, and if your system can’t use the one you’ve downloaded, you’re out of luck. With Audio ToolBox, you can convert those files with a single command.

          And our ToolBox Apprentice simplifies the entire process. Developed at the suggestion of our customers, ToolBox Apprentice gives you a simple way to see and change complex command lines with ease.

          You want your spoken messages to sound as good as your written work looks. And they will: You’ll be able to do professional level work right at home, or in your office, without having to call in expensive outside help.

        2. Skills

        Although skill in using DOS and Windows is useful, you can still do creditable work without real computer literacy. The sample sessions provide guidance in creating DOS command lines. The Windows (Quick) Review chapter presents brush-up exercises in Windows, and should help if you’re not current.

      4. Hardware Requirements

        5. To run Audio ToolBox you’ll need an IBM PC (or compatible), with a hard drive, and at least 512K of memory. A 486 processor (or math coprocessor) and 640K is recommended. ToolBox Apprentice requires Windows 3.1x or higher, 8 megabytes of memory, and at least 4 megabytes of space on your hard disk.

        Audio ToolBox works with or without the VISI Accelerator™ module connected to the parallel printer port. If the accelerator is not installed, however, file conversions are limited to approximately 8 seconds in length. To install, unpack the accelerator module and follow the simple connection instructions in Appendix A, Installation and Setup.

      5. Using a Math Coprocessor

        6. Audio ToolBox functions can benefit greatly from the use of a math coprocessor. Audio ToolBox will automatically detect and use an 80287/80387 (or compatible) math coprocessor if one is installed. Similarly, Audio ToolBox will automatically detect the presence of the coprocessor built into chips such as the Intel 80486DX or Pentium® processor. Filtered conversions will typically operate eight to twelve times faster with a coprocessor. The speed of indexed file packing and unpacking operations will not change significantly.

        The following benchmarks were made on a zero wait-state 10 MHz 286, a 33 MHz 386, and a 33 MHz 486 based computer. Here are the following times required for conversions performed on a 10–second long 11 kHz multimedia wave file:

        PCMCvt
        (processor)

        No Filter
        (time in sec)

        Filtered
        (time in sec)

        80286

        20

        700

        80386

        1

        200

        80386/387

        1

        10

        80486

        1

        10

      6. Software Requirements

        7. To run Audio ToolBox you’ll need DOS 3.3 or higher. To run ToolBox Apprentice, the graphical user interface, you’ll need Microsoft Windows 3.x or Windows 95.

      7. Notational Conventions

Here are a few notes about terms and typographical conventions used in this manual.

The names of keys are spelled out in capital letters, and are shown within less-than "<" and greater-than ">" signs. For example, an enter key (or return key) is shown as <ENTER>. On your keyboard the keys may be marked with an abbreviation or be named a little differently.

Simultaneous Activation: When two or more keys must be pressed at the same time, they will be shown joined without punctuation. These combinations are shown as "<KeyA><KeyB>". For example, holding down the CONTROL key while tapping the BREAK key is shown as <CTRL><BREAK>.
Sequential Activation: If keys are to be pressed one at a time and released, then they will be separated by a comma. These key sequences are shown as "<KeyA>,<KeyB>". For example, holding down the ALTERNATE key while tapping the D key, followed by tapping the H key is shown as <ALT><D>,<H>.
      1. Audio ToolBox Technical Capabilities

        2. Audio ToolBox is the only native-mode, direct-to-disk, batch processor and converter for the MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows® environments. Native-mode means you can process compressed PCM instantly and retain fidelity without unnecessary conversions. Direct-to-disk capability lets you process files of any size. Why? So you can create perfect voice prompts for your telephony and multimedia applications.

        1. Main Features:
Industry Standard Formats: Convert to and from industry standard formats such as Dialogic 4 & 8 bit, C-ITU (CCITT) G.711 & G.721, NewVoice CVSD, Perception Technology CVSD, Multimedia Wave — and more — from 100 to 65,000 Hz!
Fast Conversion: 10x conversion speed with normal filtering; better than 1x conversion speed with high fidelity filtering!
Unlimited File Length: Our disk caching technology lets you convert any length message — yet uses as little as 400K of memory!
High Fidelity Conversion: Optional FFT re-sampling interpolation filters; sixth order time domain and default second order anti-aliasing filters!
Improved Dynamics: Use our dynamic compressor / expander for improved dynamic range!
Volume Normalize / Adjust: Normalize the volume levels across multiple files; adjust the volume level up or down!
Auto-Crop: Automatically remove silence from both ends of an audio file!
Frequency Equalize: Programmable 32 band graphic equalizer!
Foreign file formats: Specify starting byte position to skip custom file headers; set input file length for embedded data; select byte and bit ordering options for reading files from non-Intel computers!
Index Chop & Pack: Separate indexed files for batch processing, recombine when complete!
Index Rebuild: Add empty index entries to an existing file, merge voice or text into a new or existing index position, and rebuild damaged indexed files!
Index List: Lists header, voice and text information for any indexed file!
Sound Chop: Chop a single audio file into separate files using periods of silence as separators. Use this to separate a long recording session into individual files!
Windows & DOS Users: Windows users can point and click to create the appropriate command line. Use DOS to execute directly or make a batch file; add wildcards for bulk conversion!
Software Development Kit: Add conversion capability to your Windows & DOS audiotex applications with our ToolBox SDK!
        1. Enhancements for Version 3.0:
          1. PCMCvt
Source and destination frequencies now default to those implied by PCM data type selection.
Changed minimum source frequency to 100 Hz.
Better equalizer command line support.
Improved all filter characteristics.
Improved CVSD fidelity.
Improved clipping on all volume adjust operations.
Improved speed on 386-class machines when dynamic compressor/expander is inhibited.
Improved equalizer for all memory conditions.
Improved DTMF filter.
Improved IIR filter.
Volume normalize default changed to 0.2% over range.
Added frequency equalizer to audio conversion.
Added 6th order filters to audio conversion.
Fixed wildcard destination files for drive root directory usage.
          1. SndChp
Accepts destination directory argument like "\temp\.vox"
Now supports all native PCM types.
          1. ToolBox Apprentice
Added units to all frequency labels.
Reduced overall size for VGA screen types.
Audio Conversion: Volume normalize default changed to 0.2% over range.
Audio Conversion: Source and destination data type saved in .INI file.
Sound Chop: default destination file extension set to input file extension.
Sound Chop: -f switch moved after destination extension.
Setup: query before deleting old program group
          1. ToolBox SDK
Added SDK support for all ToolBox functions.
Increased size of function blocks, added initialization functions.
Added sample "C" programs for all SDK functions.