CD Rom

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Mon May 14, 2001 1:40 am

Simple problem. I can't get my CD Rom to play CD's through Pulsar (via winamp). I used to use a Soundblaster for this but have take that out. I have selected Pulsar as the output device. Is there something I could have missed

Lotuz · Post by **Lotuz** » Mon May 14, 2001 2:15 am

Yes, unlike the SoundBlaster or any other multimedia sound card there's no cable that connects the CD Rom player with the Pulsar, so as far as I know it's not possible to play CD's through the Pulsar.

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Tue May 15, 2001 3:19 pm

All you need to be able to leasten to your Audio CDs is: Easy CD-DA Extractor.

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Tue May 15, 2001 4:04 pm

It's absolutely possible to play CD's through Pulsar.
I've been doing it for years even when I had Soundblastards.

You need this <a href=http://www.winamp.com/plugins/detail.jh ... tFlag=P>CD Reader</a> plugin.

dblbass · Post by **dblbass** » Tue May 15, 2001 6:19 pm

Works fine for me direct, also by ripping Audio CD wavs into some other audio app, as Lotuz suggests. I use Plextor CD player app which was bundled with my CD-ROM drive.

Think of it this way: Without a cable link to sound card, your CD audio is playing through an application, such as Winamp, Media Player, etc. This program is outputting a digital audio stream, presumably a wav, which needs to get through the OS to the Pulsar drivers. In the Pulsar project you need to have the appropriate software input (such as wav source) connected to an audio output (audio dest).

Check in your CD player app what driver the output is talking to. Check whether OS audio "support" is getting involved in the middle (between CD player and Pulsar software input) such as with Direct X or MME drivers. If so, try to fiddle with settings accordingly. (I have DX and MME completely removed from my OS. Don't need 'em)

Assuming your pulsar project connection is ok, somehow, between output driver settings on CD app, and if need be other settings in Cntrl Panel, you should get the signal into Pulsar and on through to the Pulsar D/A and audio out.

again, works for me.

PabloFasan · Post by **PabloFasan** » Tue May 15, 2001 7:19 pm

You need to change your original "cdfs.vxd" for the new version and place it in windows/system/iosubsys.

if you give me a mail adress I can send you a copy is a little file.

If not is easy to found it in the Web.

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Wed May 16, 2001 8:34 am

PabloFasan,

Careful with this one (VXD to play Audio CDs without cable), it can cause problems with other CD players, for example, it made my CDR stop working.

It's pretty slick if it works, though.

I think my suggestion is a little safer. Also, it may not even be necessary with newer winAMP versions, it might be built in; I'm not sure.

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sun May 20, 2001 12:59 pm

Help!

Not only can't I play CD's through Pulsar, (I have tried all the above) now the CDRom drive won't read the AKAI samples from the disk that came with Pulsar any more. It will read a normal data CD rom fine. I suspect something may be wrong with the drive/drivers. Any clues anyone?

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Sun May 20, 2001 1:02 pm

Hopefully you made a backup of your VXD; like I said, be careful with that suggestion!

If you need a copy of the "stock" VXD, PM me here with your email address and I can attach it to an email for you.

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Mon May 21, 2001 12:43 am

I did make a backup thankfully, but even before I tried the vxd. thing (which almost worked in the sense that it played a CD for five seconds then froze my PC), I couldn't get the CD to read AKAI samples. So the problem hasn't been caused by that. The Winamp CD reader plug-in didn't work at all. I think there's a problem with the drive. I'll get onto support. Thanks for the tips anyway

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Mon May 21, 2001 7:35 am

Some CDROMs don't support raw-read nor Akai =(

Not much you can do about it then, but if you're going to be buying a new drive, let me suggest the Pioneer 16x Slot Load DVD drive which also doubles as a 40x CDROM drive, reads Akai CDs fine, and will RAW read the audio using that CD Reader plugin.

Actually most good 40x (or so) drives from Creative, Sony, etc should be able to raw read.

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Mon May 21, 2001 8:22 am

The problem is that my CD Rom used to read the AKAI sampledisk fine (in pulsar) and used to play CD's fine through Winamp (with a Wav source set up in the Pulsar Project) but now won't for some reason.

It will play audio CD's through my soundblaster no problem and it will read data from a cd rom. I have no way of checking if it can read the AKAI samples outside of Pulsar because nothing shows up (or are the files hidden, I'll try that out later)

As I am writing this it seems that the problem may lie within Pulsar. What do you reckon it could be then, if this is the case?

JohnDoe · Post by **JohnDoe** » Mon May 28, 2001 3:01 pm

Same problem here. Pulsar won't even read Akai floppies. It used to read the cd samples, but after a complete reinstall, it no longer functions, though it can still 'see' the file system. The files aren't hidden though, windows doesn't have the ability to read akai file formats. I'm thinking that Pulsar requires a system file that is either missing or the wrong version.
Has anyone found a solution to this?

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Tue May 29, 2001 1:59 am

More clues? While attempting to put some wav files onto disk in Easy CD creator. I go the error ' Windows was unable to locate an MCI driver for this device. Seems like my CD Rom and CDRW have both gone nuts probably down to this MCI driver. It happened after a complete re-install of Pulsar, strange. Anyone else encountered this or have a solution?

JohnDoe · Post by **JohnDoe** » Wed May 30, 2001 10:26 pm

Workarounds I've tried:
Update aspi drivers to adaptecs 4.60, reconfigure Real-mode dos cdrom driver to ensure it's functionality, force compatability mode access. Nothing worked. It would be a little easier to deal with if the directories and akai partitions weren't visible. Seeing them but not the actual samples is infuriating.

This may interest you Matt, when I forced my HD's into compatability mode (paging), even the directories vanished.
Go to the device manager and see if your hard drives are operating with compatability mode paging, If they are, this could be your problem, or a symptom of a larger but related problem.

[ This Message was edited by: JohnDoe on 2001-05-30 23:52 ]

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Thu May 31, 2001 2:04 am

Thanks John, But the ASPI update did the trick. Still can't play audio cd's through Pulsar though but that's not essential.

I hope you get it sorted soon.

Cheers

Matt

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Thu May 31, 2001 11:25 am

You can play audio CDs through Pulsar by using the CD Reader plugin for WinAMP that I linked to, and mentioned earlier. I've been using it with Pulsar for 2 years, and before that with my Soundblasters.