List of Changes from Version 4.11

NEW: selection of multiple audio devices. There are two new Environment properties that can be used to query the available devices and get or set the current device used for sound input: inputDeviceList and inputDevice.

NEW: Support for USB microphones. These usually appear as separate devices on Windows and Mac, and are selectable from the inputDeviceList.

NEW: support for USB webcams. These usually appear as separate devices on Windows and Mac, and are selectable from the inputDeviceList.

NEW: support for Apple ISight Firewire WebCam. This device can only be used under OSX, as Apple does not supply ISight drivers for OS9. ISight's default recording parameters are 48.000KHz sample rate, 16bit, 2 channels.

NEW: the environment properties preferredRecordingDevice and preferredVoiceRecordingDevice have been added to reflect the system preferences as set by the user in the SOUND Control panel. Audio Xtra will automatically use the preferredVoiceRecordingDevice on systems with multiple sound cards, unless the environment property inputDevice is changed.

CHANGED: several commands and functions (like getting the inputSource or setting the recordSampleRate) previously required that the record device was opened previously with axOpenRecorder() on the Mac platform. This is no longer needed, as the Xtra will automatically open the device if necessary and close it at the end of the operation.

CHANGED: axServiceRecording() is no longer needed.

ARCHITECTURAL CHANGE: The Mac OSX version no longer uses Quicktime for file based recording. This change eliminates some restrictions present in version 4.11, inherited from limitations introduced by the Quicktime architecture for sound capture:

REMOVED: dependency on Quicktime 6.02 or later is removed when recording to files under OSX.

CHANGED: axPauseRecording and axResumeRecording are now supported in OSX when recording to files.

CHANGED: Recording to files under OSX is now possible under all sample rates and depths supported by the audio input driver used.

Known Issues in 4.11 Fixed in Version 5

All known issues present in version 4.11 were addressed in this update, including fixes contributed by RedEye Software, updateStage and Tabuleiro.

FIXED: recording to RAM or member no longer produces zero length sounds with certain buggy Windows audio drivers when recording is stopped. An explanation: these drivers (including the SoundMax onboard audio device common on some Dell machines) do not return correct audio data to a recording application unless the RAM buffer is completely filled. RAM recording in Audio Xtra 5 under Windows have been completely remodeled to work around this bug in the audio drivers. The maximum amount of sound data that can be lost on these buggy drivers is now restricted to the last 0.1 seconds of audio data recorded.

FIXED: axGetStatus() sometimes reported the incorrect information for a sound that has just started playback or recording.

FIXED: recording to RAM or members sometimes produced incorrect sound data under Shockwave 10 running on OSX.

FIXED: axDeleteFile() did not work on the Windows platform to delete a sound in the sound list with an external file as its source if the file has been played and stopped before the end.

FIXED: 1 second sound dropouts no longer occur when recording to files under OSX.