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© Copyright 1999, Jim Loy
WAVmaker is a program which mainly converts midi music files to WAV sound files. Great idea. It is probably a great program. I thought I would create a few classical music quizzes, for my WWW pages. I would have a page that plays a few tunes, and the visitor could guess the name of the composer and the name of the piece. I created a few midi files, using a really limited (cheap, quick, and dirty) midi music program called Music Write Plus. I have other midi music programs.
And, I downloaded the WAVMaker demo, to see if I could create some WAV files. The demo didn't work. I got an error message saying that it couldn't find a file called 0.prg. I sent several emails, asking for help. I was told that I really should read the help messages. I read them about seven times, and I asked for more help. And I was told what it said in the manual (the help-person said that I really could have read this stuff myself). I was told that the demo was really limited, to keep the download file small. I already knew that. I was told that you can modify one of the existing prg files. I knew that, too. I just didn't know how. I was told that the recommended program for modifying prg files is Mellosoftron. I had read that, and I had read that Mellosoftron costs $20. So, I got all of that help, and still didn't know how to avoid the error message, without spending $20.
So, I copied one of the existing prg files, renamed it 0.prg, and the program worked fine. It turns out that 0.prg is the default musical instrument. So, the demo is missing the default instrument. That's pretty smart. And, I was made to feel like an idiot. I can imagine legions of potential customers failing to create any WAV files, even with the sample midi files, and deciding that the program is trash. It would seem that the program is not trash. The instrument that I had to use was a fairly cheezy piano with echo. But, the demo is really limited, which you would know if you just bothered to read the help messages, you idiot. Sorry, I got a little upset, there.
I don't know if I want WAVmaker ($45 for the basic version). I suspect that I do. But, this has been an unpleasant experience. Besides, I may not like the ActiveX controls for playing WAV files on WWW pages. I don't know much about them, yet. And JavaScript doesn't seem to be standardized between Netscape and Internet Explorer. It should be so easy.
Addendum:
I have received two emails from people who had similar troubles with the Wavemaker demo. Does this make sense: they make the demo as worthless as possible, so people will buy the full program? Other companies seem to have a similar theory. I don't see how they can sell any products at all.