Sound Manager 3.1 Hurrahs
Sound Manager 3.1 Hurrahs — Last week, Apple released version 3.1 of the Sound Manager, which consists of a new Sound control panel (version 8.0.5) and a new Sound Manager extension. Along with numerous bug fixes (some of which have saved me a lot of trouble), Sound Manager 3.1 includes support for IMA 4:1 compression (often used for 16-bit, CD-quality music) and uLaw 2:1 compression (often used for voice and telephony applications, and the basis of the ".au" file format seen so often on the Web). Sound Manager 3.1 also includes more PowerPC-native code and (finally!) allows asynchronous playback of alert sounds. If you do any audio-intensive work – or just want to give your Power Mac games a little boost – it’s worth a look. [GD]