** 1.5 page review / 1132 words **

ExtenDOS Gold

Danny McAleer

Thanks to the ingenuity of some particularly clever driver software written by equally clever people, Ataris have been able to sample from the same cake as PC users, plugging in hard drives, scanners, digital cameras, and CD-ROMs with the same degree of flippancy as the plug-and-play-people on other platforms. ExtenDOS has, from a personal perspective, long since established itself as the best choice for driving CD-ROMs, and just recently it's been upgraded to add yet more features and devices to it already bulging repertoire, now even including support for CD-Rs and CD-RWs.

As with previous versions, this new version has its own installation program that makes the transition from no CD-ROM, to happy Atari with working CD-ROM straightforward compared to other CD-ROM drivers. In this respect, ExtenDOS Gold yields no joy for those with a sadistic penchant for manually editing configuration files with an ASCII editor. Rather, it tidies all the obfuscatory SCSI jargon behind a set of understandable options, leaving the owner to enjoy the whole CD-ROM experience.

On running the installation program, it is possible to opt for either a complete installation, or to customise the driver (the latter, for making changes to the driver once installed). It then whizzes through the SCSI bus, logging all the connected drives it recognises. ExtenDOS Gold allows multiple CD-ROM drives to be attached, and each of these devices has a group of parameters which can be set independently of one another. The obvious setting is the drive letter, but it is also possible to set different cache settings to speed up disc access times for each drive, too.

In addition to drive-specific options, there's also a window-full of global settings to twiddle with. Of greatest importance here is the memory versus performance balance setting. This determines how much memory ExtenDOS pinches to use as a cache which can greatly improve disc-reads on single and double-speed CD-ROM drives. (However, the difference in memory consumption between a minimum and maximum speed setting is as much as 100k, so if memory is a premium it's advisable to set a small cache.) Cleverly, ExtenDOS can also be made to install an intermediate memory buffer for Ataris that use alternate or fast RAM, which the software will take advantage of, if fitted. This can help alleviate problems with DMA access via fast RAM, which often results in file-read errors.

Once these options are set, and in truth they probably don't even need to be tampered with for the majority of systems (since the default options serve so well), the installation program then copies all the necessary files to the appropriate places. After rebooting the Atari, you need only install an icon on the desktop, and the CD-ROM drive can then be accessed like any other drive. ExtenDOS Gold supports all of the PC-compatible-type CD-ROM formats, including ones with mixed case file names, ISO9660 level 1 and 2 (long file names), audio CD, multi-session, and Photo CDs, but not Macintosh HFS format. Naturally, whether ExtenDOS will recognise multi-session or Photo CDs depends entirely on the actual CD-ROM drive, and the manual has a comprehensive list of tried and tested mechanisms to cross-reference for this reason.

Bundled with the driver software is CDaudio, a GEM program (which can also run as a desktop accessory), for playing audio CDs. As you'd expect, it works much the same as a stand-alone CD player, with controls for play, pause, stop, track skip, and search, as well as eject and volume (although the latter two aren't supported by all CD-ROM drives). It also has basic programming functions in the form of shuffle, repeat, and scan (where the first ten seconds of each track are played). Repeat will force the CD to continuously replay a selected portion of a track, which are set using a set of user-configurable marker points.

But perhaps the most impressive part of CDaudio is its ability to digitally copy portions of, or entire audio CDs, to a hard disk. This is an incredibly powerful feature, and exceptionally useful and tidy way of filching stuff from sample CDs or sound effects libraries, since it avoids all the signal degradation normally attributed to sampling via the analogue inputs and outputs.

CDaudio's left and right locators give you complete control over the size of the audio segment to be copied, down to the last one hundredth of a second, and the program even supports a broad range of sample export formats. AVR, AIFF, or WAV format, in eight or 16-bit, as a summed mono or stereo sample, and in 25, 50, or the more industry-standard 44.1KHz sampling rate, are all selectable. Whatever sample format is chosen, a small text box keeps you appraised of the amount of hard disk the operation is likely to munch.

The audio recording facility is a much improved feature in this version of ExtenDOS Gold; it even draws a progress bar during SCSI sample transfer now, so it's possible to better guess whether this is an appropriate time to scratch an itch, make a sandwich, or take a trip to the corner shop for supplies. Unfortunately, a small number of CD-ROM drives don't actually have the necessary firmware to allow audio transfers via SCSI, and so if this feature is a reason for choosing the software over MetaDOS or equivalents, it's best to check first.

After succeeding where MetaDOS failed, in getting a CD-R and Afterburner working harmoniously in my Falcon, I have little doubt that ExtenDOS Gold is the best, most reliable, CD-ROM driver any Atari could have. The improvements to the driver are numerous (the most significant difference being the additional support for driving CD-R and CD-RW devices), and the substantial tweaks to the CDaudio program have transformed this little utility into an invaluable aid for sample CD users. But perhaps the best part of ExtenDOS Gold is how little you see of it; once working, it's so transparent in operation, it's almost as if it's part of TOS itself.

** product boxout **
Publisher: Anodyne Software
Email: anodyne@cyberus.ca
http://www.cyberus.ca/~anodyne

UK Distributor:
System Solutions
Tel: +44 (0)181 693 3355
Fax: +44 (0)181 693 6936
Email: info-software@system_solutions.co.uk
URL: www.system.solutions.co.uk/cafe/

Cost: œ39.95 (œ59.95 if purchased with CD Writer) including VAT plus P&P

Pros
Easy installation, transparent operation

Cons
You need a CD-ROM to use it! Occasional problems with AB-caches, but I'm being really picky...

87%
** /boxout **

** captions **

** EXTGOLD1.GIF **
I think she said she went shopping for scuzzy dresses or something?...

** EXTGOLD2.GIF **
"Please don't take away my memory", croons the ST

** EXTGOLD3.GIF **
"I'll have a 'P' please, Bob..." "You'll have an 'M' and lump it, Mr Smarty-CD-ROM, thank you!"

** CDAUDIO1.GIF **
Play all your CDs from the desktop - how novel

** CDAUDIO2.GIF **
Sample-snatching made easy with CDaudio