This file contains information which will make sure you get the Sampler CD up and running as quickly as possible. To print this file, just select Print from the File menu (make sure you have a printer selected in the Chooser).
Setting up Your System
Quick Start
To start the TWIG Sampler CD, follow these steps:
• Make sure you have QuickTime™ version 1.5, Foreign File Access and ISO 9660
loaded into your System folder.
• Insert the CD as you would any other CD-ROM.
• When it appears on the desktop, open the icon and double-click on the icon labeled
SAM_MAC. That’s it—you’re on your way!
Detailed Setup: System Software
The TWIG Sampler CD requires the following hardware and software:
• Mac II series or greater.
• Minimum 13" color monitor (including IILC).
• Macintosh compatible CD-ROM drive and corresponding software drivers.
• At least 2600K free (useable) RAM.
• Macintosh System Software 6.0.7 or later.
• QuickTime version 1.5, Foreign File Access & ISO 9660 drivers.
Driver Installation
Before the TWIG Sampler CD will mount on your Mac desktop (which it presumably is unless you’re looking at a hard copy of the Read Me file), you must install Foreign File Access and ISO 9660, both of which were provided with your CD-ROM drive. They are not provided on the Sampler CD. Copy them from the diskette that came with your drive to the System folder on your startup disk. Restart your Mac.
To install QuickTime, mount the Sampler CD and open the volume icon. You will see QuickTime right there inside it. Drag the QuickTime icon onto your closed System folder—the Finder will assign it to the Extensions folder. Again, restart your Mac.
Dragging QuickTime onto the System folder
If you’re already using QuickTime, make sure you have version 1.5 (older versions are not compatible with the TWIG Sampler CD). Unless you are extremely familiar with INIT loading sequences and use a heavy duty INIT manager, do not allow different versions of QuickTime to live in the System folder.
All of the newer Macs—from the IIci onward—have 32-bit QuickDraw™ built into ROM. The older Mac IIs, such as the IIx, IIcx and the II itself, need the software version. Note that this applies only to those machines not running under System 7, since it includes QuickDraw. We have included 32-bit QuickDraw in the Support folder for those machines that require it.
A Word About RAM
The TWIG Sampler CD requires 2600K of available RAM. This means that on a 4 MB Macintosh running under System 7, you’ll be hard pressed to come up with enough RAM, since the system itself takes around 1500K minimally configured. (6.0x users shouldn’t have any trouble, unless a large number of INITs or fonts are in use.) So: if you are running fewer than 5 MB of RAM under System 7, read the Troubleshooting section for tips on increasing available memory.
Operating the CD
This section is real tiny because—you guessed it—there is nothing to it. Just put the CD in your CD-ROM drive, double-click to open the “TWIG_SAM” icon and double-click again to launch the application, labeled “SAM_MAC” (see screen capture below). Once the program launches, you will see a screen featuring a stack of CDs. The Sampler is almost completely interactive, so you can choose which TWIG product you’d like to know more about and click the appropriate CD.
The root directory of the TWIG Sampler CD
Hell Cab™
Clicking on the “Hell Cab” CD icon launches a short linear demo of our newest product.
Error Messages and Problems
You may never encounter a problem running your TWIG CD, but this section will help if you do. Or you can contact the TWIG Technical Support Department at (818) 955-9999.
Message: “There is not enough memory available to run program,” “Program cannot be launched,” or, while the program is running, this message appears: “Last task could not be completed because memory ran out.”
Solution: The Sampler CD requires at least 2600K of free RAM to run. You can find out how much RAM is available to you by checking the “About This Mac” item under the Apple menu.
Checking RAM usage
The quickest way to effect upward RAM changes is to go into the Control Panel and reduce the RAM cache setting to the lowest possible number. (While you’re there, make sure Virtual Memory is turned off and 32-bit addressing on (only if you have more than 8 megs of RAM).
Adjusting the cache size downward
If you are trying to run the Sampler CD on a 4 or 5 MB computer and still don’t have enough free memory, try the following:
• First, find out how much RAM your extensions are using. Restart and check the
“About This Macintosh” information under the Apple menu.
• Restart your Mac again—this time holding down the shift key until you see the
“extensions off” message displayed. This step will prevent all System extensions
from loading—your CD won’t play either, but we’ll fix that in a minute. Again, check
the “About This Macintosh” information. Subtracting the new “Largest Unused
Block” number from the previous will quickly tell you how much RAM all of your
extensions are using. If your Mac was gasping under a gigantic extension load, you
will notice a gigantic leap in the amount of available RAM.
Next, temporarily disable nonessential extensions by removing them to a folder you designate elsewhere on your hard disk. Be sure to leave QuickTime and your CD-ROM driver in the System folder. Leave as much additional RAM over 2000K as you can.
Now, back to some of the other things you can do to increase RAM:
• Set the RAM cache to the lowest value.
• Under System 6, try using the Finder instead of Multifinder (“Set Startup” under
“Special” menu).
• Under System 7 on certain computers (those equipped with a PMMU, Paged Memory
Management Unit), you can get enough memory by using the virtual memory feature.
We don’t recommend this except as a last resort since it may cause audio glitches
during movie playback.
Note: Whatever you do, don’t set the SAM_MAC application to a value lower than 2600K, as this will cause out-of-memory errors.
Message: “QuickTime installation failed because it was already installed.”
Solution: Your Mac seems to have two QuickTime extensions inside the System folder—delete any and all but one QuickTime version 1.5 and restart.
Problem: Can’t hear audio.
Probable cause and solution: Audio plays back through the Macintosh speaker—not the CD-ROM drive. Make sure the volume is turned up on the Sound Control Panel. If a cable is connected to your audio jack, make sure the amplifier is turned on.
Problem: When audio is playing there are occasional clicks, drop-outs or other glitches.
Solution: First, make sure virtual memory is turned off. This feature causes audio glitches if there is a memory/disk swap while audio is playing back. If applicable, try turning off File Sharing. Under normal conditions, the TWIG Sampler CD should work fine with File Sharing on, but if someone is accessing your computer, the CPU will slow down enough to affect audio quality.
Also, note that some nonstandard extensions or programs running in the background may slow down the CPU enough to affect audio quality.
Problem: Audio sounds scratchy.
Solution: The Sampler CD audio is low-fidelity, designed to play back through the Macintosh speaker. Played back through headphones or hi-fidelity external speakers you may hear some scratchiness or hiss due to aliasing problems with the 8-bit samples. This noise can be reduced by applying a low-pass filter to the audio. If you have a simple tone control, adjust it to reduce treble.
Problem: After playing movies for several minutes at a stretch, audio seems to get out of synch with video.
Solution: There is an anomaly in Apple’s system software that causes this to happen. It may be particularly noticeable on an LC running under System 6.0.7. Sorry, no fix is available at this time.
Problem: CD player works fine sometimes, doesn’t at other times—occasionally you may even have trouble starting your Macintosh.
Solution: Make sure your SCSI chain (which consists of your CD-ROM and any other drives connected to your Mac) is properly terminated, i.e., the last device is terminated and each device has a distinct ID number. Tip: SCSI Probe—a no-cost utility available from most on-line services and user groups—can be helpful with SCSI ID problems.
A popular SCSI utility
Problem: When using a screen saver, the Sampler CD menus don’t always look or behave quite like they should.
Solution: Some screen savers are not compatible with the Sampler—you found one.
Message: “Last task could not be completed because memory ran out.”
Solution: Your computer needs, craves more RAM. Get some, or refer to the beginning of this Guide for tips on increasing available memory.
If you’ve been running the Sampler for some time when this message appears, you may be dealing with RAM fragmentation. Restarting should make the problem vanish. If you have the room, set the application size in Get Info to 3000K or better.
Message: “There isn’t enough memory available to play QuickTime movies,”
“There isn’t enough memory available to (something),”
“… needs more memory to run reliably,” or
“There wasn’t enough memory to complete the last task.”
Solution: Most of these messages stem from a low-RAM situation. If they tend to appear after you’ve been running the Sampler CD for an hour or more, restarting the computer should do the trick. If you still have trouble, follow the suggestions in the first part of the Error Messages section.
Message: “SAM_MAC requires System 6.0.7 or later in order to use QuickTime. See the Read Me file for details.”
Solution: You will get this message when you try to run with any System software older than 6.0.7, even if QuickTime is present in the System folder. Try upgrading your system to at least System 6.0.7 and read the section of this document labeled Setting up Your System.
Message: “SAM_MAC is designed for a 13" monitor.”
Solution: In fact, it refuses to run on anything smaller, since important segments of the screen would be deleted. The only remedy if you see this message is to get an Apple standard 13" (or larger) monitor.
Message: “SAM_MAC requires that the QuickTime extension be installed in the System folder.”
Solution: The QuickTime extension is either missing from your System folder or has somehow been damaged. If you cannot find it on your hard disk, you can find it on the CD-ROM inside the Support folder. Relocate it to the System folder and if you’re running System 7, put it inside the Extensions folder. Restart your Mac and try again.
Message: “To run the Sampler CD you must reset your monitor to display 256 colors.”
Solution: Open the Monitors Control Panel (in the Apple menu) and change the settings to Colors and 256.
Message: “Mac OS error encountered” (accompanied by a numeric code such as -28), or “Couldn’t complete the last command because of a Mac OS error.”
Solution: Unless you are using your Mac in a mud bog, it is likely that you are either running the Sampler CD for a long time at each sitting or your Mac has a very limited amount of RAM available—or both. Or you may have a pesky extension (INIT) somewhere that doesn’t get along with the Sampler CD.
On the other hand, if you’re seeing problems with other CDs or applications, then you may have system problems. It may be time to optimize your hard disk, or even consider reinstalling system software. Before doing that, try minimizing your extensions load as described earlier and restarting your Mac. You might also try replacing QuickTime and your CD driver.
Message: “File not found,” or “I can’t find the asset file. Do you want to show me where it is?”
Solution: This usually means that for some reason, SAM_MAC has lost touch with the CD-ROM. Check to see if anything strange is going on with your CD-ROM drive: Did it become suddenly unplugged? Did someone set a file cabinet on top of it? Did the CD get taken out for some reason?
Finally, check the CD itself (the unprinted, bottom side) for fingerprints or smudges. If you find any, remove them with a clean, damp, soft cloth, wiping from the center of the disc to the outside edge. Don’t wipe in a circular motion around the CD. Reinsert the disc and try again.
If problems persist, check SCSI connections, cables and ID numbers and consider replacing the CD-ROM driver (software extensions).
