Ultrasound Daily Digest Wed, 11 Nov 92 Volume 1 : Issue 16 Today's Topics: :) Current SBOS version and Falcon 3 DESQview Disk-Count software ships GUS!!! Electronic Arts, CD-ROM drives GUS dealers It's heeerre... (Finally!) IT CAME! I GOT MY GUS! KBMIDI in epas.utoronto.ca Let's go back to net posting... problems corrected Replies... Request server problem SBOS <-> Win 3.1 survey SBOS problems Sending Gravis E-Mail Sox 5 for DOS released Digest Address: ultrasound@dsd.es.com To post to tomorrow's digest. Request Server Address: ultrasound-request@dsd.es.com To subscribe, unsubscribe, and request files. Owner Address: ultrasound-owner@dsd.es.com To contact a human if the server has troubles. FTP Site #1: ftp epas.utoronto.ca (/pub/pc/ultrasound) Digest back issues, mirror of request server Many thanks to Adam Iles: adam@epas.utoronto.ca ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 11:40:26 MET From: The Musician Message-Id: <9211101044.AA05793@orca.es.com> Subject: To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Hey, I heard about GUS not being fully compatible with MPU-401 standard midi. I would like to buy it but... I also have Roland Sound Canvas so I would like the midi to work. Does someone knows something about?? ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 17:26 EST From: MCI102@PSUVM.PSU.EDU Message-Id: <9211102225.AA16352@orca.es.com> Subject: :) To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Just for all of you that are in the US and are wondering if your card will EVER come...I got mine today (11/10) and I am located at Penn State. I got my card from Telemart for $133. So for those who are still waiting, your cards *ARE* coming!!! I hope everyone gets there own card soon so we can *REALLY* see what this thing can do!!! Happy computing!!! Mike Irvin MCI102@psuvm.psu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 07:48:26 EST From: "Ted Wright" Message-Id: <28111.wright@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov> Subject: Current SBOS version and Falcon 3 To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Hi, What is the current version of SBOS? The label on my disks says 1.2, but the programs say 1.1 when they load. If 1.2 is the latest, is it available for downloading from somewhere? The reason the I want an updated SBOS is because of the problems I am having with Falcon 3 (3.01.1 really). I get digitized sound at first, but after a minute or so it stops. It also sounds terrible (scratchy and distorted compared to my prehistoric soundblaster). The music in Falcon 3 sounds much worse with the Ultrasound as well. Every other (non Windows) program that I have tried with the Ultrasound sounds at least as good as the soundblaster. Has anyone else had this problem? One more problem: when I play .MID files with playmidi they sound great, but when I play them with the Media Player in Windows, I only hear one of the many drums in the file. I know about the patch loading problem with Windows, but I though that the Media Player was working correctly. Any ideas? Ted Wright (wright@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 17:05:58 EST From: Andrew Mccallum Message-Id: <9211101716.aa19639@generic.UUCP> Subject: DESQview To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Is there a way that I can use any of the Ultrasound's utilities (Playmidi, etc.) in DESQView withought it crashing on me? (The window, not the computer.) UUCP: zoo.toronto.edu!generic!terranet!andrewm ARPA: generic!terranet!andrewm@zoo.toronto.edu INET: andrewm@terranet.cts.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 09:52:33 CST From: ken@batman.austin.ibm.com (Ken Goach) Message-Id: <9211101552.AA07199@batman.austin.ibm.com> Subject: Disk-Count software ships GUS!!! To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I called Disk-Count software again yesterday, like I said I would, and they got about 1/4 of their order in from Gravis. They said they would begin processing it immediately and that it would depend on when I had ordered if I got one - where I am on the waiting list. They also said they should get the rest of their order in on Tuesday or Wednesday. I figure, sure, pull my other leg, it plays "Jingle Bells." So I called them back later in the day to see if my order had been filled or if I was near the bottom of the list. The man said, "Looks like you're one of the lucky ones. You should have it tomorrow or Wednesday." "Excuse me?!" I said. Looks like it's on its way! I'll let you all know when (if) I get it and will probably ask a lot of questions once I do ;-)! Now if I can only get the bugger installed and working... Ken ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 16:31:37 -0800 (PST) From: Mark Harrison Message-Id: Subject: Electronic Arts, CD-ROM drives To: Ultrasound Daily Digest First of all, I have some good news for some of you. I called EA today to ask if they've gotten the GUS yet. The guy told me they just got some in today (Nov 10) and that mine was being packaged up as we spoke. I ordered mine around the beginning of September if that helps anyone. Also I'll need to be hooking it up to a CD-ROM drive. Anyone have any experience with this so far? I'm assuming that I'll need to make my own cable. Until then, I guess I'll be using them headphones. ============================================================================= Mark Harrison | "We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx harrison@sun.lclark.edu | Our great computers fill the hallowed halls." -- Me | -- Rush ============================================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 10:43:38 PST From: yuzik@sfu.ca Message-Id: <9211101843.AA28685@fraser.sfu.ca> Subject: GUS dealers To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Hi everyone, I would like to take a few bytes to explain the Gravis distribution process to clear up any confusion. Generally speaking, Gravis sells to a distributor, who in turn, sells to dealers, chains, and mail-order houses. The exceptions to this are some of the LARGE chains or developers, such as Electonic Arts. Due to the heavy demand for the UltraSound, distributors have been allocating stock to their accounts, based on date of original order, as well as other factors. Gravis does not have any control of the allocation process from the distributor. We are currently filling backorders to our distributors and major retailers, and have increased production in an effort to meet demand. Thank you for your interest in the Gravis UltraSound, and I thank you for your patience. Chris Yuzik ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 00:51:17 PST From: echuang@cco.caltech.edu (Ernest Y. Chuang) Message-Id: <9211110851.AA18816@sandman.caltech.edu> Subject: It's heeerre... (Finally!) To: Ultrasound Daily Digest If anyone ordered their GUS from Disk-Count Software and hasn't received it yet, you can hopefully look forward to receiving it sometime soon. I just got mine today, and I placed my order a little under a month ago (October 19th, according to the receipt). (And yes, at the time I placed the order, I was told that the GUS hadn't been approved by the FCC yet.) Total cost, as promised, was $133 ($129 + $4 shipping). Now I've got a few questions for all you GUS-installation veterans. (This was easily the most painful installation I've come across for a sound card, in terms of tinkering with IRQ's, setup files, etc... In earlier installations of the old Adlib and the Roland SCC-1, they pretty much worked, right after plugging them in. Not to say that I'd want to go back to the Adlib... :-) ) 1) Is anyone else using the "audio in" jack to mix in another sound card output? (especially other Roland users?) It works perfectly in the native GUS mode -- I can play something on the Roland, and it will get played through the GUS to my amplifier (I'm using the audio-line-out, not the amplified-out). However, if I run SBOS, then the audio-in no longer seems to work (I play something on the Roland, and I get silence from the GUS.) Even after removing SBOS via "sbos -f", it still doesn't work. It seems like I have to reboot in order to get it working again. Any ideas? 2) Does anyone else have problems with loud screechy/staticy "speech"? I think about half of the programs that I've tried (that support Soundblaster speech) work fine on the GUS (including WC2, thankfully); but others will play the SB-emulated music fine, but the digitized sound effects and speech will be about 5 times louder than the background music, and in addition will be hideously garbled and noisy. (All of the demo midi files and .snd files that came with the GUS worked fine.) 3) What are the default IRQ setting(s) for the original SB? Or, alternatively, has anyone been able to get the GUS to play the music from demos like Vectdemo and Unreal? For me, Vectdemo hangs after the title screen, while Unreal goes through the graphics fine, but I get no music/sound. I'm not sure if it's the result of an incompatibility, or if it's looking for the default SB settings, which I'm not sure I'm using (220h, DMA 7, GUS IRQ 11, MIDI IRQ 5). I guess that's about all for now, although I suspect I'll have more questions as I play around with the card some more. Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks. - Ernest Chuang echuang@cco.caltech.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 14:05:13 CST From: ken@batman.austin.ibm.com (Ken Goach) Message-Id: <9211102005.AA07537@batman.austin.ibm.com> Subject: IT CAME! I GOT MY GUS! To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Well, I went home for lunch and there was a box waiting for me. Inside the box was a GRAVIS ULTRA SOUND! So I guess Disk-Count software wasn't lying after all. Tonight I will install it and let ya'll know how it goes. SCHWING! Ken P.S. If you ordered from Disk-Count, call them and ask them if your order was shipped and if not, when it will ship. They only got about 1/4 of their stock of GUS's in yesterday. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 18:55:13 -0500 From: ylee@norton.uwaterloo.ca Message-Id: <9211102355.AA13381@norton.uwaterloo.ca> Subject: KBMIDI in epas.utoronto.ca To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Hi everyone, I've uploaded the modified version of KBMIDI by charles petzold to \pub\pc\ultrasound\submit directory in epas.utoronto.ca Have fun! - Yuri Lee - ylee@sunee.uwaterloo.ca ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 12:07:34 EST From: iam@stiatl.salestech.com (Ian Mercado) Message-Id: <9211101207.AA00686@stiatl.salestech.com> Subject: Let's go back to net posting... To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I know it's nice to be in on the little Ultrasound club we've got going here, but how in the world do we expect to spread the word about the GUS if we're all holed up here reading this mailing list? If we want this card to be as successful as we know it can (and should) be, I think we should do all we can to ensure everyone else out in net-land hears about our product. Bandwidth regarding the GUS has just about dropped to nil in the comp.ibm.pc.soundcard group, and I don't think that will help sell GUS's to potential Usenet customers in the future. Something to think about... Ian ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 14:25:11 CST From: Bill Lockett Message-Id: <9211102025.AA17790@tamsun.tamu.edu> Subject: problems corrected To: Ultrasound Daily Digest In last Friday's digest, I asked a few questions. Why windows kept giving me Error can't load patch ..........pat and about 93 others. Well, after getting no responses, I called tech support. It took the nice gentleman about 8 seconds to tell me to remove ultrasnd.cfg from the windows directory. Whoever it was that stated to put that in the windows directory was wrong. I removed it and it sounds great. bi ------------------------------ Date: 10 Nov 92 12:33 -0800 From: Thomas Wong Message-Id: <2419*twong@civil.ubc.ca> Subject: Replies... To: Ultrasound Daily Digest timkwan@Athena.MIT.EDU writes: >Subject: Price of GUS in canada > >I have a friend from Boston who is now visiting Canada. How much does >a GUS cost there? I mean in a regular store, not from Gravis directly >since their prices are higher. Please let me know ASAP so that if >it's really cheap, I will ask my friend to buy it for me in Canada. > I don't know if it's cheaper from stores. This is such a HOT card that some stores have jacked up the prices. Locally, they are going around CAN $189 to CAN $210. > >------------------------------ > gkirikos@epas.utoronto.ca (George Kirikos) writes: >Subject: Ultrasound & OS/2 2.0 > >Hi, > >I'm having problems getting my new GUS card to work with OS/2 2.0, and >would appreciate any tips from those who have succesfully installed >the sound card. >.... Wait for the OS/2 driver from Gravis... > Thomas. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 09:48:58 CST From: ken@batman.austin.ibm.com (Ken Goach) Message-Id: <9211101548.AA07196@batman.austin.ibm.com> Subject: Request server problem To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I have a problem. I sent a request for instructions on how to build the joystick port midi-connector and I never got them. Can someone tell me what's up, or send me the instructions? Thanks, Ken ------------------------------ Date: 10 Nov 92 12:37 -0800 From: Thomas Wong Message-Id: <2420*twong@civil.ubc.ca> Subject: SBOS <-> Win 3.1 survey To: Ultrasound Daily Digest [Seeing as my posting was after that last digest where someone posted a uuencoded file and I don't suppose too many people would go through the 3 postings of uuencoded code to get to my posting instead of just deleting that digest from their mailbox right away, I'll ask again...] How many people out there is having problems running Windows 3.1 after loading SBOS? How many people have no problem at all? For example, say you load SBOS to play a game or for whatever reason. You may not remove SBOS with the -f option for just leave it loaded, doesn't matter. Now you run Win 3.1 and the first thing you should hear is the Window Startup .wav file you've defined in Win 3.1. Does it sound ok? And when you exit, does the exit sound ok? Or do you get garbage? Thomas. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 13:07:27 -0500 From: Message-Id: <9211101807.AA00524@c11.Ariel.YorkU.CA> Subject: SBOS problems To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Hi, The following is occuring 50% of the time when I attempt to load the sbos driver: Parity check 2 00000(s) This causes the computer to hang, requiring a hard reboot. I suspect that the memory on my UltraSound has failed, but I'm not sure. Has any one else had this problem? Also I am one of the poor unfortunates stuck using a 286, and I am wondering if increasing the memory on my card might solve some of the preformance problems I have been having using the card. I have sent my question regarding increasing the on card memory both to Gravis Tech Support and to Chris Yuzik and have not heard anything from them in 2 weeks!!! ...Jason Internet: jason@ariel.yorku.ca ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 11:07:25 PST From: yuzik@sfu.ca Message-Id: <9211101907.AA01111@fraser.sfu.ca> Subject: Sending Gravis E-Mail To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Hi Everyone, I'd just like to take a second to ask everyone who wants a personal reply from me to please send mail directly to me. You may also, of course, post your message to the UltraSound daily digest. I have been _swamped_ with mail lately, as I'm sure you can understand. I printed my mail from the weekend, and it totaled 54 pages! Not that I'm complaining, I just wanted to let you know why it sometimes takes me a couple of days to respond. It is a _lot_ easier to respond to mail addressed directly, as I'm sure a few of you have noticed. Thank you. Chris Yuzik chris_yuzik@sfu.ca ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 13:18:19 GMT From: gt8741b@prism.gatech.edu (Chris Adams) Message-Id: <1992Nov10.131819.23835@riacs.edu> Subject: Sox 5 for DOS released To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I have compiled the latest version of Sox (release 5) under DOS. Sox is a program by Lance Norskog for moving sounds between different formants. Sox is available by anonymous ftp from ftp.cwi.nl [192.16.184.180], directory pub, files sox5beta.tar.Z (source) and sox5dos.zip (my PC binary). -- Chris Adams | "If tin whistles are made of tin, Georgia Tech | what do they make foghorns from?" Internet: gt8741b@prism.gatech.edu| -- Lonnie Donegan ----------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 17:28:06 EST From: timkwan@Athena.MIT.EDU Message-Id: <9211102228.AA15437@marinara> To: Ultrasound Daily Digest A couple of days ago I cancelled my order with Gravis and made an order for the GUS with Disk=Count. They said I would be getting it in 2 or 3 days at the most! Rejoice!! But when I called today, they said next week! What the f**k is all this!?? I thought Gravis has made a large shipment to Disk-Count. So WHEN will I get MY card? Is this really worth it? Can I sue Gravis if I get ulcers? This is f**king pissing me off! I HOPE CHRIS YUZIK IS READING THIS! The GUS may be a great card, but the company that makes it --------------- SUCKS!!!! ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V1 #16 ******************************