Ultrasound Daily Digest Wed, 18 Nov 92 Volume 1 : Issue 23 Today's Topics: 4 more midi files for GUS Digest Admin: Prewarn about Thursday's news connection GTS better than MODEDIT 3.01 ??? (2 msgs) Help me Gravis 8( Mail order from overseas (South Africa)??? major compatibility problem MODs and the Gravis More fun from Elec Arts! (Even Less GUS-ing) New Gravis Disks 1.21 New patches on epas SB/Adlib compatibility. software information wanted for creating midi files Star Control II ??? Ultrasound Daily Digest V1 #22 (2 msgs) Ultrasound in Australia Ultrasound MIDI sampling applications 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 People responsible: David DeBry, Adam Iles, Thomas Wong, Chris Yuzik, and many others who should be thanked often. :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 13:35:32 +0800 (WST) From: esther@tartarus.uwa.edu.au (Pe-Mei Esther LIM) Message-Id: <199211180535.AA02785@tartarus.uwa.edu.au> Subject: To: Ultrasound Daily Digest >Another query, since these GUS's do cost so much in Australia, and knowing >things here not likely to come down, can someone email me the name,address, >fax no. etc of either Gravis itself or a mail order company i might be >able to get an order form from? >I know the Gravis costs about 160-170 US (doesnt it?) and supposedly 200 >canadian, ive also heard it can be bought as low as $130-140 US, can someone >fill me in on details where I can mail order to get it at this or any price? Yeah, Like I mailed yesterday. I do know of a mail order company in Perth. I'm new to the net so I'm not sure if I mention the name if that would violate the rules and such. Mail me if you want their details. I got mine from them for $280(inc tax) but that's in Perth, so you might have to pay some postage. They told me that I'll get mine on Friday...so I'm waiting!!! Esther Lim esther@tartarus.uwa.edu.au ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 22:29:10 -0500 From: ylee@norton.uwaterloo.ca Message-Id: <9211180329.AA02821@norton.uwaterloo.ca> Subject: 4 more midi files for GUS To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Hello everybody, I've again uploaded 4 more midi files for GUS. 2 or them are converted from .ROL files and 1 of them is written for MT-32 but I changed patches assignments for GUS. Enjoy... Someone mailed me asking about .MOD to .MID converter. I don't think such thing exists although it wouldn't be too difficult to write one. However, I'd rather write a MOD player that runs in GUS native mode as soon as I get some programming info. <- Can someone help me out on this one? PLEASE!!! I currently don't have $100 to purchase GUS devel. toolkit....I'm a poor University student... Later, Yuri Lee ******** yuri.lee@canrem.com ylee@sunee.uwaterloo.ca ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 23:36:01 MST From: ddebry@itchy (Dave DeBry) Message-Id: <9211180636.AA12810@itchy> Subject: Digest Admin: Prewarn about Thursday's news connection To: Ultrasound Daily Digest This is just to prewarn everyone that this Thursday night I'll be compiling the first weekly condensed posting of this digest to the newsfeed. So you know, it covers digests from last Thursday through this Wednesday. Also, please don't forward messages from news to the digest. There is someone assigned to do that (me, for now), and I don't want to have a ton of repeated messages going out. Boring reading. (Speaking of, I've been forwarding that mail about MODEDIT and other such programs from news to the digest. Has anyone tried them out with SBOS yet? No, I don't have my card yet, either...) (Kick-myself-really-hard-mode ON. I haven't even ORDERED my card yet. When everyone was racing out to get one from TeleMart and EA and such, I thought "Ha! I'll just wait until the big rush is over, then saunter in and snag my Ultrasound! What a plan!" What a crock. Now I'll NEVER get one. Stupid, Dave. Really dumb, Dave. Feh. "I'm dreaming of a mute Christmas..." :-| Kick-myself-really-hard-mode OFF.) It looks like we may be getting some space on the wuarchive ftp site, so that's good news. When it's up, we'll have more space than epas.utoronto.edu can currently give us. (Adam: I hope you'll still keep the epas archive up -- we'll need both soon, I think!) Room for all the back issues, MIDI files, programs, updates from the Gravis BBS, etc., etc. (When I get the time, I'll put as much as I can of the stuff from epas onto the request server for you readers without FTP access. Don't hold your breath, though. Work and school just hit overdrive mode. Ugh. Well, maybe it's a good thing I don't have a GUS yet, or I'd never go to work and my grades would go all to hell. =^] ) -- Dave ddebry@ debry@ \ "She didn't have the kind of dough to buy new DeBry dsd. peruvian. | earrings, so she used shower curtain rings. es. cs.utah. | Somewhere, a bathroom was flooding." com edu / - Tommy Sledge ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 17:24:30 GMT From: ghahrema@cat53.cs.wisc.edu (Houman Ghahremanlou) Message-Id: <1992Nov13.172430.15226@daffy.cs.wisc.edu> Subject: GTS better than MODEDIT 3.01 ??? To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Hello, you people who like mod files and music , should download a masterpiece which is availabe for you wat wuarchive.wustl.edu at pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS and it is called gts*.zip ( many files ) the program is really good and comes with many samples and and songs and looks like music studio for apple II GS or Macintosh. b4 having a PC 486 I had an Amiga and I know how were those sound stracker or medtrekker or protrekker and all X-tracker they made, I have to notify you that is reallly hard to use any modedit to creat mod files on IBM . even modedit 3.01 that I like pretty much , does not arrrive to 40 % of the capacities of those trekker which were easy to use on amiga. the good thing about gts is that you could transfer a mod file to gts format and when you load gts you kind of see a music sheet with all notes on it, so you could change everything with mouse ( instruments, notes, silences, etc) and you even have a keyboard on it and you could put more than 32 instruments inside of a song. I am not saying that modedit is bad! it is a kind of program and gts is another one, so get it and use it. an email me to tell me how u find it at: ghahrema@cs.wisc.edu I programmed demos for Amiga for two years in assembler, and believe me that gts might be a revolution for PC compatibles, we do not need mod players, we need something which should be made for PC and not copied f for pc. P.S.S to Norman Lin, I think that you do a pretty good job, and I do not think that modedit is a crippleware, BUT, in the shareware you should have put all the commands ( I mean disabling those 2 options is not a right choice). take care and try to do a modedit like those in AMIGA. like the startrekker or protrekker. If you want I could draw the screen in deluxe paint for you. let me know. thank you and let me know about gts. Houman Ghahremanlou Computer department - UW madison. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 14 Nov 1992 20:39:59 GMT From: rjm@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Ryan Mitchell) Message-Id: Subject: GTS better than MODEDIT 3.01 ??? To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Archie reports that the GTS program files are located at saffron.inset.com under /pub/sound/players (I think that's the directory). A word of warning: don't go swamping their system if you aren't going to use the files right away--wait until it gets uploaded somewhere else. The Saffron site has a small, slow link which only a couple of people can tie up pretty easily; several could be bad. Ryan -- ===============================/ /============================* ========/ Ryan /======/ / rjm@mentor.cc.purdue.edu | ======/ Mitchell /======/ / mitcherj@sage.cc.purdue.edu | =========================/ /==================================* ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 2:14:35 CST From: Jana Janicek Message-Id: <9211180814.AA13436@ccu.UManitoba.CA> Subject: Help me Gravis 8( To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Help, my friend is having Ultrasound Problems. To be brief, everything except SBOS works. The problem with SBOS is when it loads the patches, it locks, and parity error results. We tried all -o and -x and IRQ combinations, as well as disabling TSR and other cards. We got SBOS to initialize properly once. We believe his troubles stem from his bios: Phoenix 80386 ROM BIOS PLUS V 1.10 02J We installed the latest version (1.21) of the distribution disks. And his Ultrasound looks different than mine. Mine is opaque red, his is shiney lustrous red. (Same rev#, 2.2). Can you help us Gravis? ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 13:10:21 GMT+0200 From: Walter Prins Message-Id: Subject: Mail order from overseas (South Africa)??? To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Hi Has anyone by any chance ordered a GUS by mail order from a far off place like South Africa? I'm very interested in getting a GUS, but since it won't show up here (in S.A. that is) for some time still (I guess), and it'll also be overpriced, the only solution will be to order it directly. Any postal adresses, telephone numbers and fax numbers will be appreciated, as well as method's of ordering (i.e. credit card, cod or whatever). Thanks in advance! Walter Prins ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Walter Prins Email: prins@cs.sun.ac.za University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 11:22:38 -0500 From: edwong@acs.bu.edu (Edward Wong) Message-Id: <9211171622.AA15490@acs.bu.edu> Subject: major compatibility problem To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I think there is a major problem emulating the sound blaster. Most of the time I can't the music up, and even if there is music only the adlib mode is supported. For example, I got rampart, and the adlib emulation is very nice, I get all those stereo sound. However, it can find the sound blaster during the configuration. 8) _ _ | user's name: Edward Wong |_ |\ \ / /\ |_) |\ | ARPA: edwong@acs.bu.edu |_ |/ \^/ /==\ | \ |/ | UUCP: acs.bu.edu!edwong ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 17:37:27 EST From: moddan@bowker.com (Daniel Nicholson ) Message-Id: <5cNeuB1w164w@bowker.com> Subject: MODs and the Gravis To: Ultrasound Daily Digest There are currently several individuals and companies working on MOD and Ultrasound-specific MOD type editors and players right now, and chances are Gravis will eventually be packaging one of these with the card. I would like to recommend Star Control II to all you Gravis owners out there. I think it sets a new sound standard for games, at least I hope so because I wrote much of that music! Check it out. - ModDan (Daniel Nicholson) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 00:19:39 -0500 (EST) From: "Mark W. Fleig" Message-Id: <9211180519.AA04303@orca.es.com> Subject: More fun from Elec Arts! (Even Less GUS-ing) To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Well, for those who are tired of hearing the plight of the few who have yet to see any GUS-fruit fall from the Electronic Arts tree, skip this one. After another call to EA today, in search of my board ordered Aug.24th they finally admitted I, along with several others, were accidently skipped, and will have to wait for...you guessed it... "the next order." The lady said they're not expecting another order from Gravis for three weeks. I was mighty displeased. She half-heartedly apologized, but mentioned they were having a tough time dealing with Gravis. (Which I fail to beleive. No other distributers seem to be lacking.) So here's the simple home-test you can use to find out when you'll get your card from electronic arts. Look inside your computer. If it's not there already, you won't see it for another month. (*sigh*) Anybody know of a U.S. distributer I could go to instead? I'm supposed to pay only $100 for my gus from EA... but who needs a good deal when the board is obsolete before you get it. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 10:31:00 -0400 (AST) From: Marc Paulin <8900795@clement> Message-Id: Subject: New Gravis Disks 1.21 To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Hi, I downloaded the new disks from epas, deleted my ULTRASND directory and installed the new files. Nice improvements on Tocatta!! Impressive. But they modified LatinDance, HIDNSEEK and YELOWROS. Yuck!! The percussions (especially the bass drum) sound bad!! I can't clear hear the highhat and cymbals. I prefer those three midi files with the old patches but I deleted them. Darn me. Who else noticed the changes? ____ _ _ _ / \ \ /' )' )' ) | | | / / / | (_|__/ \ / / __. .__ ___ | | __. . . \ . ___ / (__(_/|__) )__/(__ \_/__(_/|__)\_)__/\__)__) <_ Markus on QuartzPARADISE and AfterFive +---------------------------------------------+-----------------------------+ | markus@clement.info.umoncton.ca | "My son, ask for thyself | | For Talk: 8900795@clement.info.umoncton.ca | another kingdom. For that | |---------------------------------------------+ which I leave is too small | | When all else fails, read the instructions | for thee" - King Philippe | +---------------------------------------------+-----------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: 17 Nov 92 13:33 -0800 From: Thomas Wong Message-Id: <2457*twong@civil.ubc.ca> Subject: New patches on epas To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Who uploaded those "updates/patches" onto epas anyways? Are we sure this is a legit release since 1) there are problems that the old ones didn't have, 2) Gravis never did announce any update/patches as yet. And they did say they'll let me know when it's available as well as annouce it on our mailgin list. I haven't seen any Gravis annoucements. And there has been those who asked about these files but I have yet to see a response. So unless someone comes forward to explain what these files are all about, I don't think I'd be downloading it or trying it out on my setup. You might want to scan for viruses in case this is a trojan horse uploaded, as others have done with other programs such as sharewares like PKZIP, CompuShow, Kermit....etc. Thomas. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 9:30:15 EST From: Phat H Tran Message-Id: <9211171430.AA08845@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca> Subject: SB/Adlib compatibility. To: Ultrasound Daily Digest > > > I managed to get every feature of both cards to function together except > > the SB's Adlib compatibility. Games that drive the SB as an SB work fine > > with my GUS/SB setup, but those that use the SB as an Adlib card do not > > detect Adlib compatibility. > > I got "So you want to be a hero" to work with the Adlib specified in > the game's INSTALL program. I was running SBOS with no flags at all, > BTW. Funny, but when I specified the Sound/Gameblaster as my music > card, I got no sound! But I told the game to do Adlib music, and > with SBOS I get sound. I haven't tried anything really wild, like > specifying music for Adlib and sound effects for SB on Wolf 3-D, but > that sounds like it might be a good test to try. > I wasn't running SBOS. I tried it, didn't like how Falcon sounded, so I slapped my SB back onto the motherboard, hoping that it will work with the GUS. It did, except for Adlib compatibility. However, if I run SBOS, then remove it, certain Adlib-specific programs will work (but test-sbc will then report an error 0400.) Right now, the only Adlib program that doesn't want to work with my SB/GUS setup is playrol (but mm and other .rol players work fine). [Various problems with GUS's SB emulation deleted.] Sometimes the GUS can really look bad when people start listing off SB/Adlib games and programs that will not work with it. But, folks, the Ultrasound's first and foremost priority is not to be a Soundblaster clone! It's an excellent wavetable card that has no hope in hell of ever emulating the SB perfectly. On its own terms, the GUS has no equal in the sub-$500 range (I'm assuming that the Roland cards are above this mark. Are they?). Its various SB problems are short-term growing pains that will go away as developers realize the effectiveness of wavetables over FM. Hence, we should not harp on the fact that Game A doesn't sound right, or that Game B locks up with SBOS, etc. Such tales will scare off potential buyers unnecessarily, and a rapidly expanding installed base is what the GUS needs. And another thing... I don't see why people are trying to play MODs on the GUS when there are MIDI files, which sound so much better! Is there a program that will extract the sequencing data from MODs and play them with the GUS's patches? Also, anybody know of where I can find some MIDI files similar to New Order or Depeche Mode style music? I'm quickly becoming bored with classical and jazz. Anyway, back to the problem at hand... if SB-compatibility is a big concern, the GUS can coexist with the SoundBlaster. > I've downloaded the v1.21 driver sets from epas and installed over > the old version [v1.1]. And when I've ran the mididemo.bat programs, > there was about half of the sound modules didn't work with the new > driver when it was working with the old one.. I've rebooted the system > to check if it was any other TSRs I've loaded before but it wasn't.. (I > think the error was error #0.. Can't find patch.. I've got to double > check..) I think I'll just nuke the \ultrasnd directory and re-install > the drivers so I can do a clean install.... Hmm.. It's veeeeeery, > veeeeeery strange problem.. Maybe it's something that I've done... > My GUS came with 1.21 disks, and I think Gravis may have packed them with drivers that were not included in earlier versions of the software. Phat. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 23:50:37 PST From: "Patrick R. Jones" Message-Id: <9211180751.AA05935@orca.es.com> Subject: software information wanted for creating midi files To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Well, after looking around in various ftp sites, and skimming all of the previous digests for answers to my questions, I have finally broken down and decided to ask the digest experts my questions. Basically, I am interested in doing music composition on my GUS, and the best way to do this seems to be through the midi files. That decided, it comes down to finding software that will help me to do this. Public domain would be best, though I would be willing to shell out any reasonable amount of money for a shareware or commercial program. If lots of people e-mail me rather than posting, I will compile the results and send them off to the digest. ---------------- Patrick Jones (pjones@jarthur.claremont.edu) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 21:01:56 MST From: kdorff@NMSU.Edu Message-Id: <9211180403.AA09937@NMSU.Edu> Subject: Star Control II ??? To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I wanted to double check before I consider spending money on this game. Did I read correctly (here, yesterday) that Star Control II supports the Gravis Ultrasound in NATIVE mode???? THIS would TRULY be wonderful. Has anyone played it? I have heard wonderful things about Star Control I and I know lots of people have been waiting for II to come out. HOw about someone post a mini-review of this game here on this echo if it does in fact support the old GUS in native mode. Thanks mucho Kevin ------------------------------ Date: 17 Nov 92 13:15:26 +0100 From: BJORNHK@dhhalden.no Message-Id: Subject: Ultrasound Daily Digest V1 #22 To: Ultrasound Daily Digest > > PLEASE people, do not quote the entire digest when posting a reply for > inclusion in the next digest. It's getting annoying!!! > > (This is NOT a flame, just a request.) Yes, that's my fault. I forgot to delete the rest of the digest I included in a reply. I apologize for this. I did nowever right aftwerwards send a mail to UD Owner, warning about this, but apparently that didn't help. Maybe this would be worth looking into? -=* Bjorn :: bjornhk@sofus.dhhalden.no ACCESS DATA :: TEL: (+47)-9-17 50 48/61-97 791 FAX: 61-97 791 BBS: 61-97 304/97 945 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 09:43:48 PST From: biggles@berlioz.nsc.com (Winston Worrell) Message-Id: <9211171743.AA27388@berlioz.nsc.com> Subject: Ultrasound Daily Digest V1 #22 To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Hi, Ok, I just brought StarControl 2 (its a slick StartFlight like game), and it has direct support for the Gravis UltraSound. I guess that's one for the list of fully supported games. The card definately needs a volume control. I almost fell out of my chair when the game started up. Nobody has said anything about using the SBPro midi/joystick cable on the Gravis. I'm waiting Gravis. Biggles. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 18:12:42 +0800 (WST) From: esther@tartarus.uwa.edu.au (Pe-Mei Esther LIM) Message-Id: <199211171012.AA14218@tartarus.uwa.edu.au> Subject: Ultrasound in Australia To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Hello People, For those of you in Australia, I've found a retailer that sells the GUS for $280 in Perth. If you can't find a retailer, mail me and I'll give you their contact numbers and address. Have fun, I'm getting mine on Friday.......... esther@tartarus.uwa.edu.au ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 20:58:47 EST From: moddan@bowker.com (Daniel Nicholson ) Message-Id: Subject: Ultrasound MIDI sampling applications To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Software which allows the Gravis UltraSound to be used as a MIDI sampler is not very far down the way. Here at PCkS we are working on such a program. Anyone got a wish list for what they'd like to see? - moddan (Dan Nicholson) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 12:00:48 -0500 From: tai@eclipse.sheridanc.on.ca (Francis Tai) Message-Id: <9211171700.AA01696@eclipse.sheridanc.on.ca> To: Ultrasound Daily Digest ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 09:58:25 -0500 >From: ylee@norton.uwaterloo.ca >Subject: DRUMS..... >Hi Francis, >Yes I've only modified DRUMDLL.C and left the rest ( DRUM.C & DRUMFILE ) alone. >You said you have installed ver1.21 disks and still don't get full drum sounds, >it must be either 1) you still have older windows driver although the version >number hasn't changed on the driver 2) you have not installed all patches. >This is just my assumption. Well, I think that I've done something wrong during the drivers update.. I think I'll just wipe off the GUS windows drivers and the gus utils and re-install the drivers... :< >BTW, I do get percussion sounds from KBMIDI by setting channel to either 10 or >16 ( that are general midi percussion channels ). They are quite nice ( drum >sound with new patches ). .. I've finally got a chance to play with KBMIDI, It's done nicely.. Do you have any more samples?? :> Francis tai@eclipse.sheridanc.on.ca ****************************** ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V1 #23 ******************************