Ultrasound Daily Digest Fri, 11 Dec 92 Volume 1 : Issue 45 Today's Topics: CD-INTERFACE conector error messages: Playmidi GUS and linking audio form CDROM drive GUS publicity .... NOT ! Index Files For Epas Maximum Overkill MCS for Windows and WINMOD MCS Stereo More on OPTi chipset with GUS Percussion maps/MT32PAT.CFG Reading Adventures in OZ - what i found SB emulation sounds funny. Where can I get the SDK??? Information about the UltraSound Daily Digest (such as mail addresses, request servers, ftp sites, etc., etc.) can be found at the end of the Digest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Dec 92 10:39:16 MET From: Frank van Ierland Message-Id: <9212100939.AA06929@ux07.pttnwb.nl> Subject: CD-INTERFACE conector To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I've finaly received my long awaited GUS from MCS. Instalation was realy easy everting works on its default setting. As i've recently installed a NEC-CDR84 internal CD-ROM drive in my computer i would lik to know the pinout of the 4 pin CD-AUDIO connector on the gravis board. My gues is L--R but i'am not sure. Has anny one out there used this connector ? Tanks -- Frank van Ierland || Domain: franki@prso.pttnwb.nl Cap Gemini Pandata T&D || Voice : (+31) 70-39.57.206 #include || CIS : 70032,3223 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1992 12:59:42 -0500 From: Markus Ngus Message-Id: <92Dec10.125943est.250919-1@descartes.uwaterloo.ca> Subject: error messages: Playmidi To: Ultrasound Daily Digest According to tech suuport at Grivs.. "Sorry, out of memory" refers to my machine's memory has run out and "Out of Memory (hold_buffer)! " refers to out of memory on the ultrasnd card.. can someone confirm this. referring to exactly.. ( I have a 1 MEG upgrade) please comments. thanks. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1992 12:25:13 +0000 (GMT) From: Lyn Holman Message-Id: Subject: GUS and linking audio form CDROM drive To: Ultrasound Daily Digest There are 4 connector pins on the GUS denoted by 'CDROM' (top - about centre of card) which I have been told by my supplier over here are for audio input from a CDROM drive, the 2 centre pins being ground and the other L and R inputs. Has anyone tried to link in using this - and if so with what results. Any information would be much appreciated. Thanks. Lyn Holman ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Dec 92 16:05:48 GMT From: ulmer@tardis.ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM (Richard Ulmer) Message-Id: <1992Dec10.110548.25553@ncrcae.ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM> Subject: GUS publicity .... NOT ! To: Ultrasound Daily Digest In article <1992Dec9.160612.14553@cbnewsj.cb.att.com>, felixc@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (felix.cabral) writes: |> I've seen a few response against my original article. This one speaks a bit |> clearer with the comparison. Thanks. I did mention the GUS is superior but |> the important thing I keyed on was the fact that it is not currently |> supported by the same wide support the SBpro has. No question about the |> GUS being a great board. I just want those who choose a board to play games |> and for simple sound creation not to make the mistake and buy a GUS thinking |> it will have a better SB emulation than the SB itself. If you want to use |> your sound board today on the great games available now go with the SBpro. |> Thats my point. It won't sound any better than the SBpro if it could handle |> the SB emulation at all. My response to your post was not meant to be a flame. I just got the impression from your post that you had not heard the GUS and there is a big different in sound quality. As far as avoiding the real issues no one is generaling stating that GUS SB emulation is better that a real SB. In fact most of the complaints (other than the OPTi problems) about the GUS are with SBOS and the SB emulation. Most people who are advocating the GUS are doing so based on the board's potential and not its current software support base. For the conservative buyer who wants flawless support in past and present games and does not really care about sound quality then the SB is the logical choice. For the buyer who is interested in the best possible sound quality (in this price range) or who has outgrown the toy sounding FM on the SB and is looking forward to the native support in future games then the GUS is a great choice. One thing to consider about the SB standard is its future. If sound standards follow the same path as video standards then owning a SBpro 2 years from now may be like owning an EGA today. And look at how many games don't support the EGA today. Proability won't pane out that way, but with the GUS and these new WAV boards coming out in the future you never know. Rick Ulmer internet: ulmer@ncrcae.Columbia.NCR.COM NCR MCPD Columbia uucp: ...!uunet!ncrlink!ncrcae!ulmer 3325 Platt Springs Road voice: (803) 739-6035 West Columbia, SC 29170 So if you want to flame don't avoid the real issues |> I mentioned here and the original post. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Dec 92 23:05:00 EST From: mfrazer@skidmore.EDU (matthew frazer) Message-Id: <9212110401.AA01490@scott.skidmore.edu> Subject: Index Files For Epas To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I think it might be a good idea if we started having index files (you know like 00-index.txt or something) for the directories in epas ftp server, I admit that I've not been dloading everything because I haven't gotten my gus, and probably won't for a month more or so at least, as I'm waiting to get my holiday shopping bills paid up before I go rewarding myself. But when I do get it I'd like to know what is there, I was looking around today and there are no descriptions of any kind. Sooooo, anyone wanna do it? -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-This message was brought to you by Matthew Frazer-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- I tell you they have not died, their hands clasp, yours and mine -Windom Earle Finger mfrazer@scott.skidmore.edu for more --------------------------------=Be Seeing You=-------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1992 16:57:54 -0500 From: KWAN RICHARD SIK YIU Message-Id: <92Dec10.165805edt.6873@skule.ecf.toronto.edu> Subject: Maximum Overkill To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I've read that there is a new .exe file of Max. Overkill for the GUS. Could any one kindly upload that file to epas.utoronto.ca. I want to hear that digital sound! Thanks in advance! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1992 11:57:09 -0500 (EST) From: Philip Andrew Nemec Message-Id: Subject: MCS for Windows and WINMOD To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I've used Winmod quite a bit with the old (1.2 I believe) drivers and it worked fine with my GUS... I'd be interested in more specs on MCS Stereo though! I have yet to hear any stereo from Windows actually... My setup: 486 DX2/50 16M Future Domain SCSI IBM Token Ring DOS 5.0, NDOS and recently 4DOS QEMM386, DV/X, WIN 3.1 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1992 16:53:45 -0500 From: KWAN RICHARD SIK YIU Message-Id: <92Dec10.165352edt.6482@skule.ecf.toronto.edu> Subject: MCS Stereo To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I've recently installed the MCS Stereo, it is great! Unfortunately, there are still some functions I could not use with my GUS. The volume control on Midi and Digital Recorder seems not working. The Mixer Console, I even could notload it at all. Also the Digital Recorder, I could not set it to STEREO, 44kHz, all I can record is 8 bit, 22kHz (or 11kHz), MONO wav file. It works fine on my friend's SB Pro. During the installation, it asks me what sound card I had, I could not find GUS, so I chose unlisted one. I think that the problem, but I want to make sure if any GUS owner who also have MCS Stereo for Windows got the same problem and if any one of you could help me to solve this situtation. The MCS with GUS sound great together. however I want to use all the functions of the MCS and notpart of it. Perhaps I need a new GUS windows driver, any idea when it will come out, the driver now I'm using is dated 11/04/92 ver 1.2?. Thank in advance, and I hope to hear any useful solutions from any GUS owner! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1992 02:58:54 GMT From: iam@stiatl.salestech.com (Ian Mercado) Message-Id: <1992Dec10.025854.4658@stiatl.salestech.com> Subject: More on OPTi chipset with GUS To: Ultrasound Daily Digest twong@civil.ubc.ca (Thomas Wong) writes: >There is more than one thread under this subject so read them all. But >also note that there are others that says they have their soundcard (SB >Pro and/or GUS) working on a opti computer. So, it may work, it maynot >work. My only advise is to stay away from this motherboard since it's >not only soundcards that it has trouble with. Well, before I bought the GUS, I had (still have) a Thunderboard which worked flawlessly (except for Falcon 3.0, and that was fixed when OFT came out) on my OPTi motherboard. It's not as if I was able to forsee any of these problems when I purchased my computer over a year ago. BTW...one more v-e-r-y strange thing about the GUS. Occassionally, the computer would absolutely not boot when the GUS was installed. I tracked down the problem and figured out when I had the cover removed from the case, the computer would boot. But if I put the cover back on, the computer would not boot. (It would get past the memory check stage, but refuse to read anything from the hard drive.) When I took the GUS out, the computer would always boot fine. Can ANYONE offer an explanation for this sort of behavior??? Ian -- The system? 33MHz80486with64Kcache16MBof70ns | Ian Mercado: iam@salestech.com 4x9SIMMS1MBTseng4000videoboard200MB15msIDE -------------------------------- harddriveCOM1:COM2:LPT1:onstandardportsandinterrupts | I am NOT a signature "But it was too slow, so I re-wired it..." | virus. Copy me and die! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Dec 92 11:44:26 PST From: ee52fgh@sdcc15.UCSD.EDU (Anthony Tang) Message-Id: <9212101944.AA20089@sdcc15.UCSD.EDU> Subject: Percussion maps/MT32PAT.CFG To: Ultrasound Daily Digest The Percussion note values in MT32PAT.CFG are exactly the same as in default.cfg. I'm assuming, of course, that all the percussion maps to the same note values (I don't think it's a 100% match up, but it should be close). Anyways, in response to Ken Goach's questions about channel 10/patch 128, etc, it seems that most midi devices automatically make anything going to channel 10 map to the percussion patch, whatever it may be (127 or 128). The values defined in the percussion patch are actual "note" values. (If you had a MIDI keyboard, when on channel 10, depending on which note you play, you'd get the corresponding percussion sound). In Windows, since the Ultrasound corresponds to general MIDI, you really don't need a patch map at all for anything (unless you want to have fun detuning or playing with volumes). As for the percussion, you need to go into the patch map editing (not the channel assignments). There should be an option for percussion which will let you map out the percussion patches. For an example, you might want to take a look at the MT-32 percussion patch map included in Windows. (You may need to install some drivers to get it...) Happy GUSsing everyone... Anthony Tang aktang@sdcc13.ucsd.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Dec 92 07:24:12 PST From: RICH CATENA DTN 321-5170 Message-Id: <9212101516.AA13186@enet-gw.pa.dec.com> Subject: Reading Adventures in OZ - what i found To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Hi Everyone, I oringinally had problems with digitized voice hanging my machine in "Reading Adventures in OZ" by Davidson. This would happen no matter what switches I used with SBOS. What I've found ( it has been mentioned in the digest before) is that the I option in the SET BLASTER line of autoexec.bat MUST match the irq of the soundblaster in the game setup. Also, on the issue to patch loading in windows; I've looked in the multimedia programmers reference and there are two calls wich load patch caches into boards. I'm waiting for an answer from gravis but I suspect this is what loads the patches into the GUS. If this is true it should be a simple matter to put together a Visual Basic program to let you select which program #'s (patches) you want enabled for which midi channels. This is the support which needs to be built into the sequencers themselves I beleive. Have Fun! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Dec 92 12:23:21 CST From: eason@ncp1d.StPaul.NCR.COM (Dale Eason) Message-Id: <9212101823.AA01251@ncp1d.StPaul.NCR.COM> Subject: SB emulation sounds funny. To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Has anyone with a GUS and SoundBlaster found that the GUS melody lines in Wolf3d and Keen games sound funny compared to the SB. They sound tinny, like they are pitched an octave higher than on the SB. The bass instruments seem ok to me. Is there a fix for this? Thanks, Dale Eason Eason@stpaul.ncr.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 09:54:52 +0100 (MET) From: Andreas Henning Message-Id: <9212110855.AA21417@dtek.chalmers.se> Subject: Where can I get the SDK??? To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Hi! I bought a GUS two days ago, and I am very satisfied. Now I am very interested in programming the card, and would like to know where I can get a software developers kit. Is it available, and if so, at what cost? Do I have to order it from Gravis, or can it be bought in a computer shop? I would also like an OS/2 driver for the card. (Any news?) Any help appreciated, -- Andreas "Mr Spock" Henning |Hydrogen is a gas, which,| Chalmers e-mail : d2henan@dtek.chalmers.se |given enough time, turns | University BBS : +46-(0)31-132310 |into people. | Of Snail : Traelasv. 23 42168 V.F Sweden| | Technology ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Dec 92 19:49:55 -0800 From: kejohnso@nike.calpoly.edu (Kurt E. Johnson) Message-Id: <9212110349.AA1308371@nike.calpoly.edu> To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Hi everyone. I've had my GUS for a little over a week and I'm one happy customer. I do have a few questions, so here goes. I've seen it mentioned that a lot of people are setting channel 10 for the percusion in Windows. Could someone post how to do this and why? I assume it is the reason why I don't get any sound from the 'drum' program. I've looked through most of the digests that I've saved and can't find anything on it. Also, when are we going to see some midi players that look like some of the mod players I've seen. I'd like to see something that's got bars that go up and down (or sideways), wavy lines that move with the music, etc. Anyone know of any in progress or why there haven't been any made yet or if there are any already? That's it for now. Keep on GUS'n. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= = kejohnso@hebe.calpoly.edu = I'm a recovering SoundBlaster owner = = kjohnson@polyslo.calpoly.edu = -Happy GRAVIS ULTRASOUND owner = =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1992 10:12:09 -0600 From: graham@cs.utexas.edu (Ralph Arnold Graham) Message-Id: <9212101612.AA06072@tokio.cs.utexas.edu> To: Ultrasound Daily Digest There has been a lot of dialogue concerning Sierra and LucasArts (and other companies) support for the GUS. The general concensus is to write, phone, post, or e-mail to these companies requesting GUS support. It seems to be working. If other companies start supporting the GUS, Gravis will sell more of the boards. In a similar light, I would love to see Gravis support their GUS with OS/2 drivers. I know of 7 people (including myself) who are considering the purchase of a sound card, but all run OS/2 exclusively. I ordered a GUS without checking on this issue first. It has not yet arrived, but I was unsuccessful in getting a friend's GUS to work on my machine using the SBOS that was shipped. (I haven't tried the beta SBOS because he took his board back). He has shelved his GUS in favor of his original SB until better support is available - he may even consider selling it. The other five people are all brothers and family who are unwilling to risk the purchase of a board without knowledge of near-future OS/2 support. It looks as if they may go with the SBPro (one is considering the ATI F/X). There must be dozens of other people in the same boat - I have only known about the GUS for a week now. So this is an earnest plea to Gravis for a promise of OS/2 support. It seems only fair since they wish other game manufacturers to support their board. On a side note, if anyone has gotten the GUS to work with Wolfenstein under OS/2, *please* send me e-mail detailing any SBOS switches (and SBOS version #), VDM DOS settings, etc. I get as far as the voice saying SBOS is loaded, but the process is killed when "wolf3d" is executed. The game works fine w/o the GUS, and I don't have the OPTI chipset nor any shared interrupts, etc. Unfortunately, I cannot experiment further until I receive the board. Thanks... -Ralph Graham graham@cs.utexas.edu ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V1 #45 ******************************