GUS Daily Digest Sat, 8 Jan 94 007 Volume 10: Issue 8 Today's Topics: Crashes on record line GUS + OPEN SEASON GUS + Sound Canvas GUS Daily Digest V10 #7 (2 msgs) GUS Daily Digest V9 #17 Installing Windows drivers linux New Windows drivers and NDW new win drvr: waves but no midi OS/2 Drivers Progress on OS/2 drivers?!?!? SBOS ver. 3.7 on EPAS? Ultrasound Internet Archive - Discussion on EPAS limitation What are these files for? Windows drivers Standard Info: - Meta-info about the GUS can be found at the end of the Digest. - Before you ask a question, please READ THE FAQ. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 7 Jan 94 17:43:59 MET From: marcel@tophat.cdh.cdc.com (Marcel Schoffelmeer) Subject: Crashes on record line Hi Gussers, Does any one of you experience Windows 3.1 crashes when trying to record with the GUS from line in? The moment I press the record button in either Goldwave or Cooledit (great programs by the way) Windows turns into a black screen where reseting the PC is the only way out. At DOS level, recording with PLAYFILE is no problem! Thanks in advance, Marcel. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Marcel M. Schoffelmeer Internet : Marcel@tophat.cdh.cdc.com Marcel.M.Schoffelmeer@cdc.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Jan 94 00:59 WET From: marius@io.org (Marius) Subject: GUS + OPEN SEASON Hey guys, wondering if anybody figured out how to get GUS to work with Police Quest 4 (OPEN SEASON). I tried the sierra drivers but they wouldn't work. I guess PQ4 uses those 32bit drivers that people keep complaining about and that we still don't have for the GUS. Well, OK. I also tried SBOS 3.7b2 and MEGAEM v2.02 (or whatever is newest) and no luck with both. The game just jumps out with error messages. HELP! ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Jan 1994 15:27:47 EST From: mkalisia@electrical.watstar.uwaterloo.ca Subject: GUS + Sound Canvas A buddy of mine has a Roland Sound Canvas and he just possibly might buy a GUS but what he wants to know is whether he can get the two to work simultaneously. Specifically, can you have a GUS playing any digital sounds (like SB in Megaem) and having the Sound Canvas MIDI passed on to the actual Sound Canvas through the MIDI port on the GUS. Also, is the external MIDI part of the GUS MPU-401 compatible? What we want to do is run games with Sound Effects going on the GUS and the MIDI music on the REAL Sound Canvas. ------------------------------ Date: 7 Jan 94 08:49:00 EST From: "VULCAN::WATTERS_C" Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V10 #7 >Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 11:37:43 -0500 >From: Dale Luther Bewley >Subject: Return To Zork > Has anyone gotten Return to Zork to work? It is supposed to >support the GUS, but when I tell it that's what I have it won't find >the IRQ and DMA settings, it leaves them blank. Yes all enviro. >variables are set. I can get it to run with SBOS UNTIL it tries to >play speech! Then the animation goes into a loop... Can anyone help >me?! > thanx >dbewley@etsun.tech.iupui.edu Return to Zork doesn't need to know about the IRQ and DMA, when you specify the Advanced Gravis Ultrasound as the soundcard, the drivers RTZ uses check the DMA and IRQ, rather than RTZ itself. I had been running it using Megaem 2.3b (off Epas), but after a marathon session of memory management, I managed to get my free conventional up to around 610, and RTZ-CD now had enough memory to run the Ultrasound support. It sounds better with the Ultrasound driver, though I had no complaints about Megaem. Megaem works great if you can't get that little bit of extra memory required for the Ultrasound drivers (forget the manuals 590-600k, you need about 608k conventional for RTZ-CD using the Ultrasound drivers. -Coyt "Want some Rye? 'Course you do!" ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 94 16:22:00 PST From: Scott Bobo Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V10 #7 For those of you who haven't seen it, the January issue of Computer Gaming World has, in it's letters column, a couple of replies to CGW's review of soundcards. Both letters were critical of CGW's results, which were not positive for the GUS. Phat's letter, in particular, played up the versatility of the GUS and it's ability to provide developers with a robust platform for sound. CGW's reply to these letters ("CGW is for game-playing; thus our magazine has a responsibility to our readership to recommend only that hardware which best supports games") was, I felt, particularly lame in light of their editorial that month. That month's editorial was critical of developers who, rather than making the most of available hardware, pushed the technology envelope and forced consumers to invest in increasingly higher-powered (and -priced) hardware just to run their games. The article praised early adopters (those consumers who are not afraid to try the latest technologies) and explained how it seemed that these people were not being rewarded for their efforts. Early buyers of single-spin CD's were used as an example of those who were quickly punished for their pioneering spirit. I happened to read the editorial before reading the letters, and as I read the editorial, I saw GUS written all over it: Early adopters of superior technology who have been shafted by short-sighted (or just plain lazy) developers (Origin - are you listening?). Rather than making the most of available technology (GUS) developers take the easy way out and just force consumers up the Sound Blaster price ladder. So, after reading the editorial, I thought maybe CGW had the right spirit. I thought they had the best interests of the consumer in mind. Then I read the letters and saw that they blindly follow the industry rather than try to lead. Lame. They have a voice, but refuse to sing. Nice letter, Phat. I thought you made all the right points. I'm going to write a letter to CGW in response to their response, quting heavily from their editorial. It'll be fun. Scott ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 08:15:50 -0500 From: "Michael Grant Wilson" Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V9 #17 on Thu, 16 Dec 93 10:00:01 FWT, tblanchot@vnet.IBM.COM wrote: > Subject: problem with MOD4WIN: stereo > > Hello| > Mod4win works fine for me, at 16 bit 40Khz, but whenever I try to click > on the "stereo" button in the setup screen, my system hangs. > I've also tried to set it to stereo with 8 bit playback only, with the > same result. > I have 8MB ram, a DX2/66 and my GUS is at 220,7,7,11,7. Could the 16 > bit DMA (7) be faulty? > > Thierry. > I just tried mod4win and had the same problem. I am running on DMA channel 1, so it can't be the 16 bit DMA screwing you. Is it possible that the windows driver just doesn't work (or work right) in stereo? I've tried a fairly recent version of WinMod Pro (doesn't sound as good, but it will play 669 files), but it won't play in stereo either. In this case, it doesn't hang, but just refuses to play the file. I'm running the latest windows driver. btw, I've got a (lowly) 386DX/33 and if I run mod4win at 16-bit 44KHz mono it tells me it's using 97% CPU (ughh!). If I drop back to 22Khz, the usage goes down to about 30%. *sigh*. McQ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 94 9:30:03 CST From: umcoyne0@CC.UManitoba.CA Subject: Re: Installing Windows drivers To the chap who was having problems installing later drivers than v1.21 for Windows, you might want to try installing the >new< drivers and then checking SYSTEM.INI to make sure that multiple references to GRVSULTR.386 or whatever it's called do not exist. Usually, Windows is supposed to give you an error when that happens, but, well, this is Windows... what do you want, consistency? . Anyway, this might help, and then again it may be totally off base. Good luck. Michael ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 10:32:15 -0500 From: "Daniel Damon Roscigno" Subject: linux Can someone tell me where to get info on using the GUS unnder Linux? If possible please e-mail me at ddr. ddr@cis.ufl.edu as most paople on this list don't care about Linux. Thanks! ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 08 Jan 1994 00:09:36 +0200 From: CRTGRA01@Uctvax.UCT.AC.ZA Subject: New Windows drivers and NDW Hello all, Recently I purchased a new HD. Upgrading involved re-installing my software. At the same time I upgraded my Windows GUS driver to the one in the patch maker lite zip file. Here is my problem which it has taken me a week to find out what the problem is: If I run the new Windows GUS drivers and Norton Desktop for Windows 2.0 and have 32-bit access turned on, my system chugs along very slowly. It takes over 1 min to get windows running. Whenever the disk access I lose total control of my mouse etc. If I now turn 32-bit access off, the problem disappears i.e. windows loads in <20 seconds. My system worked fine with 32-bit access before I installed NDW. If, however, I replace the GUS drivers with the ones in GUS0035.zip I can run NDW with 32-bit access and no speed problems at all. Are there other NDW users out there with the same problems?? I take it that there must be a conflict caused by the GUS drivers. Gravis: are you aware of this and could you post a fix or a corrected set of drivers?? Can any other GUS users shed some light on this?? Many thanks, Grant Carter e-mail: crtgra01@uctvax.uct.ac.za ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 94 14:20:52 EST From: Dan Liszewski Subject: new win drvr: waves but no midi Michael Scholten wrote : > A few digests ago I read of some peoples problems with the new Windows > drivers where they couldn't get _any_ midi sounds. Unfortunately I have > not read a 'fix' yet ... > One thing I found was that I could not even load the patches manually using > Patch Manager. I had the same problem but now I'm embarassed having found out what I was doing wrong: In haste I copied _everything_ from the .zip into \ultrasnd\windows - the problem was that the new ultrasnd.ini needed to be in \ultrasnd. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Jan 1994 09:15:33 -0400 (EDT) From: "By this time, my lungs were aching for air" Subject: OS/2 Drivers Given the lack of OS/2 drivers, I suggest doing what Gravis seems to be pushing us to- buying a cheesy SB for the OS/2 stuff. I find it ridiculous that a company is so hell-bent on rewriting SBOS, Megaem, Win3.1 drivers ad nauseam and STILL NO BETA...... Maybe they could pay IBM to do it Extremely Disgusted, Jeff **************************************************************************** * * * Goldschlager- because you can't puke a Rolex.... * * * **************************************************************************** ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 10:12:00 -0800 (PST) From: Mark Harrison Subject: Re: Progress on OS/2 drivers?!?!? On Fri, 7 Jan 1994, GUS Server wrote: > Date: Tue, 04 Jan 1994 00:43:00 GMT > From: thomas@hammer.hacktic.nl (Thomas van Kuipers) > Subject: WHY DOES GRAVIS NOT POST THE PROGRESS ON OS/2 DRIVERS EVERY 2 WEEKS! > > Do you find that reasonable? I find this NECCESSARY because they are > saying they produce it for a year now... Well, I'd say every two weeks is a little much. But for as long as we've been waiting, I'd say some kind of reply is certainly in order. GRAVIS! Are you working on them or not? Simple yes/no question. We've been patient for over a year and deserve at least SOME kind of answer. If you *really* post the digest on the wall every day like you claim, the least you could do is take 30 seconds to let your faithful customers know what's going on. Otherwise I guess you're either lying about reading this every day or just don't care. And that's not exactly the image you've been putting forward so far. So PLEASE answer. Thanks. PS. If you really do read this, can you tell me if I can order a replacement directional pad for my Gamepad? Not the joystick, but the purple piece it plugs into? I sent mail to John, but I guess I screwed something up since I've not heard back yet. Mark Harrison harrison@sun.lclark.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 22:01:37 -0700 (MST) From: Keith McIntyre-ELlis Subject: SBOS ver. 3.7 on EPAS? Hello fellow GUSers: Anybody know if the new SBOS is on epas? I haven't been able to find it anywhere. (Of course, it would have to be in the submit dir, since nothing seems to have been moved out of there since november...) Anyway, I wanted to have it to use with Simcity 2K, which I'll be getting shortly. Probably old versions will work fine, but I wanted to keep up-to-date. Incidentaly, I have seen here that Gravis is working on the 32-bit Miles drivers which everybody has seemed to suddenly switched to (inlcuding Maxis)- when are they going to be available? Finally, someone here mentioned a few weeks ago the possibility of editing the music section of the DOOM .wad file. I see (and have played with) the sound FX editor (DMAUD.EXE)- wonder if anyone out there knows about the MIDI music, hmmm? ------------------------------ Date: 7 Jan 94 19:24 -0800 From: Thomas Wong Subject: Ultrasound Internet Archive - Discussion on EPAS limitation GRAVIS ULTRASOUND INTERNET ARCHIVES NEWS ========================================================================== Ftp Site: archive.epas.utoronto.ca Directory: pub/pc/ultrasound wuarchive.wustl.edu systems/ibmpc/ultrasound archive.orst.edu pub/packages/gravis theoris.rz.uni-konstanz.de pub/sound/gus << NOTE! theoris is for European users only since overloaded >> nctuccca.edu.tw PC/ultrasound << nctuccca is biggest asian ftp site >> Mirror: garbo.uwasa.fi mirror/ultrasound Mailserver for archive access: mail-server@nike.rz.uni-konstanz.de ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, here is the situation that I'd like to bring up for general discussion..... GUS is getting TOO popular! Stop it! Just kidding.... 8) Yes, the GUS's popularity is once again growing faster than we can handle. At the beginning, we were happy to see any contribution to our archive. But it wasn't long till popluarity grew and grew and grew. At the beginning of last year, we thought getting 5 Megs a month was quite a lot of contributions. By the summer, we were getting more than 10 megs a month. And yes, by then, all the programs has native GUS support. Well, as I told you all after Xmas, I was going to validate the new files. I have done that but hit a road block. Over the month of Dec, the new files totalled about 20 Megs. Hence I can't move them over to the appropriate directories cause file system is full again. We will probably figure something out so that I can finish the validation but looks like the size of contribution is doubling every 1/2 year. By the summer, we'll be getting 40 Megs of new files a month?!? (and knowing how I'm always off with my predictions, we'd probably get more!). Mind you, this is a good thing. Great news in fact. The Ultrasound is a BIG hit and growing more and more popular. So don't get me wrong, keep the growth growing! And thanks for all the supporters!!! But of course as you all know by now, EPAS is only a PC and has limited diskspace. We have already made some limitations such as sound files and older Gravis files are not to be stored in EPAS. While the other sites will remain as full archives. Well, this will continue, all other sites will still be full archives, but we'll have to cut another directory (or two?) from EPAS. So now the question is, what to cut? I will probably take files from /misc off EPAS, but that hardly makes a dent in the filespace used. Another suggestion from our discussion between us (the admins) was to remove files from /games. My response was, one of the main problems and source of complaints is the problems running games on the GUS, the SB support sucks, this game and that game doesn't work....etc. And this directory holds not only patches to games make it work with the GUS, but it also hold hints and games that does have GUS native support. So I figured this to be an important directory. But as was pointed out, these files can be had from other ftp sites as well, so... So the question is priority. What do you all think is the least important directory in EPAS so that I can clear it out and say EPAS won't carry these files? But note, all other of our Ultrasound Internet Archive sites will still have the full archive. So what do you all think? Let's hear your suggestions. Thomas. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 18:52:42 -0800 (PST) From: swartz@sfu.ca Subject: What are these files for? Does anyone at tech@gravis.com answer email inquiries? I have sent the following questions to Gravis twice (Dec. 26 and Jan. 1) but have received no answer. Perhaps readers of this mailgroup can answer these questions. 1. I have installed the software on disks 2.06a. There is now a `mysterious' subdirectory (ISFYZQVO.TWJ) on my hard drive; it contains a single file, SWAPFILE.HDR, of 18800 bytes. I have `snooped' in that file and it contains, scattered among the binary coding, the names of various .PAT files, etc.) My guess is that it is a `temp' file created by the installation program in 2.06a. Is it? May it safely be erased, or is it in fact a file needed by the Ultrasound software? 2. I have obtained and unzipped the files for SBOS37b. Among these files is one named "SBOSDRV.SYS". Previously, when I have used .SYS files I have installed them by putting their names in the CONFIG.SYS file. There is nothing in the accompanying README file about SBOSDRV.SYS. Is it a companion file to SBOSDRV.EXE? What, exactly, is it used for and how? 3. I seem to recall someone writing that it is safe to remove device=C:\ULTRASND\ultrinit.sys ultrasnd=....... so long as one has SET ULTRASND=...[customized as the case may be] ...... C:\ULTRASND\ultrinit.exe in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Can someone confirm that this is so? Is the device command in the CONFIG.SYS file placed there by the installation of 2.06a or is it a remnant of an earlier installation? Many thanks. -- Norman Swartz swartz@sfu.ca ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 10:38:50 -0500 (EST) From: Phat H Tran Subject: Windows drivers > Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 08:44:40 +0100 > From: rve2@sh.alcbel.be (Rudi Verbist SH27) > Subject: problem > > Hi, > > Could anyone tell me what's the difference between the > files shipped with v1.21 and with v2.06a ? I don't know the specific differences, but I would assume that they're quite major. Only certain versions of grvsultr.386 and ultrasnd.drv can work together. > I ask it because I can only install the Windows drivers shipped with v1.21 > and NOT those of later versions. In the latter case, when I start Windows, the > Windows logo appears, but when it arrives at the line > in the [386Enh] section of the file, Windows exits to DOS > (without leaving an error message). Check to see that grvsultr.386 is indeed the latest one and is not corrupt. Safest thing to do would be to copy the newest grvsultr.386 file from the disks over top any occurrences of it in your /windows/system and /ultrasnd/windows directories. Also, keep track of where Windows is looking for the drivers. A drivers without path specifications must be located in the /windows/system directory. If, even after all that checking, the drivers from the 2.06a disks don't work, try the new ones in pmak110.zip on Epas. > Date: 6 Jan 94 16:31:00 PST > From: EBULALACAO@CSUPomona.Edu > Subject: Patch Maker Lite > > Where can I get a copy of this? What filename is it under? Is it in EPAS? > Thanks for any replies. It can be found in /pub/pc/ultrasound/submit/gravis.bbs/pmak110.zip on archive.epas.utoronto.ca > Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 09:11:15 +1030 (DST) > From: Michael Scholten > Subject: Problems with the new Windows drivers > > G'day everyone. > > I am a new subscriber to this digest, but have read a few copies from > someone else. > > A few digests ago I read of some peoples problems with the new Windows > drivers where they couldn't get _any_ midi sounds. Unfortunately I have > not read a 'fix' yet (probably due to missing the relevant issues) and I am > having the same problem, except that I do get output from Patch Maker Lite. > One thing I found was that I could not even load the patches manually using > Patch Manager. You must edit _all_ the PatchDir fields in your ultrasnd.ini file (the one in your /ultrasnd directory, not the one in /ultrasnd/windows) so that they correctly point to your /ultrasnd/midi directory. Without properly setting PatchDir's, the Windows drivers and Patch Man won't be able to locate the patches. The new drivers update the PatchDir's for the instrument banks automatically, but it fails to update the first PatchDir under [Ultrasound]. > Until I find the solution I have simply replace my new ultmport.drv and > ultrasnd.drv files with my old ones, but I am obviously not getting > the benifits from the new drivers by doing this. Note that Patch Maker Lite requires the new drivers, so if your problems with it were when you tried to run it using the old drivers, try it again with the new drivers. > It may be important to mention that I got the new drivers from the SDK > rather than from the zip file which had PM Lite and the drivers only. This shouldn't make a difference. > Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 11:37:43 -0500 > From: Dale Luther Bewley > Subject: Return To Zork > > Has anyone gotten Return to Zork to work? It is supposed to > support the GUS, but when I tell it that's what I have it won't find > the IRQ and DMA settings, it leaves them blank. Yes all enviro. It doesn't matter what settings the game chooses as it drives the GUS through Ultramid. Ultramid handles all the settings for you. > Date: Thu, 06 Jan 1994 11:58:04 -0800 (PST) > From: MDENAULT@POMONA.CLAREMONT.EDU > Subject: WAV Volume with new Windows drivers > > A few people have recently complained about problems setting the WAV > volume with the new Windows drivers. For the record, I have had no > such problems. I go to Mixer, set the WAV volume, click on "Save", > and the volume is set to that level. I should add that I've locked > the Left/Right volumes -- maybe there's a bug if they're not locked? > > Anyway, as a temporary fix, you might try adjusting the WaveVolume, > WaveVolumeL, and WaveVolumeR parameters in system.ini under the > ultrasnd.drv section. For max volume, I have mine set to 3586, 3563, > and 3563, respectively. Note that the new mixer settings are no longer saved in system.ini, but in /ultrasnd/ultramix.ini instead. Also, you must use the new mixer if you've installed the new Windows drivers found in pmak110.zip or the new SDK. The new mixer has a Save button on the right, while the old ones did not. Phat. ------------------------------ End of GUS Daily Digest V10 #8 ******************************