GUS Daily Digest Fri, 14 Jan 94 0:07 Volume 10: Issue 14 Today's Topics: 2.06a vs. 2.06L 3D Adding memory to a GUS? Changing patchdir doesn't help! Got my GUS MIDI working again under Windows... Gravis CES news GUS, SB, MPU401, and MidiSoft Recording Session GUS Daily Digest V10 #13 (5 msgs) Gus Grievances Hired Guns 3D mic input problem solved Microprose's response Mortal Kombat + MegaEm Os2 & Ultrasound message2 PatchDir/PatchMan/PatchPROBLEMS! Sim City 2K and Patches Sound Blaster and GUS Speech/Voice Recognition for the GUS? Ultrasnd.ini Working file on epas. velocity & shadowcaster WaveTable Synth 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: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 03:59:09 -0500 (EST) From: Peter Joseph Guillaume Subject: 2.06a vs. 2.06L Could anyone please tell me the differences between the 2.06a disks which I got with my GUS and the 2.06L disks which are available now on epas? I want to know if it's worth the bother. I've already got the new windows drivers out of the SDK, incedentally. Thanks in advance, -Pete ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 12:25:53 -0500 (EST) From: Doug Nashold Subject: 3D Are there 3D drivers or does the Ultrasound automatically produce 3D sound with an application that can handle it? Doug Nashold nashold@wpi.wpi.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 94 10:30:00 +0000 From: "|\/|artin" Subject: Adding memory to a GUS? Hi all, I'm in some confusion here, so hopefully someone can sort this out for me. I bought a 256K GUS a while back, and now want to expand it to 1Mb. I have seen messages that say I need to buy 256Kx4 fast page DRAM chips. I looked at my GUS board and there is a total of eight slots, two of which have been filled. Now, a bit of maths here. 1Mb / 8 slots = 128K per chip. When I look at the chips in the board the numbers on the top claim the chips to be 256K, which means I have 256K * 2 = 512K of on-board memory on the GUS card. Would someone please please please explain: 1. Why this is? 2. What should I expect to buy? 128K chips or 256K chips. 3. IfI buy 256K chips, how many and where do I fit them on the GUS to get 1Mb of memory! Cheers, |\/| -- +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |\/|artin |/\|ard | email: martin@spira.bri.hp.com Tel: +44 272 228 142 | | | HPDesk: Martin WARD/HPC655 Fax: +44 272 236 169 | +--------martin%wyvern.bri.hp.com%hplb.hpl.hp.com%uucp-gw-1.pa.dec.com-------+ |Support Systems Europe, Filton Road, Stoke Gifford, Bristol, AVON, BS12 6QZ.| +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 08:44:17 -0500 (EST) From: "Todd C. Gleason" Subject: Changing patchdir doesn't help! Excerpts from mail: 13-Jan-94 GUS Daily Digest V10 #13 by GUS Server@dsd.es.com > > >You must also edit the PatchDir fields (all of them) in ultrasnd.ini to poi > nt > > >to your /ultrasnd/midi directory. > > I have the ultrasnd.ini file in both my \ultrasnd dir as well as my \ultrasnd\windows file, and both point to c:\ultrasnd\midi . Still, no windows midi whatsoever. Can someone send me detailed instructions on how to completely reinstall the gus drivers? I'm fed up with this...my midi worked okay with the original gus drivers, and I don't even know what it might be that I didn't do right--I went completely through their readme file and changed things like the gravultr.386 (or whatever it was called) file, and the patchdir fields. Still, no midi sound. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 09:06:29 -0500 (EST) From: cfw@epoch.com (Chris Wroten) Subject: Got my GUS MIDI working again under Windows... Using the new drivers in the PatchMaker Lite .ZIP file from the Gravis BBS, I was able to get Midi working again under Windows, which had stopped working when I upgraded to GUS0035.ZIP. -- +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Christopher F. Wroten, cfw@epoch.com, cfw@world.std.com, 508-836-4711 x339 | | Epoch Systems Inc, 8 Technology Drive, Westboro, Mass. 01581-1751 | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Jan 94 02:45:00 BST From: f.graham@genie.geis.com Subject: Gravis CES news Got some Gravis CES announcements on down in this post, not trying to beat Gravis to the punch here, but I haven't heard from John Smith or any Gravis people here for a long time so...BTW, there's no "GUS-Max", OS2, or new megaem news. But first my ramblings: Oh, no, we're catching all the default music questions here! :> Let's hear more _game_ news. Or how 'bout other soundcards, just to keep up with the competition, can anyone comment on the TurtleBeach Maui that's finally out? Couple of GUS fans on Genie have it and really like it so far. (I know, but this is the only digest I'm subscribed to). Robert Wyrick, re: "ultrasound port address is in conflict"; I recently swapped to a Computrend MB, (486/33, 4 megs ram) and got the same exact message with all sbos's. Megaem 23b works fine. Setgus reports "failed -multiple sbos irq's generated". Don't know the chip names, but my GUS-fan friends at the store had the same problem with these MB's and found another MB that works, and they're gonna swap me again. I don't know about tech stuff (ha, but even I can drive a GUS!), but they said it was the chips. Sorry I can't be more encouraging. ----------------- Sad about Microprose' attitude to the GUS. Dunno how I'm gonna boycott Fleet Defender, Across the Rhine and Pacific Air War, assuming the reviews are _real_ good. Heh, if they would at least use Miles drivers, they'd only have to be "pretty good"...thank goodness for MegaEm. Here's the latest from the author of EA's Seawolf, which will use Miles drivers, making it an automatic-buy for me: ---- (snip, snip) ----- Category 9, Topic 34 Message 149 Sat Jan 08, 1994 J.RATCLIFF3 at 14:11 EST I've been pretty much done on my end for the last couple of weeks. EA is doing lots of playtesting and play balance, as well as getting manual, packaging etc. happening. I've been messing with details on various sound cards and stuff. JWR ----- (snip, snip) ------- ...speaking of Miles drivers and J.Ratcliff (hope this isn't old news): The Audio Solution is proud to announce the release of the freely distributable DIGPAK and MIDPAK developers kit v1.0. The Audio Solution, in conjunction with Miles Design, has spent the last four years creating, enhancing, and maintaining a set of device independent DOS based digital sound and MIDI music drivers for professional developers. These drivers are now freely distributable with non-commercial software products, and require only a nominal distribution license fee for commercial software. This new policy includes exemptions for those developing software to aid the disabled and not-for-profit organizations. A special shareware license agreement is available for developers of shareware distributable games. DIGPAK provides digital sound support, up to 16 bit stereo resolution, on all PC sound cards with a programmers API for both DOS real-mode and DOS protected mode. MIDPAK provides MIDI music output and MIDI emulation on all sound cards, including VESA compliant support. Unlike some other developer kits you won't hear MIDPAK advertised as having 'over 450' function calls. This is a simple to use programming interface with less than a dozen API calls providing full interactive music control through commands as simple as 'PlaySequence' and 'StopPlaying'. Likewise the DIGPAK interface is just as simple to use. DIGPAK & MIDPAK are currently used by virtually every single interactive entertainment publisher in the country, including Activision, Electronic Arts,Spectrum Holobyte,The Software Toolworks, Humongous Entertainment, Epyx, Virgin Games, GameTek, SSI, SSG, Interplay Productions, and many more. DIGPAK and MIDPAK have been used in such acclaimed products as Return To Zork, Putt Putt Joins the Parade, Fatty Bear, Cyberstrike, Seawolf, Monopoly Deluxe, KaleidoSonics, Gambit, Chessmaster, World Atlas, Warlords II, Eye of the Beholder, and hundreds more. You may get the free developers kit by calling SoundBytes OnLine at 1-314- 939-0200 at up to 14.4kb and download DMKIT.ZIP. To preview the documentation and licensing policy simply download the smaller file DGMID.ZIP. This file is also widely available on electronic services. This release of the developers kit is in response to a great demand for some sort of third party API solution to deal with the plethora of PC sound cards flooding the market. Even though no direct technical support is provided, the programmers kit includes generous sample code. In the course of it's wide distribution we hope to provide a broadbased grass roots solution to interactive sound and music in both commercial and non-commercial software products. Contact: The Audio Solution 747 Napa Lane St. Charles, MO 63304 BBS: 1-314-939-0200 John W. Ratcliff, 70253,3237@compuserve.com ---- (snip, snip) ----------- OK, finally here's the Gravis CES announcements just posted on Genie. Someone might wanna cross-post the first one to the GUS music digest: -------- (snip, snip) --------------- Category 1, Topic 6 Message 211 Thu Jan 13, 1994 GRAVIS [Adv Gravis] at 13:02 EST Agency Contact: Pat Meier Pat Meier Associates P.R. 415/957-5999 Company Contact: Bryan Del Rizzo Advanced Gravis Computer Technology 604/431-5020 Consumer Electronics Show Debut Advanced Gravis Provides Total Musical Solution with Gravis Personal Piano System. Vancouver, British Columbia -- January 06, 1994 -- Advanced Gravis Computer Technology Ltd., an innovator in affordable wavetable audio boards and software, announced that they will ship in February a complete home piano package based on the Gravis UltraSound board. The "Gravis Personal Piano System" provides all the elements for a versatile musical keyboard system that will satisfy the needs of beginning piano students to sophisticated orchestral composers for under $495. Unlike proprietary musical systems, the Gravis Personal Piano System provides important multimedia components that can be used by non-music computer users as well. The Gravis Personal Piano System includes the following: - Gravis UltraSound board, providing natural piano sounds along with 192 MIDI instrument sounds. Gravis UltraSound uses wavetable synthesis to provide true-to-life sounds of musical instruments and special effects. - A four octave velocity sensitive MIDI keyboard with full size keys, manufactured by Fatar, the worlds leading manufacturer of master keyboards. - Pair of Powered Speakers. - Musicware's Piano, a self-pacing, instructional piano teaching program for all ages levels, which steps users through a programmed teaching system designed to give users keyboard skills and build their confidence to explore the world of multimedia applications. According to Grant Russell, president of Advanced Gravis, "the Gravis Personal Piano System reaffirms our commitment to product development by providing high quality multimedia solutions that the whole family can experience and benefit from together." The Gravis Personal Piano System includes Musicware Piano's professionally developed and curriculum based teaching program. Six courses in all, Musicware Piano is designed to take beginning music enthusiasts from the basics to the classics and beyond. Following is a comparison of Musicware Piano and Miracle Piano (based on information available 12/29/93): Musicware Piano Miracle Piano Runs under Windows Yes No Integrated Sequential Curriculum Teaches: Music Theory & Notation Yes No Ear Training Yes No Rhythm Yes No Sight Reading Yes No Tracks Individual Students Yes No Provides Immediate Feedback Yes Yes Structured Learning Format Yes No - Multiple course offering taking student through 3+ years of traditional piano instruction. Yes No Once users become familiar with their new "piano", they can explore other bundled software including Midisoft Recording Session and Power Chords for Windows, and sample the variety of 192 patches provided with the UltraSound board. ------------ Category 1, Topic 6 Message 212 Thu Jan 13, 1994 GRAVIS [Adv Gravis] at 13:04 EST Release Date: January 07, 1994 TORONTO: AED VANCOUVER: AED OTC BBS: GRVSF Advanced Gravis and Forte Technologies Announce New Joint Venture for Virtual Reality Systems. Forte Technologies, Inc. ("Forte") and Advanced Gravis Computer Technology Ltd. ("Advanced Gravis") today announced they have signed a letter of intent to form a new joint venture to introduce new technology and products targeted at the consumer Virtual Reality market. The letter of intent calls for the formation and financing of a new company that Gravis and Forte would jointly own. The new entity would be the exclusive licensee and developer of the VR technology and products. Advanced Gravis will negotiate to acquire rights to manufacture and market products licensed from this venture. The formation of the venture is subject to the parties concluding formal agreements concerning the terms, conditions and financing of the new joint company and the receipt of all regulatory and governmental approvals, as may be required. The first product from this proposed new company is the VFX1 being demonstrated this week in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronic Show. The VFX1 is a fully integrated interactive head mounted virtual reality system equipped with color 3D stereo display, proprietary 3D head tracker to detect head motion, and stereo sound, all packaged in a sleek ergonomic shell. "This level of integrated design with displays, head tracker, headphones, and PC interface video card, at a consumer price point, is unprecedented in this young VR market," explains Paul Travers, President of FORTE technologies. :The VFX1 system connects easily with existing PCs and entertainment software, so users can gain a whole new sense of realism. The full capability will come from true 3D VR software applications which are currently being developed", said Grant Russell, President of Advanced Gravis. The VFX1 is the first truly integrated full VR headset to enter the market at a target retail price of under $1000. The product should be ready for introduction by Fall 1994. Features include: o Dual 0.7 inch color LCD displays that offer high quality 428 X 244 resolution o Provides an image equivalent to watching a 35 ft screen in 3D at a distance of 35 ft. o High fidelity stereo headphones o Virtual Orientation System - VOS head motion tracker provides roll, pitch and yaw coordinates o Compatible with existing Multimedia IBM PC's The VFX1 is aimed at the PC market, but is compatible with workstations, or any device that utilizes a standard VGA card. There is also an option to accept NTSC or PAL video signals from home entertainment systems such as Sega and Nintendo. For more information contact Pete Matthews at Forte (716) 427-8595 or Grant Russell at Advanced Gravis (604) 431-5020. ----- (snip, snip) ------ ...lots o' bandwidth, but no long quotes from yesterday, and no sig... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 94 08:17:41 EST From: Akintunde Omitowoju Subject: GUS, SB, MPU401, and MidiSoft Recording Session I hope this isn't a FAQ. If it is please forgive me. I've just signed on to this digest. Ok, here's my first question: I have a Sound Blaster v1.05 and my GUS both installed in my machine. The only problem I'm having with this is that a lot of software can not detect the Adlib/FM compatible part of my SB. The software reports a "Adlib Card not found type error." When I used SOUND.COM (or SBFMDRV.COM), then I can get music coming from my Sound Blaster. Also, when I run SBOS, I then would get sound out of my SB. There's a problem somewhere in the detection. Has anyone else had trouble of this nature? Any remmedies??? I also have an MPU401 compatible midi card also installed in my PC. I don't want to buy that MIDI connector for the GUS (since I don't have the cash), and I also am not an electronics genius to be daring enough to build that homemade connector. Is there a way I can configure the MidiSoft Recording Session to use my MPU401 card? Do I have to reconfigure Windows or something? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks! =) Akintunde Omitowoju ZAO1@ETSU.BITNET (BITNET) ZAO1@ETSU.EAST-TENN-ST.EDU (INTERNET) "I program, therefore I debug." ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 94 11:10:11 +0200 From: Yossi Oren Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V10 #13 >Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 11:55:40 -0800 (PST) >From: "George A. Montemayor" >Subject: Should I swith to v2.06a? > > What's the difference between v2.06L disk set and v2.06a disk set? Any >new patches? Any improvements? There's the missing tremstr.pat and some Windows fixes. Get gus0036 from EPAS (~/gravis/patch) to move up. HTH, Yossi. +---+-----------------------------------------------------------+---+---+ | = | Signature 1.1f - unregistered evaluation copy | V | ^ | +---+-----------------------------------------------------------+---+---+ |Yossi Oren, Al-Daf Engineering Ltd., Rishon Le-Zion, Israel. Help | ++===============================================++====================++ ||Internet EMail:LIOREN1@WEIZMANN.WEIZMANN.AC.IL || GUS - serious sound|| ||Bitnet EMail:LIOREN1@WEIZMANN || for a funny price. || +================================================++=====================+ || OS/2 Users - total proof that pain doesn't build character. || +=======================================================================+ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 11:28:55 -0600 From: Mike Surgeon Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V10 #13 >Date: Wed, 12 Jan 94 17:08:17 MEZ >From: hach@oracle.dwhl.de >Subject: Problems with SBOS and DUNE I >Hi everybody, >I'm having problems with DUNE I and my GUS. No matter what switch I use >with SBOS (-O2 etc), it still sounds awfull. I really love the game AND the >music, is there a way to have both? Or do I have to reinstall my old >ATI-FX card? >Thanks in advance .... I agree, the music with SBOS is awful (so bad, in fact, that I turned the music off). However, using MEGAEM to emulate Roland gives very good sound (I used the latest version which I beleive is 2.02). Mike Surgeon ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 11:28:55 -0600 From: Mike Surgeon Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V10 #13 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 16:45:35 -0500 (EST) From: Phat H Tran Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V10 #13 > Date: Wed, 12 Jan 94 22:42:11 GMT-0800 > From: ferris@mezzanine.mse.arizona.edu (Bob Ferris) > Subject: 3d files to wav format > > Who Ever Can Help, > > I was wondering if anyone knows how to take a sound file that is > rendered in one direction and then store that sound file as a wav. > > This is important as not every one has an Ultrasound board. This way > soundblaster people can also enjoy enjoy 3d sounds. Focal Point 3D cannot possibly work on the SB because it requires a left and a right channel and the SB is a mono card. You'll be able to play recordings of FP3D sounds on a soundcard with a stereo DAC, but you'll lose the ability to position the sounds on the fly. > Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 06:36:46 -0500 (EST) > From: Daniel Gelinas > Subject: 3 Questions > > This is my first letter to the digest so forgive me for any format error. > > As the subject says I have 3 unrelated questions I need answered. > > 1) Does the Gravis record properly from a standard RCA jack? > reason: A friend of mine came over with his portable and we plugged his > CD-out directly into the gus to perform some samples using USS8 unfortunately > the VU meters kept on peeking. Since it is direct there is no way we could > control the volume.. Make sure that you have the CD line out plugged into the GUS' line input, not its mic input (some boxes have them reversed, labelling the mic in as the line in, and vice versa). The GUS' input level matches standard line levels for componenent stereo systems. > 2) Where can I get the 16bit recording daughtercard, and how much does it cost. > I live in montreal and cannot find any place that sells this. It is not out yet. > Date: Wed, 12 Jan 94 17:16:04 EST > From: Greg > Subject: HIRED GUNS by Psygnosis: 3D? > > The following was written in the most recent issue of > PC Entertainment: > > "Psygnosis has released 'Hired Guns', the first game to > take advantage of Gravis' 3D Holographic Sound. The > Ultrasound's 3D sound effect are stunning, and should make > for a much more realistic gaming experience." Take magazine reports with a large grain of salt. They are usually written three months in advance, and many intervening circumstances may have arisen in the time it takes them to reach the newsstand. This is not to say that you shouldn't believe that Hired Guns will have 3D sound (it may very well), but you should just keep in mind that mags have cried wolf many times before, and thus not get your hopes up too high. Phat. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 17:05:05 -0500 (EST) From: Phat H Tran Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V10 #13 > Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 14:27:10 +1030 (CST) > From: Gavin > Subject: Re: GUS Mixer, the GF1, and WaveTable Synth > > bsteinf@eis.calstate.edu (Burke Steinfelt) writes... > > > ...when you play it back at a different rate, higher or lower, the sound > > speeds up or slows down, respectively, and the sound becomes quite distorted > > the further away from the original frequency you recorded it at. > > 'layering' is supposed to help this somewhat, eg. sample once per octave or > something like that. Check out acguit.zip at epas in ..../sound/patches/files. Actually, layering is something different. What you've described is the use of multisamples. Layering is using two or more voices, and varying the phase, pitch, etc. between them, to produce neato effects that would talk up too much memory with just one voice. Layering is not implemented in the GUS software, unfortunately. > Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 12:00:38 -0500 > From: David Demski > Subject: MicroProse Bashes the GUS > > I was calling Micro Prose BBS the other day and decided to look in the > message base to see if any one was talking about the GUS. To my suprise > there was a fair amount of discussion. Unfortunatlly the GUS owners > were being shot down left and right. Every time any one asked about GUS > support a Microprose Rep. tld them that they won't support it now and > that its not their faught that they won't. I felt that it would be a This might have been the case six months ago (i.e. a company can fairly claim that they can't support the GUS because Gravis doesn't make it easy for them too) but today it's a rather poor excuse for laziness. > Here are a few of the comments made by Micro Prose Reps: > > -> and should I get a Gravis Ultrasound (returning my SB Pro) for better > -> music and sounds if microprose will support this? > > I wouldn't recommend it right now. There is still precious little > support for the GUS in the industry while SB is considered the standard. > If you still play a lot of older games, the GUS's SB emulation is poor > at best, don't count on it. You can always add the WaveBlaster, which > sounds every bit as good as a GUS or you could switch to the new > MediaVision PAS16XL with wavetable synthesis and full SB compatibility. > The combo of an SB16 and Roland SCC-1 is about the best you can do, > though it is a little pricey. This, of course, sounds like the corporate policy of making the consumer buy the expensive, well-understood standards instead of taking a serious look at entirely capable hardware that is actually affordable by most people. In the case of the GUS, the hardware is actually much more capable than the expensive alternatives in certain ways (custom instruments and multiple overlapping sound effects). > -> Thanks for your message regarding the Gravis Ultrasound (Advanced, > -> that is.:P ) I have heard buzzchat about the Gravis being easier to > -> program as opposed to the Sound Blaster, and other cards. > -> Is this true? > > ABSOLUTELY NOT! The originator of these rumors was either Gravis or > someone who has never programmed. If you have space to link all Gravis's > library code, and only need to playback standard MIDI files, it may not > be that hard, but doing anything else involves a considerable amount of > programming. God help you if you need to do your own patch management! This I can almost agree with. RAM makes the GUS versatile, but also makes it harder to program for (hey, you can't always have your cake and eat it too). Game developers can either say that they like the potential that RAM offers and will expend some effort to explore it, or they can say that they don't want to consider the GUS' versatility since that would divert time away from their golf games. > -> This wonderful sound board is on the cutting edge of sound board > -> technology. The GUS uses wave table synthesis to achieve 16 bit 44.4 > -> Mhz CD quality sound. > > There are a dozen boards with better specs out these days, even if the > GUS is the cheapest. There are no other cards as suited for games or as affordable as the GUS. WB & SB16 - no RAM, no hardware mixing of multiple digitized sounds, not affordable. SCC1 & SB16 - same. Aria - no RAM, poor sound quality, no hardware mixing of multiple digitized sounds. SW32/GW32 - same. PAS16XL - no RAM, no hardware mixing of digitized sounds, not affordable, not out yet. > -> It uses RAM cacheing (as opposed to ROM) to get almost unlimited > -> sound and digital effects. > > A side effect of RAM caching is also uncontrollable pauses whenever the > music needs a new sound. Not if Microprose's programmers can make the game cache required patches in advance. "Uncontrollable" my foot. There's an uncontrollable pause when Wing Command loads the next mission. Whoopee. Just take care in where the patch caching is done, and the pauses when patches are loaded would not be intrusive. > -> In addition to the wonderful sound, Advanced Gravis has done a gr > -> deal to make it easy for programmers to use the GUS. A free develope > > They only make it easy if you can use their extremely inefficient and > large drivers. They have been extremely slow to give us the hardware > details we require. What is the register programming information in the public SDK if not hardware details? But Microprose would have a point if they say that they can't get details about the patches to make use of them in their music routines. Forte have said that they'll release more complete patch specs soon. > -> Many other companies are supporting or have GUS support planned f > -> the GUS; Sierra, Id, Epic, Accolade, Lucas Arts, Impressions, and > -> Westwood Studios, to name a few. I know that Microprose, like many > -> other software developers have limited resources but the GUS is a gre > -> new technology that warrants a serious look. > > Almost all of these companies are supporting the GUS only in a General > MIDI mode. Since all of our games now support General MIDI for music and > Sound Blaster (or other cards) for digitized sounds, you can use the new > MegaEm software from Gravis for GUS support. Sierra's GUS support (in LSL6) does not require Mega-Em. Id's GUS support does not require Mega-em, Epic's GUS support does not require MegaEm, Accolade's GUS support (in StarCon2) does not require Mega-Em, LucasArts' GUS support does not require Mega-Em. All these companies support the GUS in its native mode (although not all take advantage of the GUS' unique strengths). > Date: Wed, 12 Jan 94 15:23:48 EST > From: Chad Smith > Subject: Mod and Windows Qs > > Hello GUS Masters. I have a couple of question for those more informed than > myself. First, does anyone know which FTP sites have the MODUS mod player for > the > GUS and Windows? Second, the sound quality of playback through Windows for mod > and midi files is inferior to that of DOS. I am using MOD4WIN, MidiSurfer, and > the Media Player for PB in Win. I just use the GUS mod and midi players in DOS. > I'm pretty sure all my software is the latest ver. Anyone have any suggestion > as to > why this is so? My GUS hardware is ver. 2.4, is this the problem? One > more thing is anyone having trouble with MOD4WIN hanging when selecting > Stereo playback for frequencies >11k? MODs sound inferior because Windows MOD players do the mixing in software instead of properly using the GUS hardware. MIDs shouldn't sound any worse in Windows than in DOS if you're using the hi-fi option (check in Control Panel Drivers Setup) and have from 20 to 26 voices active and have enabled all the channels in the MIDI Mapper and are using the Ultrasound MIDI Mapper setup (not Ultra256, Ultra1024, etc.). As for stereo MODs, you must use rates of 11025 Hz, 22050 Hz, or 44100 Hz. > Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 08:49 EST > From: BERNIE3@vms.cis.pitt.edu > Subject: Os2 & Ultrasound message2 > > #1 12-JAN-1994 08:38:19.10 > NEWMAIL > X-Vms-To: IN%"ultrasound%itchy@dsd.es.com" > > > I am interested in buying an Ultrasound board. > > Will it work with OS2? > Will it work with WINOS2? > Do you have drivers for OS2? Negative to all three. > > Would SBOS have to be run for OS2? No. SBOS and OS/2 don't mix. > I'd like to know these answers before I make my buying decision. Wait a bit to see what OS/2 drivers will come out for the GUS. They are being programmed by 3rd parties at the moment. > Date: Wed, 12 Jan 94 5:59:56 CST > From: chuth@lonestar.utsa.edu (Cornel H. Huth) > Subject: Re: PatchDir to Hell > > >From: Clarke Brunt > >>You must also edit the PatchDir fields (all of them) in ultrasnd.ini to > >>point to your /ultrasnd/midi directory. > > >I've seen this said so many times, but where else might it point? I must > >have installed every possible new windows driver, and have never yet > >had to alter PatchDir field - they have been correct all along. > > Something's not quite right. My story's the same: no musica. Patch Manager > & MidiSoft's program don't do anything. PowerChords gives a DIV/0 box > and then leaves the mouse-cursor range set to a tiny, oh, 20x20-pixel area. > Thing is, PatchMaker Lite works (heh). > > & in F:\SND\_GUS\ULTRASND.INI > [Ultrasound] ;I removed blank lines - no difference > PatchDir=F:\SND\_GUS\MIDI\ This is a shot in the dark, but how about moving the GUS patches to a path that doesn't have the underscore character? That underscore character is the only suspicious thing about your setup. Everything else you've posted is the way it should be. > Date: Wed, 12 Jan 94 17:08:17 MEZ > From: hach@oracle.dwhl.de > Subject: Problems with SBOS and DUNE I > > Hi everybody, > > I'm having problems with DUNE I and my GUS. No matter what switch I use > with SBOS (-O2 etc), it still sounds awfull. I really love the game AND the > music, is there a way to have both? Or do I have to reinstall my old > ATI-FX card? You can use Mega-Em or the AIL drivers to get much better sound from the game. There's a file to patch the game for you on Epas (sorry, I don't know the directory where it could be found). > Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 11:55:40 -0800 (PST) > From: "George A. Montemayor" > Subject: Should I swith to v2.06a? > > What's the difference between v2.06L disk set and v2.06a disk set? Any > new patches? Any improvements? The 2.06a disks are later than the 2.06L disks and have more software. The 2.06L disks are just the 2.06 disks with the commercial software removed so that they can be placed on Epas. The 2.06a disks were released after some bugs were found in the 2.06 disks. Phat. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 94 15:11:37 EST From: Subject: Gus Grievances Hello, You know, sure, there way be some incompatabilities with a few games, but when the gus does work, it works EXTREMELY well. After playing StarTrek: Judgement rights with MegaEm, I could never get used to FM again! And Dark Side of Xeen had beautiful music with MegaEm. Now my question: How colse to getting some 32bit drivers for the new Sierra Games? SirNewton sirnewton@aol.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 14:26:07 +0100 From: KJELLJF Subject: Re: Hired Guns 3D I tried hired guns just before christmas, and it didn't have gus- support at all. Maybe it was a beta version(?). The SB sound sucked (as always). Anyway the four player Amiga version was exellent, and I was disappointed that the pc version only had a three player option. KJF ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 14:44:28 +1030 (DST) From: Michael Scholten Subject: mic input problem solved Phat writes (in rely to Michael's original post) >> Subject: Mic Input >> >> Everything midi is now working well. Unfortunately my Mic input is >> suffering now. Even though I am still limited to 8-bit, I had intended >> using Patch Maker Lite to play with recording .WAV files and turning them >> into patches. I had used the Windows Sound Recorder with the old drivers >> fairly successfully. Now I get almost nothing. Any Ideas? >Do you have your mic input on (the mic input leaks when it's disabled, so >you might think it's on when it's not)? Are you using the new mixer? Is >your mic a sensitive one? Very interesting. What I heard _was_ the mic input 'leaking' (sad), but to the best of my knowledge, I did have mic input turned on. In the new mixer (which I am using), there is a 'mute mic' button, but no 'enable mic input'. My guess is that if its not muted, its enabled. Unfortunately mine wasn't muted and wasn't enabled. So, what I ended up doing is going to the USS8.exe program and enabling my mic input there. Strangely enough when I started Windows again my mic was enabled. I clicked the 'save' button in the mixer, and now everythings great. Thanks for your help. Cheers, Michael ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 94 18:40:58 -0500 From: liaor@churchst.ccs.itd.umich.edu Subject: Microprose's response Soooo, we finally hear from a company that the GUS is hard to program. Of course this isn't the first time we've heard "The GUS is hard to program." But to be honest, looking through the GUS SDK 2.10, I can understand why they would call it hard. My Apple IIGS technical reference had better details about the actual hardware and stuff. But since I don't program extensively, I really can't comment on how necessary hardware details and more compact drivers are. I think Microprose should get a clew. As recently as Pirates Gold they didn't bother using digital sound effects (Soundblaster.) Matter of fact, with a few exceptions, Microprose has been pretty weak regarding sound support. Just my opinion (based on Civ, and some other games I saw at the store, demoed on the overhyped SB-16) I wish game companies would use the GUS's GF1 for multi-channel sound effects, but I doubt it'll happen. Gravis's SDK doesn't make it too easy, from what I can tell (again Icould be wrong, since I haven't actually written a very complicated GUS program.) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 11:27:23 From: Win Shaw Subject: Re: Mortal Kombat + MegaEm Yo Gussers, I've just gotten MK and sadly, it uses the new Dos-Extender ver. 1.9 which has a dislike for memory managers!!! Therefore, I can't load Megaem ver 2.000b3 to emulate Roland. I managed to tweak EMM386 (DOS 6.2) to work with the Dos-Extender with the switch '-novcpi' but still when I load Megaem, MK would have a problem with memory allocation. :( Fortunately, SBOS ver. 2.08 works fine with this game without any extra switches (except for a tendency to repeat the name of the character..ie...Johnny Cage...Johnny Cage...etc....) Still, I didn't buy a GUS to listen to SB output!!! So, is there anyone who found a way to make Megaem run with the new Dos-Extenders? Or are there any new plans for drivers to overcome this limitation as more and more games are starting to use the Dos-Extender platform? Thanks a million!!! William ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 94 14:06:30 -0500 From: "Momentary language, sexual situations" Subject: Re: Os2 & Ultrasound message2 > I am interested in buying an Ultrasound board. > Will it work with OS2? In what way? I've successfully used the AIL drivers in a DOS box under OS/2 with The 7Th Guest and Ultima Underworld (they both sound great!). But alot of GUS Mod players fail miserably. > Will it work with WINOS2? No. The GUS drivers require gravultr.386 which is a virtual device driver and not supported under Win-O2/2 > Do you have drivers for OS2? There currently are no drivers for OS/2 (either MMPM/2 or dedicated) > Would SBOS have to be run for OS2? No. SBOS tries to trap NMI Interrupts and OS/2 considers this "mucking with the hardware" and disallows it. The last time I tried this, it trashed my video driver and I spent an hour on the phone to IBM tracking it down and fixing it. The bottom line is that there is precious little OS/2 support and Gravis has been of minimal help... DDA ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 03:57:40 -0700 (MST) From: jhender@nyx.cs.du.edu (djkc) Subject: PatchDir/PatchMan/PatchPROBLEMS! Well, I changed all PatchDir=c:\ultrasnd\midi to PatchDir=c:\sound\gus\midi in my c:\sound\gus\ultrasnd.ini file. I got the patches to LIST in the Patch Manager! However, they will not load! They still load in Patch Maker Lite... I have tried setting the PatchDir pointers in c:\sound\gus\windows\ultrasnd.ini also, but no go there... It has something to do with either Patch Maker Lite, Cool Edit, and/or GUSDK210, which I installed all of these just before I had this problem with downloading patches in PatchMan.. If anyone can figure it out, please post! -djkc ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 16:20:45 -0500 (EST) From: gt7039a@prism.gatech.edu Subject: Sim City 2K and Patches Regarding putting patches in the MOD file... unfortunately, there is no easy way to do this, since the patch uses a lot of special features (fading, for example) that you cannot duplicate by a simple digital sample. I HAVE created a small utility that will extract all of the .RAW files out of a Ultrasound patch (I call it PATCHRIP)... and since most of the samples are 16 bit, versus the standard 8 bit required by most composition programs, I created a 16 bit sample to 8 bit sample converter. However, these were rather hastily created, only in a couple of hours, to help on a .MTM file I was working on... I will upload PATCHRIP and 16TO8 on archive.epas... perhaps those can help. I thought that Patch Maker Lite could possibly do the same thing? I haven't tested the program yet however... Regarding Sim City 2000, I am running SBOS v.2.08 with Sim City 2000 and experiencing no problems. Three possible problems: 1) Sim City 2000 requires 4 megs of memory MINIMUM, 2) Sim City requires a nice chunk of conventional memory to run sound correctly, and 3) Sim City 2000 requires VESA. You already said that you had VESA correctly installed... I assume the sound settings are ok in Sim City... I would only guess it's the conventional. I run about 610k conventional free with QEMM... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 94 14:11:24 -0500 From: "Momentary language, sexual situations" Subject: Re: Sound Blaster and GUS > This means SBOS doesn't work and you > have to disable the SB digital playback on Megaem, but you don't need > them; and the GUS works fine with all the other GUS aware software. I have the same setup and, having recently gotten Sherlock Holmes CD II, I went to play it, only to have it complain about my soundboard setup (using the SB 2.0). However, if I use Mega 'Em's SB DAC playback, it works fine, playing through the GUS! DDA ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 94 10:10:58 PST From: thomas.lew@octel.com (Thomas Lew) Subject: Speech/Voice Recognition for the GUS? In a previous posting, dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion) said: >than the GUS). As for the mic and line in levels, well they are on the >daughterboard, which is for people who want to record quality samples on the >GUS. The included 8 bit recording on the GUS was included for MPC compatibility >and for speech recognition (and with the ALC on the mic input, this is enough). Does anyone know of any speech or voice recognition packages that support the GUS? If they exist, any opinions on how well they work? Thomas Lew ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 94 14:33:47 CST From: Chevnut@osuunx.ucc.okstate.edu Subject: Ultrasnd.ini Working file on epas. Well, I think this should have been done a long time ago. I have uploaded my WORKING ultrasnd.ini file to ftp -i archive.epas.utoronto.ca it is in the submit directory. The file has the [Ultrasound] section that is for Patch Manager, the sections for Patch Maker Lite (High bank numbers IN ORDER), and sections for three banks each beginning with [Melodic Bank x] where x is the bank number. The first bank number [0] is the patch set with the 2.06L disks, the second [1] is also this list for easy modifying, the third [3] is an example using many of the public domain patches, and the fourth [3] (Darn the previous one is [2]) is completely blank. I hope this helps. By the way, pthis is MY ultrasnd.ini so you will have to edit the directories, and delete the bank numbers [2] and [3] for it to work with your setup, but at least you can see what a WORKING ULTRASND.INI file looks like. Greg [Tramp] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 11:29:25 -0500 (EST) From: William Lapera Subject: velocity & shadowcaster I was wondering, is it possible to create patches that are velocity sensitive in terms of a different samples for different velocities? i.e. a hard hit on the keyboard for a bass patch would create a slap sound. Also, does anyone have the game Shadowcaster working with the GUS?? Thanks ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 94 13:29:29 PST From: bsteinf@eis.calstate.edu (Burke Steinfelt) Subject: WaveTable Synth To: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion) > First, this is a question for the gus-MUSIC list, not gus-GENERAL. Sorry about my last post being in GENERAL and not MUSIC, I totally forgot about the "music" list AND to subscribe to it. ;) > The duration will be kept but the range is not that great because you > introduce distortion in either direction. You would still need about the same > quantity of samples and get only marginally better sound. Take note that the > harmonics on real instruments are not at the same ratio at different notes, so > this part would not improve. This is true, however the distortion isn't quite as obvious, I've experienced. I see this technique probly wouldn't work out as good as the current one. To: Gavin > You may get a better response in the GUS music digest. Thanks, I will remember to subscribe to that digest now. Tnx :) L8r On -Spammy --------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 13:39:15 -0500 From: Bryon Daly Well, I'm not sure what's causing your problem, but I can tell you that SimCity 2000 loaded and ran OK on my system without any fiddling at all. I use QEMM, and it doesn't seem to cause any problems, despite SC2000's dire warnings about using memory managers. One thought: If you're not loading any memory manager, are you sure you have enough free mem available for the game? It says it needs a lot. QEMM loads my MS Mouse driver high and frees up some extra DOS memory. Right now I have that ultrasound env variable set to 7,7,7,5 (for DOOM compatibility). (It's usually 7,7,11,5). My GUS is on port 220. I am using the 2.something SBOS, the one that came with the 2.06 driver set, I think. I have a Diamond Speedstar, which is a directly supported video card, so I don't need to load my vesa driver myself, but I suspect that the game just loads the same vesa driver in on its own. Anyway, the game loads and runs fine, and the music works OK (although I found it a bit annoying after a while). Unfortunately, the sound efffects don't seem to work correctly, leaving the game almost silent if the music is turned off. I haven't tried the latest SBOS yet, though, to see if that helps, so this problem may already be solved. Well, I hope that helps. -Bryon PS - My apologies for a blank message from me that might show up in this digest...My junky mailer ran amok for a few moments before I could get it under control. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 13:00:49 -0500 From: Bryon Daly ------------------------------ End of GUS Daily Digest V10 #14 *******************************