GUS Daily Digest Thu, 24 Feb 94 0:07 Volume 11: Issue 22 Today's Topics: 16 bit recording option s 3D Demo(s)? 3d sounds? AUGH! (Lil Divil) Flight Simulator 5 working! FS5 and SBOS GUS & Pentiums GUS0041.ZIP GUS Daily Digest V11 #16 GUS Daily Digest V11 #19 GUS Daily Digest V11 #21 (2 msgs) GUS in magazines Gus in OZ GUSs poor press Help using Microphone in Windows New Game with GUS support New Playmidi Now is the time to Storm the UK PC mags Origin still sucks... Sony CD-ROM Star Control II 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: Wed, 23 Feb 94 12:54:04 From: john.smith@gravis.com Subject: 16 bit recording option s 16 Bit Recording Option Shipping ------------------------------- The UltraSound 16 Bit recording option is now shipping! You may order this product directly from us for $99.95US or $129.95Can plus shipping. To order call (604)431-5020. This option card will only work an UltraSound V2.2, V2.4, and V3.4. Here is a copy of the 16 Bit brochure. C'ya John Advanced G R A V I S Computer Technology Ltd. Tel: (604)431-5020 Head Office U.S. Distribution Fax: (604)431-5155 #101, 3750 North Fraser Way 1790 Midway Lane Tech: (604)431-1807 Burnaby, BC, Canada Bellingham, WA, USA BBS: (604)431-5927 V5J 5E9 98226 UltraSound - 16-bit Recording Option ==================================== Step Up to 16-bit Recording with the Gravis 16-bit Recording Option ------------------------------------------------------------------- Add to the fun and excitement of your Gravis UltraSound board with the 16-bit Recording Option, and turn your home computer into a recording studio. The 16-bit recording option offers these remarkable features: - Connects *piggyback* to your UltraSound card and does not occupy any additional expansion slots - Lets you record and playback up to 48 kHz (DAT quality) - Supports hardware compressions including ADPCM, ALAW, MULAW - Hardware mixing and volume control made easy To take advantage of the recording capabilities, the 16-bit Recording Option includes the following software: USS16 - A radical multi-track recording studio for DOS, that lets you edit, mix, play and record music while adding effects such as fade, echo, reverb and more. Windows Mixer - Enables you to adjust the volume of the left and right channels for the line in, line out, and CD in. You can also adjust the MIDI and WAV volumes as well as the microphone input. Patch Maker - The beauty of the UltraSound is that the instrument patches are stored in RAM. Patch Maker grants you an artistic license to edit or modify existing patches. Should you become really daring, you can even create brand-new patches that demonstrate your creative and totally imaginative personality. The patches you create are limited only to the boundaries of your imagination! The 16-bit Recording Option is covered by our 1 Year "No-Nonsense" Warranty. With its low suggested retail price, durable construction and superior workmanship, the 16-Bit Recording Option is a *must have* addition for anyone interested in having even more fun with the Gravis UltraSound card! --- ~ QMPro 1.51 ~ ... Drop your carrier ... we have you surrounded! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 94 07:20:38 PST From: ebulalacao@csupomona.edu Subject: 3D Demo(s)? Are there any other 3D demos out there besides the one that came with GUS0038? If so, what are they? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 94 8:58:46 CST From: Jim English Subject: 3d sounds? Why are they wasting time trying to emulate 3d sound with 2 speakers? Why don't they just make it in Dolby Pro-Logic Surround? It seems a waste to try and do with two speakers what can already be accomplished with 4. Also 2 speaker owners will still get a lot of the affect (at least it seemed that way with just my computer speakers on the 2nd reality demo). Just wondering. Is the 3d stuff in dolby surround if hooked up to a receiver with a translator? (Haven't had a chance to try because i don't have a phone jack in the same room as my stereo so my modem would be rendered useless :) ) -jim ______________________________________________________________________________ Jim English - jenglish@hpserv.keh.utulsa.edu / EJP51823@vax1.utulsa.edu ______________________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 09:26:58 -0700 (MST) From: shannon@physics.Arizona.EDU (Shannon Miller) Subject: AUGH! (Lil Divil) New game coming out: Lil Divil. Great graphics. Takes more than 30 meg on your disk. Full cartoon-like animation. Supports roland/sb combo. Tests OK under MegaEm. Try to load the game... and 4 meg just isn't enough to handle the game and the emulator!!! No mater what you try, you just can't do it. Oh, and it's not SBOS combatible either. And I see nothing resembling 32 bit AIL drivers anywhere... Guess I wait to see if a patch for this one comes out too? Frustration mounts high... ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 10:02:13 -0700 From: ttrusk@post.its.mcw.edu (Thomas C Trusk) Subject: Flight Simulator 5 working! Finally found some FreeTime(c) and got FS5 working with the GUS. I'm using the latest versions of SBOS from GUS0039, the installation from GUS0038, and the patches from GUS0040. (I waited for GUS0041 but it never appeared at EPAS.) I reinstalled FS5 indicating PC SPEAKER for sound. It ran fine, but sounded, well, like crap. My GUS settings are 220,1,1,5,5. I ran SBOS with no switches, then changed FS5 to Soundblaster using digitized (not synth) sound. The ExMem switch is also active. All the sound is there without the annoying gaps. (Well, to be truthful, there is an annoying sound-gap every few minutes, but it is MUCH less noticeable, and quite short...like a hiccup.) This is WITHOUT the FS5 sound patch. I'll install that tonight and repost the results. My setup is DTK 486/33 Symphony chipset with 20 Mb running DOS 5. I run autoexec and config as suggested by the FSSYSTEM program (see the inside back cover). Before this FS5 would lock up my system on startup (glad that's over with!) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 18:06:40 From: T.Bolhuis@el.utwente.nl (Thijs Bolhuis) Subject: Re: FS5 and SBOS Hi, A few digests ago someone complained about Flight Simulator 5.0 hanging when SBOS was used. I'm using SBOS (the latest from GUS0038 ???) and FS5.0 and it's working, though I wouldn't pull my hear out, when the sound was lost, because it's not really great: the cessna is not giving a spectecular sound, the communications only give some static and a sort of plunche. What I realy would have liked is hearing the wind while flying the sail-plane, but the only thing you hear is the same static from the radio. This radio signal (atleast i think its the radio) also holds the screen for a moment. I tried using Megaem, but this locks up FS5.0 at startup. In FS 5.0 i select; SB pro, VGA 320x400x256 I have a 386-25DX, 8MB, Trident 8900 (1MB), AMI-BIOS, GUS-default settings, emm386 noems, a logitech scanman 32 (no driver installed; using foto touch), The guy who had this problem could communicate directly by mail, so we can exchange some more details. (Appearantly i'ts not very interresting for the people on this list). regards Thijs Bolhuis ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 94 22:49:45 CST From: Joe G. Thompson Subject: GUS & Pentiums >Subject: GUS & Pentiums > >I don't know if I missed it, but I didn't get a response to the following: > >Can I use a GUS in a Pentium? Have there been any reported problems? Except for some problems with SBOS, the GUS works fine in a Pentium. I have had problems getting SBOS to work with just about anything. To date I only have only found 3 programs (7 Cities of Gold, original Lemmings , and the FC Panic Demo). I'm running a Gateway 2000 P5-60. Other Pentium owners have reported similar problems (to me and to Advanced Gravis). Joe jgt1@ra.msstate.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 94 15:41:00 +0000 From: da930908@mcis.messiah.edu Subject: GUS0041.ZIP Many people seem clueless as usual to the location of GUS0041.ZIP. It's on EPAS in the /pub/pc/ultrasound/submit directory. Geez, if *I* can find it, so can you. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 02:25:06 -0500 (EST) From: Phat H Tran Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V11 #16 > Date: Thu, 17 Feb 1994 13:04:53 -0800 (PST) > From: Art Lowery > Subject: Crashing problem... > > Does anyone have any ideas why I cannot run ANY dos based games with Any > type of gus support? I have tried all the sbos's , megaem, ultramid, and > it always relts in a complete crash less than a minute into any dos based > game. I have never had a problem in windows, however? What memory manager are you using? Have you tried using the GUS without an memory managers? On my system, I can't use the GUS in DOS if 386Max is my memory manager. What does the setgus diagnostics tell you? > Date: Thu, 17 Feb 94 23:43:18 -0500 > From: ap641@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Hank Leukart) > Subject: GUS-MIDI: Windows > > I'm having a problem with using GUS in Windows. Some songs > will play, and some will not, for no apparent reason. Does anyone have > any idea? When I use the Media Player, the scroll bar scrolls as > if it is playing the song even though there is no sound. I have a hunch > that it *might* have something to do with the size of the song. My > GUS has 1024k of RAM. A similar problem occurs when I use the WMP MOD > player for Windows. MODs play correctly in mono, but when I set the > configuration to stereo, no sound is played. Thanks... For MIDI files, make sure that they are arranged for GM synths if you want them to play correctly on the GUS. There are many MIDI files arranged for custom setups that won't play correctly unless you use the same MIDI gear that the piece was sequenced on. For MODs, use MODUS, which is a Windows MOD player for the GUS. However, if you really want to use WMP, make sure that you have the sampling rate set to either 11025, 22050, or 44100 for stereo or else you'll get complete silence. Phat. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 12:01:45 EST From: dth2@Lehigh.EDU (Dave Horoschak) Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V11 #19 Does anyone have a util that will convert Ultra Tracker .ULT files to .MODs? I know they're different, but there should be some way to do it. Thanks. later... - Dave ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dave Horoschak -aka- dth2@lehigh.edu Chief engineer of WLVR 91.3 FM. Treasurer & Project Engineer - Lehigh Formula SAE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 12:33:00 -0500 (EST) From: Phat H Tran Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V11 #21 > Date: Tue, 22 Feb 1994 10:52:27 -0500 > From: KWAN RICHARD SIK YIU > Subject: Audio cables for CD-Roms and GUS > > I want to know are all the CD inputs on all soundcards (including GUS) > are the same or different? Cause I saw there are different audio cables for > different brands of CD-ROMs and I want to make sure if it is compatible with > my GUS. Different soundcards and different CD-ROM drives have different audio connectors. The GUS' CD input pins are R-G-G-L, and are a bit too big for most CD-ROM audio connectors. > Date: Tue, 22 Feb 1994 23:10:03 -0500 > From: TOMMYLEE@uhura.trinity.toronto.edu > Subject: Hired Guns - GUS 3D Positive! > > I went to the local software shop today and saw Hired Guns on the > shelf. And, lo and behold, right on the box there was a sticker > which read "Gravis 3D Holographic Sound"! Kudos to Psygnosis for > taking the Gravis plunge.. What is this game all about, anyway? > Date: Tue, 22 Feb 94 13:32:05 GMT > From: Mcgarry D P > Subject: Re: Magasines & Gravis US > > > Date: Mon, 21 Feb 1994 10:23:31 +0000 (GMT) > > From: Toby > > Subject: Magasines & Gravis US > > > I have noticed this and it really annoys me. Reading the review of Doom > > The GUS gets very bad press in the UK - most of the reviews have basically > said "nice card, but it's not a SoundBlaster is it". The latest PC Review has > a good example of an unfair review - they mentioned the problems with SB > compatibility, and then said there were still problems even when using the GUS > in native mode; they were referring to the original problem with DOOM 1.0, where > the GUS sound didn't work properly. They said OK, this isn't the Ultrasound's > fault, but it does highlight the card's incompatibility. What did they say about DOOM and the GUS? Tell them that DOOM 1.0 1) was missing a vital GUS support file (dmxgus.ini), and 2) does not support high IRQs because of its DOS extender, so the GUS needs to be set on IRQs <= 7 for the game. Other cards don't have this problem simply because their IRQ selection limits them to the low IRQs. Should the GUS be criticized for being flexible enough to use the high IRQs, if the user wants it to? Then tell them that these problems have been fixed in the new DOOM (except that high IRQ support seems to be a bit flaky still) and that the game runs fastest with the GUS because of the card's hardware mixing of the sound channels. Let them know you won't stand for incompetent journalism. > Does the GUS get this kind of review and lack of attention in US magazines > anyone? Some of the PC business/industry magazines have given the GUS glowing recommendations, but most of the games magazines have criticized the card for not being SB compatible, without even a mention of its sound quality or versatility. In fact, in CGW's review of soundcards, they said the GUS sounds "very good", while the PAS16 and other FM cards sound "terrific". Then there are reviews which think that recording is the most important function for a soundcard, and slammed the GUS for not recording as well as the PAS16. Incompetence straddles both sides of the Atlantic. > Date: Tue, 22 Feb 1994 18:11:08 +0000 (GMT) > From: Toby > Subject: Ultinit 2.18 is bugged! > > I down loaded the gus0040.zip update to *fix* the problem with v2.16. > Guess wot ... v2.18 does not work properly either. Umm... In what way doesn't it work? It works fine for me. > The Honky.pat problem with megaem is not fixed either. Does gus0041.zip > fix all of this or will i have to wait ages longer for gravis to release > yet another bug fix ??? What honky.pat problem? > Date: Tue, 22 Feb 1994 17:03:53 SST > From: "FLAT^^TOP AT DISCS, NUS, SINGAPORE" > Subject: What is the current Hardware revision number of the GUS > > hello fellow GUSers > > I have the rev2.4 GUS, and was wondering what the current hardware revision is > and what is the difference with earlier revisions... Latest is revision 3.7. The main enhancement is a much improved line mixer with adjustable levels on the CD, Line, and Mic inputs. Phat. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Feb 1994 11:46:05 +1030 (CST) From: Gavin Scarman Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V11 #21 >A few issues back, someone mentioned about DMKIT.ZIP (The Myles >drivers developper kit). It's not on epas anymore neither on the >mirrors. Beeeep, wrong. It is on orst, well it was 24hrs ago anyway. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 94 12:40:37 EST From: dmcintyr@muselab.ac.runet.edu Subject: Re: GUS in magazines [none of the original quoted] The GUS gets bad press here in the States too. Actually, it gets NO press. I just saw an article in a Windows-oriented magazine called PC/Computing that did a comparison of a variety of different wavetable boards. It compared the Cardinal, Orchid, and other boards, along with the RAP-10 thing from Roland. NONE of the boards they reviewed were really satisfactory in their opinion except the Turtle Beach Multisound. They totally and completely failed to acknowledge the existance of the GUS. Personally, I'm going to hang onto mine, but I don't expect to have it terribly much longer. I figure the GUS will die completely in another year, except for die-hard fanatics like us. I've heard a rumor that Creative Labs is coming out with a new board with built-in wavetable, and several megabytes of RAM, along with various other improvements. As we all know, the world worships Creative Labs as much as it worships Bill Gates--with equal [lack of] justification. --Michael-- << dmcintyr@muselab.ac.runet.edu >> <> ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 15:37:54 +0800 (WST) From: Adam Boyt Subject: Re: Gus in OZ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 13:18:36 +0000 (GMT) From: Toby Subject: GUSs poor press Yes I saw that article in PCReview. I was very annoyed. So I looked up the e-mail address. pcreview@cix.compulink.co.uk I wrote and told them how unfair they were. The bloke who wrote the review was inept. He tried to run Doom using SBOS. What a fool. And he should have used Doom version 0.99 or 1.1 Id Said that the Gus will not work with version 1.0. If everyone writes to pcreview maybe we can do something about this situation. Some of what the reviewer said was true. It can be fiddly to set the card up with some games but I'm sure it's worth it and it's certainly no more difficult than playing arround wth emm386 to free up enough memory to run Falcon 3. # | \ / ~~|~~ /~~~\ ! ! {} ............................ | # * < \ /\ / /~\ | | |---| /\ {} Pessimism? It'll never work. > * # | \/ \/ \_/ | \___/ ! ! /~~\ {} ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | # ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 94 13:47:55 EST From: Jeff_Lucas.LOTUS@CRD.lotus.com Subject: Help using Microphone in Windows Greetings. I'm having some trouble using a microphone with the GUS under Windows. If I use Mixer to enable the Mic and Output, I have something like a PA system (with lots of feedback). Every sound comes out through the speakers, no matter what app I'm running. I can even do voice overs while a Wav is playing. Everything works fine if I disable output, then enable the mic -- but this sure seems like some extra steps to me. Is there some combination of options in Mixer so the Microphone is enabled when an app, like Sound Recorder, wants to Record? Other systems I've seen (not using a GUS) don't seem to have this problem. Am I missing something here? Has anyone else seen/solved this? With new versions of the Windows drivers appearing all the time, I thought the newest software might fix my problems -- no luck. Does anyone know of a GUS retailer in the Boston area (stores I called have to special order it)? I'd like to check out their setup. Any help appreciated. -Jeff jlucas@crd.lotus.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Feb 1994 17:06:50 +1030 (CST) From: Gavin Scarman Subject: New Game with GUS support Bethseda have done it again and have included the GUS as a supported soundcard with their new game "The Elder Scrolls: Arena" . From the demo it looks very Underworld-like (but that's good in my book). It does use ultramid, which is included with the demo. For those who want to check out the demo: ftp.uml.edu in the /pub dir . The files here are hidden so you won't see them if you do a dir/ls, but the filename is arenadmo.zip and is 1.8 meg (I know - how do you get that onto a floppy?). In the same place is a slide show with music support, filename arenasld.zip (500k). I believe the demo is not part of the actual game but was created as a stand-alone playable demo. It looks like it uses the terminator rampage engine. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 02:08:46 -0500 (EST) From: Phat H Tran Subject: New Playmidi > Date: Mon, 21 Feb 1994 12:14:55 -0800 (PST) > From: mikebat@netcom.com (Mike Batchelor) > Subject: Gripes about new Playmidi > > Got the gus0040.zip last night, and I am not at all pleased with the new > playmidi.exe. I am! > First of all, the background color is hideous. Please, Gravis, go back to > the black background, or let us choose a background color. I think you can change the colour by editing the grvcolor.ini file. But what's wrong with a blue background? > But that's a minor quibble. On to the major stuff: > > 1. Having owned a GUS for a year and a half, all my MIDIs are converted > over to log volume. Now the default is linear volume. I must use a > switch to get the same volume response as the older version. Of course, > attempts to convert the MIDs back to linear volume give less than > acceptable results. Linear volume is a much needed improvement. Virtually every other synth uses a linear volume curve, so it's better the the GUS have linear volume than log. Also, vmapped MIDs played on a log curve don't sound quite as they should non-vmapped on a linear curve due to rounding errors in the conversion. These rounding errors get even worse when you use the -r switch to go undo the vmapping. That's why I've advised users to keep their original un-vmapped MIDs around for the eventuality that all the GUS software go linear. > 2. Numerous MIDI files that play fine with the 2.06a playmidi produce no > sound at all with the new version. The -debug and -verbose switches show > that events are going by, but no sound comes out. Chase.mid is a notable > example. This is because chase.mid uses out-of-date custom patches. Use 'pupdate -check_patch *.pat' to update the patches. > 3. The -umid option seems to be useless, especially for MIDIs with custom > patches, because it will now read the ultramid.ini, allowing no > customization (easily). Furthermore, no graphical display is given in > this mode. The -umid option is there to test Ultramid. I've used it many times to check out the stability of the various versions of Ultramid I have lying around. It's simply a debugging option. > 4. Really major BUG: detune values in the .cfg file are ignored, as are > the volume values. With the old playmidi, I could adjust a particular I haven't checked this out as I don't use any detune or volume parameters in my default.cfg. > So, for the majority of the MIDI files I keep, the new playmidi produces > no sound, or poorer sound, compared to the 2.06a playmidi. For me, the new PlayMIDI is a definite improvement for the singular reason of it having a linear volume curve. > Date: Mon, 21 Feb 94 10:04:06 +0200 > From: gavin@concave.cs.wits.ac.za (Gavin Saul Bergheim) > Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V11 #16 > > how do I unsubscribe ??? You must send meta commands to gus-general-request@dsd.es.com, not here. Phat. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 11:26:55 +0000 From: fadhley Subject: Re: Now is the time to Storm the UK PC mags My posting about PC magazines being unfair to our beloved sound card seems to have generated a small ammount of interest. I was incredibly shocked that the highest rated card in the PC review benchtests was a SB Pro! They gave it such a high result on account of it being easy to set up and that it works with everything. What bollocks! They also consistantly rate the Orchid wave thingy higher than the GUS even though it lacks half of the GUSs features. Ok - These PC magazines are targeted at computer illiterate morons who probably have dificulty operating an electric toaster - so 90% of the score was to do with wether the idiot journalist could figure out how to operate the card. It's not surprising that the GUS scored low in this, As it is so unlike any other soundcard on the market the journalists couldnt get their minds to understand it's ability. They also made a big deal about SBOS being not very good - totaly missing the point of the Gravis Ultrasound. They are totaly unaware of the fact that games like Simcity 2000 work perfectly with the GUS with native support through AIL 32 drivers. In short - they havnt got a clue. I'm going to write off to all of the PC magazines to see if I can get some slightly fairer representation. I suggest that all of us UK Gussers should do the same. Thanx. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 94 14:05:29 -0500 From: hal wayne black Subject: Origin still sucks... Well, bad news GUSsers, According to the Origin Representative on AOL, Ultima 8 will not have any Native mode GUS support. BUT, "it sounds great in its soundblaster mode". Yeah right.. Simply not possible... -- | sylk@mik.uky.edu | hwblac00@ukpr.uky.edu | Entitlements kill | (tastefully short signature) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 94 8:55:16 CST From: Jim English Subject: Re: Sony CD-ROM I have the Sony CDU33A (Double spin) and the Audio cable that came with it fit right onto the gus 1st time no problems. All the pins were in the right places too! (Yea sony) I'm still using their controller card though as i do not have a CD-ROM daughter card for my GUS and they choose not to put the CD-ROM controller directly on the board (boo gravis) :). -jim -- ______________________________________________________________________________ Jim English - jenglish@hpserv.keh.utulsa.edu / EJP51823@vax1.utulsa.edu I do not represent the University of Tulsa in any way, but I'm sure if they wanted me too they could easily create another Vice President position and raise tuition. "Oh good heavens baby where's my medicine? Well I must have left it outside with my ettiquette." - Hotel Illness (Black Crowes) ______________________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 94 02:21:38 CST From: johnz@saintjoe.EDU (John Zmaczynski) Subject: Star Control II I'm trying to run Star Control II and for some reason the music is screwed up now. It used to be that the sound would goof up a bit in the menus (the "bing" as you go from menuitem to menuitem was awful sounding). Now, most of the music is very grating to the ears, because of wrong notes. Any suggestions on how to fix this? I should mention that I use the most recent files from the archive, and last time I tried it (long ago) it sounded almost perfect with the older files. Any help would be appreciated. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | John J. Zmaczynski | "Oboy! It's the colorized version of Citizen | | | Kane... Oh, my mistake--It's just the | | johnz@saintjoe.edu | Flintstones." -- Max, of Sam and Max | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ End of GUS Daily Digest V11 #22 *******************************