GUS Daily Digest Thu, 7 Apr 94 9:37 PST Volume 12: Issue 7 Today's Topics: Bought a GUS! General MIDI xtals/GUS EMulators/SB AWE32 GUS & Carmen SanDiego Deluxe. gus and qemm386 V7 GUS Daily Digest V12 #6 (3 msgs) Phat H Tran fan club!! Phat Tran RAM for Gus? SDK for GUS Some Questions 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, 7 Apr 1994 01:46:30 -0400 From: Subject: Bought a GUS! Yo, Gusers! I just recently bought a GUS for the second time in two years! Anyways I got the board revision 3.7 and the installation disks version 3.0. Right away I scavanged my old Ati Vga Wonder and begged a few of my friends for memory chips and upgraded the sound beast to 1 meg. I have to say that the board has improved considerably and still has amazing sound :) , that is unmatched by the shitty Sound Blaster Pro that I had before that. The mods sound awesome, the mids even better (patches are very similar to the Wave Blaster, except a lot of them are better ,and only some are not as good), but........what would a sound card be without problems! Problem 1 - Windows hangs when trying to record with any of the wave editors. I don't really need to record in windows but It would be nice. I can load a wave , play it and everything is fine it screws up only when I try to record. I tried both 8 and 16 bit dmas ........hmmmmmmmmm , maybe I'm missing some windows files? I tried recording in dos using playfile and everything works fine. Problem 2 - Can't use 16 bit dmas in Windows and use my modem at the same time. Not very important but would be nice if I could. When I use 16 bit dmas and load Procomm plus for Windows. I might get lucky and be able to run the program for 5 minutes without a problem. Some kind of conflict occurs sooner or later and my mouse and the terminal both stop working. I can still use the keyboard and shut everything off. Using 16 bit dmas in dos causes no problems. Problem 3 - Megaem is amazing BUT I only get MONO! I tried megaem with 2 games so far. Legend of Kyrandia "Hand of Fate" and Flashback. Both games give me awesome music with my 1 meg gus but I don't get (((( STEREO )))). I loaded everything properly and DID NOT use the -mono switch in emuset. Mini Problem 1 - The snare (and maybe some other drum sounds) is screwed in dos playmidi.......sound like a Rubbermaid commercial..(plastic container sound) This is a minor problem since the drum patches play correctly in Windows, however It would still be nice to be able to play them correctly in dos. I'm aware of the gus041?.zip files but as I lost FTP access on Internex Online just a few days ago, I have no way of getting them. Isn't there another way of getting around the problem? Mini Problem 2 - UltraClicks! in some trackers. When I got the GUS, I went on an FTP binge. I got tons multi channel trackers like Ultra Tracker 1.5 , Mmedit, Unis669, Take Trakker, Farandole Composer, and others that I can't remember. Some of them seem to have a bit of clicking. Even though most of them claim to be Ultraclick free. I also got Inertia Player 1.1 and it seems to give me the cleanest output out of all of them. I think The gus can't ramp it's volume fast enough when it has lots of channels to process or maybe I need a faster computer. I only have a lowly 386 SX-16. Ultra Tracker doesn't give me clicks, but it has clicks with the 18 channel song that it comes with called DarkForce.ult . This song sounds awesome in Inertia Player with no clicks. Don't get me wrong, with the sound blaster pro I wasn't even able to play the 12 channel harmnics.mtm without lowering the frequency down to 8 KHz. With the GUS I can play this 18 channel .ult at full frequency with almost no cpu slow downs! The GUS sounds awesome but there still needs to be a composer created that doesn't give any clicks. Can somebody download the Ultra150.zip from wasp.eng.ufl.edu in the directory pub/msdos/demos/music/pptrack or something like that, and tell me if they experience the same clicks (in the middle of the song). Anyways.........I got carried away..(sorry)...I hope some of you have solutions to any of the above problems..... Thanks in advance. Greg ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Apr 1994 11:02:47 -0700 (PDT) From: Public Image Subject: General MIDI xtals/GUS EMulators/SB AWE32 I think the confusion on the term "Crystal" in talking about GUS patches comes from the fact the Graivs used the professional and commertially available "Voice Crystal" GM patch set for the GUS. the GUS emulators.... Well..... Just send 'em to a friend and let 'im run them.... Make sure the friend has a sound blaster. On the SB AWE32: Saw the box yesterday at babbages. Price: $330. Includes: OPL3 Synth Chip EMUxxxxx Synth Chip 512k (4 Megabits :) of RAM, expandable to 28 Megabytes 3 CD rom interfaces MPU-401 "Smart Mode" Midi Don't know how much rom (1 meg at the most though) Socket for the waveblaster (req. for General Midi compat.) Buncha bundled wares. All in all, not worth it. -Scott ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 07 Apr 94 02:01:49 EST From: pcady@celestat.com Subject: GUS & Carmen SanDiego Deluxe. New subscriber here. I'm having problems getting digitized sound out of Carmen Sandiego Deluxe. MegaEm does great music, but no digitized sound at all. SBOS does some digitized sound, then locks up. Latest versions of everything; No problems with any other game. Any suggestions? G-List says MegaEm should work. Paul Cady pcady@celestat.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 06 Apr 94 18:18:21 GMT From: Simon@geordie.demon.co.uk (Simon Crute) Subject: gus and qemm386 V7 Hi all, I've been running with a GUS card for ages, but recently I've installed qemm7 so I can play games, and use my other dos things without having to re-boot. BUT since I installed qemm7, the quality of the samples seems to have gone down hill, they "pop" more, and also sometimes sound like they have very small dropouts in them. Has anyone else got a gus and qemm7 qorking well together ? Thanks -- Geordie ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 00:14:09 -0400 (EDT) From: Timothy J Weaver Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V12 #6 Well, when you get finished "tolerating" your GUS I will be glad to take it off your hands! E mail me! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 00:29:04 -0400 (EDT) From: Phat H Tran Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V12 #6 > Date: Wed, 6 Apr 1994 02:35:54 -0700 (PDT) > From: "Peter C. Chien Jr." > Subject: 3.1 disks? > > Wait, what's this I hear about 3.1 install disks? For those of us GUS > old-timers with earlier versions, how do we get these disks? Notice how If you have at least the 2.06 disks, then you can upgrade to the 3.1 disks by downloading gus0041a/b from the GUS archive mirror sites (eg. archive.orst.edu /pub/packages/gravis). Just remember to delete ultrasnd.ini and your SBOS files before installing the new stuff. > Date: Wed, 06 Apr 1994 08:47:00 > From: T.Bolhuis@el.utwente.nl (Thijs Bolhuis) > Subject: CD-ROM interfacing. > > Does anyone know what the advantage would be to use the cd-rom gravis add-on > board instead of the supplied boards of Sony, Panasonic or Mitsumi, apart > from saving an ISA-slot? Does it provide extra functionality? No advantages save the one you've mentioned. > Date: Tue, 5 Apr 94 15:06:57 CDT > From: johnz@saintjoe.edu (John Zmaczynski) > Subject: Do MegaRace and GUS get along nicely? > > What kind of support does Megarace have for the GUS. The box didn't say > GUS support (I don't think....). Does Megaem work with this, or god forbid, > SBOS. It looks like a nifty game, but the GUS has kinda spoiled me musicwise. A bit of hearsay on the net has it that Cryo ( the folks who made Megarace) are adding GUS support to their game and will release a new version of it. > Date: Tue, 5 Apr 1994 20:22:53 -700 (PDT) > From: Colin Ritchie > Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V12 #2 > > Bart Aaron Larrangana Spat: > > > On another subject, in my efforts to get the sound to work right, I > learned > > that my SETGUS won't run. It says it needs to be run from the INSTALL > > program. This is something new; it never said that before. What > happened > > to it? The only thing that I can think of is that I upgraded the > software > > with gus0041 or whatever it was. Did this happen to anyone else? > > Well, Ultima 8 finally broke me, and I went out and bought a Soundblaster > for the digital(the GUS gets my stereo, the Soundblaster gets my > labtecs). I tried to use setgus in my attempts to set them up together, > and I got the same thing somewhere along the line, SETGUS has been > engineered to be run only from the INSTALL program(to head off stupid > people, I presume) and in the flurry of update files, the INSTALL program > was taken out of(or, not put into) the GUS directory. There IS an > install program in the GUS files I have, though, but it is for one of the > applets, not for the GUS installation itself. What you should do is copy install.exe from the gus0041 disks over to your /ultrasnd directory as setup.exe. Each time you want to reconfigure your GUS, run setup. It's the same program as install.exe, but it behaves differently when it's in your /ultrasnd directory. > Date: Tue, 5 Apr 1994 13:27:48 -0700 (PDT) > From: Bill Park > Subject: RAM for Gus? > > I just tested two ram chips that I had installed in my GUS which failed > the diagnostic test. They are Sanyo LC324256BP-70. Are these appropriate > chips? I had a friend who is a bench tech test them and he says they are > both hosed. Sanyo chips have had a long history of problems with the GUS. You should shop for another brand. There have also been a couple of reports of problems with Samsung chips. > Date: Tue, 5 Apr 1994 16:13:52 +22301035 (CDT) > From: bhicks@dx.psych.uiuc.edu (Blair D. Hicks) > Subject: Whine in Windows > > > I am having a problem with a high pitched whine coming from my GUS > soundcard while I run MS Windows. I have a new GUS (3.7) and my system > is a Gateway DX2-50V with a 1572 CrystalScan monitor with an ATI > Ultra video card. The whine is very noticable when there is a lot of > screen activity, or when I am using my modem w/ Crosstalk 2.1. Open your Ultrasound mixer and disable the line, mic, and CD audio inputs when you're not using them. Your whining problem is likely a result of noise being picked up at one of those inputs. > Date: Wed, 6 Apr 1994 16:03:57 +0200 > From: Nils Pedersen > Subject: XWING from Lukas Art > > I have problems with XWing. I just can't get the speech to work. > I'm using SBOS ver. 3.7B2 with no options, and my GUS is set up > on port 240 (DMA = 1, IRQ = 7, the rest is standard). I have spoken > with some friends and they have no problem, but they have 220 as base > adress. I hope some one can help me with this problem, I'm getting > sick of the AdLib-sound(s). X-Wing only supports SB sound at base address 220h. If you use SBOS, you must move your GUS to 220h so that the SB emulation will occur at that address. However, you can also use Mega-Em instead, which will provide you with much better music and allows you to emulate the SB at addresses other than the GUS' physical address. Mega-Em can be found in gus0041a/gus0041b.zip. Phat. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 01:08:49 -0500 (CDT) From: Antonio Guia Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V12 #6 :original quote: - I am having a problem with a high pitched whine coming from my GUS -something that I can do to shield the card and/or -cables? Does anyone -have any other suggestions? Suggestion: turn off your microphone inputs or make sure there's a microphone turned on and attatched to them if they are to be left on. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 10:31:53 -0500 (CDT) From: vic@cd.com (Vic Serbe x237) Subject: Re: Phat H Tran fan club!! > Date: Wed, 06 Apr 1994 14:38:40 GMT > From: Clarke Brunt > Subject: Phat H Tran fan club!! > > I just read my last 5 days of general Digest after the Easter break, > and whenever I found a query which I though I might reply to, I > found that Phat had already replied in a subsequent Digest. > > How does this guy put up with repeating time after time after... > that you need the new ultrasnd.ini or whatever, when the rest > of us just groan "Oh no! Not again"? Well done! I want to second these kudos for Phat. I, too have been helped quite a bit by him and, actually, someone else named Yossi or something. I'd like to offer them both my public thanks and appreciation for all the support they're giving us GUS'ers. -- _._ Vic Serbe (vic@cd.com), Applications Engineer #####> ------- Central Data Corp. - Makers of the scsiTerminal Server //___/ / 1602 Newton Dr., Champaign, IL 61821 ------* 800/482-0315 or (+1) 217/359-8010 (FAX-6904) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Apr 1994 13:46:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Rath Subject: Phat Tran You know what? I think Gravis should officially HIRE Phat Tran and PAY HIM for all the work he's done for all the GUS users out there.. What do you all think? Rath ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 08:27:29 -0400 From: tom@ksr.com Subject: Re: RAM for Gus? > I just tested two ram chips that I had installed in my GUS which failed > the diagnostic test. They are Sanyo LC324256BP-70. Are these appropriate > chips? I had a friend who is a bench tech test them and he says they are > both hosed. Well, I'm going through the same problem too. I bought 6 chips and none of them work. I talked to tech support at Gravis and was told that Sanyo and Goldstart chips are known to have problems. I got them from JDR. They told me that they have another brand and then later changed their mind. I'm really pissed at them. Anyway, I'm curious as to which chip brands people have had success with and where they got them from. 52 bucks from Gravis is a little overpriced, I'd say. -Tom '====`. '====`. []---'====`.[]---'====`.[]----[] Tom Varga / .'====`./ .'====`./ /[] Kendall Square Research Corp. []----[]/[] []----[]/[] []----[]/[] 170 Tracer Lane, Waltham MA 02154 []----[]/[] []----[]/[] []----[]/[] "High Performance Computing" []----[]/[] []----[]/[] []----[]/[] 617-895-9415 []----[]/[] []----[]/[] []----[]/[] tom@ksr.com []----[]/[] []----[]/[] []----[]/[] uunet!ksr!tom []----[]/ []----[]/ []----[]/ packet : N2UA@WA1PHY []----[] []----[] []----[] amprnet : n2ua@n2ua.ampr.org ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Apr 1994 13:40:52 -0400 (EDT) From: m8088044@llohio.ll.pbs.org (Fred Coffey) Subject: SDK for GUS Hi folks: I looking for the (cringe) BASIC (any flavor) SDK for the GUS. Is there one out there for BASIC? If there is, steer me in the direction of the proper FTP site. Thanks! Fred 4-6-94 at 1:41p -- Fred Coffey | Sandusky, Ohio | This space for rent. Inquire within. m8088044@llohio.ll.pbs.org | "Wherever you are going, you will eventually get there" ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Apr 94 15:03:01 +0300 From: tjakobs@mswe.dnet.ms.philips.nl (THEO_JAKOBS TEL.62667) Subject: Some Questions Hi... I have just recently bought SealTeam, but how do i get it to work with the Ail drivers? WingCommander Academy does have ail drivers (at least .adv files) but it doesn't work with the gravis ail drivers, could somebody tell me if it will work with the ail drivers?? How many SoundBoard Emulators are there for the GUS, the ones that i know are: SoundBlaster - SBOS+ Megaem(digitized voice) MT32 - Megaem SoundCanvas - Megaem But i've heard of a Emulator for the PAS16 as well... If gravis is smart, they would also try to emulate the WaveBlaster, Why??... Because the waveblaster is distributed under a lot of different names.. and it looks like it's gonna be a Creative Labs Standard again.. So if we can keep up with a WaveBlaster Support that is almost as good (even better??) we have another reason for people to buy a GUS.. Andre Jakobs MicroBrain Technologies Inc. ------------------------------ End of GUS Daily Digest V12 #7 ******************************