GUS Daily Digest Fri, 22 Apr 94 9:37 PST Volume 12: Issue 22 Today's Topics: "miles" drivers SDK 32channel doom @ stealth pro.. Bad review of the GUS Diamond Stealth Pro and GUS GUS Daily Digest V12 #15 GUS Daily Digest V12 #21 (3 msgs) GUS stuff megaem & novell/dr: strange combo! PC Format address Sound in Encarta '94 SuperUnknown The G-List **ANNOUNCEMENT** Trying out new patches what is redbook & reading digital audio samples 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, 21 Apr 1994 20:58:10 -0700 (PDT) From: Shane Conder Subject: "miles" drivers SDK I heard there was an SDK for these miles (or however it's spelled) available at archive.orst.edu. Does anyone know the filename and/or the directory where this could be found? Thanks, Shane [saconder@sq.olympus.net] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 15:06:30 CST From: mcavity@PANAM1.PANAM.EDU Subject: 32channel doom @ stealth pro.. To : The wise and wonderful Phat: Well If you look at my message i did state that all 32 channels would probably never be used.. but I do know that after installing a meg there was some improvemt on doom with the gun and the I pumped the sound all the way up to 32 and I got much improvemet in the sound [i had drum beats befor but not a quick repeat beat bump-bump-bump verry fast.. I had one thunk.] I realy belive that the doom sound engin is just mixing more sounds..Things do not cut out like they did before. infact NOTHING ever cuts out anymore for me...I hear the chainsaw while bumping into a wall with monsters attacking at the same time.. realy ! I'm not joking! I -PERSONALY- have no more sound cut outs in large fights.. and i'm on a 386-40 [soon to be overclocked... ;-) where that da## 100mhz crystal...] Anyway I get a definate improvement so the rest is up to you... I dont think it is the gus, I think it is the doom sound engine mixing. Mcavity@panam.edu ******************* stealth pro ******************* To the person with a stealth pro who wants a gus.. I recomend that you FIRST try out the gus with your stealth.. It might work for you.. [If it wont you will know after swiching videomodes a lot... try the noton video tester and run through all the modes.. If it holds on that it should work for you...You may also have a diffrent revison card than me.. Let me know how it comes out.. Mcavity@panam.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Apr 94 19:51:23 EST From: Greg Subject: Bad review of the GUS The May 1994 issue of Windows Sources Magazine does not rate the GUS very highly. The magazine performed 3 recording and playback tests, including frequency response at 44khz, total harmonic distortion and signal to noise ratio. Although the article claimed it was testing the GUS MAX, I believe that they were testing the GUS with the 16 bit daughterboard (unless the GUS MAX is really a GUS with the daughterboard). The following is what the magazine had to say about the GUS (MAX): ----------- "Pros- Comprehensive software bundle Cons- Instrument Samples need 5.5MB of hard disk space The Gravis Ultrasound MAX, from Advanced Gravis ($249), follows some trends and bucks others. Like its rivals, it records 16-bit sound, but it uses its own GF1 synthesizer. And instead of storing digital samples in ROM, it stores the waveform patches on disk and loads them into its on-board RAM as needed. It is also the only sound board reviewed that uses a daughterboard to perform its 16bit waveform recording; without it you can only record at 8 bits. Unfortunately, its poor signal-to-noise ratio resulted in audible distorion and hum during recording tests. Although the test unit was a preproduction model, the problem resulting from its design is likely to remain. On the positive side, this board comes with software that outshines that offered by most its rivals; and it's low cost. However, even its excellent bundle isn't compensation enough- not when audio quality counts." ------------ The GUS rated last in the magazine's frequency response test at 44khz and last in it's signal to noise ratio test. The total harmonic distortion test could not be done on the GUS. The other cards that were tested in the review were: Best Data Products SONIQ SOUND, Cardinal DIGITAL SOUND PRO 16 PLUS, Creative Labs SOUND BLASTER 16 SCSI-2 with WAVE BLASTER, Diamond Computer SONIC SOUND, IBM AUDIOVATION ADAPTER, Logitech SOUNDMAN WAVE, MediaMagic DSP-16 PLUS, Orchid Technology SOUNDWAVE 32 and Turtle Beach MULTISOUND. The winner of the test was the Turtle Beach Multisound which the author wrote that the "quality of the waveform audio is unbeaten, and no other board reviewed here comes close to matching the concert like music that it is capable of producing." The author also liked the new SoundMan Wave which uses the OPL4 chip. Please note that this is a magazine dedicated to windows and all tests were done in the Windows environment. The tests were performed using the recording applet bundled with each sound card. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Apr 1994 12:55:36 +0200 (MET DST) From: Rune Karlsen Subject: Re: Diamond Stealth Pro and GUS >Somone in the #20 digest (mcavity@panam1.panam.edu) mention, kinda to the >side, that the GUS did not work with the Diamond Stealth Pro. >Is this a known fact? If so why? >Could the person who stated this please explain in a little more detail. >A friend of mine wants a GUS and has that video card. >Shane [saconder@sq.olympus.net] [ *yawn* - Linux stuff for those that are interested ] ---------------------------------------------------- Well, I bought a Diamond Stealth PRO (S3-86c928/ VLB/ 2MB VRAM) with my computer. (Not a very good choice considering I was going to use it with Linux) At first I could only use the XS3-server with Linux (albeit @90MHz in 1024x768). But it was very unstable. Enter XFree 2.1; I now run XFree 2.1 @112MHz dot-clock in 1280x960 (and 1280x1024) - there are some work-arounds .. (I am using the "setclk" utility to set the 2nd clock to 112 Mhz after starting X, it starts at 110MHz - the limit for XFree2.1 S3-driver for me) [ GUS specific stuff ] -------------------- A month ago I bought a GUS (the "sane" thing to get, when I wanted sound under Linux). It's rev. 3.7 of the card. And it works perfectly in both MS-DOS 6.2 and Linux. No problems. Raptor in 8 channels and DOOM in 20 over TCP-network; no difficulties. I also use the Adaptec AHA1542C with 2 SCSI drives and a floppy. That is the only problem I ran into - DMA channel conflicts and IO-ADDR problems (my AHA1542 is at 0x330 which clashes with Roland MIDI support in some programs - MegaEm fixes this in most cases .) I can't vouch for MS-Windows since I deleted it upon installing Linux .) But I don't think your friend should run into any problems using the GUS with Diamond Stealth - if he hasn't got a very special setup. The rest of my setup is: 486dx/33 EISA VLB (Hint Caesear chipset) 16MB RAM, 100+240MB SCSI EIZO/NANAO F560iW-TCO 17" (heartily recommended - will do wonders for any pair of eyes .) "IT-pack5" multi-function IO-card (16550C UARTS) Logitech Mouseman [ A-bit-on-the-side ] ------------------- BTW does anyone know if it's possible to upgrade 5volt CPU-socketed motherboards to the new 3.3volt DX4s ? ,) (perhaps via some add-on to the motherboard ? ,) ------------ Rune Karlsen (runek@ifi.uio.no or runek@eldarin.uio.no) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Apr 1994 09:09:36 +0300 (EET DST) From: Mikko Rauhala Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V12 #15 > Jayeson is now working for Gravis and the program is free! It supports > Sound Blaster digital sound, and he is currentally working on a version > that will work for protected mode games! That'd be great! But just to be safe from major disappointments, is this a rumour or something rather than fact? If not, how's the situation with the program, and will it be priced as well as the current version? ;) - Mjr ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Apr 94 08:15:27 +0300 From: Yossi Oren Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V12 #21 >Very likely, you have to do what I did to get Encarta '94 to work >properly. You have to get the Video For Windows 1.1a RunTime update. >It's a 1.3MB download from Microsoft's TOLL BBS, or you might also be able >to find it on epas or some mirror. I was not getting sound in certain >places on Encarta, one of which was all the startup music and such. The >"vfwrt11a.exe" (pretty sure that's what it was called) file, once unpacked >and installed from, fixed everything. Yossi told me and someone else >about this a while back. No need to pay money for this file - MS has an FTP site (ftp.microsoft.com) with full support and ALL of its files on board. The VFW runtime is in softlib/mslfiles... DON'T DIR! There are 14,000 files there! The file name is VFW-something.EXE, but may have been trimmed to 6 characters to fit on CIS. Yossi. +---+---+---+---------------------------------------------------+---+---+ | = | E |_|/| Signature 1.31 | V | ^ | +---+---+---+---------------------------------------------------+---+---+ |Yossi Oren, Al-Daf Techno-Mercenaries, Rishon Le-Zion, Israel. Help | |TInternet EMail:LIOREN1@WEIZMANN.WEIZMANN.AC.IL TT The people are T| ||Bitnet EMail:LIOREN1@WEIZMANN || with the Golan || ||Drag yer damn objects around. I've got work to do.|| Heights! || +====================================================++================++ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Apr 94 08:18:17 +0300 From: Yossi Oren Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V12 #21 >Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 17:14:54 -0700 (PDT) >From: Shane Conder >Subject: Focal Point 3D sound > >I have a demonstration for this type of sound. I can't seem to hear any >difference, except volume changes. I definitely can't pin point the >sound, other than left, right, or somewhere in between. The way FP3D is designed REQUIRES headphones, because you can't have crossover from left to right. Use headphones and it should work. Also note that since the on-screen head is FACING you, everything is flipped. It worked quite well for me. Yossi. +---+---+---+---------------------------------------------------+---+---+ | = | E |_|/| Signature 1.31 | V | ^ | +---+---+---+---------------------------------------------------+---+---+ |Yossi Oren, Al-Daf Techno-Mercenaries, Rishon Le-Zion, Israel. Help | |TInternet EMail:LIOREN1@WEIZMANN.WEIZMANN.AC.IL TT The people are T| ||Bitnet EMail:LIOREN1@WEIZMANN || with the Golan || ||Drag yer damn objects around. I've got work to do.|| Heights! || +====================================================++================++ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Apr 1994 07:57:50 -0400 (edt) From: Josh Rodman Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V12 #21 About getting the Microsoft Encarta to work, you are probable better off checking ftp.microsoft.com before calling their BBS. -Josh ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Apr 1994 01:27:53 -0700 (PDT) From: Cottleston Pie Subject: GUS stuff First, and importantly, is to subscribe to the GUS daily digest. Any and all problems can be solved here. To subscribe, send a message with "subscribe" as the subject to: gus-general-request@mail.orst.edu It will tell you everything else in an automated response. Now, the new software can be ftp'ed from: archive.orst.edu (the main/fastest place) If you don't know how to ftp, come see me and I'll show you. It's really not hard. Trust me. ;) chris ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 22:35:20 From: Tom.Van.Overbeke@f1906.n291.z2.fidonet.org (Tom Van Overbeke) Subject: megaem & novell/dr: strange combo! Hi, I purchased a GUS 1Mb a few weeks ago and have a few unresolved problems: (my setup is a 486 DX-40, 8 Mb Ram, Novell Dos 7,Mitsumi 2xspeed,nuvo 14k4) 1)I can't get mega-em to work with the emm386.exe from novell dos: gives me some error about: EMM unrecognised internal structure or sth. If I try it with novell's HIMEM.SYS and with the option -NOEMS, it says that it can't find any EMS!! I managed to get it to work though, but at a huge cost, here's what I did: I tried using the emm386.sys from dr dos 6 (in novell dos 7, that is) , and this worked. BUT (here it comes), this combination has some VERY SERIOUS bug in it. I could succesfully load mega-em, and then I tried emuset -? (just to see the available options). Guess what: lots and lots of lost clusters and crosslinked files and whatever. I actually had to reformat my dos partition, because there were files that could in no way be removed. Has anyone heard of this before? I think this is a serious bug that should need instant correction! (I can reliably reproduce this situation BTW) Does anyone know how to use megaem with novell without using an external memory manager (such as Qemm or sth. similar)? It does work in DR DOS6, but I don't like using a bootfloppy just for this. 2) I have had occasional errors when checking the DRAM. This seemed to happen mostly with IRQ set to 7, but I have known it to happen at IRQ 5 too. Problem is, It seems to be sporadic and always at a different ram position. Therefore, I am not really sure if the problem is the ram, maybe it is an interaction between irq settings or addresses or sth, i dunno. Should I take these failures serious? So far, I haven't heard any strange sounds from my gus, all sounds perfect, midi-files, doom (obligatory :) and so on... Right now, I am using irq 5 and the failure error seems to have stopped. Thanks for bearing with me. :) --- Gated from FidoNet at 2:29/777 --- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Apr 94 11:23:27 BST From: Mcgarry D P Subject: PC Format address I seem to remember someone wanting the address for PC Format (UK magazine) a while back (which was posted by someone else). If it's any use, they can now be contacted by e-mail on: future@cix.compulink.co.uk Dave. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Apr 1994 10:10:22 GMT From: Clarke Brunt Subject: Sound in Encarta '94 Some comments yesterday about needing a patch to make Encarta '94 play sound properly on the GUS. I have had no problems with an Encarta '94 purchased in the UK a few weeks ago. WAVs, MIDs, and sound with animation and video all working fine. For the MIDs (mainly National Anthems of the World as far as I can tell) to sound decent, you really need to disable channels 11-16 in your MIDI Mapper Setup, since the MIDs are scored either for extended (channels 1-10) or extended (channels 13-16) MIDI, and not for general MIDI (channels 1-16). If you leave all channels enabled, then you will get notes being duplicated, with potential for strange interference with each other, and also a percussion track on channel 16 being rendered on the piano! I see that Encarta installs some sort of Sound Compression Driver. Does this mean that some of its WAVs are compressed? Certainly, there are some for which Sound Recorder does not display a waveform, and does not offer Reverse or its other few effects in the menu. It looks to me as though some of the WAVs are in separate files on the CD, while others are perhaps buried within the main Encyclopaedia file itself. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Apr 1994 14:21 GMT+0100 From: RTHI@btma74.se.bel.alcatel.be Subject: SuperUnknown I sounds very good :-), but I cannot SEE anything after this "yellow man" :-( the screen is black and only in the corners of the screen I can see some blue squares. So here is the question, what's going on.... Roland ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 14:49:35 -0300 (ADT) From: Jurassic Mark Subject: The G-List **ANNOUNCEMENT** GUS day people, For those of you who volonteered to take over the G-List when I leave, I give you all a pat in the back. I really appreciate the concern you showed to let the G-List live. I have come to a decision for the G-List's new father. His name is Nick Tucker. For those who knows The Ultrasound Sound Source magazine (TUSS( knows him as the author of it. His experience with the Gravis Ultrasound card goes as far as the early days when he got the developper version of the card. He is also a very active GUS supporter on America On-Line. The list will still be posted at the usual places (Usenet, GAMES-L, IBMSND-L, etc...) plus maybe other places. The G-List will now be part of the Ultrasound Sound Source. The G-List will now move to "gravislist@aol.com". Please, take good note of the address as I will no longer receive submissions and my account will soon disappear. That address is not fingerable, by the way. Starting now, the G-List has a new father. That's it for me, friends. Hope I did my share for the GUS world. That was a fun party. I'll keep on GUSsing somewhere on this planet. :) If everything works fine for me, I'll be back as a system administrator. Marc Y. Paulin - Jurassic Mark (Usenet) - J-Mark (IRC) Graduating CS student in search of a job... - markus@clement.info.umoncton.ca (Talk 'n Mail) - (506)856-9518 - Inertia Player Beta Tester - Author of the G-List for Ultrasound owners ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Apr 94 15:48:34 EDT From: jasonr@Newbridge.COM (Jason Rusmisel) Subject: Trying out new patches Hi GUSsers: I've ftped a lot of new patches and I'm trying to find a way to try them out. I would like to be able to compare two patches for example when replacing some of the gravis patches. Is there a way to load up an arbitrary patch and play it; either in DOS or Windoze? A second question: How do I make use of the patch bank features I see mentioned in ultrasnd.ini? I've made up new patch banks but I can't get any of the Windoze apps to give me an option to switch banks. Can anyone give me some advice here too!? Thanks. Jason Rusmisel. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Apr 94 21:13:04 -0400 From: "Momentary language, sexual situations" Subject: Re: what is redbook & reading digital audio samples For what it's worth, the Tosh 3401B will deliver Digital Data over the SCSI bus and there are a couple programs that will write this data to a .WAV file. A BIG .WAV file, I might add...:-) But at least it lets one get around those stupid "anti-copying" codes... Check for programs called cddaread.zip and cdda09a.zip DDA ------------------------------ End of GUS Daily Digest V12 #22 *******************************