GUS Daily Digest Thu, 12 May 94 9:37 PST Volume 13: Issue 11 Today's Topics: About a MAX upgrade... Anyone with problems with MIDI volume? Are there any problems with Ultima 7.5? CFV: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard reorganization Compress samples w/ db? DIGEST ADMIN: GUS LISTS LOST A DAY DIGEST ADMIN: IMPORTANT NOTICE IN TODAY'S GENERAL DIGEST Distorsion on Beethoven's 5th GF2 and Megaem protected GUS Daily Digest V13 #10 Hopefully waiting for an improved Mega-Em Return to Zork 1.1 / VOICEOOH.PAT TFX & GUS Video for Windows and the Ultrasnd 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: Tue, 10 May 1994 16:42:42 +0800 (PST) From: Francis Li Subject: About a MAX upgrade... No, buying a daughtercard is not the same as the MAX. Only the MAX can have both CD-ROM interfaces and 16 recording and playback. Also, I want the enhanced mixer (line-in/microphone control), and I would like the DSP and the drivers it has to make it Sound System compatible. So, any sort of upgrade out? ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 May 1994 10:54:22 -0700 (PDT) From: Juan Carlos Leon Subject: Anyone with problems with MIDI volume? Hi again GUSers! Well, it seems that there are some people that don't like us in the comp.ibm.pc.soundcard group. Has anybody suffered of this problem? I'm playing some MIDI files with the Creative Labs Jukebox, it plays three or four files and then the volume gets lowered a lot. They volume stays that way until I stop the jukebox, clear the queue and play some other file manually. Then I can start again the thing until it strikes again. I think this is because my GUS&PAS configuration but I want to make sure it's only this and I'm the only one. Juan PS. I still want to register my used GUS, please coments! -- email: jleon@scf.usc.edu *-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-* Major in Electrical Engineering, Computers | empty until I have time to | University of Southern California | think on a new signature | Los Angeles, CA. USA *-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-* ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 May 1994 17:41:54 CDT From: Gary L Snethen Subject: Are there any problems with Ultima 7.5? Hello Everyone, I had no trouble getting SBOS to work with Ultima 7 - The Black Gate. Am I going to have trouble with Ultima 7, part II - Serpent Isle? I didn't see this game listed in glist.zip. If I am going to have trouble, is there any solution, or did Origin use a different sound driver on it? Also, how good is Archon Ultra's sound for the GUS? Did they do a decent job of using native mode, or did they just hook their SB routines up to a GUS noisemaker? Thanks! ---Xeno p.s. I'd appreciate it if you'd forward me a personal copy of any followups you send to the list. Thanks! (xeno@iastate.edu) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 May 94 11:40:32 PDT From: asolovay@geoworks.com (Andrew Solovay) Subject: CFV: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard reorganization Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!ames!hookup!usc!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!sunic!EU.net!uunet!bounce-back From: asolovay@geoworks.com (Andrew Solovay) Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard Subject: CFV: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard reorganization Followup-To: poster Date: 9 May 1994 19:10:13 -0400 Organization: Usenet Volunteer Votetakers (UVV) Lines: 213 Sender: tale@uunet.uu.net Approved: tale@uunet.uu.net Expires: 31 May 1994 00:00:00 GMT Message-ID: Reply-To: votes@geoworks.com (Andrew Solovay's vote-taking alias) NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net FIRST CALL FOR VOTES (of 2) unmoderated group comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.tech unmoderated group comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.music unmoderated group comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.games unmoderated group comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.advocacy unmoderated group comp.sys.icm.pc.soundcard.misc (replaces comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard) Newsgroups line: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.tech Technical questions about pc soundcards. comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.music Music and sound questions using soundcards. comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.games Questions about using soundcards with games. comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.advocacy Advocacy for a particular soundcard. comp.sys.icm.pc.soundcard.misc Soundcards in general. Votes must be received by 29:59:59 GMT, 30 May 1994. This vote is being conducted by a neutral third party. For voting questions only contact Andrew Solovay . For questions about the proposed group contact Michael Young Ko . The vote-taker will post each CFV to the GUS Daily Digest at shortly after it is posted to news.announce.newsgroups. He will send an abridged RESULT posting (without the full list of voters) to the mailing list after voting ends; the full RESULTs will be posted to all the newsgroups where the CFV was posted. CHARTERS comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.games Unmoderated discussion of using IBM-PC compatible games with a specific soundcard, resolving compatibility problems of a certain soundcard with a particular game, discussing campaigns at software groups to have more native soundcard support, questions if a particular game supports a certain soundcard, and questions on which soundcard is best for a particular game or all games in general. comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.music Unmoderated discussion of software that plays back and record sound and music files, music formats such as WAV, VOC, MIDI, MOD, STM, 669, ULT, ROL, etc., resolving problems with musical software, discussing which software or hardware is best for a particular musical or sound project, and questions concerning sampling or sound patch making. comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.tech Unmoderated discussion of questions concerning programming a particular soundcard, discussing hardware problems such as loss of sound from a particular channel, discussing the pros and cons of a particular sound generation scheme, questions on the compatibility of the soundcard to a particular computer type, operating system, and peripheral such as a CD-ROM drive, questions about the functionality of a particular soundcard, and resolving hardware problems. comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.advocacy Unmoderated discussion of the pros and cons of soundcards in general. This discussion will possibly overlap some discussions on the other soundcard groups. Also reviews of soundcards and future opinions and tests of soundcards will be placed in this group to be discussed by the users. comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.misc Unmoderated discussion of topics concerning soundcard hardware and software that is outside of the above mentioned topics. These could include upcoming product release or updates for soundcard software. (This group would supersede the existing group comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.) JUSTIFICATION: The sudden increase in the volume of messages posted to the group comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard has caused the suggestion of splitting the group to appear. Many users on the group have expressed interest in dividing the group because the topics listed on the group are varied tremendously. Having approximately 200+ new messages a day on this group is expensive to some users who must pay for the receiving the usenet group based upon amount of information as well as paying for the amount of time needed to sort through all of the messages. Currently, a heated debate is present on the c.s.i.p.s group which is disrupting those users more interested in new software and problems. They have expressed concern that some are not able to keep up with all of the traffic and decided that by splitting the group, this would allow them to read the messages relevant to their interests pertaining to their soundcard. The comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.GUS is unrecognized usenet group throughout many news servers. Therefore, to avoid confusion and to reorganize the entire soundcard group, this illegal group must be eliminated. Many GUS users are satisfied with removing this group and using the four above mentioned subgroups. There was also concern about where this group should be located, under the comp.syd.ibm.pc hierarchy or comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware hierarchy. It has been decided to leave the soundcard subgroups under the former mentioned hierarchy to prevent any problems with news servers and provides with usenet groups with seven level names. Also, the transition would be less disturbing. RATIONALE: The idea of spliting the group was tossed around the c.s.i.p.s group many times. However, no action was ever taken. It is hoped that finally with the dramatic increase in messages, that this reorganization would make the group more efficient and easier to use. Questions had to be raised about add another group, a c.s.i.p.soundcard.GUS group which would handle all topics specific to the Gravis Ultrasound card. Presently, a majority of messages on the group is concerned with this card. Now with the a 100 message increase because of a heated debate (flame war?) the rational users want the group to be split. This eventually let to a group discussion about splitting up the soundcard group based upon the particular cards discussed, such as the Ultrasound, Soundblaster, Pro Audio Spectrum, etc. However, further discussion revealed that a majority thought that such a split would be short term due to the possibility of an unexpected loss of interest in a particular product. Therefore, because of the prospect of new soundcards being released that would increase the number of messages to the group, the prospect of more pc users of becoming involved in the multimedia revolution, and the steadily increase in messages in this group, it was decided that the group should be split based upon the topics mentioned above. The games group was chosen because a great number of posts on the soundcard group are concerned with how to use a particular soundcard with a particular game and what soundcard is best to use with game. Many users were concerned that the group was overrun with posts concerning how to get a particular game to work with a particular soundcard. They had to try to sift through the 200+ message a day to look for non-game compatibility messages. Therefore, the music group was also chosen because the other large part of message is related to the production of music. These include what programs can use a particular music format, and what programs exist to create programs. Also, in this group is the topic of sounds such as digitizing sound bytes and songs. A separate group was not created because many of the problems and solutions concerning recording or playing back sounds is related to the music production scene. The tech section was chosen because many users occasionally have questions about the technical aspect of soundcard, such as the pros and cons on how a soundcard generates sounds. Also, any hardware problems and compatibility would be discussed. But most importantly, the advocacy group would handle the bulk of the soundcard debate and keep it away from those more concerned with games or music. Finally, the misc group would be concerned with any topic or discussion outside of the above mentioned groups. This group is need to provide some kind of order in the other groups. Posting messages not really relevant to a particular group would cause an increase in traffic where it is not needed. As evident from other groups that have split, the misc section is used often. Possibly, by posting to the misc group, the message could be sent to the proper subgroup.Such a split would try to evenly distribute the messages throughout the sub groups. Most agree that sorting through 50+ is cheaper and less time-consuming. HOW TO VOTE Erase everything above the top "-=-=-=-" line and erase everything below the bottom "-=-=-=-" line. Do not erase anything between these lines and do not change the group names. Give your name on the line that asks for it. For each group, place a YES or NO in the brackets next to it to vote for or against it. If you don't want to vote on a particular group, just leave the space blank. Don't worry about spacing of the columns or any quote characters (">") that your reply inserts. Then mail the ballot to: votes@geoworks.com Just Replying to this message should work, but check the "To:" line. -=-=-=-=-=- Don't Delete Anything Between These Lines =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard reorganization Ballot (Don't remove this marker) Give your real name here: [Your Vote] Group ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [ ] comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.tech [ ] comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.music [ ] comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.games [ ] comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.advocacy [ ] comp.sys.icm.pc.soundcard.misc (replaces comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard) -=-=-=-=-=- Don't Delete Anything Between These Lines =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Anything else may be rejected by the automatic vote counting program. The votetaker will respond to your received ballots with a personal acknowledge- ment by mail - if you do not receive one within several days, try again. It's your responsibility to make sure your vote is registered correctly. Each person may vote only once, no matter how many accounts he or she may have. Also, only one ballot will be accepted from any account, no matter how many people may share it. If more than one vote is received from any person or any account, only the last vote received will be counted. Addresses and votes of all voters will be published in the final voting results list. All ballots received are kept in the UVV archives (including "cancelled" and invalid ballots). The vote files are made available to the moderator of news.announce.newgroups on request. They may also, at the discretion of the UVV, be made more widely available if there is a controversy concerning the vote. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 May 1994 13:53:31 -0700 (PDT) From: "George A. Montemayor" Subject: Compress samples w/ db? Is it possible to use the 16-bit db's 4:1 ADPCM compression to compress the samples and have the GUS uncompress them on the file while it plays a MIDI file? That way, we can compress those Pro Pats v2.0 and be able to use them with MIDI and games with little loss of quality. -George ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 May 1994 00:17:07 -0600 (MDT) From: Dave DeBry Subject: DIGEST ADMIN: GUS LISTS LOST A DAY In case you hadn't noticed, all of the GUS lists were gone for Wednesday, May 11. I won't point any fingers of blame, mainly because I'm not masochistic. :) If you sent in anything for those days (subscribe or unsubscribe requests, articles for the digests, etc.), please resend them, as they have been lost in the ether. Thanks for your patience. -- Dave ddebry@ debry@ \ DeBry dsd. peruvian. | "Great googly moogly!" es. cs.utah. | com edu / ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 May 1994 00:27:22 -0600 (MDT) From: Dave DeBry Subject: DIGEST ADMIN: IMPORTANT NOTICE IN TODAY'S GENERAL DIGEST There is an important notice in the GUS General Daily Digest today. It is the Call For Votes (CFV) for the restructuring of the USENET news hierarchy concerning sound cards. This CFV was put forward almost directly as a result of the high volume of traffic GUS related topics have generated on USENET. If you remember, this Digest went through the exact same split for the same reasons. I would encourage all of you to please read the information carefully, and vote on the issues as you see fit. IMHO, the split that the GUS Digests went through turned out to be a Very Good Thing (tm). I feel that it would also be good for USENET to do the same thing. If it's legal for me (as digest administrator) to say so, the official stand of the GUS Digests is that all resolutions in this CFV are good, and I would encourage the readers of the Digest to vote that way. (Keep in mind, though, you still can vote any way you want to.) If it's not legal for me to say that, then I never did. :) Remember: You don't have to be a USENET reader to vote. You just have to have an email account. -- Dave ddebry@ debry@ \ "In summing up, the moral seems DeBry dsd. peruvian. | A little bit obscure... es. cs.utah. | Whatever you do, com edu / Take care of your shoes." ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 May 94 15:20:50 CDT From: Daniel A Nielsen Subject: Distorsion on Beethoven's 5th Well, One more time I guess. I used midi1m to play B's 5th. After the applause it starts to make what sounds like a beeping distorted fog horn sound. At first I thought something was played wrong, but now I think it shouldn't be there at all. Any suggestions? Thanks again dan Barney isn't kissing those kids, He's tasting them! -- me ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 May 1994 21:37:54 +1000 (EST) From: Iain Huxley Subject: GF2 and Megaem protected What is the GF2? Are there some outlines of what features it will include, and when it is coming out in a soundcard? Also, do we have any idea when megaem protected mode will be out? How will it work? I would have thought it would take more memory and be less effcient in this mode. Is this true? thanks, Iain. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Iain Huxley Electrical Engineering II University of Sydney email: ihuxley@extro.ucc.su.oz.au ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A GUS * GET A GUS * GET A GUS * GET A GUS * GET A GUS * GET A GUS * GET A GUS * ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 May 1994 16:18:56 +0100 (GDT) From: dustin@ed.gse.utah.edu Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V13 #10 Whoever said: > at large understands it. I realize that GM is really just a specification > for what to name your patches and really little else, but for me GM > support means GM patchset+MPU-401+hardware/firmware capable of > UNDERSTANDING MIDI. The GUS only works as a GM synth in Windows or with > hacks, kludges, and a very VERY few programs that support it completely in > native mode. I guess you would like a PC that has DOS in hardware? or windows? I think that you insult Jayeson by calling megaem a kludge. I see it as a DRIVER much the same as you may have a cd-rom DRIVER. I am GLAD that the GUS requires these. It seems to imply that other OS may be able to better use it. The problems with GUS are not as bad as trying to get network cards working! Same goes for almost ANY add-on card for an IBM PC. Personally, I've never had any problem with the GUS. (If I had, my story would probably be different, but who knows?) > I'm not bashing the GUS. I'm simply no longer happy with it, as it has > NEVER met my original expecations. I was one of those people who got > sucked in by proud proclamations and blatantly false information. I'm > tired of not being happy with my soundcard, and I've finally decided to > buy something else. Enough said. Fine line between bash and not bash, I guess. I know some people who cannot tell the difference between a 45" and a CD. I guess you are like that with sound cards. If so, then an SB is just fine for you. Also, it may be easier for you. Oh well. I hope you keep the GUS, because I see great things coming.... Dustin --------------------------(Short .sig)--------------------------------- Dustin Caldwell dustin@ed.gse.utah.edu Computer Engineering Japanese proverb: saru demo ki kara taoru. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 May 1994 13:51:25 -0700 (PDT) From: "George A. Montemayor" Subject: Hopefully waiting for an improved Mega-Em Any news on Jayeson's new Mega-Em project? I just heard that the he is working on a version that will work under protected-mode software. While he is coding that, can he add these other features? * Ability to load patches > 64k * Ability to load only patches listed in a config file * Ability to do software reverb (is this possible?) * Ability to do software chorus effects "" * Support SB-PRO DAC * Load MT-32 custom 'patches' heck, if the new mega-em supports all or most of these, i wouldn't mind paying for the new version. -George ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 May 94 06:49:36 -0400 From: "Marco Coletti" Subject: Return to Zork 1.1 / VOICEOOH.PAT For anyone that is interested, the 1.1 update to RTZ now uses EMS/XMS to free up an additional 64K of conventional RAM. If you don't have the 1.1 update I suggest you nab a copy (I got it from Compu$erve, ughhh). In the ongoing saga of Zork problems I'm having, I've noticed that the README file says to get a patch called VOICEOOH.PAT if you are experiencing "Divide by zero" errors. Well, I am so I'd like some help in finding this file. Is it in one of the files under ../gravis/disk? Thanks in advance for your help. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 May 1994 18:00:50 -0600 (MDT) From: Derek the Dweebosaurus Subject: TFX & GUS This may be a little dated... but anybody manage to get music with the TFX while using the GUS? I've tried MegaEm but it locks up... with the native GUS support there is no music. Thanks. Also, I've just bought a SB-16ASP MultiCD card and a CD-ROM (I was extremely happy with the GUS alone but at $199Cdn, why not and get the CD interface included too?) and they co-exist awesome together, so I no longer need SBOS and I run MegaEm with the -SBOFF option and it works (after changing the IRQs and DMAs around). However, is it possible to disable the SB DMA on the GUS at all? There is still the odd program that conflicts since the SB DMA must be set at 1 and the two boards are using it... I'm using: SB-16ASP = A220, I5, DMA1 and 5, Midi at 300H GUS = A260, I11, DMA6, SBInt7, Midi at 330H(unchangable) Also, in Windows does one get better results and compatibility using GUS for both MIDI and WAVE, or GUS for just MIDI and the SB16ASP for the WAVE? Thanks a lot. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 May 1994 10:47:50 -0500 (CDT) From: vic@cd.com (Vic Serbe x237) Subject: Re: Video for Windows and the Ultrasnd Mike Geileskey writes: > > Date: Mon, 9 May 1994 13:33:11 GMT > From: Mike Geileskey > Subject: Video for Windows and the Ultrasnd > > Some time ago, I managed to get a copy of Video for windows off the > internet (usenet news alt.binaries.sounds.utilities), but I can't > remember the version. > The thing worked fine with my setup: VLB Cirrus card (displaying 32K > cols. in windows) and GUS v3.4 > > About a couple of months later, I got what I thought was a better > version: VFW v1.1 This was not the case. Since I upgraded, I am > unable to run VFW in windows if I am displaying more than 256 > colours (in 32K mode I just get a blue box containing a 'Profiling > display' message, and the system freezes). In 256 col. mode, the GUS > sound is also clipped. Why have microsoft made VFW worse? I had the same profiling freezes with my CL board until I upgraded the software drivers. In fact, the CL board I have is a cheap China clone, but I'm running Actix Prostar (same board, diff company) drivers. That fixed all my VFW problems. I've never had any sound problems, but I did have vid problems until the update. The weird thing is, if I cheated by getting VFW to profile a different driver by renaming, and then copied the original over it again, the actual video worked fine. Only the profiling broke. In other words, Encarta ran great, but the profiler crashed with the same driver. Go figure. -- Vic Serbe (vic@cd.com), Applications Engineer Central Data Corp. - Makers of the scsiTerminal Server 800/482-0315 or (+1) 217/359-8010 (FAX-6904) ------------------------------ End of GUS Daily Digest V13 #11 *******************************