GUS Daily Digest Sat, 21 May 94 9:37 PST Volume 13: Issue 18 Today's Topics: 15 to 31 samples MODs AWE32 to GUS comparison Diamond Speedstar... Digest mail GUS & FlashBack or Another World GUS, SB16 and Wolf3d Gus and Linux Midi problems GUS and Midi channels, Cubase and MIDI Mapper GUS Daily Digest V13 #16 (2 msgs) Inca Wiracocha MegaRace & Pacific Strike Megarace and GUS Midisession not a good supporter new and better patches PARITY errors revisited PLAYXMI.BAT v1.0 Privateer music is yuck propats? Return to Zork - other options Sierra 32 bit driver for GUS Static and such Voiceooh.pat Vol 13 issue 17 hosed! 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, 18 May 94 09:07:12 EDT From: Henrique 'Snoopy' Vianna Subject: 15 to 31 samples MODs Hello ev'rybody! I'm using the great UltraWolf to add some more fun to Wolf3D (IMHO, still the best action game for the PC, especially 'cause it's the original idea). But UltraWolf doesn't play the old 15 samples MODs properly, and I have a great 15 samples MOD that I would love to put in the game. So, my question is: is there any program or MOD editor that can convert the 15 samples file to a 31 samples one? Oh, by the way, I got some good replacements for the pistol and machine gun (the big one!) sounds. If somebody would like to trade some samples, please e-mail me. Thanks, Snoopy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Henrique Avila Vianna hvianna@brufpel.bitnet Universidade Federal de Pelotas hvianna@vortex.ufrgs.br Centro de Informatica "Imagination is more important than knowledge" 96010-900 Pelotas, RS BRAZIL - Albert Einstein ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 May 1994 00:22:15 -0400 (EDT) From: David A Denis Subject: AWE32 to GUS comparison I have the chance to get a good deal on an AWE32 righ now, but I know pretty much nothing about it. I have a GUS with 1 meg now. All I know about the AWE32 is whats on the box. I use my GUS to listen to all kinds of music files like MOD, 669, MIDI, etc... I also use it for some writing of music, and my games. How does the AEW32 stack up playing MIDIs? The GUS is great in this area in my opinion. I have never heard a roland, but nothing FM comes close obviously I appreciate any and all info. Dave -- Da Da, da da, dun dun dun...NiTeCrAwLeR! uh huh huh... Anderson rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 May 94 20:52:38 -0500 From: jfulmer@databank.com (John Fulmer) Subject: Diamond Speedstar... > >John, I think you're thinking of the *STEALTH*. This guy has the >SPEEDSTAR. The Stealth is based on a low end S3 chip, and has gotten a >lot of bad marks from users attempting to enjoy them. The Speedstar is >based on the Cirrus Logic 5428/5426 chips and is actually pretty stable. >Not the fastest Win GFX board, but probably one of the more stable >designs. I've used one and I have a clone of one right now that I have >no problems with. > Whoops! Is my face red..... *--------------------------------------------------------------------* |John Fulmer(jfulmer@databank.com)| "I find it in-ter-es-ting, * |Micom Computer Systems | A noun's a person, place, * |Lawrence, Ks. | or thing..." * *--------------------------------------------------------------------* ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 May 1994 09:03:04 +0100 From: P.VanHorssen@hol0606.wins.icl.co.uk Subject: Digest mail What is happening with the Digest deliveries? Have I missed something? Is there a strike on the Internet sending out the Digests? Rgrds Pieter ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 May 1994 19:42:00 +0200 From: mogens beltoft Subject: GUS & FlashBack or Another World What settings and which programs should I use if acceptable soundfx's/music is to come out of my GUS trying to play FlashBack or Another World ? I haven't much experience using SBOS, so please be thorough explaining me (or others) what to do. By the way DOOM hangs up quite often, even when playing music or soundfx's alone. I have a 486DX50 with a VLB S3 card, VLB controller and ofcourse my GUS. Thanks, Mogens Beltoft ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 May 1994 23:01:25 -0400 From: df085@cleveland.freenet.edu (William W Stone) Subject: GUS, SB16 and Wolf3d After adding an SB16 to my system along with the GUS (don't ask me why!) Wolfenstein can't find the SB. If I take out the GUS, no problem. Put it back in, the SB option on Wolf3d disappears. Any suggestions? Also, I'd like to have a peek at the configurations of anyone who has mixed an SB16, GUS and a CD ROM successfully... Wylie -- "The stock footage owls are not what they seem..." ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 May 1994 01:19:38 -0500 (CDT) From: Brett Person Subject: Gus and Linux Midi problems I can't get MIDI to work with my gus. When I try to play a MIDI file I'm told that the midi device (/dev/midi) has an invalid minor number. Here is the /dev entry for midi. 2 1:06 darkstar[34] ls -l /dev/midi crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 14, 2 Mar 17 00:51 /dev/midi Does anybodoy see an obvious problem here? I'm guessing that maybe the Midi software ( whatever was shipped with the gravis Linux sound kit ) might not be loading the patch files in. I did try compiling gusload.c and got a bunch of erors about things that aren't declared. Can someone point me to a precompiled midi loader. In fgact, how about any pre-compiled midi software for gus and linux. Any help greatly appreciated. -- Brett Person North Dakota State University person@plains.nodak.edu || person@plains.bitnet "Dazed and confused, but trying to continue" - /linux/kernel/traps.c ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 May 94 15:48:41 BST From: cb@jet.uk (craige bevil) Subject: GUS and Midi channels, Cubase and MIDI Mapper I am currently trying to use my GUS as an additional voice module within my synth setup. I am using Cubase to sequence and what I am wondering is, is there a way to map the voices in the GUS to particular midi channel so when I set the output port for the track in Cubase to Ultrasound Midi Synth and the channel number to I can have different voices on different midi channels. I think the word I am looking for is multi-timbral. Any help will be appreciated. Will the settings in the MIDI mapper have any bearings on what is going on ? Yours Completely In The Dark, Craige ********************************************************* *Craige Bevil | Joint European Torus | email: cb@jet.uk * *-------------------------------------------------------* * * * "Hartlepool, a monkey hanger's paradise" * * * ********************************************************* ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 May 1994 23:31:03 -0500 (CDT) From: vic@cd.com (Vic Serbe x237) Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V13 #16 Young Koh writes: > Date: Mon, 16 May 1994 13:05:24 -0400 > From: jntyk@rs733.gsfc.nasa.gov (Young Koh) > Subject: MIDI questions > > I have a gus with 1024k mem. > I want to hook up my Yamaha synthesizer. > > Ok, should I buy Gravis' midi interface kit or > buy Roland's MPU-401 midi card? I've never used the GUS' MIDI interface for reasons below, so I can't comment on it, but... > First of all, will those 2 cards work together? In dos? in windoze? > I'm doing this to please my girlfriend, who's a music major. > Any help would be appreciated. Yes, the GUS will happily co-exist with a dedicated MIDI card. However, I suggest you get a MusicQuest MIDI card. They are more powerful than a standard MPU-401, but are 100% compatible at the same time. I'm currently using their older standard single port card in my system and it works great. They also have a dual-port card, single port with SMPTE, and dual port with SMPTE. Their prices are reasonble, too. Their high end dual port card with SMPTE sells for well under $200. The single port card I have would probably be well under $100. I use Cakewalk Pro 2.x and have one output defined as the MIDI card, and the other as the GUS Synth. Basically, it's just like having another external MIDI sound module, just built-in to the computer. -- 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) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 May 1994 13:14:47 -0700 (MST) From: "Shawn T. Rutledge" Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V13 #16 > Date: Tue, 17 May 94 11:59:11 WET DST > From: g.r.quigley@ic.ac.uk > Subject: GUS and Linux. > > I have recently installed Linux and X on my PC (major hassle, but worth it) and > was wondering if anyone knew of any decent software (and where to find it) that > will make use of the GUS. Having recompiled the linux kernel to support the > card it would be a shame not to make full use of it. I'd just like to hear how well it works once you get it working. I believe there are drivers, known as the manley drivers. But that's probably what you've already done, and you just want midi and wav software, right? Wouldn't standard x apps work? Like the ones that come with a Sun or whatever? I've often thought of switching to linux but didn't want to mess with all the hassles of finding all the software, installing it, maybe not getting my GUS to work, as well as the other special hardware (my esoteric 1280 non-VGA-compatible video board, the jury rigged hard drive setup (I have both an RLL card and an IDE in the same system, with the IRQ disabled on the IDE and a special driver for DOS that allows them to coexist), etc. And then I'd have to start all over with all my other applications too. I doubt there's a good freeware substitute for let's say Corel Draw or MS Word. -- _______ KB7PWD (_ | |_) shawn.rutledge@asu.edu __) | | \__________________________________________________________________ * RISC * IEEE * ARS * C * Star Trek * Internet * PIC * SunSparc * packet * ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 May 1994 00:27:14 +1000 (EST) From: "Marshall / John Leonard (ISE)" Subject: Inca Wiracocha After finding out that my reversed l/r channel problem with DOOOOM *was* my speakers (turn the inbuilt amp on, no probs- play with the amp off and the channels are reversed), I find I have a "real" problem to ask the GUSites of the world. I have the CD version of Inca 2, running on a panasonic drive with its own AT bus card. The audio out is plugged into the GUS's CD in. The game just won't load with any version of SBoS running, and can't find a SB when I try to use Megaem's SB emu- lation. Anyone else trying this game? ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 May 94 3:19:39 BST From: g.gene@ic.ac.uk Subject: MegaRace & Pacific Strike Just spoke to those tech guys at Software Toolworks and I was told that the upgrade to allow MegaRace to use the GUS will be a software patch and is supposed to be out real soon (if its not out already). If anyone sees it on any of the BBS could you put it onto EPAS thanx. ( I'm dying to buy the game and play it with GUS sound) . Regarding Pacific Strike, its surprising to see that Origin is using EMS again, which means the game works with MEGA-EM...the music's really good with GM emulation but the digital sounds and Speech crashes quite often or just disappears during the game. Anyone else has this problem? If someone manages to make it work properly..please post how. I hava a really old Sound Blaster (v1.5) in the same computer (could be the problem?) Eugene geg@ee.ic.ac.uk ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 May 94 09:47:02 CDT From: dalessio@manatee.cig.mot.com (Mario D'Alessio) Subject: Megarace and GUS I just got a new CD-ROM drive and Megarace. I can't get any sound at all out of Megarace with the GUS. I called the company and they say they may have new drivers in a month. Does anyone have any idea how to get Megarace to work with the GUS so I don't have to wait a month? Thanks. Mario ==================================================== Mario D'Alessio Motorola 708-632-2323 He does the work of 3 men...Moe, Larry, & Curly! ==================================================== ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 May 1994 12:50:25 -0700 (PDT) From: Dylan Nicolle Subject: Midisession not a good supporter I was using the MidiSession program which came with the gus, and I noticed that it's not a very good patche cacher than I expected. I was playing a midi when the sound paused, while it loaded new patches. Even though there was still memory on the gus to load all the patches in the first place, it didn't and had to pause. When I use MediaPlayer or Playmidi, it works fine, never pauses, and doesn't report low memory. Even worth, is the pause before playing a song (with MidiSession) when you click play, you have to wait for the patches to be loaded. Thats normal, but the problem is that the program still continues playing the song as if the pats were already loaded, which causes the beginning of the song to be skipped. Not even the included programs run perfectly!! +-+-+-+-+ All opinions stated are those of my employer. Oh, I'm sorry. Did I put that wrong? -+-+-+-+- Congratulations iD! With DOOM, you have made grown men afraid of the dark again! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 May 94 20:11:00 -0800 From: larry.rekow@vidgame.com (Larry Rekow) Subject: new and better patches Message-ID: Ultrasound said they would make patches available on disk for a price. Are these new patches? Compuserve has some available whose files are dated March '94, but seem to be the same patches as before. Can we expect a new (and in some cases, better) bunch of default patches for General Midi? Using RAM is great, since you can upgrade, and despite some terriffic patches on some bulletin boards, it is obvious that we need some better quality ones for instruments like "STRING ENSEMBLE I" (middle C down gets real brassy, loud, and seems to change location). Can anyone recommend where I might be able to find some alternate orchestral patches? Some percussion instruments and sounds seem to be needed (at least I need them) like small and large Chinese Gongs, also known as the Tam-tam, finger snaps, etc. Lastly, has anyone tried the Howling Dog patches now being advertized? How are they? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 May 1994 23:41:28 -0500 (CDT) From: vic@cd.com (Vic Serbe x237) Subject: Re: PARITY errors revisited MMike writes: > Date: Tue, 17 May 1994 12:41:44 SAT > From: "MMike" > Subject: PARITY errors revisited > > My GUS works fine in my system except for midi-in under windows. When > I have something connected to the midi-in, I get an "OFF BOARD PARITY > ERROR" and have to reboot. This problem is erratic, it may not happen > as soon as I enter windows, but will eventually happen, usually within > a few minutes. The chipset on my motherboard is one of > those problem UMC sets (same 16 bit DMA problem as the OPTi boards), > so I use an 8 bit DMA channel. SBOS does work, so the NMI on my > machine seems to be OK (I understand that Midi-in uses NMI). Nah, MIDI in uses whatever IRQ you have the MIDI card set to. NMI is used mainly for parity errors, but can be used for other things, too. In fact, the IRQ on the MIDI port is only used for input data, so it makes sense that, if you have an IRQ problem, it's only going to pop up on MIDI input. > Does anyone know what the problem is? > Everything else is ok, including midi-in when I use MIDIFIER. I only > get PARITY errors with midi-in in windows. This sounds like an IRQ conflict or a device driver conflict to me. Are you sure you don't have the Windows MPU-401 driver loaded? You should use only the GUS software with the GUS. Also, I'd stay away from IRQ 2/9 (if you're using it). That's reserved for EGA functionality (typically backward compatibility for older software), but I've had trouble using that IRQ even when I knew my video card wasn't configured to use it (I don't need it). > Also, I still get skipped notes when playing midi files under windows > (using Winjammer), I have the windows drivers from GUS0039 (or was it > GUS0038?) Am I the only one with this extremely annoying problem? Again, this kind of strange behavior sounds like device driver conflicts or hardware conflicts. If you make it a habit to load SBOS at every boot, I'd stop doing that. I only load SBOS when needed (not very often). -- 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) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 May 94 0:53:01 EDT From: Meshreki@eecis.udel.edu Subject: PLAYXMI.BAT v1.0 Message-ID: <9405200453.aa16389@stimpy.eecis.udel.edu> FTP archive.epas.utoronto.ca:/pub/pc/ultrasound/submit/playxmi.zip User-friendly batch file to play .XMI files on the GUS in DOS. Online help. XMI = eXtended MIDI. Uses UltraMID and MIDPAK. DOS shell during playback. by Samer Meshreki (meshreki@udel.edu). Source code included! :-) Let me know what you think. Sam ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 May 1994 15:36:24 +1000 (EST) From: David Taylor Subject: Privateer music is yuck Hi, When I play Privateer with the GUS, the music is really REALLY bad! Speech and effects work fine. The GUS has 256k mem. SBOS v3.7. Would more ram fix the problem? Thanx, david@qtac.edu.au ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 May 94 16:07:51 EDT From: ballen@ejv.com (Bill Allen) Subject: propats? > From: "Juhasz Norbert" > Subject: propats? > > Hi GUSers, > Please tell me what are propats exactly? > Thanks in advance. > Norbert Juhasz. Propats are a collection of large (very large) patches that can be used in place of the ones that are supplied with the GUS. These patches have obviously been lovingly put together by someone who cares more about the sound of music than the practicality of the fact that the GUS has only 1meg of memory. Most of the propats use .25 to 5 meg, thus leaving room for 2 or 3 instruments. By contrast the typical patches supplied with the GUS are 10k-60k. The supplied patches are acceptable in a wide variety of uses, but for real music they tend to be lame - listen to the Grand Piano. The initial hit sounds OK, but the decay is awful - it shoulds like a $30 casio. The propat version of Grand Piano sounds just like a GP from low notes to high - it's amazing. I know that I speak for most in the Music digest when I state that these propats are the best reason around to get a GUS with more memory. Bill ------------------------------ Date: 20 May 94 08:13:00 EST From: "VULCAN::WATTERS_C" Subject: Return to Zork - other options Until I downloaded the RTZ patch (CD version), I used megaem. It worked fine for me. I'll have to look when I get home, but I believe that I fixed the VOICEOOH.PAT problem by changing the .ini file in the RTZCD/Drivers directory so the patch name was different. It's run fine for me (I'll see what I've done when I get home, and let you know), and I was running on a lowly 386sx/16! One thing I did note with the pathced version WHICH I DID NOT LIKE was that the game now put "That's noteworthy" on the screen whenever a clue appeared. -Coyt ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 May 94 20:32:33 -0700 From: eaiu367@orion.oac.uci.edu Subject: Sierra 32 bit driver for GUS It's out, just found it in Sierra BBS. Cheers! /=======================================================================/ / Ka Shun Fung | "If we deny love that is given to us, / / E-Mail Address: | if we refuse to give love because / / kfung@bonnie. | we fear the pain of loss, / / ics.uci.edu | then our lives will be empty, our loss greater." / /=======================================================================/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 May 94 22:36:27 EDT From: JeffOw@aol.com Subject: Static and such I've been able to solve my static problem with my patches, and may be of help to others. The problem was just corrupted files! I reinstalled just the patches, and things worked fine. Then, a week later, some patches got the static again. So I reinstalled the patches AGAIN and things are now fine again. Dunno what keep corrupting my patches (maybe my HD is gonna die soon!) But maybe trouble with Beethoven is just the patches acting up. Jeff ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 May 94 20:44:35 -0500 From: jfulmer@databank.com (John Fulmer) Subject: Voiceooh.pat "Voiceooh.pat" is an error in the .ini files for RTZ. What the gus has is doo.pat. So you must copy doo.pat voiceooh.pat, so you will have the same patch named as both doo.pat and voiceooh.pat Clear as mud? Good.... *--------------------------------------------------------------------* |John Fulmer(jfulmer@databank.com)| "I find it in-ter-es-ting, * |Micom Computer Systems | A noun's a person, place, * |Lawrence, Ks. | or thing..." * *--------------------------------------------------------------------* ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 May 94 10:35:11 CDT From: Daniel A Nielsen Subject: Vol 13 issue 17 hosed! Well issue 18 did better then 17 for quantity on EPAS, but most of it was lost. Anyone know why this happens or how to badger someone into adding me to the subscription list? thanks dan ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 May 94 14:20:30 CST From: u8013042@cc.nctu.edu.tw First, I would like to say 'thank you' to the one who make a phone call for me about purchasing GUS. I have a version 3.7 GUS installed on my 386 DX-33 almost ten days. At most time it does a nice job without any problem. But sometimes it performs oddly. And I try to solve the problem. Followings are some of my experiences: (hope it will help) 1. The music of EPIC Pinball is excellent, but the sound effect is always not continuous. After I change my system clock speed from SCLK/5 to SCLK/8 , the problem all disappear. Also, I find that the sound effect always come from left speaker and music always come from right speaker. I used a SBPRO with this game before ,and the sound come from which speaker depends on which ramp you hit. It's a good idea, but I don't know why the author doesn't adopt this idea when he wrote the program for GUS!? 2. I try to install Microsoft Works CD title using a double speed Mitsumi FX001D ,but when I run the demo the sound stop after 5 seconds. I thought it was hang. But after I open the CD door ,it says something like this 'can not read d:' (d: is my CDROM). Then I closed the door and double click the mouse on 'retry' button. And the BUSY LED of CDROM lights up again. But after few seconds pass it stop again. I do the procedure above again and again, and it runs intermittenly. I allocate DMA7&IRQ7 for GUS and DMA5&IRQ10 for Mitsumi. I think maybe Windows 3.1 don't know IRQs larger than 7, and I change IRQ of Mitsumi to 3. It's also not of use. Then I change DMA of GUS to 1 and it runs smoothly but sounded weird and robotic! At last, I adapt DMA of GUS to 6. Increditably ,the sound is so clear and no more problem again! My friend finds one thing that when he plays CD audio and runs playmidi at the same time ,CDROM will be stopped (He use the same brand and version of CDROM and GUS as mine). I think both these two problems may be resulted from conflicted DMA between CDROM and GUS. Is there anyone having any opinion about this ? note: I bought a CD title named 'Great cities of the world vol.1&2' yesterday ,and had problem like this. Since I couldn't solve this problem at that time, I returned it back. So I don't know if it resulted from the same reason as 'Works'. And I haven't tried other CD titles .... 3. I find these lines in system.ini of windows: [ultrasnd] ... codec_base=0 codec_dma=0 codec_int=0 ... Does anybody know the function of these lines ? I have changed the values of these lines ,but it seems that nothing changed! Best wishes, Ni, Jindi ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 May 94 15:39:21 +0200 From: rock@POOL.Informatik.RWTH-Aachen.DE Hi Gussers ! Here's my problem: I get lockups with 3 of my favourite games: Doom(1.2), Raptor and the new Epic pinball (the one with the Super Android table). With the first 2 games I thought the problem was the dos4gw dos-extender or the gus soundcode. Then I had the same problem with EP (which doesn't use dos4gw) . So i came to the (false) conclusion that it had to be the GUS: Because when I played the games with NO sound, I still had (and have) those lockups. Then i began changing my bios setup. But...to no avail. Please help me ;-) , perhaps i have overlooked something. I have a 486-40 ( Opti) VLB motherboard with the coloured AMI bios (11.11.92). I use a VLB controller and a ordinary ET 4000 card. No other "special" hardware is present, beside the GUS ;-) . So do I have to buy a new motherboard or is there a cheaper solution ? Thankx...Olli ------------------------------ End of GUS Daily Digest V13 #18 *******************************