GUS Daily Digest Sat, 10 Dec 94 9:37 PST Volume 17: Issue 10 Today's Topics: 1024 banks, not 1024K Careful with GOOD TIMES! CyberWar digest echos ! GUS Daily Digest V17 #9 GUS Pro GUS Windows Drivers bug... HMI drivers in general Howling Dog Systems Patches INDYCAR patch....please! Ivan's Patch Question links386pro OK I fixed it People Quoting the digest!! PGP sigs, fingerprints and keys... Posting apology So, it begins again.... Win 3.1 drivers under WIn 95 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: 09 Dec 94 17:50:11 EST From: "Eric Bell, Howling Dog Systems" <71333.2166@compuserve.com> Subject: 1024 banks, not 1024K Message-ID: <941209225010_71333.2166_DHQ63-3@CompuServe.COM> > >The UltraSound drivers are set up so that you can make up banks with any > >sounds you want, and up to 1024 or more of them, as well. > >Eric, Howling Dog Systems > Correction: that's 1024k of RAM. Each instrument could take up to a whopping > 700k+ such as the Acoustic Grand Piano that's included in ProPats! There's > is no way possible to even load all the General MIDI instruments at the same > time due to this memory limitation. That's why they use patch cacheing. Correction on your correction, I meant you can make up 1024 *banks*. What you say is correct regarding RAM, patch caching etc. Eric, Howling Dog Systems ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Dec 1994 10:11:28 -0500 (EST) From: "K.S. Holly" Subject: Careful with GOOD TIMES! In the last digest, we all saw a coded message called GOOD TIMES! I had been told that it is a virus of sorts and that if you downloaded it or read it, your hard drive would be erased. Then I was told that it was a hoax. Some far-reaching hoax, that's for sure! Anyway, I read my mail through a modem pool so I'm safe but I hope no one else had any problems..... Kevin ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Dec 1994 10:48:53 +0800 (WST) From: Roderick Nasir DAVID Subject: CyberWar > > Date: Thu, 8 Dec 94 13:09:49 "CST > From: Jim English > Subject: cyberwar > > hey, I was wondering how good the Native GUS support on Cyberwar is. > It looks like an interesting game, but the part on the box about 320x200 > scares me. I mean why put a game on 3CD's if it's just going to be > 320x200. Anyone have this game? I'd like to hear what it really looks/ > sounds like in action. I've seen the CDROM demo of this game Jim, and my word, who really cares if its in 320 x 200, the Graphics will blow ya socks off!! I heard that they had trouble fitting the whole game on three cd's! As far as the GUS is concenred though, its supported throught HMI (along with just about everything else, but hey?) and works well. I had a good little chuckle about the AWE32 though, in the booting up sequence for the game, theres a message that goes like this... "Using AWE32 in sb16 mode" ... Made me laugh a bit ;) Regards and GUS hard, Nasir -- * Seeya on the groove train! | "My mistress eyes are Nothing Like the Sun" * * _+-_|\ | William Shakespear * * / \ | Nasir David at the... * * Perth , W.A ----> +_.--._/ | University Of Western Australia. * ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Dec 1994 12:56:38 +0800 (GMT+0800) From: FLAT^^TOP Subject: digest echos ! who is the moron who has been forwarding the whole previous day's digest as a reply..... -- /======\ | kohkhang@iscs.nus.sg, MsWFWG, GUSmax, Kelvin 64, & Supra v.Fc 28.8 user | \========/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Dec 1994 02:44:50 -0700 (MST) From: KKAHN@cc.weber.edu Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V17 #9 Hi.. I've been off the net for some time. I've been wondering if Gravis has updated their basic software that runs in Windows.? I've found the Pat maker Light to be less than ideal for the production of good *.pat files. anything new.? also, when I upgarded the dram in my sound card, I noticed that there were blank spots on the card whre other chips might be installed. does gravis have future plans to make the card expandable to maybe 4 or 5 megs.? It seems to me that it wouldn't be very difficult. I once had a Hayes 14.4 modem about 5 yearsa ago that got it's upgrade when you sent in the whole modem. It tookthem about two weeks to do the upgrde and send the unit back. If I recall, this was one of the first DSP based modems available on the mareket at that time. I think the GUS Max is also DSP based, so it would seem sensible tome that those blank spots could indeed be intended for an upgrade along this line.. so the real question is; when are they planning on doing this.? and I hope this isn't somethign that they have decided against and instead will produce a new card with the extra memory.. :-( The gus needs mo' memory.! I want it to creep beyond that cheesy Casio keyboard sound.. even the new Pro- pats don't cut it. You just can't do anything reasonable with a meg now a days.. thanks for reading this! :) kkahn@cc.weber.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Dec 94 14:55:22 +0100 From: chtruyen@vub.ac.be (Truyens Carlo) Subject: GUS Pro Hi ! Some time ago I bought myself a GUS MAX. When I record a sample in DOS, using USS or PlayFile, everything goes allright, and I can record what I want and how. When I start Windows 3.1, the 'volume' of my gus seems to jump up, at least, my amplifier does :(. I can try to cut down what I want, I tried to cut down everything except WAV output & Line In Gain when recording, but I still have so much noise ontop of my recordings, I can't even hear what I recorded. What's wrong here ? Also, why didn't gravis release an UltraSound expandable to 128MB ? When I want to do something more professional, I bump against the 1MB barrier. -- Carlo. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 09 Dec 94 10:48:06 -0800 (PST) From: Francis Li Subject: GUS Windows Drivers bug... I have had this bug ever since Windows drivers 5.21 to 5.47 (and probably before, too): When playing a Windows game that uses both MIDI and digitized sound (this time, KQ VII) after a while, digitized sounds will cut out and every patch in the card will play. The game will continue, and music will continue, but sounds will not play. Even after quitting the game, ALL sounds are affected (system sounds, playing in media player, etc). Are there new Windows drivers in the 3.57 disk set? If so, could someone zip-up the ULTRASND.DRV and GRVSULTR.386 and put it on EPAS? I have e-mailed this problem to tech1@gravis.com, but I don't know when I'll get a response... ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Dec 94 04:49:00 UTC From: r.wyckoff1@genie.geis.com Subject: HMI drivers in general As we've mostly all seen by now, games using HMI drivers tend to not work with the GUS until you've done the configuration file hacks that have been posted to the digest a few times already. What I'm not sure if everyone is aware of is the fact that the HMI drivers have problems with other soundcards as well. I have an SB16 as well as a GUS (to get around the stupid compatibility problems which were going away until HMI showed up), and many HMI games I've tried out recently don't even work right with the SB16. One case in point is Cyberia, which doesn't even support SB cards with their DMA set to anything besides channel 1. Another case is The Lemmings Chronicles, which wouldn't work with GUS or SB16 on my system, despite my freeing about 600k total DOS memory (the game asks for around 580k for SB16 sound, 600k or so for GUS). I work at a software store and I've also had occasional customer reports of other games like Earthsiege crashing repeatedly, a problem which may or may not also be due to HMI. Couple these probable instability issues with the fact that the drivers aren't user-upgradeable, and I have to question why any companies are even using them, when John Miles' AIL drivers have a much longer history and, I believe, support more brands of soundcards. I realize that the multi- channel 3.0 version of the AIL drivers may have been released after the HMI drivers, so it is possible that these companies went with whatever was available when they started design. Nevertheless, I would suggest that anyone who has purchased an HMI game labeled "Ultrasound compatible" which required ANY hacking to make it work complain to the publisher about their use of these drivers. After all, this is the kind of problem which should NOT have gotten past beta testers. The only thing worse than publishers not adopting a standard set of sound drivers is their adopting a standard that doesn't work. -Richard Wyckoff ------------------------------ Date: 09 Dec 94 17:49:49 EST From: "Eric Bell, Howling Dog Systems" <71333.2166@compuserve.com> Subject: Howling Dog Systems Patches Message-ID: <941209224949_71333.2166_DHQ63-1@CompuServe.COM> George wrote: > As for your Howling Dogs CD collection of GUS patches, I would be interested > in purchasing it so I can get my hands on the orchestra/jazz drum patches, > but I don't have access to a CD-ROM player. Don't you sell separate banks > on disk? > -George Yup, any of the patch sets are $29.95 US each plus $5 shipping. If you buy multiple sets, the cost drops. I'll e-mail you more info. Eric Bell, Howling Dog Systems ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Dec 1994 10:14:09 -0500 (EST) From: "K.S. Holly" Subject: INDYCAR patch....please! I am having trouble getting satisfactory sound out of INDYCAR. I have read that Papyrus has an FTP site with various patch files on it and that Jayeson LeSteere (is that right?) had written a patch for INDYCAR and it was on this site. Does anyone know about this and the address of the site? Kevin ------------------------------ Date: 09 Dec 94 17:50:00 EST From: "Eric Bell, Howling Dog Systems" <71333.2166@compuserve.com> Subject: Ivan's Patch Question Message-ID: <941209225000_71333.2166_DHQ63-2@CompuServe.COM> > The question is, how would one use these patches with existing .mid format > files (as opposed to .pow or other format files). The only .mid-format > compatible (i.e. reads and writes .mid files without changing them, or with > only minimal change) sequencer I know of that maps CC0/CC32 changes into the > wBank argument for bank switching is wincake, and then only for drum banks. > > Ivan Strom You can manually edit your ULTRASND.INI to temporarily change the default sounds to new ones from the patch CD or you can use Bank Manager in Windows to load a bank, and then play the MIDI file from the Media Player. Eric, Howling Dog Systems ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Dec 1994 04:13:43 -0600 (CST) From: Jarrod Loewen Subject: links386pro Ok. The GList says to use -x2 with sbos and -s with links. I've tried this and various other sbos variations but all hang my machine when I run links. I'm using the 3.56 disk set and a patched links (1.10?) Thanks for any help! --jj -- - -- Jarrod J. Loewen -- Systems Operator -- University of Manitoba -- - -- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Dec 1994 22:25:12 -0500 From: Christian Brideau Subject: OK I fixed it Message-ID: <9412092225.aa28519@macdonald.revcan.ca> I know how they do it to subscribe the digest to itself. (EH IT'S NOT ME!!!) Just to let you know that I unsubscribed it. I'm not going to tell how I do it, because some smart asses may want to give it a try... I'm willing to do it everytime some net-hooligan does it again. (It takes only a minute od my time) Christian O. Brideau Analyst Revenue Canada ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Dec 1994 07:45:18 -1000 (GMT-10:00) From: Paul Murgatroyd Subject: People Quoting the digest!! Look, this has gone far enough. When are people going to learn tot quote either the whole digest, or large chunks of it?? I really don;t want to have to read through yesterday's digest again...especially not three times in the same digest! If this happens again, I am unsubscribing to this digest...I do not have time for people who can't follow on simple direction. I mean, how hard is it to notice that you are quotig the whole digest??? Wake up whoever you are!!! =============================================================================== Paul Murgatroyd E-Mail : s1114@kowande.Bond.edu.au Unit 38, Sailfish Cove : dreamer@rip.it.Bond.edu.au 215 Cottesloe Drive IRC : MouseTrap Mermaid Waters, 4218, AUSTRALIA Phone : +61-75-755-673 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Dec 1994 14:09 -0500 From: DANTONIO@PROCESS.COM (Momentary Language, Sexual Situations) Subject: PGP sigs, fingerprints and keys... For what it's worth, I've seen all three appended to news postings and mail messages. I believe that the PGP Fingerprint (generally one line) is a "cheap and dirty" way to "sign" a message without the huge "real" digital signature. To make this message have SOME relevance to the GUS, I'll ask again, "What features will the mythical OS/2 drivers have and when will they (the real drivers, not beta drivers) be released?" My mailer choked on a previous posting to this question may be redundant... DDA ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Dec 1994 15:59:19 -0700 (MST) From: Jeffery Chin Subject: Posting apology Massive apologies for that error, I did not mean to repost the whole digest, but I was logged off by call-waiting and did not know that the message was sent. Please forgive the error. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Dec 1994 10:08:45 -0500 (EST) From: "K.S. Holly" Subject: So, it begins again.... So, I see that we have multiple digests again......&*$%#^@&@^#%$$ I noticed that one of these inclusions was a mistake by a reader, not the server. Jeffery Chin I think his name was, included the whole digest in his posting. An apology may be an order there.... As for the other one, maybe someone is sabotaging the digest by re-subscribing the digest itself as a subscriber? Anyway, I hope it doesn't get as bad as before.... Kevin ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Dec 94 13:07:20 EST From: catena@arrcee.enet.dec.com Subject: Win 3.1 drivers under WIn 95 Well, they sort of work. what has changed a lot is the mixer interface so I can't get the 3.1 mixer stuff in the driver to act as a mixer under win95. This is a problem unless you like to always have you mic input on. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Dec 94 14:56:37 +0100 From: chtruyen@vub.ac.be (Truyens Carlo) Hi everybody. I've been working around with the WarCraft commercial version, but I didn't manage to get native support... SBOS works sometimes, but the sounds sound strange sometimes. chtruyen ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Dec 94 17:35:03 +0100 From: chtruyen@vub.ac.be (Truyens Carlo) Yo ! I managed getting WarCraft (commercial) to work with my GUS MAX this afternoon. I now get 100% correct music using AIL v3.0 drivers from epas. However, for the sound (.DIG) I still get 'exception 06h', but i'm working on it. For those who want to try : 1. backup mpu401.mdi. 2. replace mpu401.mdi by umid.mdi. 3. load in the ultramid.exe supplied with ailv3.0 drivers. 4. run setup. 5. choose 'No Sound' at sound setup. 6. choose 'General MIDI' at music setup. 7. run game. That works just fine for the music. The sound is still a problem ... As soon as I managed to get the best result, I'll make an automated patch and post it on epas. Carlo. ------------------------------ End of GUS Daily Digest V17 #10 *******************************