GUS Daily Digest Tue, 10 Jan 95 9:37 PST Volume 18: Issue 9 Today's Topics: 3.59 disks ! cyberia Error in Patch Maker GUS359X... GUS and descent GUS and Quarantine GUS Daily Digest V18 #8 Gus MAX and Windows How can I get a Sound Blaster install program to see my GUS ? KQ7 and Midi Line in problem Magic Carpet Midi lister 0.9 Midi to GUS using QB Mitsumi 4x & audio CD cable MPEG Layer 2 OPTi Chipset - which to avoid? Quarantine.. Miscellaneous UltraSound ACE Ultrasound ACE - Gravis' new soundcard? Using GUS an a master keyboard What is the upgrade offer from GUS to GUS-Max? 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 Jan 1995 14:11:23 +0800 (GMT+0800) From: the FLAT^^TOP Subject: 3.59 disks ! read in yesterday's digest about 3.59 locking up windows... well... it happens for me too... sometimes.... but i have an excuse... i also have an sbpro card in my machine and have lots of TSRs high.... however, i do notice that 3.57 worked flawlessly b4..... some stuff i notice about 3.59 (which might be attributed to my machine) 1) the GUSmax is NOT properly initiated with ultrinit.exe, cos after this line is run, i use inertia player, the system will lock up.... play midi also locks up..... i isolated it to the GUSmax not being init properly.... cos after running playfile the GUSmax will be fine.... ie.... turn on computer, boot up.... use iplay ...hang... turn on computer, boot up, playfile (any wav file), use iplay... no problem.,..... use play midi... no problem...... anyone got this problem ? 2) windows sometimes hangs too.... but also solved by running the short wav file to somesort init the card... so now i have this little bat file called init.bat which is run b4 launching anything.... contents of the file are...playfile -snd -f8000 d:\gus\enter.snd anyone got better ideas... please post here... - /======\ | kohkhang@iscs.nus.sg, MsWFWG, GUSmax, Kelvin 64, & Supra v.Fc 28.8 user | \========/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 00:33:45 -0800 From: dross@ultrix5.cs.csubak.edu (dean ross-smith) Subject: cyberia I Bought Cyberia on sunday and took it back today. Why? It supports soundblaster ONLY. Dos4gw chokes just before attempting to access the CD. I called interplay tech support and they said Gravis is aware of the problem. Alas, I couldn't get through to Gravis (line was busy). Cyberia will work if you type SET BLASTER = at the dos prompt (yes, thats an empty variable). The graphics look very nice; too bad about the sound. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 09 Jan 1995 15:07:20 +0100 From: "Jerry van Waardenberg" Subject: Error in Patch Maker Hi, When starting Patch Maker Lite, I get an error message: Call to undefined Dynalink What does it mean? And how can I solve the problem? Greetz, Jerry -- _____________________________________________________________ Jerry van Waardenberg -=- Internet: jerry@waard.iaf.nl Voice: (+31)(0)5476 2041 -=- FidoNet: 2:283/726.9 __________________-= PGP-key available =-____________________ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jan 1995 19:00:24 -0800 (PST) From: George Subject: GUS359X... I'm not the one who uploaded Jaleo as GUS v3.59X, but I also have something to add that's quite interesting. The author of Jaleo is also the guy who uploaded the AWE32 progrmaming dox to EPAS. I found that out after posting it in of the newsgroups to the AWE32 people looking for some dox to program it. That guy has some nerve to upload progrmaming dox to an anti-GUS sound card. -George ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jan 95 14:55:19 PST From: "Ferdinand Mataragnon" Subject: GUS and descent Hi! I have a problem with my GUS and descent. I have a GUS+SB16 combo. If I use the GUS for both digital and music, descent would hang at random parts of the game. Sometimes it would go for minutes without hanging and sometimes, it hangs in the screen where it shows a progress bar as it loads the 'wad' file or something. If I use the GUS for music and SB16 for digital, descent works fine. No hangs at all. Same goes for using the SB16 for both digital and music. I have the GUS set to ULTRASND=240,7,7,11,12 and the SB16 to address 220, IRQ 5, low dma 1,high dma 5, midi 330. I've tried moving the GUS to another address but no go. I've also tried changing the low dma and midi setting for the SB16 ... no go. Lastly, has anyone finished descent yet? I've already tried 4 times but I just can't finish the last level. I'm able to kill one boss without losing a life but the other one takes it all. :( Tips, anyone? Thanks in advance. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jan 95 14:48:13 PST From: "Ferdinand Mataragnon" Subject: GUS and Quarantine I have a GUS and SB16 combo. GUS is ULTRSND=240,7,7,11,12 and SB16 is IRQ=5, low dma=1, high dma=5, address=220, midi = 330. I've tried Quarantine on both cards and Quarantine sounds better on the SB16. Really! When I use it on the SB16, everything is clear. When I used it on my GUS (v3.7), there was a lot of distortion. Right from the beginning where there's supposed to be an explosion sound, all the way to the exit. The sound for the ImageExcel dude sounded really bad too. Very bad distortion there. Has anybody else experienced this? I know it isn't the speakers since they've worked fine for all my other games. I recently upgraded them to a much better set but still the same thing happens. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jan 1995 23:09:05 +0200 (EET) From: Saari Anssi Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V18 #8 > From: ndanylcz@Socrates.health.gov.sk.ca (Neil Danylczuk) > Subject: GUS 359-X warning! > > So, awhile ago I download a file submitted called > GUS357-X.ZIP, thinking it was an extra add-on or > utility that was part of the version 3.57 disk set. I'd guess the person doing this is the author of Jaleo. He was pretty pissed off some time back as someone nuked his software from epas submit, both Jaleo and Ruckus. Understandable, of course, and if anyone has read his articles in the news, he has something of a temper (remember those flames aimed at Forte about the GUS SDK?) No big deal in my opinion, Jaleo is an ok midi player, the only problem is that I still don't have a GM song I'd like to listen to... Except some mod conversions. Anssi ------------------------------ Date: 9 Jan 1995 12:20:59 -0700 From: "mgreen" Subject: Gus MAX and Windows I've spent the last three weeks trying to get my Max work under windows. I even spent 1/2 hour on the phone with Gravis technical help, which so far hasn't helped. But last night I finally got it to 'work'. I edited my system.ini file and set the codec port to an invalid address! (I chose 3A0.) With the codec address set wrong, the Gus driver thinks it's talking to an Ultrasound instead of a Max, and everything more or less works. I finally can play .WAV files. Midi sounds are a bit quiet, but appear to work. I don't have all the mixer controls that are available when the driver thinks there's a Max on board. Question: what features will I lose if I give up now and run my machine in this configuration forever? I also am confused about which driver Gus wants me to use. The disks I received are the 3.58 version. They install the 3.45 driver. I retrieved the 3.57 and 3.59 disks off the net, they both install the 3.46 driver. I retrieved some other file (who's name I can't recall -- maybe gus045.zip?) that has just new drivers and some executables I don't use, this has 3.47. Is 3.47 the latest and greatest driver? Also, when I use GRAVUTIL to find the card, it either says there is a conflict, or that it is unable to determine if there is a conflict (I've tried every address from 210 to 260 for the card base port). Does it ever return a definitive answer if there is no conflict? Am I to assume I have conflict? I've run a utility I downloaded from Microsoft, iopm, that attempts to identify all I/O ports, and it doesn't find anything in this range. The card sounds great, it's just making it work that sucks. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 09 Jan 95 10:29:41 -0800 From: Fred Handloser Subject: How can I get a Sound Blaster install program to see my GUS ? Someone gave me a CD-ROM put out by Creative technologies. The install program claims it can't find a sound blaster card so it won't install the part needed to access the CD-ROM (Children's Melodies). I have the following in my autoexec.bat. call c:\ulstrasnd\sbos.bat SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T1 Has anybody run into a similar situation ? Thanks for any info, Fred Handloser ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 00:46:10 -0700 (MST) From: Jeffery Chin Subject: KQ7 and Midi > Is it possible to get GUS (with 256 memory) work with KQ7 ? Sounds are OK, > but midimusic is the problem ? Sometimes it works, but usuallu not. Can I > get it work by loading some patches ? Run the KQ7 install program and test hardware, sound, and this should allow the midi music to play(it worked for me). ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jan 1995 23:52:49 -0500 (EST) From: Buddy Subject: Line in problem I can't seem to get my GUS to enable the 'line in' connection. I just installed a SBPro for those games that don't work so well with the GUS and I wanted to run the sound through the GUS' line in and then both of them out to my amp. I have tried ultrinit -l but it doesn't seem to work. Am I missing something? Any help appreciated Kevin ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jan 95 14:58:55 GMT From: Craige.Bevil@jet.uk Subject: Magic Carpet Has anyone managed to get this game working the GUS. I have had several replies on the subject before but still to no avail. If you have managed to get it to work can please pass on exactly how you managed to do it. Thanks in advance, Craige ********************************************************* *Craige Bevil | Joint European Torus | email: cb@jet.uk * *-------------------------------------------------------* * Hartlepool : A monkey hanger's paradise * ********************************************************* ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 11:04:25 +0100 (MET) From: "Carlo 'GP' Ferrari" Subject: Midi lister 0.9 Hi Gusers ! As a guser myself, and like a lot of you - I guess, I like listening to midi files. I have a nice collection of more than 20 megs, and I was starting to have some 'little' problems managing this huge mass of files... The main problem was to have an up-to-date list to give to other people when exchanging midi files. It was mainly important to have the title of the relative song beside every file title... And here's the solution: Midilist. This great-little utility will build an index file of your midis, placing the title of the song right beside the file infos. It can also make a recursive search of your directories, so that you can have both partial and total indexes. I'm sorry if the content of this post isn't strictly related to the subject of the mail-list, but I'm sure that this could solve a problem that's common to many, many readers. Besides, this utility (must admit: I am the author...) is absolutely Public Domain so that I got no direct interest in advertising... For now you can find it at FTP.WU-WIEN.AC.AT \incoming\midi\midlst09.zip (it's about 12 k short). I think that it should be also shortly available at FTP.CS.RUU.NL : just the time of validating it... If you'll like it, please upload it to other servers/bbs. Greetings Carlo "GP" Ferrari Informatics Tech University of Como - Italy carlo@varano.ing.unico.it ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jan 1995 12:51:49 -0800 (PST) From: Emory Menefee Subject: Midi to GUS using QB I wonder if anyone has used Quick Basic to send sequences of MIDI code directly to the GUS? If so, and you are willing to divulge any hints, I would be most grateful. My knowledge of C or assembly is poor, and to learn it well enough for this task would take me a long time, I think. Many thanks, Emory Menefee ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 09 Jan 1995 22:27:15 From: tuomas.salo@mfc.fipnet.fi (Tuomas Salo) Subject: Mitsumi 4x & audio CD cable > Date: Sat, 7 Jan 95 17:32:03 +0100 > From: d91-sme@nada.kth.se > Subject: CD-audio cable between Mitsumi 4Xspin and GUS? > > I have recently purchased a Mitsumi 4XSpin (a IDE CD-ROM), and found > that the audio cable that was in the package didn't fit into the > connector on my GUS. > > Where can I get a good cable? Or how can I build a cable of my own > (not preferred)? > > /Smedis (Niklas Smedberg, d91-sme@nada.kth.se) Hi! I've also got a GUS and a Mitsumi 4x IDE. The solution is very easy, if you have similar cable to mine. The wires can be removed from the GUS-end of the cable, and connected to GUS' connector. It should be quite easy, you just have to upper the flap and pull the wire out slightly. (Don't need power!) You just need to get them correctly, look at the GUS Manual and CD-ROM's rear end. I had to leave the other Ground unconnected in GUS, because there were only three wires in the cable. Is this right, does anybody know? (Hope my English was OK..) -Tuomas Salo ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jan 95 13:50:17 EST From: ping@cais.dsm.sp-agency.ca (Ka-Ping Yee) Subject: MPEG Layer 2 I'm starting to see some files with extension .MP2 around, and it sounds like these are "MPEG Layer 2" files. Do these contain just audio, or both audio and video? Where can i find an MPEG-2 decompressor or player? Thanks! Ping ping@cais.dsm.sp-agency.ca ------------------------------ Date: 9 Jan 95 17:15:00 EST From: "VULCAN::WATTERS_C" Subject: OPTi Chipset - which to avoid? I've got a chance to pick up a motherboard fairly inexpensively, but it does have an OPTi chipset. This used to be a problem for the GUS. Which sets should I avoid? -Coyt cwatters@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu or that other address ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jan 95 23:49:16 +0200 From: tjakobs@mswe.dnet.ms.philips.nl (THEO_JAKOBS TEL.62667) Subject: Re: Quarantine.. Hi.. I Had the same problem. What You have to do is set the DMA channel to 1, because quarantine uses 8-bit dma (I think).. Andre Jakobs MicroBrain Technologies Inc. The Netherlands PS. I think It wouldn't hurt if you also set the IRQ to something like 7 or 5. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 00:04:49 -0500 From: DMCATEER@LoyalistC.ON.CA Subject: Miscellaneous Hello all. In a previous digest Schitzo asked about a site for midi's. A great site (quantity wise) I know of is: src.doc.ic.ac.uk packages/ultrasound/sounds/midi which of course is the main European site for the GUS. (as noted at the bottom of every issue of the digest :) ) It's also a good site for mod's, s3m's etc etc. Even though it's a U.K. site I get faster transfer rates (from Canada) then from wuarchive.wustl.edu although I still haven't found any faster then epas. :) L8R Dave Mc. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jan 1995 19:05:36 -0800 (PST) From: George Subject: UltraSound ACE I heard one of Advanced Gravis's new radio ads (finally!) at Sunday during the _ON COMPUTERS_ radio show. Just to let you know, the UltraSound ACE isn't something technologically new, but it's a good idea. Basically, it's a $99 card (yes $99) that serves as an add-on (yep an add-on) which means it's not meant to replace a SB/SB-PRO, etc... The card can do 32 voices, and supports software supporting native-GUS (?). Don't know how much RAM it has, but I suspect it can handle a max of 1 meg. In short, AG is doing what Turtle Beach is doing... releasing a cheap card that serves as an add-on like the Maui. And at $99, it's quite a steal. Hope this sells well and makes the UltraSound community larger than ever. -George ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jan 1995 22:30:55 -0800 (PST) From: Sky Woo Subject: Ultrasound ACE - Gravis' new soundcard? In another digest, I posted about Gravis' new soundcard and what the name might be. Some people e-mailed me asking for more info and the simple fact is I have no info. Also, the discussion of the Gravis card belongs on the digest, not in e-mail. I'm sure every digest subscriber is in some way curious as to Gravis' next card. Ok, here is how I learned about the Ultrasound ACE. If you take a binary hex viewer and look into the latest version of ULTRINIT.EXE which comes from the GUS 3.59 installation disks, you will find the following lines somewhere inside: No UltraSound detected UltraSound detected UltraSound with ICS-mixer detected UltraSound with Daughtercard detected UltraSound MAX detected UltraSound ACE detected ^^^ ACE? What the hell card is that? I would assume, Gravis is near releasing this card as they have coded the software to recognize it. But this could of course very well be nothing at all. I'm not really sure. I asked the digest a few days ago and some people have asked me in e-mail about it, but I have not seen the digest discuss it. Probably some people didn't see my post because the digest subscribed to itself (again) and the digest that was sent to itself happened to be a really big one. The one with the wav file. I feel pissed at the guy who posted the wav file and I want to write a script that would forward that digest to the poster 1000 times. Oh well, all I really care about right now, is what the Ultrasound ACE is and is it officially the name of the new Ultrasound. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 10:24:28 +0000 (GMT) From: Chris Harrop Subject: Using GUS an a master keyboard Hi all, I want to learn to play the piano. As I've got a Gravis Ultrasound, I thought the best way of doing this would be to buy a secondhand master keyboard (preferable with weighted keys) and connect this to my GUS. As the GUS is played through a NAD amp and KEF speakers this should sound pretty good. How do the GUS piano patches (or any other ones available for it) compare with the sound from digital pianos such as the Claviona range and the Roland models ?? Does the GUS model velocity sensitive midi info ? Where's the cheapest place to get a 1Mb ugrade ? (I cant find any old VGA boards and so need to get this from a supplier) Thanks in advance for your advice, Chris Harrop cph@inmos.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jan 1995 20:32:06 -0600 From: dmai@dttus.com Subject: What is the upgrade offer from GUS to GUS-Max? Message-ID: Hi, Could someone please point me to more information about the "upgrade" offer from GUS to GUS-MAX? I've just recently subscribed to this mailing list and would like to get more details about this upgrade. Thanks, Dong-Kinh Mai dmai@dttus.com ------------------------------ End of GUS Daily Digest V18 #9 ******************************