Ultrasound Daily Digest Thu, 7 Jan 93 Volume 2 : Issue 6 Today's Topics: A few questions Anyone got the right settings for PowerPlay 1.2??? Curiosity about what low-level things GUS can do gravis-talks Gus joystick pinout? GUS support for Standard Mode Windows IP address for EPAS? location of 669 files on ftp sites.... midi-demo MIDI port resolution Midi utilities One long MUDDA PUCKA! OPTI, GUS, and WOLF3d PATINFO utility Q on reasonable voice-grade microphone for GUS ? Some Questions.... three-midi WinMod Pro and Dune II. Information about the UltraSound Daily Digest (such as mail addresses, request servers, ftp sites, etc., etc.) can be found at the end of the Digest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 6 Jan 93 10:02:23 GMT From: "James Andrews, User Support" Message-Id: <7079.9301061002@uk.ac.uel.sol1> Subject: A few questions To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Right then! Time for some queries after those stunning hints the other day. Firstly, I have been semi-promised a GUS developers kit once the UK legal crap is sorted out but to be honest what I'd really like to know so as I can do some demented stuff is what is the format of the .pat files? I'd like to play my own samples as midi and if its simply a case of the correct parameters to be fed to sox ( which I dont believe it is ) then I think we should be told. Nextly, USS8- is anyone happy with it? Are there are handy hints to make it totally wild? Im running a largish smartdrv disk cache ( 1 meg ) to a fastish (19ms) hard disk but it still hiccups if I change volume levels when mixing. Lastly, programming sound and midi under windows. Some of you must have read something worth reading on the subject. Some of you have probably written something worth reading on the subject. Lets have some references please. Thanks in advance for any replies. Those of you on janet (the uk academic x25-ish network) might be interested in me bulletin board at uk.ac.uel.sol1 login as unaxcess then new. Ive made a folder called "bleep" which deals with sounds and things like that. Tommorrow...even more fabulous hints hint hints can you wait? yes you can. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 20:55:52 +0800 (WST) From: rlee@tartarus.uwa.edu.au (Ralph Lee) Message-Id: <199301061255.AA26079@tartarus.uwa.edu.au> Subject: Anyone got the right settings for PowerPlay 1.2??? To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Yep, anyone got the right sbos settings for PP12 that was on Wuarchive?? Thanks Ralph rlee@tartarus.uwa.edu.au ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 03:20:46 GMT From: ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca (Phat H Tran) Message-Id: Subject: Curiosity about what low-level things GUS can do To: Ultrasound Daily Digest In article <1993Jan5.160120.21526@nntpd.lkg.dec.com> fisher@decwin.enet.dec.com () writes: > >Some questions about how GUS works. If anyone can legally answer, I'd >appreciate it. > I'll try to answer your questions to the best of my knowledge and let others correct me and/or fill in the blanks where they can. I don't have the SDK, and hence, am not bound by any non-disclosure agreements, so yes, what I'm doing is legal. :) >Does the GUS board have a programmable processor? I imagine it as a CPU that >reads an "instruction stream" from GUS memory, where the instructions are stuff >like "Play the following data at frequency x.", and "loop back to address y". >But we know there are other things it can do like arithmetically mixing data >streams. So what can it do? > The GUS's processor is not programmable. It has a fixed set of commands that must be issued by the CPU. That is, you cannot upload a program to it and have it execute the sequence of instructions on its own. However, the card's hardwired commands and functions are quite powerful, it would seem. >Related question: How much of what happens when you play a midi file is done >by the driver, and how much by the GUS? For example, does the driver actually >do the timing and interpreting of the MIDI file, choose the right patch, and >just tell the GUS to play it? > The Gravis is like the SB, SBPro, SB-16, PAS-16, etc. in this regard in that it cannot process MIDI messages. The driver has to interpret the MIDI commands and then tell the GUS what to do. >Someone said that the gus piano patch actually consisted of several samples >at different frequencies. Does the GUS understand this itself and convert >note commands into playing the correct samples, or is this all a driver >function? > I am not sure if multi-sampled patches are supported in hardware or implemented in software. >Do samples have to be loaded into GUS memory to play, or can they be played >directly somehow? > A large sample is usually played by buffering a part of it on the card's RAM, have the card play that bit back while you upload the next part of the sample. I don't know if there is a direct, stick-feeding method to play samples on the GUS. Phat. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Jan 93 11:31:59 CST From: mholmes@lonestar.utsa.edu (Mark L. Holmes) Message-Id: <9301061731.AA10004@lonestar.utsa.edu> Subject: gravis-talks To: Ultrasound Daily Digest ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Jan 93 22:06:04 EST From: elewis@eve.wright.edu (Edward Lewis IV) Message-Id: <9301070306.AA19621@eve.wright.edu.> Subject: Gus joystick pinout? To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I was wondering if anybody could help my friend out. He wants to hook up a Y-adapter to his computer to allow 2 joysticks. His mult-i/o card's joystick port will not support a Y-cable for some unknown reason and a call to the Computer manufacturer was no help (then even said you can't disable it) So I decided to hook it up to his Ultrasound card and try it. Even though both game ports are at address 201h that doesn't seem to interfere with anything.(possibly due to not using both at the same time?). Because the Ultrasound's game port also doubles as a MIDI connector a standard Y-joystick cable will not work.. Therefore, I see two choices... Find a cable that will work or make one myself. Therefore if anyone knows where I could find a cable that will do this (I understand Gravis hasn 't made one yet) or could give me a PINOUT of the GUS's joystick port I would be very grateful (So would my friend). My multi-io card will allow me to use the Y-cable so I do not have this problem Any information would be greatly appreciated.. Thanks in advance Edward Lewis IV Wright State University Dayton, Ohio Mead Data Central Miamisburg, Ohio Co-op ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 06 Jan 93 13:13:18 -0500 From: "It's your hand, Buckaroo" Message-Id: <9301061813.AA11604@magick.tay2.dec.com> Subject: GUS support for Standard Mode Windows To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Steven Junacko writes, > I've got a 286 and my GUS does absolutely nothing with Windows. If > anybody has drivers or somehow has SBOS working with Standard Mode Windows it > would be greatly appreciated if you could tell me how. And those of us who want to use the GUS in a WINOS2 session under OS/2 would like to know the same thing... DDA ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Jan 93 9:39:43 PST From: harun@suhana.analog.ingr.com (Bustamam Harun) Message-Id: <9301060939.AA15186@suhana.UUCP> Subject: IP address for EPAS? To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Can somebody post the IP address for archive.epas.utoronto.ca. We don't have it on the nameserver. Thanks. ------------------------------ Date: 6 Jan 93 9:53 -0800 From: Thomas Wong Message-Id: <2739*twong@civil.ubc.ca> Subject: location of 669 files on ftp sites.... To: Ultrasound Daily Digest The 669 files have a directory of their own, to group all of their song files, composers, players all in one place. On archive.epas.utoronto.ca, the directory is pub/pc/ultrasound/soundutil/669. On wuarchive.wustl.edu, it's msdos/systems/ultrasound/soundutil/669. After files in the submit directory gets validated, they are transferred to the appropriate directories in our arcives. Therefore note that the files in the submit are not validated, not scanned for viruses, not checked to make sure it's not a host....etc. So grab them at your own risk. (Haven't seen a bad file yet though) Thomas. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Jan 93 11:32:26 CST From: mholmes@lonestar.utsa.edu (Mark L. Holmes) Message-Id: <9301061732.AA10011@lonestar.utsa.edu> Subject: midi-demo To: Ultrasound Daily Digest ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Jan 93 13:23:00 EST From: Remek Lipinski Message-Id: <199301070223.AA12676@mamura.ee.mu.OZ.AU> Subject: MIDI port resolution To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Hi everyone, I would like to hear from some people who have used the MIDI In port on the gravis card. Particularly what sort of timing resolution it can achieve and if they have experienced any 'hickups' etc when seqencing with an external keyboard. I currently have an MPU401 MIDI interface card and I am considering replacing it with the gravis card as the midi interface to my synth, but I am not sure if I will get the same performance. Any comments will be grately appreciated, thanks. Remek. *=============================================================================* ** Remek Lipinski ** ** e-mail: remek@mullian.ee.mu.OZ.AU ** ** tel: BH +61 3 344-6714 ** ** AH +61 3 879-2610 ** ** fax: +61 3 344-6678 ** *=============================================================================* ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Jan 93 10:48:06 EST From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion) Message-Id: <9301061548.AA15963@brise.ERE.UMontreal.CA> Subject: Midi utilities To: Ultrasound Daily Digest On klingon (archive.epas) you will find several midi utilities including some for monitoring the midi in, another to play midi files (MM jukebox), one to check the midi driver etc... All of them work as is with the GUS and most have source included. There is also a jukebox for .wav (same jbox principle as for the .mid) and also a pocket recorder (with .wav playback and effects). The source of these programs are in the .txt files in the same subdirectory. All of the above are for windows 3.1 (sorry dos users...) Ciao, -- Francois Dion ' _ _ _ CISM (_) (_) _) FM Montreal , Canada Email: CISM@ERE.UMontreal.CA (_) / . _) 10000 Watts Telephone no: (514) 343-7511 _______________________________________________________________________________ Audio-C-DJ-Fractals-Future-Label-Multimedia-Music-Radio-Rave-Video-VR-Volvo-... ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 02:36:42 GMT From: mtichy@fraser.sfu.ca (Martin Tichy) Message-Id: <1993Jan6.023642.13637@sfu.ca> Subject: One long MUDDA PUCKA! To: Ultrasound Daily Digest > Is there any information available on the specs of the daughter > board and when it will be available? Thanks > > George Should be out sometime this month or Feburary. If not I should think it'd still be out before the end of the 1st Quarter of '93. This is just my opinion. Uhm, all I've heard from around here and there is it'll let you record at 16-bits, 44.1Khz in Stereo, and have some fancy schmancy control over inputs. Someone mentioned 48Khz DAT quality recording but again, I'd only believe it when I see it. > The mod is 725,464 bytes long. Any ideas? Should I get an Amiga? > Dave Angus I have two not "Should I get an Amiga" suggestions. 1) Use a windows mod file player like Winmod or Winmod Pro 2) Leave me E-mail stating where you ftp'ed the mod (including sub directories) and I'll uuencode some of my teeniest weeniest mod file players for you, ones which are smaller than pp. > The chip, Precision Monolithics Inc., PM-7528 has 20 pins, 8 for > data, one for DAC select, V for 5-15 V, V A, V B, V A V B, > data and and analog > DD REF REF FB FB > GNDs, WR and CS, and OUT for both DACs. > > CMOS and TTL compatible, it says. > _____ __ __ > Dac select is marked DAC A / DAC B, WR is WR and CS is CS. > > So, can a Stereo-In-1 (to be used with MODPLAY or other) be built > around this, I have my own thoughts, but I think they would just > confuse you :-) You already have! > (1) I can't get the GUS working with 16-bit DMA channels (5, 6, 7). > I've tried it out with QEMM and EMM386, with different DMA buffer > sizes and even with a 'clean' system (i.e. no drivers). I can use > DMA 7 for the DAC but not for RAM, i.e. SET ULTRASND=220,1,7,11,5 > works o.k., but SET ULTRASND=220,7,7,11,5 does not work o.k. The > MIDI songs sound terribly! Any clues on how to solve this problem? Make sure none of your other cards are using those DMA channels and try again. If not then maybe your motherboard just can't hack it. > (2) I have installed the new Windows drivers. I can record and > playback .WAV samples, but I can't get the MIDI working. I've tried > Media Player, Patch Manager and WinJammer. Patch Manager gives an > empty list of patches, the other are playing, but I don't hear a > sound! It worked o.k. with the v1.10 drivers. I've installed it as > described in the readme-file and after that I've copied the > midimap.cfg and ultrawin.cfg to the \windows\system directory. Install 1.21 drivers. You can get them from klingon.epas.utoronto.ca (128.100.160.36) in the \pub\pc\ultrasound\gravis-disks directory and give er a go again. > (3) Does anybody know the difference between the rev. 2.2 and rev. > 2.4 board? And the difference between the v1.10 disks and v.1.21 > disks? Ya, 1.21 is good 1.1 is bad. 1.21 has more patches and bugs fixed etc. > (1) I really like the 669 player! Sounds very good (and loud... > ouch!) Use the plus and minus keys on the keypad section of your keyboard. Usually they are grey. They'll control the volume. > (2) SBOS 1.23 seems no real improvement over v1.22. The digitised > sounds are too I agree. Just use 1.22 unless something better comes up. > (3) I tried out three MOD players: MOD.EXE, GUSMOD.EXE (or was it > MODGUS?) and MODULATR. The first is not working. I think it is not > meant as a MOD player. The PUSH.MOD is hardcoded into MOD.EXE. Three things you can do: 1) re-compile the source code with the filename of the mod you want 2) use a disk editor to rename PUSH.MOD in the executable file 3) the simplest, rename the mod you want to play to PUSH.MOD and copy it to the directory in which MOD.EXE resides. I just made a little batch file to do this for me. > GUS only? *snicker* Hey, they sound just fine on the SoundBlaster > and the Composer works great on the SB too! Since Renaissance made > the package completely free you can compose and save now! Cool, > huh? Ya, I know you can play them with the composer but ah, I uploaded the 669 files with GUS users in mind, not SB users. Oh, Ya, I'm sure 669's sound fine on your SB (ha ha ha - 8 channels mixed into 1 stinky mono channel). Just kidding, I hope you enjoy them. ************************************************************* "Poor is the man who's music depends upon the synthesis of an FM chip." - Da Lazer! ************************************************************* ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 23:01:09 -0500 From: "Frank Pikelner" Message-Id: <9301070401.AA01670@cs.yorku.ca> Subject: OPTI, GUS, and WOLF3d To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Hello all, I have a 386/40 and although most programs seem to work they do not all work the same as specified on the game sheet floating about the net. For most games using the SBOS 1.22 version, as per the sheet no options are required. I seem to need to put in -o2 or -03 options for some. ie. UNREALDEMO, WOLF3D, AZTEC DEMO. I run DR DOS 6 and QEMM, I have disabled both and have tried MSDOS with no luck. WOLF3D plays with only the -o3 option and obviously no yelling from the germans, the sounds also are not all correct (maybe I do not have the correct patches? - waiting fo mine). On a seperate note, I thought I got the SOS 1.23 version, but when I load it I still get the 1.22 version number - any ideas why? Thanks, -------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- --- Frank Pikelner /~\ \ \ \ Technical Assistant, Department of Computer Science \- \-- York University (Toronto, Canada) '\^/; \ \ Internet: frank@cs.yorku.ca _{!}_ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 13:04:46 -0500 From: aa344@yfn.ysu.edu (Joseph Maruschek) Message-Id: <199301061804.AA29557@yfn.ysu.edu> Subject: PATINFO utility To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I've written a small utility that lets you peek at some of the fields in the GUS's patch files. Since I don't have the SDK, there is a lot of other information in the header that I don't understand. I wrote this in QuickBASIC, and I've uploaded it to epas in the submit directory. Source code is included. To use, just type "PATINFO filename" at the DOS command line. "filename" is any GUS patch file. Here's some examples of the output: File: SLAPBAS1.PAT This file contains 2 sample(s). Sample # 1 Sample length: 14658 Loop start: 14150 Loop end: 14648 Sample rate: 18382 Hz Lowest note: A0 Highest note: B2 Base note: D2 Detune: 0 Unknown: 2 Balance: 7 Sample # 2 Sample length: 26492 Loop start: 25788 Loop end: 26286 Sample rate: 18382 Hz Lowest note: C3 Highest note: C8 Base note: D3 Detune: 0 Unknown: 2 Balance: 7 File: TOMS.PAT This file contains 1 sample(s). Sample # 1 Sample length: 13132 Loop start: 12830 Loop end: 13110 Sample rate: 10964 Hz Lowest note: A0 Highest note: C8 Base note: G2 Detune:-94 Unknown: 2 Balance: 7 File: CYMCRSH1.PAT This file contains 1 sample(s). Sample # 1 Sample length: 63018 Loop start: 54752 Loop end: 62986 Sample rate: 26041 Hz Lowest note: C#3 Highest note: C#3 Base note: C#3 Detune: 0 Unknown: 2 Balance: 7 File: ACPIANO1.PAT This file contains 7 sample(s). Sample # 1 Sample length: 7340 Loop start: 6534 Loop end: 7326 Sample rate: 39062 Hz Lowest note: A0 Highest note: G2 Base note: D3 Detune:-3 Unknown: 2 Balance: 7 Sample # 2 Sample length: 10376 Loop start: 3746 Loop end: 10362 Sample rate: 39062 Hz Lowest note: G2 Highest note: F3 Base note: C4 Detune: 43 Unknown: 3 Balance: 7 Sample # 3 Sample length: 6018 Loop start: 2132 Loop end: 6004 Sample rate: 39062 Hz Lowest note: F3 Highest note: C4 Base note: C4 Detune: 0 Unknown: 2 Balance: 7 Sample # 4 Sample length: 14228 Loop start: 12626 Loop end: 14216 Sample rate: 39062 Hz Lowest note: C4 Highest note: A#4 Base note: D5 Detune: 0 Unknown: 3 Balance: 7 Sample # 5 Sample length: 14242 Loop start: 13110 Loop end: 14228 Sample rate: 39062 Hz Lowest note: A#4 Highest note: G#5 Base note: F5 Detune: 0 Unknown: 2 Balance: 7 Sample # 6 Sample length: 8140 Loop start: 6590 Loop end: 8128 Sample rate: 39062 Hz Lowest note: G#5 Highest note: G#6 Base note: E6 Detune: 0 Unknown: 2 Balance: 7 Sample # 7 Sample length: 4004 Loop start: 3558 Loop end: 3956 Sample rate: 39062 Hz Lowest note: G#6 Highest note: C8 Base note: A6 Detune: 0 Unknown: 2 Balance: 7 Have fun exploring! -- aa344 is Joseph Maruschek 3 3 3 3 3 IBM PC SIGop, Youngstown Free-Net D D D D D motto: Strive for the simplest and the best. | | | | | : : : : : ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Jan 93 21:28:50 -0800 From: Bob Beck Message-Id: <9301070528.AA04613@eng2.sequent.com> Subject: Q on reasonable voice-grade microphone for GUS ? To: Ultrasound Daily Digest The GUS documentation I have doesn't tell me parameters on microphones to use for recording voice. Can anyone suggest what has been working for them? Thanks. - Bob (rbk@sequent.com) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 06 Jan 93 13:20:57 -0500 From: "It's your hand, Buckaroo" Message-Id: <9301061820.AA11623@magick.tay2.dec.com> Subject: Some Questions.... To: Ultrasound Daily Digest > I just wanted to find out from someone if they have received any thing > back from GRAVIS when they sent in the registration card? Do they send you > those 192 extra patches? or anything else. Not yet. I've heard rumours to the effect that the General MIDI patches are "almost done" and would ship along with the "real" Windows drivers... > And the other question I had was: > How do I find out that instruments are missing from a MID file? for example: > > Warning: couldn't find program 95 to put on channel 7 > > I mean things wouldn't sound right if I just assigned any instrument to that > program. So how do I know what instruments It is looking for? You could find out from the General MIDI set what instrument is supposed to be on program #95. If it's a non-General MIDI file, you could look into it's .cfg file, if it has one. Otherwise, I think you're out of luck... DDA ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Jan 93 11:33:16 CST From: mholmes@lonestar.utsa.edu (Mark L. Holmes) Message-Id: <9301061733.AA10018@lonestar.utsa.edu> Subject: three-midi To: Ultrasound Daily Digest ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 20:50:14 +0800 (WST) From: rlee@tartarus.uwa.edu.au (Ralph Lee) Message-Id: <199301061250.AA25806@tartarus.uwa.edu.au> Subject: WinMod Pro and Dune II. To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Does anyone have a good setup for WinMod Pro?? There is a considerable difference in quality between 22050 and 11025 but I get alot of misplaced sounds and routine errors when using 22050. I tried altering the buffer size but I couldn't perfect an optimum size. Which size should I use and what other settings should I or shouldn't I use... Also, what are the sbos settings for Dune II for speech and which version as well?? Thanks again to the netters... RAlph rlee@tartarus.uwa.edu.au ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V2 #6 ******************************