Ultrasound Daily Digest Mon, 25 Jan 93 Volume 2 : Issue 22 Today's Topics: 3D typo!!! Cakewalk and GUS (A Gravis rep, please read the last section!) Franky in 3D Franky in 3D forgot... Franky in patches Franky in surround How can I load patches? I need some graphic artist PLAYMIDI 3.50 bug 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: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 11:15:28 +0100 (MET) From: Andreas Henning Message-Id: <9301241015.AA04080@hackes.dtek.chalmers.se> Subject: 3D typo!!! To: Ultrasound Daily Digest >> SET ULTRASND=3D3D220,7,7,11,3 >> C:\ULTRASND\ULTRINIT >> SET ULTRADIR=3D3DC:\ULTRASND >> SET BLASTER=3D3DA220 I3 D1 T1 >HEY! What's with the "3D" words in your setup!?!? Has Gravis started >shipping 3D cards?!?!? Do you have any 3D demo stuff? It's a typo!!! It looked alright on my terminal at home, but my emulation-program must have screwed up. I use a translation table to get swedish characters... Please, no flames... :-) Andreas Henning -- d2henan@dtek.chalmers.se Student of Computer Science at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden "Why stop now, just when I'm hating it?" - Marvin The Paranoid Android ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Jan 93 12:17:07 PST From: "Burns Fisher, VMS DECwindows 24-Jan-1993 1509" Message-Id: <9301242017.AA08999@enet-gw.pa.dec.com> Subject: Cakewalk and GUS (A Gravis rep, please read the last section!) To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Date: Fri, 22 Jan 93 16:36:00 -0600 From: captain@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Bran Muffin) said: >Original poster said:{ >In addition, it would be EVEN BETTER if you would modify your drivers to either >interpret a SYSEX command to load patches, or (BEST OF ALL) make the drivers >load a patch when it sees a patch-change request! So what if it pauses? It's >better than silence. >} .> >Better for whom?!?! Certainly not better for a professional musician on stage >trying to play along with his sequence. One can often cover the loss of a few >instruments, but dissaster would ensue if the background musicians (MIDI) just >decided to stop playing, lose time, and start up again. Remember, not everyone >has the same goals or desires, particularly when it comes to what to do with a >computer. ;-) Better for most GUS users. A pro musician will use a pro synthesizer. S/he certainly would not sit around manually loading patches for the next song. My point is that right now NO ONE even has the CAPABILITY to automatically load patches unless they are programmers. If AG made the driver pause and autoload, you could at least use s/w that does not do caching. Probably you would want this mode to be an option. Fine. But it would be an improvement for most people. If there are people who don't like it, they can use the new SYSEX calls which I also requested (:-) to preload and avoid the pause. Burns ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jan 93 1:03:24 EST From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion) Message-Id: <9301250603.AA26790@brise.ERE.UMontreal.CA> Subject: Franky in 3D To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Well, i think it's time i put my grain of salt on the 3d mania. First of all, even if it is a bit long, i suggest to read it all. And if you dont want to wait for a 3D driver for the GUS, dont forget to read one of my other post in this digest with the subject: Franky in suround. Now, on with the show: There are several systems that are in use to get 3D sounds on recordings and some have been around since the 50s. Now i wont go into the "how it works" of the more recent ones, but i think this will clear up some confusion. The first part is a "hands-on" experiment, the second is informations, including the address and phone of the owner of the technology that is used with the Gravis Ultrasound. Let's get back to the early days of stereo. One record company (i cant seem to remember) was pushing it, while another (again, blank. anyone?) competed. Interestingly enough, technological development was put on stereo, and not on the first 3D system which was called "binaural recording" and it simply consisted of two microphones placed like the ears. You can try it this way: Go to a hat store and buy an extruded foam mannequin head. You'll then need two microphones. Condenser will do, but you will need to power them if you want to use them with the GUS, since it take a dynamic microphone because it does not supply phantom power like some mixer with XLR plugs. I will post a circuit later for Radio-shack condenser mike unit (a small element that cost about 2$) if there is some interest. If you dont want to mess with that, go with a cardiod dynamic element. Note that sensitive enough cardiod will cost you a lot, so think about that. You cut holes in the ears of the head, to insert the microphone units (dont forget to make the wires of the elements go inside the head and out the rear (or wherever). Use glue to fill the crack around the mic. Also, the more the ears look like real ears, the better it will work. If you trim the foam, dont forget to use an hairdryer to soften it (it will be more uniform). That's it. Try recording sounds, and you'll be surprised. I was! I did the experiment with a polystyrene head on which i incrusted two PZM microphones. Now that you understand how 3D recording is nothing like stereo recording, we'll see what is accesible presently. First, the gadget we just built in the previous section exist commercially, and is called "Mikey" and is made by Spherical Sound. It's the only system commercialised where the microphones are placed in a head. Another system is made by Virtual Audio and claims to enhance stereo depth, but is not labeled 3D audio. I dont have much more info on it, but from the description it looks like the same thing as the "mikey". Two other systems use less restraining microphones situation and can also be used on any signal because a DSP simulate a 3D signal from parameters entered on the machine. QSound (no hyphen) was developped in Quebec, and the inventor sold the concept to another company (Archer it seems). It is not that good even with electrostatic headphones, and is pretty bad if you are listening to it thru speakers and you are not in the soft spot. And for trivia: Madonna, Sting, Wilson Phillips and Paula Abdul to name a few have used the QSound on their latest recordings. Another trivia: The Q logo is very very close to Hydro-Quebec logo... QSound cost around 18K$ and is not midi controllable. The other variant with a DSP is Roland RSS (Roland Sound Space). It is a bit better (depending on how it is used) than QSound with headphones, but suffers the same faith as QSound when you are listening with speakers. Just move a bit from the soft spot, and suddenly what was in front left is now back left. RSS was used on Suzanne Cianni _Hotel Luna_ album. RSS cost around 40K$ and is midi controllable. Another system on which i have zero information is called Audio Cybernetics. The last technology is called Focal Point 3D Audio. It was developped by Bo Gehring and first used on the Macintosh computers with a modified Audiomedia (Digidesign). It cost around 1400$ in this configuration. But, Gravis saw that (Focal Point is from Seattle) and it is the system that we will be getting. At a much better price. The system produce the sounds with these parameters: direction, elevation and distance. I am pretty sure that Gravis will have to develop a SYSEX command set. We already need it badly, but with 3D, i will shoot myself if i cant control it thru sysex. Hope i've entertained you... 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: Mon, 25 Jan 93 1:06:29 EST From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion) Message-Id: <9301250606.AA26886@brise.ERE.UMontreal.CA> Subject: Franky in 3D forgot... To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I forgot: Focal Point(tm) 3D audio 1402 Pine av., #127 Niagara Falls, NY 14301 Voice/fax: 1-416-963-9188 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: Mon, 25 Jan 93 1:45:56 EST From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion) Message-Id: <9301250645.AA27186@brise.ERE.UMontreal.CA> Subject: Franky in patches To: Ultrasound Daily Digest A request. I am doing fairly well with my project of patch editor, but i need a bullet proof RAW to WAV conversion function in C or ASM (or even a program that will do it). What i mean by bullet proof is that 16 bit RAW to WAV doesn't work correctly with TRIXWAVE, SOX, Soundtool, etc... So if you have that, or would like to write such a thing, please email me. Also, today, you will probably see some 8 bit patches, and maybe some 16 bit ones also, depending how fast i get my routine ( i need to edit my samples with WAVE for windows, so i need them in wav format). Argh, if it wasn't for that, you would all have TR808 percussions and some killer analog synth bass (2 of them). Ken: i may have found your Oberheim sound... 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: Mon, 25 Jan 93 1:39:20 EST From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion) Message-Id: <9301250639.AA27136@brise.ERE.UMontreal.CA> Subject: Franky in surround To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Ok, you have read the 3D thing, and you cant wait. You want big sound. The only possibility for now is surround. Now surround cost a lot of money, and it will not be useable anymore once you get the 3D driver. Wrong. Now, i hope you have an amplifier, cause if you dont, you cant use this little hack to get surrounding sound. WARNING: i am not responsible for any damage resulting from the use or misuse or anything else related to this circuit. Check that your - posts are connected to ground and not the +. If it's the case reverse the connections to the amplifier. It works surprisingly well considering the cost. Have fun! | Amplifier | | + - - + | You connect the front speakers as usual (dont mixup /| | | |\ the polarities!) _ | |_| |_| | FLS: Front left speaker (/_\) | /_\ /_\ | FRS: Front right speaker | FLS FRS | R: variable pot 50 ohm. 10 watts or more (depends on |_ _| the amplifier) > | | < ><'R R'>< RLS: Rear left speaker (use a much smaller speaker > < for rear than front. 8 ohm also.) | RLS RRS | RRS: Rear right speaker (") | _ _ | | \_/ \_/ | the 2 - on front speakers are connected to the |_/ \_._/ \_| ground of the amplifier internally, so you dont + -|- + have to connect them. |_ > | ><'R > Here, you do need to connect the 2 - thru R to the _|_ amplifier ground. - AMP GND Put the 3 potentiometer in a box so that you have the control in one place, and use enough wire so you can move with it. You'll have to experiment so that the R going to ground is a little higher than the other 2 and once that adjusment made, the other two must be adjusted so that the rear speakers are just adding a touch of depth (if you turn them off, you notice that the surround is gone). Also, if you have A-B speaker selection, plug the rear speakers on the + of B instead of A, you will then be able to switch them off easily. Of course, when you will use the 3D audio, it will affect the signal, so it's better to unplug the rear section. But for your video, tape, CD and regular GUS, you will still find it cool. 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: Sun, 24 Jan 93 1:20:14 CST From: cowles@hydra.convex.com (John Cowles) Message-Id: <9301240720.AA20089@hydra.convex.com> Subject: How can I load patches? To: Ultrasound Daily Digest On Jan. 13th, Burns Fisher wrote: > > Anyone out there have the MicroSoft MCI spec? Can you tell me exactly what the command is > that must be given to load patches on the GUS, and what the parameters are? > > The reason I ask is in a Cakewalk/Windows song (.WRK) file, you can include MCI commands. > What they want, though, is a text string. The example they give is > > PLAY MUMBLE.WAV > > So apparently there is an MCI command named "PLAY" which takes a filename as an argument. > My thinking is that if we knew the MCI command that loaded patches, we could make Cakewalk > load patches to the GUS "manually". > > Thanks! > > Burns I'm still waiting for an answer to this question. What is the mechanism to load patches? Winjammer does it and MediaPlayer does it. How? John Cowles cowles@hydra.convex.com Convex Computer Corp. 214 497 4375 3000 Waterview Pkwy Richardson, Tx. 75080 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jan 93 1:50:00 EST From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion) Message-Id: <9301250650.AA27267@brise.ERE.UMontreal.CA> Subject: I need some graphic artist To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I need a graphic artist to do 2 design in VGA. If you think you are good with a paint program, email me and i will send you a schematic of what i need. This is not remunerated. It is for fame, pride, whatever... I do not make money on what i do, so i cant pay you. It will be for GUSMOD if you are wondering. 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: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 12:56:38 -0400 (AST) From: Shadow Of Fear Message-Id: Subject: PLAYMIDI 3.50 bug To: Ultrasound Daily Digest /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ Directly from his dark office on the top of a dark Tower..... \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ To the guy who has the bug, I have the bug too but it hangs my computer randomly. It can play a file and hang my computer, but if I play it again it may hang somewhere else in the music or play it completely. It's totally random. I even tried running ULTRINIT.EXE before playing my MIDI files. I tried running GUS stuffs like GUSMOD, PLAY669 or DARETRO before playing a MIDI file but the bug is still there. I sent a message to Chris Yusik. I hope he can help. My system is a 286 16MHz so your problem is not from your OPTI chip-set. ____ _ _ _ / \ \ /' )' )' ) | | | / / / | (_|__/ \ / / __. .__ ___ | | __. . . \ . ___ / (__(_/|__) )__/(__ \_/__(_/|__)\_)__/\__)__) <_ Markus on QuartzPARADISE and AfterFive (506)855-4974 - Canada +---------------------------------------------+-----------------------------+ | markus@info.umoncton.ca | "My son, ask for thyself | | For Talk: markus@clement.info.umoncton.ca | another kingdom. For that | |---------------------------------------------+ which I leave is too small | | When all else fails, read the instructions | for thee" - King Philippe | +---------------------------------------------+-----------------------------+ ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V2 #22 ******************************