Ultrasound Daily Digest Tue, 26 Jan 93 Volume 2 : Issue 23 Today's Topics: Accolade response to Star Control II (SC2) bug A few MODs won't play by GUSMOD Come with me i'll show you the INDEX! Demo Group? Forwarded from usenet ftp-site(s) GUS and UW2 working Gusmod GUS questions: Compatibility and buying in UK Midi interface crashes SBOS My theory on GUS clicking Need explanation of SBOSDRV.SYS Noise in recording and other problems.. SBOS Sorry about the delay Ultrasound returns Winjammer problems 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: Mon, 25 Jan 93 8:38:33 CST From: ibmpa!hartmann.austin.ibm.com!lance@ibminet.awdpa.ibm.com (Lance Hartmann) Message-Id: <9301251438.AA12826@hartmann.austin.ibm.com> Subject: Accolade response to Star Control II (SC2) bug To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Enclosed please find a copy of a note I received on Accolade's BBS. Considering the recent date, perhaps it would not hurt to encourage others to give 'em a call or write them. > E-Mail #48212 22-JAN-93 14:15 (Reply to #46912) > From: Accolade > To: Lanceh (private message) > Re: Star Control II with UltraSound > > I have forwarded your message concerning the use of the Gravis Ultra > Sound with Star Control II to the producer and V.P. of our Product > Development department. At this time, I have not heard as to if and > when a fix might be available. > > Mark - Accolade Lance Hartmann (lance%hartmann.austin.ibm.com@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com) Yes, that IS a '%' (percent sign) in my network address. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All statements, comments, opinions, etc. herein reflect those of the author and shall NOT be misconstrued as those of IBM or anyone else for that matter. ------------------------------ Date: 23 Jan 93 00:13:44 MDT From: sl8nl@cc.usu.edu Message-Id: <1993Jan23.001344.63082@cc.usu.edu> Subject: A few MODs won't play by GUSMOD To: Ultrasound Daily Digest In article <1993Jan23.024039.18551@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca>, apollo@ee.ualberta.ca (Apollo Wong) writes: > I just got GUSMOD v1.1 a few days ago and run it through my ~300 MODs. I > noticed that GUSMOD won't play some of the MODs properly. When I try to > play them, all I get is static garbage from the speaker. Here are part > of the list that GUSMOD v1.1 won't play. > > x-static.mod > jm_jarre.mod > outrun.mod > alf.mod > copper1.mod > crokets.mod These are 15 channel mods, not the 31 channel mods that GUSMOD supports. 1.2 has a fix for that, but in the meantime, just get a program like MODEDIT and convert them to 31 (load the mod in and save it back, automatic conversion). Joshua Jensen CyberStrike of Renaissance ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Jan 93 1:25:15 EST From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion) Message-Id: <9301260625.AA06292@brise.ERE.UMontreal.CA> Subject: Come with me i'll show you the INDEX! To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Yes, there is finally an INDEX for archive.epas.utoronto.ca. It is called Index.all. It needs some corrections and additions (i have not put submit in it), but these will be done when Thomas Wong move the files and delete some others. 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 1993 18:58:06 GMT From: rdippold@qualcom.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold) Message-Id: Subject: Demo Group? To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Before Christmas there was some talk of a PC group demo group. Is there still any interest? If there's enough, I'm willing to do the gruntwork. There are a couple questions and comments. Are there enough members of demo groups on Usenet, and would more find access if such a group appeared? Most of these guys are in Europe and Scandinavia, and while we obviously have people posting from there I don't know how hard it is to get access. Renaissance has a strong presence, but I don't know on the rest. Obvious uses of the group are announcements of new demos, discussions of new demos (something that's sadly missing, from what I've seen), information about the demo groups, etc. Anything else revolutionary I'm missing? We need a fairly good RFD. Would this just be a discussion group, pointing people to ftp sites to grab the actual demos, or do we need a binaries group as well? We can't post the huge binaries for these demos on the discussion group. Would an "alt.binaries" group be sufficient for the binaries? We already have an "official" ftp site. How do we make sure this is not seen as a general software demo group, so we don't get posts about a demo version of Ultima Underworld or Borland C, etc.? If the demos group is primarily discussion driven, it should probably be "comp.sys.ibm.pc.xxx" (where xxx is the name of the group). The alt group (if needed) would be "alt.binaries.xxx". If this is going to be binaries driven it needs to be "comp.binaries.ibm.pc.xxx" and "comp.binaries.ibm.pc.xxx.d". Let's talk! Can someone get in contact with members from some of the groups who don't have Usenet access? -- I'm a paranoid schizophrenic! I'm after me! ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Jan 93 1:32:25 EST From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion) Message-Id: <9301260632.AA06368@brise.ERE.UMontreal.CA> Subject: Forwarded from usenet To: Ultrasound Daily Digest >Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard >From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion) >Subject: Re: GUS: Various patch info wanted. >Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 03:40:53 GMT In article <93022.170742MEB117@psuvm.psu.edu> Matthew E. Bernold writes: >On a broader note, does anyone know where I can get my hands on a list of >instruments in the General Midi spec? I want to know what instrument SHOULD >be assigned to each patch, and then be able to substitute as I see fit. I put that on the GUS archive long ago: On archive.epas.utoronto.ca, directory /pub/pc/ultrasound/info 5006 Dec 4 01:30 genmidi.arj Information on general midi >Also, any other midi mappings such as the Roland midi synths and others >would also be appreciated. Making .CFG files for the GUS would be SO much >easier if I knew what the different instruments were SUPPOSED to sound >like in the first place... :-) Check out in /pub/pc/ultrasound/midi-files 2781 Dec 6 18:41 mt32pat.cfg Configuration for MT32 patch assignment 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-... >Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard >From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion) >Subject: Re: My theory on GUS clicking >Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 04:21:27 GMT In article knepley@CS.ColoState.EDU (Ranseus (Jim Knepley)) writes: > >With this setup, the notorious Gravis UltraClick (TM) made it's habbit of >clicking all too audible, but only on some things. Hmm, I thought, why not >all the time? >It clicked on .MOD files, .669 files, and in Star Control 2. It _DIDN'T_ In all these, samples do not have a release enveloppe, and so the last value on the DAC from an oscillator playing a sample is probably not near zero. This causes two things. A click if the difference is huge between that value and the zero which is now fed by the oscillator plus a transient (a high pitched ping), and if the difference is medium, you could be hearing a transient. This is the same thing for any DAC be it from an ADCOM or ROTEL cd player or a Multisound card. To correct that, you simply need to create a sample with a sampled release (like 0.005 second drop to zero) or arrange the enveloppe so that the release fades quickly (but it must fade, which is probably not done in SC2). Doing that it should resolve the problem completely. The only other possible source of clicking would be if the program uses for example 32 channels, so by the time the DOC II goes back to channel 1, 1 zero sample got thru oscillator (corresponding to a lower error rate than your typical CD player anyway but nastier, since it is a zero). This is purely speculation on my part, and is based on the swap mode problem of the DOC I. I do not have the information about that relatively to the DOC II, so it may (and was supposed to) be corrected. [STOP PRESS: I just got email stating that this problem is not on the DOC II chip! so only the first problem can be the source] >I'd be willing to bet that there are 2 calls that can be made to the >Ultrasound to have it produce sound (I'll call them PlayPatch and PlayDigi). No, it's the same thing, only the enveloppes are taken from .pat or .sbs files with midi and sbos, and in MOD files, none is done. The problem is easy to correct while loading the sample to the GUS, or even before loading it. >Anyone care to shed some light on this? If I'm right (I hope I am) >then it should be a fairly simple patch to eliminate clicking all together. >It's also possible that there's an attribute to the Gravis supplied patch >files that resist the clicking of other, less refined, patches. Enveloppe 8) 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 17:34:13 MET From: Klinkert MR Message-Id: <9301251734.aa17615@galei.cs.vu.nl> Subject: ftp-site(s) To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Is there a ftp or telnet site, where I can download GRAVIS software for the ULTRASOUND?? Mike Klinkert ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 16:51:07 -0500 From: "Frank Pikelner" Message-Id: <9301252151.AA09362@cs.yorku.ca> Subject: GUS and UW2 working To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Hello all, I just bought Ultima Underworld 2, I installed the game, then ran Origin's program for setting up sound (UWSOUND.EXE). I spent 3 hours friday, then another hour saturday, but all now works. I use SBOS 1.23 with no parameters, with the GUS using DMA 3, IRQ 2, and I/O 220.THe music sounds fine, but the sound effects of me walking and the sword slashing are not too hot. The problems I had were that even though I had tried using the parameters above the software would find the GUS intermittently, but only on the addresses above, wierd! I use a 386/40, OPTI chipset, 8MB ram, with 1MB GUS. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- --- Frank Pikelner /~\ \ \ \ Technical Assistant, Department of Computer Science \- \-- York University (Toronto, Canada) '\^/; \ \ Internet: frank@cs.yorku.ca _{!}_ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: 24 Jan 93 18:43:54 MDT From: sl8nl@cc.usu.edu Message-Id: <1993Jan24.184354.63129@cc.usu.edu> Subject: Gusmod To: Ultrasound Daily Digest In article <1993Jan24.164611.19067@uvm.edu>, pinder2@hal.emba.uvm.edu (Justin Pinder) writes: > > Sorry about that last message - Looks like the text got lost somewhere.. > Anyhow, here's the original : > > Anyone have a new release date for GUSMOD v1.2? I thought it was going to > be released a few days ago.. ? It got...um, shall we say, stuck. Should be finished soon. I'm trying to eliminate the popping right now. Joshua Jensen ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 23:48:27 GMT From: mtichy@fraser.sfu.ca (Martin Tichy) Message-Id: <1993Jan23.234827.11276@sfu.ca> Subject: GUS questions: Compatibility and buying in UK To: Ultrasound Daily Digest > Is the GUS fully MPC compliant? Is it possible to control > the volume > of each different sound source in software? I seem to > remember > hearing that the CD-audio could only be turned on and off. Presently that is still true. The mixer now allows midi volume, wave volume, mic on/off, output on/off, line in on/off. The 16-bit recording daughter card is supposed to be able to allow more control over the inputs though. > What software comes with the GUS, and more importantly, > what *can't* > I ftp from epas? GUS comes with the SB emulator, USS8 recording studio, playmidi, windows drivers, fli & sample program and a bunch of other little stuff. Newer GUS packages will have some windows midi software packaged with it. You can get tons of stuff off epas. > > Can SBOS be used to emulate a SoundBlaster on any > interrupt and DMA > setting? One of the problems I have with my current SB > setup is that > since I upgraded to a new motherboard, and changed to int > 5 (I had > been using the default of int 7), the FM sound on some > software has > gone screwy. Yep. The only jumpers you have to set on the board are for the address and either enable or disable the game port. Everything else can be done in software...irq's, dma's and whatever else. > Will the native-GUS software that is currently available > work with > any hardware settings, or is some of it hard-coded for > particular DMA > and interrupt settings. Yah, it just works with whatever you set your GUS too. > Is there a simple question I can ask the supplier to > determine > whether the GUS they stock is the latest version? If it comes with the Howling Dogs stuff and Midisoft stuff then it's probably the newest. Good Luck, and join our ranks. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jan 93 12:56:22 PST From: jericho!gord@uunet.UU.NET (Gord Wait S-MOS Systems Vancouver Design Center) Message-Id: <9301252056.AA16963@ jericho> Subject: Midi interface crashes SBOS To: Ultrasound Daily Digest John Riedl writes: (stuff omitted) > Disaster occurs when I'm *not* using the interface. If I leave my > keyboard plugged in to the MIDI in of the interface when I'm running > SBOS, and I touch even a single key on the keyboard, my computer locks > up. I have to use the hardware reboot button to get it to respond. > The problem occurs even if I'm not running a game that uses SBOS; the > computer freezes at the C> prompt. > > Two questions: > > 1) Do others who have built the interface have this problem? Is there > a fix? > > 2) Are there any hardware experts who can speculate as to what kind of > mistake in building the interface could lead to this sort of > behaviour? > Thanks, > John Yes, I too have the same problem. I designed my own midi interface (although it looks about the same as the various versions floating around the net). I have a switch to select from one of four midi inputs. If I leave a midi input connected (My DX7 keyboard or my RX5 drum machine), while sbos is installed, then the machine crashes. Doesn't matter which order you run things in. My workaround is to select a midi in with no midi device plugged in. Your workaround may be to unplug the midi in cable. I do not beleive you have done anything wrong in your midi hardware. I beleive that the problem is a bug in SBOS. I reported this to Alan Alvarez at Gravis about a month ago. Here is my theory: (unconfirmed) I beleive that what is happening is that the midi in port, when connected to a synth,is causing an interrupt on the ultrasound board, and that there is no interrupt handler installed while SBOS is running. The possible reason (in my setup) for the interrupt is that my keyboard constantly sends midi active sense bytes. The other possibility (which I haven't checked) is that connecting midi in changes the state of the value at the midi in port on the gus, which causes the interrupt; to cover the case of sbos crash with no active sense bytes. When I get the new sbos (1.23 ?) with all the new patches etc, I will try it again, dig a little further with my trusty scope.. Gord ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 22:02:36 GMT From: knepley@CS.ColoState.EDU (Ranseus (Jim Knepley)) Message-Id: Subject: My theory on GUS clicking To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I felt like listening to my GUS on a better set of speakers than the walkman speakers I normally use, so I've got in on a pair on Infinity RefEL's with a Sony amp. Things are improved, a lot, holy cow, wow, much better. Anyway... With this setup, the notorious Gravis UltraClick (TM) made it's habbit of clicking all too audible, but only on some things. Hmm, I thought, why not all the time? It clicked on .MOD files, .669 files, and in Star Control 2. It _DIDN'T_ click with Midi files or anything in SB emulation. Thus, my theory... I'd be willing to bet that there are 2 calls that can be made to the Ultrasound to have it produce sound (I'll call them PlayPatch and PlayDigi). It seems that everything that uses PlayDigi (the .SND files, GUSMOD, etc) will click. On the other hand, PlayPatch driven things (PLAYMIDI, SBOS) won't (SBOS does use patches, type SBOS -debug if you don't believe me). Anyone care to shed some light on this? If I'm right (I hope I am) then it should be a fairly simple patch to eliminate clicking all together. It's also possible that there's an attribute to the Gravis supplied patch files that resist the clicking of other, less refined, patches. Josh, when do we get the Renaissance (SP?) GUS developer's kit? :) All the best, Jim -- ----- knepley@cs.colostate.edu ---------------------------------------------- Jim "Ranseus" Knepley | Avoid rectal-cranial inversion. Programmer, magician, | "Gun's don't kill, it's those bullet things" computer geek. | ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jan 93 13:08:18 EST From: rjw@genrad.com (Rod J. Wittmier) Message-Id: <9301251808.AA10896@animal.genrad.com> Subject: Need explanation of SBOSDRV.SYS To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Can anyone provide a good description of the .SYS file that is in the latest set of GUS patches. Here are the questions that come to mind: When would you want to use the .SYS version of sbosdrv? What are the pros and cons of using the .SYS? If you're using the .SYS version: Do you need to modify sbos.bat? Does the command sbos -f still unload the driver? Do you use it with or inplace of sbosdrv.com/exe? Rod Wittmier ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 19:20:37 -0800 (PST) From: I/We are Gaia Message-Id: Subject: Noise in recording and other problems.. To: Ultrasound Daily Digest A while back I saw people had been having problems with hiss, and other extraneous noises in the background while recording. I have had my GUS for a while, but haven't got the proper hookups until now. Now I find at any sampling rate, I have ALOT of hiss in the background, yet it doesn't show up when I am monitoring in USS8 or with playfile/digi. The Windows sound recorder isn't any better especially since it is stuck in 8bit 22,050 khz and mono. Is this the hardware??!!! I thought this was supposed to be a quiet board!!!! Is it the software, if so, does anyone have any suggestions to how to use the board to it's fullest potential without the daughter board upgrade?? Any solutions.. PLLLEEAAASSSEEE!!!! Gaia@carson.u.washington.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jan 93 5:12:59 EST From: jjlucsy@major.cs.mtu.edu (Lucsy) Message-Id: <9301251013.AA28220@major.cs.mtu.edu> Subject: SBOS To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I am having problems getting SBOS to work. Nothing at all recognizes it. Since I have just sold my old Sound Blaster, this is beginning to concern me. Was there anyone else who had this problem? Has anyone fixed it? Everything loads fine, the -d option confirms that, but to any program, it might as well have not been there. This is true for all versions of SBOS that have been out. I hear that Gravis(or somebody) is reworking the driver. Does anyone know what is going to be different? Would this new puppy happen to be a V86 mode program? Does anyone have any info on programming V86 mode? And as for OS/2, I have a sample player. It doesn't do much, not even a driver. But hopefully soon I'll be able to release it. So, if anyone has any info, it'd be greatly appreciated. Thanks. -- Joel Lucsy | "Ha, ho, hee, dodge, turn, parry, spin, JJLUCSY@MAJOR.CS.MTU.EDU | thrust... (BOINNNG!)" - Daffy Duck ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Jan 93 2:04:23 EST From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion) Message-Id: <9301260704.AA06764@brise.ERE.UMontreal.CA> Subject: Sorry about the delay To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Ok, i have not yet uploaded new patches because i didn't have the time. A lot of people email me asking me X, Y and Z. So here's the status: -The condenser microphone circuit: i'll try my best for tomorrow -The GUS FAQ: i think i will upload what i have done up to date, and if any people want to email answers to the rest of the questions i'll put them in. -The 3D samples: give me a break s.v.p. I need to connect my tape to the GUS, sample them, upload them at 50 cps (anybody can tell me why zmodem doesn't work for upload, but works for download? I am forced to use kermit at 1200 baud instead of zmodem at 2400) so it takes TIME! -The graphical mod player: Yo, get a life, i just requested some help, it is certainly not finished! -The patch format: Gravis is changing it's patch format, so i'll hold on that for a week -The patch editor: same reason -New patches: They are coming! they are coming! -The midi cable: the design is on epas in the info directory. FYI, just the december private mail from GUS users is over 1 megabyte! And i typically get 8 to 10 email a day... 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 9:45:31 CST From: ckalin@watt.cae.uwm.edu (Christopher Allen Kalin) Message-Id: <9301251545.AA17850@watt.cae.uwm.edu> Subject: Ultrasound returns To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Just something that might be of interest..... I work at Babbage's in Brookfield, WI. We have been carrying the Ultrasound for a few months now. To my knowledge, we have sold at least seven, four of which have come back within a day or two. Even a guy who's been bugging me since August about when the GUS is going to ship, and who bought it the day it came in, says he's going to sell it in favor of a Sound Blaster PRO! So far, only two people who have bought this board have hung on to it, and call me when they have any problems. I've warned EVERY person I've sold the board to that they might need to get the patches off Gravis' BBS or that Gravis would mail the new patches to them, and they all say that's OK, and then they return it at the first sign of problems, instead of sticking it out and calling us or Tech Support. This is infuriating, because Babbage's policy for high return items in the past is to discontinue carrying the item, and I don't want that to happen to this fine product. Has any other retailer out there had this problem? Chris Kalin ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jan 93 11:32:29 -0500 From: "It's your hand, Buckaroo" Message-Id: <9301251632.AA18929@magick.tay2.dec.com> Subject: Winjammer problems To: Ultrasound Daily Digest > I'd suggest that anyone who has trouble with Winjammer contact the > author, Dan McKee, at 70742.2052@CompuServe.COM. He's very good > about answering user questions and very nice too. Thanks for the info. I did contact Dan and he (and others) have told me it's a known problem and the work-around it to either only have one "port" available or have at least one track using each port... DDA ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 17:56:22 -0500 From: ral@cc.bellcore.com Message-Id: <199301252256.AA20789@tbird.cc.bellcore.com> To: Ultrasound Daily Digest undigest ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 17:56:09 -0500 From: ral@cc.bellcore.com Message-Id: <199301252256.AA20776@tbird.cc.bellcore.com> To: Ultrasound Daily Digest three-midi ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 17:55:30 -0500 From: ral@cc.bellcore.com Message-Id: <199301252255.AA20723@tbird.cc.bellcore.com> To: Ultrasound Daily Digest card-review ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 17:56:02 -0500 From: ral@cc.bellcore.com Message-Id: <199301252256.AA20768@tbird.cc.bellcore.com> To: Ultrasound Daily Digest midi-demo ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 17:55:48 -0500 From: ral@cc.bellcore.com Message-Id: <199301252255.AA20746@tbird.cc.bellcore.com> To: Ultrasound Daily Digest gravis-talks ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V2 #23 ******************************