Ultrasound Daily Digest Thu, 25 Feb 93 Volume 2 : Issue 53 Today's Topics: [GUS] New SDK's Csound OS/2 port?? GRAVIS AUTHORIZED NODES GUS + Time Magazine CD-ROM = No Sound GUS: Please help! GUS owners - corrupted FAT's/harddrives? (was Re: Gusmod 2.04 + Scopes = Static from (2 msgs) GUS Wavetable questions (2 msgs) HELP! I am new here and have no idea what's going on! PARTIAL DEVELOPERS LIST playmidi question Sierra's garbage... SQ V and Ultrasound 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. *** HEY!!! *** Before you ask a question, *** READ THE FAQ ***. It's available on the request server and the ftp sites, or check the newsgroup archives. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1993 11:04:55 GMT From: bjornhk@dhhalden.no (BJORN HAAVARD KLEVEN) Message-Id: Subject: [GUS] New SDK's To: Ultrasound Daily Digest News on Gravis' Software Development Kits for GUS: - The current low-level version will be re-released, with manuals, better documentation and much improved tools (e.g. the patch-editor) as well as 3D-routines. This SDK will be available WITHOUT the developer having to sign any non-disclosure agreement. It is said to be out in 2-3 weeks. - The source code for the library-files of this SDK will also be available to some developers, requiring them to sign an extensive and much more specific non-disclosure agreement than the current one. -=* Bjorn :: bjornhk@dhhalden.no ACCESS DATA :: TEL: (+47)-9-17 50 48/61-97 311 FAX: 61-97 312 BBS: 61-97 945 300-14400 bps, 24 hrs ------------------------------ Date: 24 Feb 93 21:10:17 EDT From: Richard Wyckoff Message-Id: Subject: Csound OS/2 port?? To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1993 19:35:48 -0500 From: "Anthony Green" Subject: Need testers for port of Csound. > I have ported an audio processing system, called Csound, to OS/2 and DOS from > unix/NeXT. I need a small group of people to try it out for some time before > I have it uploaded to an ftp site. How is this coming? (The OS/2 version particularly) I've sent you two e- mails about it, and received no response, so I figured I'd send this to the whole list...anyone else working on interesting GUS software for OS/2? While I'm at it: Francois Dion - can you post the ftp site that you said already has a DOS version of Csound which you used for your ANASYN patches? Much as I hate DOS, I may have to settle for that version for now...(and yes, I know you said you posted the address three times already, but I don't keep my back issues... ;) ** Richard Wyckoff - Catullus - .Sig radio edit ** ** RWYCKOFF@CARDINAL.SC107.WESLEYAN.EDU -- RWYCKOFF@EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU ** ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1993 10:33:00 -0800 From: john.smith@gravis.com (John Smith) Message-Id: <730563618.AA01103@ship.net> Subject: GRAVIS AUTHORIZED NODES To: Ultrasound Daily Digest This is a reminder. The original was posted last week. Important News -------------- ~ The Authorized Gravis Node application form is ready. You may download GRAV-APP.ZIP off our BBS or FREQ GRAVAPP. This file includes all the necessary information required to apply. IMPORTANT: We are only accepting 20 nodes to start off with. To be considered you MUST have your application in to me by FEB 28 1993. FidoNET: 1:153/978 SBCNET: 13:900/3 InterNET EMail: john.smith@gravis.com Fax: (604) 431-5155 BBS: (604) 431-5927 V32bis John cc: ALL ALL ALL ALL ~ QMPro 1.01 05-8925 ~ Dogs come when you call. Cats have answering machines. ------------------------------ Date: 24 Feb 1993 18:31:05 -0500 From: stu@Warren.MENTORG.COM (Stu Brown) Message-Id: <1mh0fp$aim@stu.Warren.MENTORG.COM> Subject: GUS + Time Magazine CD-ROM = No Sound To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I can't get SBOS to work with the Time Magazine DOS CD-ROM videos. They provide a device driver which plays sound through a Sound Blaster but on my machine the video just stops with no sound after 0.1 seconds. I have some settings for the Time driver (sndblk ?) to make the DMA and Interrupts match the GUS, but it just does the same thing. Has anyone got this application to work? -- Stuart Brown Mentor Graphics Corporation I.C. Group, Warren NJ stu@warren.mentorg.com or uunet!sdl!stu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1993 06:55:14 GMT From: gabrielj@fraser.sfu.ca (Gabriel Noah Jones) Message-Id: <1993Feb24.065514.9147@sfu.ca> Subject: GUS: Please help! To: Ultrasound Daily Digest > None of the demos work - Unreal, Panic, Facts of Life, anything. > Stunts sounds horrible. UW alternates between no voice, a scratchy > voice, and a good voice, depending on the configuration. Unreal works with SBOS 1.22. Panic will work in some cases but has been proven to work consistently with SBOS 1.3x which will be available soon. > PLAYMIDI and GUSMOD both work fine, though GUSMOD can't play > AXELF.MOD at all where my SB could. When I switch to > 16 bit DMA, playmidi is dead without OPTIFIX. Wait for Gusmod 2.10. > SBOS 1.20 - no luck. Panic pretends its not there. Unreal plays > it at a digusting wavering speed with lots of hiss and static. > SBOS 1.23 - no difference. Xwing demo dies just as the first few > fighters come flying out of that big ship. > go to 16-bit DMA from 8-bit - nothing. Like I said, use SBOS 1.22 until 1.3x is released. SBOS 1.23 is only a beta and SBOS 1.2 is dated. You also require EMS to get voices in the X-wing demo. > I've cleaned out my autoexec and config sys files. I use the > sbosdrv.sys in my config, after I load himem.sys, emm386 with > ems, put dos high, and do files=40 and buffers=40. Don't use sbosdrv.sys. Only use the executable. SBOSDRV.sys will cause static in digital sounds and music with certain programs Good Luck! Da Lazer (of Da Ghetto Bwudaz) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1993 18:10:13 GMT From: ken@austin.ibm.com Message-Id: Subject: GUS owners - corrupted FAT's/harddrives? (was Re: Gusmod 2.04 + Scopes = Static from To: Ultrasound Daily Digest hell) Keywords: kjohnson@polyslo.csc.calpoly.edu (Kurt Edward Johnson) posts: >PS - I did have one major problem that I won't be repeating anymore. I had >shelled to DOS from my terminal program after dloading a mod and played with >GUSMOD. I dloaded another one afterwards and went to shell to DOS and got an >error from NDOS (Norton's version of command.com) and my computer locked. >Upon rebooting I had lost part of my FAT table :) Fun fun fun. O.K. This is the third post I've seen on this. One was mine. Somewhere along the line, my FAT was also corrupted. I had to totally reinstall my system. One poster mentioned he though the DARETRO demo had done it, and now someone had GUSMOD corrupt their FAT. I ran both of these applications, as well as others. Is there an actual problem with some of the applications people are writing, or are we all just victims of bad reboots? How many people has this happened to? >and my floppy drive going a little wacko Weird. Mine did the same thing. What's going on with this? -- ============================================================= THIS POSTING DOES NOT REPRESENT THE OPINIONS OF MY EMPLOYERS. ------------------------------------------------------------- Brought to you by the planet Xylon: ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1993 21:39:37 GMT From: dregeczi@fraser.sfu.ca (David Joseph Regeczi) Message-Id: Subject: GUS owners - corrupted FAT's/harddrives? (was Re: Gusmod 2.04 + Scopes = Static from To: Ultrasound Daily Digest ken@austin.ibm.com writes: >hell) >Keywords: >kjohnson@polyslo.csc.calpoly.edu (Kurt Edward Johnson) posts: >>PS - I did have one major problem that I won't be repeating anymore. I had >>shelled to DOS from my terminal program after dloading a mod and played with >>GUSMOD. I dloaded another one afterwards and went to shell to DOS and got an >>error from NDOS (Norton's version of command.com) and my computer locked. >>Upon rebooting I had lost part of my FAT table :) Fun fun fun. >O.K. This is the third post I've seen on this. One was mine. >Somewhere along the line, my FAT was also corrupted. I had to totally reinstall >my system. One poster mentioned he though the DARETRO demo had done it, and now >someone had GUSMOD corrupt their FAT. I ran both of these applications, as well >as others. >Is there an actual problem with some of the applications people are writing, >or are we all just victims of bad reboots? How many people has this happened >to? >>and my floppy drive going a little wacko >Weird. Mine did the same thing. >What's going on with this? Soon after running the same demo... (not right after though)... my DOS directory was completely deleted. Don't know if the "problem" is related, but just so you're aware... |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | David Joseph Regeczi | When a man boasts that he never changes | | Simon Fraser University | his mind, he's taking it on himself | | Vancouver, BC, Canada | always to go along one straight line, | | dregeczi@fraser.sfu.ca | an ass who believes in infallibility. | - Vautrin (Pere Goriot by Balzac) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1993 22:08:28 GMT From: dce@smsc.sony.com (David Elliott) Message-Id: Subject: GUS Wavetable questions To: Ultrasound Daily Digest In article , ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca (Phat H Tran) writes: |> The GUS has 32 voices, and each voice can be assigned any instrument it |> has in its RAM. The 16 instrument limit is a MIDI side effect, since MIDI |> has 16 channels, and each channel can have only one instrument. Let's make a distinction here. MIDI does indeed have 16 channels per network, but this does not mean you can only have one instrument per channel. This seems like a Roland-ism that has propagated to GUS. It is quite common in electronic music to have 2 or more "instruments" (meaning either separate units or separate timbres in a single multi-timbral unit) playing from the same channel in order to "thicken" a sound by detuning or having different LFO response on each instrument, or to create new sounds by combining different ones, or even to make chords by transposing the instruments. It is less common, but still useful, to use "splits" so that more than 16 instruments can be played. For example, the actual range of a typical trumpet part is less than 3 octaves (the best I ever did was just over 2), while MIDI provides 10. Using transposition, I can get two completely different trumpet parts on one channel on a Kawai K5 (with some restrictions on controllers). Sadly, the capability to do this is slowly being lost because it's generally easier to buy a second MIDI interface. BTW, since this topic was about "wavetable", I am still unconvinced that the GUS synth is a wavetable synthesizer. Everything I have heard so far is that it uses samples, but that doesn't equate to wavetable. -- ...David Elliott ...dce@smsc.sony.com | ...!{uunet,mips}!sonyusa!dce ...(408)944-4073 ..."Do you sing like Olive Oyl on purpose?" ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1993 22:08:51 GMT From: dce@smsc.sony.com (David Elliott) Message-Id: Subject: GUS Wavetable questions To: Ultrasound Daily Digest In article , ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca (Phat H Tran) writes: |> I don't think MIDI will allow you to have more than 16 independent |> instruments at any one time. What you mean is correct, but why not say it straight out: MIDI has 16 channels per network. With most normal equipment, this also means 16 "independent instruments", but it doesn't have to. In the first place, realize the the term "instrument" tends to be musically-related, yet I can use MIDI to control lights, computers, tape decks, or even toasters. Also, don't forget about MIDI modification software. With a single Macintosh and MAX, I could develop a system that would encode 16 MIDI channels of data into one channel (mapping data into MIDI controller values), thus giving me the capability of 31 independent instruments on one network. The limitation of 16 channels is for typical users using typical instruments thinking in typical ways. It doesn't pay to think this way. |> You can upload half a cycle to the GUS and have it loop it bidirectionally, |> I believe. But I don't think the card has the hardware to fiddle much |> with the resultant waveform. As such, I don't think that the GUS is |> a full-fledged wavetable synthesizer. Then again, much of the |> versatility of a wavetable synth can be had through a patch editor and |> software function generators for the card. Thank you for clearing this up. I tried getting this out of the GUS FAQ person, and he kept insisting that GUS was a wavetable machine, but every time I asked wavetable questions, I got sample playback answers. Still, what I don't get is: Why does Gravis want to usurp the term for a less powerful synthesis method for their more powerful method? Why not call it what it is: sample-based synthesis. If I want realism, I would not buy a wavetable synthesizer (I have one, and I use it for anything but realistic sounds), I would buy a sample-based synthesizer. If they want to lord something over FM, "realism" is the term to use, not "wavetable". -- ...David Elliott ...dce@smsc.sony.com | ...!{uunet,mips}!sonyusa!dce ...(408)944-4073 ..."Do you sing like Olive Oyl on purpose?" ------------------------------ Date: 24 Feb 1993 23:44:00 -0500 (EST) From: FILREGER@delphi.com Message-Id: <01GV49FFVT6A935DUQ@delphi.com> Subject: HELP! I am new here and have no idea what's going on! To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Hello. I recently read a file that said it was from your address. Could you please tell me where on Internet I can access Advanc d Gravis Ultrasound files and messages...Thanx. write back at FILREGER@DELPHI.COM ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1993 10:28:00 -0800 From: john.smith@gravis.com (John Smith) Message-Id: <730563618.AA01102@ship.net> Subject: PARTIAL DEVELOPERS LIST To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Partial Developers List This is a partial list of companies who have the Gravis UltraSound developers kit. Included is their voice telephone number and fax number if known. This document is being made available to you as a REFERENCE ONLY. Company Name Voice Tel. # Fax Tel. # --------------------------------------------------------- Access Software 801-359-2900 801-359-2968 Accolade 408-985-1700 408-246-1053 Activision 310-207-4500 310-820-6131 Amaze Inc. 206-820-7007 Animotion Graphics 205-591-5715 205-591-5716 Apogee Software 214-240-0614 214-278-4670 Asymetrix 206-637-1542 206-637-1542 Autodesk Inc. 415-332-2344 415-289-4750 Azeroth Inc. 206-392-9941 206-391-7812 Bethesda Softworks 301-963-2000 301-926-8010 Borland 408-438-4701 408-438-8696 Broderbund 415-382-4400 415-382-4523 Cineplay 503-223-4449 503-223-8946 Compton's New Media 619-929-2500 619-929-2511 Davidson 310-793-0600 310-534-3169 Dr. T's Music Software 617-455-1454 617-455-1460 Electronic Arts 415-571-7171 415-571-7993 Gametek 305-935-3995 305-932-8651 Hollyware 310-822-9200 310-390-0457 Ibis Software 415-546-1917 415-546-0361 Icom Simulations 708-520-4440 708-459-3418 Impressions 203-676-9002 203-676-9454 Interplay 714-553-6655 714-252-2820 Kesmai Corporation 804-979-0111 804-979-5428 Knowledge Adventure 818-542-4200 818-542-4205 Legend 703-222-8500 703-968-5151 LuscasFilm Games 415-721-3300 415-721-3342 Macro Media Inc. 415-442-0200 415-442-0190 Maxis 510-254-9700 510-253-3736 Mecc 612-569-1500 612-569-1551 Micrografx, Inc. 215-234-1769 215-234-2603 Microprose 410-771-6711 410-771-1174 Mindcraft Software Inc. 310-320-5214 310-320-1522 New World Computing 818-999-0606 818-593-3455 NovaLogic 818-774-0600 818-774-0684 Odyssey Software Inc. 508-240-2317 508-686-9288 Origin 512-335-5200 512-328-3825 Psygnosis 617-731-3553 617-731-8379 QQP 908-788-2799 908-788-7684 ReadySoft 416-731-4175 416-764-8867 SSI 408-737-6800 408-737-6814 SCO 408-425-7222 408-458-4227 Sierra On-Line 209-683-4468 209-683-3633 Sir-Tech Software Inc. 315-393-6451 315-393-1525 Spectrum Holobyte 510-522-3584 510-522-3587 The Bruce Artwick 217-656-9796 217-356-7895 The Learning Company 415-792-2101 The Software Toolworks 415-883-3000 415-883-3303 Three-Sixty Pacific, Inc. 408-879-9144 408-879-9739 Virgin Games 714-833-7810 714-833-8717 Walt Disney 818-567-0284 818-973-4160 Westwood Associates 702-368-4850 cc: ALL ALL ALL ALL ~ QMPro 1.01 05-8925 ~ CCITT- Can't Conceive Intelligent Thoughts Today ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Feb 93 10:00:31 CST From: lrg@carina.cray.com (Lee R. Gordon) Message-Id: <9302241600.AA18629@crud.cray.com> Subject: playmidi question To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Hello, I just bought my GUS 3 days ago, and I'm still in the process of getting everthing set up. I've ftp'ed all of the archive over, and I'm using the v1.22 software. I've managed to get everything to work except for some of the MIDI files. After RTFM and RTF FAQ, I thought I'd ask. On some MIDI files, playmidi (3.50) complains about 'load patch failed - - 7' (or something like that). Is this because I only have 256K in my card? I plan on upgrading ASAP, but the only local place I found the chips only was willing to part with them in a set of 9 for $5.50/chip... -Lee Lee Gordon ATT: 1-612-683-3100 Cray Research, Inc. Fax: 1-612-683-3099 655E Lone Oak Drive Email: lrg@cray.com or Eagan, MN 55121 uunet!cray!lrg ------------------------------ Date: 24 Feb 1993 15:29:38 -0400 (EDT) From: DEATH BEFORE DISCO Message-Id: <01GV3S43VBUQ8Y7NL4@ritvax.isc.rit.edu> Subject: Sierra's garbage... To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I'm all for boycotting Sierra. Why?? 1) The obvious...no GUS support and the service is $$$ oriented. 2) I REFUSE TO USE A BOOT DISK ON A 486/33 WITH 16MB RAM because their programs need 99.9999%% of the 640K DOS limit. Get with it. This is 1993....use more of the extended, for pete's sake. This is a pain in the ass on a system that does more than play games. I will not purchase anymore of their code. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Feb 93 09:20:38 EST From: stu_brown@Warren.MENTORG.COM Message-Id: <9302241420.AA09535@stu> Subject: SQ V and Ultrasound To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I have been playing SQ V with my Ultrasound SBOS and contrary to the other report of problems, mine has been working perfectly. In fact, the sound and music is in stereo - a suprise to me because I thought SBOS only supported the mono SoundBlaster. It sounds much better than other SB games through SBOS. I do not hear any digitized speech, but I don't think the game has digitized speech. My configuration is SBOS 1.23, 486/33, MS-DOS 5.0, Adaptec 1510 (programmed I/O) SCSI controller, and CD-ROM. ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V2 #53 ******************************