Ultrasound Daily Digest Fri, 2 Apr 93 Volume 3 : Issue 2 Today's Topics: [GUS] Driver crashes Windows GMOS? What is it? GUS: .pat file definition GUSTEST clears memory too... GUS write up.... Installation Lose the NT driver notion More on NT Drivers ... SCII - another fix & I X MY GUS! Surround Sound on GUS? Ultima 7 fix uploaded Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #1 (2 msgs) Windows magazines wing commander 2 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: Thu, 1 Apr 1993 09:32:19 -0600 From: aspencer@inetnode.austin.ibm.com (Alex Spencer) Message-Id: <9304011532.AA15878@inetnode.austin.ibm.com> Subject: [GUS] Driver crashes Windows To: Ultrasound Daily Digest This posting is in response to Marc Rouleau's posting about Windows crashing while playing sounds through GUS. I posted some time earlier about Super Tetris locking up when I have sound effects on. If I turn sound effects off but leave the MUSIC on the game plays all day without locking up. So I would just like to say that I am seeing the same behaviour that Marc describes. I would also like to know if Gravis is investingating these reports. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Alexander K. Spencer IBM Tieline: 678-6294 IBM Corp. AWD USA Phone: (512)838-6294 Mail Stop: ZIP 4305 IBM VNet: ASPENCER at AUSVM6 11400 Burnet Road IBM InterNet: aspencer@koi.austin.ibm.com Austin, Texas 78758 USA InterNet: aspencer@inetnode.austin.ibm.com #include /* I DO NOT speak for IBM */ Alex Spencer <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 1 Apr 93 16:16:09 EST From: Matthew Spewak Message-Id: <930401.161609.8274@walnut.prs.k12.nj.us> Subject: GMOS? What is it? To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Someone had asked what GMOS was : >Date: Wed, 31 Mar 93 16:46:34 EDT >From: "The Punisher" >Message-Id: <0096A56C80E2DA00.0001703E@acad.wit.edu> >Subject: GMOS >To: Ultrasound Daily Digest > > Just a quick question. What exactly is GMOS? Is is an operating >program like SBOS? > >-Chris Colotti GMOS is not an actual program as much as it is an idea that we are talking about . We are trying to either write or influence someone else to write a driver or tsr (much like the way SBOS does) that will let programs use the MIDI of the Ultrasound without supporting the ultrasound. In other words, a driver that would take use of the MT-32 or Roland driver and convince the program to use the Ultrasound instead. This would let games that don't support GUS and do support General Midi use the midi of the GUS. Make sense? Thus we call it GMOS (General Midi Operating System). -MS ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1993 19:13:42 GMT From: anuj@fwi.uva.nl (Anuj Dev) Message-Id: <1993Apr1.191342.10334@fwi.uva.nl> Subject: GUS: .pat file definition Summary: GUS: .pat file definition? To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Hi How is a patch (.pat) file for the gus organized? I would like to build a .wav (+ something extra) to .pat converter, and convert patches from EPS16 and roland samplers to the GUS. I have the limited, but nevertheless usefull, basic progam 'patinfo' from epas, so I now know half of the header. Who supplies the remaing stuff? Thanks for any help Anuj Dev ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1993 11:02:01 -0500 From: mchen@sol4.cs.psu.edu (Michael Chen) Message-Id: <9304011604.AA08252@sol4> Subject: GUSTEST clears memory too... To: Ultrasound Daily Digest The hack program GUSTEST that I wrote and uploaded will clear memory and detect how much you have. I didn't optimize the clear code, so it's not that fast yet. It does other things, too, if anyone cares. -- Michael Chen | From the depths of our most lucid horrors | | spring our fond hopes and pure desires... | mchen@cs.psu.edu | except what comes from HELL! :-) 7/23/92 | ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 1 Apr 93 00:54:05 PST From: brian@ccnext.ucsf.edu (Brian Huddleston) Message-Id: <9304010854.AA06940@ ccnext.ucsf.edu > Subject: GUS write up.... To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Greetings fellow GUS'ers, Here is a small write up I found in "COMPUTE" on the GUS. (The author was commenting on CES HIGHLITES: Other innovative hardware at CES included the UltraSound 3D sound card from Advanced Gravis. Similar to the new Q-Sound techonology, UltraSound 3D provides the sensation of 360-degree sound from just two speakers. For example, you might hear an airplane swoop down behind you, pass throught your head, and emerge to the front and right of you. I was gunuienly confused when they put the motorcycle sound on--I wasn't sure whether it was coming from the headphones or from inside the building. The real kicker was the sound of a dentist's drill, which was almost too painful to experence. Unlike Q-Sound, UltraSound 3D works with headphones. It should be avaliable by the time you read this for $249. According to the company, over 25 software developers will support the new 3-D Techonology, including Electronic Arts and Sierra. WAY TO GO GRAVIS!!!!! Highlites: "..over 25 software developers.." HAPPY HAPPY, JOY JOY..... ** ** ** ** **** * * * * **** ** ** ** * ** ** * * * ** * * * * * * * ** * / * **** * * * * *** ** * * * * * * * * *** *** * * * * * * ** ******* **** * * * **** **** ** ------------------------------------------------------ I feel good.....:) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1993 01:54:10 -0500 (EST) From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion) Message-Id: <9304020654.AA23468@brise.ERE.UMontreal.CA> Subject: Installation To: Ultrasound Daily Digest A note to evrybody installing the 2.x disks. If you have a shell other than program manager (for example: appbar, nextbar, xerox etc...) it will not complete the installation. This is pretty bugging since you need to reinstall progman, set it up (dont forget to deinstall your shell first). Then after the installation do everything back. Now it would have been so easy to do it right... You can still install it manually by renaming oem.tmp to oemsetup.inf in the \ultrasnd\windows directory, then run the driver applet in control panel and add the drivers from that directory. BTW, the patch sound really good, particularly in octave 1 and 2 in the pads and synths... 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: 01 Apr 1993 14:59:43 -0500 (EST) From: DEATH BEFORE DISCO Message-Id: <01GWI1GZM0EA8ZFSBO@ritvax.isc.rit.edu> Subject: Lose the NT driver notion To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Can we shelve the NT driver idea?? First, let's get Forte to work on WHAT IS AVAILABLE AND WORKS, yeah, I mean OS/2, not the NT Bluffware. Wait until the OS is released. Than all of you BillyBoys can suck up to his $$$ yet again. I can't beleive the support this NT is getting. I keep hearing "Just wait until NT...." Ye Yeah...I've been waiting. Even after lying about the release date to screw over IBM's OS/2. NT might be great. But that's probably just the opinion of the same 'software experts' that think Windows is the answer to all of their 'multitasking' needs. Enjoy your permanent 20MB swapfile. Hope you figure out a way for all of your 16-bit windows code to run (That's 'program' to all of you windows users) because Not There doesn't support it. Fire away, you know my address Jeff ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 1 Apr 93 17:51:05 -0800 From: Bob Beck Message-Id: <9304020151.AA12283@eng2.sequent.com> Subject: More on NT Drivers ... To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I understand those with OS/2 are in need and don't want to start a OS war in this mailing list ;-) That said, I will likely very soon be running NT most of the time on my PC (I have it installed and all the Win-16 stuff I've tried works along with all the DOS stuff I've tried). If there isn't an NT GUS driver for an extended time, I'll have to sell it and go with a less technically nice but supported card (NT already supports SB, SBPro (I think only in SB mode), PAS-16, and some others). I *really* like my GUS, traded in a PAS-16 that didn't work well on my system to get it (so I understand the diff), but I really want sound on my system and will make do with inferior HW to get it. FM/archade flavor sound is better than no sound at all. I'm willing to wait a bit, at least until the NT FCS comes out (a couple of months), but probably not much beyond that. Don't assume Microsoft will do the driver; they have a tendency to only do drivers and support for HW that's selling enough copies for them to notice (LOTS more than the GUS's out there at this point, I think, unfortuneately; I heard a rumor that MS refused to do a SPARC NT port since SPARC didn't represent 1 million units ;-). Also, since MS has the "MS Sound System", one wonders if they have any interest in other sound card drivers (I'll bet MediaVision and Creative Labs did the existing NT drivers for their cards). I'll send mail to some contacts at MS and see how to go about trying to motivate a GUS NT driver, but I'm not going to hold my breath. - Bob (rbk@sequent.com) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Apr 93 8:50:49 EST From: adrianr@ecr.mu.oz.au (Adriano_Ennio RAIOLA) Message-Id: <9304012250.20447@ecr.mu.oz.au> Subject: SCII - another fix & I X MY GUS! To: Ultrasound Daily Digest > >Well, what do you know.... it just occurred to me that the problem with > >SC2 (*buzzing* with 1MB) MIGHT be related to the BUZZING (!) in GUSMod... > >AND: Yes! This worked at least now when I tried it... > >Seems that there is some pernicious problem involved when clearing the memory. > > One more reason to make a dedicated memory cleaner... > > In case you don't know the fix: Run G669 - any .669 module should do the trick. PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: The utility DRAM10B.ARJ avail. at epas, which does a check of all GUS memory, will ALSO cure the SC2 problem on 1 meg cards. And in answer to my own question, dram10b does work with emm386, (unlike p669gu0.exe, YAY!) Yesterday I posted asking for someone to upload the ultrram utility (which clears memory) to epas, to do the same job, can someone STILL upload it, because dram10b takes ages! ANOTHER THING, every soundcard reviewer to date should be SHOT where it hurts most! Last night I installed Windows, and had an evening of joy with patch-manager listening to all the instruments, and also got KBMIDI, a MUST get for windows & GUS! play all the instruments with the keyboard, the doc says the pitch bending feature doesnt work with the GUS, but it DOES! Even my dad was impressed! Havent even tried Winjammer yet! But I love this card almost more than life itself :) Sorry, just felt like saying that. Question (yes another): What are the MT32 and Protues patch lists doing in the MIDI Mapper? Presumably they are there for the GUS, but none of the 4 setups (Ultrasnd, Ultra1024 etc.) use the MT32 patch, I implemented it by creating my own setup with the first nine voices using MT32 and of course the 10th using MT32perc. Is this the correct way to do it? And If a midi file was written for the MT-32 should I select this new setup? And, would this setup support patch caching for the new MT-32 setup? ie. a patch cache aware program still loads up new patches as it needs them, only corresponding to the new patch map for MT-32. I dont suppose there is any way to have like a .cfg file for the .mid files in windows, telling it whichMIDI mapper setup to use, without having to manually change the setup for different .mid files. Thank y'all. Adrian (One BLOODY impressed GUS owner :) --- | adrianr@ecr.mu.oz.au --------| Adrian -aka- Plugger | * * * * * | _/_\ | adrianr@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au -| What time is love? | *_* * *_ *_ | / OZ | | adrianr@mundil.cs.mu.oz.au --| I think its gonna be | * * * * * | \__-_/ | -- I want more accounts! ----| long, long time. | * * * * * | v ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1993 04:37:17 -0500 (EST) From: Greg K Chung Message-Id: Subject: Surround Sound on GUS? To: Ultrasound Daily Digest In reply to someone's earlier question.. I too was thinking about this possibility. However, for surround you need four distinct channels.. and this isn't possible without additional hardware. I can think of two possibilities: 1) Allocate 8 voices each for each of the four channels. Encode these somehow, send these thru the stereo output, and decode them with some audio hardware. 2) Have a separate sound card, like a PAS, SB P16, or another GUS to handle the extra channels. This would definitely be the easiest. Additionally, I suppose it *might* be possible to send signals out the midi port, where additional hardwar could break it into a stereo signal. Being that the midi (game) port is very fast, this might actually be possible, but it seems to me that this would be very performance taxing because you couldn't use standard playback techniques. Just my thoughts... All in all, a good idea... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 01 Apr 93 11:47:06 EST From: tmcreek@eos.ncsu.edu Message-Id: <9304011647.AA01571@c00060-100lez.eos.ncsu.edu> Subject: Ultima 7 fix uploaded To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I have uploaded the new .adv files for Ultima 7 (parts 1 and 2) to epas. The filename is u7gus.zip Just follow the directions in the readme. I am having problems now with ECOQuest II. I got the Windows .exe running, and I have changed the patch map and loaded load1024.mid's patches. But I still can't get any sound! Media player is saying there is no MIDI device, but Winjammer and Cakewalk find it just great. Could this be the problem? Is there a solution? -- tmcreek@eos.ncsu.edu \ These views respresent no one. / Now you creek-tm@aza.csc.ncsu.edu \ Even I won't claim them. / are here ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #include "std_funny_stuff.h" /* This is where I include some witty tripe */ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 1 Apr 93 11:13:24 EST From: Phat H Tran Message-Id: <9304011613.AA07772@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca> Subject: Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #1 To: Ultrasound Daily Digest > Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1993 16:55:10 GMT > From: mer6g@fuggles.acc.Virginia.EDU (Marc Rouleau) > Message-Id: > Subject: [GUS] Driver crashes Windows (was Re: GUS questions) > To: Ultrasound Daily Digest > [...] > > Any suggestions? Is my motherboard no good? Gravis, are you working on > this? What can I do to document the problem for you? Is anyone else > experiencing symptoms like these? Is anyone experiencing rock-solid > Windows 3.1 stability even while using the GUS drivers heavily? > The GUS Windows drivers haven't crashed or gone sour in any way on me yet. I've read that someone could hang Windows if they went into Word and try to cursor past the last character in rapid succession (and hence cause the system exclamation sound to ring over and over). I've tried to duplicate this and couldn't. I don't think many people are having problems with the Windows drivers. Phat. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1993 01:40:33 -0500 (EST) From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion) Message-Id: <9304020640.AA23318@brise.ERE.UMontreal.CA> Subject: Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #1 To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Beyond the ultraworld of MikeE: > > 1st I guess you would power the mike. But then you get a signal that is > also powered. I do NOT think this is compatible with a line-in at this > point. As Homer would put it, duh? I do not understand what you mean. > There should be a simple circtuit one could build to take the output from > this powered MIKE and transform it ot either MiKE (input) or LINE-IN. Maybe i am missing something here, but you want: To connect a non powered mike that needs to be powered to the GUS (for example, a Macintosh mike to the GUS). Maybe you should check the circuit (with GIF and all) i made some time ago. It does exactly that and can also be used to make a microphone with a condenser capsule from Radio Shack or a modified PZM mike... It will also make all these mikes compatible with any 600 ohm mike input without phantom power. > PRIZE!!! > > He or she who comes up with the first circuit will get a FREE > Apple powered MIKE in the mail from me.... ( hey its all I have...) Check on archive.epas.utoronto.ca for the file micro.arj. Do i win? > Any takers? > Thanks, > MikeE 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: Thu, 1 Apr 1993 14:18:17 -0800 From: Eric N. Liao Message-Id: <199304012218.AA10172@aerospace.aero.org> Subject: Windows magazines To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Well, I think, relatively speaking, the Windows magazines are well-justified in how they review cards. These magainzes are intended for people who use primarily windows. I don't they could care less about how great a soundcard is in DOS or games, just windows. Think of it in reverse. Would you want to use an S3 or Weitek P9000 acceler- ator in a DOS game? Of course not, everyone would trash these cards for the poor VGA performance they yield. It's the same thing with Windows and GUS. Why would Windows users care if the GUS has WTS and all this good stuff, if the Windows drivers don't work? (Just as why would a computer gaming purist care how great the P9000 is in Windows @ 24-bit color? ) If there is an article that says specifically "voice annotation." Is the reviewer "stupid" for ignoring the Roland SCC-1 or LAPC? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 1 Apr 93 11:34:38 CST From: Michael J Stumpf Message-Id: <9304011734.AA10461@tamsun.tamu.edu> Subject: wing commander 2 To: Ultrasound Daily Digest A quick mail note or digest reply is appreciated. Anyone get WING commander 2 to work? If so what did ya have to do? thanks..  ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #2 ******************************