Ultrasound Daily Digest Fri Jun 4 00:34 Volume 4: Issue 4 Today's Topics: Cubase for Windows Executioner won't see BLASTER FPTEST GUSPLAY Version 1.5 Probs... GUS support for Worx Toolkit GUS will soon have OS/2 2.1 drivers!!! Micropose microprose or pose Summer CES info Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #3 WAV to MID (or the like) Where to get files? Standard Info: - Meta-info about the GUS can be found at the end of the Digest. - Before you ask a question, please READ THE FAQ. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 3 Jun 93 11:16:45 CDT From: eason@ncrnd3.StPaul.NCR.COM (Dale Eason) Subject: Re: Message-ID: <9306031616.AA15684@ncrnd3.StPaul.NCR.COM> > can someone tell me what does the field 'Tremolo sweep' and >'Vibrato sweep' control? I have managed to get just about all of the >patch control working with multi-sample, sustain, etc, except for the >tremolo and vibrato. I believe it specifies how fast to ramp up from no trem or vib to the depth specified. It may also specify the how fast to go from 0 hz to the specified LFO hz. Dale ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jun 93 18:55:23 +0100 From: Steve Subject: Cubase for Windows Message-ID: <25162.9306031755@rowan.coventry.ac.uk> I'm an avid (if that's the right word) owner of an ultrasound board with the latest sbos, windows drivers etc. The thing is I cannot get Cubase for Windows to play through the card. I'm using the Cubase setup for Multimedia Windows and the Multimedia timer, the setting for Soundblaster Pro doesn't work. I can see the Ultrasound Synth displayed but not a thing comes through my speakers. Does anyone know how to correct this. It seems to be an ongoing theme with all my windows/midi/ultrasound programs. Sometimes I get sound, sometimes I don't. Can I just echo a previous contributers request and ask for a list of demos, proggies etc to be posted, it would be most helpful. Cheers Steve (University of Coventry) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1993 16:18:29 -0400 From: jimb@etgn01.webo.dg.com (Jim Buja) Subject: Executioner won't see BLASTER Message-ID: <9306032018.AA14164@etgn01.webo.dg.com> Now that this game (demo) has been out for a few days, has anyone had any luck getting it to run with any kind of sound board?? Especially on a GUS ?? It contains 3 SBFM drivers which are installed by the main program itself and they always report back an error: Cannot find BLASTER environment variable which I think was an error 00005. You have to search around inside the .DRV files to find the text that corresponds with the error on the screen. Also I have no trouble getting the regular SBFMDRV.COM driver to see the BLASTER variable and it installs with no errors while SBOS is installed. However, you can't use that driver because the Executioner program wants to automatically install the one it has. A nice idea if it worked .... Other than that the game runs OK, but could sure use some sounds .... Jim ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 02 Jun 93 22:10:36 From: john.smith@gravis.com Subject: FPTEST Message-ID: <9306022210.A7621wk@gravis.com> I'm sending this from home so I don't have all the stuff in front of me. I'll repost a longer msg tomorrow when I'm at work. I thought I should let you know that we released a better 3D demo called FPTEST04.ZIP. You can find it on our BBS. Could someone download this and upload it to the FTP site for me? As I will be kind of busy the next few days getting MIDPAK/DIGPAK ready for you guys to play with Thanx. C'ya John ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 02 Jun 93 00:40:41 PDT From: ymakino@patchby.speedway.net (Yoshi Makino) Subject: GUSPLAY Version 1.5 Probs... Message-ID: ->Date: Fri, 21 May 1993 15:19:36 GMT ->From: pand@kullmar.se (Peter Andersson) ->Subject: New version of Gusplay! ->Message-ID: <1993May21.151936.25400@kullmar.se> -> -> This version of gusplay fixes to the problem with some VGA cards and ->has also a DOS shell. Any comments to Robert will be forwarded to him ->please include a 'To RA:' in the header. The player has grown to 7Kb.... -> ->(Etc etc) -> ->begin 644 gusplay.zip ->M4$L#!!0 @ ( -T&M1IQR>!*AQ8 8 + 1U534$Q!62Y%6$5-F M8 ->M$V?V_]]W)H0 @42$"!8A4,MZ:P3*6HJ1BQ"T%B]XV9:U_%94%+>"%!)$JQ ; ->M)9#Q%^VO_;5=VU406ZMK6[2H7"H$(N"U@J#<@025A'!)PB639)+W/]U]GO^O ->M\\SG/6?.S'SG//.\M//GHW6QQ!D*YV>D'^:+*^:+,S/X>PYEY4@X:@T_/7OO And stuff like this goes on and on..... Anyhow... I was wondering How you make that little nifty text file that appeared on the 05-21-93 editon of the Ultrasound Daily Digest into a program.. I tried to E-mail the author but got no response... and help you can offer wil be greatly appreciated! Also has anyone in the Southern California area received his/her Gravis 2.06 disks yet.. still waiting..... Yoshi Makino =) Sushi and spiked hair forever! (= ymakino@patchby.speedway.net -- patchby.speedway.net The Patchbay BBS, South Pasadena, CA + 818-441-3965 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Jun 1993 19:05:00 GMT From: wyman@rtsg.mot.com (Mark S. Wyman) Subject: GUS support for Worx Toolkit Message-ID: ReprintFrom: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard I just got off the phone with Mystic Software to see if they were planning any support for the GUS. They said that they have not received very many requests for the GUS from their user base so they are a little leary about spending the time on it right now. However, they do have a GUS and they agree that it is light years beyond the Soundblaster. They did admit that they would support the GUS if some more people asked for GUS support. Hmmm... nice post. :) Maybe I should mention what the Worx toolkit provides before begging everyone to plead with Mystic Software to support the GUS! :) The Worx toolkit is a sound library for the Soundblaster, internal speaker, Soundblaster PRO, and Roland MP32. There are versions to work with various C compilers (I am using BC++ 3.1) as well as Pascal compilers. What does the Worx toolkit provide you? - Midi support. This is a really nice feature. You can play general MIDI files through an ordinary Soundblaster, the Soundblaster PRO, or Roland MP32. You can even play a single channel music file through the internal speaker. The MIDI file is played in the background so that you have control of the rest of your program while the MIDI file is playing. - CMF (Creative Labs Midi format)support. Same as the MIDI support. - VOC support. Can play a VOC sound either as a 'one shot' (loaded in memory) or from file. The playing of VOC files is done in the background so you have control of your program while the VOC is playing. Also, a VOC can be playing at the same time as a MIDI (or CMF). - Works in protected mode. This suprised me. I just found this out today! A new Worx Plus toolkit has just been finished. This is the same as the Worx toolkit but in addition up to 8 VOCs can be played at the same time using a standard Soundblaster! I was told that they use DMA to achieve this. The playing of these VOCs is in the background and can work in conjunction with playing a MIDI file. The Worx toolkit is $79.00 and the Worx Plus toolkit is $199.00. There are no royalty fees, no upgrade charges, nor are there any licensing fees. I have been using Worx for over a year now and I have never had to pay for an upgrade. They have a BBS from which you can obtain updates quickly. The latest issue of PC Magazine (Latest PCs on the cover) has a favorable review of the Worx toolkit. You may want to give that a reading. If you are interested please contact Mystic at Mystic Software (510)865-9189 phone (510)865-3856 BBS (510)865-9563 Fax You can ask for Tim or Dan. If you want GUS support please let them know. The more people who ask the more likely they will add support. They are pretty much open to the idea if a few more people ask for it. Mark Wyman I am not an employee of Mystic Software. Just a selfish customer looking for GUS support :) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1993 04:09:22 GMT From: Ben.Kalman Subject: GUS will soon have OS/2 2.1 drivers!!! Message-ID: <1993Jun3.040922.21520@mixcom.mixcom.com> ReprintFrom: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard I called the Advanced Gravis Technical Support today, and spoke with Matt. I've worked with him before with the OPTi DMA problems, as well as other problems I've run into using the GUS. He's been really helpful, and honest, so I am going to post what he said about OS/2 support. The drivers for OS/2 were started about 2 weeks ago. I believe he said that Forte has contracted several programmers to work on the drivers. He said that he believes that the drivers *will* be released in 3 weeks... about June 21ish if that helps. He also said, however, that software tends to always come out late... so don't rest too much on that date. One thing he did reasure me of, however, was the fact that the drivers ARE under development. I told him that getting these drivers out is VERY important as you folks are all asking "what soundcard is best for .....?" type questions. I mentioned that I have read several people recommending PAS16, SB16, SBPro over the GUS because of the existing OS/2 support. Gravis *is* losing a potentially LARGE market if they delay these drivers. He seemed pretty responsive to that... and said that I should call him back this Friday (June 4th) and he would have more info on the release of the OS/2 drivers. Until these drivers are released, however, you can still run WIN/OS2 and other Windows apps in Seamless mode that use the Windows 3.1 GUS driver... they should all work. As far as soundblaster support under OS2, he said that SBOS doesn't work... this has been confirmed by other people in the OS/2 groups. He said that IBM is sending several copies of OS/2 to Gravis to make sure that they support it. (Yeah, IBM!!! Good move). I recommended to Gravis that they did support OS/2. Matt said they planned to. So, perhaps in 3 weeks, we will see the first OS/2 drivers for the GUS... they'll probably be betas, and I wouldn't count too much on a patch manager or a mixer, but I believe the mixer is standard with OS/2 2.1's MMPM. Until then, happy Gusing and OS/2ing and Windowing and DOSing. But, once the drivers come out, happy Gusing and OS/2ing ONLY!!!!!! If you have any questions, or comments, please don't reply to me via email... just do a follow-up to this message so I can respond for the benefit of other USENETters. Thanks! -- *********************** Ben.Kalman@mixcom.com * Yes, he is a machine * language techie person* who has no clue what * he did to his pewter * to biff it up that bad* *********************** ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jun 93 16:12:12 MES From: fischer@tmpmbx.netmbx.de (Axel Fischer) Subject: Micropose Message-ID: Hi, well that is said news about no native GUS support, but on the other I own a lot of Microprose games and ALL are working perfect with SBOS. This is: F1GP (World Curcuit) V1.05 The Legacy V1.03 Dog Fight Darklands ATAC Harrier Jump Jet B-17 Flying Fortress and maybe one or two more I don't recall here @work. I can live with that. Challenge Of The 5 Realms has been the only game where I had problems with Microprose. The initial speech came delayed when the bad guy spoke for the first time in the intro, but inside the game all works perfect. -Axel ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jun 93 17:37:53 PDT From: godfrel@sfu.ca Subject: microprose or pose Message-ID: <9306040037.AA16015@fraser.sfu.ca> > Just to let you all know, according to Microprose reps on > America On-Line, they state that they have no support or > planned support in the near future for the GUS. Sorry, but this was probably Microprose US talking. Microprose UK already has four titles planned or completed with GUS support. Brad Craig of Gravis has the details on this. Godfrey. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1993 19:37:31 -0500 (CDT) From: Christopher Allen Kalin Subject: Summer CES info Message-ID: <9306040037.AA22867@csd4.csd.uwm.edu> Well, just got back from my first day at Summer CES and boy do I have some Ultrasound news for you guys! First off, the new disks were mailed out last week, so we (at least us in North America) should be getting them within a week or so. These disks INCLUDE the two files we've been hearing about, namely PowerChord and the other one whose names escapes me for the moment. Second, the Miles Drivers (.ADV) should be ready in a few weeks. They already have betas (7th Guest in native GUS mode sounds INCREDIBLE) but nothings being released for now. On a side note, and I heard this DIRECTLY FROM RICHARD GARRIOTT, is that there will NOT be a Strike Commander patch for the Ultrasound. The non-standard way that SC handles the ADV filesdo not allow for the swapping of ADV files. However, Richard says that they've just gone to a new sound engine which will support the GUS among other cards. (BTW, Privateer, Pacific Strike, Shadowcaster, and Wing Commander Academy all look GREAT so far.) I got to try the 3D demo Virtual Turkey, but I couldn't take home a copy because Gravis is not allowed to distribute it (it's Focal Point's property) and the FP rep. was not there at the time. Great game, though. Any other questions about the GUS or new games coming out? Feel free to mail me. Chris Kalin Chris Kalin-----> ckalin@csd4.csd.uwm.edu -OR- ckalin@watt.cae.uwm.edu Your friendly neighborhood Babbage's employee! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jun 93 9:42:22 PDT From: roberts@brahms.amd.com (Dave Roberts) Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #3 Message-ID: <9306031642.AA06381@angelo.amd.com> chrisw writes: > cognex!sol_azteca!bobt@ai.mit.edu (Bob Tillman) wrote: > >Digital audio systems require an anti-aliasing low-pass filter to cut off > >the artifacts of sampling. With a 44.1k sample rate, this filter has to > >have a much sharper cutoff than with a 48k sample rate. If done in the > >analog domain, sharper filters tend to have phase problems near the cutoff > >frequency. > > Great! Think I understand now. So 48khz is needed for recording (DATs) so you > can have a milder anti-aliasing filter, but not for playback (CDs) since all > you've got to remove is quantisation noise which I presume is much less of > an issue. But unless you're going to do a classy interpolation job you should > keep playback rate = recording rate? (Would anyone like to hazard a guess as > to the effects on a 48khz sample of lineraly interpolating it to a 44.1kHz > sample during playback?) I don't think you quite have it. If Bob will pardon me, let me see if I can explain it. Okay, back to basics. After sampling you have a set of points that are an approximation of the true wave form that you started with. It's a square wave representation of that original waveform, however. That is, when you do the D-to-A conversion, you actually create a waveform that looks like: |-----| |-----| | | | | | | |-----| |-----| | | | | | | |-----| ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Sample points where each of the step changes occurs at a sampling point. Now, we know that square waves are really composed of lost of sine waves at multiples of the fundemental frequency of the square wave. What this means is that when you reproduce your approximation of the original wave form, you end up with sine wave being produced at multiples of the sampling frequency that weren't present in the original waveform. If you looked at a frequency plot, you'd see | | | | P | X X O | X X X X X X W |XX XX X X X XX XX X X X E |XXXXX X XX X XXXXXX X XX X X R |XXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX X |XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX |XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX |XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX +------^------^------^------^---------- 22KHz 44KHz 66KHz 88KHz FREQUENCY Notice how the patter repeats at 44KHz. In fact, if you were to draw it past 88 KHz, you'd also see the pattern repeat. The stuff from 44 KHz upward is the "artifact" that Bob talked about. It's created just because you're converting a digital square wave back into analog sine waves. Note that the only thing that we're really interested in is the stuff from 0 KHz to 22 KHz. Those are the only frequencies that most of us hear. According to the Nyquist theorem, the stuff from 22 KHz to 44 KHz is just junk. We don't know what was supposed to be there because we didn't sample at a high enough frequency to accurately capture it. So, what's above is right at the output of the DAC. ALL digital audio equipment has an analog section that then operates on this output to filter off the stuff we don't want. So, we implement a low pass filter that does the following. We want it to start rolling off at 22 KHz and be as far down at 44 KHz as possible. It looks something like the following. | | | |------\ P | X \ X O | X X \ X X X X W |XX XX X \ X XX XX X X X E |XXXXX X XX\X XXXXXX X XX X X R |XXXXXXX XXX\ XXXXXXXX XXXX X |XXXXXXXXXXXX\XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX |XXXXXXXXXXXXX\XXXXXXXXXXXXXX |XXXXXXXXXXXXXX\XXXXXXXXXXXXX +------^------^------^------^---------- 22KHz 44KHz 66KHz 88KHz FREQUENCY Unfortunately, analog filters that have steep attenuation rolloff also tend to have ripple in the passband (the flat portion that we want to keep) or they tend to be very complex in order to compensate (read expensive). The ripple in the passband is distortion that you or I could hear. That's bad. In order to keep the filter cheap and not have as much ripple, you can built a filter with slower rolloff. The problem is that you won't attenuate as much of the higher frequency junk as you're trying to get rid of. There are two ways around this. Remember that the junk is generated in multiples of the sampling frequency (in our case, 44 KHz). By sampling at a higher frequency, you shift the artifacts out on the frequency axis. You can either start with a higher sampling rate, or oversample. CD's typically oversample. That is, they generate (interpolate) points on the square wave between that actual points that were sampled. This makes the square wave a higher resolution approximation of the actual wave, if you will. If you oversample one time, you generate one point between each of the two actual samples. This creates a spectrum like this: | | | | P | X X O | X X X X X X W |XX XX X X X XX XX X X X E |XXXXX X XX X X XXXXX X XX X X R |XXXXXXX XXXX X XXXXXXX XXXX X |XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX |XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX |XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX +------^------^------^------^---------- 22KHz 44KHz 66KHz 88KHz FREQUENCY Note that the artifacts are still there, but they're farther out on the frequency axis. This lets us built a filter like this: | | | |------\ P | X \ X O | X X \X X X X W |XX XX X X X\ XX XX X X X E |XXXXX X XX X X\ XXXXX X XX X X R |XXXXXXX XXXX X \ XXXXXXX XXXX X |XXXXXXXXXXXXXX \ XXXXXXXXXXXXXX |XXXXXXXXXXXXXX \ XXXXXXXXXXXXXX |XXXXXXXXXXXXXX \ XXXXXXXXXXXXXX +------^------^------^------^---------- 22KHz 44KHz 66KHz 88KHz FREQUENCY Notice that it's rolloff is a lot slower. Thus the ripples in the passband are not as great and there is not as much distortion that you hear. Additionally, it's still a cheap, easy filter. Note that you can do this many times. Some CD players have 16 times oversampling. This shifts the artifacts way out there so the filter can be *very* simple and easy. Why do you bother filtering at all, since all this stuff is outside human hearing? Well, basically you do it so you're not burning power on things you can't hear. This leaves more power available to be used for driving the audible portion of the wave. Note that you can actually hear this stuff. Not all CD players are equal, and a lot of it has to do with the way their analog portions are constructed. If you go to a stereo store. Listen to the same CD back to back on two different brands of CD players playing through the same amp and the same speakers. You'll hear a difference. Sony equipment sounds really "bright". There are a lot of highs preserved. Dennon equipment sounds less bright and more bassy. It all has to do with the filters they implement. As much as we talk and think about digital audio being exact reproduction of the sampled waveform, there is still a lot of analog work in the back end of the playback path that really effects what finally reaches the speakers. Now, having said all that, DAT isn't sampled at 48 KHz for any of these reasons. The 4 KHz difference is nothing in terms of the filter roll off. The artifacts are still very close and you still have to have a fast rolloff filter. I think the reason that DAT is sampled at 48 KHz is simply to make conversion from 44 KHz CDs to DAT very hard. For example, there isn't a 1 to 1 correspondence between samples. Copying was something that the recording industry was very concerned about and if the samples are 1-to-1 you can make copies with no noise or loss added. With the sampling mismatch you have to convert back into the analog domain and then back to digital for the reproduction. This introduces noise and things and thus the quality of the recording is not quite as good at the original. Whew! Well, I've spewed enough for now. Apologies to anybody out there who know this stuff backwards and forwards. There may be slight errors here or there (this is all from memory based on an engineering class I once took). Feel free to correct where necessary. Dave Roberts Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. I/O and Network Products Division david.roberts@amd.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1993 16:28:32 -0500 From: ken@austin.ibm.com (Ken Goach IBM) Subject: Re: WAV to MID (or the like) Message-ID: <9306032128.AA22604@daedalus.austin.ibm.com> >One or two months ago we had a discussion concerning MIDI-Input from >instruments which don't support MIDI (guitar, for example). Hmmm. All I know is I hooked an IVL Pitchrider guitar-to-midi converter up to my GUS and it worked just fine (other than the fact that the Pitchrider, like almost all guitar-to-midi converters, has lousy tracking). Kinda cool to play the guitar and hear piano chords come out, or synth, or whatever. I plan to experiment more, but this thing is old, borrowed, and doesn't track worth a crap, so it's pretty much useless for wild, whacked-out leads. It's an interesting tool to voice chords differently, but that's about it. >That means something like a WAV (or VOC, etc.) to MID conversion. WAV2PAT? MOD2MID? VOC->WAV->PAT? ;-) Ken ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jun 93 23:06:57 EST From: adrianr@ecr.mu.oz.au (Adriano_Ennio RAIOLA) Subject: Where to get files? Message-ID: <9306031306.3271@ecr.mu.oz.au> [replys and questions to differnt bits of the last digest] > and I coudn't be more pleased. If you haven't downloaded wcharts.zip, I'd > recommend it. Great reading. :) Great, WHERE do we download it FROM, huh? > Just to let you all know, according to Microprose reps on America On-Line, they > state that they have no support or planned support in the near future > for the GUS. The upgrade patch that they talked about was to > upgrade World Circuit to version 1.04 which is the modem play upgrade. > Oh well..... Bugger, i dont like to call people liars, but what was J.Smith going on about a while ago when someone had gone to Microprose and was coming back with the patches. > Linear volume mapping has been addressed in the latest Windows driver > and PlayMIDI. Unfortunately, I think that these missed the mass mail-out > date. So have these new version of playmidi and the windows drivers been released? Are they on epas? -- | 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 ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #4 ************************************