Ultrasound Daily Digest Wed Aug 4 00:07 Volume 5: Issue 3 Today's Topics: DUNE2AIL and Dune2 Good Recording !! GUS Price Upgrade?!? Keep it higher than up Gravis.. Megaem - is it worth $50 cdn? Mitsumi & CD audio thru GUS SBOS Interrupts Space Hulk with GUS? UltraSound & Windows Startup woes..... Ultrasound and Windows startup ? Ultrasound Daily Digest V5 #2 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: Tue, 3 Aug 1993 15:05:07 -0400 (EDT) From: Greg Chung Subject: Message-ID: <199308031905.AA25641@cnj.digex.com> To the person who asked about Windoze... it writes some data to the GUS memory, all though I don't think that accounts for all of the delay. Most likely if you have Windows set up to play a startup sound, that's the cause of any delay. (Also, I know that the GUS driver reads in the patch.cfg file. It might even verify the existence of those files, I'm not sure.) An unrelated topic... I was using the SDK to program the GUS and ran into a problem with the IRQ functions used by UltraOpen(). I haven't been able to figure out why, but if the MIDI IRQ is set to 7 (the default) I would get a stack overflow when I tried to use fopen(). I changed the MIDI IRQ to 12 and the problem cleared up... ?????? ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1993 19:06:03 -0700 From: Eric N. Liao Subject: DUNE2AIL and Dune2 Message-ID: <199308040206.AA16362@aerospace.aero.org> I tried the Dune2AIL (newer version that uses SCC-1 & SBPRO), and it works sort of. Whenever there are some sound-effects, the music (except for the drums) cuts out. Is there any way around this? I noticed that if there is voice in the background, at the same time there is supposed to be digital sfx (shooting), the music cuts out. With SBOS, I noticed that the game would use FM for sfx, if the digital voice was not free (like "reporting....acknowledged...moving out!") ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 04 Aug 93 02:03:29 -0400 From: "Robinhood -- Marshall Lai" Subject: Good Recording !! Message-ID: <9308040603.AA19331@crux2.cit.cornell.edu> I have got the GUS for a few months now but haven't had any luck in doing any serious recordings. Tonight, I used only 8-bit 22K recording of an entire Night of the Summer Side (A Japanese Animation Theme Song) off a Sony Discman with line level connecting both sides. The results is surprisingly good! Only minimal amount of noise is recorded! I can't believe what I am hearing at first, I even check to see the discman is off. But I would say that it is by far the best sound card in the low end in the recording arena!! It is even better than the one my friend sampled with a PAS 16!!!! (16-bit recording that is) Maybe that is because I am recording the entire song into memory first (Yes, I have 20MB of Ram and I am using Goldwave from Windows. One of the best uses of the Windows.) Great Work Gravis! BTW, I have a 486-DX33 EISA with OPTi chipset without any trouble using 16-bit DMA. Robinhood ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 03 Aug 93 22:25:51 EDT From: teppana@jybox.jyu.fi (Janne Makela) Subject: GUS Price Upgrade?!? Message-ID: I planned to purchase the Ultrasound card... The price seemed very reasonable to me, so I ordered it. On a phone I was told, that all cards (I'm talking about packet which is advertised here as a 'Gravis Ultrasound Action Pack') were sold out. I made my order anyway and sat down to wait my packet to arrive. I waited and waited... and finally took a call to my dealer. And what did I heard?!? There were cards now, but the price was increased about $50! There were also a lot of 'reasons', all very dimmy. The story went something like this: "It's a whole new card, new ROMs and some other improvements. Packet also includes new (and better) software. Gravis has raised prices, so we're forced to do the same." So, WHAT IS GOING ON?!? Are these 'reasons' real or is my dealer just dreaming? If 'the whole new card' has born, what makes it worth of extra $50? Should I buy old or new version, or nothing at all? I need more information to make my decision. Please reply/mail to me as fast as possible! I will read them all (I read better than write this language :-)). -- Janne Makela (teppana@jybox.jyu.fi) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Aug 93 19:22:21 EST From: adrianr@mullian.ee.mu.OZ.AU (adriano ennio raiola) Subject: Keep it higher than up Gravis.. Message-ID: <9308030922.2166@mullian.ee.mu.OZ.AU> Hi GUSheads, havent posted in a while, thought I'd say something.. There was some talk recently on c.s.i.p.soundcard about the GUS vs. Roland SCC-1 in terms of sound, and while all the people that had heard both pretty much said the SCC-1 was still miles ahead (well it IS a synth), Id just like to say the Gravis is still light years ahead of all other cards, just in case you'd forgotten :) And if you want proof, get GM_MIDI.ZIP of epas, all round probably the best collection of mids since scdemos.zip, some of those classical pieces are still mind boggling for $200. Go suck Roland, it cant be THAT much better than this.. :> Also, the xwingmids on epas sound MEGA cool too, and speaking of things MEGA, hurry Jayeson and get the thing working properly! When we can hear the actual game music in Xwing sound the same as the midi files, we're talking REAL turkey.. cyas, Adrian adrianr@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1993 10:39:21 -0230 (NDT) From: Ed Reddy Subject: Megaem - is it worth $50 cdn? Message-ID: I had a chance this weekend to give Megaem a good look over. Considering all the software offers (which is very little) besides excellent Roland Emulation, is very little for the money. A $50 cdn registration fee for the ShareWare product is required. The unregistered version only plays for 10 minutes. To get sound back requires re-loading of the Megaem software, which only gives another 10 minutes. IMHO, this software, considering it is still bugridden, and is not compatible with a variety of games, is definatly not worth $50. It is not worth $30. I would pay $15-20. Anyone else feel it is overpriced? _____ - If every man stopped thinking about war and hatred, / ### \ and started to think about Space, just imagine how ()\_____/() close a reality Star Trek would be right now.. ereddy@morgan.ucs.mun.ca & edward@dragger.ifmt.nf.ca ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 03 Aug 93 13:57:46 GMT From: mike@batpad.org (Mike Batchelor) Subject: Mitsumi & CD audio thru GUS Message-ID: I fixed the problem, thanks to those who responded with suggestions. The problem was pilot error. I had plugged the Mitsumi card into the GUS, instead of plugging the CDROM drive itself into the GUS. Now it all works fine. -- Mike Batchelor | Windows : DESQview/X :: Solitaire : Network BlaqJaq mike@batpad.org | Mar Vista, California | This space for rent ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1993 20:20:32 -0700 From: sol man Subject: SBOS Interrupts Message-ID: <199308040320.AA19343@scipp.ucsc.edu> How is SBOS called? Are there hardware interrupts generated by the GUS? sol ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1993 11:25:10 +1000 From: Peter.Enzerink@FINANCE.ausgovfinance.telememo.au Subject: Space Hulk with GUS? Message-ID: <102511040893*/G=Peter/S=Enzerink/O=FINANCE/PRMD=AUSGOVFINANCE/ADMD=TELEMEMO/C=AU/@MHS> A local games shop is having a bit of a special on this and from Games Byte 12 it looks pretty good. Any GUS users out there have this, and if so, how does it sound with the GUS? I've also heard there is a demo of this on the net. Any ideas where? INTERNET: Peter.Enzerink@finance.ausgovfinance.telememo.au or Pedro@act.acs.org.au X400 : /G=Peter/S=Enzerink/O=Finance/P=ausgovfinance/A=telememo/C=au SMAIL : PO Box 165, Queen Victoria Terrace, Parkes 2600, Australia ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1993 19:34:22 -1000 (GMT-10:00) From: Paul Murgatroyd Subject: UltraSound & Windows Startup woes..... Message-ID: > From: int341m@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au (Mr K.S. Yap) > Subject: Ultrasound and Windows startup ? > Message-ID: <9308030330.AA24330@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au> > > Greetings everyone, > I'm sure that everyone of you has noticed that if you use Ultrasound > in Windows, it will slow the startup of Windows significantly, it seems > to be loading some "pat" file during every startup, I am just wondering > if anyone knows a way to disable/speedup this process, I am sure a lot > of us would like to know. I have never noticed any sort of slow down at all while using the UltraSound with Windows 3.1. I gues sit all depends on what you actually mean by "slow-down". Do you have a Start-up sound set in the Control Panel?? If you do, that would explain the delay. Windows will cache the entire sound sample into RAM, and play it via a DMA transfer (so you can still work while a sound is playing). To prove my point, my windows startup is a 10 second 44.1Khz Stereo 8-bit sample of LSI by the Shamen. The file is approx 650K long. Windows first loads the sound file into RAM, and then plays it. If you look at the System Info via Program Manager, take not of the memory available (do this while the sound is playing). Now, a few seconds after the sound has finished playing, dot he the same thing. The memory available figure should have increased by the amount of memory your sound file consumes. The only way to stop this from happening is to disable the startup sound from the control panel. Also, I would check that you have not also added extra things like fonts sicne you installed your Ultrasound. The more fonts you have installed, the longer you will have to wait for windows to load. Hope this helps all those foljs who may have similar problems. The information above is as I know it from personal experience. I do not claim it is right, but that it is the case on my machine (486DX-50Mhz, 16Mb RAM). ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 03 Aug 93 13:57:39 -0400 From: "Momentary language, sexual situations" Subject: Re: Ultrasound and Windows startup ? Message-ID: <9308031757.AA02751@magick.tay2.dec.com> > I'm sure that everyone of you has noticed that if you use Ultrasound > in Windows, it will slow the startup of Windows significantly, it seems > to be loading some "pat" file during every startup, I am just wondering > if anyone knows a way to disable/speedup this process, I am sure a lot > of us would like to know. > Please share with us if you know how. Thanks in advance. I see no slowdown when Windoze starts up. My guess is that you are using a Midi Mapper setup to "preload" patches for non-patch-caching apps; if this is the case, change it to the normal "Ultrasound" settings and see if this helps. Note that I DON'T use SBOS so that might also be a factor (after all SBOS "shuts off" when you start Windoze. This might take some time)... DDA ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1993 10:24:25 +0930 (CST) From: Gavin Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V5 #2 Message-ID: <930804102425.1111e@hfrd.dsto.gov.au> >impster@umcc.umich.edu (Charles Budensiek) writes..... >Wouldn't it be neat if someone would program a spectrum analyzer thing so >we can see a nifty graphical display whilst playing a CD via the CD audio >input on the GUS. Windoze code would be best. :) I just love dreamers, but even on a fast 486DX you couldn't do it real time, it takes a coupla seconds just to do an FFT on a .WAV file. However, dream on,that's where the good ideas come from. ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V5 #3 ************************************