Ultrasound Daily Digest Sat, 16 Oct 93 0:49 MDT Volume 7: Issue 15 Today's Topics: 2nd Reality Lockup 2nd Reality lockup solution 7th guest and gus DIGEST ADMIN: SPLITTING THE LIST? divided digests Drum machine, CD player, Windows loading GUS & SB16 Gus as a drum machine GUS Assault Responses GUS marketing idea. Gusmix 1.0 uploaded to epas GUS Support Let's lose the e-mail idea MidiSoft Recording Session music/games split Music vs Games Playing at variable speed under Windows Possible explanation of 2nd Reality Crash Prince of Persia II - system lock QEMM and UltraMID? Sampling Board SBOS 3.0 (!) and joystick-problems Sbpro cable modify. Signal-to-noise Ratio The Beat Goes On The West Side uploaded to Epas US Soundboard prices?? We want upgrades! :-) 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: Fri, 15 Oct 93 10:02:37 -0700 From: rchoi@netcom.com (Raymond Y. Choi) Subject: Re: 2nd Reality Lockup This problem with having the demo lock up after the spinning cube sequence was discuss in the demos newsgroup. It turned out that the demo would hang if the path to it was too long. Try moving it from whatever directory you have it in to \2nd. Ray ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1993 10:11:03 -0400 From: jgamache@AIX1.si.usherb.ca (Jerry Gamache) Subject: 2nd Reality lockup solution Some posts on usenet solved this problem. Simply move the files from \util\comm\download\test\temp\demo\2ndreal to \2ndreal in other words KEEP THE PATH SHORT (cause the string length allocated in the code is too short). You can also try SUBST if you like... Enjoy... Jerry Gamache (jgamache@aix1.si.usherb.ca) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 93 12:28:14 EST From: pscs!perry@uu3.psi.com (Perry B. Walker) Subject: Re: 7th guest and gus Mike Batchelor, in regards to your post to the Ultrasound Daily Digest > [...] > $ So I created a section for the ultrasound as shown below: > $ > $ Name=Ultrasound & Ultramid > $ Groovie_name=Ultrasound > $ Pcm_adv_name=gf1digi.adv > $ Midi_adv_name=gf1midi.adv > $ > > None of this is really necessary. Just make sure that groovie.ini points > to gf1midi.adv for the xmi driver, and to gf1digi.adv for the pcm driver. > The game does not care one way or another what the Name or Groovie_name > are. > > [problem discription deleted] > $ > $ Name=Ultrasound & Ultramid (General Midi) > $ Groovie_name=GeneralMidi > $ Pcm_adv_name=gf1digi.adv > $ Midi_adv_name=gf1midi.adv > $ --- > > Nice try, but this all has nothing to do with the lockups. I get lockups > on exit also, and nothing makes them go away. I never have seen the > keyboard lockup you described, though. Just understand that nothing you > did with groovie.ini or audio.dat really had any effect on this. It's > coincidence that the lockups went away after making those changes. I can't agree with you on this. While it is true that the Name field has nothing to do with it, it is only used as the text displayed in the install program, the Groovie_name does make a difference. The Groovie_name becomes the section header in the groovie.ini file like this: [Ultrasound] irq=default port=default xmi=gf1midi.adv pcm=gf1digi.adv dma=default or [GeneralMidi] ... When the section header for midi is not GeneralMidi t7g does not loads its general midi drivers. If the section header for midi is GeneralMidi then when I start the game it displays a screen with a clock on it. This screen has the message "Please wait while general midi drivers are loaded". When I run the game with this setup it does not lockup on me at all. Not even on exiting the game. If t7g does not load its midi drivers the the game will lockup on exit or the press of any key on the keyboard. I have no idea why this is but I have tried this many times with the same results. I just can't see how you can call this a coincidence. The point of this was to pass along some imformation I had found to anyone interested. This modification of audio.dat lets you select the GUS from the t7g install program. I updated the audio.dat file int the t7gfix3.zip file with these changes. Now at some future date when I reinstall the t7g I can select GUS off the intsall menu and not have to remember: what do I select in the install program, what file do I edit, and what do I have to chanage and to what do I change it. Anyway what can I say I just get that warm fuzzy feeling when I see GUS in a programs install list. :-) --------------------------------------------------------- Perry Walker perry@pscsys.com or pscs!perry@uu3.psi.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1993 14:45:08 -0600 (CDT) From: ddebry@grue.dsd.ES.COM (Dave DeBry) Subject: DIGEST ADMIN: SPLITTING THE LIST? rford@infocomp.csir.co.za wrote: > Before I launch into boring background and lose anyone who might have a > comment, let me cut to the chase...what are the chances/logistics/other? > involved in splitting the GUS group into music and games? Before I answer, let me say that there were 5 people in yesterday's digest alone who liked the idea absolutely, 1 who liked it but came up with an alternate idea, and a big fat Zero people who disagreed. My point is that if you disagree, say so NOW. Chances: If it needs to be done, I'll do it. Logistics: Setting the lists up is not the problem; it's moving the users around. How do I know who should be on which list? Should I just copy the user list from this list to the spinoff list, and let people unsubscribe as they please? Or should I nuke the user list and start from scratch? (From my point of view, I can see 3 VERY good reason for starting from scratch, and only 1 good reason against.) Here's the message with the alternative suggestion: jericho!gord wrote: > I too wouldn't mind such a division on the digest, but I wonder > if there would be enough traffic on the music one to warrant a > split? > > One thing that might help, is if the faq were automatically mailed > out to all newcomers, so we don't get as many FAQ's (how do > I get Xwing under OS2 under NT emulation on my Amiga to use the > sounds from my C64 machine on Tuesdays..:) I like this a lot, mainly because it needs less work from me. Also, keep this in mind. School has only been going between 3 weeks and 1.5 months. Which means we got a BUNCH of new subscribers as the net got its annual Fall Flood. The digest (I think) will shrink down to a slightly more manageable level as the Flood recedes. Or, if the GUS sales keep going up, readership (and postings) will go up as well. You make the call. -- Dave ddebry@ debry@ \ "Give the director a serpent deflector, DeBry dsd. peruvian. | A mudrat detector, a ribbon reflector, es. cs.utah. | A cushion convector, a picture [sp] of nectar, com edu / A viral dissector, a hormone collector." ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 93 12:20:54 +0100 From: S.Magdalinski@cs.ucl.ac.uk Subject: divided digests Re: >> Before I launch into boring background and lose anyone who might have a >> >> comment, let me cut to the chase...what are the chances/logistics/other? >> involved in splitting the GUS group into music and games? >I personally would appreciate very much splitting up the GUS group into >music and games. It's annoying to have to browse through all messages in >the digest to filter out the music-related ones... and >Emboldened by Mr.Ford's posting to the list, I reveal that I too am also a GUS >owner without gamester credentials. Indeed, I can only echo his eloquent plea >for a division in the list. I've been saying this at fairly regular intervals for months now! Frankly, I don't give a toss about SBOS, Mega-Em or whether Ultima 4037 locks up after two seconds, but on the other hand, not being much of a programmer, I find the SDK list, a bit ,uh , esoteric. A list for the midi freaks would reduce the size of the daiily digest, which is getting out of control (GUS is just too darn popular these days ). How big is the SDK list anyway? No offence, persons, but I reckon there are probably more of us interested in midi, just watching the volume of games/music/SDK traffic on the digest. Here Ye, Dave DeBry! Music for the masses Stefan, smagdali@cs.ucl.ac.uk (preferred) zccaj19@ucl.ac.uk zcacsm0@ucl.ac.uk Hey, my collection of addresses is ever increasing! ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1993 14:17:41 +0000 From: Clarke Brunt Subject: Re: Drum machine, CD player, Windows loading While I'm sending a message anyway - Let's split the Digest into two, for Games/Music. Re: Using GUS as drum machine. Check out the mididrum program from the archive, or maybe PowerChords is good at this too. I would have thought that an ordinary sequencer is less appropriate for the repetitive playing used by a drum machine. Re: GUS works with OS/2 CD Player. Surely connecting a CD player to the CD Audio-in pins on the GUS does not demonstrate a GUS working under OS/2. I would have thought that all it demonstrates is that the GUS can amplify an analogue signal from CD audio-in, and send it out through audio-out. Time after time, in magazines also, I read things like 'XYZ sound card supports 44kHz 16 bit digital sound, and has CD interface, so can play high quality audio CDs'. Surely this is garbage. If a soundcard has a CD interface/daughterboard, all this does is save you a slot for a separate CD interface. If, furthermore the CD-player has audio-out connected to CD audio-in on the sound card, then you can play your CDs through the soundcard output, but there is nothing digital about this - the soundcard is only acting as either (i) a piece of audio cable, or (ii) an audio amplifier. Re: MidiSoft Recording Session note display. I think that the note display does quite a good job. It is virtually impossible to notate exactly what is found in a MIDI file - which is why the 'piano-roll' display (as in WinJammer) is often used. If two notes overlap, then just how are they to be notated? - perhaps as two different 'parts' of the piece (as in a fugue) but this can get ridiculous if more notes overlay, or are slightly off-beat. The software has to decide what sensible notation might have been played is this way by a slightly inaccurate (human) player. Re: Windows slowdown on loading. We've discussed this before. It's not very serious on my machine. The patches are obviously not actually loaded into the GUS (they won't fit anyway) - presubably the driver just checks them out in some way. I fail to see how a disk cache will help - unless you have just been reading the patches for some other reason, then they won't be in the cache. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1993 16:49:50 -0500 (CDT) From: Phil Johnson Subject: GUS & SB16 me out with windows or OS/2... In Windows, I'm not getting ANY sound whatsoever, and in OS/2, I'm getting most sound, but it gets clipped or doesn't play at all. Help?? My setup is as follows: SB16 : IRQ5 DMA1 16BitDMA5 GUS : Default Is it because my SB16&GUS share the DMA channel? I lost my docs, so I don't know how to enable DMA-sharing on the SB16... Any help would be greatly appreciated, and perhaps you could just email it directly to my account. Whatever. Thanks in advance. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | pjohnso2@ub.d.umn.edu Univ. of Minnesota - Duluth | "Lawnmower Man's in | ----------------------------------------------------- your head now, | | Jake." | | -- Jeff Fahey in | | Stephen King's THE | | LAWNMOWER MAN | |_____________________| ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1993 14:46:41 -0400 From: jericho!gord (Gord Wait S-MOS Systems Vancouver Design Center) Subject: Re: Gus as a drum machine I am not sure where you'll get pre-written drum parts, but as for software, the drum pattern editor found in your copy of PowerChords that comes with the 2.06 Upgrade is a great editor for drum tracks. I bought PowerChords Pro, for the extra features, and it allows me to take in General Midi drum tracks and turn them into PowerChords drum patterns. This is allowing me to port all of my Yamaha drum machine sequences into a windows sequencer. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 93 09:58:52 CDT From: dalessio@marble.rtsg.mot.com (Mario D'Alessio) Subject: GUS Assault Responses I sent a nice message to the addresses that were posted in an earlier digest asking for GUS support. Here are the responses that I have received so far (sorry for the long post). : ************************************* : : From linkspro1@aol.com Mon Oct 11 15:11:45 1993 : To: dalessio@marble.rtsg.mot.com : : Thank you for the note. All of our future releases will : address many of the major sound cards directly. : Mark Werner, Access Tech Suppor. : : ************************************* : : From: John Romero : Date: Mon, 11 Oct 93 11:50:11 -0500 : To: dalessio@marble.rtsg.mot.com (Mario D'Alessio) : Subject: Re: GUS and DOOM : : There's a very small chance that GUS support may be : dropped, but we're not worried about it yet. Sadly, : though, our GUS support will not take total advantage of : the card. We won't be having any 44khz samples, just : 11khz. DOOM is a shareware game, and it needs to be a : shareware size. 44khz samples will blow-up a project's : size considerably. The GUS does have a mixer chip so you : can have simultaneous sound effects -- but we're doing that : in software, so the SB and compatibles will have composited : sound effects as well. : : John Romero (romero@idsoftware.com) id Software : Send questions about id software to help@idsoftware.com : (NeXTmail OK). : : ftp.uwp.edu[131.210.1.4] id "Official" anonymous FTP site : : /pub/msdos/games/id id games : /pub/msdos/games/id/home-brew id games' great add-ons : /pub/incoming/id Upload dir : : ** There's a wide range of talent out there. ** : ** The floggings will continue until morale improves. ** : : ************************************* : : From stratsim@aol.com Mon Oct 11 10:55:49 1993 : To: dalessio@marble.rtsg.mot.com : Subject: Re: GUS Support : : Hi there, : : Currently, many of our current (Dark Sun included) and : future products support the UltraSound in native mode. We : do use the UltraMid TSR and the John Miles AIL drivers, and : have gotten teriffic results thus far. : : Thanks for letting us know you appreciate native GUS : support. : : Matt S. : StratSim : : ************************************* : : From wixer!cat@cs.utexas.edu Mon Oct 11 17:15:36 1993 : Subject: Re: your mail : To: dalessio@marble.rtsg.mot.com (Mario D'Alessio) : Date: Mon, 11 Oct 93 17:02:31 CDT : From: Dr. Cat : : It seems from the letters I've started receiving in my : email that there's an effort going on to get Gravis : Ultrasound owners to write to game makers requesting : support. So I decided to take a little time and draft a : short response to mail back to everyone on the subject. I : currently use the AIL sound library from Miles Design. : It's the best solution out there for supporting ALL the : sound cards currently on the market, which I consider : essential. Dragon's Eye is a small company, and I don't : have the resources to write sound card drivers myself, or : even to program extensions to the existing AIL system. I : contract my music and sound effects out to the Fat Man, and : I trust him and John Miles (the author of AIL) to provide : me with professional, high quality audio for my games and : other products. I don't know whether either of them has : any plans to enhance their support for the Gravis : Ultrasound in the future, but I'll certainly take advantage : of it if they do. : : It's my understanding that using Gravis's TSR doesn't : always cause music to sound quite the same as it does on : Adlib/Soundblaster cards. But I've only been able to test : my last product on 3 or 4 different sound cards, and I : don't have access to a GUS currently. If you really want to : be helpful, if you could try out any products I have out, : and drop me some email to let me know how they work (or : don't), I'd be grateful. Until I can get a GUS to test on : locally, I have to go by what other people tell me. : Hopefully AIL and the Fat Man will be supporting General : MIDI on the GUS eventually. The Fat Man already does : General MIDI arrangements for the Roland Sound Canvas, and : supporting it on the GUS would reduce compatibility : problems and improve sound quality at the same time. I'll : ask him about it next time I talk to him. : : One last note - thanks to those who asked politely for more : support. My apologies to those who prefer to boycott my : products, but I'm doing the best I can. I'd also suggest, : having worked for several big game publishers in the past, : that you're not likely to get much response from them with : a threat. A nice, pleasant letter, telling them what you : would like to see and why it would make their products even : better is almost always going to get a better reaction. : : Dr. Cat / Dragon's Eye Productions / I have no .sig : : ************************************* : : From 71333.1470@compuserve.com Tue Oct 12 08:51:05 1993 : Date: 12 Oct 93 09:47:07 EDT : From: Peter Alau <71333.1470@compuserve.com> : To: : Subject: +Postage Due+Message from Internet : : You are one of many who are send this message (postage due : I might add) to us. As much as we would like to, there are : many cards out there that we would like to support, but we : don't have the resources for. The Gravis is an awesome : card, I have one myself, but we cannot directly support : every sound card out there. Thus we write for general : midi, and Sound Blaster. Fortunately, the Gravis is : compatible. End of Story. -Peter at Maxis : : ************************************* : : From microprose@aol.com Tue Oct 12 10:03:46 1993 : From: microprose@aol.com : To: dalessio@marble.rtsg.mot.com : Date: Tue, 12 Oct 93 10:58:44 EDT : Subject: Re: : : Thank you for your letter regarding the Gravis UltraSound. : We are currently looking into the card and may support it : in future products. : : Best, : Brian/MicroProse : : ************************************* : : From 76004.2223@compuserve.com Tue Oct 12 14:46:52 1993 : Date: 12 Oct 93 14:59:24 EDT : From: MicroProse Software <76004.2223@compuserve.com> : To: : Subject: Message from Internet : : Hi Mario, : : Thank you for your letter regarding the Gravis UltraSound. : We are currently looking into the card and may support it : in future products. : : Best, : Brian/MicroProse : : ************************************* : : From 71333.463@compuserve.com Wed Oct 13 11:40:38 1993 : Date: 13 Oct 93 10:23:56 EDT : From: Impressions Software <71333.463@compuserve.com> : To: "INTERNET:dalessio@marble.rtsg.mot.com" : Subject: Re: +Postage Due+Message from Internet : : Mr. D'Alessio, : : We appreciate your input. You be happy to note that we : definately are considering to support Gravis in our future : games. : : Thank you for writing. : : -Impressions : : ************************************* : : From 70451.633@compuserve.com Wed Oct 13 13:11:31 1993 : Date: 13 Oct 93 12:09:28 EDT : From: Tim Sweeney <70451.633@compuserve.com> : To: : Subject: Message from Internet : : : Hi! Gee, we get lots of Ultrasound mail messages! The : answer is YES, we'll be supporting the true native-mode : Gravis Ultrasound in Epic Pinball, Jazz Jackrabbit, and One : Must Fall, all due to be released over the next three : months. The GUS quality way exceeds the best quality sound : from the PAS-16 and even SB-16, so you'll like it! Stay : tuned. : : -Tim Sweeney, Epic MegaGames : : ************************************* : : From sierras@aol.com Wed Oct 13 13:56:53 1993 : From: sierras@aol.com : To: dalessio@marble.rtsg.mot.com : Date: Wed, 13 Oct 93 14:53:27 EDT : : Hello, : : I cannot tell from your e-mail, but are you aware that we : have posted GUS drivers on AOL and other BBS services? : : John : : ************************************* : : From 76356.2172@compuserve.com Wed Oct 13 19:03:49 1993 : Date: 13 Oct 93 16:55:17 EDT : From: "Intergalactic, Dev., Inc" <76356.2172@compuserve.com> : To: : Subject: Re: Message from Internet : : The key to supporting various boards from the software : developer's point of view is the amount of support that we : get from the board manufacturer. If Gravis would send us a : board and a developer's kit (including source code) we : would support their board. To date we have received no : information whatsoever from Gravis about this (or any : other) product. : : - Ezra Sidran @ Intergalactic : : ************************************* : : From 76702.1342@compuserve.com Wed Oct 13 20:42:07 1993 : Date: 13 Oct 93 17:50:14 EDT : From: Interplay Productions <76702.1342@compuserve.com> : To: : Subject: Re: Message from Internet : : Dear Mario, : : You must feel very much alone with your Gravis UltraSound : card these days. We here at Interplay hear you loud and : clear! Expect to see future releases with FULL Gravis : UltraSound support! : : Steve Smith : Interplay Productions : : : ************************************* : : From 76004.2612@compuserve.com Thu Oct 14 19:21:41 1993 : Date: 14 Oct 93 19:01:47 EDT : From: Brian Wachhaus <76004.2612@compuserve.com> : To: : Subject: Message from Internet : : Hi Mario, : : Thank you for sharing your support of the Gravis : UltraSound. We are currently working on seeing what we can : do about this situation. I will be sure to pass on your : suggestions for support of the Gravis UltraSound. : : Best, : Jennifer Mason : Origin Product Support *********************************************************** * ___ ____ ____ * * /o o\ //oo\\ ( oo ) Mario D'Alessio __/\__ * * \_O_/ \__/ \__/ dalessio@rtsg.mot.com \RUSH/ * * WooWoo Work: (708) 632-2323 |/\| * * Woo 9am to 6pm Central Time * * * *********************************************************** ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 13:38:35 +1000 (EST) From: Andrew See Subject: GUS marketing idea. Ok, I've got a good idea to stimulate both sales, and developer support for the GUS. Get a Simple logo like a big fancy "G" or something. Make little stickers with this logo. Send heaps of these stickers to game developers who are supporting the GUS (Sierra, Activision etc) Put the little stickers on the front of their boxes. "This game works with the GUS" Etc. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 04:23:35 +0200 (EET) From: tnikkane@clinet.fi (Toni Nikkanen) Subject: Gusmix 1.0 uploaded to epas Hello again! A while back, I told I have done a quick hack of the ultrinit.sys file which leaves line input on, and uploaded it as line.arj to epas. Now I decided that's not enough, and made a TSR utility which allows you to control the onboard mixer of the Ultrasound card much easier. It is available in archive.epas.utoronto.ca in /pub/pc/ultrasound/submit as gusmix10.arj. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 93 13:49:18 CDT From: dalessio@marble.rtsg.mot.com (Mario D'Alessio) Subject: GUS Support I just received a phone call from Scott Fitzgerald (I hope I got the name right) of Wizard Games of Scotland. This is a small company that is somewhat similar to Apogee. He called me because I sent a message asking for Gravis Ultrasound support. Since they are a small company, he wasn't familiar with the GUS and asked for some information about it. Their current games don't rely on graphics and sound, but they are going to start heading in that direction, and they will look into the GUS for possible future support. He stated that they will definitly listen to customer comments and will consider this for future games. It was nice to hear personally from a company. This lets me know they are willing to listen. He dis mention that he received many rude messages from Gravis owners. PLEASE when you send mail to anyone asking for Gravis support, be kind. Otherwise, you will just get them upset and your mail won't hold much weight. In his opinion, a few kind letters work better than many rude ones. He responded to my message because I very "professional" about the way I asked for support. Remember, we want companies to listen to us, so don't make them "hang up" on us. If you would like to contact Wizard games, their email address is WizardScot@aol.com. Their games are available on FTP sites. Look for 1-0.zip and goal.zip. They are soccer simulations (I found them at ftp.uml.edu in /msdos/Games/Sports). I am in no way affiliated with this company. My first contact with them was when I received the phone call this morning. Mario *********************************************************** * ___ ____ ____ * * /o o\ //oo\\ ( oo ) Mario D'Alessio __/\__ * * \_O_/ \__/ \__/ dalessio@rtsg.mot.com \RUSH/ * * WooWoo Work: (708) 632-2323 |/\| * * Woo 9am to 6pm Central Time * * * *********************************************************** ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1993 09:37:45 -0400 (EDT) From: "Where's that $%#@*() ripcord?!?!" Subject: Let's lose the e-mail idea As far as sending letters to companies asking for support, since it is SO easy to wipe e-mail, perhaps it would be better so send snail mail AND smootch the collective behinds. Tell them how much you love their programs, how impressed you are with their brilliant coding (Yeah, right...) and how dissappointed you are that an outfit as professional as SoftSim or whatever doesn't support our beloved GUS. A serious approach, both sincere and direct, will probably do the trick. Nut the snail mail idea will probably work better.... ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1993 12:05:53 -0600 (MDT) From: Alfred Falk 450-5185 Subject: Re: MidiSoft Recording Session > Date: Thu, 14 Oct 93 21:28:01 EDT > From: Thayer York > Subject: MidiSoft Recording Session > > Has anyone else noticed a problem with the way the otherwise nice > Windows MIDI editor displays its notes? Here's an example of the > problem I'm seeing: > If I have a half-note in a measure, then stick another note after it > anywhere before the half-note's duration is up, the display changes and > makes it look like the half-note is shortened. I discovered that it > isn't really, it still gets its full count, but having a display that > makes it so you can't tell whether a note is really what it seems is a > pain. Me too! If you look at "Step entry parameters" windows, under "Note duration fill", that "normal" is 67%. If you were to significantly lengthen your note or use "legato", the problem will go away. I am most interested in bassoon (I play one [sort of] and haven't a clue what to do with a keyboard except type). I find 67% fill sounds too detached, 75-80% is a lot better. And since I'm responding already, I too, would like to add my vote for a separate music list. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alfred Falk A L B E R T A Edmonton, Alberta, Canada R E S E A R C H falk@arc.ab.ca C O U N C I L ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 93 10:30:27 BST From: james@maths.exeter.ac.uk Subject: music/games split Heres what I think about it. Yes I am a little tired of having to go over a lot of messages about games when this isnt really what im interested in. Im sure people who get mail via modem are very fed up. I have missed announcements about music things before and I think this was due to having to skim the ultrasound digest for relevant stuff. Against this there is a definite amount of crossover between games use and music use, although I cant think of an example of this at the moment to be honest. Critical mass is worth considering too. A mail list can be too noisey and it can also be too quiet. But on balance I think the large size of the digest recently would mean that it is time for a split, perhaps with the original server address feeding both lists, if this is possible. PS to Dave Debury On our suns theres a sendmail option that lets the mailer ignore full stops. -- James Andrews, Computer Development Officer, Exeter University Maths Dept ------------------------------ Date: 15 Oct 1993 09:33:28 PST From: chrisw Subject: Music vs Games ------------ Hi all. Just like to put in my vote for the music / games split as well. The digests have been getting truly massive nowadays and I'm never sure if I miss anything interesting while flicking through all the games stuff. As far as whether there is enough volume to have the seperate music digest: if we class all forms of noise stuff as music - wave recording/playback, patch making, midi sequencing - then I think we should have at least moderate volume. (Particularly with the 16 bit card arriving Real Soon Now). It seems a fairly unambiguous split: if it's to do with running a game of any sort (and probably demos as well) it goes on the games part, if it's to do with any music creating software of any sort it goes in music. Only difficulty is general where do I buy RAM/Gus, etc questions. (How about we leave them to the gamers - I think they're better bargain hunters. Us music people are too used to paying exhorbitant prices for everything). So how about it? Chris. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1993 11:42:48 -0300 (EDT) From: kevin harrigan f Subject: Playing at variable speed under Windows I want to allow users to vary the speed (frequency) at which they play .WAV files. The GUS allows the frequency of a .WAV file to be changed and I have done this under DOS with the driver that comes with GUS. I want to play this at variable spped. I'm using Toolbook which runs on Windows. I isse the toolbook MCI command "Set waveaudio samplespersec 14333" and it gives an error saying "Action not available on this device". So I called Ultrasound support and they said it is not possible to change the frequency through Windows apps. Is this true??? Kevin Harrigan Department of Physics and Computing Wilfrid Laurier University Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3C5 tel (519) 884-1970 x2984 fax (519) 884-8854 email kharriga@mach1.wlu.ca ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 93 12:21:00 HST From: David Komatsu Subject: Possible explanation of 2nd Reality Crash Several people have reported that 2nd reality crashes. A friend of mine has come up with a possible solution that was also posted to some newsgroups but since not everybody on here reads or has access to those newsgroups I have reposted the message. Hope this helps some of you. 2nd Realiity runs fine on my machine and its the best demo I have seen to date. ------------------cut------------here----------------- Article 3158 of comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos: Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos Path: news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!portal!duane From: duane@shell.portal.com (Duane Takamine) Subject: 2nd reality lockup problem solved! (I think) Message-ID: Sender: news@unix.portal.com Nntp-Posting-Host: jobe.shell.portal.com Organization: Portal Communications Company -- 408/973-9111 (voice) 408/973-8091 (data) Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1993 02:22:31 GMT Lines: 29 I believe I have found one definite failure mode for 2nd Reality. After hearing about other people's success with moving the demo from one drive to another or moving off of compressed drives, I began to play around with the location of the demo. It seems that if the demo is too deep in your directory structure (mine was in c:\apps\telix321\download\demos\2nd) it will lock up at certain times (in my case, the middle of section 3 with the bouncing blue dots). Once I moved the demo to C:\2ND it worked fine with sound, without sound, whatever. It may be that whatever routine is loading in the new parts has a string limit explicitly or implicitly on the home path for the demo. In either case, at least for me, loading the demo into a directory off of root works, and moving it back into a deep directory anywhere on my HD makes it fail if the directory is sufficiently deep. Unfortunately, I don't have the inclination to investigate in great detail what is "sufficiently deep" but I hope that this helps out there. Thanks to Karl Olav Lillevold (kol@hal.nta.no) and Justin Benade (justin@nuustak.csir.co.za) for their postings which gave me the idea to try this. Isn't the Net wonderful? :) Duane -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Duane Takamine duane@shell.portal.com Island CD Creations [a divison of Madd Hacker Productions] "We work for pizza and beer." -----cut---here-------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Introducing the sister sounds sites, twice as good, twice as fun | |------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ccb.ucsf.edu: 15 megs of SND files for REmac and PlayBwc | | saffron.inset.com: 80+ megs of STM, MOD, SND and MultiMedia | |------------------------------------------------------------------------- | sound@ccb.ucsf.edu | Editor the the Sound Newsletter | | davek@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu | Spreading the word about the | | -----> Dave | latest in sound technology | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 93 12:51:52 -0400 From: co805@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Mark E. Gall) Subject: Prince of Persia II - system lock Rhichards writes: I have this strange problem with POPII. When I start the game, I can hear the sound and the one-liner of speech at the beginning. Now, when I play the game, I hear the window crash sound but when I hit one of the 'bad' guys, the system hangs when you should hear a scream (I now that because it DID work a few weeks ago, at that time I had only 256Kb on my GUS now I have 1Mb, could that be the problem? I say: You describe the same thing that I am experiencing. I call tech support and they could give me no advise about the gus. I did tell them that when the screen locks sometimes I would get a message saying could not find this or that file. They suggested to increase my files to 50 in my config.sys file but that did not help at all. The way I play the game now is to just use the sbos and set the game for ADlib. The music sound great I hjust wish I can hear all the screaming and other neat digital stuff. By the way how do you get past the skeleton on the bridge ?? P.S. Ihave 256kb on my gus ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1993 09:52:27 +0800 (PST) From: Francis Li Subject: QEMM and UltraMID? I know that when using DOS 5.0/6.0's own LH command to load UltraMID high, it will fragment UltraMID to fit into whatever space possible. But how do you get it to work with QEMM 7.02? When I try to LOADHI UltraMID with QEMM, it will report, "Not enough high memory. Loading low". This bugs me because I have 40k high memory and I would like to put most of UltraMid into it. Anyone know how? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1993 22:15:41 -0400 (EDT) From: "(O) (O) c ?" Subject: Sampling Board I'd like to know the price of the daughter board and what on it will make it better than an entire 16 bit audio board like the SoundMan 16 from Logitech. Computability sells it for 105$. I thought I heard $150 for the daughtercard. I couldn't see paying more for the daughter board than an entire sound board.... unless, again, it had some special features. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1993 12:21:00 GMT From: thomas@hammer.hacktic.nl (Thomas van Kuipers) Subject: SBOS 3.0 (!) and joystick-problems I heard that SBOS 3.0 was coming with perhaps support of SB pro, but the main importance was that NOTHING is remaining in memory, only in the GUS MEMORY. Also i heard that sb emu was ALREADY in hardware GUS 'somewhere' I don't know if the WHOLE emu is already there or a part of it. --- GRAVIS: if you are reading this, is this correct? A friend of mine who doesn't own a email adress asked for me to post a problem he is having with GUS & joystick. He is playing a lot of flightsimulators and he has bought an expensive joystick (over $150), because with the last joystick he had the same problems (all joystick tried where new). The problem is that if he is playing the joystick isn't centered automaticly .... in other words .... is he is flying and doesn't do anything the plane is flying forwards or backwards or what ever the joystick likes, this is very unpleasant. Does anyone here has the same problems or a 'solution'? Thanks. BYe. <--------------------------------------------------------------------> Thomas van Kuipers Email: thomas@hammer.hacktic.nl De Wadden 49 Examenyear of HighSchool (6 VWO) 3524 AG Utrecht Important: Computers, Math, Women and Music! Telephone: +31 30 884235 Netherlands (in Europe) <--------------------------------------------------------------------> ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1993 15:40:16 +0100 (MET) From: giorgio matera Subject: Sbpro cable modify. Sorry to post a so many time asked question but I searched in many gus faq for it with no result: I have a sbpro midi cable I know that it can work on my gus with some changes, please don't tell me to find it here on there but send me the stuff required. thanks very thanks and thanks too!!!!!!! ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 93 06:36:33 PDT From: deraud@power.amasd.anatcp.rockwell.com (Robert Lee DeRaud) Subject: Signal-to-noise Ratio >From: int341m@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au (Shan Yap) >Subject: Assault's Result. > The only reason why I asked people to send me e-mail is because I want to >keep track of the number of participants in this assault, I know that some of >us, because of our own participation, would be interested in knowing the >actual number of "comrades" we have (don't expect you to undestand >this, after all you are not one of us), and I am just trying to provide >that information! Pat me on my back? Gosh, where do you get this idea from? Not one of WHO? Not a rabid gamester? No, I guess not...but then again I'm not exactly alone here: >From: fasching@iue.tuwien.ac.at (Franz Fasching) >Subject: Re: division between music and games? >Hi all, hi Richard! >rford@infocomp.csir.co.za wrote: >> Before I launch into boring background and lose anyone who might have a >> comment, let me cut to the chase...what are the chances/logistics/other? >> involved in splitting the GUS group into music and games? >I personally would appreciate very much splitting up the GUS group into >music and games. It's annoying to have to browse through all messages in >the digest to filter out the music-related ones... >From: peter@netcom.com (Peter Davies) >Subject: Re: division between music and games? >Emboldened by Mr.Ford's posting to the list, I reveal that I too am also a GUS >owner without gamester credentials. Indeed, I can only echo his eloquent plea >for a division in the list. >From: E33GLASSER@sask.usask.ca >Subject: Mail Flood & Game Support >I didn't participate with the mail flood. I prefer to express my >opinion with something the companies will actually listen to - $$$. >From: jericho!gord (Gord Wait S-MOS Systems Vancouver Design Center) >Subject: Re: Music and Games >I too wouldn't mind such a division on the digest, but I wonder >if there would be enough traffic on the music one to warrant a >split? Yes, there is, it just tends to get buried. >One thing that might help, is if the faq were automatically mailed >out to all newcomers, so we don't get as many FAQ's (how do >I get Xwing under OS2 under NT emulation on my Amiga to use the >sounds from my C64 machine on Tuesdays..:) DoD members and lurkers on rec.motorcycles are well acquainted with the custom of sending a SuperFAQ to clueless newbies :-) >From: Stephen N Larson >Subject: This, that, and the other thing... >Richard Ford writes: >> ...what are the chances/logistics/other? >> involved in splitting the GUS group into music and games? > Not a bad idea. I have to sit through 60+Kbytes of daily digest > at 2400bps. Those in the know are aware of the term infinity... > BTW, I prefer to use my GUS for musical apps, so reading _page_ > after _page_ of redundant game problems is a little boring |-O >From: mico@trzdor1.ico.olivetti.com (Michele Costabile) >Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #13 >Of course there is little thrill in CGA games and I do not have any game >installed. >I would rather be kept up to date on GUS programming, sounds available and >other musical stuff. >From: Fitzgerald Jr Steele >Subject: Splitting the Digest >In yesterday's Digest, Richard Ford suggested splitting the GUS group >into music and games. I think that is a wonderful idea!! That way, >those of us that are not versed in the technical side of computer music >can get the help and support we need to get GUS to work the way we want >it to -- with games. Those that want support for generating music with >the GUS can get it through a Music digest. Which proves that even a gamester can get annoyed with lower-than- optimal SNR. Stick with me, music people, there's some signal here somewhere... *********************************************************************** Lee DeRaud Will program Windows for food. Rockwell Int. AESD (Hey, I'm easy but I'm not cheap!) DoD #985 - Fast and ugly beats slow and cute any day of the week. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- My own opinions only, not those of Rockwell International. (Yeah, right: like anyone around here cares what *I* say...NOT!) *********************************************************************** All the good one-line quotes were taken. So sue me. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 93 06:37:12 PDT From: deraud@power.amasd.anatcp.rockwell.com (Robert Lee DeRaud) Subject: The Beat Goes On >From: davidm@marcam.com (David MacMahon) >Subject: Gus as drum machine >There's been some talk lately about using the GUS as a drum machine. I >would like to do this, but (not being well versed in MIDI) I'm not quite >sure what's involved. Here's what I *think* I need to do... >(1) Upgrade my GUS memory to 1 MB. (no, I haven't done it yet :-O) >(2) Get Francois Dion's drum patches. >(3) Get some sort of MIDI sequencing software. >(4) Get some MIDI files for different drum beats. >(5) Use (3) to play (4) using patches from (2). >Is the a correct overview or am I missing some key concept (i.e. do I need >external MIDI devices to do this)? Assuming the overview is correct, what >sort of software is available for (3)? I'm sure there are plenty of Windows >programs but which is best suited for a drum machine? I'm actually more >interested in DOS programs that I could use, are there any? And my final >question, where could I find MIDI files for (4)? OK, in order: 1. Yes, definitely. The GM drum kit that comes with the GUS takes >800K and I think some of Dion's are even bigger. 2. Might as well, but I'm not sure anyone but a professional musician can tell the difference between standard GUS, 808, 909, etc without an A-B comparison. 3. You've already got it: PowerChords is GREAT for laying down drum patterns. Conceptually, it works the same way most dedicated drum machines do. 4. I don't have the file name handy here at work, but one of the large MIDI file collections I downloaded from EPAS had a bunch of drum-only files buried in it - quite surprising when you're browsing through a whole pile with playmidi. I'll see if I can gather the drum files together and re-upload them, preferably called 'drummidi.zip' so no one thinks their GUS is broken when they play them! 5. This whole concept of using the GUS ONLY as a drum machine bothers me a bit. Is it to accompany live playing or are you hooking it up with other (external) synths? If so, you'll probably need something like Cakewalk which can handle MIDI time code etc - more $$$. *********************************************************************** Lee DeRaud Will program Windows for food. Rockwell Int. AESD (Hey, I'm easy but I'm not cheap!) DoD #985 - Fast and ugly beats slow and cute any day of the week. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- My own opinions only, not those of Rockwell International. (Yeah, right: like anyone around here cares what *I* say...NOT!) *********************************************************************** ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 00:39:18 -0400 From: Carl Pettypiece Subject: The West Side uploaded to Epas Hi there! I have uploaded my second MIDI file to epas for all to ponder and scrutinize. It is called westside.zip and is my rendition of "The West Side" by Phil Collins. I few notes are in order: First, you'll need to have the -x32 switch for playmidi since it gets kind of crowded voice-wise...likewise for Windows you'll have to set the number of voices to the max. Second, I have included my first custom patch which is used in the song. Third, it seems to drop notes every now and then in Windows...it could be Windows or it could be simply that I've flooded the MIDI stream. Fourth, I can't play my synth worth a damn so if the sax solo seems a little lacking, I won't blame the software. Fifth, read the westside.txt file for more info. For those who care, my first MIDI file was uploaded to epas a few months ago and has undoubtably been transferred to a mirror site such as wuarchive. It is called igotryth.zip and is my rendition of Mike Oldfield's rendition of George Gerswin's "I Got Rhythm". Any comments/critisisms/whathaveyous go to Carl Pettypiece at: pettypi@gaul.csd.uwo.ca And may I take this opportunity to say (again) that I love what Gravis has done to my life. I love the card, I love the software that supports it, I love the support from Gravis, and yes, I even love SBOS 'cause it's much better than the speaker and I wouldn't be seen dead with a SoundBlaster, and to me anyway, SBOS is pure bonus. The GUS didn't have to be compatible for me to buy it, but it is most of the time, and that's good enough for me. I'm confident that the game manufacturers will come around, if they haven't done so already. And finally, I love you guys/gals on the net because of your passion for, what essentially is just a pcb with some silicon and plastic on it; and the support that your giving the GUS, especially Francois Dion for his efforts of patch wizardry, Chris (insert last name here) for the amazing MIDIs and Future Crew and Twilight Zone for making my friends wish they had a computer to buy a GUS for. And of course the millions of you that I don't have room to mention (-: P.S Thanks to Phil Collins for writing such inspiring music P.P.S Thanks, again, Gravis. GUS! GUS! GUS! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Carl Pettypiece (pettypi@gaul.csd.uwo.ca) Disclaimer: Hell, I don't Department of Computer Science even know if these are MY University of Western Ontario opinions! London, Ontario, Canada -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clever quote goes here -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1993 01:44:00 GMT From: thomas@hammer.hacktic.nl (Thomas van Kuipers) Subject: Re: US Soundboard prices?? 1) Sound Blaster 2) Noname Sound Blaster comp. 3) Sound Blaster Pro 4) Noname SBPro comp. 5) Sound Blaster 16 / ASP 6) Noname 16 bits with SB compatibility 7) PAS 16 8) Gravis Ultra Sound (yes, you made me curious!!!) All right, here's the run down from the local store. 1) Sound Blaster: $69.99 2) No Name SB: $59.99 3) Sound Blaster Pro: $129.99 4) No Name: $99.99 5) Sound Blaster 16 w/o ASP: $199.99 6) No Name SB16: $129.99 7) PAS16: $149.99 8) Gravis Ultrasound: $149.99 By the way, I looked in the no name SB16 box and found it to be a real SB16 card with the same chips, same jumpers, sockets for the ASP, and real Creative Labs chips on beard. In other words, completely identical. Nice. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 0:07:34 GMT From: "Bjarni R. Einarsson" Subject: We want upgrades! :-) Hello fellow GUSsers! I'm writing from Iceland, on behalf of me and a friend of mine. We recently got Unreal II, (second...) and that was enough to convince us that we want the memory upgrade :-) Unfortunately we can't seem to get the chips here in Iceland (for a reasonable price) and I was wondering if somebody out there in net-land would be willing to order them for us. (please please please..) I think I can safely say that there are 4 of us that would like to order this way (it seems to be the only way..), but I have yet to talk to two of those four. :-) Is anybody willing to help us? Our local (only) GUS vendor seems to be having alot of trouble getting the chips from Advanced Gravis.... Hmm. Thanks in advance.. ______________________________________________ ___________________ / \ / \ ( "Shee, you guys are so unhip its a wonder your O Bjarni R. Einarsson ) ( bums don't fall off!" -- Zaphod Beeblebrox O - - bre@os.is - - ) \______________________________________________/ \___________________/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1993 11:03:59 -0400 From: gt7985c@prism.gatech.edu (Gary Robert Veduccio) MSARCADE I know somebody already posted about it, but I already deleted the message. Why does my system lock when I am playing sound on MSARCADE?? I am using the new drivers. ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #15 *************************************