GUS Daily Digest Thu, 16 Dec 93 0:07 Volume 9: Issue 16 Today's Topics: 16-bit daughter card: Often asked, never answered 16-bit DMAs 16 bit recording add on board... Answers DMA problems Doom-OS/2?? DOOM.. (de dum, de doom) DOOM and Ultramid Doom batch file makes life easy... Doom ram? Fred's clicks GUS & Toshiba 3401 internal cd-rom GUS and Doom possible project? GUS Daily Digest V9 #15 Mouse Drivers (was Re: GUS Daily Digest V9 #14) New File.... Windows - "Driver already in use" 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: Wed, 15 Dec 93 8:46:59 MST From: Stuart Yoshida Subject: 16-bit daughter card: Often asked, never answered I spoke with Chris Yuzik of Gravis Marketing the other day (9 December), and I asked him about the 16-bit daughter card. He was non-committal, of course, but he did say that it *WILL* come out, thank goodness ;-). He also unfortunately said that it won't be avaiable before Christmas. So sometime in the New Year we can look forward to the 16-bit card. IN SUMMARY: The 16-bit daughter will come out after the first of the year. The exact date is still to be determined. -- Stuart Yoshida Internet: yoshida@elektra.fc.hp.com Voice: (303) 229-2324 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Dec 93 10:40:10 EST From: davidm@marcam.com (David MacMahon) Subject: Re: 16-bit DMAs >Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1993 13:03:53 -0200 (GMT-2:00) >From: sn@phoenix.oulu.fi (Sami Nieminen) >Subject: 16-bit DMAs ? > > Following thing caught my attention when browsing through the Ultrasound >README-file. When they told about those faulty OPTI chipsets, they said >that DMAs 0-3 are 8-bit, the rest are 16-bit. > Ofcourse I checked whether my motherboard was faulty. No errors, I could >notice no difference of any kind between 8-/16-bit DMAs. This baffled me. >What's the difference ? They implied that using 8-bit DMA is something you can >barely live with, but actually the default DMA for GUS is 8-bit. So I'd be >curious to know if there's any use to set your GUS to use other than the >default DMA, and what that use could be. With 8-bit DMA channels, one byte of data is transferred per DMA cycle. With 16-bit DMA channels, two bytes of data are transferred per DMA cycle. This means that transferring data to/from the GUS on a 16-bit DMA channel uses half as many bus cycles as transferring the same data on an 8-bit channel. It therefore takes half as long to tranfer data via a 16-bit DMA channel as it does over an eight bit DMA channel. This is helpful for several reasons. 1) Patches are able to be loaded in half the time (this especially helps patch caching applications). 2) When recording to disk, a 16-bit DMA transfer is using half as many bus cycles as an 8-bit DMA transfer would. This leaves more bus cycles for the disk controller. 3) When using a program that does simultaneous recording and playback and writing to disk, such as my program GusDelay (sorry for the balatant plug :-)), bus cycles are very precious indeed. Using two different 16-bit DMA channels greatly improves the throughput of such programs. These advantages are only performance advantages, not feature advantages. IOW, everything that can be done with a 16-bit channel can be done with an 8-bit DMA channel, it just takes longer. There may be other advantages that I'm forgetting now. Can anybody think of more? Dave David MacMahon Software Engineer davidm@marcam.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1993 06:02:07 -0500 From: "Mark C. Ng" Subject: 16 bit recording add on board... Anyone in high tower of GRAVIS: Becuase of the non-existance of the announcement of the 16 bit rec. add on I suppose WE CAN ALL forget about the product being released before Christmas and New Years?!?!! John?? Chris? anyone? What are you guys working on? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1993 12:17:32 -0500 (EST) From: Phat H Tran Subject: Answers > Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1993 13:03:53 -0200 (GMT-2:00) > From: sn@phoenix.oulu.fi (Sami Nieminen) > Subject: 16-bit DMAs ? > > Ofcourse I checked whether my motherboard was faulty. No errors, I could > notice no difference of any kind between 8-/16-bit DMAs. This baffled me. > What's the difference ? They implied that using 8-bit DMA is something you can There is really no difference between using a 16-bit DMA and an 8-bit DMA for your GUS. The only thing that the DMA affects is the speed with which samples are transferred to the GUS, but even with 8-bit, the transfer is already faster than the disk seeks. Since the sample DMA transfer isn't the bottle neck, going to a 16-bit channel won't speed anything up noticeably. > Date: Tue, 14 Dec 93 11:50:53 -0800 > From: fredh@hpcvusd.cv.hp.com > Subject: click prevention > > Is there a tool available to check the DRAM on the GUS ? I've been > having some clicks that I can hear when wearing headphones. They > hurt my ear. It is only in the left channel. Does this indicate > anything? Since I'm using the patches that came with the GUS > I assume they were done with good samples, good loop points and > good voice handling routines. I like the GUS a lot but the > clicks I'm getting are terrible. I'm using Power Chords to produce > the music that has the clicks. Sound's like you're experiencing clipping since the "clicking" is loud enough to hurt your ears. Clipping occurs when the voices are played too loudly together, causing the output to crackle somewhat. Turn down the MIDI volume using the mixer slightly and the crackles should disappear. > Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1993 20:28:14 -0800 > From: jakub@eskimo.com (Jake Cholewczynski) > Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V9 #11 > > DOOM? Personally I tried it and GUS sounds like a SB or SBOS ver. 1.2 the sound > is not clean must have been recorded at really poor quality, the game looks great slow on a 386 but cool but sound is not anything like SCII or Epic's Pinball Umm... I don't think your were getting proper GUS sounds from the game. DOOM 1.0 requires that you fetch a missing file and set your IRQs < 9 before it will support the GUS correctly. > Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1993 16:52:16 -0500 > From: > Subject: Need Syndicate SBOS parameters > > I, and four others at our company, have recently purchased > GUS'. One game that I've been playing using my SBPro but > can't get to work with my GUS is Syndicate. If anyone's had > any success, please post the parameters. Thanks, Syndicate requires that your soundcard be at port 220h, and that the IRQ be 7. If you change the IRQ to something else, then start the game by typing main.exe /iirq. You can't use any other port address other than 220h. > Date: Tue, 14 Dec 93 14:15:42 -0500 > From: decvax!cg-atla.agfa.com!pasky@uucp-gw-2.pa.dec.com (Robert Pasky) > Subject: Lock L/R not working? > --text follows this line-- > I've got an annoying problem with the new GUS0035.ZIP that > I haven't seen anyone mention yet: > The "Lock L/R" checkbox in the Driver Setup dialog doesn't "stick." This is a bug that's getting fixed. > I can check the box, close the dialog and re-open it immediately > and the box is cleared. I've tried variations, like restarting > Windows, but still the box is cleared. This, of course, affects > the Mixer app. and the annoying thing is that the right Midi > slider always comes up at minimum volume when Windows starts up! The left MIDI volume slider is just there for decoration. It doesn't do anything. The MIDI volume is only controlled by one slider. Phat. ------------------------------ Date: 16 Dec 93 14:29:05 GMT+1000 From: SXD9@major-mitchell.mit.csu.edu.au Subject: DMA problems I sent this letter to tech@gravis.com about two days ago and have not recieved a reply yet. I was wondering if anyone out there has had the same problem. If you have, or if you think you know what the problem is, them please mail me!!!! >Hi, I am a very satisfied owner of a GUS and have owned it for over a >year. Until now, the board has worked perfectly and has sounded >great, but now it is giving an error and the sounds have gone >completely wrong. >Using 'setgus' and testing the board, it seems that the irq's and the >memory is perfectly OK, but when it tests the sbos DMA and the DMA >channel, it gives an error "bad DMA data transfer (read)". Does this >mean DMA controller chip on the board has fried????? Please help me >because the warranty has run out on the board and I am starting to >suffer withdrawal symptoms!! >If you haven't noticed, I come from Australia....so if you could also >send me a list of places that could repair it, although this is >probably asking too much. Oh no....it happennnning aggaaain ....al >ahha >GUS GUS GUS GUS I WANT MY GUS BACK........WAHHHHHHHHHHHH >HAJLSHG >ASLK;ASKDG >ASK;GASKJS >hnms >erh... sorry about that, it only started happening when my GUS >stopped working. Mabey it will go away once it is repaired. >btw.. I've tried - changing DMA channels > - pulling my board out and into another slot > - screaming and pulling my hair out. > - Pulling out most of my 1M memory so 256K is left. >Note that the memory test sometimes fails, sometimes works, and >sometimes reports that I have 1024K and said all the memory is >OK when i only have 256K (this only happened once). Thanks in advance........ David. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1993 14:07:07 -0400 (EDT) From: Powered by Glucose Subject: Doom-OS/2?? After looking over the settings in the README.EXE file, I set up the object. The program gets me to the DOOM logo screen- I get sounds fine too. But the game never starts. The README hints at some command line parameters/options. Am I missing some? Also, why is the DPMI disabled, XMS set to 0, EMS set to 0? What memory does this program need to run?? Any hints? Jeff ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Dec 93 11:29:34 GMT From: bre@os.is (Bjarni R. Einarsson) Subject: DOOM.. (de dum, de doom) Hey yall. Yup, it is yet another DOOM post :) Has anybody else out there had trouble with ID's DEICE program? I tried to install Doom from the 3x720k zip files, but the DEICE program just farted at me. (yes, I unzipped them, and yes I tried this from the hard disk and the floppies.) It said I lacked disk space (I didn't).. or it told me to "insert B disk" (in place of the C: drive, har har). I solved the problem.. in a rather irritating way. I did this: copy doom1_0.1 + doom1_0.2 + doom1_0.3 doom1_0.exe And it worked! That drove me nuts. That goddarn DEICE program was just a copy program with an attitude. Now, I just gotta find myself 2 more megz of RAM. *sob* After all that trouble I can't play it! A big :-p to whoever said it only needed 2 MB of RAM. P.S. DOOM is really cool. I tested it on one of the 486es here at work before taking it home.. Wow. :-) Time to upgrade my 'lil old 386sx.. PS/2 I'm still looking for .MOD composers to help me with GUS music for the game(s) I'm writing... DOOM is giving me an inferiority complex though. Bjarni R. Einarsson __/\__ E-Mail: Bre@os.is __/\__ IRC: Juggler ____________________/ \__________________/ \_____________ "I believe it's very hard to have fun in Iceland without fish being involved in some way." -- Looking for a good place to party (Terry Pratchett, Johnny and the Dead) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1993 13:58:00 -0800 (PST) From: Telepathic Surgery Subject: DOOM and Ultramid I don't know about the rest of you, but when I play DOOM without loading ultramid, all I get are crappy little pops and clicks for sound, but when I do load ultramid I get pretty decent, albeit buggy, sound fx. How are you getting good sound w/o ultramid? Yes, I have the dmxgus.ini file and all that, my GUS is at the default options, but the sound just doesn't work well if I don't load ultramid. What am I missing here? chris yaga@u.washington.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1993 00:30:55 +1100 (EST) From: Iain Huxley Subject: Doom batch file makes life easy... Just a quick note: for all those still whinging about doom in one way or another... this batch file (along with DMXGUS.INI) should solve all your problems so long as there isn't an interrupt conflict: "GO.BAT" ******************************* @echo off set ultrasnd=220,1,1,7,7 ultrinit doom set ultrasnd=220,1,1,11,7 ultrinit ******************************* stick it in the directory and run it to run doom... N.B. this assumes you have standard settings to start with! I assume most people have already done something like this but I have posted it for the non-GUS-literate of you ;-) Iain ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Dec 93 20:54:59 From: jeffrey.stewart@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu Subject: Doom ram? Hello music lovers, Does anyone know how much free RAM DOOM requires to run? My system has 620k largest executable program size but still I get an out of memory error when trying to run DOOM. Thanx in advance Jeff ------------------------------ Date: 15 Dec 93 08:48:42 EST From: "Eric Bell, Howling Dog Systems" <71333.2166@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Fred's clicks Fred writes... > I like the GUS a lot but the clicks I'm getting are terrible. I'm using > Power Chords to produce the music that has the clicks. > Fred Handloser Fred, try exporting the Power Chords song to a standard MIDI file, then playing with PLAYMIDI or Media Player. See if the clicks are still there. Eric ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Dec 93 13:19:54 PST From: brawicz@sfu.ca Subject: GUS & Toshiba 3401 internal cd-rom Hello, I am planning on buying a cd-rom drive for my 486, for which I also have a GUS. I have settled for the Toshiba 3401 internal cd-rom drive and I would buy it together with its own scsi-2 controller and cable. Has anyone with a GUS installed had any problems with this cd-rom drive or the controller supplied with it (I assume it's Toshiba's own and that they always supply the same one with their drives) ? Thanks, Bolko Rawicz ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1993 10:05:51 -0800 (PST) From: Mark Harrison Subject: Re: GUS and Doom possible project? On Mon, 13 Dec 1993, GUS Server wrote: > Date: Sun, 12 Dec 1993 22:14:48 -0500 (EST) > From: Phat H Tran > Subject: Answers to DOOM, SB IRQ timeout, and possibly other questions > > [much deleted] [ditto] > Doom does not use Ultramid, nor does it have 3D sound. It uses an > internal GUS driver that appears to have cannabalized a lot of the > code from Ultramid, and the sound effects are only panned left or > right. The sounds also appear to be mixed in software instead of > being loaded into GUS RAM and triggered from there. Well, in case people don't know, ID plans on releasing a lot of the specs for the game for people to write add-ons. I had a really great idea for the GUS, but since I'm not much into GUS programming, I though I'd pass this along for someone else to tackle. How hard (assuming we get the info that's needed) would it be to write a new sound driver to really take advantage of the GUS's capabilities? I know the game runs pretty smoothly on my lowly 386-33, but if the game used the GUS to do the mixing rather than software, couldn't we expect the game to run much faster? I know that's been the case with other games (need a 486/SB to get the same speed that a 386/GUS offers.) That would sure be a big help to those without 486's. Anyway, just something for the GUS programmer's out there to think about. Mark Harrison harrison@sun.lclark.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Dec 93 18:06:14 CST From: Bryan Larsen Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V9 #15 Sorry about that folks, i made a typo yesterday. It's ftp.novelL.com, missed that extra l. Anyways, you can also try risc.ua.edu, or if that fails, there are about 20 others on archie. Again the files to get DOOM to work on a network without Novell Netware installed are: ftp.novell.com: /pub/netwire/novfiles/client.kit/doswin/files risc.ua.edu: /pub/network/netwire/... wsdos1.exe wsdrv2.exe This is actually a PD client version of Netware, so it probably won't work on top of your existing net software. Here's where DOS's multiboot comes in handy. Sorry about posting this here, but I don't know how many people caught it before they got too annoyed with the DOOM deluge on comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.misc Bryan blarsen@robinhood.engg.uregina.ca (larsenb@sedsystems.ca is obsolete on Dec.23) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Dec 93 08:13 CST From: kimes@iwcs.att.com Subject: Mouse Drivers (was Re: GUS Daily Digest V9 #14) On Wed, 15 Dec 1993, Paul Murgatroyd wrote: #As for the mouse drivers.....I use a Logitech MouseMan Cordless, which is #much better than anything Microsoft produces in terms of mice. The #Logitech drivers have not given me any problems at all. Does anyone know if these drivers are commercially available? That is, can I buy the drivers without buying the mouse? I assume that they would work with a standard MS two button mouse. Kit Kimes; AT&T/NCR; Naperville,IL; ...att!iwcs!kimes (kimes@iwcs.att.com) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Dec 93 12:11:45 -0800 From: brian@ccnext.ucsf.edu (Brian Huddleston) Subject: New File.... Greetings all, Just to let ya know I just uploaded this file to archive.epas.utoronto.ca: Cool Edit v.1.31 is a waveform editor with features such as: Echo, Flange, Stretch with and without affecting pitch, delay, brainwave synchronizer, envelope, filter, and music generator. Supports RIFF extra information, cue list and play list. View waves as amplitude or frequency plots. Analyze component frequencies. Wave scripts let you play back complex operations. This program was written for Windows. This is the best WAV editor that I have come across so far. It is user friendly, and has more features than I can shake a digital stick at... brian@ccnext.ucsf.edu ------------------------------ Date: 15 Dec 93 13:15:18 ADT From: "Craig G" Subject: Windows - "Driver already in use" Hello there everyone! Well...I'm new to this scene...I just got my GUS in September and I haven't had any trouble up until now. When I try to use GoldWave or Recording Session or Power Chords...like when I try to play a file...I get the message "Driver already in use" or "Driver already being used by another application". Now...call me stupid...because I don't know much about this stuff...but what am I doing wrong? I imagine it must have something to do with the way I have the drivers set up. I'm not really sure as how to set them up properly. Any tips would be greatly appreciated! It seems that it just happened all of the sudden but I probably did something dumb! My address is j5oa@acad1.unbsj.ca is you wanna help me out! Thanks! Craig Galbraith p.s.- Anybody know where I can get some MTMs or MODs that use 8-32 tracks? I got the Try-Out of Multi-Tracker and I wanna see what it can do before I spend the moolah to register it! are you phishsperienced? ------------------------------ End of GUS Daily Digest V9 #16 ******************************