Ultrasound Daily Digest Fri, 9 Apr 1993 Volume 3 : Issue 9 Today's Topics: [GUS] News! Gusmod and thoughts on GUS installation (2 msgs) level warning os2 bashing!! recording recording length recording noise, dos 6 and more Sampling SBOS 2.04 is definately out of tune Ultrasound and support X-Wing Fighter Slow Down Information about the UltraSound Daily Digest (such as mail addresses, request servers, ftp sites, etc., etc.) can be found at the end of the Digest. *** HEY!!! *** Before you ask a question, *** READ THE FAQ ***. It's available on the request server and the ftp sites, or check the newsgroup archives. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 9 Apr 1993 01:48:00 GMT From: francisco.perez@rose.com (francisco perez) Subject: [GUS] News! Message-ID: <1993Apr09.004804.28611@rose.com> ReprintFrom: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard Two days ago, I left a lengthy message to John Smith concerning the issue of Adv. Gravis lobbying software developers to support the GUS in native mode. He replied, and has asked me to summarize it (his reply) and post it to the digest...BUT, I forget the GUS-digest address, and I instead of summarizing it, I've decided to post an excerpt of his reply here. I'm sure he won't mind... Excerpt of my message: >I am writing this letter as a plea to Advanced Gravis, to place the >idea of getting commercial games to support the GUS (in native >mode) as a high priority item. I feel that this is a very crucial >moment for many GUS owners right now and one more "broken promise" >would almost certainly be the crushing blow for retaining many >loyal GUS owners. What is needed now is not another version of >SBOS, or another install/setup program, or even GUS-3D. The demand >right now is for native GUS support! Excerpt of John Smith's (SysOp of Gravis BBS) message: AGREED! Actually for the last 3 weeks we have been busting our buns in this area. (Which is why other things are falling behind schedule, including the GUS 3D). Over these last 3 weeks we have sent people to many major game publishers, including Sierra, MicroProse, InterPlay and MANY others. Right now Brad Craig is in London talking to MicroProse. According to them the patch for World Circuit is DONE and they have 4 releases DONE with GUS support. I don't know the names yet. Brad will be back next week and I'll have more information then. Also, the MAJOR thing that will give us direct GUS support is the Miles Drivers (DIGPAK & MIDPAK). Even though these drivers are only 8 bit it will allow people NOT to have to run SBOS, which will be a big improvment. Forte has been working extremely hard to get these done in time for John Miles new development kit, due out next month. One thing people have forgotten is that it took MV a year to get a title and SB about the same. So far we have out done booth of them and in a year the GUS will have dozens of titles. Especially if Gravis and our users keep pushing the card as hard as we all are. --- OLX 2.1 TD Proofread carefully to see if you any words out. RoseMail 2.10 : RoseNet<=>Usenet Gateway : Rose Media 416-733-2285 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Apr 93 10:23:39 MET DST From: hodgen@informatik.uni-koblenz.de Subject: Gusmod and thoughts on GUS Message-ID: Hi folks Well, I've been using Gusmod 2.11 for 3 or 4 weeks now and I still have problems. I've tried every combination of driver and memory manger etc. The fact is Gusmod does something horrible to my Adaptec 1542B. OK, I run Gusmod pick a song and away she goes. If I press F1 or F3 to save the configs my HD light comes on and I have to use the reset button to get the machine back. If I just listen to stuff, all goes well. Until I leave Gusmod and start doeing something else. At the first sign of heavy HD activity, the machine locks up. Even if I reset and boot Linux (the unix clone) the Adaptec is still corrupt and Linux won't get by the partition checks. I have to switch the machine off and back on to regain a stable environment. This is not good for the hard disks. Then comes the CDROM. If the drivers for the CDROM are in Gusmod hangs after 1 or so MODs. Starcon 2 and Ultramod hang IMMEDIATLY. Last night I installed 2.02 Gussoft and 2.04 SBOS. Ultramod now has good enough playback quality that I'll be dumping Gusmod for a while to try and see if Ultramod will play MODs and not kill my computer. My config. 486 33MHz, 256KB, 20MB RAM, AMI Bios, C&T chipset. Adaptec 1542B on IRQ9, DMA 5 Ultrasnd (rev 2) on 250, IRQ 11, 12, DMA 7 Soundblaster 2.0 on 220, IRQ 5, DMA 1 Is anyone out there having similar problems? On another point. When the GUS came out last year I rushed out and bought one (got it sent over from Canada) thinking "Wow, this is going to be great for games". Starcon 2 confirmed this and I encouraged a lot of students here at the Uni to get GUS cards too. I'm not so sure now that was a good idea. Starcon 2 seems to be a oneoff, it's going to take months before more games come out for the GUS. Obviously (in hindsight), Accolade had a group of dedicated, hacker types working on SC2 who could, AND WANTED TO, react quickly to a new player in the music card business. Now we see how the other companies work, slowly and painfully. I hope that by August or September more software support appears for the GUS, otherwise I'm going to have a LOT of people pissed off at me. I'm sure it will come but slower than we had all hoped. I won't be buying any software (which uses sound cards) which has no GUS support. On the other hand, I won't be advocating the GUS so loudly either till the support is there... Bye -- Wayne Hodgen | hodgen@infko.uni-koblenz.de | Opinions (c) Me 1991 | Intel SX Uni Koblenz, | (..!unido!infko!hodgen) | Keeper of the Scrolls, | Just Rheinau 3-4, | Voice: +49 261 9119-645 | Defender of the Net, | say 5400 Koblenz. | Fax: +49 261 9119-499 | His name is "root". | NO!!! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 08 Apr 93 11:21:09 -0400 From: "It's your hand, Buckaroo" Subject: Re: installation Message-ID: <9304081521.AA20616@magick.tay2.dec.com> > From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion) > > You can still install it manually by renaming oem.tmp to oemsetup.inf > > in the \ultrasnd\windows directory, then run the driver applet in control > > panel and add the drivers from that directory. > > Is it necessary to ren oem.tmp? I just went into the Control Panel and > installed the drivers (it seemd to get it right)... I check this out a bit and I think WINGUS had done the rename and a few other things before it crapped out. When I installed the drivers, I got the new ones with fidelity settings and all that... DDA ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Apr 1993 01:55:13 -0400 (EDT) From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion) Subject: Re: installation Message-ID: <9304090555.AA08293@brise.ERE.UMontreal.CA> Beyond the ultraworld of It's your hand, Buckaroo: > > I check this out a bit and I think WINGUS had done the rename and a few > other things before it crapped out. When I installed the drivers, I got the > new ones with fidelity settings and all that... Yeah, wingus is not very well behaved... Ciao, -- Francois Dion ' _ _ _ CISM (_) (_) _) FM Montreal , Canada Email: CISM@ERE.UMontreal.CA (_) / . _) 10000 Watts Telephone no: (514) 343-7511 _______________________________________________________________________________ Audio-C-DJ-Fractals-Future-Label-Multimedia-Music-Radio-Rave-Video-VR-Volvo-... ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Apr 1993 01:53:32 -0400 (EDT) From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion) Subject: level warning Message-ID: <9304090553.AA08266@brise.ERE.UMontreal.CA> If you are driving a big amplifier very loudly with the Ultrasound, please read this: Today, i was mixing some music with a mixer, a Denon 2000F and the Gravis with an earlier GUSMOD (the last version that i have the source for, which is 1.1 i think - BTW Josh, what's happening with the 2.x source? - that i have modified to have pitch and instant start so i can beat match mod files) and at some point i was mixing pretty loud with BOZTIKTheFinalHouseMix and suddenly i look at my tube amps, and on one of them a 6CA7/EL34 tube was glowing RED! I shut everything off, but it was too late. Two ruined tubes. So be advised: reduce the input gain on your mixer or amp, or do not use 100% volume. Use 60% - it correspond to a typical CD volume. This is because MOD files are always recorded near (or at) clipping to get maximum S/N. Midi files are not a problem in that respect - the output of the driver is laughable compared to GUSMOD... Ciao, -- Francois Dion ' _ _ _ CISM (_) (_) _) FM Montreal , Canada Email: CISM@ERE.UMontreal.CA (_) / . _) 10000 Watts Telephone no: (514) 343-7511 _______________________________________________________________________________ Audio-C-DJ-Fractals-Future-Label-Multimedia-Music-Radio-Rave-Video-VR-Volvo-... ------------------------------ Date: 08 Apr 1993 09:14:48 -0500 (EST) From: CheebA Subject: os2 bashing!! Message-ID: <01GWRHIXSF5I91W5SX@ritvax.isc.rit.edu> Just to even out for all the window bashing that someone(s) on the Daily digest insists on doing... if windows 3.1 is sooo bad why is IBM so concerned about making windows 3.1 work fully on OS2 2.1. and when OS2 can handle more than 16 colors, well start calling it a GUI.!!! I rest my case!!! --- dave "Id rather die than install OS2" ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Apr 1993 01:43:10 -0400 (EDT) From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion) Subject: recording Message-ID: <9304090543.AA08189@brise.ERE.UMontreal.CA> Well, all who have problems with the zero level not beeing 7F, it is not normal. I mean, the Vref is wrong. On mine it's 7E on both channels, with typically less than 10 7D in 1 megabyte. The fidelity is normal, but the zero level is not. I dont feel like opening my computer to check the Ultrasound (i just reorganised everything...). Anybody with electronic knowledge can tell me what did they use for Vref? Ciao, -- Francois Dion ' _ _ _ CISM (_) (_) _) FM Montreal , Canada Email: CISM@ERE.UMontreal.CA (_) / . _) 10000 Watts Telephone no: (514) 343-7511 _______________________________________________________________________________ Audio-C-DJ-Fractals-Future-Label-Multimedia-Music-Radio-Rave-Video-VR-Volvo-... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Apr 93 11:58:21 CDT From: Michael J Stumpf Subject: recording length Message-ID: <9304081658.AA08280@tamsun.tamu.edu> Whoever requested a way to record more than 1 minute , try recording with "Playfile" using no command line paramaters. It'll come up with a menu that allows you to record. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Apr 1993 14:48:40 +0700 (MST) From: Adam Cowen Subject: recording noise, dos 6 and more Message-ID: Hi there, Well if you are having noise in your recordings try to move your ultrasound in your computer. I used to get a lot of static which made recording useless. But I was doing some fiddling around in my case and moved my gus nearest the case edge. Then I tried some recording (I just got the dos 6 upgrade too). I recorded at 8k 11k 22k 44k and they were all pretty good. This was also recording onto my old western digital that I doublespaced with dos6, and I was pretty impressed. Its even better with my new Quantum Pro. BTW: does anybody know why I can't get midimon to work or record with any windows soundtools like Pocket Recorder. I heard other people got it working, so if you know why please do tell. Ciao, Adam Cowen cowen@ee.ualberta.ca ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Apr 93 14:07:08 EDT From: "The Punisher" Subject: Sampling Message-ID: <0096AB9F8EA7A6A0.0001853B@acad.wit.edu> DOes anyone know of any good sampling programs That work with the GUS. I would like one on the lines of Blaster Master, that has excellent wave editing features, like speeding up samples and removing lyrics. Any suggestions?? Please E-Mail me directly at colotti@acad.wit.edu thanx Chris Colotti ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Apr 1993 12:51:56 -0400 (EDT) From: Morgan Stair Subject: SBOS 2.04 is definately out of tune Message-ID: I don't know what sound is out of tune, but in Ultima 7 it's so increadibly annoying! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Apr 1993 07:57:04 -0700 From: Eric N. Liao Subject: Ultrasound and support Message-ID: <199304081457.AA01994@aerospace.aero.org> I've been reading the comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcards group, an dI noticed the GUS is getting a lot of flak. One person said that Sierra approached Gravis from the beginning and basically said... "We will not supportyour card...ever, because it would require some major changes in coding." or whatever Strange that Sierra is just now going to release a PC Speaker driver for digitized effects. Wouldn't this be as difficult as writing a GUS driver? Anyway I think the point is that if enough people buy the GUS, then Sierra will reconsider at a future time. I think that the reason Gravis has so little support, is that maybe Gravis did not have a sdk early enough, before the GUS was out. If Gravis had a good SDK, say, 6 months before the GUS was out, maybe there would be a bit more support right now. Someone mentioned that Gravis is currently furiously at work, writing a new SDK, with better code and GUS 3_D support. Well, if this is the first "useable" sdk for GUS, then I'm not surprised so many developers gave the GUS a cold shoulder. Anyway, I would have preferred an MPU-401 MIDI interface over the speed- compensating game port. ------------------------------ Date: 9 Apr 93 13:49:30 U From: "zz Paul Murgatroyd" Subject: Re: X-Wing Fighter Slow Down Message-ID: <9304090345.AA09617@kirk.bu.oz.au> It seems that many people have discovered the problem with slow down in X-Wing when a Tie Fighter flies past during the game. Reading the README file that came with X-Wing, one would discover that the source of the problem is having an older version of the Soundblaster chip that can't process data fast enough. It suggest turning off Digital Sound to resolve the problem. However, the GUS has no Soundblaster chip, so the problem is elsewhere. I have a 486DX-50, and I get slow down when a tie fighter flies past. The solution is to turn off the music, or turn off the digital sound. It doesn't matter which, but you can't have both on, as I can only assume SBOS can't handle the load of playing digital sound and music at the same time. I play X-Wing with the music turned off. Another problem I have found is with the in game sound effects (that don't use digital sound), such as the lasers from fighters, Star Destroyers etc shooting back at you. With SBOS v1.22 you could hear the clearly, even if they were a bit odd sounding. Now, with SBOS v2.04, you can't hear them at all! I think this problem needs fixing pronto. I'd like to know how extensively Gravis tested SBOS 2.04 with X-Wing, because with all these problems, I don't see how they can say that it works with X-Wing when it quite clearly doesn't. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Apr 1993 09:47:01 -0500 From: graham@cs.utexas.edu (A student of life) Message-ID: <9304081447.AA05525@bovina.cs.utexas.edu> Matthew Spewak mentioned that one can send the original Chuch Yeager diskettes to EA to receive the GUS version for free. If that is indeed the case, I am one angry individual. I ordered my GUS through EA's special $99 price last year (price was good if you purchased an EA game from them). They told me there would be a GUS version of Air Combat and the upgrade would be free, so I ordered the standard version of Air Combat. After I finally read it was available (the GUS version) through Advanced Gravis, I called EA. [I might note that I had called a couple of times in the preceding months to see when it would be released.] Well, this time I said I wanted to upgrade to the GUS version. They told me that only Advanced Gravis was handling the GUS version and I had to buy it from them. I replied that I had been told at the outset that the GUS version would be a free upgrade and that s the sole reason I purchased Yeager to begin with. EA told me I had been misinformed and repeated that I needed to purchase it from Advanced Gravis (and that it was not free). So I ordered it from Advanced Gravis, paid the $15US and the $5US shipping and received the game about 2 weeks ago. I now have paid for both versions of the same game. Is is true that EA is now offering the free upgrade? Can anyone confirm this? If so, can anyone suggest a possible recourse for me to get a refund? Thanks, Ralph ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #9 ************************************ Digest Address: ultrasound@dsd.es.com To post to tomorrow's digest Request Server Address: ultrasound-request@dsd.es.com To subscribe, unsubscribe, and request files Owner Address: ultrasound-owner@dsd.es.com To contact a human if the server has troubles FTP Sites: archive.epas.utoronto.ca pub/pc/ultrasound wuarchive.wustl.edu systems/msdos/ultrasound