Ultrasound Daily Digest Wed Jun 16 00:37 Volume 4: Issue 16 Today's Topics: Another bug with Recording Session? Not sure. Another in a long series... CDROM drives Flashback Gravis Stock... Whats going on guys? Installing 2.06 update MOD player for Windows? New Gravis Disks - Question on Rec. Session Problems with 2.06 release Recording Studio bugs (more) Some Answers Stunt Island? The Gravis Ultra Sound sound board! (fwd) (2 msgs) The Power Chords Blues ULTRASOUND DAILY DIGEST V (2 msgs) Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #15 (2 msgs) X-Wing... 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, 15 Jun 1993 10:52:34 -0500 (EST) From: sjm@se01.elk.miles.com (Scott Mark) Subject: Another bug with Recording Session? Not sure. Message-ID: <9306151552.AA16060@se01.elk.miles.com> I'm not sure what the MIDI standards are, so I could be wrong on this one. If so, I'm sure that someone will point it out to me just as delicately as those who have expressed their views about Recording Studio... I was trying to figure a way around the 1/32th note problem I'd seen in Chinese.mid, and I thought that I could change the time signature. No dice (but no bug, yet). You can set the number of beats per measure, but a quarter note gets one count, forever and ever amen. Now, when I was in band, "quarter note gets one count" meant that each quarter note got one beat on tempo, no matter how many beats there are in a measure. But when I set the time base to be 2/4 (two beats per measure, quarter note gets one count, the song played twice as fast! My understanding was always that it doesn't matter how many beats there are in a measure- the speed of the song goes the same unless you either change the tempo or change the number of beats that a quarter note gets. Or did I learn it all wrong or forget it since then? Doesn't the bottom number mean how many beats a quarter note gets? Am I crazy? Can someone tell me what's wrong with my thinking? Scott Scott Mark (219) 262-7452 8:00 - 4:30 EST sjm@se01.elk.miles.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jun 93 11:18:34 -0400 From: "Momentary language, sexual situations" Subject: Another in a long series... Message-ID: <9306151518.AA15068@magick.tay2.dec.com> ...I got my upgrade disks here in bucolic Stow, MA on Monday...I like the little note from Gravis included with the disks. DDA ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1993 20:47:42 -0400 (EDT) From: Pete Kilcullen Subject: CDROM drives Message-ID: <199306160047.AA15929@access.digex.net> OK! I'm ready to buy a CDROM internal drive. I think the GUS has a SCSI interface to hook up the drive. What do I need to know or do??? Pete ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1993 09:26:22 -0400 (EDT) From: Philip Andrew Nemec Subject: Re: Flashback Message-ID: <0g7QryO00iUzE1bWN9@andrew.cmu.edu> Yeah - the game IS great... Too bad I didn't learn quite all that useful vocabulary in MY French classes... Anyway - I pretty much beat through the music as fast as possible since it doesn't sound so hot, and at least on the opening has lots of crackling. In the actual game I just have music turned off (stick with the nice samples). That works okay - the samples seem to do fine. Getting the music sounding right would be nice tho! :) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1993 09:52:27 -0500 (EDT) From: Mike Ellis Subject: Gravis Stock... Whats going on guys? Message-ID: <9306151352.AA12521@sparko.gwu.edu> Hey Folks, whats up? Was wondering Gravis Stock has been trading like MAD! over the last couple of days. The prices didn't change much, but the volume traded increased by like 300%. Gravis? Whats going on? In the US. we dont get that much info. Care to let us know whats up? Thanx, MikeE ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jun 93 11:16:55 -0400 From: "Momentary language, sexual situations" Subject: Re: Installing 2.06 update Message-ID: <9306151516.AA15057@magick.tay2.dec.com> > My problem (probably) stemmed from the fact that I run Norton's cache program, > and my solution was to wait about 70 seconds between disks to give my cache > time to flush. It worked like a champ. Yup. This sounds very much like the drive change hardware on your floppy either isn't working correctly or is confusing NCACHE. You can test this by putting a floopy in the drive, doing a director, changing the floppy and do another directory. If you get the old directory, the drive-change hardware ain't working (or is being ignored by the cache). If you can disable the cache, run the test again. If it's the cache, bitch to Norton. :-) If not, you can use the DRIVEPARAM (I think) command in config.sys to "fix" the problem... DDA ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1993 10:25:49 -0500 From: John Dillenburg Subject: MOD player for Windows? Message-ID: <199306151525.AA05124@bert.eecs.uic.edu> Does anyone know of a MOD player for the GUS that works in Windows? I've tried Win Pro MOD, but it doesn't seem to work. John ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Jun 93 08:10:49 EDT From: warrenl@graphics.rent.com (Warren Lieuallen) Subject: New Gravis Disks - Question on Rec. Session Message-ID: I just got my update disks this Friday, and was surprised to find them actually worth it! I've always tried to keep up to date by grabbing the latest set of patches, SBOS, etc., but this new set of disks really puts everything together smoothly, and the automatic installation was really slick (it even makes all the Windows stuff a "no-brainer"!). Now I've got a question, though. My son is trying to enter some sheet music into Recording Session, and we can't find a way to "slur" two notes together (to connect them so that the pitch changes, but the notes are not played as two separate notes). Can this be done? We've managed to tie to notes together (as long as they are the same pitch), but haven't found the much-touted on-line help to be very helpful. It explains what things are, but not how to do them. ======================The Graphics BBS @ (908)469-0049===================== Dr. Warren G. Lieuallen R.W.Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute InterNet: warrenl@graphics.rent.com ===="Imagination is more important than knowledge." -- Albert Einstein ==== ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jun 93 08:28:44 EDT From: cg-atla!yfandes!pasky@ima.ima.isc.com (Bob Pasky) Subject: Problems with 2.06 release Message-ID: <9306151228.AA18990@yfandes.agfa.com > Finally got my 2.06 release in the mail Monday, Jun 14. I installed it "over top of" [sic] the previous release (2.05? from the "epas" archive) and everything completed without a hitch. Here are some problems I ran into -- starting with the first thing I tried (not a good sign!): 1) Running GMODDEMO.BAT the first time tells you to run the SETUP.EXE in the MOD directory. I cd'ed there and ran SETUP. All the numbers looked good so I just saved the configuration (F1) and (Q)uit. Ran GMODDEMO (from C:\ULTRASND) and it still complains. Looked at the .BAT file to discover it's looking for a MOD\GUSMOD.CFG. Guess what? There's no GUSMOD.CFG. Running MOD\SETUP.EXE several times, "pushing" all the buttons, never produced a .CFG file. My solution: Since I've been running GUSMOD 2.11 for a while now with no problems, I just hacked up the GMODDEMO.BAT file to ignore the missing .CFG file error. Of course, it works even without a .CFG file (I just remembered I have an enviornment variable for GUSMOD since I first installed it, but I don't think it's pointing to a strange place! In any case, the non-production of a .CFG file from SETUP still applies.) 2) PLAYMIDI still doesn't work. This has been true since the last version which added the graphic display. The display comes up, but the song either plays very slowly or hangs playing one note forever or, more often, doesn't start at all. Usually, running PLAYMIDI with the -video (no graphics) option works, though I've found one or two .MID files, probably with large single tracks, which hang it as well. (These same .MID files work fine under Windows Windjammer, MediaPlayer, etc.) However none of them, including your demo files work with the graphics display enabled. 3) SBOS fails to load. I get an "Interrupt Time out" from LOADSBOS (displays: GF1 SBOS V2.08, etc.) and then the following message: Error on load of patch library(C:\ULTRASND\SBOS\sboslib.sbs) I looked at the dates of SBOSLIB.SBS and it is the latest one (May '93). I tried loading SBOSDRV several ways and always LOADSBOS fails the same way. Note that I've been using my GUS almost daily using GUSMOD and such under DOS and Windjammer, Cakewalk Demo, MediaPlayer, etc. under Windows 3.1 practically without a hitch since I got it last November -- so it basically works. I don't use SBOS much, but it was working at one time. Even the latest versions, which some other people on this list had trouble with, worked for me. My setup: GUS at 220,1,1,11,7 (or whatever the defaults are) with 768K RAM installed. Gateway 2000 486-DX/33, MS-DOS 5.0, Windows 3.1, running 386MAX and Stacker. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1993 10:37:42 -0500 (EST) From: sjm@se01.elk.miles.com (Scott Mark) Subject: Recording Studio bugs (more) Message-ID: <9306151537.AA15848@se01.elk.miles.com> adhir@anywhere.umd.edu (Al Dhir) wrote: > Subject: [GUS] Recording Studio bugs (_annoying_) > Message-ID: <1vgu39$lh4@umd5.umd.edu> > [Problems about tracks (or is it channels??) dropping out in MIDISoft Recording Studio and problems with saving edited MIDI files.] I think I've found some other problems. First let me say that I _really_ like being able to work with a regular score, because I think that it may help me to start finally trying my own music, original or just pieces that I copy into the program. The two problems I've found are that: 1: notes in the score don't match what is played. 2: the MIDI List View window has bad column headings. I think. 1. Load CHINESE.MID (wups! they seem to have removed it from the new disks, which is too bad. OK, load anything that has lots of quick notes.) and look at the piccolo track (track 3). Look at measure 11: quarter note, two eighths, four sixteenths, and two more eighths. Balances out to four beats. You'll notice that the four sixteenths are "chords" -- two notes playing at the same time like on a piano, or on two piccolos. _Play_ measure 11, with the speed turned way down. Those sixteenths do not get played as such. They get played as a run of 32'nd notes. Does MIDIsoft only handle notes that are at least a sixteenth? I clicked on "triplets" and entered three. They got tied together, but no curve with the little 3 on it, as shown on the icon. 2. I brought up the MIDI List View window to try and figure out what is going, but for some reason the MIDI List doesn't move as the song plays, the way that the score does (which is a nice feature, BTW). And I get column headings that look like this: .. .. Pitch Vel On Vel Off 65 A6 128 So I figure that at _least_ Pitch and Velocity On are switched, but I don't know enough to guess which others. I want to close by thanking Gravis and MidiSoft and Howling Dog for bringing these two programs to us. I agree that there are some shortcomings but for free software this is terrific. I think that Power Chords looks like it's going to take a while to get the hang of but might make music generation a whole lot faster than entering each note and copying it over and over, etc. Can't wait until El-Fish can support real MIDI on the Gravis-- the SoundBlaster MIDI doesn't come out too well. Scott Scott Mark (219) 262-7452 8:00 - 4:30 EST sjm@se01.elk.miles.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jun 93 9:29:01 PDT From: godfrel@sfu.ca Subject: Some Answers Message-ID: <9306151629.AA25928@fraser.sfu.ca> Ok, to the person who couldn't get music for Eco quest: Try using the Get from MIDI file option in the Patch manager to load in the patches from the 1024k.mid (That's not the right filename but you get the picture) I think it's located in the \ultrasound\midi directory. You can also use media player to load up the patches too. To the person who couldn't get his installation disks to work: Make sure none of the disks have volume labels. Godfrey. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1993 08:31:46 -0500 From: John Dillenburg Subject: Stunt Island? Message-ID: <199306151331.AA02890@bert.eecs.uic.edu> I can't get GUS to work with stunt island. The FAQ says there shouldn't be any problem, but my computer always locks up during the introductory sequence of the game. I've tried SBOS 1.20 and 2.08. My GUS has 256K and my computer is a Gateway 486DX2/66. Please advise. John ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1993 09:07:52 +0501 (EDT) From: Gunnar Swanson Subject: Re: The Gravis Ultra Sound sound board! (fwd) Message-ID: Hey fellow GUSers I have gotten some responses to my write in campaign to the various software houses and gotten some exciting responses and thought I would pass them along. By the way if you would help me with my campaign I would be very appreciative. Just use the posted compuserve address and end them a letter telling them they should have GUS support and why. The more people who write in the quicker they will get full GUS support (or thats the plan any way). Gunnar Swanson ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: 14 Jun 93 09:18:41 EDT From: "Sir-tech Software, Inc." <76711.33@CompuServe.COM> To: gunnar@gibbs.oit.unc.edu Subject: Re: The Gravis Ultra Sound sound board! Gunnar - We've just begun working with Gravis to fully support the board and you can loo9k forward to such support with our upcoming products. Brenda end. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1993 09:12:44 +0501 (EDT) From: Gunnar Swanson Subject: The Gravis Ultra Sound sound board! (fwd) Message-ID: Here is some more of what I have heard from my write in campaign! Gunnar Swanson gunnar@gibbs.oit.unc.edu ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: 14 Jun 93 16:13:12 EDT From: SSI/Phil <76711.250@CompuServe.COM> To: Gunnar Swanson Subject: The Gravis Ultra Sound sound board! Gunnar, SSI is looking into supporting the GUS and hopes to do so with its new products. Phil end. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jun 93 18:36:50 EDT From: jeffreytm@aol.com Subject: The Power Chords Blues Message-ID: <9306151836.tn42897@aol.com> Finally, the great white Gravis box arrives in the center of the known universe, Muncie Indiana! I installed the disks and instantly I had a couple of new icons that knew how to use the GUS. I played with Power Chords and Recording Session for a while and went to bed dreaming of all the wonderful music I was going to create the next day. I took the skimpy manual to work and gave it good looking over. Then I went home and started to compose. Decompose actually. It took some time but I finally realized that Power Chord allows you only 1 melody, 1 bass, 1 Chord Rhythm, and a drum track for each measure. If you count the drums as one instrument, you soon discover you can have only 4 instruments going on at one time. That is what I always wanted. A 16-bit Mod Composer! I gave Howling Dog the benefit of the doubt. What do you expect for free anyway? I called Howling Dog to place that $20 dollar order for the real Power Chords 1.1. Being a curious customer I asked, "How many melodies can I have in one bar?". "Just one" was the reply. I then informed that Power Chords 1.1 allows me to make my own custom instrument with up to 12 strings and 24 frets. I always wanted to play a martian simitar doesn't everybody. The Pro version for $75 that allows 16 melodies (real midi) is not ready yet! Does this sound familiar to anyone with a GUS. Does anybody know what you can do with the little guitar you can play with your mouse? I can strum it, pick it, and bend notes with it. Is it just a chord tester or can you actually use it in the wonderful 4 instrument songs you make with Power Chords. -Jeff Meyer- (just one man, one computer and a shidi sequencer) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Jun 93 18:58:25 From: john.smith@gravis.com Subject: ULTRASOUND DAILY DIGEST V Message-ID: <9306141858.A2264wk@gravis.com> ----------------------------- Date: Sun, 13 Jun 93 14:46:34 PDT From: godfrel@sfu.ca Subject: John Smith needs spelling lessons :) Message-ID: <9306132146.AA09002@fraser.sfu.ca> Jurassic Park Pausing not poseing or possing in the sbos.cfg you've got SEIRRA, i before e except after c. It should be SIERRA. and in the last bulletin you posted about the midi connector box you've got through spelled wrong. Godfrey. ----------------------------- Guess I should type slower I do run the important stuff through a spelling and grammar checker but the smaller stuff I usually let slide. Thanx for pointing out the SIERRA thing. I've fixed it on my end. John --- ~ QMPro 1.02 05-8925 ~ CCITT- Can't Conceive Intelligent Thoughts Today ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Jun 93 18:59:05 From: john.smith@gravis.com Subject: ULTRASOUND DAILY DIGEST V Message-ID: <9306141859.A2304wk@gravis.com> ----------------------------- >Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1993 09:07:31 -0230 (NDT) >From: Ed Reddy >Subject: Hey Advanced GRAVIS, What about US CANADIANS!!! >Message-ID: >I have yet to see any owners where I live receive their new GUS disk, >while Joe Blow in Siberia received his 2 weeks ago. >It's nice to know who Gravis is serving. Great to see them playing >Diplomatic pleasing. Do everything to please foreign customers, while >your local and fellow Canadians can wait... NOT! >Get off your butt Gravis and mail us those disks! >Any other Canadians feel the same way? ----------------------------- ALL the disks were mailed out way back when over a one week period. All the North America stuff went through the Bellingham and the International stuff through Holland. Guess it is just taking Canada post a little longer to mail the stuff than the european post office. But it DID all get mailed out. ----------------------------- >Date: Sat, 12 Jun 93 13:51:50 EDT >From: thduda@mosaic.uncc.edu (Tony H Duda) >Subject: Prince of Persia 2 with the new Sbos >Message-ID: <9306121751.AA02838@mosaic.uncc.edu> > >It seems that the game hangs up after 3 minutes, maybe little bit >longer after few digital sounds play. I am using the new sbos download >from EPAS, gus0032.zipAny body Any Ideas? Help! ----------------------------- Try getting rid of your EMM386. John --- ~ QMPro 1.02 05-8925 ~ Time flies like wind. Fruit flies like pears. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1993 07:40:52 -0300 (ADT) From: Shadow Of Fear Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #15 Message-ID: [ About SBOS and Flashback ... ] I also have Flashback and that game is incredibly addictive!!! You are right, though. The music is awful. Totally out of tune. But there's only music for the intro, some animation screens and when you give, receive or get an object. Most of the game deals with sound effects and the effects are awesome!! My sound system is cranked at max for this game. I love the sound of my gun and those globe-robots that shoot when you trigger them. Smooth animation with no slow down at all and I have a 286. Marc Y. Paulin /-----------------------------------------------------------------\ | Fidonet: 1:255/32.0 Internet: markus@info.umoncton.ca | | 1:255/33.0 Talk: markus@clemen.info.umoncton.ca | \--------------+------------------------------+-------------------/ | Gravis Ultrasound forever!!! | +------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jun 93 11:40:23 -0400 From: adhir@anywhere.umd.edu Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #15 Message-ID: <9306151540.AA05168@anywhere.umd.edu> >Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1993 11:07:29 +0000 >From: Clarke Brunt >Subject: missing notes in Recording Session >Message-ID: <0096E02C.8F90C16B.9994@lsl.co.uk> > >When playing 5thsymp.mid (or whatever it is called) using Midisoft >Recording Session (supplied with new GUS disks), I noticed that some >notes were being missed out, while WinJammer or Media Player would >play all the notes. > >Has anyone else noticed this? Yes I have. Looks like a pretty major bug has creeped into the release of their program. Makes it all but useless for me (sad, because I really like it). Hopefully they'll release a bug fix soon. BTW - read my post in the last digest, I mention the same problem. Al ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jun 93 14:47:29 BST From: MoonCat Subject: X-Wing... Message-ID: <9306151347.AA08364@hpl.lut.ac.uk> I've just installed X-Wing + the new Gravis update disks. SBOS 2.08 seems to work ok - the adlib music plays and you can even occasionally hear samples. It does slow the game down a lot (running on a 386,33) but if you turn the in-flight music off things are ok - and the digital sound works fine. However, you can still hear the occasional parts of the music, at a low volume - despite the fact that it should have been switched off. And now when there is an explosion, I hear a couple of music chords as well as the sample. Has anyone else had this problem? Am using Dos 5, 4mb Ram configured to 1Mb XMS, Stacker, SBOS 2.08/2.09b and the ultrasound is configured to DMA channel 1. Reply to T.D.Witten@lut.ac.uk if anyone can help at all. Cheers, Trevor. ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #16 ************************************* To post to tomorrow's digest: To (un)subscribe or get help: To contact a human (last resort): FTP sites: archive.epas.utoronto.ca pub/pc/ultrasound wuarchive.wustl.edu systems/msdos/ultrasound Hints: - Get the FAQ from the FTP sites or the request server. - Mail to for info about other GUS related mailing lists (UNIX, OS/2, GUS-MIDI, etc.)