Ultrasound Daily Digest Thu Jun 24 00:42 Volume 4: Issue 23 Today's Topics: 7th Guest/AIL working thanks to DOS 6 Hi subscribe Tech Questions on Gravis Ultrasound (GUS) Tetris Classic w/GUS? ultrabots and EA Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #21 Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #22 Ultrasound FTP Sites - Discussion on new arrangement Wing Commander II 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, 23 Jun 1993 11:42:01 -0500 (EST) From: sjm@se01.elk.miles.com (Scott Mark) Subject: 7th Guest/AIL working thanks to DOS 6 Message-ID: <9306231642.AA19958@se01.elk.miles.com> 7th Guest is working with AIL/Miles now. Thanks go to MS-DOS 6 and memmaker, I guess. Funny thing was that I tried several combinations of active TSRs and others that were commented out and there didn't seem to be any way of knowing which combinations would work. I got several suggestions, and tried them all, and I tried 386MAX 6.0, but nothing worked until now. Anyway, the sound is indeed much better. I'm not all that far along so I think that I might start over. Scott ------------------------------ Date: 23 Jun 93 08:34:03 EDT From: "Eric Bell, Howling Dog Systems" <71333.2166@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Hi Message-ID: <930623123402_71333.2166_DHQ58-2@CompuServe.COM> Hi! I'm the author of Power Chords, and I've just started monitoring the digest. I'm new to Internet, and have no direct access, but you can e-mail me on CompuServe. If you have any questions, support issues etc. I'll be happy to field them. Eric Bell Top Dog Howling Dog Systems ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1993 18:34:12 -0700 (PDT) From: Hendrik Wirawan Subject: subscribe Message-ID: ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 14:00:13 EDT From: dulimart@cps.msu.edu (Hansye S. Dulimarta) Subject: Tech Questions on Gravis Ultrasound (GUS) Message-ID: <9306231800.AA17906@pixel.cps.msu.edu> Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 17:04:34 GMT From: tjr@cbnewsc.cb.att.com (thomas.j.roberts) ReprintFrom: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard 1. I understand the GUS can play 32 simultaneous samples. How is this implemented? Does the Windows 3.1 driver implement 32 waveform output devices? Does it use "driver custom messages"? How does my program access the GUS to play multiple simultaneous samples? Does it cache them on-board? Can my program control the cache (i.e. indicate "keep this one" but "delete that one") ? Can it change the pitch and/or sample-rate of the playback? You can upload/download you samples from/to GUS DRAM to the PC's memory. For each voice (sample) there are a number of registers you can use for controlling how the sample is processed by the GF1 processor. The controllable parameters include the frequency, volume, envelope, panning, looping, etc. 2. I believe there is a programmable DSP on the board. What chip is it? What tools are available for it? I am an experienced DSP programmer. The GF1 has a pipeline architecture and it cycles through all active voices that you download to the GUS board. I guess it doesn't have any DSP capability. 3. I know that an SDK is available from the FTP sites. I did not pick it up because it is so large (I probably will do so if I purchase the board). What capabilities does the SDK provide? Is there a DSP assembler/downloader in it? If there are DSP tools, is there enough documentation on the overall hardware/software environment to make it useful? Is the SDK necessary to use the GUS under Windows 3.1, or do the MIDI and waveform drivers suffice for the following? playing multiple waveforms using its internal synthesizer using its MIDI I/O ports You can use the GUS under Windows 3.1 w/o the SDK. In my opinion, the documentation is not comprehensive enough. 4. Does playing waveforms interact with the internal synthesizer? In particular, does playing multiple waveforms reduce the number of synthesizer voices (simultaneous notes)? No, but as the number of voices increases the cycle time required by the GF1 processor to visit a voice increases, which means that the GF1 visits a voice less often. 5. I understand that the GUS emulates a SoundBlaster via a TSR called SBOS (this question is for usage under DOS). Is the emulation good enough to work with most games? How likely is it that a given game will work with the GUS (if it works with the SB)? I know this depends upon the specific game; I am looking for a general "feel" - is it useful for games, or do many/most games fail to use it? I don't use SBOS, so I won't answer this one. Thanks in advance. If you know any of these answers, please send email and I will summarize to the group. Tom Roberts tjrob@ihlpl.att.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 08:53:19 EDT From: "Burns Fisher, VMS Engineering 23-Jun-1993 0853" Subject: Tetris Classic w/GUS? Message-ID: <9306231253.AA16248@us2rmc.bb.dec.com> Does anyone have any guesses as to how one might get Tetris Classic to work with GUS? I fear I may be SOL, because TC runs under Windows, but apparently is intended to work with V3 (no multimedia), since it tries to muck with the SB directly rather than using sound drivers. Any great ideas? Thanks, Burns ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1993 01:46:43 -0700 From: dross@ultrix4.csubak.edu (Dean Ross-Smith) Subject: ultrabots and EA Message-ID: <9306230846.AA23371@ultrix4.csubak.edu> Ok, I got Ultrabots yesterday and it works sorta ok with my ancient clone and SBOS. This isn't any big deal. the new is... The tech rep. that I talked to from Electronic Arts said they WEREN'T planning on supporting the Ultrasound. Sigh. He said there were just too many different sound cards out there and soundblaster was all they were going to do. oh well... ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 12:43:20 -0400 From: "Momentary language, sexual situations" Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #21 Message-ID: <9306231643.AA01652@magick.tay2.dec.com> > > Well, as another unlucky X-winger (can only get AdLib sound) I was just > > wondering if the GUS is unhappy with DoubleSpace (DOS 6.0's hard disk > > compression software) which I have installed on my machine. At the risk > > I'm using DoubleSpace as well, and X-wing runs nearly flawlessly with > SBOS 1.20. The digital speech only drops out on the rare occasion, > and the slow-downs when I fire my lasers or a TIE zooms by are eliminated > by turning the music off. I'd like to point out again that I get a (slight) pause whenever a digital sound is played as well. Except that I'm playing the game through a real SB 1.5! So I don't think it's got much to do with SBOS... DDA ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 14:11:56 EDT From: Phat H Tran Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #22 Message-ID: <9306231811.AA11879@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca> > From: sjm@se01.elk.miles.com (Scott Mark) > Subject: very frustrated with 7th Guest, AIL > [...] > So I try using 386max. Which refuses to make it load high, even though I > take out all other stuff, and have a 57k region in which to load a 56k program. > I think I got 386Max to load Ultramid high with "386load prog=ultramid" at the DOS prompt. I also had DoubleSpace, the mouse driver, DOSKey, and a 64k EMS page frame in high mem, so I couldn't have that much more free up there than you. > So when I edit autoexec.bat myself to force it to stuff ultramid into region 2 > (which is empty and has 57k free or so), I get the problem: > "port address not found" (or something close) > "another program is using the Ultrasound" (again, something close) > > even though I've got a bare-bones system, and tried it with and without > ultrinit. > I believe ultrinit MUST reset and configure the GUS first before ultramid will recognize it. So in your autoexec, remember to put ultramid AFTER your ultrasnd and ultradir variables and ultrinit. I don't have T7G, but just thought I'd add my $0.02. > From: RTHI%BTMA74@se.alcbel.be > Subject: Where in the world is my 8k DRAM > > I have made the upgrade from 256k to 1M DRAM. > > I used the diagnostic program that came with the soundcard to test the DRAM > and... it worked all 1024k passed the test. I was a happy man. > > However, when I started windows and launched the PatchManager, he told me > that only 1016k was free. > > So my question is where in the world is my 8k... > The 8k is very probably reserved as a buffer for the playing of WAVs. Phat. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 12:49:08 -0400 From: "Momentary language, sexual situations" Subject: Re: Ultrasound FTP Sites - Discussion on new arrangement Message-ID: <9306231649.AA01670@magick.tay2.dec.com> This certainly seems like a reasonable way to handle the problem (although I DO like the idea of Gravis buying a gig disk...:-). It does seem like alot of extra work for the site administrator in that they will have to move files across machines now. If a bunch of MIDI files get uploaded to epas, they've got to move 'em over to wuarchive...But, given the alternatives and that they are willing to do the work... DDA ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jun 93 17:21:15 EDT From: jagati1@SERVER.uwindsor.ca (Jason Jagatic) Subject: Wing Commander II Message-ID: <9306232121.AA24614@SERVER.uwindsor.ca> I am not sure if this message is appropriate for this digest, but I need some help. I cannot get Wing Commander 2 to install on my system. Could it be because of the GUS? I have the GUS set to: 220,1,1,5,3 I have no idea what is wrong. Maybe it is DOS 6 and Doublespace? I dunno. But the install program won't run. It will load and then blink off right away and say Program terminated because of reason #1. Interrupted by User. Could the gus be doing this? Please help! ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #23 ************************************* 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.)