Ultrasound Daily Digest Mon Jul 5 00:07 Volume 4: Issue 34 Today's Topics: AIL with UW2 - Making it work better Alt.Grow.Up Canada Post Detuning in drum setups ? Dune 2 AIL no work EPAS! FILES on Epas Is John Smith superman? Super Ultrasound Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #33 (2 msgs) 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: Sun, 04 Jul 93 12:41:49 GMT From: Mike Parkins Subject: AIL with UW2 - Making it work better Message-ID: <741814909snx@kingpin.demon.co.uk> I have been experimenting with ULTRAMID.INI to see if it is possible to stop the delays due to patch loading every time the song changes occur in Underworld II. Apparently this is not a problem with a 256k GUS, only with upgraded cards. By changing the "1024k" column to resemble the "256k" column, you can reduce the number of patches that Ultramid needs to load during the game. There appears to be little difference in sound quality or variety of instruments used with this method and you can always try restoring some of the patches, a few at a time, until the delay reoccurs. The music really shows off the GUS, better than any .MOD file I have heard and better than most midi files too (except maybe CHRIS4.MID!). I wish I could find a way to pause it straight after getting killed so I could hear the whole of the death theme :-). Mike. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Jul 93 22:04:32 EDT From: pccmoddan@aol.com Subject: Alt.Grow.Up Message-ID: <9307042204.tn15189@aol.com> timkwan@Athena.MIT.EDU writes: >How do you KNOW they sent them *ALL* out? Yeah, your >comments were worth $0.02 cents alright! Read my previous >posting again. I said I gave John Smith my _new_ address that first >time and he replied saying that indeed the address was different >from what was in their records, and that he would update it. I >thanked him for changing it and then continued to wait for the disks. Problem number one: method of communication. To get something done reliably, *DON'T* use email. *CALL* Gravis and TALK to someone in customer support. John gets over 200 messages a day, and it's quite ridiculous to expect him to be able to handle all of that himself. Gravis' number is 1-800-663-8558. >Did he not update it like he said he would after that first time I sent >the address to him?? I am questioning the way Gravis operates. It >seems like they can't keep their records straight. Why should you >assume my package is in the mail when John Smith himself did >NOT say that it was. All he said was that "all the packages" have >been mailed out. So what? >Does that include mine? If so, why is it that I and a bunch of other >people still have not received their disks?? Oh, sure, blame the >postal service, but, quoting Francois Dion, > >"What is the problem here? Gravis, have you shipped ... or not?" > No offense to anyone, but this is quite silly. It is a Known Fact that Gravis *has* mailed disks addressed to *everyone* who was in the database at the time of the mailing. This was a LARGE mailing. The vast majority of registered users DO have the disks. So asking whether Gravis has shipped or not, after 1) Gravis has officially said that they have, and 2) many, many people have *received* the shipment, is really pointless. - Dan Nicholson ________________________________________________ | Dan Nicholson | email: pccmoddan@aol.com | | aka | uuencoded: moddan@bowker.com | | Maelcum [KLF] | America Online: PCC ModDan | | and | VirtualNet: 2 @ 9082 | | [PCC] ModDan | Voice Phone: currently down | |_______________|______________________________| | | | Levisionet Technologies | | 553 Thoreau Terrace | | Union, NJ 07083 U.S.A. | | (Formerly PCkS Associates) | |______________________________________________| ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Jul 93 05:31:16 EDT From: timkwan@Athena.MIT.EDU Subject: Canada Post Message-ID: <9307040931.AA21561@vongole> akwong@ccs.carleton.ca (Adrian Kwong) writes: |>Well people, Canada Post just doesn't seem to be in the right gear. I |>don't think all you people should be whining to Gravis about "wheres |>my disks". Truth of the matter is, they're stuck in Canada Post. Canada Post may not seem to be doing their job well, but why do you insist that Gravis HAS ALREADY sent out the disks to those of US who haven't gotten them yet?? There is a likelihood that Gravis has misplaced a bunch of registration cards, did not update their address list, or not sent the disks out yet. I know it is possible that Gravis might have wrong addresses because...sigh, just read my last post. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Jul 93 3:22:26 PDT From: chrisw@leland.Stanford.EDU Subject: Detuning in drum setups ? Message-ID: <9307041022.AA13323@sunlight.Stanford.EDU> Just wondering if anyone can help me with the following problem. I've got quite a few drum patches sitting around that I'd like to make into a channel 10 drum setup. Only problem is, I've made them all up with middle C as the root of the patch. I assumed that I could fairly easily put in detune offsets so that I could get channel 10 note messages to always play middle c's. But so far I have not managed to figure out how to detune single notes of drum setups in either Windows or using playmidi (with playmidi I can detune the melodic patches but not the drum patches). I really want to do things this way because I would like to have a couple of different drum setups and don't want to have multiple copies of every drum patch with different root frequencies. Surely this is possible? Chris. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Jul 93 9:30:21 EDT From: Matthew Spewak Subject: Re: Dune 2 AIL no work Message-ID: <9307041330.AA23222@lambada.oit.unc.edu> [my quote removed] >Works fine on my machine <386-33 4 meg> >The only time I ever get the out of memory error is if I don't load ultramid >high. So try loading both your mouse and ultramid high if you can. >this sucks, since I normall load my CD-ROM drivers high, so I can't listen >to some music while playing Dune 2. Ah well... I have tried this: LH MOUSE (to load my mouse driver) and LH ultramid -c. But it seems as though it doesn't load ultramid high, as it takes up the same amount of memory without the LH statement. Also, what version of AIL do you use, and how much memory do you have free? -MS ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 03 Jul 93 20:15:02 GMT From: thomasvk@blackhl.hacktic.nl (Thomas van Kuipers) Subject: EPAS! Message-ID: The right epas adress for me is: archive.epas.utoronto.ca I can access and download it in the Netherlands, so i assume it works for other also. To the guy who can't ftp from epas bye, ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 03 Jul 93 20:01:37 GMT From: thomasvk@blackhl.hacktic.nl (Thomas van Kuipers) Subject: FILES on Epas Message-ID: Hello gus-users, I have downloaded serveral things from archive.epas.utoronto.ca ftp adress and something work fine, but a number of files which use the zip-format don't work by. I use PKZIP/PKUNZIP 2.04G shareware version and he tells me that there is a error in it and i have to use pkzipfix, which can't repair it good, so it sames.... I suspect that the zip-version isn't good, but i think i'll use the latest zip (2.04g is just released). I downloaded through ftp the following files which are having problems: GUSAIL97.zip GUSAIL10.ZIP DUNE2AIL.zip Thanks, and i hope i can use GUSAIL-drivers finally!! Thomas ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Jul 93 14:50:44 EDT From: Steph Subject: Is John Smith superman? Message-ID: <04JUL93.16033368.0040.MUSIC@POLYTEC1> Golly whiz. Everyone is whining to Mr. Smith. What is he exactly at Gravis? Seems to me he's programming, answers complaints, takes care of distribution, does a little database access here and there... Maybe what they need is someone else to monitor the net - and answer questions. I would love to see him devote more time to programming and let someone else handle all the gritty work of the complains department, which seems to be growing. Maybe Gravis hit it too big, too fast. It doesn't seem like they were quite ready for it. Steph. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Jul 1993 14:56:53 +0800 (WST) From: Nasir David Subject: Super Ultrasound Message-ID: to Michael who asked about the super ultrasound... I'm currently on holiday in Vancover Canada and I was lucky to a tour of the gravis factory here in B.C WOW!!! thats all I can say!! On the tour John (yes I actually met john smith!!!) showed me the new prototype of the ULTRAMAX card that gravis will be bringing out. Its got the full blow SCSi interface and the 16 bit add on built into the card I assume its gonna be fully compatable with the cards we own. John didnt say anything about 'incompatability' with the stardard card. I dont think he mentioned anything about the price though or the release date. Like I said it was still a prototype!! Looks great though!! I hope that helps Michael, Nasir BTW I'll write more about what I saw at gravis later and thanks alot John for the tour!!!!!! * "What America's Cup??" | "My mistress eyes are Nothing Like the Sun" * * _+-_|\ | William Shakespear * * / \ | Nasir David at the... * * Perth , W.A ----> \_.--._/ | University Of Western Australia. * ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Jul 93 14:48:18 EDT From: Steph Subject: Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #33 Message-ID: <04JUL93.15989667.0040.MUSIC@POLYTEC1> Hey, a reply from Howling Dog. They made some valid points in there; let's go over them one by one, if you please. First off, I don't know who exactly it is that replied, seems the list screwed it up somehow. I'm assuming it is from : Eric Bell, Howling Dog Systems" <71333.2166@CompuServe.COM> Oh well, here goes nothing. > > either) : why not start an email server, somewhere, for the damn disks? > > The way I see it, people don't care for the _disks_, they want the > > _software_ on it. If it's GUS-related, only GUS-users have any use for > > it. So what if people copy it? It'll only be used by GUS users, no? > > Unless of course powerchord and all support other cards. > > We're the makers of Power Chords. It would be disastrous for us if GUS owners > circumvent the distribution of disks through Advan > ced Gravis for a number of reasons. > > 1) We get paid a royalty for each copy of Power Chords for UltraSound that > Gravis ships. If you don't send in your registration card and get the software > from a friend or FTP site, we don't get paid. > Makes sense. Someone mentioned an e-mail server with the serial number as the password. If Gravis put up the server, would it be possible to get paid just the same for requesting the program? (Naturally, only once per customer!) > 2) If you don't send in your reg. card, you don't get the upgrade flyer that > is included with the disks. This is a lot of revenue for us. But you might not > upgrade or buy other products if you don't know they are available. > I'm sure that a simple READ.ME or some sort, packaged with the software, would do just fine. Which is better? A text file, or not receiving the package at all? :) > 3) If you don't send in your reg. card, we have no record of you. The list of > GUS customers is part of our deal with Gravis. If you're not on it, we cant > market upgrades, other products of interest etc. to you. > Makes sense. But here we're not talking about _not_ sending the card. I mean send the card in and then, when they have it, requesting the program through internet mail. Seems to me it's much, much faster than (dare I say it?) snail mail. It's hard for me to be thrilled with your software if I never receive it. > 4) It's illegal to copy Power Chords and distribute it. > That, I can understand. But, again, if you control the email server it might be possible to restrict it to registered GUS owners. After someone gets a copy, the odds that they are going to copy it to someone else are just as high as when they actually receive the disks. > Please do us a favor and make Gravis fulfil their commitment to their > customers. I am very upset with the way this has been handled, and all the > delays, gaffes (mismatched icons, misspelling our product name in their > adversising) etc. > > For what it's worth, I have not yet to received my GUS disks either. I live > outside Ottawa, Canada. > > Eric Bell, Howling Dog Systems > Ah, there's the name. Guess I was right. :) Thanks for your reply, Eric. Steph. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Jul 93 20:23:26 EDT From: n4zfd!frodo@rylos.n2idf.ampr.org (Jim Blakely) Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #33 Message-ID: I'm really getting tired of seeing the Canadians bellyaching about not receiving their disks. It's well known that the Canadian post office is one of the poorest in the world - during their last strike, whole containerloads of mail were dumped into lakes by Canadian postal workers. The lack of forwarding of registration cards & the fact that virtually the only group that hasn't received their disks is Canadians, all point to the inefficiencies of your postal system. Instead of costing everyone along the net money with your complaints, why don't you contact your governmental officials about your country's mail problems. And contact Gravis directly via telephone about your own disks. They do have an 800 number, ya know, so you wouldn't have to spend a dime of anyone but Gravis' money. And, while we're at it, it was stated several times by John Smith that Gravis sent disks to everyone who was on the mailing list, and via simple mail - they are *not* traceable. I applaud them for sending them at all - most other companies charge for updates. Lastly, I didn't get my disks with the first mailing either. I sent email to John, and they were mailed out to me the next day. I expect they've been mailed to all of you who asked -- so ... once again, complain to your post office. -Jim ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #34 ************************************* 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.)