Ultrasound Daily Digest Mon Aug 16 00:45 Volume 5: Issue 15 Today's Topics: Another Attmept: Chris6.uue and Chris8.uue BioMenace, Prince of Evil + SBOS Compat? Custom patches, Sonic Sound. Gus/other sound cards (like sonic sound) ....................................... GUS and 8-ball deluxe Mega-Em 1.00B014 Available Mega-Em sometimes worse than SBOS? Returned mail: User unknown (fwd) Shorter Patches thoughts ... Ultrasound Daily Digest V5 #9 Update Disks 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, 15 Aug 93 6:41:22 PDT From: Christopher Jon Wilkins Subject: Another Attmept: Chris6.uue and Chris8.uue Message-ID: <199308151341.GAA10034@power.Stanford.EDU> O.K. I think there's a real hope this time. I've put Chris6 and Chris8 on epas as uuencoded pkzip files. I know this is weird and I'd appreciate if someone with an ethernet link could uudecode them and replace the ascii versions with the uudecoded versions. The current filenenames are Chris6.uue and Chris8.uue. I'm pretty sure these ones are O.K. because I downloaded Chris6.uue from the VAX machine I'm using after uploading and it came back without any errors (if anything's gone wrong it would have to be in the ftp stage to epas which seems very unlikely). Chris7 will have to wait a week (I'm moving back the patch names for the 808 drum set for Francois but going on holidays first). Chris6 and 8 use some custom drum patches included in the zips but don't use Francois' 808 set. To people on the Chris file Email list - I'll try to get around to mailing out copies in a weeks time. Or you can work out how to use the ftp by Email machine. Chris. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 14 Aug 1993 23:12:42 -0700 (MST) From: Charred Corpse Subject: BioMenace, Prince of Evil + SBOS Compat? Message-ID: I cannot seem to get Bio Menace (by ID) to work with SBOS. It freezes every time a digitized sound attempts to play. Actually it freezes when a digitized sound would occur even if sounds are turned off. It also froze when I had it set to play the AdLib music and then sounds on the PC squeaker. The only time I could get it to run properly was without loading SBOS and just running out of the speaker. Has anyone been able to get this game to work - with what switches etc? I have never had to use switches on any of their other games before, so this is an oddity to me. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Also, there is a game called Prince of Evil - a japanese game. I have tried most switch combinations through sboscfg.exe and have only achieved to get music to play on it.. no digitized sounds whatsoever. It doesn't freeze, just no sounds. If anyone is familiar with this game, and any setup peculiarities it might have, please let me know. Thanks, Mike ****************************************************************************** * --> Mfinkel@gas.uug.arizona.edu * A good day is a flamethrower, a pile of * * Tucson, Arizona U.S.A. * corpses, and a full tank of gasoline! * ****************************************************************************** ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 15 Aug 1993 04:56:17 -0400 (EDT) From: Phat H Tran Subject: Custom patches, Sonic Sound. Message-ID: > Date: Sat, 14 Aug 93 2:29:16 PDT > From: Christopher Jon Wilkins > Subject: Custom patches, banks, etc. > Message-ID: <199308140929.CAA05489@power.Stanford.EDU> > > On the topic of how to organise custom patches ... > > The current idea being thrown around is to create a `bank loading' > program to swap ultrasnd.ini files. This might be O.K. as a temporary > solution, but I think we should really seriously lobby Gravis to > modify the windows drivers instead. > [...] Managing custom banks/patches can be quite complicated. If we get to define multiple banks in ultrasnd.ini, how will we choose among them in a .mid? We can use controller 0, but then we would have to modify Media Player and other sequencers to look for it to keep track of which program calls occurred in which banks so that the correct patches can be cached. Thus, we will need to ask Twelve Tone, Howling Dog, MidiSoft, Microsoft, etc., to revise their software to accomodate bank switching on the GUS. (I'm assuming that current sequencers ignore controller 0 when scanning for patches to be cached.) A possible work-around might be to have the driver load patches as it encounters new program changes instead of having the sequencer scan the .mid for patches to cache. That way, the driver will "experience" the bank switching messages and be in the right bank for the program changes that follow. This will introduce pauses into the song when it is first played, though. We can place all controller 0's and program changes at the beginning of the melodic tracks so that all the pauses occur at once before the song plays, but what about the percs which are keymapped? I guess we can attach a header to the perc track that turns the channel volume to zero and then send note on messages for each of the perc patches that are in the track to force them all to load at the beginning of the .mid. This might seem a little involved, but I don't think it's any more involved than setting up sampling synths to play a particular piece. To be really useful, the driver should support the option of NOT responding to MME caching calls if it is going to support bank switching via something like controller 0 and on-the-fly patch caching. That's because current sequencers that do not take the bank switching into consideration can cause a bunch of inappropriate patches to be cached. > Date: Sat, 14 Aug 93 00:15:27 GMT > From: thomasvk@blackhl.hacktic.nl (Thomas van Kuipers) > Subject: The new sound card (what's REAL and what ISN't!) .... Sorry for wrong informatio > Message-ID: > > Hi, > > I saw your reply about Diamonds Sonic Sound. I'm the guy who > placed the artikel. > > A Friend of Mine has bought a card (SOLD his GUS) for about > $250. I ALREADY found out that there wasn't RAM on it, BUT IT > HAS CACHE RAM (64kB) and has the rom modules. Further it has As far as anyone's been able to ascertain, the SRAM cannot be used to store custom samples. It appears to only hold instructions for the DSP. Sample memory needn't have the fast access times of expensive SRAM. > an upgradubility to 8 mb rom (the dealer said) for about $120. > Further It has SCSI-2 on board, it's totally 16-bit (recording Be careful about the 16-bit recording. Another user who bought an Aria-based card noted that his only records at 12-bit resolution, even though each sample was represented in 16-bit words. (Only 12 of those 16 bits would be significant.) If recording is done by the Aria chip itself, and not by an auxilliary ADC, then all Aria cards may only have 12-bit recording. > and playing) and has HARDWARE comp. Soundblaster / adlib on it. The SB/Adlib is emulated. The card doesn't have an OPL FM chip on it. Some say the emulation is worse than SBOS. Maybe the sound quality is worse, but I would expect hardware emulation to work with more games than software emulation. > So you have for about $50 more the two daugterboards > (scsi/16-bit) AND hardware SB comp. (Oke i'll know dan that > the aria isn't comp with gus totally) The Aria isn't GUS-compatible in the slightest. For example, to play MODs, you'll have to mix and resample all in software when dealing with the Aria. Not very GUS-like, is it? > I know a lot about computers and i like MY GUS very much, but > after that it is still a good priced card with an high > performance and it DOES sound better than a GUS, you know. ^^^^^ I hope you meant that the card's _specs_ seem better than the GUS' because I'd be very surprised if a 0.5 MB Aria card sounds better than the Ultrasound. All I've heard from people who have auditioned both types of cards is that the GUS definitely sounds better than an Aria with 0.5 MB of ROM, or even 1.0 MB. Now, if the ROM was upgraded to 8 Megs, then it would not be too surprising that your friend's Aria would be the better sounding card. I find nothing appealing about any of the Aria cards currently released, including the Sonic Sound. Lack of RAM, small ROMs. They don't even have a MIDI processor like the other ROM-based synths to make them attractive. They're basically GUSes that have the RAM ripped out and replaced with ROM. The added frills of SCSI and 16-bit recording don't make up for the lack of flexibility. The DSP is programmable, but it's also the synth, I believe. While it's doing the wavetable synthesis, it might not be able to do anything else. If you're getting weary of the GUS, save your money and wait for something else. There are much better cards than the Sonic Sound. Phat. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 15 Aug 93 01:35:06 GMT From: thomasvk@blackhl.hacktic.nl (Thomas van Kuipers) Subject: Gus/other sound cards (like sonic sound) ....................................... Message-ID: <85aq9B2w165w@blackhl.hacktic.nl> First: Hi Dan, (pccmoddan@aol.com) In you letter yesterday you said: "I'm friends with several guys at Diamond so I'll ask them about the 8mb ROM.. last thing they told me was that the card could only have 1mb ROM. So far the largest ROM patch sets available have been the 4mb Proteus ones in the Waveblaster and the Multisound, and the largest Aria ones have been 1mb." **** Very easy to have direct contacts to companies as Diamond. I then think you know it better than me, but from what i heard from the dealer and others and so ... i heard the standard Sonic sound is with DSP with 512Kb Rom expandable to 1mb rom. As you buy the upgrade then (they say) there will be 8 mb of rom installed (BUT they didn't mention what sort, perhaps those fools mean 8 M BIT Rom, which is ofcourse 1 mb rom (i know i know i allways should ask those guys EVERYTHING i would/must like to know ..... otherwise WE 'experts' can't rely on it .... as with 'our' misunderstanding). Nonetheless THEY say that it ISN'T patches or so, but special software in rom to use more of DSP (voice renognition) (8 (?!) Mb rom of SOFTWARE ?????!! weird, but yeah it the dealer). (shouldn't rely on dealers, but yeah ......) "When doe it sound better? MIDI? Digital Audio Playback? For MIDI, the GUS sounds better ..." **** It don't know for sure ... yet ... my friend say that SB HARDWARE comp. is very handy and the OVERAL sound does sound better. And Yes he already has drivers for the Midpak/Digpak. I don't know yet IF Midi sounds better if played over RAM. I know the advantage, but especially if you compare Waveblasters 4 Mb rom with 1 Mb ram on Gus i don't know (that why i was very pleased when i heard about a card with RAM and ROM, which is the best i think ... I hope a card with at least 4 Mb rom and 1 Mb ram expandable to 4 or 8 mb ram ... better because of software and Ram but also don't have to load EVERY patch (takes longer .. alright it musn't count but yeah ..)) Oh yeah, I preferable Gus over Aria also, because two things: - One Aria ISN't GUs comp. (only upport the same feature (the hope)) - Software doesn't support Aria, gus is software supported ALREADY. (at least) By, BTW, I have a NON-gus question: You don't have a account on internet/uucp/usenet or email, don't you? I readed some America Online connection or so. I have those programs here also, only using a modem from holland to canada is very expensive so i don't do it ... The question is: @aol.com is the only thing neccessary to Email to someone from AOL? (I know then another 'gateway') Thomas van Kuipers Email: thomasvk@blackhl.hacktic.nl Second: To Phat H Tran, I don't know what you think (and other guys) but Ram in favour of rom is from which point of view you do see. Ram is easy 'upgradable' but with you have steady 'working' pathches. I mean i have seen people with SB 16_ AND WAVEBLASTER or WITH ROLAND CANVAS and i must say i love my gus and don't find the trouble of checking sbos or ail or other drivers to use with a game/program, but when you play a few games and EVERY time you has to find out it, than it become disturb me. You don't get that with wave/canvas it SIMPLY works (oke i'll know YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR IT), but from the working point of view it simply WORKS. (gus will mostly work, but the average time to do that is at least a few minutes depending on if you use sbos or ail or such) THAT's the reason i want a card with 4 mb rom and 4 mb ram on IT! hopefully it's a GUS!! Thomas ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 15 Aug 93 10:30:49 -0400 From: Subject: GUS and 8-ball deluxe Message-ID: <9308151430.AA22833@iris.Ariel.YorkU.CA> Hiya, Anyone got the settings for this? I've been using SBOS from my upgrade disks (2.06) with the -o2 option, but the sound sounds like it could be improved. I'm thinking of download SBOS 1.2. Sound reasonable? I haven't yet looked at the AIL/Miles drivers. I don't really know what they are. Would the help in this case? Are they meant as a substitute for SBOS? Thanks for the help. Nemo De Furia. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1993 11:03:16 +0800 (WST) From: Jayeson Lee-Steere Subject: Mega-Em 1.00B014 Available Message-ID: <199308160303.LAA18369@tartarus.uwa.edu.au> Mega-Em 1.00B014 Since I've had few problems with 13B, this will probably be the final Beta for version 1.00. Look for megem14b.zip at the following anonymous FTP sites: archive.epas.utoronto.ca in pub/pc/ultrasound/submit tartarus.uwa.edu.au in pub/leesteer New in this release: After almost giving myself an ulcer, Mega-Em should now work with 386MAX. Master music volume control. Pitch bending. I'm not very happy with this. Many MT32 tracks sound like a $10 dollar walkman with flat batteries. Increased the demo time to an excessively long 20 mins (unless your a Civ. fan). Jayeson Lee-Steere leesteer@tartarus.uwa.edu.au ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 15 Aug 1993 14:51:06 -0500 From: John Riedl Subject: Mega-Em sometimes worse than SBOS? Message-ID: <199308151951.AA05259@xerxes.cs.umn.edu> >I agree with Adrian, Megem (13b) offers far more superior sound than >SBOS. Hmm. I've tried Megaem 13b with The Incredible Machine, and the sound is quite a bit *worse* than with SBOS. The music sounds out-of-tune, and the notes sound odd, almost as if two melodies are playing at the same time. Am I missing an option or something, or is Mega-em like SBOS: works with some, doesn't work with others? John ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1993 09:22:57 +1000 (EST) From: Andrew See Subject: Returned mail: User unknown (fwd) Message-ID: <199308152322.AA10068@arthur.st.nepean.uws.edu.au> > I am using the MCS stereo program V 1.0 in Windows, to play > Mids, Wavs, and CD Audio thru the GUS, but I can't get the > MCS mixer.exe program to run. > Is it incompatible with the GUS driver? > > > ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 15 Aug 93 4:53:44 PDT From: Christopher Jon Wilkins Subject: Shorter Patches thoughts ... Message-ID: <199308151153.EAA09901@power.Stanford.EDU> The general principle of shorter patches is O.K., but I'd like to point out that AM and particularly FM can chew up a fair bit of CPU time on the GUS. Now I know that that doesn't mean much to the 486 users (me, usually), but at the moment I'm on a 386sx and it gets kind of tricky to keep those notes coming out at full speed. you'll notice that Chris6-8 are a bit sparser on note usage). Also, I don't know about everyone else, but my GUS has a pretty severe frequency rolloff when I sample under 44.1khz. Even when I do it sounds like it's gone through a fair sharp LPF at about 10khz. Anyway, I'm about to try to upload Chris6 again as its own .zip file with patches. Hopefully this time it may work (trying yet another different method). I'm going on holidays for a week tomorrow so the other two will have to wait until I get back. Sorry about all these false announcements... Chris. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Aug 93 21:02:04 EDT From: n4zfd!frodo@rylos.n2idf.ampr.org (Jim Blakely) Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V5 #9 Message-ID: <745444698@rylos> Re: MIDI Mapper Midi Mapper is an intrinsic part of Multimedia Windows. It is not the place for implementing patch caching - patch caching is, according to the Multimedia specs, supposed to be handled by the application program, in most of our cases, that means the game or sequencer. The GUS multimedia driver does support the API calls that provide information on current patches, etc., for use by a patch-cache aware application. WinJammer is a patch-cache aware application, as is Midisoft Recording Session, Midisoft Studio, and Windows' own Media Player. If you obtain a .MID file that does not play any sound, it is an error on the part of the composer of that file, which is a form of the old programmer's error - forgetting to initialize. According to specs, the patch present on a MIDI channel is *undetermined* when a sequence begins. Some MIDI devices provide a default - others don't. The solution is to load the .MID file into a sequencer, such as Recording Session, and select a starting patch for each of the tracks. --Jim Blakely ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 15 Aug 1993 19:35:15 -0500 (EST) From: STU_JABIRCHE@VAX1.ACS.JMU.EDU Subject: Update Disks Message-ID: <01H1SARRZ6YA8WWIAJ@VAX1.ACS.JMU.EDU> Got my disks yesterday. Odd. Thank you Gravis. :) I really like Power Chords. Some odd things, though. When I go to write a bass line sometimes, if i hit play in the Rhythm editor sometimes, it won't sound, but when I hit play in the song window, then hit play in the Rhythm editor it plays. Also, sometimes when I play a file from power chords in Midisoft Rec. the rhythm track won't play. Cakewalk doesn't have any problem with Power Chords songs, tho. All in all, nifty stuff. Thanks again. I'm workin on a Power Chords/Cakewalk hybrid rendition of Stone Temple Pilots' "No Memory", an instumental piece. The jazz guitar isn't good enuff for this. If anyone can make me a REALLY reverbed electric guitar patch, I'd be highly appreciative. -=Marc=- ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V5 #15 ************************************* 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 archive.orst.edu pub/packages/gravis FTP mail server: mail-server@nike.rz.uni-konstanz.de 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.)