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. <g>
---
   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: <m0ngqxF-0001o1C@uniko.uni-koblenz.de>

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" <dantonio@magick.tay2.dec.com>
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 <DMC5483@ritvax.isc.rit.edu>
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 <mjs7529@tamsun.tamu.edu>
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 <cowen@ee.ualberta.ca>
Subject: recording noise, dos 6 and more
Message-ID: <Pine.3.03.9304081440.A8766-a100000@bode.ee.ualberta.ca>

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" <colotti@acad.wit.edu>
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 <Morgan_Stair@dl5000.bc.edu>
Subject: SBOS 2.04 is definately out of tune
Message-ID: <Pine.3.03.9304081255.A680-7100000@dlws9.bc.edu>

I don't know what sound is out of tune, but in Ultima 7 it's so
increadibly annoying!

<morgan@DL5000.bc.edu>

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 8 Apr 1993 07:57:04 -0700
From: Eric N. Liao <liaoe@aero.org>
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" <zz_paul_murgatroyd@macmail.bu.oz.au>
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
************************************
