Ultrasound Daily Digest     Sun Jun  6 00:07     Volume 4: Issue   6  

Today's Topics:
					  CD players & sound quality
					 New Windows drivers? Where?
					  Prince of Persia 2 - Help!
							 SBOS Works!
					World Circuit (F1GP) and sbos

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.

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Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1993 00:00:51 -0700
From: Scott Rowin <amigo@halcyon.halcyon.com>
Subject: Re: CD players & sound quality
Message-ID: <199306050700.AA05207@halcyon.com>

	Agreed, the majority of all CD players comes from the analog
portions.. the digital stuff is very clean-cut typically these days, and
henceforth produces very close to the same output. Its everything from
the D/A converter down through the op amps to the filter/output caps. 
	I have some expierence in this area - I upgraded a Sony CDP990
from what I thought was OK sound - typically at the time better then
most of the average players. What I found was they used the cheapest op-amps
they could get (early 80s technology), and hence the sound quality of
the entire player suffered, if not distorted somewhat because of it. The
trick was to swap out the original junk op-amps with quality ones - the Burr-Brown OPA series, I also did some bypassing with a few caps, and took out some 
crummy eletrolytics in the signal path...end result is a totally clean sounding
player, and all it took was $8 in parts! Its one cheap upgrade, and I'm set
to enjoy my "old" player for years more - especially since nothings really
changed in CD player technology.
 (at least since I bought the CDP990).

	Course all this is way-off subject from the Ultrasound group, so
I'll throw in some info on the GUS for the heck of it.. it seems to have
OK op-amps, henceforth its sound is fairly good considering what previous
cards have sounded like (very noisy). I'm amazed how well they filtered out
the typicaly computer noise that crept into the output signal as in the
case of Soundblaster & Soundblaster PROs... they have very bad noise problems
I wasn't really impressed with them in that regard, though they did ok for
the time I had it - roughly 2 months before the PAS16 came out, I was real
bum about getting a SBPRO at that time because of that, but now find it
a reasonable upgrade from the SBPRO to get a GUS.

	Just wish more games had UltraSound in thier setups - PAS 16 is
sure common..
	--> Scott
.s

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Date: Sat, 5 Jun 93 20:56:08 EST
From: adrianr@ecr.mu.oz.au (Adriano_Ennio RAIOLA)
Subject: New Windows drivers? Where?
Message-ID: <9306051056.25296@ecr.mu.oz.au>

Firstly, to whichever legend uploaded jarre.zip to epas, a collection of 
Jean-Michel Jarre (He being the God of synthesiser music, after all he
virtually created it) MIDI files, umm your a legend! Thanks, they are 
fantastic.

Secondly, Phat Tran, you replied in a previous digest that the problems
with volume mapping were addressed in a new version of the windows drivers
and playmidi, but they probably missed being posted out or something, WHERE
can we get these drivers? Are they on epas? Are they part of the new 2.06
disk set? 

-- 
| adrianr@ecr.mu.oz.au --------| Adrian -aka- Plugger | *  * *  *   *  |  _/_\
| adrianr@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au -| What time is love?   | *_*  * *_  *_  | / OZ |
| adrianr@mundil.cs.mu.oz.au --| I think its gonna be | * *  *   *   * | \__-_/
| -- I want more accounts! ----| long, long time.     | *  * *  *   *  |     v

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Date: Sat, 5 Jun 93 20:36:02 PDT
From: giff@netcom.com (David W. Gifford)
Subject: Prince of Persia 2 - Help!
Message-ID: <9306060336.AA06154@netcom.netcom.com>

Has anyone found a way to play Prince of Persia 2 without constant fear
that the program will suddenly lock up?

I've tried going back to earlier versions of SBOS, and a myriad of
switch combinations.  John, could you have your folks look at it?
this appears to be one of those games that will be quite popular.

More than anything, I'd like to learn why SBOS has trouble with
digitized sound in several games.  Admittedly, Origin Games and X-Wing and
the like are very complex, but am I mistaken in thinking that there is
a standardized way to address the SoundBlaster card in order to play
back digitized sounds?  And that SBOS is capable of working with that
method?

Frankly, I'd like to understand how SBOS works a litle better.  Anyone
out there who can point me towards some decent sources of information
has my appreciation.

BTW, this is the FIRST problem I've had with my GUS.  I'm not the
most avid game player, but I have a reasonable number of games that have
presented little problem.

Also, I notice that Broderbund includes a facility to add sound drivers
to Prince of Persia 2.  Have any of you GUS lobbyists talked with them
in re GUS native support?  I'd be willing to write something like
that if they wanted.  Guess I should call.

Thanks!

-- 
*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*
David Gifford
giff@netcom.com

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Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1993 09:34:03 +0501 (EDT)
From: Gunnar Swanson <gunnar@gibbs.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: SBOS Works!
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9306050903.A19632-a100000@gibbs.oit.unc.edu>

To the guy who said he hated SBOS.  I am using v2.04 with X-Wing for some
time now and have had very few problems.  I mean the sound is not all that
great but hey Sound Blaster sound is shit anyway.  Most likely the problem
is a configuration problem on your part.  Some people who have a SB are
always complaining "wahhhhh I can't get it to work with my GUS." when it
plainly states in the GUS manual do not use with another sound card.  What
can I say?  Good luck getting it to work play around with it until it does
and make a couple of batch files if you have to for your games GUS has a
batch builder program for game s and it does an ok job.

Gunnar Swanson

gunnar@gibbs.oit.unc.edu

end.
 

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Date: Sat, 5 Jun 93 11:47:25 WET DST
From: dp@hydra.carleton.CA (Dave Perry VE3IFB)
Subject: World Circuit (F1GP) and sbos
Message-ID: <9306051547.AA02815@hydra.carleton.CA>

Does anybody know of a version of sbos which will produce tire squealing
sounds with this game, instead of a low level hissing?

I wonder if a 1 meg version of sbos would support a wider number of games.

Dave

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End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #6
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