GUS Daily Digest            Thu, 21 Apr 94  9:37 PST     Volume 12: Issue  21 

Today's Topics:
 ***PLEASE*** EMAIL ME IF YOU GOT YOUR 16BIT BOARD BY MAIL ORDER !!!
					   Bookshelf 93 and GUS???
					 Diamond Stealth Pro and GUS
  Do you need special software to use the MIDI port of the Gravis ?
						   ESQ-1/GUS Smoke
						 Focal Point 3D sound
								G-List
				  GUS Daily Digest V12 #20 (2 msgs)
						GUS vs. Turtle Beach?
				 How to run MegaEm using Novell-DOS 7
			Installing GUS and Gateway sound card together
					   linux and gus problems.
							 Review stuff
							   ultima8
		   what is redbook & reading digital audio samples

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, 20 Apr 1994 9:44:27 -0700 (PDT)
From: KOZARD@uvphys.phys.UVic.CA
Subject: ***PLEASE*** EMAIL ME IF YOU GOT YOUR 16BIT BOARD BY MAIL ORDER !!!

***PLEASE*** EMAIL ME IF YOU GOT YOUR 16BIT BOARD BY MAIL ORDER !!!

I need to order the 16 bit board, but I would prefer to mail order
in order to save a few $$$. Please give any addresses/prices/phone
numbers you can.

If you have a 16 bit board, please look at the box/manual and see if it
works with a revision 3.7 GUS.

THANKS!!!

Ken

KOZARD@UVPHYS.PHYS.UVIC.CA

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

Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 16:04:49 -0500 (CDT)
From: vic@cd.com (Vic Serbe x237)
Subject: Re: Bookshelf 93 and GUS???

> Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 15:11:26 -0700
> From: akumar@hposl00.cup.hp.com (Arun)
> Subject: Bookshelf 93 and GUS???
>  
> Hi everyone,
>  
> However, I am having problems with Bookshelf 93. I do not get any sound
> during the Bookshelf demos except for some clicks.
>  
> I have a Zeos Pantera system which has on board audio. 
>  
> I am not sure whats wrong because:
> -On board audio has been disabled with SETUP. Though it could be possible
>  this is messing things up and confusing Bookshelf.
> -Media Player is able to play midi and .snd files thru the GUS.
> -New Groliers Encyclopedia does play sound thru the GUS.
> -SBOS has been installed. I have  a SOUNDBLASTER entry in the autoexec.bat
>  file.
> -I have install 2.06 files for the GUS.
> -I have chosen Ultrasound_256 as the midi mapper.
> -I am using the audio output from the GUS.
> -I do not think I have any DMA/IRQ conflicts. 
> -win.ini has an entry for WAVE=ultrasound
> -CD-ROM audio is thru a dedicated controller card. I am not using its 
>  audio output.
>  
> Any suggestions. 
> Thanks a bunch.
> Arun Kumar
 
Very likely, you have to do what I did to get Encarta '94 to work
properly.  You have to get the Video For Windows 1.1a RunTime update.
It's a 1.3MB download from Microsoft's TOLL BBS, or you might also be able
to find it on epas or some mirror.  I was not getting sound in certain
places on Encarta, one of which was all the startup music and such.  The
"vfwrt11a.exe" (pretty sure that's what it was called) file, once unpacked
and installed from, fixed everything.  Yossi told me and someone else
about this a while back.

-- 
Vic Serbe (vic@cd.com), Applications Engineer
Central Data Corp. - Makers of the scsiTerminal Server
800/482-0315 or (+1) 217/359-8010 (FAX-6904)

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

Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 17:12:39 -0700 (PDT)
From: Shane Conder <saconder@olympus.net>
Subject: Diamond Stealth Pro and GUS

Somone in the #20 digest (mcavity@panam1.panam.edu) mention, kinda to the
side, that the GUS did not work with the Diamond Stealth Pro.

Is this a known fact?  If so why?

Could the person who stated this please explain in a little more detail.

A friend of mine wants a GUS and has that video card.

Shane  [saconder@sq.olympus.net]

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

Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 9:51:26 -0700 (PDT)
From: KOZARD@uvphys.phys.UVic.CA
Subject: Do you need special software to use the MIDI port of the Gravis ?

Does the Gravis MIDI kit come with software ? Or is it just a cable ?
I need to know since I'm mail ordering a MIDI board kit. 

Thanks

Ken

KOZARD@UVPHYS.PHYS.UVIC.CA

(PS, the MIDI board kit is from PMEco if that is important.)

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

Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 13:09:15 -0500 (CDT)
From: Al Morrison <amorriso@systema.westark.edu>
Subject: ESQ-1/GUS Smoke

I'm hooking an Ensoniq ESQ-1 keyboard to my GUS card using a Galaxy Midi 
Adapter Cable.  All is O.K. if I only hook up the ESQ-1's MIDI Out port.  
If I hook up both the MIDI Out and MIDI In ports, I shortly aftwards 
smell something hot, and the ESQ-1 goes nuts.  Obviously a short or 
ground loop or something.  Anyone have any ideas?

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

Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 17:14:54 -0700 (PDT)
From: Shane Conder <saconder@olympus.net>
Subject: Focal Point 3D sound

I have a demonstration for this type of sound.  I can't seem to hear any
difference, except volume changes.  I definitely can't pin point the
sound, other than left, right, or somewhere in between.

Has anyone else had any luck with this type of sound?

Shane  [saconder@sq.olympus.net]

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

Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 20:43:14 -40962758 (CDT)
From: jfulmer@databank.com (John Fulmer)
Subject: G-List

Hi Ho..

How does one get items posted to the G-List? Also, where can one find it 
(Shouldn't it be posted here somewhere, or at least a pointer to it?)?

I have some items to add to it....


Tanks,

John F.

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

Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 20:46:47 -0500 (CDT)
From: Antonio Guia <guia@cc.umanitoba.ca>
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V12 #20

> Sorry, Antonio, I think I misread your question.  The clicks occur while
> your PC is on, not during powerup?  Clicks are to be expected when
> drivers (e.g. Windows) initialize the GUS.  If they occur when no
> initialization is going on, then there's a problem. 

I guess you must have misinterpreted my question.

The noise occurrs during the initialization of the floppies and the hard
drives at the bootup procedure, and of course there are small clicking
sounds when the card is initialized by the software (this part is expected
of course)...  the bootup sounds are almost as if there was a short
somewhere in the card's electronics.

All this does not concern me greatly since i rarely turn off my computer. 
My concern is that while running there were these same noises.  I had
taken my computer apart completely and made sure there were no other cards
occupying the same address spaces or the same dma or irq's (this was a bit
of a task if you remember the list of cards and features in my machine). 
There were no conflicts in the least.  Then i took out the initialization
drivers from the config.sys and autoexec.bat.   Still no change, and
although everything worked just fine in terms of sound production, i was
concerned that the card may not be initializing properly without the
ultrinit and may take up someone else's dma channel or irq.  Finally i
spent an entire day's session in DOS alone, and the problem did not occurr
as frequently, but then again, i also wasn't using the soundcard during
that session.   This at least gave me a clue that it had something to do
with the software.

I removed the drivers for the gus from windows completely, erasing them
from the windows directory, and powered down, removed the card from the
slot and shorted all the input lines on the card at once (yes, i'm an
extremist!) just to make sure everything is reset completely.  no chance
of prior bad settings surviving that purge.  The computer worked fine
after that for a couple of days.   Today i downloaded the entire gus0041
set and replaced the entire gus directory from scratch.  So far i've been
working on the computer for three hours and have not heard any extra
noises.  

The final analysis:  the gus windows drivers were messing things up pretty
badly.  They didn't test as corrupt, so i'm a little concerned about it
happenning again in the near future.  I'm hoping another release comes out
sometime soon.  During that noisy season there were also a whole bunch of
lost sectors, cross-links, etc being generated.  I hope the gus drivers
were an effect and not a cause.

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

Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 00:23:48 -0400 (EDT)
From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V12 #20

> Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 09:14:33 CST
> From: mcavity@PANAM1.PANAM.EDU
> Subject: 32 channel doom
> 
> This is NOT a "red hareing" or whateever.. you realy can do it..

Red herring :)

There is no basis to assume that putting "32" into the config file
will give you 32 channels of digital sound effects in DOOM.  The
game very likely operates the GUS with about only 24 voices active
(the number of voices used by Ultramid--although DOOM doesn't
use Ultramid directly, it probably borrows a lot from it.), and 
also might impose a hard limit lower than that on the number
of voices it will allocate for sound effects.  What I don't want to
see is a lot of overly-eager GUS owners proclaiming "32 channels in
DOOM!" when they lack evidence to support such a claim.  You can
increase the number of sound channels above four, but I don't know
what the actual limit is.

> endit the doom cfg or ini file.. [dont remember which and am not at my teminal]
> but once you do this you will notice some diffrances in music as well as
> sound.. [drums on starting the game not just a "thunk"] the file is text based

I get drums at the start of the game with just 4 sound channels.  
Increasing that number to 99 didn't change a thing.

> Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 23:29:30 -0400
> From: ap641@cleveland.freenet.edu (Hank Leukart)
> Subject: Apogee = Native GUS Support!
> 
>   ATTENTION ALL GUS USERS! (I guess that's all of you :))
> 
>   I just got word that Hocus Pocus from Apogee will be modified
> and will now support the GUS, General MIDI, Roland, PAS-16, and more!
> And, it will support EIGHT digital channels.

I hope they improve their GUS sound routines and stop pinning the
blame for slowdowns on the GUS in their documentation.  That's very
unprofessional.  I guess programmers are just too proud to admit 
fault in their own code. :)

> Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 15:11:26 -0700
> From: akumar@hposl00.cup.hp.com (Arun)
> Subject: Bookshelf 93 and GUS???
> 
> Hi everyone,
> 
> However, I am having problems with Bookshelf 93. I do not get any sound
> during the Bookshelf demos except for some clicks.

You have to provide more information than this.  Is Bookshelf a DOS
or a Windows app?  If it's DOS, what emulator are you trying to
run it under?  What sound hardware do you have the program configured
for?  If it's a Windows app, does it support patch caching (if it
uses MIDI files)?  If it doesn't, have you preloaded the patches
for it?  Etc.

[...]
> -I have chosen Ultrasound_256 as the midi mapper.

For normal operation, you should only use the "Ultrasound" MIDI Mapper
setup, not any of the Ultraxxxx (where xxxx is a number) setups.
Only use the Ultraxxx setups when you explicitly need to preload the
GM set for non-caching apps.

> Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 13:27:27 -0700 (PDT)
> From: "George A. Montemayor" <gmontem@eis.calstate.edu>
> Subject: Re: CGW "blind tests"
> 
> Hmmm... Could be. Also, they probably tested a GUS with 256k or a GUS 
> with 1MB but playing in 8-bits (conserve memory mode).  Or maybe they 
> played a log. volumed MIDI file over a GUS midi player that plays 
> linear volumed MIDI files (or vice versa).  Gotta speak with that guy.  

Or if they used Ultra 256k, Ultra 512k, or Ultra 1024k setup for 
MIDI Mapper instead of Ultrasound, then a lot of MIDI files wouldn't
have played as they were intended to.  I haven't read the review, but
is it correct that they ranked the Aria ahead of the GUS for MIDI
file quality?!  That's absurd!  The GUS, after almost two years, is
still one of the best for MIDI synth sound quality in the sub-Roland
range among the currently available soundcards (including the Ensoniq-
based cards such as Reveal's and Spea's, apparently).  And despite
that, it's also the cheapest of the lot!

> Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 11:52:12 -0700 (PDT)
> From: "George A. Montemayor" <gmontem@eis.calstate.edu>
> Subject: GUS MAX has better patches?
> 
> I read from the GUS MAX ad that it can do hardware compression and 
> compress sound up to 4 times its original length. Now, is it possible for 
> the GUS MAX to be able to compress all 192+ patches using its hardware 
> compression and uncompress on the fly during a MIDI playback, etc.?  If 
> so, then perhaps that is the reason why the GUS MAX still can handle up to 
> 1 MEG of memory.  With the hardware compression, the patches can be the 
> same size as the original GUS patches but sound better because when 
> uncompressed they are actually 2-3 times bigger. I dunno.  Don't spread 
> this around like a rumor.  This is just a question.

The GUS Max has an additional codec to handle the compression for 
streaming digital audio (i.e. WAVs and the like).  The GF1 itself 
won't have any compression capabilities, and as such, the
samples used for its wavetable synthesis can't be compressed.

> Date: Wed, 20 Apr 94 9:34:17 EET DST
> From: s106275@ee.tut.fi (Saari Anssi)
> Subject: In what sense is more than 4 digital channels in Doom a red herring?
> 
> >> Subject: Doom Stuff
> >> 
> >> Exactly HOW and WHICH file do you edit to get more than 4 channels in DOOM?
> >
> >Don't bother.  The "32 channels in DOOM/Raptor" business is a red herring.
> 
> So? It is very easy to hear the difference, a good place is E2L2, where there
> are three crushing walls going up and down. If you switch to the chainsaw
> there every time an enemy makes a sound the chainsaw cuts out. If you increase
> the number of digital channels  it doesn't happen.

With 4 channels, the chainsaw sound doesn't cut off for me, and it shouldn't
for you either.  (I know the stage you're talking about--I get killed
there quite a lot.)  AFAIK, the player's weapon gets the highest sound 
priority and shouldn't be cut off by other sounds.  In fact, the player's
sounds are assigned fixed channels so that they will cut each other off
(e.g. the chainsaw regularly cuts off the player's grunts when he shoves on
a wall) even when no other sounds are playing.

I've changed my number of channels back and forth between 4 and 99 (why 
not? :) and notice little difference in the music or sounds.  I gather 
that a lot of GUS owners have fallen for the placebo effect.

I did notice, though, that an interesting side effect of increasing the
number of sound channels is that the lockups occur much less frequently.
Can someone experiment and verify this?  If you're experiencing lockups
at, say, E2L2, try increasing the number of sound channels to 99.

> Date: Wed, 20 Apr 94 11:31:12 CST
> From: u8013042@cc.nctu.edu.tw
> Subject: MPEG compression ...
> 
>  Does any one 'really' know about some compression features of GUS,
>   i.e. MPEG compression and decompression, A-law , Mu-law ?
>  Would you please state it some more detail ?  Thanx a lot !

The base GUS has no compressin/decompression facilities.  The Max
and the GUS with the 16-bit DB support ADPCM, a-law, and u-law
compression.  I don't think MPEG fits into any of those categories
of compression.  Reports of MPEG compression on the GUS are in 
error.

> Date: 19 Apr 94 16:11:26 EDT
> From: AM3249@ACSPR1.acs.brockport.edu
> Subject: Two Sound Cards
> 
> Can someone tell me how I can use two sound card together.  I have a 
> GUS and a PAS.  I keep getting IRQ errors when i setup the GUS for Sound 
> Blaster emulation.  My IRQ's on each card are totally different.  When 
> I took out my PAS the GUS worked fine.  Please help!!!

You can't use the GUS for SB emulation when you have a PAS in the same
machine as the PAS itself has SB hardware.

> Date: Wed, 20 Apr 94 08:32:09 +0100
> From: nguyen@eerie.fr (NGUYEN Francois                   )
> Subject: Where can I get a 16 bit rec dboard?
> 
> Could anyone tell me a mail order company in the usa or canada
> that sells 16 bits recording daughter boards for not too much
> (include phone and fax number please)

Try Gravis themselves 
  tel (604) 431-5020
  FAX (604) 431-5155

> Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 20:01:03 -0700 (PDT)
> From: "Peter C. Chien Jr." <pchienjr@ocf.Berkeley.EDU>
> Subject: Will SB AWE32 make GUS obsolete?
> 
> The specs for AWE32, i.e., 32 megabytes of RAM upgradable, seems to make 
> the GUS pale.  And that blind test by CGW doesn't rate the GUS as number 

Makes the GUS pale in price, yes. :)  

Seriously, the AWE32 is very pricy and is not better than the GUS for
GM in games.  In fact, it has a worse GM emulator than the GUS.

Phat.

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

Date: Thu, 21 Apr 94 02:02:26 EST
From: pcady@celestat.com
Subject: GUS vs. Turtle Beach?

Anyone have any (personal) experience comparing GUS vs. the Turtle Beach
Monterey card?

Thanks,

Paul Cady
pcady@celestat.com

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

Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 10:21:20 +0200 (EET)
From: Stefan Divjak <divi@sztma.tu-graz.ac.at>
Subject: How to run MegaEm using Novell-DOS 7

Instead of the Novell-EMM386 I simply put the HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE
coming with Windows for Workgroups 3.11 into my CONFIG.SYS. No problem !
You can even use the DPMS-Services ! I haven't tried yet, but this should
work with the Windows 3.1/MS-DOS 6.x HIMEM/EMM386 also.  Anyway, it would
be fine if the next release of MegaEm could support Novell-DOS 7 as well
as redirecting GM-Data to the Midi-Interface (I'd like to hear the
DOOM-Sound from my Roland-Synthie ;). 

Stefan Divjak <divi@sztma.tu-graz.ac.at>

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

Date: Wed, 20 Apr 94 09:45:54 PST
From: bnielsen@cclink.logicon.com (Nielsen, Bill)
Subject: Installing GUS and Gateway sound card together

	 I am attempting to get the GUS and the Gateway sound card (a SB 
	 compatible manufactured by Aztec using default settings: IRQ 5, port 
	 220, DMA 1) to work on my computer together, a Gateway P5-60.  When 
	 the GUS is just plugged in, even with no drivers or environment 
	 variables installed, all DOS SB applications I have tried with the 
	 Gateway card fail.  For example, Rebel Assault will lock up while the 
	 game is loading and DOOM runs with no sound (I realize both of these 
	 games have GUS support, but that's not the point.)  They work fine 
	 when the GUS is unplugged.  Windows sound works, however, with both 
	 cards plugged in.  Do I have to choose one card or the other, or does 
	 anybody have a work around.
	 
	 BTW, I am unable to receive GUS digest issues from the list server and 
	 must pick them up from the epas archive (I have never been able to get 
	 in the orst archive). When I attempt to resubscribe, I get back a 
	 message saying that it accepted my subscription, but after that, no 
	 issues.  This problem started about the time they switched to daytime 
	 delivery of the digest.  I have contacted the list owner twice about 
	 this, but the problem has not been solved.  Has anybody else had this 
	 problem and if so, how did you handle it.
	 
	 Thanks for your help!
	 
	 Bill Nielsen
	 bnielsen@logicon.com

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

Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 08:52:12 -0500
From: marek@austin.ibm.com (Marek R. Telgarsky)
Subject: linux and gus problems.

Hi, 
 Has anyone out there gotten their gus configured with linux? I am having
very bizarre problems. I have tried the following setup values: 
irq 11, dma 1; irq 15, dma 6; irq 11, dma 5. the latter two settings seem
to work some of the time. For example, I will boot and I get sound, then I 
will reboot and get dead silence. There are no problems with my stereo setup,
I have checked and rechecked that. I also have a pair of headphones directly
attached to the GUS that should work. *shrug* The first setting hasn't worked
for me yet. Not once. Please, whoever has gotten it configured so that it
works every time... let me know. Thanks a lot.
				Marek Telgarsky

marek@austin.ibm.com
--- #include <std_disclaimer.h>

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

Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 11:28:53 +0100 (BST)
From: Toby <T.W.Nichols@hertfordshire.ac.uk>
Subject: Review stuff

Just been reading a few reviews in English magasines. Of the three only 
one was done properly. It was mostly based on the music side of things 
and so was rated very highly. The review very much liked the RAM based 
patch system. I think they concluded that it was the best on test, under 
the SCC1. The sb16 with ADSP was 3 below it and the Ensonic card did not 
rate highly either. 
 The other two reviews placed the GUS toward the bottom. They moaned that 
the sound quality was poor and that it did not work with most games. They 
did not mention Megaem AIL or any of the drivers, in fact I think in one 
review they never got it out of the box!
However it was mentioned that out of all the cards tested the GUS had a 
far better SN ratio than all the other cards, twice that of the SB16 and 
also the dynamic range, frequency response were much better to.
Anyway I came to the conclusion that these reviews are never fair. Thats 
something we will have to put up with.

Anyway If you are interestesed in some GUS Demos have a gander on 
wasp.eng.ufl.edu in the demos/tg94 dir. There is some very good stuff.

and finally has anyone got a VOC player that will play noise files click 
free ?

cheers,

# | \        /  ~~|~~ /~~~\ !   !      {} ............................ | #
* <  \  /\  / /~\ |   |     |---|  /\  {} Pessimism? It'll never work. > *
# |   \/  \/  \_/ |   \___/ !   ! /~~\ {} ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | #

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

Date: Thu, 21 Apr 94 11:12:59 BST
From: n9151919@eng.hud.ac.uk (MR. M.D.NEWSHOLME)
Subject: ultima8

I know this subject has probably been covered before but
ive missed the digest for the last month.
	Is there a way to get sound from ultima8 using gus.
ive tried all the usual tricks such as sbos and megaem.
i seem to remember that origin use a non standard ail 
driver and i was wondering if it could be modified to 
support gus directly. also would the ultima7  patch on the 
archives be any use.
 also does anyone know a mailserver site which has raptor 
available.
please respond direct to me or digest
		thanks a lot

		M.Newsholme
		n9151919@uk.ac.hud.eng

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

Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 15:05:44 -0500 (CDT)
From: Jim Barnette <jim@crhc.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Re: what is redbook & reading digital audio samples

>From: Don Eller <don.eller@inst.medtronic.com>
>Subject: more on Media Player responses
>
>By the way, does anyone remember why CD audio is referred to as "Redbook"?  Was
>the standard issued in a pamplet with a red cover?  I assume this is an audio
>industry standard and was invented well before the computer industry started
>CDROM.

The original spec. for CD digital audio as published by Philips and Sony
had a red cover.  It was actually introduced in the early 80's (probably
1982).  As I understand it, the orange book is an updated spec. to allow
multiple writing sessions on write-once compact discs.  On multi-session
discs, the table of contents (list of tracks and their length) is
included in the data recorded during the last session instead of always
being recorded at the beginning of the disc (innermos lead-in area).

>From: Peter.Vestman@um.erisoft.se (Peter Vestman)
>Subject: Reading CD audio?
>
>Is there a way to read the data of an audio CD in a CD-ROM player?
>If this was possible it would be a great way to get hi-quality samples,
>without the loss of D/A - A/D conversion.
>If it is not possible can someone explain why.

A few of the newer CD players can deliever digital audio samples over
the SCSI bus to the host computer.  The reason that this was uncommon
in older CD players is that CD audio is delivered continuosly at 176,400
bytes/second with no opportunity to restart delivery of digital data,
if the PC fell behind causing buffers in the CD player to overrun.  The
CD digital audio format does not contain sufficient embedded addressing
information to do the precise repositioning necessary to restart the
delivery of digital audio data.  This inexact positioning (1/75 second)
was adequate for audio players, but inadequate if you are trying to
reposition to the same exact spot on the disc.  I would guess that the
players that support this have larger buffers (64k-256k) and so allow
more "slack" for the PC which is not a real-time environment.

I believe that some of the latest Toshiba and Sony SCSI-based players
support the delivery of digital audio samples over the SCSI bus.  By
now, this may be common on all new CD-ROM players.

Hope this helps,

Jim

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Barnette      | Center for Reliable and High-Performance Computing
jim@crhc.uiuc.edu | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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

End of GUS Daily Digest V12 #21
*******************************

