Ultrasound Daily Digest     Wed, 14 Apr 1993     Volume 3 : Issue  14 

Today's Topics:
							 archive.epas
				  FTP site archive.epas.utoronto.ca
					   GUS and Tony La Russa II
					invalid sboslib error message
						 More on midi stereo
							 patchwork 8)
					Stereo Effects for Midi Users
							   Ultima 7
					   Ultrasound/CD-ROM combo
					Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #13
							Upload to epas
					 Yet another Crash & Burn...

	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: Tue, 13 Apr 1993 15:36:24 -0400 (EDT)
From: Morgan Stair <Morgan_Stair@dl5000.bc.edu>
Subject: Re: archive.epas
Message-ID: <Pine.3.03.9304131516.A1636-9100000@dlws9.bc.edu>

On Mon, 12 Apr 1993, Dave Perry VE3IFB wrote:

> The "archive" name works for me - maybe something is amiss with your mailer
> or domain name server.

I think the problem is that the name server for epas is screwed up or so
slow that it doesn't respond in time. 

The address (128.100.160.36) always seems to work, however.

-Morgan

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

Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1993 09:35:24 -0500 (EDT)
From: adam@epas.utoronto.ca (Adam Iles)
Subject: Re: FTP site archive.epas.utoronto.ca
Message-ID: <9304131335.AA17201@epas.utoronto.ca>

There have been a few comments about the anonymous ftp server, and why
it's referred to as archive.epas instead of klingon.epas.  The
authoritative answer is that there is no guaranty that the anonymous
ftp service will always be provided on klingon, I reserve the right
to move it on very short notice  if the need arises.  By using a cname
(alias) of archive.epas if the service is moved the domain name can move
with it.  I do not expect the archive to move, but I'd rather have a
mechanism prepared than have to worry about it later.

Personally I do not care (and cannot tell) if your ftp command uses
archive or klingon, but I hope that you will remember to try archive if
klingon starts to reject anonymous ftp connections.

BTW.  If there is a failure in resolving either the archive.epas or
	  klingon.epas domain names you can use the IP address, but if the
	  archives are moved it will stop working.

	Name to try first:  archive.epas.utoronto.ca
	Name to try second: klingon.epas.utoronto.ca
	If desperate:       128.100.160.36
	If all else fails:  Try again in 15 minutes or so.
				(The system does come down occasionally.)

-- 
Adam Iles -- EPAS Computing.       adam@epas.utoronto.ca

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

Date: Tue, 13 Apr 93 17:21:30 EDT
From: Peter G.N. Scheyen <scheyen@csd.uwo.ca>
Subject: GUS and Tony La Russa II
Message-ID: <9304132121.AA09599@mccarthy.csd.uwo.ca>

Has anyone managed to get Tony La Russa Baseball II to work with the
GUS?  It surprised the hell out of me to see that it detected that I
had a GUS.  Then to my extreme disappointment it basically told me
that I had to have SBOS installed.  However, it doesn't even recognize
the soundcard unless I choose the SB option (rather than GUS) and even
then it crashes before I "Play ball".

Sigh,

Pete
scheyen@csd.uwo.ca

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

Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1993 20:24:37 MST
From: "Dave Bakken" <bakken@cs.arizona.edu>
Subject: invalid sboslib error message
Message-ID: <199304140324.AA22690@centennial.cs.arizona.edu>

I'm posting the following to the Ultrasound list since it
might help clarify my problem.  I'm xing out the name of the
guy who sent me the email since I haven't asked his permission
to post it.  One thing I forgot to mention in last night's
digest is that not only do I get the SBOS error messages,
but a program I try to run that used to work fine now hangs
(In fact, I don't have any programs I've tried that now work
for me under SBOS).

Following is my reply to the guy.

Hi XXXX,

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply to my message.
I appreciate this.  However, I don't think that your strong
RTFM tone was warranted...

   From XXXX@yyyTue Apr 13 03:53:20 1993
   From: "..."
   Subject: gus troubles
   To: bakken@cs.arizona.edu
   
   Dave: 
	
   Many of the problems you are reporting are covered (in detail) in the
   text files that accompanied the new disk set.  Did you read these?  If
   so you better read them again!

Yes, I read the readme file (courtesy of the Gravis Viewer); I even
printed it out on my workstation (had to get rid of the <cr>s and
the ^Cs and ^Bs, though).  Were there any other files that I should
have found with the distribution?  I also snarfed all the info
files on the ftp archive site, including gusfaq.txt.
	
   For instance, the reason your sbos is not working is that you probably
   did not copy the required files to both the \ultrasnd and the
   \ultrasnd\sbos directory.  Did you make sure to take off the old
   sbos files?  

As I mentioned in my posting, I deleted the entire old ultrasnd
directory.  I most likely did not copy up what was needed into
the both of these directories, since I have no idea what files
have to be so copied (and I find it amazing that such a spiffy
install program didn't do that for me).  Do you have a list of
the files that need to be in both directories?
	
   Also, playmidi has nothing to do with SBOS!  And it says "SBOS installed"
   not "Ultrasound Installed".  Are you aware that the SBOS program is only
   necessary for emulating SoundBlaster?  You don't need it to run playmidi
   and things.

Yes, I realize that SBOS is just for this emulation.  I felt it might
shed some light to GUS gurus that Playmidi still worked.

And sorry I forgot the exact message it told me.  It hasn't told me this
for a few days since it gives the error message instead.
	
   Also, the documentation is very clear that SBOS 2.04 works fine with
   Windows.  What were you talking about when you asked if the
   install could "scan the autoexec file"?  That is totally unnecessary.

I had heard that this was no longer a problem, but the FAQ that I
snarfed (dated 4/9/93) still warned about firing up SBOS before
Windows.  Ergo, my caution.
	
   Also your problem with the Ultrasound Init is not really a problem.
   That is (approximately) what it is supposed to say.

It is a problem because a program (Playroom for my daughter) that
used to run with the help of SBOS now has no sound, and in fact 
hangs after you click the mouse a few times.  I suspect that
this is related to the face that I get that error message and
no audio ``SBOS installed'' message.  On the plus side, however,
a program (Alphabet Blocks) that used to hang under Windows after
10-50 mouse clicks now seems to work just fine with the new
disks.
	 
   My advice to you is:
   1)  Read the documentation
Done, as noted.

   2)  Remove all your ultrasound files and directories, and 
	   copies of files you might have put elsewhere.
   3)  Re-install from scratch with the new version 2 disks.

I'm not sure that this would any good, since I would be repeating
the steps I took to install it in the first place.  Maybe I have
an old file from the previous release in one of my non-ultrasd
directories, but I have no idea of what they might be named and
thus no way to delete them.  Any suggestions?

Thank you again for your feedback, Neil.

Dave
	
   You should be happy then.
   
   
   

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

Date: 13 Apr 1993   12:58:30 PST
From: chrisw <chrisw@leland.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: More on midi stereo
Message-ID: <9304131958.AA06351@leland.Stanford.EDU>

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

To answer my own question: why does the GUS click when you pan noises using 
the controller 10 midi messages?

Seems the answer is that GUS 'mixer' supports only 15 different pan positions
and the 'clickiness' arises from the fact that you can hear the level change 
in the two channels when you pan something across. Looks like a sort of 
linear scheme may have been used for the levels here as well. There's a lot
of 'movement' in the end couple of positions but not much in the middle.

Well, looking on the bright side, at least it shows that stereo isn't being
acheived using two mono voices and altering their volume levels.

Another bit of trivia. Mod wheel messages increase both the depth of vibrato
AND the rate. Never come across this before. Also, the 'automatic' vibrato
is kind of reset whenever you twiddle the mod wheel. There's probably a 
single vibrato level held in memory somewhere by the driver.

Chris.

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

Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1993 01:13:41 -0400 (EDT)
From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion)
Subject: patchwork 8)
Message-ID: <9304140513.AA27234@brise.ERE.UMontreal.CA>

Hey, i wanted feedback, i got feedback!

Are you just all beeing polite, or do you really think what you all say?
Dont answer that... 8)

So, a lot of people are interested in the patch editor (people who have heard
accrdeon are willing to sell their aunt, grandmother, sister for a program that
will permit them to do that) but there are some other concerns:
SYSEX! yes. Gravis/Forte needs to have some sysex so we can use more than the
128 GM melodics and the included percs. In dos, a .cfg file is easy to do,
but in windows, there is not anything trivial. Who should i contact regarding
this? I also found that the window driver doesn't seem to support multi-layers
but maybe i did something wrong. Another thing i found out is that all the
patches are 1 octave off (accrdeon was adjusted 1 octave down because of
that) compared to conventional numbering. Gee. Who is in charge of patches
and the related stuff at Gravis? Or is it Forte?

Anyway, what was the point of my post? Well, i have some 16 bit .wav and raw
data, some .h and some .c and some doc i made. What we now need is a
mail reflector asap because i'm going hexadecimal crazy! We need tools to
create patches. This is one of the most important point going for the Gravis,
and with some new patches circulating, i think we will get more support.

Also, all of you who sent me questions/requests/comments today, will be
answered when i have a little more time.

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: 13 Apr 1993   02:54:43 PST
From: chrisw <chrisw@leland.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Stereo Effects for Midi Users
Message-ID: <9304130954.AA23441@leland.Stanford.EDU>

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

Greetings fellow musical gussers:

I'm not sure if someone else has reported this already, but I've just been
checking out the Gus's midi controller message receives and this is what
came out:

Pitch bend is O.K. (no idea how you set pitch bend depth though)

Controller 1 - mod wheel (vibrato depth)

Controller 7 - volume

Controller 10 - pan

Controller 64 - sustain pedal

I didn't exhaustively check, but my guess is that these are the only ones.
(I mean, what else does the GUS do but play back something with a pitch and
amplitude?).

The pleasant surprise was that pan position (controller 10) works. Well, kind
of works, anyway. If you move the pan position while the GUS is sustaining a 
note on the channel for some reason you get plenty of clicking as the noise
moves L to R. If you move pan when a noise is decaying it stays where it is,
but when you play a new note it will start in the new position.

So, for all those who are using sequencers with keyboards with user assignable 
continuous controllers (yes, I mean both of you): sequence something up with
a short noise (short durations), define your continuous controller to  
transmit on channel 10, do a take on the sequenced track while frantically 
moving your continuous controller all over the place. Result: STEREO EFFECTS!

Unfortunately, can't do any  slow panning effects because of the clicking.
Don't suppose Gravis is going to fix this for us? Anyone know WHY it's 
clicking? Suppose it's just that the volume of the waveform is being changed
in a discontinuous way. But why? The volume controller (7) doesn't click.

Apologies if this is already in the FAQ. If not, it probably should be.

By the way, I don't suppose the GUS drivers have any midi sysex features? 

One last thing. I'm afraid that the GUS response to volume of midi messages
has nothing to do with the way all synth keyboards are set up to transmit.
Anyone know if it's possible to change the velocity curve of the GUS to
more closely match a normal keyboard? Note that I DON'T mean rescaling an
existing midi file. I actually want to be able to hear what I'm playing
while I'm playing it. I don't know how much more of this pounding to get a 
loud note my keyboard or fingers can take. (By the way, this is very silly 
and very annoying. Why did Gravis do this?)

Cheers,

Chris.





------------ End of Forwarded Message 

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

Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1993 04:03:37 -0400 (EDT)
From: Greg K Chung <stiletto+@cmu.edu>
Subject: Ultima 7
Message-ID: <EfmbDNO00WB=BVjkw=@andrew.cmu.edu>

I can't get Ultima 7 to work with SBOS.. the old SBOS flag sheet says
that 1.23 will work with no flags.  Versions 1.23, 1.40, 2.02, 2.04
crash during the intro after about two spoken words.

This is odd considering *every* version works with Wing Commander 2
(also Origin).

I am using a clean boot to try this... anyone have any suggestions?



	 Greg Chung     :      "At least I ain't from West Virginia."
  stiletto@cmu.edu  :                                   

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

Date: Tue, 13 Apr 93 15:39:53 CDT
From: hastings@ms3.dseg.ti.com
Subject: Ultrasound/CD-ROM combo
Message-ID: <9304132039.AA05791@ms3.dseg.ti.com>

At Best Buy yesterday, I saw an Ultrasound/CD-ROM bundle for $399.
This was a package from Gravis. As a side comment, I think the box
was smaller than the GUS alone - seems that Gravis heard all the
complaining about the wasted space in the GUS box. Does anyone
have any specs on the CD-ROM drive? Is this a good deal?

There was a SoundBlaster (?) 16 ASP/CD-ROM bundle next to it for
$550, and I've read comments about the CD-ROM being a slow 390ms
drive. So the GUS bundle, if the CD-ROM drive is decent, looks
like a very affordable way to get into multi-media.
 

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

Date: Tue, 13 Apr 93 2:17:37 CDT
From: cowles@hydra.convex.com (John Cowles)
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #13
Message-ID: <9304130717.AA18893@hydra.convex.com>

Francois Dion is making patches! Hooray!!! They've GOT to be better than
what is currently available. The potential is here - but the patches sound
worse than stuff I've got on Edison cylinders. Why? GUS has the potential
to sound as good as Turtle Beach - why doesn't it? Why don't a FEW patches
(at least) sound as good as my cheap Yamaha TG100? It's great that we can make
all sorts of neat synthesizer sounds, but when? how? Why don't we have
any patches that sound like REAL INSTRUMENTS? Roland, Yamaha, Proteus, Korg,
Kawaii, Casio, Ensoniq, Peavey, etc. all have (at least a few) patches that
sound like the real thing. I know that this is much cheaper - but it
can either do the job or it can sound like a gold-plated Adlib.

Anyway - I whole-heartedly support Francois' efforts (and the accordeon
patch DOES sound pretty good...).


	 John Cowles        cowles@hydra.convex.com
						Convex Computer Corp.  214 497 4375
						3000 Waterview Pkwy
						Richardson, Tx. 75080

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

Date: Tue, 13 Apr 93 13:24:41 CDT
From: cowles@hydra.convex.com (John Cowles)
Subject: Upload to epas
Message-ID: <9304131824.AA15548@hydra.convex.com>

I have uploaded brokfolk.zip to
	  archive.epas.utoronto.ca:/pub/pc/ultrasound/submit

This is a midi file which uses instrumentation that sounds pretty good
on a GUS. Any questions, complaints, feedback, etc. to me. Want more?


	 John Cowles        cowles@hydra.convex.com
						Convex Computer Corp.  214 497 4375
						3000 Waterview Pkwy
						Richardson, Tx. 75080

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

Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1993 02:13:12 -0500 (CDT)
From: Cyclone <amk45687@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Yet another Crash & Burn...
Message-ID: <199304130713.AA16017@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>

After following much message traffic on the GUS and SBOS, I have yet to see
a specific problem mentioned.

I am an avid Flight Simulator pilot. I have Microsft Flight Simulator version
4.0 and the Aircraft and Scenery Designer. Along with this, I have Mallard
Software's Sound, Graphics, and Aircraft Upgrade. 
I will abbreviate this SGA.
SGA works will Adlib, SB, SBPro, plus an older Covox card, and certain PC
speaker effects. It was extremely well behaved with my old SB card. SBOS
does not seem to do the trick for the SGA. I get a high pitched screeching
sound on top of the digitized sounds I should be hearing, and the sound is
intermittent. Also, the overhead of SBOS causes considerable slowdown of 
display update in FlightSim. This is annoying at best. 
I am using the new version of the ultrasound software (2.01) and SBOS 2.04.
I have tried this with several different settings and nothing really seemed 
to help the SGA. 

Any suggestions? FlightSim w/SGA is grounded until I get this resolved.

Also: FlightSim is kernalized (I believe). To change the graphics or sound,
it seems only necessary to change the driver file used by flight sim, e.g.
insert a new driver, and tell it to use it. 
Anyone have any thoughts on Native GUS support for FlightSim? anyone have
any idea where to begin?



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////////  //////  //////  ///  //////  //  //  //////
			 //
		  //// Cyclone  amk45687@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #14
*************************************
