Ultrasound Daily Digest     Mon, 30 Aug 93       Volume 5: Issue  29  

Today's Topics:
							  GUS/Dune2
						   quite pissed off
					 XWING with the SBOS V2.0B10

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: Sun, 29 Aug 93 11:48:47 -0400
From: davej@ferry.polymer.uakron.edu (Dave Jiang)
Subject: GUS/Dune2
Message-ID: <9308291548.AA15198@ferry.polymer.uakron.edu>

I used this little utility and patched the miles driver in Dune2 for GUS.
I ran the game, it sounded great, but after a few minutes into the game,
everything just freeze. I get dots all over the screen, and sometimes the
computer just kept repeating one of it's verbal speech command. Like keep
on saying "Yes Sir! Yes Sir! Yes Sir!......" Did I do something wrong 
somewhere?

													David Jiang
  ------------------------------------------------------------------
  email : davej@eby.polymer.uakron.edu        phone:  (513) 435-6227
  usmail: 207 Carters Grove Rd.               FAX  :  (513) 435-6227  
		  Centerville, OH 45459
		  U.S.A.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------

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Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1993 13:06:46 +0800 (WST)
From: Nasir David <ruffus@tartarus.uwa.edu.au>
Subject: quite pissed off
Message-ID: <Pine.3.07.9308301346.B13656-d100000@lethe>

He is a write up for the GUS in a Popular Australian Computing Magazine called  
'PC User'. It's in the current September issue.I was actually quite surprised
 at some of the information contained in it. Well.... this is what they think!
.Please dont flame me for speeling mistakes or grammmarr mistakes, I hope you
 get the jist of the article!!! :)

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MULTIMEDIA

Ultrasound.
List Price: (Aus) $369

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Date: Sun, 29 Aug 93 22:57:04 EDT
From: lcheung@mosaic.uncc.edu (Leung Cheung)
Subject: XWING with the SBOS V2.0B10
Message-ID: <9308300257.AA26244@mosaic.uncc.edu>

The sbos v2.0b10 is not work properly with Xwing.  Only the digital sounds work.
But not the music.  Any Body Any Idea?

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

Date: (null)
From: (null)

This is a new entry into the soundcard field from Canadian company Gravis, 
best know for its high-performace joysticks. Unlike most other cards, it does 
not use frequency modulation (FM) systhesis m but samples of real instrument 
sounds to give much more realistic music.

To achive this , it has 32 digital audio channels. Two of these are generally 
reserved for standard digital playback of digital voices and sound effects, 
while the remaining channels to sample playback via musical intrument digital 
interface (MIDI) . This means the MIDI synth on the UltraSound is a true 
sample player.

Yet, The UltrSound also manages SoundBlaster complatibility, even though it is
not an FM card. It achives this by a TSR driver called Sound Board Operatiing 
System (SBOS) which, which when loaded before a game, gives music and digital 
effects as promised, sounding like any of the FM cards.

This may not work on all games, however. Spear of Destiny had no problem 
playing MIDI and digital sound effects but DUNE II , However, would only play
music and no digital voices.

If you are used to an 8bit/FM soundcard, then the UltrSound is a step up. But
, for those not technically minded, it can be a bit of a minefield -- espically
if you plan to use it for multimedia of MIDI recording.

The UltraSound uses sampled instruments which are stored on disk and must be 
loaded into the card DRAM before it will do anything. Although there is
 absolutely no mention of it in the manual, there is a Windows Patch
manager supplied, and you mush use this to select which intrument sounds
(patches) are to be loaded into the card before you can play anything (SBOS
games aside). This is very fiddly. Those with less experience could become
 quite lost.

Applications are evenly spread across DOS and Windows, with even a few simply
play and record utilities, including a wave editor (Sound Studio 8) under DOS, 
and Patch Manager, Mixer and driver for Windows.

The number of patches you can load into the card at any one time is restricted
t by the amount of onboard RAM. The UltraSound ships with 256Kb, which allows
you to load on average of five to ten patches only.

There are over 200 patches on disk providing all the instruments and drums 
sounds for a General MIDI synth. It is impossible, therefore , to load the 
complete set at one time. For games using the SBOS driver, this does not pose
a problem, but for multimedia and MIDI music, it is a severe limitation.

The UltraSound is a different kind of soundcard, and should not be judged on the
same terms as others. It cannot be called Multimedia PC-compatable, as it does
 not allow full General MIDI support.

The UltraSound is the first soundcard to achive true musical sampling , and it
opens up all sorts of possibilites both for musicains and software developers. 
But while the card can playback samples at up to 44kHz in 16 bit stereo 
(CD quality) , you can only record in 8 bit. For musical applications, this is
inadequate. If you want to make the most of the UltraSound's sampling for MIDI 
playback, you need a patch editor that can save in the .PAT format, a 16 bit 
upgrade in the form of daughterboard and more RAM. This will allow you to record
your own sounds and use them on the card.

The 16 bit upgrade is available for an extra (AUS)$99. A patch editor exits, but
is primitive as it is - but unfortunalty hovever, it is not available to the 
general public. There is however,a shareware windows program call WAV2PAT that  
serves perfectly when uses with in conjunction with any Windows WAV editor, and 
more utililies like this are certain to appear.

The quality of the 8-bit digital recording is okay. Sixteen-bit playback quality
is also not as clean as other 16-bit cards.

Gravis have chosen to initially release the UltraSound in a basic configuration
to keep costs down. A CD-ROM interface and MIDI breakout box can also be bought
as optional daugherboards.

So while the Ultrasound is an excellent soundcard for the price, the limitations
posed on it make it difficult for the developers and MIDI musicians to get the most
from it. It should have come standard with 1Mb RAM and 16-bit recording.


										By Philip Moore.
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well there you have it people!! Quite a 'scathing' article dont you think?? 
Please, send us what you think about this article (either email or post of the
digest) because I'm gonna put in a letter to this magazine, and tell them
about the bits they 'missed' out , like the cards emulation of MT-32 ect ect
(it could start flaming...but whats the point here??)

This Mag read magazine by many here in Australia. I reckon because of
this THEY BETTER GET THE FACTS RIGHT!!

Nasir.

P.S I reackon that the Magazine is sided towords Creative Labs  
	(or PRO soundblaster ...get it?) thats why it was a crap article!!!!

P.S.S Oh yea.....Has anyone got Syndicate to work with sbos v2.08 ??

* "What America's Cup??"     | "My mistress eyes are Nothing Like the Sun"  *
*                    _+-_|\  |                William Shakespear            *
*                   /      \ |   Nasir David at the...                      *   
* Perth , W.A ----> \_.--._/ |   University Of Western Australia.           *

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End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V5 #29
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