Ultrasound Daily Digest     Sun, 26 Sep 93  0:07 MDT     Volume 6: Issue  25  

Today's Topics:
				   Computer Shopper straight dope.
					 Native GUS Support & Origin.
			  Need Suggestions on cd-rom drive purchase
					  New Sierra Driver with PQ3
							Plea for help
				Recording from CD(Rom) using CD-input
							Sierra Drivers
						   Star Control II
			   Win 3.1 problems - Midisoft + Outside In

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: Fri, 24 Sep 1993 23:08:22 -0700 (PDT)
From: Don Munsil <dmunsil@netcom.com>
Subject: Computer Shopper straight dope.
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9309242322.A14236-b100000@netcom>

Since there's a lot of misinformation being passed around about what
CompShopper did or didn't say about the Ultrasound, I thought I'd set the
record straight. I did, in fact, read the article. The rundown on the
Ultrasound was about what you'd expect: "This card has a lot of power, but
is slightly flaky in its emulation modes, blah, blah, blah...recording
quality was not good since it only records 8-bit samples...could be a good
card for playback only."

The ultrasound was rated a HIGH SECOND, behind the Turtle Beach, for MIDI
music. This was not surprising, considering most of the other cards
surveyed were FM cards.

The Ultrasound was rated DEAD LAST for digital record/playback quality.
The difficulty here is that the GUS samples 8-bit only, and is no match
for the 16-bit boards at recording. They did not break out separately
recording and playback, which really stacked the deck against the GUS,
IMHO. The emphasis in the article was on recording and sampling, and they
freely admitted that this put the GUS at a disadvantage. The GUS did fine
on the other tests, but again, they measured the data using the board's
own samples.

I really don't think the folks at CompShopper have it in for the GUS. They
came up with a set of criteria, and it just happened to make the GUS look
not so great. It made me a little sad, but keep in mind that  the most
effective exposure is word of mouth. If you like your GUS, tell the world!
Especially tell the folks at computer stores, who often prefer to
recommend the big established brands, and may not know the GUS well.

Best,
Don

********************************************************
* Don Munsil          * If you open your mind too far, *
* dmunsil@netcom.com  * people will throw trash in it. *
********************************************************

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Date: Sat, 25 Sep 1993 23:36:10 -1000 (GMT-10:00)
From: Paul Murgatroyd <s1114@kowande.Bond.edu.au>
Subject: Native GUS Support & Origin.
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9309252310.A4240-a100000@sand.kowande.Bond.edu.au>

Well, I have sent them my thoughts on their lack of GUS Native support.
Perhaps when they realise that people such as myself won't cough up the
cash for a game that has no support for our soundboard, they will start
including native support. As I wrote in my message to them, SBOS is not
meant to be used a cop out for not writing in native support.

Sometimes I wonder if Creative Labs has paid software companies to keep
stalling support of sound boards like the GUS, so that their own SB16 with
WaveBlaster can get support......

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

Date: Sat, 25 Sep 93 1:38:09 PDT
From: jtang@argon.chem.ucla.edu (James Tang)
Subject: Need Suggestions on cd-rom drive purchase
Message-ID: <9309250838.AA18984@argon.chem.ucla.edu>

Hello folks!  I am looking to buy a cd-rom drive for my GUS.  I don't
know much about cd-rom drive except that they are really cool.  Can
anyone give me any suggestion about what specification I should look
for (ie. access time, and etc)?  Any suggestion on which cd-rom drive
to buy?  Also, what are people trying to achieve by connecting the
cd-rom drive to their sound card?  I know that allows you to play your
music CD through the GUS.  Is there any other motivation?  I
appreciate any help you can give me.  Thanks.

james

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

Date: Sat, 25 Sep 93 11:23:26 EDT
From: lcheung@mosaic.uncc.edu (Leung Cheung)
Subject: New Sierra Driver with PQ3
Message-ID: <9309251523.AA19589@mosaic.uncc.edu>

I think the new driver is supporting the Police Quest 3.  
I installed it.  When I load up the game, it saids "4.pat not found",
then quit the game.   Anyone have some Idea about that?

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

Date: Sat, 25 Sep 1993 16:01:47 -0700 (PDT)
From: Christopher Jon Wilkins <chrisw@leland.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Plea for help
Message-ID: <199309252301.QAA04598@elaine31.Stanford.EDU>

Hi all,

Not really a GUS question, but I was wondering if anyone would care
to hazard a guess as to what it means if an MPU-401 interface
no longer seems to respond to midi in messages at all. 

I don't know if I killed it when I put it back in the computer and
I didn't have it sitting properly in the slot (and the computer wouldn't
start up at all). But now it works fine for outgoing midi, but does nothing
for incoming midi. Any technical types have any ideas? IS it possible
that I've blown up the opto-isolator? There's not really much on the card:
an 8008 or something microprocessor, a Rom chip, a Uart chip, and an
opto-isolator (subject to my technological ignorance).

I'd like to get it back to life rather than switch to using the GUS because
I have a dos editor librarian program which probably won't work with the GUS.

BTW, did my email on Cakewalk 2.0 come through? I can't remember seeing it. 
If not, I was just saying that there's a demo version on ftp.uwp.edu
in /pub/incoming/programs.

Chris.

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

Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 02:51:39 +0300 (EET DST)
From: pate@clinet.fi (Pasi Haatanen)
Subject: Re: Recording from CD(Rom) using CD-input
Message-ID: <9309252351.AA03477@clinet.fi>

*>Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1993 08:40:21 -0400 (EDT)
*>From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
*>Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V6 #23
*>Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9309240816.A29971-c100000@sciborg>

*>>Final sample has MORE NOISE (static/click/pop/what-so-ever) THAN SOUND

*>There will always be more noise in the 8-bit recording than in the
*>16-bit original.  Part of that is due to the reduced bit resolution,
*>and the rest is due to the ADC jitter and data dropout.  There's not
*>much you can do about the noise.

Ofcourse there will be more noise in the 8-bit recording and I agree,
there's nothing I can do to that (except to buy the 16-bit daughter board,
when available), but the problem is that there's hardly ANY sound left on
the digitized sample! I get just awful noise all over my samples.

Even 22khz,8bit would be fine for my needs - but ...

I'll explain: When I sample from external Technics CD player
(which is connected to GUS line input) I get excellent quality to my
samples - but when I try to do exactly same sample from Mitsumi CD(ROM)
(connected to GUS cd-input pins, as stated previously) I get only lots of
noise and hardly nothing, what can be recognized to be the original source
sample (which, as stated previously, sounds *FINE* when recorded from
Technics/line input).

This leads me to believe, there's something strange either with my GUS cd-
input pins, or output/input levels between mitsumi <-> gus or what-so-ever.
I can't see any reason, why to connect Cd-Rom audio to soundcard, if you
cannot sample anything from that source .. as I really don't use cd-rom to
play my audio cds.

Hope, you'll now get the point of my view <grin>.

   Cheers,
-- 
Pasi Haatanen      email or netmail to:    ----------------------------------
Emannankuja 4D15   ** pate@clinet.fi **    Data (24H, V.32B): +358-0-547-1935
SF-01670  VANTAA   2:220/610@fidonet.org   ----------------------------------
FINLAND, EUROPE!   14:1500/610@sbcnt.org   PREFER EMAIL. THAT'S ALL FOLKS 8-Q

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

Date: Sat, 25 Sep 93 08:31:38 EDT
From: ddr@math.ufl.edu
Subject: Sierra Drivers
Message-ID: <9309251231.AA03815@bebop.math.ufl.edu>

The Sierra drivers work great with Space Quest V, the midi
music is just as good as it was with MegaEm, and the digital
effects are way better htan that BS (or is it SB) card I used
to have.  
	To you people that are putting off buying a GUS
because the SB emulation is a pain in the butt:  Don't worry
between MegaEm and new drivers that are coming out from Gravis/
Manufacturers you don't have to wait anymore.  I took the SBOS
crap out of my setup.
	Someone was implying that the gen midi drivers off of
the Sierra BBS could be installed in old Sierra games and then 
the new GUS drivers added.  I am still unable to find these 
drivers on the Sierra BBS, and of course their tech support
people are not answering email.  If you have these gen midi
drivers please u/l them to epas or at least email me and tell
me what I am missing :)

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

Date: Sat, 25 Sep 93 11:47:01 EDT
From: ddr@math.ufl.edu
Subject: Star Control II
Message-ID: <9309251547.AA22494@gomek.math.ufl.edu>

I am looking to sell Star Control II with the hint book for $25.
Thanks.

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

Date: Sat, 25 Sep 93 21:38:02 GMT
From: Richard Clark <Richard@elysium.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Win 3.1 problems - Midisoft + Outside In
Message-ID: <34@elysium.demon.co.uk>

Despite loving the sound quality, I have a couple of 
major problems with the GUS under Windows 3.1. 

i)  Playing a large midi file (Midisoft demo of Beethovens's 5th) under
Midisoft Studio has got worse as I have moved from V3.02 to
3.04 to 3.1.  It plays perfectly under Midisoft Session, but
increasing functionality in Studio presumably has resulted in
large gaps in the playback.  The bar counter stops, music
ceases, and the disk thrashes for up to 4 or 5
bars in V3.1. V3.02 almost made it without pauses. Small files
play back OK, but so what?

ii) I also rely on Outside In as a generic viewer (terrific
product incidentally).  Outside In just
doesn't work when the ultrasound driver is installed - the
DLL seems to trash file information, as the file name
displayed is garbaged, and although the program comes up, its
DLL refuses to display anything.  Renaming Ultrasnd.drv to
disable it cures the problem.  This is a problem on at least
2 different PCs and Gravis boards.

What I don't understand is why a viewer program is being
sabotaged by a sound driver.  Anyone got any ideas?

My setup is 1M GUS, PANA 562 CDROM, 486DX50 with 8 Mbytes,
DOS6 + dblspaced (and no, I have not had any problems
with it in a pretty harsh environment!), and QEMM7. 
PC switches between Novell and Lantastic according to where I
have carried it.



Richard Clark  | richard@elysium.demon.co.uk | Just because you're paranoid
Elysium Ltd    | elysium@cix.compulink.co.uk | it doesn't mean they're not
Crowborough UK |                             | out to get you :-<)

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End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V6 #25
*************************************
