GUS Daily Digest            Wed, 4 May 94  9:37 PST      Volume 13: Issue   4 

Today's Topics:
						   A few questions
							Cannon Fodder
							   CHARANG
						DRAM chips, how fast ?
					Grabbing digital audio from CD
					   GUS Daily Digest V12 #30
					   GUS Daily Digest V13 #2
					   GUS Daily Digest V13 #3
							   Links386
						 Megaem cannon fodder
				   Microsoft Video for Windows 1.1a
							  Mod Sites?
					   Registered users list ?
		   Thinking of OS/2, what will work and what wont?
								VFW11a
				   Wake up and smell the future...
				  Windows, GUS, CD-ROM, and Alice...

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: 3-MAY-1994 16:57:59.28
From: Richard Wyckoff <RWYCKOFF@wesleyan.edu>
Subject: A few questions

OK, the Ultrasound MAX sounds like a good deal if I can get it for under
$200, and this would be an ideal time to get one since I'd like the latest
version of the software (never received my upgrade disks even after John
Smith said he'd send them) and I'd also like the CD line-in that the newer
GUSes and presumably the MAX will have...but before I buy it, I need to know
the following:

1) Did the patch bank-switching that was hinted at in the beta release of the
drivers a few months ago ever get implemented?  I'd actually use the MAX for
music if I could work with patches in a manner more like a real sampler...

2) Could I use the MAX alongside my other GUS under windows so that I could
have two megs to hold samples?  I vaguely remember discussion of two GUSes
simultaneously in an issue of the digest a *long* time ago.

3) I guess only Gravis would know the answer to this, but is there going
to be another Ultrasound in a few more months (i.e. right after I buy the
MAX) which can have more than 1 meg of RAM?

Thanks in advance,
		Richard Wyckoff

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

Date: Tue, 03 May 1994 23:12:20 +0100
From: Tom Payne <jlfs@vax.ox.ac.uk>
Subject: Cannon Fodder

Hi,

Someone asked about Cannon Fodder/GUS/Mega-Em...
Just brought the game today. Wow! Excellent fun! Seems to run with Mega-Em no
probs. I'm using the standard GUS setup (240,1,1,11,7). Well, almost no probs.
Mega-Em jumped out on me on mission six with a 'Critical Emulation Failure',
DSP function 0B, but up until then... I've nothing special in my setup, I'm
using DOS 6.2, with HIMEM and EMM386. Try the default setup (if you haven't
already), otherwise I can mail you my CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT if you need 'em.
BTW, my PC is a 486DX33, 4Mb RAM, 200Mb hard disk (DoubleSpaced).

GUS to the MAX!
Tom

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

Date: Tue, 3 May 1994 20:52:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: jtang@argon.chem.ucla.edu (James Tang)
Subject: CHARANG

What is instrument #84 Charang anyway?  I have been doing these update
and upgrade.  I can't run "megaem" and "emuset" all of a sudden and
the program claim that it can't find "charang" patch.  I've look
everywhere including my original Ultrasound diskeets.  Can someone
please uuencode me the "charang" patch?  Thanks.

James

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

Date: 4 May 94 10:36:00 MET
From: "VISX80::GRECNER" <GRECNER%VISX80.decnet@musx53.zfe.siemens.de>
Subject: Re: DRAM chips, how fast ?

Well, I've heard they have to be at least 80ns, but I'm using 100ns chips
without any problems (I have 3.4 GUS). But I have only 512kB on board.
Maybe ther's a problem when all the banks are filled.

					Martin

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

Date: Tue, 3 May 1994 20:03:10 +0300 (EET DST)
From: Mika Fonsen <mf@clinet.fi>
Subject: Grabbing digital audio from CD

On Sun, 1 May -1, GUS Server wrote:

> Date: Sat, 30 Apr 1994 13:25:26 -0400 (EDT)
> From: mikebat@netcom.com (Mike Batchelor)
> Subject: Grabbing digital audio from CD
> 
> What CD drive combinations and SCSI controllers support grabbing CD audio
> tracks directly off the CD.  I have tried CDGRAB 3.2 on my Mitsumi, and
> cannot seem to get it to work, it always fails with sector not found on a
> Read Long.  It seems my Mitsumi doesn't support this, although CDGRAB's
> miniscule documentation seems to imply that it should work.
	
	I've seen a similiar situations before and then the problem was 
MSCDEX. It seemed to be unable to work with CDGRAB. The computer had an 
Adaptec card installed and specifying a SCSI ID instead of a drive letter 
solved the problem. This works, ofcourse, only with the pro version.
--
 mf@clinet.fi

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

Date: Tue, 03 May 1994 16:15:52 -0600
From: ren@bga.com (Josh Hildebrand)
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V12 #30

> >Computer Express expects to have the card in about two weeks, or so :)
> >
> >The pre-shipping price for the card is $179.00
> >The number is 1-800-228-7449.
> >After they start shipping it the price goes up to $219.00

I'm not sure if this is covered in the FAQ or not, but is there a list of
changes between the regular GUS and the GUSMAX?  I am wondering if it's worth
it to upgrade or not.  If it is in the FAQ, then tell me the easiest place
to snag the FAQ from.  Thanks.

--
ren@bga.com

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

Date: Tue, 3 May 1994 21:12:46 +0100 (BST)
From: Toby <T.W.Nichols@hertfordshire.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V13 #2

On Mon, 2 May -1, GUS Server wrote:
> 
> Date: Mon, 2 May 94 14:23:30
> From: ay-a@minster.york.ac.uk
> Subject: GUS Support in UFO: Enemy Unknown?
> 
> I'm rather puzzled by this one.  I got a demo of this game from
> the cover of PC Format and was rather excited to see that, as it
> was unzipping, alongside ROLAND.CAT, ADLIB.CAT etc. there was
> a GRAVIS.CAT.  So, I ran the demo, selected Ultrasound and things
> worked fine.  The game had a MOD-style soundtrack and had stereo
> sound effects.

I had that demo too. Unfortunately tho it crashed after short time so i 
could never get past the intro :( It was not due to the my GUS (i tried 
it without sound) or my DOS (I tried it under DRDOS6 and MSDOS). No go.

> 
> BUT the other day, whilst browsing through HMV I looked on the back
> of a UFO: Enemy Unknown box and the Ultrasound wasn't listed as
> being supported.  Anyone know whether it is or isn't?  I thought
> that perhaps, at last, Microprose were going to give the GUS the
> native support it deserves....

I have just got hold of a copy from the USA but have not opened it yet. 
I'll do that and let you know. I suspect that it's the same old story. 
The US version getsa the GUS support while us here in the UK get stuck 
with another version without GUS support.

I hope this is not the case but I would not be suprised.

> > Alistair.
> 


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

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

Date: Tue,  3 May 94 22:10:00 -0640
From: chris.liu@dscmail.com (Chris Liu)
Subject: GUS Daily Digest V13 #3

	Hi, does anybody know if the 16-bit DB is really 16 bit and does all
the sound come out from there?  Like if I play a .ULT or MTM does it
come out from the main GUS DAC or the DB DAC?  What I mean by really a
16 bit card is that the GUS actually plays the 16 bit samples at 12-bit
but then the processes it into 16-bit (Same as PAS 16).  I was wondering
if this was the same for the DB or does it actually play 16 bit.
Thanks.

					  (C) 1994 YuPitR PRoDuCTioNS

---
 ~ SPEED 1.40 [NR] ~

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

Date: Tue, 03 May 1994 22:20:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jeff Salzmann <JKS4675@ritvax.isc.rit.edu>
Subject: Links386

OK, this has probably been asked 1000+ times, but what sound support
should the game be set for (Megaem, SBOS, etc) and how do I do it??
SBOS forces reboots....

Jeff

+--------------------------------------------------------------+---------------+
|"Sometimes I try to beat other people's achievements but on   |JK Salzmann    |
| occasions I find it's better to beat my achievements. That   |JKS4675@RIT.EDU|
| can give me more satisfaction. I don't feel happy if I am    +---------------+
| comfortable.  Something inside me pushes me when I get comfortable.          |
| It makes me go further and want to keep pushing"  - Ayrton Senna, 1960-1994  |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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

Date: Tue, 3 May 1994 21:25:32 +0100 (BST)
From: Toby <T.W.Nichols@hertfordshire.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Megaem cannon fodder

I have Fodder running fine under Megaem. When you setup the program you 
have to have Megaem in action. Strangely I had to rename some of the midi 
files to gat the game working. It would crash and say can't find file **.mid

anyway. I have my GUS on 220,1,1,5,7. i run DRDOS6 standard config, works 
fine.

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

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

Date: Wed, 04 May 94 09:00:41 PDT
From: ksoule@tatertot.com (Kent E. Soule)
Subject: Microsoft Video for Windows 1.1a

>Date: Tue, 03 May 94 13:19:20 +0300
>From: Yossi Oren <LIOREN1@WEIZMANN.weizmann.ac.il>
>Subject: Great news for GUS motion video freaks!

>Hi Y'all, I've just installed Microsoft Video for Windows 1.1a (note the a)

>The filename is ftp.microsoft.com:softlib/mslfiles/wfw11a.exe (PKSFX), sized
>about 1,280K.  f.m.c. is a good site for hanging out on anyway.

The only file I could find on this site is WFW.EXE: 1115008 bytes.  Is this the correct file?  What am I missing here?

Many thanks,

Kent


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
ksoule@tatertot.com (Kent E. Soule)
TaterTot News & Mail, San Francisco CA 94103       1.415.255.8340 Waffle 1.65

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

Date: Tue, 3 May 1994 09:46:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: David Hoang <dhoang@eis.calstate.edu>
Subject: Mod Sites?

I'm sorry, my previous message got messed up. I was wondering if anyone=20
knew of any good mod ftp sites? Especially mods that are techno or=20
alternative music style. Thanks everyone.

=DA=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=
=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=
=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=BF
=B3  <David Hoang> =AESan Jose State University=AF      =09=09 =B3
=B3    =09         Running on : 386SX-25,8megRAM,SpeedStarPro1Meg  =B3
=B3                      =09      80MegHD,1Meg Gravis Ultrasound     =B3
=B3                  =FE E-mail : dhoang@eis.calstate.edu =FE=09         =
=B3
=C0=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=
=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=
=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=D9

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

Date: Wed, 4 May 1994 10:22:08 +0300 (EET DST)
From: thefinn@stekt.oulu.fi (Sami Nieminen)
Subject: Registered users list ?

Hello Sailors !

  If I remember correctly, Gravis was supposed to keep a list of registered
customers somewhere in the net. If such a list exits, where is it ? (On an
ftp-site maybe ?). I'd like to check if my registeration card ever reached
it's destination.

-- 
	
  /         Sami Nieminen                    ---     May you live     ---  
 //              at                          --- in interesting times ---
///      Dept. of Electrical                 
  ///        Engineering    
  //     University of Oulu,
  /  I K       Finland

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

Date: Wed, 4 May 1994 16:41:39 +0100 (BST)
From: "Robin W. Glover" <R.W.Glover@reading.ac.uk>
Subject: Thinking of OS/2, what will work and what wont?

I'm considering buying OS/2-Win, and I was wondering how the GUS works
under OS/2. For instance will Windows programs running under OS/2 be
able to access the GUS, ditto Dos programs, and what drivers are there
out there for native OS/2 stuff. Any hints appreciated.

			Robin

+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  Robin Glover               |  Did you really want to talk about     |
|  Department of Meteorology  |  the weather, or were you just trying  |
|  Reading University, UK     |  to make polite conversation?          |
|  swrglovr@reading.ac.uk     |             - Groundhog Day            |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+

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

Date: Tue, 3 May 1994 12:09:24 -0700 (PDT)
From: aktang@sdcc15.UCSD.EDU (Anthony Tang)
Subject: VFW11a

Would that be different from VFW11?  (Did the 'a' revision really
change that much?)  I have VFW11 (no a), and playback is as choppy
as ever.  Strange thing is, ony Video files with 16 bit sound, it
couldn't be smoother or more in sync.  :-)  Weird, huh?

-- 
Anthony Tang                Call The AANThill BBS!
aant@ucsd.edu               (619)550-8168
aktang@sdcc15.ucsd.edu          FidoNet (1:202/244)
Computer Engineering, UCSD      Adv. Gravis Dist. Node

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

Date: Tue, 3 May 1994 01:56:48 -0400
From: <Mcq@oti.on.ca>
Subject: Wake up and smell the future...

***IMPORTANT: Please read.***

The GUS is dying. What are we going to do about it? 

The problem is that the GUS has missed its window: It just isn't interesting 
anymore that the GUS has got wavetable synthesis. Lots of cards do. 

Combine that with the fact that *many* game/music/pc magazines have reviewed 
the GUS and decided that it's only "average" and has "compatability problems",
and you've got a recipe for disaster.

There is hope though. There is a way for the GUS to outright *win* the soundcard
wars. That way is through ***GOOD SOFTWARE***. I'm not talking about the fact that
we can emulate GeneralMIDI as well as the rest of them (boring!). I'm talking about 
new and interesting software which just isn't available for any other card. If you 
want an example of how much impact this has, think about the GUS 3D sound stuff. 
Despite that fact that it has so far been almost COMPLETE VAPOURWARE, it has IMPACT.
Heck, it scared Creative Labs enough that they went and got Q-sound. In fact, 
everybody talks about 3D sound support now. You see?

Ok. What we need is the Next Big Thing. We need to write some software which
makes people *lust* after the GUS.

What? You want some suggestions? Ok. Here you go: 

Number one, all encompassing, absolutely the most important:

	EASE OF USE! People must see the GUS as "just working" with *everything*.
	No more "Do I use SBOS or MegaEm?". It's just got to work. If the average
	Luser on the street thought that he would never have to think about his
	sound card again when he bought a GUS, Gravis would sell MILLIONS of them. 
	Of course to do this, *all* of the current Gravis provided software would 
	need to be rewritten. Definately hard, and perhaps impossible.

Of course, that's really not new or interesting, even if it is important,
so here are some ideas for new software which I don't think anybody has done for 
any sound card yet. Be warned though, my personal focus is on music rather than 
games, so I only have one idea that would stand out in the gaming world, and I'm not 
sure how feasible it is.

An idea for the gaming world:

1) *Accelerated* AIL drivers

   The Windows graphics community has been doing this for years: Take the standard
   graphics calls; detect the special cases which can be done more efficiently;
   then implement them as optimally as possible (i.e. in hardware if possible).
   
   How would this apply to the AIL drivers? Well, for example, the driver could
   check if the sample it is being asked to play had been downloaded recently
   (how? make a guess: Is it the same address and is some hash function of the
   first few bytes the same?) and if so, just play the one it has cached in 
   local ram. This probably wouldn't work for all games, but it would work for 
   some.

   Another possibility is: try to detect when multiple samples are being
   played and play them even though AIL can really only do one at a time.

   I don't know. Maybe their's something in this idea, maybe not.

Some ideas for the music world:

1) Universal sample converter

   Do you have any idea how many sounds are available in the formats used
   by commercial samplers? Thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands.

   What we need is a piece of software which takes any (multi)sample, and converts
   it into something we can use on the GUS. It must have enough intelligence
   to know the (musical) ways that samples can be reduced in size so they
   can be used in our limited ram: reducing the number of samples in the multi,
   backing off on the sample frequency, converting to 8-bit if necessary, etc.
   I want to just:
	 1. drag-and-drop a sample for some other machine on this tool
	 2. turn a nob on it to set how much memory it should take up
	 3. let it compute for a while and spit out a gus patch

2) Analog synths are IN!

   Imagine having an application which had a window that looked just like a
   miniMOOG front panel... You twiddle the nobs just like you would on a mini.
   If you hit a note on your music keyboard (the software watches midiIn, of course)
   the software *computes* the sound a miniMOOG would have made with those
   settings (It's just some serious math, after all!), downloads the sample to
   the gus and plays it. When you get the sound exactly the way you want it, 
   you say "Make Patch" and it generates a reasonable set of samples which cover
   the whole keyboard range and constructs a GUS patch. Not quite real-time, but
   it sure would be impressive!

3) Wavestation on a card

   Have you ever heard a KORG Wavestation? It's arguably the only truly interesting
   sample playback synth on the market today. Believe me, if you haven't heard
   what it can do, you should go and listen to one.

   The way it works its magic is by splicing together little segments of many
   different samples and crossfading them into each other over time. They call
   this "wave sequencing". You can set loop points and hold points, pitch, and 
   volume, but that's about it. The results are amazing. Huge sweeping pads and 
   sounds that *seem* natural but you can't quite put your finger on what instrument
   it is (like "pluckrimba" that starts out with a guitar pluck, but ends up
   sounding like a marimba).

   To do this on the GUS, you just need a slightly more interesting driver. It
   would use two voices for each sound it plays (more if you want to allow
   layers (and I do)), and would cycle through the waves according to a simple 
   description. Easy.

Finally, having said all that, I would like to be able to say that I am hard at 
work trying to make the above ideas happen. Unfortunately, I'm not. My life is 
a little (actually, quite a lot) too complex right now. In fact, I've probably
used up my free time for the next year just typing up this message. My hope
is that peoples' imaginations will be fired either by these ideas, or by the
"spirit of the possible" which they encompass to build us the Next Big Thing,
so the soundcard which we all love will have a future.

McQ

p.s. Anybody else got some ideas?

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

Date: Tue, 3 May 94 23:08:04 -0500
From: jfulmer@databank.com (John Fulmer)
Subject: Windows, GUS, CD-ROM, and Alice...

>I've noticed a problem with CD-Roms such as Microsoft Cinemania and others 
>where WAVE files play fine through windows, but longer sequences of music 
>break up, play intermittently.  I've got an old Mitsumi single speed drive and 
>was wondering if this is a problem with the new Multimedia standard or if I'm 
>just doing something dumb. 


Three things......

1) make sure that SmartDrive IS caching the CD-ROM. It really helps.

2) Single speed CD-ROMs have a tendency to break up on large .WAVs

3) I'll assume that you have a slower (486sx-25 or slower) computer.
   In this case, when a LOT of processing has to be done the computer plays  
  catchup with the sound and skips. Also if there is something like an
   AVI file playing, it will do the same. In the drivers portion of the
   control panel, configure the AVI drivers to skip frames if behind.
   This will help with some of the skips.....

*--------------------------------------------------------------------*
|John Fulmer(jfulmer@databank.com)|      "I find it in-ter-es-ting,  *
|Micom Computer Systems           |       A noun's a person, place,  *
|Lawrence, Ks.                    |              or thing..."        *
*--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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

Date: Tue, 03 May 94 16:35:48
From: Magic User <MIDGLEY_CP@prime1.central-lancashire.ac.uk>



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

End of GUS Daily Digest V13 #4
******************************
