Ultrasound Daily Digest     Mon, 27 Sep 93  0:07 MDT     Volume 6: Issue  26  

Today's Topics:
				 'Ultramid' don't works in UMB! Help!
				   Cakewalk 2.0 DEMO/Drum Caching?
							CD ROM drives
							 GUS support
					 Native GUS Support & Origin.
						Sierra drivers and PQ3
						  Sierra GUS drivers
			   Ultrasound Daily Digest V6 #25 (2 msgs)

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: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 18:21:04 +1000 (EST)
From: int341m@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au (Mr K.S. Yap)
Subject: 'Ultramid' don't works in UMB! Help!
Message-ID: <9309260821.AA29855@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au>

Greetings,
  Did anyone manage to load 'Ultramid' into the Upper Memory Block and 
still get it working? I am currently using the 'Ultramid' from the 
'Gusdrv.exe' (to play 'Freddy Pharkas (FP)'), but everytime when I load 
'Ultramid' high, it will cause my computer to hang at the 'Sierra' opening 
screen. 
  I had tried to load 'Ultramid' high with '386Max' and 'EMM386', but 
both of them produce the same result (hang up after about three seconds of
music). 
  However if I load 'Ultramid' into conventional memory, it will works
"wonderfully" (BTW, good work Sierra, the music in FP is incredible! And 
thanks to you too Gravis!). But the problem is that somewhere in the middle 
of the game, FP complains that there is not enough memory available! Not 
surprising at all considering the amount of memory 'Ultramid' chews up.
  Does anyone knows of a solution to this problem ? I read that 'Ultramid'
is suppose to be able to load part of itself into the UMB even if there is 
is not enough room in the UMB to fit all of it, how do I do that ?
  Please help. Thanks in advance.

Shan.
int341m@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au

Share and Prosper.

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

Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 16:11:55 PDT
From: ee105fem@sdcc15.UCSD.EDU (Anthony Tang)
Subject: Cakewalk 2.0 DEMO/Drum Caching?
Message-ID: <9309262312.AA03501@sdcc15.UCSD.EDU>

Wow.  Cakewalk 2.0 is quite a nice program, but the demo version
seems to have a few problems with Patch Caching.  I was wondering if
someone with the retail version could answer some questions.

First, in the demo version, ANY midi file with ANY drum tracks fails
to cache the drum pats.  It loads up all the normal instruments,
then gives me an error about the sound card not having enough memory
to cache the drums.  Then I go into patch manager, see that there's
still over 900K free, load up ALL the drums/percussion, and the file
plays fine, and everyone's happy.  Does this happen with the retail
version?

Also, when using a keyboard.  Let's say I'm trying to sequence
something, and I call up a new instrument which isn't yet loaded
onto the GUS, will it automatically load it up, or do you need to
hit update patches, or will even that be enough?  

Thanks for any help people can give on this subject.

-Anthony
aktang@sdcc13.ucsd.edu  <--Please send email here!

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

Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 16:44:02 EDT
From: pccmoddan@aol.com
Subject: CD ROM drives
Message-ID: <9309261644.tn109835@aol.com>

jtang@argon.chem.ucla.edu (James Tang) writes:

>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.<

Word of advice: don't buy anything just because it's "really cool." Take some
time to look into what use you might have for a CD ROM drive, and see if it's
really worth it. Otherwise, you may end up with an expensive toy which you
rarely use! If you do decide to get a drive, the Toshiba 3401 is about the
best drive you'll find, and it's quite reasonably priced.

- Dan
 ------------------------------------
	   The Levisionet Group
	Aural Landscape Specialists
 ------------------------------------
Dan Nicholson, Chief Antagonist
InterNet: pccmoddan@aol.com (mail)
		  daniel@bowker.com (mail)
		  moddan@bowker.com (UUE)
 ------------------------------------
553 Thoreau Terrace, Union, NJ 07083
 908-688-0708 * levisionet@aol.com
 ------------------------------------

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

Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 16:39:49 EDT
From: pccmoddan@aol.com
Subject: GUS support
Message-ID: <9309261639.tn109764@aol.com>

Paul Murgatroyd <s1114@kowande.Bond.edu.au> writes:

>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......<

I'm sure they have. Most large foreign companies in the computer industry
have no respect for business ethics or fair competition, and Creative Labs is
at the forefront in this arena. They are the Microsoft of the soundcard
industry, and in most ways much worse. 

- Dan
I can already smell the lawsuits...

 ------------------------------------
	   The Levisionet Group
	Aural Landscape Specialists
 ------------------------------------
Dan Nicholson, Chief Antagonist
InterNet: pccmoddan@aol.com (mail)
		  daniel@bowker.com (mail)
		  moddan@bowker.com (UUE)
 ------------------------------------
553 Thoreau Terrace, Union, NJ 07083
 908-688-0708 * levisionet@aol.com
 ------------------------------------

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

Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 10:12:01 CDT
From: ckalin@kelvin.cae.uwm.edu (Christopher Allen Kalin)
Subject: Re: Native GUS Support & Origin.
Message-ID: <9309261512.AA13332@kelvin.cae.uwm.edu>

> 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......

Probably, since Privateer already includes WaveBlaster support...

Chris Kalin

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

Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 03:21:26 EDT
From: ddr@math.ufl.edu
Subject: Sierra drivers and PQ3
Message-ID: <9309260721.AA05732@bebop.math.ufl.edu>

The Sierra drivers will only work if the game already supports
gen midi.  PQ3 is not one of the games that Sierra/Gravis list
in th   0e readme file as being supported.  Dagger of Amon Ra CD
will work, but disk based Dagger will not work.  It seems that we 
will have to be content with what we have and ohpe that Sierra is serious about GUS support for the future.  
	I will be writing to Sierra thanking them for supporting the GUS
and letting them know how much more enjoyable their games are with it.

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

Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 14:24:02 EDT
From: troutski@aol.com
Subject: Sierra GUS drivers
Message-ID: <9309261424.tn107301@aol.com>

Sure, they work and sound great, but the fact that you _still_ need that pig
of a TSR, Ultramid, is sorely disappointing.  I spent nearly a half hour
tweaking QEMM to give me enough memory to fit all the necessary drivers an
still have enough free RAM to play the game (I have the CD-ROM version).  At
one point, I was 1k short of the magic number...had to reduce buffers to 1 to
squeak the extra RAM out.  On the other hand, the game works flawlessy
without tweaking in an OS/2 DOS box using my SB-PRO.  Try that with the
GUS....Ultramid does not even load!  No errors, it just hangs the session... 
I can only hope Sierra's (and whoever else's) future support for the GUS does
not require Ultramid.  IMNSHO, Ultramid is a workaround, and not a very
elegant one at that.  Megaem is a technical wonder, and I admire Mr. Steere's
programming skills, but again, it can not work in an OS/2 DOS session, and
currently does not support digital audio. And the beat goes on...      

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

Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 19:31:48 -0400 (EDT)
From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V6 #25
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9309261947.A15735-c100000@sciborg>

> 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?
>

I don't have the game, but here are a couple of things to check for:

Did you install and set up ultramid.exe and ultramid.ini properly? 
Did you run ultramid -c -m100 before running PQ3?

> 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>
> 
> *>>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.
>

Aah... I see now what you meant.  Sorry for the misunderstanding. :)
 
> 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).
>

I can sample from my Mitsumi which is connected to my GUS' CD audio jumper
just as well as from line in (which is pretty well).  Do you have the
ground/left/right pins and wires hooked up properly?  The GUS's jumpers
are arranged

				Top of card     R G G L
				 ---------------------------------------------|
								| | | |                       |
															  .
															  .
				Bottom of card

As for the Mitsumi audio wires, the gray ones are ground, and the white 
ones are right/left lines.

Phat.

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

Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 21:39:01 EDT
From: Matthew Spewak <Matthew.Spewak@lambada.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V6 #25
Message-ID: <9309270139.AA14068@lambada.oit.unc.edu>

NHL Hockey does not work right with Sbos.  The game is great, but sbos
will only play the music, the digital sounds are played slooooowww and
echoed, as well as distorted.
Unless I can get the digital sound to work, I'm gonna return it.  Has
anyone seen a patch or know of a new version of sbos that is supposed to
fix this?  I tried -o1 -o2, -x1 and -x2, and none of them changed this.

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End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V6 #26
*************************************
