Ultrasound Daily Digest     Thu, 11 Feb 93       Volume 2 : Issue  39 

Today's Topics:
						   A few questions
						 Cakewalk for Windows
							   comanche
						   Comanche Effects
						  Definition of DSP
					   DSP: What does it mean?
							  GUS & MIDI
					  GUS Application Required!
					   Help: GUS MIDI problems
				How are 'Midisoft' and Power Chords???
						Put me out of the list
							 Question #2
								 SDK
							   telemart
							 Ultra Chuck
					Where are the OS/2 drivers???
							  Winjammer
						 X-Wing Demo and GUS

	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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Wed, 10 Feb 1993 09:23:21 -0800
From: roc@gasco.com (Ron Christian x1545)
Message-Id: <9302100923.ZM3931@gasco.com>
Subject: A few questions
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Ok, I'm completely sold on the Ultrasound.  They made great Christmas
presents last year.  :-)  Of course, I've got a couple of questions:

Can you get more than one sound card to work at the same time?  If, for
some reason, you needed more simultaneous voices than a Gravis could produce,
is it possible to get two to play at the same time?  I'm assuming appropriate
software, which might have to be written.  My feeling is that one would
at least have to run each card with different configuration parameters.  I'm
wondering if there's some other gotcha.

The other question was prompted to a visit to a friend's house, where he
is working on getting Windows NT to talk to a Sun.  My experience with the
NT beta code has convinced me that I want to dump 3.1 as soon as possible...
Is anyone working on an NT driver for the Gravis?

Thanks in advance.


			Ron  (roc@gasco.com)

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

Date: Wed, 10 Feb 93 11:11:58 -0600
From: pancake@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Christopher Daniello)
Message-Id: <9302101711.AA17488@doc.cc.utexas.edu>
Subject: Cakewalk for Windows
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

I haven't been having timing problems with Cakewalk and the Gus.  Possibly
because unlike a soundblaster, the Gus doesn't eat up so much CPU time
to play a wav it can easily buffer.  Keyboard magazine probably didn't
use a GUS to test this out, remember.  

But the way things are set up, it will only play one wav at a time with
your music.  If another one starts, the first one will be interrupted.

Aside from loading patches manually, Cakewalk is an excellent sequencer
(especially if you don't like being tied to piano roll).

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

Date: Wed, 10 Feb 1993 09:48:52 +0000 (GMT)
From: Dave Ingles <davei@central1.lancaster.ac.uk>
Message-Id: <8161.9302100949@central1.lancaster.ac.uk>
Subject: comanche
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

> I tried his suggestion and to my surprise. It works. Install the patch,
> run soundset.exe and select SB for all the sound output. The sound effects
> and speech are a bit soft so you might want to turn off the music.
> 
> --
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> | Apollo WONG S.Y.                 | Fourth Year Electrical Engineering,  |
> | Internet : Apollo@EE.Ualberta.CA | University of Alberta, Canada.       |
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

I tried this last night and got bits of sound.  When I fire a missile and it
hits a target I get bursts of engine-like noises which continue for 10 secs
or so. I somehow don't think that this is what is meant to happen.

What base address / irq / dma settings did you use in the soundset program ?

Davei

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

Date: Wed, 10 Feb 93 10:01:31 -0800
From: owjohn@SEAS.UCLA.EDU (Johnny Y. Ow)
Message-Id: <9302101801.AA1329062@watson.seas.ucla.edu>
Subject: Comanche Effects
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

>From: John Dillenburg <dillenbu@bert.eecs.uic.edu> 
>Message-Id:<199302081656.AA07054@bert.eecs.uic.edu> 
>Subject: Comanche

>  I've tried this, the sound EFFECTS still do not work.  I've tried
>SBOS 1.20, 1.22 and 1.23 with all sixteen combinations of -x and -o.
Note that the music works fine.  Are you sure that your sound effects
>work (i.e. guns firing, bomb explosions, etc.)?   I have also tried running
>the SOUNDSET program with music set to AdLib and Effects set to SoundBlaster,
>no go (with or without patch).

The only thing you *may* be overlooking is the SB IRQ setting; make sure
the BLASTER parameter in your AUTOEXEC file is set to the same IRQ as
SOUNDSET.  Otherwise music plays, but no sound effects.

  -Johnny Ow

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

Date: Wed, 10 Feb 93 10:19:01 PST
From: jericho!gord@uunet.UU.NET (Gord Wait S-MOS Systems Vancouver Design Center)
Message-Id: <9302101819.AA19644@ jericho>
Subject: Definition of DSP
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

I disagree on the definition of DSP as offered by Stuart Yoshida. DSP
does stand for Digital Signal Processing/Processor. A DSP chip is NOT
required to convert audio into 16 bit digital numbers and write the
results to a disk. (IE digital recording). All you need to turn an
analog signal into a digital number is an A to D converter chip. The
Ultrasound comes with an A to D converter that creates an 8 bit digital
number for the left and right channel. The 16 bit daughter board from
Gravis will have an A to D converter that creates 16 bit digital
numbers from the left and right analog audio channels.

DSP chips take in DIGITAL numbers, and do mathematics in digital on
those numbers, and then spit out the results of the numbers. Note that
a few electronics manufacturers may build chips that include BOTH an A
to D converter and a Digital Signal Processor in one chip. Check out
some semiconductor manuals on DSP's to get a detailed description of
how they are set up. (IE Texas Instruments, or Motorola)

Your general purpose CPU (386/486 etc) can do ANYTHING that a DSP chip
can do.  DSP chips are designed to handle continuous streams of digital
numbers (like a digital audio stream) and do math on the numbers
usually much faster than a general purpose CPU can.  This is why they
are used in audio signal processors so often (reverb, chorus etc).  DSP
chips are usually more restricted in what they can do, so they can cost
less than a general purpose CPU.

I am certain that the 16 bit ultrasound board will not do the work of
mixing, editing, and splicing. These tasks will be handled by your main
CPU. Recording requires only the A to D converter, which the daughter
board will have.

If the ultrasound board had a DSP, then these tasks could possibly be
handled faster by an on board DSP chip than your main CPU. There is a
problem with the bandwidth of the ISA bus, but thats another story..

So please don't confuse DSP with the ability to record digital audio.

Gord Wait   SMOS Systems Vancouver Design Centre
uunet!jericho!gord

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

Date: Wed, 10 Feb 1993 12:38:06 -0500
From: hugh@mimosa.com ("D. Hugh Redelmeier")
Message-Id: <9302101738.AA04428@redvax.mimosa.com>
Subject: DSP: What does it mean?
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

DSP is an acronym for Digital Signal Processor.  As a technical
term, it means more than the expansion of its acronym.  A DSP is a
microprocessor that has been specialized for the tasks of signal
processing.  In particular, speed in handling large quantities of
regular continuous arithmetic has been emphasized, at the cost of
generality (compared to other microprocessors).

Contrary to what I understand Stuart Yoshida to have meant, handling
digital signals does not make a circuit a DSP.

What makes a DSP a Good Thing in a sound card is that:

- A DSP is much faster at the appropriate kind of arithmetic than a
  similar general-purpose microprocessor.  Of course, dedicated
  hardware can be faster still.

- A DSP is *programmable* (by someone -- perhaps only the
  manufacturer) allowing complicated and interesting
  transformations.  A DSP is much more flexible than a dedicated
  circuit.

- If a DSP is used in a way that allows the user to program it,
  third-party creativity can be brought to bear.  This has
  tremendous potential.

Most DSPs are buried in black-box circuits.  As such, users cannot
reprogram them.  In that case, the fact that it has a DSP is no more
important than the color of the circuit board (but red certainly is
distinctive :-).

For all I know, the DOC1 chip may be implemented using a DSP (as a
part of the chip).  Whether it is or not does not change what we can
do with the DOC1 (unless there is a secret trapdoor allowing direct
programming).

One important problem with DSPs is that there may be no incremental
way to program them.  Let me give a concrete example.  To add a
sound to the GUS, you can add a patch.  To add an effect to a DSP,
you must modify (not just add to) the program.  If the program is
not yours, this is very hard to do.  More probably, the program must
be completely replaced.  So everyone but the owner of the program
(i.e. the author, not the consumer) starts from zero when trying to
improve a DSP program.

Hugh Redelmeier
hugh@mimosa.com or {utcsri, uunet!attcan, utzoo, scocan}!redvax!hugh
When all else fails: hugh@csri.toronto.edu
+1 416 482-8253

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

Date: Wed, 10 Feb 93 14:53:24 CST
From: John Riedl <riedl@cs.umn.edu>
Message-Id: <9302102053.AA10063@hannibal.cs.umn.edu>
Subject: GUS & MIDI
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

I've been using my GUS with my keyboard lately, and like it a lot.
(Thanks for all the help getting the interface set up!  Two questions:

1) The GUS piano patches seem too short to me.  Esepcially on the bass
notes the sound dies away a lot faster than it does on my piano.  Do
others notice this?  Is there a fix?  

2) Has anyone thought about hitching a drum pad up to a computer?  I
can't afford to pay $1000 for a drum machine that speaks MIDI, but I'd
like to be able to connect the trigger from a drum pad to my computer
so I could play sounds through my GUS.  Any ideas how that might work?

Thanks,
John

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

Date: Wed, 10 Feb 93 16:10:33 +0100
From: "rjones.NL" <rjones@NL.oracle.com>
Message-Id: <9302101510.AA07432@nlsun1.nl.oracle.com>
Subject: GUS Application Required!
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Is there anyone out there with a Gravis SDK who's looking for software
suggestions?

I want to use the GUS as a MIDI expander to my existing MIDI setup. What
I need is a Windows application like Patch Manager where I can load
patches, but in addition, play them through the MIDI in. 

On my wish list for such a piece of software, would be individual pan and
level control for each voice, transpose facilities and MIDI mapping. In
short, something that would have the facilities of your average hardware
synth expander.

When minimised, it could release the MIDI port for another application,
such as a sequencer which would then benefit from all the settings made.
Or maybe it could be loaded when already in a sequencer so that levels,
panning etc. could be tweaked (in which case it should allow sequencer
patch caching to override).

There appears to be a glaring market niche for such a product. If on the
other hand, this niche has been filled, please forgive my ignorance, as I'm
new to the world of Ultrasound.


Rod Jones

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

Date: Wed, 10 Feb 93 11:01:18 +0100
From: waardenb@cs.utwente.nl (Jerry van Waardenberg)
Message-Id: <9302101001.AA15982@hermes.cs.utwente.nl>
Subject: Help: GUS MIDI problems
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

> I just installed my Ultrasound today, and have already come up with some
> problems. When I ran mididemo.exe, some of the files work and others
> don't. [...]

What are your ULTRASND settings? Maybe you are using a 16-bit DMA channel. I
had the same kind of problems, but changing to a 8-bit channel solved the
problem. Try the following before playing MIDI files:

  SET ULTRASND=220,1,1,11,5

If this works o.k., then change this line in your autoexec.bat. Maybe you can
check out what kind of motherboard you have. Do you have a M-321 with PC-Chips
chipset or an Opti chipset? Please let me know.

Greetz,

Jerry

*------------------------------------------------------------------------------*
 Jerry van Waardenberg                             _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/
 Tele Informatics and Open Systems                  _/     _/   _/  _/ _/
 Department of Computer Science                    _/     _/   _/  _/   _/
 University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands  _/     _/   _/  _/     _/
 E-mail: waardenb@cs.utwente.nl                  _/   _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/

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

Date: Wed, 10 Feb 93 10:41:41 CST
From: ken@batman.austin.ibm.com (Ken Goach)
Message-Id: <9302101641.AA29397@batman.austin.ibm.com>
Subject: How are 'Midisoft' and Power Chords???
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Can someone who has these for the GUS give a review?

Is Midisoft Recording Session a sequencer or what? Is it as good
as, say, Winjammer?

What do these do, exactly? What can you do with them?

Ken

ken@austin.ibm.com

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

Date: Wed, 10 Feb 93 2:20:12 CST
From: jasper@cae.wisc.edu
Message-Id: <9302100820.AA15065@hprisc-4.cae.wisc.edu>
Subject: Put me out of the list
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

How do I unsubscribe ?

Jasper

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

Date: 10 Feb 1993 09:36:31 -0500 (EST)
From: STU_JABIRCHE@VAX1.ACS.JMU.EDU
Message-Id: <01GUJVQ713YA8YEG0R@VAX1.ACS.JMU.EDU>
Subject: Question #2
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Um...I am using "Intermission" with windows and the screen savers with sound
always manage to lock up the computer if they run for an extended period of
time or if I use it in conjunction with the modem. Anyone have any idea what
might be causing this or how to fix it, if possible?
-=Marc, purveyor of fine yak gelders=-
	replacer of other people's wooden bits...

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

Date: Wed, 10 Feb 93 10:02:07 -0800
From: owjohn@SEAS.UCLA.EDU (Johnny Y. Ow)
Message-Id: <9302101802.AA1329065@watson.seas.ucla.edu>
Subject: SDK
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

>From: Thomas Wong <twong@civil.ubc.ca>

>Any news on the developers kit?  Or how we get a beta version of it?  What
>I've heard from UK tech support is that the developers kit is still beta and
>making it "proper" is not a priority.  Can anyone in touch with Gravis in
>Canada confirm or deny this? ta

Hm, I have already ordered the *new* developer's kit (that is, 2nd official
release that I know of) and should be receiving it in a couple of days.  I
ordered it through the US distribution office, but I do not know what the
situation in the UK is. 

  -Johnny Ow

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

Date: Wed, 10 Feb 93 16:17:44 PST
From: Steve Smoot <smoot@gumby.cs.Berkeley.EDU>
Message-Id: <9302110017.AA23925@orca.es.com>
Subject: telemart
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

I ordered sunday, arrived tuesday.
No included software. $132 or so, with shipping.
I assume its just $10 more to Gravis, and I'll have the
software.


Re:  Ultima Underworld
Does everyone just get buzzing when there should be splashing,
or is it just me?
-s

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

Date: Wed, 10 Feb 93 10:00:37 -0800
From: owjohn@SEAS.UCLA.EDU (Johnny Y. Ow)
Message-Id: <9302101800.AA1329059@watson.seas.ucla.edu>
Subject: Ultra Chuck
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

>From: Carson R. Stuart <carson@mcnc.org>
>Message-Id: <9302051408.AA07436@kazoo.mcnc.org>
>Subject: Ultra Chuck Yeagar and Speakers

>>Is it worth the $15? probably not.  Save your money and get a memory
 
>I already have the memory upgrade and would like to try a flight simulator.
>Do you still recommend not getting "UCY" even for a first time pilot?
>How about a more complete review of the simulator and a recommendation for
>a preferred flight simulator for those of us that haven't tried flying by
>computer. I had hoped "UCY" would be an inexpensive way to try out my flying
>skills.

I guess I should have gone a little deeper in my description of Chuck Yeager.

As far as flight sims goes, this one does not have the prettiest graphics,
does not have the best controls, and does not have the most depth.  On the
other hand, it has a slew of planes you can fly, the sound effects are pretty
good, and Chuck is always there to give some advice. 

The planes are a combination of bit maps and polygons; they actually look
decent, but does not compare to the likes of Aces and Comanche.  Terrain is
limited to a flat landscape with a few "mounds" and houses, but you usually
have your eye in the sky anyways.

You can pilot your craft using keyboard, joystick, mouse, or one of those
jazzy Flight Control Systems (FCS).  I used the joystick option and found the
actual piloting of the plane to be good.  To do some common tasks such as
changing throttle and selecting views require you to break from the joystick
and reach for the keyboard-which is cumbersome at best.  Why EA chose to go to
the trouble of supporting the FCS and not someting like the FlightStick or
ThunderStick is beyond me, but it's irritating.

Missions take place in three different time eras:  WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. 
You can fly a good number of historical missions, against some aces, or build
your own mission.  However, the built-in missions are standalone
products; that is, there is no campaign and your mission success or
failure makes no difference in the availability of future missions. 
Likewise, there is no career option where you can fly a single pilot through
a war, keeping track of his/her progress.

One good point about the game is that there are dozens of planes to check
out.  Their flight accuracy is something I am not qualified to tackle.

As far as sound and music goes, it supports the GUS directly.  'Nuff said.

The one item which stands out in this game is the variety of options
available to help the novice pilot.  These include an on-screen target window
which provides the location and status of the selected target, and a window
with Chuck himself giving you tips when you're in trouble.  There is also an
easy aiming mode if you find that you're not hitting the bad guys and the
ability to turn off blackouts among other things.

I don't want to make this too long, so I'll just wrap it up by saying: 
with all the extra helping features, Ultra Chuck Yeager is great for the
novice pilot (especially for $15!), but for those who have been spoiled with
the likes of Falcon, SWOTL, or Aces, Chuck lacks the depth and is a little
behind in the graphics. 

  -Johnny Ow

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

Date: 10 Feb 1993 16:24:22 -0400 (EDT)
From: DEATH BEFORE DISCO <JKS4675@ritvax.isc.rit.edu>
Message-Id: <01GUKA10VI8I988H0U@ritvax.isc.rit.edu>
Subject: Where are the OS/2 drivers???
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

What is the situation on these drivers?? I was told by people at Forte
(yes, Forte) that they were 'being worked on' back in December.

Well??

Jeff

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

Date: 10 Feb 1993 09:23:14 -0500 (EST)
From: STU_JABIRCHE@VAX1.ACS.JMU.EDU
Message-Id: <01GUJV7BNWUQ8YEQZB@VAX1.ACS.JMU.EDU>
Subject: Winjammer
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

I really like the fact that Winjammer autoloads the patches, but I don't think
it's quite perfected yet.  There are some files that I can load in with 
patch manager and then go to Cakewalk to hear, but Winjammer says it cannot
load in all of the patches. The files play with media player, Cakewalk,
playmidi, and the SB jukebox programs, but Winjammer almost always ditches the
percussion when loading in longer files. For my money, I'll stick with the
inconvenience of using pmanager with Cakewalk rather than registering
Winjammer.
-=Marc=-

P.S. -=- Is there a good composing program? I don't have a keyboard, so I
   am stuck with Staff Edit on Cakewalk, which is severely limited. I have
   toyed with using a modetitor and then converting it via mod2midi, but it
   just seems kind of ugly. Anyone?

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

Date: Wed, 10 Feb 93 10:05:58 -0600
From: wity@iastate.edu
Message-Id: <9302101605.AA00797@iastate.edu>
Subject: X-Wing Demo and GUS
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

I have no problem at all running the X-Wing demo with my GUS.
I'm using SBOS 1.22, GUS IRQ 11, MIDI IRQ 7, 1 MB DRAM, QEMM.
I can hear the explosions, digitized voices, and the music.
Cool demo, can't wait to get the real game.
Btw, I use the SBOS with no settings.

+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+
|  Wity Ganda                    |  wity@iastate.edu                    |
|  Iowa State University         |  as101@cleveland.freenet.edu         |
+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+=-+

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V2 #39
******************************
