GUS Daily Digest            Tue, 21 Mar 95  9:37 PST     Volume 20: Issue  21 

Today's Topics:
						  16-bit DB vs. Max
			cheap GUS-compat.ible 486 MB: a recommendation
				  GUS Daily Digest V20 #20 (2 msgs)
							GUS MAX w/ROTT
								 HB4
					  How to get sound in ROTT.
						  MC II + Discworld
						 New Mega-em problems
				 One more GUS and RELENTLESS question
								OOOps!
					Pmode Mega-Em and SB emulation
							 PMode MegaEm
							PMODE misuse!
							  Questions
					SB and GUS Windows Coexistence
						 Tie Fighter locks up
				 Update: GUSMAX: MIDI In not working
						   Weird behavior..

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: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 09:47:56 GMT
From: engineer@mail.soc.staffs.ac.uk (Ian Silvester)
Subject: Re: 16-bit DB vs. Max

Tamski Markku asked some questions yesterday about the above.  I have used
the 16 bit DB, but not a Max, so here's my opinion :

1. The functionality of a GUS+DB and a Max is identical (same mixer, CODEC
chip etc.)

2. No experience with SAW (if only I was rich!)

3. Yes, the DB requires its own IRQ, DMA (one only) and I/O port, whereas
the Max uses (in total, excluding SB/MIDI) one IRQ, two DMA and two I/O
ports (the extra one over normal GUS is for the CODEC).

4. The DB plugs (with a little effort) onto the side of the GUS, so you end
up with a red PCB sandwich.

5. Anything else that comes to mind. Easy. Don't buy a daughterboard. I was,
in a sense, lucky that the one I bought had a fault in one channel, because
the S/N ratio increases noticeably over a standard GUS, too much for
'serious amateur' sampling. You have the same choice as me; buy a Max or
wait for the Gravis Interwave card (if that's what they're planning).

Hope this helps,

Yan.
------------------------      --------------------------------------
Ian Silvester,                Phone: +44 (0)1785 353348
Research Associate,           Fax:   +44 (0)1785 353331
School Of Engineering,         
Staffordshire University.     "He dreams... while he's not sleeping" 
-----------------------       --------------------------------------

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

Date: Mon, 20 Mar 95 11:51:21 HST
From: ross@math.hawaii.edu
Subject: cheap GUS-compat.ible 486 MB: a recommendation

Recently someone mentioned here that the new motherboard he bought from
Treasure Chest wasn't GUS-compatible.  I appreciate the warning, since I was
considering the same motherboard.

In case anyone else is considering a similar upgrade, last week I bought and
installed a new, inexpensive 486DX2-66 VLB motherboard that (so far) works 
perfectly with the GUS.  It was only $160 from a place called Olympic 
Technologies in Texas (WWW URL  http://www.pic.net/olympic/olympic.html); while this was supposedly a 1-week sale, it was still listed on their WEB page last 
time I looked.

The board *does* have some drawbacks: no installed external cache (it *will*
take up to a megabyte), and the chip is a Cyrix (which does have the benefit of
an on-board 8k write-back cache, making external cache a bit superfluous).  On
the other hand, it is remarkably cheap, and *does* work with the GUS.  (If
anyone knows of any programs which stress this compatibility to the limits, I'd
be happy to try them.)

By the way, I'm now looking for a new graphics board; are there any which are
known *not* to coexist with the GUS?

- David Ross (ross@math.hawaii.edu)

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

Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 17:56:34 +1100 (EDT)
From: rorr@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Richard Peter ORR)
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V20 #20

> 
> > Mega-Em currently requires the following to function correctly:
> > 
> > * A 386 or better AT class personal computer.
> > * A hard drive.
> > * A Gravis UltraSound/MAX/ACE card.
> > * An Expanded Memory Manager, such as EMM386, QEMM386 or 386MAX.
> > * Approximately 128k of free Expanded Memory (EMS).
> > * DOS 3.3 or later (EMM386 must be from DOS 5.0 or later).

It also should say it requires NMI interrupts - the computer locks up
with an NMI error when I try and run MEGAEM.

Bye
 .Richard (rorr@mundil.cs.mu.oz.au)

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

Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 13:01:50 +0100 (MET)
From: appel@stack.urc.tue.nl (Stanley Appel)
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V20 #20

Hi, i tried to work with the new mega-em here are my new findings:
- some dirty error message about pre 3.xx revision boards not working
  with most protected mode programs doing Roland emu. (he Gravis there
  are lots and lots of people owing a v2.4 revision board, so why dump
  them, they made your card a big hit you know.)
- you can read/write the GUS memory when MegaEm active is, just before
  the command prompt returns it reloads the set back into the GUS memory.
  (nice trick)
- it just uses 1488 bytes of memory (the part you can see) for the UltraMid
  part. So that is also nice.
- !!!! does anyone look in the ultrasound dir. LOOK for a file called
  1024.bnk IT IS ABOUT 1024Kb big and is the complete GUS memory. SO
  WHAT THE HELL ABOUT THAT MONSTER, it is nice, almost quick but it just
  eats space. (nice to see a trick i thought of, take a look a gusdump
  in one off the gusutil packages i wrote).
- there is no check if megaem is already loaded and filled the gus memory
  when started again. it just reload the hole set again.
- there was some copyright message of EYE&I productions in buildpat, can
  someone tell us about them.
- it is easy to crash with megaem loaded, even easyer to turn him off by
  just starting Program Editor from WordPerfect. Why does this program
  always conflict with protected mode programma's (it still crashes Warp
  and now turns of megaem)
- DON't try to load the old megaem when the new megaem is active, it crashes
  the computer (not the emuset but the megaem.exe)
- it dont id's itself with the old megaem detection routines (int 21, ax=fd12
  etc).

Just to show some light on the subject.

Stanley
appel@stack.urc.tue.nl

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

Date: Tue, 21 Mar 95 08:25:31 GMT
From: dwj@kid01pml.icl.co.uk (Dave Johnson)
Subject: Re: GUS MAX w/ROTT

Ryan Iler wrote:

>  For a reason which I can not figure out the sound effects for the game 
>Rise of the Triad do not work for me.  Even when I set it up for sound 
>effects only I get nothing but wierd clicks and pops.  It worked when I 
>first got the demo version but it won't work now.  Any help would be 
>appreciated.

I know this is not a fix to the problem, but it may be a workaround:
Have you tried using the new version of megaem?  I tried it with DOOM - it
sounds just as good as native support!

Dave.
 

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

Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 12:19:13 -0500
From: jday@bank-banque-canada.ca (Jim Day)
Subject: HB4

Hello,
	I've got HB 4 CD.  I have it working great with
a GUS MAX (512k).  There is no need to run loadpats.exe at
the start.  All I do is 1)Make sure there is 6 meg free XMS
2)run hb4.exe.  This automatically goes through the patch
loading process.  My settings are 220,7,6,11,5


In the settings menu, when you try to test the music
what happens?



Hope this helps.

					Jim

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

Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 11:24:34 +0100 (MET)
From: Per.Christian.Krabsetsve@stud.idb.hist.no (Per Christian Krabsetsve)
Subject: How to get sound in ROTT.

To the guy(s) having problems with sounds in ROTT:

The clicking and popping is probably because you have an IRQ > 7 selected
for the digital sound.
To fix it, I use:
set ultrasnd=220,6,6,7,5        (port,playdma,recdma,musicIRQ,digitalIRQ)
Then I run ROTT as usual...

-- 
---=== perck@edb.tih.no ===---     Only Windows makes it impossible

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

Date: Tue, 21 Mar 95 13:17:43 +0100
From: Olof Sundin <adb3_6@und.ida.liu.se>
Subject: MC II + Discworld

Greetings!

I read the other day that Magic Carpet II will be released, presumably before the end of this year. Does anyone know the e-mail adress to Bullfrog so that we can convince them to include native GUS-support this time?

Also, does anyone know if Discworld (psygnosis??) has native GUS-support? (It is "possibly the best point-and-click adventure ever made" according to PC Zone.)

Thanks in advance!

	/Olof

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

Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1995 11:20:42 -0800 (PST)
From: "Peter C. Chien Jr." <pchienjr@ocf.Berkeley.EDU>
Subject: New Mega-em problems

I've had problems just trying to build the patch set with buildpat.exe, 
which mega-em uses upon first running.  After setting emm386 to noems, 
and getting 616K of conventional memory, I was finally able to build the 
patch sets for 256, 512, and 768K of GUS memory.  But my computer keeps 
crashing whenever I try to build the 1024K bank (1024.bnk).  I do have 1 
MB of GUS memory.  My system is an IBM 486 SLC2 with 8 MB memory (Alaris 
board).  I've also changed my ultrasnd.ini and ultramid.ini back to their 
original forms (I suppose there would have been problems trying to load a 
bosendorf patch).  If anyone else had problems trying to build the *.bnk 
files, can you please tell me how to solve it?  I suppose I'll have to 
write Jayeson about this, but I'm not sure if it's a bug or if it's a 
problem in software/hardware configuration.  Incidentally, I've tried the 
768K patch set of Mega-em on Micropose's UFO -- system hangs.

BTW, Jayeson says that mega-em requires emm386 to act as a loader, 
essentially.  Why not use DOS4GW to load mega-em and then the game?  Can 
DOS4GW run more than one program (i.e., mega-em first, then the game).  
What about PMODE?  If he implements this, then emm386 really won't be 
necessary at all.  Just an idea I'll pass on to him.

						-Peter

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

Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1995 21:45:58 -0700 (MST)
From: mental@acca.nmsu.edu (Mental???!$@#)
Subject: One more GUS and RELENTLESS question

OK, I had ONE more question about GUS and Relentless.

Everyone tells me it has GREAT music which is played right
off the cd (as normal cd music tracks). I have the audio
input (which is connected to the output of my cd rom drive,
which is a mitsumi double speed) turned on (with "gset io")
and I can play the tracks with my playcd program, but it never
seems to play in the program (and the light on the drive is not
ON while I am playing the game, except when loading data).
Have I not FOUND the portions of the game where music is played,
am I doing something wrong? It plays the MIDI music and the
sound effects VERY NICELY through the GUS, but nothing else.

Please let me KNOW!
Thanks
Kevin

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

Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 12:31:41 -0500 (EST)
From: Buddy <cs3mh3dn@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
Subject: OOOps!

Well, I went back through the readme that came with MEGAEM303b and I am 
completely baffled.

I specifically remember reading that Roland emulation would not work with 
MOST games on older versions of the Ultrasound. Now I can't find it 
anywhere. I wonder if maybe I was reading the old readme from and old 
version of megaem......

Sorry about that.

Kevin

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

Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1995 13:21:50 -0800 (PST)
From: adaswani@sdcc15.ucsd.edu (Adarsh Daswani)
Subject: Pmode Mega-Em and SB emulation

I'm having a problem with the PMode Mega-Em...namely, my GUS is on
port 250.  There doesn't seem to be any way to change the default
port in the setup, but am I missing something?

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

Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1995 21:16:47 -0500 (EST)
From: Mike Batchelor <M.Batchelor@babylon4.clark.net>
Subject: Re: PMode MegaEm

What works:

Nothing yet.

What I've tried:

Xwing - no sound or music at all.  Unload the new one, load the old one,
works perfectly.

Prince of Persia 2 - starts to sound like it's gonna work, but then the game
hangs on the second phrase of the intro scenes.  Music still plays.  Reboot,
and load the old 2.03, and it works fine again.

Haven't even tried it with protected mode games, but if it doesn't work with
real mode games..... maybe the next alpha...

-- 
\\\ Mike Batchelor /// mikebat@clark.net \\\ M.Batchelor@babylon4.clark.net ///
"The avalanche has already begun.  It is too late for the pebbles to vote."  

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

Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1995 22:46:45 -0500 (EST)
From: rodman@wizvax.net (Joshua S. Rodman)
Subject: PMODE misuse!

> Date: Sun, 19 Mar 1995 15:40:47 -0500
> From: cdmckill@sail.uwaterloo.ca (Chris McKillop)
> Subject: Mode on PMODE MegaEm...
> 
> Hey all...
> 
>         I have just been playing with the PMODE megaem....

Ok all, I've seen a lot of people in this list referring to the new MEGA-EM
as "PMODE Megaem".  This is confusing.  PMODE is a specific name belonging 
to the protected mode dos-extender by Tran and Daredevil (Thomas Pytel & 
Charles (I forget his last name)).  The new Mega-Em is designed to work
with Protected mode programs.. if you must use a short reference, try P-mode
or 386mode or something of the sort.

I just want stuff to be clear, y'know.

On a side note, the guy asking for networking doom help, you're in the
totally wrong place.  Go check out the rec.games.doom groups.

And please be careful not to quote the entire list and to unsubscribe if you
close your account.. 

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

Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 16:59:26 +0300 (EET)
From: MICASSO <MJHILTUNEN@ntcclu.ntc.nokia.com>
Subject: Questions

Date sent:  21-MAR-1995 16:38:23 

	
	Moikka all GUSsers!

  1)    Is it possible to play let's say about 10 Mb of patches
	in one song? Is there any software which can load new patches
	to GUS max when a song plays. I mean that I could first use
	on 1024 k set of pathes and then the other set etc. in a same song.

  2)    I would like to use my computer only as a midi-instrument (with
	another sequencer) which plays my own patches (more than 1024 k
	together). What software I should use? Where to get it?
	How can I make it to receive only in channel 1 or 2? 
	In "Patch Manager-mode" :) my computer receives in every channel 
	and can use only one 1024 k set if I don't load the other 
	patches by Patch Manager. :(

  3)    My Recording Session plays only primary banks (0-banks). What's wrong?
	I have gonfigured the track to play bank 3 or 4 etc. which are my own
	banks. Doesn't work. :(

	Hmm...anyway GUS is very super OK with games. :)

--
 Micasso

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

Date: Tue, 21 Mar 95 16:25:23 GMT
From: Mr DG Jones <ch31dj@surrey.ac.uk>
Subject: SB and GUS Windows Coexistence

Hi Folks!

First of all, an apology for mentioning a Creative Labs Product in the GUS
digest.  Anyhow, I have a crappy Sound Bastard v2.00 and a regular GUS.
There's no problem getting them to coexist in games (i.e. port and irq
settings are not a problem).

When it comes to windows, I would like to use the SB for wave output only
(for system sounds) and use the GUS for MIDI playing, MOD playing, etc.  As
everyone knows, play a MIDI file and then cause a system sound, the 
MIDI playing is - well let's just say, ruined.

I have tried mucking about with the AUX1, AUX2, MIDI1, MIDI2 devices in the
system.ini file but to no avail.  (Why are there 5 MIDI devices?)  System
sounds always come out through the GUS (when my tweaking doesn't cause an 
error).  I have had two mods playing at once, using Ben Cooley's WinMidas
to play a mod on the gus, and WinModPro on the SB, but each time system
sounds still get played through the GUS.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Darren.

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

Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1995 15:43:13 -0330 (NST)
From: Ed Reddy <ereddy@morgan.ucs.mun.ca>
Subject: Tie Fighter locks up

I suppose this has been asked and answered before, but I don't know the 
answer.

I have a SoundBlaster and a Gravis Ultrasound (1Mb).  Both work fine 
together and I enjoy setting them up, toying them around with 
configuartions.. etc etc.

Now,  I have the fix for TieFighter already installed (for ultrasound).  
However, when I try to enter the combat/trainer (entering is fine) and 
try to actually fly a fighter, it locks up solid.  As soon as the screen 
comes up with the cockpit, she's frozen.

Any comments/help?

Ed

	_____       - If every one stopped thinking about war and hatred,
   /_###_\        and started to think about Space, just imagine how 
 ()\_____/()          close a reality Star Trek would be right now..
			   ->  Ed Reddy @ ereddy@plato.ucs.mun.ca <-

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

Date: 20 Mar 95 12:29:40 EDT
From: John Griggs/MSL <John_Griggs@newman.microstar.com>
Subject: Update: GUSMAX: MIDI In not working

Greetings,

A while back I posted regarding the fact that MIDI In stopped working on my 
machine when I upgraded from a 486DX/33MHz to a DX2/66MHz motherboard.  I have 
yet to solve the problem, but I thought I should post an update.

First off, I'd like to thank everyone who replied, both in the digests and via 
email.

Things that were suggested were:
1) Conflict with Adaptec SCSI board: Alas, I have no SCSI board.
2) Conflict with Stacker (since I use Novell DOS): I don't use disk compression 
of ANY variety.
3) An NMI problem with the new motherboard: This seems the most promising, 
since there is no mention of NMI (or parity-related stuff) in the BIOS, jumpers 
or documentation for the motherboard.  However, several people indicated that 
SBOS shouldn't work with non-NMI enabled boards and SBOS is working fine on my 
system.  Also, I am using the same SIMMs that were on the old motherboard, so I 
guess I'd be seeing parity troubles there too (??? - I'm not 100% clear on the 
relationship between the SIMMs, NMI and parity).

I have also tried:
- rearranging IRQs and DMA channels, both on my GUSMAX and the rest of the 
system.
- removing other boards that may be in conflict, including trying a different 
I/O-IDE controller card.
- changing video drivers, etc. under Windows.
- using MS-DOS v5 instead of Novell DOS v7.
- updating to v3.59 of the Gravis software (Windows drivers v5.48 - I think).
- all of the above in combination.

There are no other problems: games (both Windows and DOS) work fine, MIDI Out 
works, Multimedia works, Digital audio and playing MIDI files works, playing 
MIDI using the mouse in PowerChords, etc. works and MOD players work.  (I don't 
even have the celebrated disappearing mouse cursor problem with the 3.59 
software.)  The only thing that doesn't seem to work (besides MIDI In under 
windows) is Midifier under DOS - and I can live without that.

I guess I'll use this as an excuse to upgrade to a DX2/80 motherboard.  I'll 
re-post the details of my current motherboard (ie. the one with the problem) 
when I have the new board working and I'm more confident that NMI (or some 
other MB issue) is really the problem.

Thanx once again for all your help.

Cheers,
 John

	 /\ /\                John Griggs - jcgriggs@microstar.com
	 \/ \/   Computer     
   /\     /\ Aided        Microstar Software Ltd.  Phone:  +1 613 727-5696
   \/     \/ Document     34 Colonnade Road North  Fax:    +1 613 727-9491
	 /\ /\   Engineering  Nepean Ontario           Can/US:  1 800 267-9975
	 \/ \/                CANADA K2E 7J6           
Info: cade@microstar.com

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

Date: Tue, 21 Mar 95 17:13:00 +0200
From: jari.komppa@pcb.compart.fi (Jari Komppa)
Subject: Weird behavior..
Message-ID: <1f.265781.31.0CCAAA44@pcb.compart.fi>

I really can't understand the behavior of the GUS fanatics.
Really.
I have GUS so I think I know what I'm talking about.

Every time Gravis does something new, like releases new drivers,
first people are jumping on their heads for half a month shouting
whenisitgoingtobeout.. Then it gets out, people are yelling in
pure extacy, THERE IT IS! .. Then there are couple bugs or
something similar, and people are ready to massacre the makers of
that same software.

C'mon.

First, the win95 stuff.. Win95 is not out officially, so there is
no point whatsoever to yell after drivers for it. Okay, so some
programs have already been ported for it, so what? Wait for the
final release.

Second, the new MegaEm. I suppose I have old enough GUS and it
works fine with me. Okay, so it crashes on some (most? ;)
software. But then, it's BETA. Stop acting like stupid idiots
and mail your problems to the author, giving the info requested
in the text file.

And where is it said that the new MegaEm wouldn't work with old
GUSses? It says that it CAN use new stuff but doesn't say that
it would NEED them.

After all, some (most?) of us bought the card without MegaEm.
And how many people bought the card just for GM/MT32 emulation?

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

End of GUS Daily Digest V20 #21
*******************************
