Ultrasound Daily Digest     Fri,  1 Jan 93       Volume 2 : Issue   1 

Today's Topics:
						  669 files (2 msgs)
							 Buying a GUS
				  Digest Admin: Is a split needed? 
		  Effect of DMA Buffer Size On Choice of DMA Channel
			GUS CH Interface, is it regular SCSI? (2 msgs)
						   GUS memory prob?
			   GUS Programming: The Repost III (2 msgs)
			 How to use user-created patches with Windows
						Maintain Single Digest
							  midi files
				   New drivers - first impressions
			 New Gravis software solves several problems
						   Purchase of GUS
					  SBOS 1.23 beta impressions
						   Split the Group?
						Two questions/problems
					Ultrasound Daily Digest V1 #62
					Ultrasound Daily Digest V1 #63

	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, 30 Dec 92 14:05:23 GMT
From: tld@moon.base.bellcore.com (Terry Davidson)
Message-Id: <1992Dec30.140523.5827@walter.bellcore.com>
Subject: 669 files
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

In article <1992Dec30.102438.17788@sfu.ca>, mtichy@fraser.sfu.ca (Martin Tichy) writes:
|> Thanks to PHAT and Gab my uploading problem is fixed.  I
|> have uploaded about 7 669 files to the ftp site
|> archive.epas.utoronto.ca in the \pub\pc\ultrasound\submit
|> directory.
|> 
|> The following files are 669 music modules which can be played 
|> with p669gu0.arj.
|>  

OK - (1) what are `669' music modules?  (2) what does p669gu0.arj support?
	 SB? PAS16? GUS? (3) Stereo?
-- 
 # include disclaimer.lib   //* All standard disclaimers apply *//
 My wife let's me think my opinions are my own.  Bellcore doesn't care
 either way, and doesn't claim them anyway...
 Terry Davidson - tld@cosmos.bellcore.com / tld@cosmos.bae.bellcore.com      

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

Date: 30 Dec 92 15:27:39 GMT
From: s106275@ee.tut.fi (Anssi Saari)
Message-Id: <s106275.725729259@ee.tut.fi>
Subject: 669 files
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

In <1992Dec30.140523.5827@walter.bellcore.com> tld@moon.base.bellcore.com (Terry Davidson) writes:

>OK - (1) what are `669' music modules?  (2) what does p669gu0.arj support?
>     SB? PAS16? GUS? (3) Stereo?

(1) They are 669 music modules. 8 channels, stereo, maximum size 1408kB. The 
editor is Composer 669 or some such, requires 386, 2MB and VGA and no memory 
managers, supports SB and SB pro.

(2) GUS.

(3) I'm not sure whether p669gu0 supports stereo. It says that it doesn't 
support most special commands. I have only two modules hardwire.669 (comes
 with the editor) and crystal.669, I haven't listened to the 7 new modules 
uploaded to epas yet. If there's interest, I'll upload the editor to epas as 
well. Does anyone know if there is newer version than 1.3?

Anssi
-- 
Anssi Saari s106275@ee.tut.fi                
Tampere University of Technology 
Finland, Europe                  

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

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 92 15:52:05 -0800
From: mchen@cory.berkeley.edu (Mike J. Chen)
Message-Id: <9212312352.AA27800@cory.Berkeley.EDU>
Subject: Buying a GUS
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Hi all.  I've just started to read all the info about the GUS and
it sounds like a very good board.  I had some questions about finding
a place to buy one though.  I've looked in my local computer magazine
adds and nothing.  No mention of the board.  I also read in the
mailing list info articles about possible new releases coming out
soon.  Does anyone know when these new release are due and what they
will add?  I don't want to get a board just before a new release!
As for purchasing, what is the best prices people have seen mailorder
and does anyone know of stores in the San Francisco Bay Area region
which carry it (specifically the Berkeley region) in case I don't want
to wait for shipping.

Thanks for any responses.  Please send email to mchen@cory.berkeley.edu

-=Mike

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

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 92 12:58:49 -0500
From: "It's your hand, Buckaroo" <dantonio@magick.tay2.dec.com>
Message-Id: <9212311758.AA01325@magick.tay2.dec.com>
Subject: Digest Admin: Is a split needed? 
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

>   There was a comment made a few days ago that the digest had
> deteriorated into a "how do you get this game to work" forum.

Not sure I'd call this "deteriorated". Since there isn't much out there
yet for native GUS stuff, getting SBOS to work is a pressing need...

>   I've been watching, and there does seem to be a large amount
> of this going on.  I'm wondering if it calls for a split into two
> or more digests or mailing lists.

I'd say wait a while. I've been told by Gravis that there will be some
game announcements in January and hopefully the SDK will be rewritten and
released soon. Given the NDA stuff, the folks who have the current SDK
can't really go around asking questions about it...

I'm also not sure what kind of questions/comments people EXPECT to see. I
tend to answer stuff via direct mail to the perosn asking. Should I be
sending to the digest as well?

DDA

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

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 10:30:54 -0500 (EST)
From: bli@hubcap.clemson.edu (Bao Li)
Message-Id: <9212311530.AA07201@hubcap.clemson.edu>
Subject: Effect of DMA Buffer Size On Choice of DMA Channel
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

It seems to me that the size of DMA buffer has effect on the choice of
8 bit or 16 bit DMA channel when using EMM386.EXE on my machine.

I bought a GUS recently.  The installation had no problem when using
all default values.  After the initial installation, I found that there
were intermittent static noises when playing some musics.  I tried to
switch the DMA channel from the default 1 (8 bit) to 7 (16 bit) as 
suggested by some netters.  After switching, my computer became unstable
when playing songs.  Occationally, it worked well in both DOS and WINDOW.
But most of time it would lock my machine.  Sometimes, It worked in DOS.
When I run Window, it gave a lot of noise and Window locked when exit.
Sometimes it worked in DOS at beginning, after MIDIDEMO played a couple of
musics the computer locked up .   I had no choice but reboot.
It was especially true when I run FLIDEMO right after reboot. FLIDEMO 
refused to work properly even if when PLAYMIDI could works. (Note: I switched
DMA channel in Window too every time I run SETUP.)   After rebooting and
trying many times, I gave up and went back to DMA channel 1. 

Yesterday, I added "d=128" to the line "device=c:\windows\emm386.exe noems"
in my CONFIG.SYS file (default value was d=16, I think.).  And then, I 
setup the DMA channel to 7 again.  This time everything works fine, both
in DOS and WINDOW. (My window DMA buffer has been setiting up to 200 in
SYSTEM.INI file.)      

My machine's configuration:
	DTK 386 SX/16 (DTK bios) C&T chip set
	Quantum 170AT hard disk
	ATI 8514 Ultra and ET4000 SVGA adapter
	GUS ver. 1.24 with 1 MB
	
Also, I found if I install the GUS on the expansion slot as far away as
possible from my video card, as suggested in GUS manual, I will get a lot
of sustained noise.  I think the noise come from my hard disk since the
GUS is very close to it if I use that slot.  Right now I move the card 
closer to my ATI Ultra, and the noise disappear.

Bao

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

Date: 30 Dec 92 17:14:30 GMT
From: unity@mcl.ucsb.edu (Andrea Pessino)
Message-Id: <unity.725735670@mcl>
Subject: GUS CH Interface, is it regular SCSI?
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Hi, I'd like to know if the optional CD interface on the GUS is a 
regular SCSI; I already have an internal CD, but I have a bunch of
other SCSI devices (a Syquest drive, a tape backup unit, etc.) that
I need to use. I was going to buy a SCSI interface, or even a PAS+
(in addition to the GUS) just for that. If the GUS could do it all,
it would make me even happier :)

Thanks in advance..
--
 Andrea Pessino // Kiwi Software, Inc. // unity@mcl.ucsb.edu

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

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 08:06:50 EST
From: Matthew E. Bernold <MEB117@psuvm.psu.edu>
Message-Id: <92366.080650MEB117@psuvm.psu.edu>
Subject: GUS CH Interface, is it regular SCSI?
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

In article <unity.725735670@mcl>, unity@mcl.ucsb.edu (Andrea Pessino) says:
>
>Hi, I'd like to know if the optional CD interface on the GUS is a
>regular SCSI; I already have an internal CD, but I have a bunch of
>other SCSI devices (a Syquest drive, a tape backup unit, etc.) that
>I need to use. I was going to buy a SCSI interface, or even a PAS+
>(in addition to the GUS) just for that. If the GUS could do it all,
>it would make me even happier :)
>
Ok, maybe this will clear up the problems some people have been having
with soundcards and CD-ROM drives.

To use a CD-ROM drive with a soundcard, you need two things, a controller
for the drive, and a connection to the soundcard so you can record from the
CD, or play the CD back through the soundcard's amp.  Many people have
recently been confusing the two, and I haven't seen anyone trying to clear
the situation up.  On Creative Labs soundcards, the INTERFACE part is non-
standard (NOT SCSI), but you can still hook up ANY CD-ROM drive that has
it's own interface card to the soundcard's audio in (either the 3 or 4 pin
CD-in connector, or just a line in) without any problem.  Same type of
thing with the GUS.  If you have a CD-ROM with it's own interface, like a
seperate SCSI controller, you can still hook up the CD's audio in to the
card.

The one thing I would watch out for is that most SCSI controllers on sound
boards do not have very good transfer rates.  They are more than sufficient
for a CD-ROM, but trying to hook up a hard drive to that controller isn't the
best way to get serious speed out of a drive....I'd check that out first if I
were you.  (Note: I have NO idea what the transfer rate on the Gravis SCSI
daughterboard is, but I hope it's FANTASTIC, cuz I own a Gravis... :-)

>Thanks in advance..
>--
> Andrea Pessino // Kiwi Software, Inc. // unity@mcl.ucsb.edu

You're quite welcome, and I hope that others out there who are confused about
this can straighten it out.

	   Matthew E. Bernold             MEB117@PSUVM.PSU.EDU
		 <<APOCALYPSE>>                  meb@haydn.psu.edu

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

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 92 17:38:00 PST
From: brian@ccnext.ucsf.edu (Brian Huddleston)
Message-Id: <9301010138.AA19043@ ccnext.ucsf.edu >
Subject: GUS memory prob?
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Greetings all,
	I just finished installing my 1meg of Dram into my GUS, and I came 
across a few things I want to ask about.  The chips in the card it's self are
100ns but the ones I installed are 80ns, Is it ok to mix? (the card now has
2 100ns and 6 80ns).  The Dram tester says all clear.  But when I played some
 .mids some sounded a litte off, could it just be the programming of the mid
or can bad (fast/slow) chips cause a prob like that? Also, what is a GOOD mid 
to show off the GUS.  (I loved hidnseek, but it's short and limited) I'm looking
for a mid that plays a lot of different patches.  Two last things: 
1: When I try to play the Simpson mid I keep getting some "Unable to load program 7 to track 4) or something like that. (so the song isn't complete) I still 
hear  what has been loaded. 
2: last thing, has anyone had any probs with Starcon][, for some reason, 
it messes up what playing a few songs, (eg: an instrument in a song is replaced
with another instrument. or when I fire a missle from the earth ship I sometimes
hear the effect for the pkunk: "Goober, Idiot, etc....) 

HELP.....

					brian@ccnext.ucsf.edu
(I still love this card!!!)
(May all your GUS'es live long and prosper)

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

Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 02:05:52 GMT
From: janicek@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Jana Janicek)
Message-Id: <C01v5s.JFM@ccu.umanitoba.ca>
Subject: GUS Programming: The Repost III
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

	Okay, I am pretty sure that patches are not limmited to 64K as I
guessed earlier. I am in fact having the reverse as a problem in my patch
routines. I mean, I cannot seem to make my patches cut off where they
should. They all seem to cycle through the full meg of on board ram. But I
will keep on hacking untill I solve these problems.

Some more observations (GOOD and BAD):

**Remember that my routines are not yet perfected and many of the BAD
stuff is probably based on this fact.

First, the bad. We have heard before some complaints of a slight popping
noice when playing certain MIDI files with the GUS. Well, I thought I
would further investigate this. I listened to all sorts of GUS stuff,
(patch based). MIDIS do indeed (some more than others) seem to have a
popping problem. It is not very noticible at first, but the more you
listen, the more annoying it becomes. I found this same popping in Star
Control II, and again in the Modulatr (which is a BETA I should remind
people). The final place I found popping was in my own patch test
programs. So, I did some experiments.  The patch I am using is the
spook.snd file in the ULTRASND/SOUNDS directory. I played this patch using
USS8, than I saved it from the GUS DRAM with my own routine to disk, and
than the fun began. It seems that whenever start_voice_playing is called,
the first thing it does is generate a pop. I was not 100% certain of this,
so I created a loop, and played the same patch through 15 voices with a
30ms delay between each one. The result was an awsome sound with a
distinct loud buzzzzzzz right at the begining. In other words, alot of
pops being played one after the other. This made my heart sink, could
GRAVIS have overlooked such a flaw in their hardware? I checked the patch
itself to see if there was any noise at the begining, I found a fairly
constant stream of values close to zero. This should not creat such a
distinct buzzing pop noise. I really really really hope this is a bad
patch or there is a fault in my routines that is doing this, but as I
listen to more and more GUS native stuff, I still hear the little pops. If
this is hardware, I hope the next revision addresses this problem.
Remember, I am merely making an observation, I don't want to start a flame
war, I hope I am wrong, but I cannot ignore my ears or those pops any longer.

Now, some good observations. I found that you can do some really cool
stuff with the GUS, one of my favorite things is creating an
echo/reverb/metallic effect by playing the same patch on several voices I
use about 6 to 10 depending on how pronounced I want the effect, with a
very small delay between each one (about 10..20 ms).  This effect would
wave some really neat uses in games where they could use the same patch on
board the card to generate several different sounds. A really neat
effect, must be heard to be believed.
My next project is the Patchinator (cant think of a better name yet)
which will do precisly that mentioned above, using the special abilities
of the GUS to do cool things to samples.

-Later

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

Date: 29 Dec 1992 14:39:09 -0800
From: joseph@aludra.usc.edu (Jeff Lawson)
Message-Id: <1hqk2dINNqeu@aludra.usc.edu>
Subject: GUS Programming: The Repost III
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

In article <C00Cop.LDH@ccu.umanitoba.ca> janicek@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Jana Janicek) writes:
>And one final observation: This is just a guess, but I am finding some
>evidence to support this.  Is it true the GUS can play patches only 64K in
>length? I have noticed that the Modulator often gives patch too large
>errors, and I had a look at the patches in the ULTRASND\MIDI directory,
>with the exception of one, all of the patches seem to conviently fit under
>65536 bytes (the larger one may be some sort of compound patch??) Am I
>just dreaming or is this substanciated?

I believe that you're dreaming.  The reason why the Modulator gives
you that message was because I was in a hurry when I wrote the sample
loading routine and I try to load each sample in with one pass.
Unfortunately, you cannot have a string larger than 32k (that's really
the cutoff point, not 64k) in QuickBASIC (which is what the whole
program is written in, except for a couple of short screen updating
routines in assembly.)  I could easily make it take more than one pass
to load a sample if it is too long, but right now I am in the middle
of converting the entire program to C and I'll work out those bugs as
well as other little things like stereo and wiping the memory faster
when I'm done converting.  With that mentioned, don't expect the next
version out for at least a couple of weeks (there's over 5,000 lines
totaling almost 400k of source!)


---
Jeff Lawson
joseph@aludra.usc.edu

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

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 92 07:36:59 PST
From: bs@mda.ca (Bruce Sharpe)
Message-Id: <9212311536.AA01843@ mda.ca>
Subject: How to use user-created patches with Windows
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

>just got the new patch manager... am I to understand that you cannot load
>any user-created patches with it? And if so.. how?
>I have several patches I would like to use outside of the limited playmidi
>program (including Dion's)  
>
The short answer is: You can load any patches you want.  However, in any
given Windows session the driver (and hence the Patch Manager) can only 
use the patches that were listed in the ULTRASND.INI file that was
read when Windows was started.

To use a set of patches different from the default ones, edit the 
ULTRASND.INI file.  (It lives in the directory pointed to by the environment
variable ULTRADIR.) This file has two kinds of information:
  (1) Where do the patch files live? This is the PatchDir variable in the
	  [Ultrasound] section.
  (2) What is the name of the patch file that goes with a given patch 
	  number? This is what the lines that look like
	0=acpiano1
	  are all about.  That line informs that driver that whenever the
	  melodic patch number 0 is needed, it is to use the patch in the file
	  ACPIANO1.PAT that lives in the PatchDir directory.
Change the appropriate lines in ULTRASND.INI to point to any patches you
want to use.

When using the Patch Manager, the patch names shown will default to those
in the General MIDI set.  You can use the Options | Preferences menu
command to instead show the names that are embedded in the patch files.
This lets you use any names you want, by putting them into the patch header.
(These names are not quite right in the current set of default patches,
hence you'll get a lot of ? marks when you choose this option with them.)

>do I have to mess with the midi mapper?
>
No.  The MIDI Mapper can only shuffle around the patches that were named
in the ULTRASND.INI file.  It is highly unlikely that anyone would want
to use the MIDI Mapper with the GUS.  The Patch Manager does not go through 
the MIDI Mapper.  It talks only to the Ultra Wave and MIDI Synth device.

Bruce Sharpe

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

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 92 11:36:16 -0700
From: Marc Clarke <mic@hpfimic.fc.hp.com>
Message-Id: <9212311836.AA26587@hpfimic.fc.hp.com>
Subject: Maintain Single Digest
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Today's digest contained a request for comments about the idea of splitting the
digest into a games and non-games section.  I oppose this suggestion.  I think
the heavy game-related traffic we are observing now is a natural phenomenon in
the life cycle of a very immature sound card as people try to get it working
with existing applications.  The Gravis card and its drivers were clearly
released to the paying public when they were in fact only ready for alpha-test
on controlled machines at the Gravis lab with every existing game on the
market.  Gravis instead conned the readers of this list into paying for the
cards and then peforming that alpha testing.  Once the alpha-test Gravis
emulators settle down into released and tested form, working smoothly with all
the existing games out there, we will see severalsubsequent phases in the life
of this mailing list.  As new games come onto the market purporting to support
the Gravis in native mode, we will see more traffic about how these new games
don't quite work.  As new music sequencers (Cakewalk, etc.)  and song
generators (Band in a Box, etc.) start to support the Gravis in native mode, we
will see a lot of traffic about how the applications don't quite work and what
their quirks are.  All these phases will come and go.  

In the mean time, there will be a steady flow of information about the card,
how to configure it, how to make it work correctly, how to connect cables to
it, new patch editors, evaluations of Gravis' continuing attempts to improve
their software up to beta-test quality, and so on.  

I support the idea of keeping a single mailing list containing all these
threads.  Like many others, I archive these digests.  They act as my reference
manual for how to configure the card tow work with various games, which new
games to buy, what capabilities do or do not exist for the card, and what new
features we can look forward to.  Keep the digest as it is, containing all the
GUS-related threads.

-- Marc Clarke

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

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 14:11 MST
From: Dustin Caldwell <DUSTIN@GSE.UTAH.EDU>
Message-Id: <9E7941291000041A@CC.UTAH.EDU>
Subject: midi files
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Does anyone know the format of .mid files, or where to find out? (header,
note descriptions, etc.)
I want to write a program to make .mid files, but cannot find out how they
work. 

Thanks in advance,
Dustin Caldwell
dustin@gse.utah.edu

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

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 92 11:13 EST
From: Scott Bringen                        <ZMSKB@GIBBS.GSFC.NASA.GOV>
Message-Id: <9212311614.AA20339@orca.es.com>
Subject: New drivers - first impressions
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Hi all,
  I downloaded the new Windows driver and SBOS. Although I
haven't had any trouble with the previous versions, I
installed them just to see what would happen. I'm running a
386/33 clone with 4 meg ram, DOS 5.0, Smartdive, Himem.Sys,
Windows 3.1 and Norton Desktop 1.0. I run everything low.
My GUS is set to 220,7,11,5 and has the origonal 256K
memory. I'll upgrade someday :).  I installed the new GUS
drivers and played with them for about an hour.  Here are my
non-technical first impressions.
  The Windows driver is an improvement. I played a few MIDI
files(downloaded from epas, my thanks to the uploaders!) with
Media Player.  At least one song had more instruments than
when played with the previous driver. I think the sound was
a little smoother too(a bit subjective!).
  SBOS 1.2B didn't seem much different than the previous
version.  But like I said, I wasn't having problems before.
The only game I have to test it out on is the old version of
Chuck Yeager's Air Combat(pre-GUS) run with the BLASTER
parm. I think the digital speech was alittle softer than
before, but still plenty loud. About the only strange sounds
I've ever noticed are when the enemy planes crash. I get a
quiet squeally(sp) sound. The other sounds have always been
fine and still are. 1.2B has turned off the famous 'SBOS
installed' announcement. I like this. It gets a little old
after awhile.
  So I'm happy with the latest and greatest releases :). I
want to thank GRAVIS for uploading these updates. I think
this is a *great* way to service their customers.
  By the way, has anyone come across a Windows MIDI player
that will sequentially play all the MIDI files in a
directory? Something like MediaPlayer would be nice.

  Take it easy,
	Scott Bringen ...... has anyone seen my sig. file?

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

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 01:23:50 GMT
From: fisher@nodename.dec.com
Message-Id: <1992Dec31.012825.10072@nntpd.lkg.dec.com>
Subject: New Gravis software solves several problems
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

I just downloaded the latest and greatest windows drivers, patch manager, and
SBOS.  They seem to solve several problems.

SBOS is available as a driver which can be loaded high.  That saves memory.  In
addition I think the patches sound better.  At least they do with Kings Quest
V.

And best of all, the windows drivers seem to understand the SBOS driver, so
that you don't need to unload SBOS or even run Ultrinit before starting
windows.  I tried this and no more of the "ralph all of GUS memory all out the
D/A" problem after the Ta-DAAA.

One problem that STILL happens, however:  in Earl Weaver Baseball II, the music
sounds nice up till the first crack of the bat, or other digitized sound (like
"OUT!" call from the ump).  After that, no music at all, and the digitized
sounds all come out the PC speaker.

Finally, the patch manager is neat.  It lets you see what is loaded in GUS
memory, and even better, you can play each patch individually.  They are really
pretty darn good with only a few exceptions.  Plus "Orchestra strings" and
"String Pizzacato" seem to be reversed.  And "Helicoptor" is more like "Mack
Truck".  But hey, compared to FM, it is great!

Burns

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

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 92 11:25:49 CST
From: meferg@cobra.b23a.ingr.com (Mark E. Ferguson)
Message-Id: <199212311725.AA03852@cobra.b23a.ingr.com>
Subject: Purchase of GUS
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

I've finally decided to purchase a GUS for my system and would like to hear
from you where the best prices and best service can be found.  I've looked
through the January Computer Shopper but haven't been able to find anyone who
carries the board.  Also, has anyone installed a GUS in a Gateway 486DX-33 ISA
system?  If so, did you have any special problems getting things working
properly.  Thanks for any information you can provide.....
-- 
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------- +
| Mark E. Ferguson                                Intergraph Corporation       |
| meferg@cobra.b23a.ingr.com      __o             One Madison Industrial Park  |
|                                -\<,             Huntsville, Alabama  35894   |
| .............................(*)/(*).......     (205) 730-8863           |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 92 14:24:30 EST
From: Meshreki@ee.udel.edu
Message-Id: <9212311924.aa18148@zip.ee.udel.edu>
Subject: SBOS 1.23 beta impressions
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Here are my impressions of the new SBOS 1.23 Beta:

ftp archive.epas.utoronto.ca: /pub/pc/ultrasound/submit/gus0009.zip

(and don't forget to grab ->  /pub/pc/ultrasound/submit/gus0012.zip
 the new Windows drivers! ->  /pub/pc/ultrasound/submit/patchmgr.zip)

--- SUMMARY -------------------------------------------------------------------

Where SBOS 1.22 fixed digital sound problems, SBOS 1.23 fixes the
uneven (music/digitized sound) volume ratio. It also adds 5 new *.SBS 
patches, and introduces a new (optional) SBOSDRV.SYS driver that has 
some bugs.

--- SPECIFICS -----------------------------------------------------------------

GUS0009.ZIP contains 35 *.SBS patches, of which only five are new.
They are alternates of the five percussion patches (the names are 
slightly changed.)  The other 30 patches are the same as the ones 
that came on my 1.21 install disks.  

SBOS 1.23 fixes the uneven ( music / digitized sound ) ratio.  It has 
increased the playback volume level of the patches while leaving the
digitized sfx unchanged.  Why do the sfx sound quieter?  LOADSBOS -debug
will show you that the default volume level is now 15, whereas it
was previously 28 with SBOS 1.22.  (Try LOADSBOS -v32 if you want to
hear some static overload in games with music)

Unfortunately, for some games, the music overpowers the digitized 
speech.  I can still hear the Kilrathi talking (in the Wing Commander 
2 demo), but I can't really understand 100% of what they are saying.  
Perhaps Gravis can add a separate volume control for the music in 
LOADSBOS.EXE?

With the new SBOS, you can use either SBOSDRV.SYS in your config.sys
or SBOSDRV.EXE anywhere else.  SBOSDRV.SYS has some quirks.
The first one is that LOADSBOS.EXE -f cannot remove it from memory.
(Intentional?)  The second one is that it doesn't work with some
games that SBOSDRV.EXE works with, and with stranger results.  For
example, if a boot loads 
	 HIMEM.SYS -> SBOSDRV.SYS -> ULTRINIT -> LOADSBOS.EXE 
and nothing else (no TSR's, other drivers), then Jill of the Jungle 
(Epic) will shortly into the game stop playing digitized sfx and then 
shortly after that completely lockup my computer.  Now if I just add 
one thing to my boot sequence, 
	 HIMEM.SYS -> SBOSDRV.SYS -> ULTRINIT -> DOSKEY -> LOADSBOS
Jill of the Jungle works perfectly fine!  There are other weirder 
combinations that will and won't work (like my standard config and
autoexec :-(, but it all seems sorta goofy to me.  Check out the game 
reports for a few others.

"If I ignore the fact that SBOSDRV.SYS exists and just use the new
SBOSDRV.EXE & LOADSBOS.EXE, then I have SBOS 1.22 robustness and I get 
the new music volume level functionality."

By the way, has anyone noticed (heard) any of the 5 new SBOS patches?  
I really can't tell if there's a difference in any of the games I've tried.

--- GAME REPORTS -------------------------------------------------------------

All of the following worked with no problems and no switch settings
with SBOS 1.22 and SBOS 1.23 (using SBOSDRV.EXE).  The following report
deals _only_ with SBOSDRV.SYS.  

GOBLIIINS (Cocktel Vision)

Fine.

GOBLIINS 2 [Demo], WEEN [Demo] (Cocktel Vision)

Fine.

INCA [Demo] (Cocktel Vision)

This provided for the most interesting results.  The demo runs smoothly
until you board the Spanish galleon in space.  You start to walk around
(a la Ultima Underworld) and then the animation freezes for 3 entire
minutes while the music continues playing!  After a hefty chunk of
silence, the demo continues normally.  At the end the demo automatically 
restarts itself and the same thing occurs everytime at the Spanish galleon.

WOLFENSTEIN 3-D (Id)

Runs fine.  Here is a game where I actually liked the digitized sfx
to be a lot louder than the music (when using SBOS 1.22).

VEIL OF DARKNESS [Demo] (Event Horizon)

The music plays fine, but there is no digitized sfx or speech.

ULTIMA 7 [Demo] (Origin)

This works fine, but suffers from the "quiet speech" syndrome I described.
The speech also stutters, as it did with SBOS 1.22.

WING COMMANDER 2 [Demo] (Origin)

The music works, but there is no speech.

GALACTIX (Cygnus)

Fine.  Here is a game where I'm glad the sfx are much quieter!  (Too
many loud and annoying metallic grinding noises blew my ears off with
SBOS 1.22)

KILOBLASTER (Epic)

Works, but the sfx seem to be bypassing the volume control!  They are
extremely loud.  Now, if I play galactix immediately after, the digitized
sound in Galactix also becomes outrageously loud.  Both problems
occur independent of whether I use SBOSDRV.SYS or SBOSDRV.EXE.

JILL OF THE JUNGLE (Epic)

See SPECIFICS above.

BRIX (Epic)

Has the same problem as Jill of the Jungle.

OUT OF THIS WORLD [Demo] (Delphine)

Fine.

==EURODEMOS==

So far, none of the EuroDemos I tried have changed (work, not work, etc.) 
with SBOS 1.23.  One additional demo that sounds good (and works :-)
is DRAGNET (with SBOSDRV.EXE only).

--- My HARDWARE ---------------------------------------------------------------

386DX-33 Laptop w/ Docking Station
32K ext. cache, VLSI(?) Chipset, Award BIOS 3.20
386Max 6.02, SBOSDRV.EXE loaded high, MSDOS 5.0

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

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 92 16:39:31 EST
From: warrenl@graphics.rent.com (Warren Lieuallen)
Message-Id: <k12NwB1w165w@graphics.rent.com>
Subject: Split the Group?
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

   I say "NO" to splitting the digest up into separate groups.  You
never know where you'll pick up a useful tidbit for the GUS, and if
a message concerns a game I don't have, I just skim it quickly.  I
wouldn't think the volume in this digest is large enough to warrant
splitting it up.

  ======================The Graphics BBS @ (908)469-0049=====================
  Dr. Warren G. Lieuallen    R.W.Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute
  BitNet: LIEUALLEN@AM@ALLOY Raritan, NJ   (908)704-4368
  InterNet: warrenl@graphics.rent.com
  ===="Imagination is more important than knowledge." -- Albert Einstein ====

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

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 92 08:39 EST
From: "Matthew E. Bernold" <MEB117@PSUVM.PSU.EDU>
Message-Id: <9212311338.AA18349@orca.es.com>
Subject: Two questions/problems
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

First off, an SBOS question.  Has anyone gotten the GUS to work with the
Sierra game Thexeder II: Firehawk?  I can get it to work fine in AdLib mode,
but then the lasers and explosions sound stupid.  It worked once in SB mode
for about 45 seconds, and then locked up cold.  Most of the time it just keeps
repeating the digital sounds over and over, no matter what combination of
options I use for SBOS.  I tried v1.22 and the new v1.23 with no changes.

*Flame mode on*
Second, who's ASSININE idea was it to make SBOS a device driver??  It's bad
enough that I have to give up 17-20K each time I run a program that uses SBOS,
now I have to dedicate this memory to SBOS PERMANENTLY??  I really don't like
messing with multiple CONFIG and AUTOEXEC setups, but it looks like I'm going
to have to do this in the future.  Please, if you're listening out there
Gravis, DO NOT KEEP SBOS AS A DEVICE DRIVER!!
*Flame mode off*

Boy, that feels better... :-)

	   Matthew E. Bernold             MEB117@PSUVM.PSU.EDU
		 <<APOCALYPSE>>                  meb@haydn.psu.edu

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

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 92 4:39:09 EST
From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Message-Id: <9212310939.AA10740@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Ultrasound Daily Digest V1 #62
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

> Date: Tue, 29 Dec 92 08:08:02 PST
> From: "Burns Fisher, VMS DECwindows  29-Dec-1992 1056" <fisher@decwin.enet.dec.com>
> Message-Id: <9212291608.AA00737@enet-gw.pa.dec.com>
> Subject: Questions that I can't answer
> To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>
> 
> Well, I just answered some questions from a new user, but I am also a new user
> and have some questions that I CAN'T answer.  Can someone else?
> 
> 1)  Ok, so the media player does not load patches.  Will it ever?  How does
> this eventually get fixed?
>

Media Player *does* load patches.  However, it will not abort when it runs
out of memory on the GUS, and it will not substitute a piano for all the
patch numbers not listed in the ultrasound.ini file (the Windows equivalent 
of default.cfg).
 
> 2)  For playmidi, you apparently need to have a patch change command in the
> MIDI file in order for it to load a patch, even from the default list.  Is
> there a way to convince it to use a set of default patches for each channel?
> (Is that the -a and -g parameters?  Not clear from the docs.  Note:  I know
> about the .cfg files.  Those tell which patch number goes to what patch file.
> I want to assign default patches to each channel.
>

Playmidi defaults to acpiano1.pat for all channels.  I don't think there
is a way to set your own channel defaults.

[questions I couldn't answer deleted] 

Phat.

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

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 92 4:51:48 EST
From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Message-Id: <9212310951.AA10766@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Ultrasound Daily Digest V1 #63
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

> Date: 30 Dec 92 23:17:26 EST (Wed)
> From: orbit@m-net.ann-arbor.mi.us (Adam Traidman)
> Message-Id: <9212302317.AA20802@m-net.ann-arbor.mi.us>
> Subject: New Windows Drivers
> To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>
> 
> After having downloaded the new windows drivers,
> I was glad to see that WinMod can now play in 16bit,
> stereo.  Good job guys...
>   Anyhow, I have a question...  With the
>  new windows drivers, the MediaPlayer is actually loading
> the patches into GUS RAM, so I should get quality equal to
>  PLAYMIDI outside of windows, correct?

Not quite.  Media Player has always been loading patches onto the GUS,
but with three differences from playmidi:

   1.  Media Player does not abort when it runs out of memory for the
	   patches.  Whatever patches that do not fit will not be played.
   2.  Media Player does not default to acpiano1.pat (or any other
	   patch) for patch numbers not listed in ultrasnd.ini.
   3.  The patch-number-to-patch-filename mapping is done in ultrasnd.ini
	   for Media Player as opposed to default.cfg for playmidi.

Also, even the latest MIDI driver for Windows does not support panning
for stereo effects and is only capable of 12-voice polyphony.  Playmidi
does do panning, and supports 20-voice polyphony, so files played under
DOS will sound quite a bit better than those played in Windows.  Now,
we just have to wait for a player that supports 32-voice polyphony.

>   Also, do I need to edit the patch maps, and choose
> "Ultra" for each of the channels, as opposed to none?  By the
> way, exactly what do the patch maps do?
> 

If you're just playing songs that conform to General MIDI, then you can
leave the patch maps at "none".  All patch mapping does is substitutes
one patch for another.

Phat.

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V2 #1
******************************
