Ultrasound Daily Digest     Wed, 23 Dec 92       Volume 1 : Issue  55 

Today's Topics:
						  Better MOD player
							   comanche
				   Diamond Stealth w/ GUS:  UPDATE
					   Gravis' Customer Support
						  Gus .snd format..
					   GUS and Sherlock Holmes
						 GUS and Windows 3.1
							  Hmmm.....
		  MODS AND PLAYERS!! **READ** info/where to get them
	UNresolvable conflict with Diamond Stealth/VRAM video adapter

	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: Tue, 22 Dec 92 12:12:13 EST
From: timkwan@Athena.MIT.EDU
Message-Id: <9212221712.AA15376@carbonara>
Subject: Better MOD player
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Is there a really good MOD player around?  WOWII is OK, but it defaults
to mono.  It sounds alright, but as I mentioned in a previous posting, the
MAC makes every .MOD file sound way way way better than the GUS.  I know you
can do:   wowii /pro filename.mod  to force stereo, but this deteriorates the
sound even further, causing it to have high-pitched distortion in the output.
So, is there no MOD player that plays CLEARLY in STEREO and with ANTI-ALIASING
built in?

-Tim

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

Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 19:58:45 +0700 (MST)
From: Adam Cowen <cowen@ee.ualberta.ca>
Message-Id: <Pine.3.03.9212221945.A578-b100000@bode.ee.ualberta.ca>
Subject: comanche
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Hi there... I have been trying to use comanche game with the sbos loaded
etc... Umm I can only get it to play the music (which sounds great) but no
digitised effects or voice. Yes I did use the software upgrade on
archive.epas.utoronto.ca ! Before it was mixed sound and music, like it
wasnt't distinguishing properly...but now all I get is music. I am kinda
dissapointed because my friend with a PAS16 says the voice and effects are
great :( but I have yet to hear them. If anyone has solved this problem
then could you post it to the digest or mail me.

kewl, and thanks    :-)

+-----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Adam Cowen                  | "The optimist proclaims that we live in the   |
| Co-op Computer Engineering  |    best of all possible worlds, and the       |
| University of Alberta       |     pessimist fears that this is true."       |
| email: cowen@ee.ualberta.ca |          -James Branch Cabell                 |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

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

Date: Tue, 22 Dec 92 13:26:50 CST
From: ibmpa!hartmann.austin.ibm.com!lance@ibminet.awdpa.ibm.com (Lance Hartmann)
Message-Id: <9212221926.AA11330@hartmann.austin.ibm.com>
Subject: Diamond Stealth w/ GUS:  UPDATE
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

I got through to Gravis this morning.  This time I reached
I reached a "senior" person by the name of Harry Skibbe.  "Harry"
seemed infinitely more knowledgable than the guy with whom I spoke
yesterday and was, actually, quite entertaining.  When I asked him
about the memory map in the manual (version 1.1 by the way), he stated
that it was WRONG particularly the range 2X2-3X2.   "There's no way",
he said that they use such a large range.  Of course, this would
tromp all over most of the COM ports.  Harry said the correct addresses
should be in the README file.  Now, I have the 1.21 disks, but I don't
recall seeing a memory map in the README -- I'll definitely check when
I get home, BUT....  in the interim, if anyone out here happens to
have this information handy, PLEASE send me a copy!!!

Soooooo, it looks like I just might be able to avoid conflicts with
the Diamond Stealth, afterall.  We'll see.  *smiling*  In retrospect,
it's kind of unfortunate -- it's always nice to get that "special excuse"
to run out and buy the latest, greatest, ...  :-)

Harry also commented about the available base ports.  On p. 16 describing
the jumper settings, the manual infers that only base addresses
210, 220, 230, 240, 250, and 260 are available.  However, on p. 69
describing the memory map, the manual infers that the 'X' can
represent 0-F hexadecimal.  Harry confirmed that, indeed, the card CAN
be configured to all of those (200, 210, ..., 260, 270, ... , 2F0) though
the ones shown on p. 16 are recommended as the others are much more
likely to cause problems (conflicts?).

Regards,
Lance Hartmann (lance%hartmann.austin.ibm.com@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com)
			   Yes, that IS a '%' (percent sign) in my network address.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All statements, comments, opinions, etc. herein reflect those of the author
and shall NOT be miscontrued as those of IBM or anyone else for that matter.

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

Date: Tue, 22 Dec 92 11:50:47 PST
From: dedmunds@sfu.ca
Message-Id: <9212221950.AA20069@selkirk.sfu.ca>
Subject: Gravis' Customer Support
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Has anyone else called the Gravis BBS lately?  I logged on yesterday and
was mortified by the general tone of the messages.  Why?  Because the prevailing
attitude was that of anger; something that worries me greatly since we need
enthusiastic GUS owners if we hope to attract developer support (and right
now, the GUS is being marketed mainly by word of mouth). 

Why were they angry?  Essentially because they feel they've bought a product
and then been deserted by the company.  They can't get through to tech
support and the BBS is a shambles.  I even saw messages on the BBS saying
"Gravis, are you really here?", i.e. they don't even have an obvious
presence on their own BBS!  The current response time to customer querries
is simply unacceptable.

As others have pointed out, it's not just a matter of having a great product,
you must also market it effectively.  I've met Alan and Harry from tech
support and they ARE dedicated - just simply overwhelmed with
correspondence.  

So much of the problem could be rectified with a properly configured BBS.
(They even had offers on the board to set up a nice interface.)

- cost it out and see if a North American 800 BBS number makes sense (right
  now they have paid tech support staff giving advice like "try sbos -o2")

- make back copies of this digest available

- put a comprehensive trouble shooting guide or diagnostic system on the
  board

- list SBOS settings for different games

- offline reader for long distance callers

Running a good BBS is almost a full time job.  For God's sake, bring in 
some semi-professional help to set it up right!

We here with Internet access feel some sense of community.  The typical
GUS owner exists in a void.

Comments?

Darran Edmundson
dedmunds@sfu.ca

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

Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 23:11:46 -0800 (PST)
From: I/We are Gaia <gaia@u.washington.edu>
Message-Id: <Pine.3.05y.9212222346.A935-9100000@carson.u.washington.edu>
Subject: Gus .snd format..
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Is this a standard format that USS8 saves in??  What format is it, and can
I get a player/convertor for dos or windows??  I would like to try to
record in stereo, and at 44.1 and I know the windows driver right now only
supports mono and a lower sampling rate..  Any info ??

Gaia

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

Date: Wed, 23 Dec 92 1:49:12 AST
From: F. Wallace Peers <peersfw@newton.ccs.tuns.ca>
Message-Id: <9212230549.AA20701@orca.es.com>
Subject: GUS and Sherlock Holmes
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Just started playing Sherlock Holmes game the other day.  During the
opening sequence an interesting thing occured.  At the point where a
song was supposed to begin, I got "emm386 error: DMA buffer too small".
I assume the song was too big to fit the buffer because other sounds
worked fine up until that point.  

Anyway, too fix the problem I simply disabled emm386 in my config.sys
and rebooted.  No problems.  On another note, I tried it with Qemm v6.0
and it worked no problem as well.

	Merry Christmas all......

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------                                      
			 PEERSFW@NEWTON.CCS.TUNS.CA       F. Wallace Peers              
		"There is no law that vulgarity and literary		    
		 excellence cannot coexist."				    
				- A. Trevor Hodge
										
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 18:04 CST
From: C035MJH@UTARLG.UTA.EDU
Message-Id: <01GSMIZ4QON4000DJ3@utarlg.uta.edu>
Subject: GUS and Windows 3.1
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

I just bought a GUS at BIZMART Arlington Texas for $139.99+tax.
The demo worked great, really enjoyed playing with GUS, but I do have some
problems with Windows 3.1. I had the MS speaker driver to play the .wav files in
   windows.
The problem I have is the start and shutdown system sounds. I've removed the spe
   aker driver and followed the GUS windows drivers setup . When windows starts
the Tada.wav file was played but only 1/4 of the end. (sometimes on sound was
played at all).
Note: The Media Player and Sound Recorder works fine in Windows. No problem here
   .
In the Gravis Talk, Questions and Answer somebody mentioned about a
Ultrawin.cfg file in the /Ultrasnd directory.  I've checked all related director
   y including Windows. I even checked all 6 GUS disks in the compress files. It
was nowhere to be found.  DOES THIS ultrawin.cfg FILE REALLY EXIST?

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

Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 00:33:18 -0800
From: "Gee watch out.. I'm 'bad'" <doktor@halcyon.halcyon.com>
Message-Id: <199212230833.AA22718@halcyon.com>
Subject: Hmmm.....
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

well the digest seems to have devolved to ppl either asking about getting
the GUS to work with certain games, or whining about one thing or other...
*sigh*

also I would very much like to get the gus dev kit, but thus far everyone
who has asked this has either had the question answered privately or they
have all been dragged off and beaten with old adlib cards..

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

ps. great card.. just wish I could load patches in windows without having
to sacrifice small chickens...



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

<insert own clever quote here>

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

Date: 21 Dec 92 00:19:43 GMT
From: cjohnson@tartarus.uwa.edu.au (Christopher Johnson)
Message-Id: <1h32ivINNglu@uniwa.uwa.edu.au>
Subject: MODS AND PLAYERS!! **READ** info/where to get them
Summary: Where to find modplayers
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Hello world,

For all those asking, here is where to get those mod players and mods.

SNAKE.MCS.KENT.EDU is the best site for general stuff.  look in /pub/SB-Adlib

Simtel-20 or archie.au(simtel mirror) in <msdos.sound>

for windows players ftp.cica.indiana.edu in pub/pc/win3/sound

here is a short list of players

mp or modplay   BEST OVERALL            mp219b.zip  
	simtel and snake

wowii       best for vga/fast machines  wowii12b.zip    
	simtel and snake

trakblaster best for compatability      trak-something  
	simtel and snake    two versions, old one for slow
	machines

ss      cute display(hifi)      have_sex.arj
	found on local BBS (western Australia White Ghost)

superpro player generally good          ssp.zip or similar
	found on night owl 7 CD

player?     cute display(hifi)      player.zip or similar
	found on night owl 7 CD

WINDOWS

Winmod pro  does protracker         wmp????.zip
	cica

winmod      more stable         winmod12.zip or similar
	cica

Hope this helps, e-mail me if you find any more players and I will add them in for the next time mod player requests get a
little out of hand.

for mods ftp to wuarchive.wustl.edu and go to the amiga music directory (pub/amiga/music/ntsb ?????)  that should do you for
a while

see you soon

Chris.
--
__________________________________________________________ When Something
Christopher Johnson         | this letter was written     |can go wrong it
cjohnson@tartarus.uwa.oz.au | using 100% recycled         |Segmentaion fault
johnson@swanee.ee.uwa.oz.au | electrons                   |Core dumped         | I reserve the right to be totally wrong!

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

Date: Tue, 22 Dec 92 9:07:11 CST
From: ibmpa!hartmann.austin.ibm.com!lance@ibminet.awdpa.ibm.com (Lance Hartmann)
Message-Id: <9212221507.AA07698@hartmann.austin.ibm.com>
Subject: UNresolvable conflict with Diamond Stealth/VRAM video adapter
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Having just installed my GUS, I've discovered a hardware conflict with
the Diamond Stealth/VRAM video adapter that I cannot resolve.  Thought
I'd pass this on to others here.

On page 2:2 of the "Diamond Stealth VRAM User's Manual" is the
following listing of addresses used by the card:

   I/O Address:    3B0-3DF, 42E8, 4AE8, 82E8, 86E8, 8AE8, 8EE8, 92E8,
		   96E8, 9AE8, 9EE8

   Memory Address: A000-AFFF, B800-BFFF

   Video BIOS:     C000-C7FF

   
*!*!*!*!   IMPORTANT NOTE    !*!*!*!  *!*!*!*!   IMPORTANT NOTE    !*!*!*!  

The "Diamond Stealth VRAM User's Manual", however, is INCOMPLETE.  The
writer(s) of the manual omitted another couple of I/O addresses used by
the card -- 2E8 and 2E0.  I learned about these from a Diamond tech when
I found a conflict with my fax/modem (which fortunately I was able to
resolve).

Now, if I'm reading the UltraSound Memory Map correctly (p. 69), then
the address range:

	2X2-3X2     -- GF1

will conflict with the Stealth's addresses 2E8 and 2E0 NO MATTER WHAT BASE
PORT I try to use for GUS.

While I was able to successfully play the mid files using the GUS, I 
encountered a couple of strange problems (static bursts, low/no volume
out of one speaker) running the "flidemo" and Starcon II which not so
surprisingly are using a GRAPHICS mode.

If I'm missing something, then I'd sure appreciate someone setting me
back on the correct path, but otherwise I'd really like to hear
recommendations from others for a NEW accelerated video adapter to use
WITHOUT conflicts.   Oh, my system is an ISA-based 486/50 (no local bus)
using ETEQ chipset with AMI BIOS.

Lance Hartmann (lance%hartmann.austin.ibm.com@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com)
			   Yes, that IS a '%' (percent sign) in my network address.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All statements, comments, opinions, etc. herein reflect those of the author
and shall NOT be miscontrued as those of IBM or anyone else for that matter.

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

Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 17:45 CST
From: C035MJH@UTARLG.UTA.EDU
Message-Id: <01GSMIBNSCU8000DJ3@utarlg.uta.edu>
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

System  configuration
386-33 MHz motherboard Intel CPU
OPTi chipsset:  (Write Back Cashe)
  OPTi 82c391  -System Controller.
   4L50f2205
  Japan 911EAI
	386 WB
	33 MHz

  OPTi 82c392  -Data Buffer Controler.
   4L40F1206
  Japan 9109EAI

  OPTi F82c206 -Integrated Peripheral Controller.
	 9116

Multi-IO board:
  MIO-400KF all in one Expension Board.

Video Card:
 Diamond computer systems
 SpeedStar with TSENG Lab ET4000ax chip.

*** Gravis UltraSound Rev 2.2 *** SoundCard.

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V1 #55
******************************
