GUS Daily Digest            Wed, 28 Dec 94  9:37 PST     Volume 17: Issue  27 

Today's Topics:
				  3.57 update disks, files, ANYONE??
					Descent locks up with my GUS!
						 Gravis' OS/2 Drivers
					  GUS and Maxis Klik & Play
					   GUS Daily Digest V17 #26
					 Max and Windows - no workee
							   Maxsbos
					MAXSBOS with plain UltraSound
						OS/2_drivers_uploaded
							Rebel Assault
				 SB/GUS midi interface box problem...
						Under the Killing Moon
			  Where is MAX SBOS?  And what about MegaEm?

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, 27 Dec 1994 17:46:46 +0800
From: "Christopher Bolin" <cbolin@teleport.com>
Subject: 3.57 update disks, files, ANYONE??

Is the disk set 3.57 on orst real or a fake??  If it is real, why 
isn't it available from Gravis?

Is there a update file floating around?

Can someone give us the real story?

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

Date: Tue, 27 Dec 94 22:34:15 -0400
From: "Chris Campbell" <campbell@fox.nstn.ca>
Subject: Descent locks up with my GUS!

When I try to run Descent with my GUS, it locks up.  It get's to the 

LOADING...

line then just locks up, I've tried every setting and have run out of ideas.

Also I have a problem with my hard drive, it's my D:\ drive, when I try to 
format it is says CAN NOT WRITE BOOT FORMAT TERMINATED, could my GUS be 
causing this?  It causes Windows to lock up unless I run ULTRINIT before 
Windows... talk about the root of all evils lately :(

Don't get me wrong I love my GUS!  Just a few little problems that I need 
some help with there :/

-- 
Merry Christmas and a happy New Years!
Chris Campbell
campbell@fox.nstn.ca

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

Date: Tue, 27 Dec 1994 12:29:24 -800 (PST)
From: Tyrone Horton <thorton@zyxel.com>
Subject: Gravis' OS/2 Drivers

Has anyone tried Advanced Gravis OS/2 Drivers?  Were you able to get 
sound from a Dos box?  How is it compared to the Manley drivers?  Any 
comments on it at all?  

Tyrone Horton       714-693-0808 voice  thorton@zyxel.com
ZyXEL           714-693-8811 fax    71333,2734 Compuserve
4920 E. La Palma Ave    714-693-0762 bbs    1:103/725 Fidonet
Anaheim, CA  92807

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

Date: Tue, 27 Dec 1994 15:49:10 +0500
From: asnyder@artorg.hmc.psu.edu (Alan J. Snyder)
Subject: GUS and Maxis Klik & Play

At least for my plain GUS, Maxis Klik & Play requires the playback
buffer length in the control panel to be set to 1024, or else I
get breakups and combinations of intended and previously played sounds
for all but the shortest sounds in the Klik&Play library.

Fortunately, this was easy to find because it _sounds_ like short
pieces of samples being loaded into a long buffer, and then the whole
buffer, with or without old contents still there, being played.

I have no idea whether this is a GUS driver problem (I have the ones
from 3.57) or a Klik&Play problem. The same WAV files play fine when
played from other tools.

- Alan

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

Date: Tue, 27 Dec 1994 15:10:27 +0000
From: William Beckner <wbeckner@darkstar.rsa.lib.il.us>
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V17 #26

On Tue, 27 Dec 94, GUS Server wrote:

> 
> Date: Tue, 27 Dec 94 05:38:50 EST
> From: Pooya Hemami <PHEMAMI@MUSICM.MCGILL.CA>
> Subject: UltraSound Clicks
> 
> I just bought my 2nd Gravis UltraSound and installed it yesterday.
> The sound quality is amazing - except for one thing, the clicking.
> Sometimes, there is a popping or clicking sound when playing certain
> MIDI files (such as MINUETG.MID).  It's inconsistent (it happens
> sometimes but not always) but it's still annoying.  In fact, the
> clicking problem is one of the things that prompted me to return
> my GUS 2 years ago.  Anyway, does anyone know of any possible remedies
> to the problem?  I have a DX2/66 and I'm hooking the GUS to an external
> amp via its Line-Out connector and I've also shielded the GUS from my
> other adapter cards with paper wrapped around aluminum foil.
> 
> I have a 1 MB GUS - consisting of 2 70ns NEC chips, 4 80ns Goldstar
> chips, and 2 70ns Hyundai chips.  But SETGUS' diagnosting program
> doesn't detect any problems with the RAM or other conflicts.  Also,
> my ULTRASND variable is set to ULTRASND=220,5,5,11,5.
> 
> My motherboard is an SIS471B with 256k writeback cache and among other
> things, my CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT combo includes Drive Rocket, GMOUSE,
> NNANSI, UMC VLB IDE Driver, HIMEM.SYS, NCACHE2, SHARE, and DOSKEY.
> 
> Any suggestions?
> 

I had the exact same problem with my first GUSMax.  After two calls to 
Advanced Gravis' tech support, we determined the problem to be with the 
card itself.  After I got the replacement card, everything sounded 
clean!  Of course I have a Max, so my problem may not be the same as 
yours P).
 
As a suggestion, you may want try reconfiguring the GUS so that the 
playback and record DMA's are different values.  That may do the trick.

=============================================================================
William Beckner - System Manager              wbeckner@darkstar.rsa.lib.il.us
Resource Sharing Alliance                     Ph : (309) 694-5513
of West Central Illinois, Inc.                FAX: (309) 694-5297
East Peoria, IL (USA)  61635-0001     
			 He does the work of 3 men...Moe, Larry & Curly  
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can have it done fast  |
You can have it done cheap | <----- Pick any two. :)
You can have it done right |
=============================================================================

 System Management - It's a dirty job, but somebody said I had to do it.

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

Date: 28 Dec 1994 08:29:43 -0700
From: "mgreen" <mgreen@smtpgw.sim.es.com>
Subject: Max and Windows - no workee

Help!
  I can't get my UltrasoundMax to work with Windows.  I can use it under DOS
to play MIDI files, but not luck with MIDI or Wave when I run Windows.  
  I am running a 40MHz AMD386DX with 4M Ram, OPTI chip set, DOS 5.0 and
Windows 3.1., video card with TSENG ET4000 chip set, IDE hard drive.
  I spent a half-an-hour on the phone with Advanced Gravis tech support
yesterday and so far they haven't a clue.  (I'm sending them an MSD report to
see if they can figure out what's wrong.)
  Anyone have any suggestions?  Mail me:  mgreen@sim.es.com.

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

Date: Wed, 28 Dec 1994 17:20:06 +0200
From: sniiran@freenet.hut.fi (Samuli Niiranen)
Subject: Maxsbos

I finally got the new SBOS for ultramax. (from a friend who downloaded
it from Gravis BBS). All I can say is that the quality of music and 
digitized effects was AWESOME. Actually SB fm music sounded like 
AWE32 wavatable <grin>. Sadly the new SBOS works only with the MAX.
(music works with a 1MB GUS, but the effects won't since basic GUS
doesn't have the Crystal CODEC onboard like the MAX). I also browsed
through the executable and noticed a header about a mpu-401 emulation
mode... I wonder will there a new version of megaem or is Adv Gravis
going to implement megaem to SBOS. The new SBOS is still an alpha
version but it works with almost all games. I've had some problems
with digitized effects in dos/4gw and in other protected mode games.
And one more thing: NMI is no longer required !!!

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

Date: Tue, 27 Dec 1994 22:43:21 -0800 (PST)
From: George <gmontem@mercury.sfsu.edu>
Subject: MAXSBOS with plain UltraSound

> Also, for the MAXSBOS program, does it work *only* for the MAX, or does 
> it work for a regular UltraSound with 1 MB of memory?  I thought there's 
> no significant hardware difference but the recording capability and CD 
> interface, which I don't think the MAXSBOS program needs.  Perhaps, 
> Gravis just assumed that all regular UltraSound owners still had only 
> 256k RAM, and so said it was for the MAX, with a base 512k RAM, the 
> amount with which MAXSBOS works.

Tried the MAXSBOS with regular UltraSound with 1MB installed and here are 
the results:

Works fine with FM emulation ONLY.
If it has to emulate Digital voices, it locks up since it uses the Codec 
chip I think.

Anyways, this is great for games that use FM only if you have a plain 
UltraSound.  IMHO it sounds exponentially better than its predecessor.

Advanced Gravis has improved SBOS  in a limited way since it works best 
on a MAX, and has convinced me that the Protected-mode Mega-Em will be a 
killer program.  From what they've done so far, it looks like the new 
Mega-Em will use the same MAXSBOS engine and will use the same 
patch-caching AIL 3.10 engine.

Go Gravis! But for now, how about a MAXSBOS for regular GUS while we wait 
for new Mega-Em?

-George
<EOT>

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

Date: Wed, 28 Dec 1994 01:45:27 -0500
From: Led Mirage <lmirage@io.org>
Subject: OS/2_drivers_uploaded

I've uploaded the OS/2 alpha drivers for GUS on epas. But please don't ask me
ANYTHING about it as I don't use OS/2 myself. Now could someone upload GUS
install disks 359?
PS what's new in this version anyway?

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

Date: Wed, 28 Dec 94 13:18:51 GMT+1
From: tore.klev@infolink.no (Tore Klev)
Subject: Rebel Assault

Hi!

I know this is a very old game, and there has been many messages about
it. But I'm wondering if anyone could repeat some of the tips that were
given concerning Rebel Assault and the Gravis UltraSound?

Someone I know is getting sound only in one of his speakers, and he gets
much noise. Does anyone recognize this situation?

]   XTag v5.0   ^ Tore Klev - Sysop Mercurius MBBS(71 17 32 23) -
]XBoard 1.0 #305^ Multimedia-pakke til 1990,- inkl. mva.!

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

Date: Wed, 28 Dec 1994 01:04:15 -0500 (EST)
From: quaestor <balkov@Cybernetics.NET>
Subject: SB/GUS midi interface box problem...

Hello;
	Being an adventurous sort of person, I decided to build a midi
interface box for my GUS. The circuit described in the GUS-FAQ didn't make
any sense to me; it's some of the worst ascii art I've ever seen, and the
accompanying text description was no better. So I decided to use a circuit
description I got from the Creative Labs BBS some time ago. So far so good.
	I had little trouble building the thing, and it works fine ... one
way. Nothing I've tried has had any trouble sending midi data TO the
keyboard; however, nothing I've tried wants to RECIEVE. I have checked the
connections visually and with a continuity tester at least a dozen times; I
know for a fact that none of the components are misplaced, nor are any of
the leads crossed.
	I'm no EE, but as much checking as I am able to dream up seems to
indicate that everything works, and that the circuit description itself
should be valid.
	I would post the circuit I used (and will be more than happy to do
so if it will help), but it includes several large PCX files.
	Here's a bit of technical info: The circuit uses a 4n35 Photo
Transistor Output Isolator for the input from external midi. Other circuits
I have read about use different IC's, at least for the GUS. All components
are standard, nothing wacky about this thing. The buffer is a 7407; I know
it works because the output to external midi functions fine, as I mentioned
above.
	Question 1: What differences, if any, exist between the SB and GUS
joy/midi port which could account for the trouble I'm having?
	Question 2: HEEELP! Can anyone (please, please) take a look at the
circuit diagrams I've got and tell me if they're valid?
	Question 3: Has anyone gotten this particular circuit to work? It's
the one at ftp.creaf.com, on the C/L BBS, and on some archive sites here and
there.

	Sorry to run on so long, but this (external midi) is the reason I
got a gus and a midi keyboard. I REALLY want to fix this. At this point, it
probably WOULD be cheaper to just *buy* one from Gravis, but I can't get
them to return my calls (3 messages), I'm not going to blindly send them a
check, and I've already invested a good bit of time and effort into this
homebrew thing. If I (with help) can get this working, I'll be happy to
write it up for the FAQ.

Thanks in advance;

ben

p.s. Reply here, or via e-mail, I check both daily (sometimes hourly ;-)

_O_ The first thing to depart in mental illness is the familiar.
 |  And what takes its place is Bad News...
			Philip K. Dick, VALIS   

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

Date: Tue, 27 Dec 1994 13:45:40 -0600
From: riedl@cs.umn.edu (John Riedl)
Subject: Under the Killing Moon

I picked up Under the Killing Moon (UTKM) and am having no luck
getting it to work with my GUS.  UTKM claims to work with a GUS, but it
crashes my computer every time I try it.  Has anyone had any luck
getting UTKM to work?  Any tips?

Thanks,
John

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

Date: Tue, 27 Dec 94 18:07:09 -0400
From: "Chris Campbell" <campbell@fox.nstn.ca>
Subject: Where is MAX SBOS?  And what about MegaEm?

On Mon, 26 Dec 1994 19:16:57 -0800, 
GUS Server  <gus-general-request@gaia.ucs.orst.edu> wrote:

>Date: Sun, 25 Dec 1994 22:27:39 -0800 (PST)
>From: Stephen Thomas Brindle <sbrindle@netcom.com>
>Subject: Where is MAX SBOS?  And what about MegaEm?
>
>I can't find the new MAX SBOS on the GUS sites.  Would someone who has it 
>from the Gravis BBS upload the original ZIP?

Can someone mail me some info on MAX SBOS?  Never heard of it ;)

>Also, what about that new protected mode MegaEm?  I hear it was delayed.  
>Until when?

Last I heard from Brain Rizzo it is due out by the end of '94 so it should 
be any day now.

-- 
Merry Christmas and a happy New Years!
Chris Campbell
campbell@fox.nstn.ca

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

Date: Tue, 27 Dec 1994 23:59:04 -0500
From: Led Mirage <lmirage@io.org>

Someone please upload GUS install disk 359 to epas. Thanks. BTW I'll be 
uploading the OS/2 ALPHA drivers for GUS very soon.

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

End of GUS Daily Digest V17 #27
*******************************
