GUS Daily Digest            Sat, 7 May 94  9:37 PST      Volume 13: Issue   7 

Today's Topics:
						   486 Vega and GUS
								AWE32
				Building own GUS Midi Adapter (2 msgs)
					   good news, bad news....
				 GUS, Horde, and garbled speech, etc.
			  Help with ominous error message! (2 msgs)
							   Myst...
						MYST and patch caching
						 The horde speech...
					VFW 1.1a update...wrong again!

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: Fri, 06 May 1994 21:05:51 -0500 (CDT)
From: ST4FX@Jetson.UH.EDU
Subject: 486 Vega and GUS

I just got a 486 Vega motherboard and replaced my old 386 motherboard with it,
but now whenever I even try to initilize the gus or use it in any way, it
gives me a parity error. Does anybody have a Vega motherboard and have fixed/
know of how to fix the problem? Should I just play with the irqs? DMAs? And
the GUS has 1024k dram (256k is the original 70ns, the rest is 100 ns), I
also have an SB Pro installed with the GUS.

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

Date: Fri, 6 May 94 15:14:03 EDT
From: dmcintyr@muselab.ac.runet.edu
Subject: AWE32

> >The problem is that the GUS has missed its window: It just isn't interesting 
> >anymore that the GUS has got wavetable synthesis. Lots of cards do. 
> 
> Lots of cards do wavetable from ROM, but RAM is what's the point here.

On the other hand, with every card having its own means of getting stuff 
into RAM, who is ever going to support the feature on any of the cards?

The GUS has the advantage of the end user being able to create his own 
custom patches (now that the 16-bit db is here and makes that worthwile) 
which he may use to replace existing ones with good results if he has a 
lot of patience.  (Fixing the high pitched whistly screech in X-Wing 
comes to mind.)  But from a game perspective, who would ever support the 
GUS, AWE 32 or TB cards' different custom patch features?

> And for the AWE32, I don't know much about it yet. I've heard it playing
> yesterday, it sounded like a GUS with bad patches.

Not so bad, really.  Some of them are hoakie, but I found the brass, 
guitar and piano patches to be better, overall, than the GUS.  A 
combination of the two patch sets would be ideal, in my opinion.

I bought an AWE32 on a whim because it was there and I was there.  I'm 
going to take it back, however, because it's no better at getting 
wavetable out of Sierra games than the GUS is.  Let's face it folks:  
TSRs are just not the way to go.  No matter how slick they are, they're 
just a cheap kludge.

While the AWE32 is more likely to get support than the GUS because of the 
famous Creative Labs name, it's still not the choice for me because it's 
no better than the GUS in terms of what I want out of a soundcard, and as 
far as I'm concerned waiting around and sitting on my heels is not the 
answer.  I've been waiting patiently for a year now to see the GUS take 
root and become popular.

It hasn't.  Not for the average joe blow computer users, at any rate, and 
the unfortunate reality is that joe blow is the way to go when developing 
computer products.

I can't say that I would have been as happy as I have been with my GUS 
for all this time if I hadn't had the support of this Digest and the 
various other resources of the Internet to help me figure out what was 
going wrong.  Joe Blow doesn't HAVE access to the Internet.  At least not 
yet.

I'm probably going to have to cave in and get a Sound Canvas.


--Michael-- << dmcintyr@muselab.ac.runet.edu >> <<dmcintyr@vt.edu>>

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

>   Now, I have two questions for Advanced Gravis or anyone else that 
> knows.  First, why does it say '16 Stereo Digital Channels' when it can 
> play 32?

16 stereo, 32 mono.  If you have the pan pot set to dead center so that 
output is coming from both sides from the same voice, then it must 
actually use two voices, limiting you to 16 channels.  You can have 32 
channels spaced out in stereo space, but you must use two channels for 
proper panning, etc.  It's not a limitation most of the time.

> No.  MegaEm does not really use EMS, except to detect the presence of a
> 386 EMM, or more accurately, a compatible VCPI host.  That is what is
> required for it to operate, and a EMS board would not provide that.  Only
> QEMM, 386MAX, MSDOS 5.0, 6.0 EMM386 and Netroom are supported at this time.

But Mega-Em can run without any EMM driver, can't it?  I thought that's 
what the NOEMS switch was all about.

I thought the real problem with protected mode apps was that any app that 
takes active control of protected mode will usurp Mega-Em's very passive 
and unobtrusive control.

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

Date: Fri, 6 May 1994 14:59:09 +0800
From: jforbes@triton.sqi.com (Jason E. Forbes)
Subject: Building own GUS Midi Adapter

Hi all,

	I'm trying to put together my own GUS midi adapter from the 
destructions in the GUS-Midi faq.  I have all of the parts except the
6N138 opto-oscillator.  I cannot find any local sources (Seattle, WA) for the
chip.  

	Does anyone know of a supplier for the 6N138, that does not require
a minimum order of > $5 ???

	
	Thanks for any help,
		Jason


()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
() Jason E. Forbes                          jforbes@sqi.sqi.com ()
() Siemens Medical Systems Inc.                                 ()
() Ultrasound Group                                             ()
() Issaquah, WA 98027                                           () 
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

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

Date: Fri, 6 May 1994 14:59:36 +0800
From: jforbes@triton.sqi.com (Jason E. Forbes)
Subject: Building own GUS Midi Adapter

Hi all,

	I'm trying to put together my own GUS midi adapter from the 
destructions in the GUS-Midi faq.  I have all of the parts except the
6N138 opto-oscillator.  I cannot find any local sources (Seattle, WA) for the
chip.  

	Does anyone know of a supplier for the 6N138, that does not require
a minimum order of > $5 ???

	
	Thanks for any help,
		Jason


()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
() Jason E. Forbes                          jforbes@sqi.sqi.com ()
() Siemens Medical Systems Inc.                                 ()
() Ultrasound Group                                             ()
() Issaquah, WA 98027                                           () 
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

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

Date: Fri, 6 May 1994 15:13:06 -0500
From: Andrew John Burnette <burnette@icaen.uiowa.edu>
Subject: good news, bad news....

Hi GUScateers!  I have some good news for ya all, and some bad news.  First
the bad.  I just read an article in Computer Gaming World, where they compared
GUS to several other cards.  The test was not as sophisticated as measuring
THD or S/N ratios, but was just a blind jury test to see which card sounded
better.  The bad news is that GUS ranked 5th, after Roland's sound canvas,  
AVM's summit, CL wave blaster (these last two tied for second), Logitech's
SoundMan Wave, and Viva Maestro.  It ranked next to last in FM emulation, 
but then again, who wants to emulate FM.  :)

Most of the comments that were made were good (the good news).  THe biggest
compliment was saying that GUS is acuually a $2000-$4000 one MB sampling
synthesizer, for a small price.  Also, in response that the GUS is dying,
the article states that GUS will probably be with us for some time, due
mostly to support from companies, and to Gravis's deal with AMD (it's true).
It was suggested, however, that the GUS should've included a OPL-2 chip
on it's board (only a $20 increase).  All and all, the article did justice
to the GUS, though was biased to those who listen to FM music all the time.

MOre good news is that in this same issue, there is a two (not one, but two)
page Ad for GUS and MAX.  The first ad I've seen, and it also does a good job
explaining what GUS really is.  I think Gravis is finally comming out of the
closet.  :)

Just thought ya all would like to know this.  GUS will be around for awhile,
but not without competition.

ANdrew

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

Date: Fri, 6 May 1994 16:54:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: "M. Wells" <mww2g@kelvin.seas.virginia.edu>
Subject: GUS, Horde, and garbled speech, etc.

Andrew See writes:
>Second, I've got the Horde, which has native GUS support
>no tsr's no AIL's, nothing, not even a setup program.
>It autodetects the GUS.
>THe music is great, the digital FX are great. But the 
I AGREE!   <begin side editorial>
	This game has GREAT GUS music...  clear as a bell!  It sounds like
mods, probably with 16 bit samples?  I dunno, but it sounds GREAT! And
with NATIVE GUS SUPPORT with autodetect...  It's a fun game too.  Go
buy this game!!  You will like it, and the GUS supporting companies
deserve our support!  Be sure to put on your regist. card that you
appreciate the GUS support!  
<side review end>

>speech is totally garbled.
>Any ideas on this one?
Ok, here goes:
1. The speech and music on the CUT SCENES (with the digitized pics)
are not using MIDI or anything like that, but just recorded and sampled.
Evidently, (to fit all the speech plus the game in the small space it
takes up) the speech/music is tightly compressed and sampled with a low
rate.  What does this mean?  The quality basically sucks for all systems
on this part.  I can understand all the speech, but it kinda sounds
warped a bit.  I guess they compressed/lossed it from the CD version, so
I can't fault them too much.  The MUSIC/SFX for the game part more than
make up for it.
But to try to make it a bit better:
2.  Don't run on a stacked drive.  It's in the manual, look in the tech
section near the back.  No stacker, zerospace (oops, doublespace :) ),
superstor, anything.  Slows it down would be my guess.
3.  Don't use ANY memory managers!  Also in the manual, and also basically
true for any of the new 32 bit DOS extenders.  Slows these down LOTS and
so don't use them.  No HIMEM, EMM386, XMS386, 386MAX, or any others.
Boot from a vanilla dos floppy and run just yer mouse driver. (I don't think
you even have to init the GUS, but maybe... play around and see, couldn't
hurt.)   <note, try using vanilla bootups on all of your dos extender games,
the ones that use DOS4GW... i.e. doom, sc2000, etc.  you might see a speed
improvement.  But maybe not.>

Anyway, hope that helps!

BTW: does anyone out there have these mods from this game?  Or something
that will rip them?  I'd LOVE to get these mods!

Mike

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

Date: Sat, 07 May 1994 15:40 +0000 (WET)
From: "Fran the Man..." <FCROSSEN@ccvax.ucd.ie>
Subject: Re: Help with ominous error message!

>GUS seemed to be working fine alone.  And even seemed to coexist with
>LAPC-1 and SBPro.  But lately (after I started playing Privateer), I
>occasionally get the following message (in large unfriendly block letters)
>when I boot:
>
>PARITY ERROR ????
>SYSTEM HALTED

This shouldn't have anything to do with the cards.  This message usually
means that your memory is too slow for the CPU.  Enter your CMOS setup
and try inserting a wait state for main or cache memory.  Play around a
little until you get no more messages.

>Also, even worse, on the occasional boot, my system now loses its BIOS info
>(eeek!), and I have to re-enter the HD numbers, floppy info, and other BIOS
>settings. 

You could have a problem with a bad connection to the CMOS battery, or the
battery itself may be giving up the ghost.

>go to the default setups?  I've tried configs without initializing the GUS,
>and I get SBPro conflicts.  I gather it is due to the default DMA/IRQ?

There is a document on the gravis ftp sites called SBGUSFAQ.ZIP (or something
like that) which explains how to set up the two cards in one machine.

Fran...

  /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
  \ Francis Crossen,                         e-mail: FCROSSEN@ccvax.ucd.ie /
  / Dept. of Civil Engineering,              phone: +353-1-706 7367 (w)    \
  \ University College Dublin,                             475 0367 (h)    / 
  / Ireland.                    Save the Smiley...!  8-)                   \
  \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

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

Date: Sat, 07 May 1994 15:39 +0000 (WET)
From: "Fran the Man..." <FCROSSEN@ccvax.ucd.ie>
Subject: Re: Help with ominous error message!

>GUS seemed to be working fine alone.  And even seemed to coexist with
>LAPC-1 and SBPro.  But lately (after I started playing Privateer), I
>occasionally get the following message (in large unfriendly block letters)
>when I boot:
>
>PARITY ERROR ????
>SYSTEM HALTED

This shouldn't have anything to do with the cards.  This message usually
means that your memory is too slow for the CPU.  Enter your CMOS setup
and try inserting a wait state for main or cache memory.  Play around a
little until you get no more messages.

>Also, even worse, on the occasional boot, my system now loses its BIOS info
>(eeek!), and I have to re-enter the HD numbers, floppy info, and other BIOS
>settings. 

You could have a problem with a bad connection to the CMOS battery, or the
battery itself may be giving up the ghost.

>go to the default setups?  I've tried configs without initializing the GUS,
>and I get SBPro conflicts.  I gather it is due to the default DMA/IRQ?

There is a document on the gravis ftp sites called SBGUSFAQ.ZIP (or something
like that) which explains how to set up the two cards in one machine.

Fran...

  /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
  \ Francis Crossen,                         e-mail: FCROSSEN@ccvax.ucd.ie /
  / Dept. of Civil Engineering,              phone: +353-1-706 7367 (w)    \
  \ University College Dublin,                             475 0367 (h)    / 
  / Ireland.                    Save the Smiley...!  8-)                   \
  \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

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

Date: Fri, 6 May 94 18:37:28 -0500
From: jfulmer@databank.com (John Fulmer)
Subject: Myst...

>Firstly a question on MYST, a cdrom game which runs in windoze.
>Dos it support patch caching?


Nope. All of the music and sound in Myst are .WAV type files. It actually
works pretty good on the GUS, but with a slower machine, there will be 
some breaks in the sound....

*--------------------------------------------------------------------*
|John Fulmer(jfulmer@databank.com)|      "I find it in-ter-es-ting,  *
|Micom Computer Systems           |       A noun's a person, place,  *
|Lawrence, Ks.                    |              or thing..."        *
*--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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

Date: Fri, 6 May 1994 15:33 EST
From: 155722937@UCIS.VILL.EDU (LIFE IS A GREAT ADVENTURE)
Subject: Re: MYST and patch caching

	As far as I can tell, it does cache the pats. I don't have to
load in patch-manager, and the sounds (music) don't have interuptions.
	The game works really well with the GUS. Suggest a double-speed
drive minimum though.
						Harald van der Kam
					155722937@ucis.vill.edu
					FurySound - IRC #GUS

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

Date: Sat, 7 May 1994 12:30:11 +0200 (MET DST)
From: ralam@cs.vu.nl
Subject: The horde speech...

Well, I ve finished this game and it IS GREAT. But for the speech, 
don't worry, it's not your GUS, it's the sample, Ive heard it on a
Logitech Soundman Wave and it's just as shitty. It's a good thing
that they also put text under the "speech". Well, succes on playing
:-)

My gus isn't dead yet (And since some friends of mine (Team Hoi Games)
are now also expanding to the pc-scene and they are gonna write some
games which will have gus support (Unfortunately, there first game
(Clockwiser) doesn't have gus support but the programmer is thinking
about releasing a patch, when and if it's finished I'll upload it to
epas. But be sure to get this if you like a nice puzzle game)

Remco Lam

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

Date: Fri, 6 May 94 19:19:29 CDT
From: Jim English <jenglish@hpserv.keh.utulsa.edu>
Subject: VFW 1.1a update...wrong again!

first someone says wfw11a.exe, WRONG nope ain't there doesn't show up
on archie and not on ftp.microsoft.com softlib/mslfiles...
next someone calls this and says it's vw1019.exe, WRONG nope ain't there
no archie listing and isn't on ftp.microsoft.com. 
Ok people, what or where is it?  Why can we never seem to find the filename?
Has anyone actually _gotten_ this file from an ftp site?
Why not put it in submit?
-jim

--
______________________________________________________________________________
Jim English - jenglish@hpserv.keh.utulsa.edu / EJP51823@vax1.utulsa.edu

My thoughts could, just possibly, express the thoughts of the University of
Tulsa, but when you're only half way up you're neither up or down.

"Can I touch you, or are you out of touch?"
______________________________________________________________________________

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

End of GUS Daily Digest V13 #7
******************************
