Ultrasound Daily Digest     Sat, 14 Nov 92       Volume 1 : Issue  19 

Today's Topics:
						  ftp site for demos
						GSBOS settings --HELP!
					 GUS and Windows on a 80286?!
					  GUS review for GAME BYTES
						  kbmidi & mididrum
					 Making GUS coexist with SB.
					 More on MIDI/Windows and GUS
					   My vote on mail vs. news
							 New drivers
					Response on GUS for music use
							 SCDEMOS.ZIP
						software and problems
					Ultrasound Daily Digest V1 #18

Digest Address:           ultrasound@dsd.es.com
			  To post to tomorrow's digest.

Request Server Address:   ultrasound-request@dsd.es.com
						  To subscribe, unsubscribe, and request files.

Owner Address:            ultrasound-owner@dsd.es.com
						  To contact a human if the server has troubles.

FTP Site #1:              ftp epas.utoronto.ca (/pub/pc/ultrasound)
						  Digest back issues, mirror of request server

People responsible:       David DeBry, Adam Iles, Thomas Wong, Chris Yuzik,
			  and many others who should be thanked often. :)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 11:48:01 GMT
From: M.D.Hennessy@cen.exeter.ac.uk
Message-Id: <9610.9211131148@olib>
Subject: ftp site for demos
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Apologies if this is a FAQ, but I have heard mentioned several times that

there is a ftp site with ultrasound demos ( better than the ones supplied

with the card ). Can anyone tell me the site address ?



Thanks in advance,

				Mark.H.

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

Date: Sat, 14 Nov 92 01:29:44 EST
From: elewis@eve.wright.edu (Edward Lewis IV)
Message-Id: <9211140629.AA26478@eve.wright.edu.>
Subject: GSBOS settings --HELP!
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

To Experienced Gravis Ultrasound Users ----  HELP!
   ( if there is such a person yet?)

Well, after the long wait I have received my Ultrasound.  The
installation was very simple and straightforward, although it would've
been nice if I had received DISK 4 and not 2 DISK 5's.  Just missing a
few patches...Very annoying when going into windows due to all the error
messages.  I am very pleased with it so far.  I have had some trouble
getting SBOS to work with a few games and was wondering if anyone else
has had any luck with them either.  The list is below.


Links386 Pro            --  Can't get Soundblaster to work.  Adlib
							really really bad then locks.  

Wayne Gretzky Hockey3   --  I only get music at some parts.  No speech
							or sound during the game.  Adlib won't work
							at all.  SBOS -o2 gives just music. Nothing
							 else seems to work.

Earl Weaver Baseball2   --  No sound for either adlib or soundblaster
							and then it locks up.

CakeWalk Pro /windows   --  I did get it to play once but now I get 
   (demo version)           nothing.  I know -NOTHING- about MIDI so
							this could be my problem. How do you set it
							up to work correctly.

SoundTool V2.6          --  Are there any drivers for the Ultrasound or
							soundblaster or adlib.  I don't have any and
							I read someones post about how the like
							using Soundtool with the Ultrasound.

Other than these minor inconveniences, the card sounds great.  It
definetly has outstanding POTENTIAL.  

Any information or pointing me in the right direction would be greatly
appreciated.  Thanks in advance for any and all info.


Please E-mail or post to the Mailing-list --- (I'm sure others want to
know too).

Edward Lewis IV
elewis@eve.wright.edu

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

Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 14:44:15 -0500 (EST)
From: impster@ais.org (Charles Budensiek)
Message-Id: <m0mq6wB-000A7oC@ais.org>
Subject: GUS and Windows on a 80286?!
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Time for me to brag...

I GOT MY GUS FROM EA TODAY!!   YAY!!

Time for me to whine...

I CAN'T USE THE GUS IN WINDOWS 3.1 ON A 286!?!?!?! AAARRGGHHH!!!


Is there ANY way for me to play *.wav files in windows through my GUS on a
16MHz 80286?

Thanks
-- 
=============================================================================
| "Anyone have a coat hanger? My brain itches." | impster@umcc.ais.org
| "If I was a turnip, would I be revered and    | Charles Budensiek
| "worshipped like I would deserve to be?"      | ph #: Ask if you want it.
=============================================================================

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

Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 13:54:06 EST
From: Angelo Catovic <jello@info.polymtl.ca>
Message-Id: <199211131852.AA01195@von-neumann.info.polymtl.ca>
Subject: GUS review for GAME BYTES
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

	This is a post I found in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games. So if someone
wants to write a review please do it.

	Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games
	From: ross@kaos.b11.ingr.com (Ross Erickson)
	Subject: GAME BYTES REVIEWS WANTED!! UPDATED.
	Keywords: game bytes magazine
	Reply-To: ross@kaos.b11.ingr.com


	Below you will find an extensive list of game reviews we are looking
	for to publish in upcoming issues of Game Bytes magazine.  If you've
	played any of these games and have adequate experience with the title
	to write a review, PLEASE EMAIL ME right away and we'll get you
	started with this great magazine.  Thanks for all your support.
	Without volunteer reviewers, there would be no Game Bytes.  I hope to
	hear from many of you soon.

	PRIORITY REVIEWS NEEDED FOR: 

	[Stuff deleted]

	Ultrasound - Advanced Gravis

	[Stuff deleted]


Angelo Catovic
jello@info.polymtl.ca

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

Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 17:00:42 -0500
From: ylee@norton.uwaterloo.ca
Message-Id: <9211132200.AA28459@norton.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: kbmidi & mididrum
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Hi all,

I'd like to apologize to those who downloaded kbmidi from epas. I accidentally 
put a wrong .exe....:( Anyway, I've uploaded a correct one ( kbmidi_new_exe.zip
so try it out and see if that one works. I've also uploaded mididrum ( by 
Charles Petzold - also modified for Ultrasound ) , a drum machine sequencer to
epas.utoronto.ca so try that one out too. Both of them WORKED on my PC but
I can't guarantee that they will work on any PCs although it should work on
any PC with Windows 3.1.    

Please ignore my previous message regarding a problem with new windows driver
and my kbmidi. It worked...I was running a wrong .exe too....

Later,

Yuri

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

Date: Sat, 14 Nov 92 2:49:21 EST
From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Message-Id: <9211140749.AA14709@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Making GUS coexist with SB.
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Despite what I posted earlier, I found out that Falcon won't work perfectly
with SBOS unless I set both Radio Messages and Music to Adlib instead of
Soundblaster.  But even then, the sounds tend to be a little cartoony, and
the digitized speech almost incomprehensible.  So, I'm working on making
my GUS coexist with my SB.  

I managed to get every feature of both cards to function together except 
the SB's Adlib compatibility.  Games that drive the SB as an SB work fine
with my GUS/SB setup, but those that use the SB as an Adlib card do not
detect Adlib compatibility.  It seems that the GUS is hogging port 
addresses 388h and 389h which the SB uses for Adlib emulation.  Is there
any way to force the GUS to let go of these two addresses?  Seeing as
how there are many undocumented jumpers on the card, there must be a way
of doing so.  If not, then is there a utility which will let me map
addresses 388h and 389h to 228h and 229h?

My two cards' base addresses, IRQ's and other vital stats are as follows:

					GUS                 SB
Base Address        230h               220h
DMA channel          3                  1
IRQs             (GF1) 11               5
				(MIDI) 12

Phat.

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

Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 12:26:01 CST
From: ken@batman.austin.ibm.com (Ken Goach)
Message-Id: <9211131826.AA09927@batman.austin.ibm.com>
Subject: More on MIDI/Windows and GUS
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

I promised more on using the GUS with MIDI in Windows, and here it is!

I got the Cakewalk Professional demo running last night. In doing so,
I discovered a few things.

1. The playmidi program is not very sophisticated. When I played back
   the GUS sequences (like latindnc, for example) in Cakewalk I had all
   kinds of strange volume level things happening. I didn't have these
   problems with the Cakewalk demo sequences or other ones I had. At first,
   I though it was a GUS problem. I eventually went in the Windows pull-down
   menu in Cakewalk and selected the last item, which displays numeric
   values for the notes being played (one track at a time). I isolated
   a track that had these volume oddities and watched the values. I noticed
   that there was a lot of variance in the levels, so I editied the values
   and everything sounded normal again. What it leads me to believe is
   that (a) whoever recorded these demos in used a velocity-sensitive
   synth and palyed unevenly and (b) the GUS will handle velocity sensitivity
   in sequences. The playmidi doesn't care - it does a constant values
   throughout (that you can set in each file's .CFG file).

2. I discovered (with a little help from the tech support line) that to
   get patches to load in Cakewalk Professional, you have to load the
   MIDI sequence in the Media Player first or you get nothing. In fact,
   I had to load the sequence into Media Player and play part of it,
   stop it, and then open Cakewalk Professional to get it to work. Then
   the patches load fine. However, if you change a patch in one track, the
   track quits playing - even if you switch back to the original sound!
   That's bad. And if you load a new MIDI sequence with different sounds,
   I sometimes had to exit Cakewalk, run the Media Player step again, and
   then reopen Cakewalk. YUCK! That's totally unacceptable. Wonder if I
   can get a MIDI file that would load *all* the GUS patches at once so
   I could pick and choose! ;-) (not enough memory!!!)

Anyway, that's the good news/bad news for today. I am off to call GUS
and find out why things are this way and what can be done about them.

Ken

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

Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 11:38 EST
From: "Matthew E. Bernold" <MEB117@PSUVM.PSU.EDU>
Message-Id: <9211131638.AA14643@orca.es.com>
Subject: My vote on mail vs. news
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

I think that with the 512+ subscribers we have on this list, we can EASILY
pass a new group.  If we create the group comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.gus,
and mirror everything posted there to the list, then EVERYONE can see what's
going on, and we won't have as large a chance of missing the newbies.

Just my $0.018125  (after taxes)

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

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

Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 13:10:32 -0500
From: ylee@norton.uwaterloo.ca
Message-Id: <9211131810.AA27336@norton.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: New drivers
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Hi all.

I just downloaded new set of ultrasound disks from epas and installed windows
drivers, midiplay program and new patches. Well...New windows driver does not
solve the patch loading problem and on top of that, my modified KBMIDI doesn't
work anymore either. The patch set if not yet complete but complete set of
percussion patches are very NICE! New windows driver includes MIDI port driver
but wave mapper stays the same. Both synth and wave driver still has version
no. 1 as before but synth driver also adds pitch bending capability ( although
it sounds weird most of time )             

Can someone confirm all these. I'd like to know if I'm missing something.

- yuri

ylee@sunee.uwaterloo.ca

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

Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 12:14:57 CST
From: ken@batman.austin.ibm.com (Ken Goach)
Message-Id: <9211131814.AA09923@batman.austin.ibm.com>
Subject: Response on GUS for music use
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

chrisw <chrisw@leland.stanford.edu> wrote:

>1)  Can I plug a keyboard into this thing and `play' the sampler ?

Not yet - the MIDI in function is disabled. Gravis said that there was
a problem with it, but that they are working to get a fix out for
this before Christmas.

>2)  Assuming I can plug in a keyboard, how do I set up sounds, midi channels

Do this in Windows 3.1. The MIDI patch table, all that can be done in
Windows. I had Cakewalk working last night with the GUS.

>3)  How much real-time processing of the samples does the card do? A minimum,
>    I presume, is looping until note off messages. Also, it must have some
>    sort of response to the velocity information in midi note press messages?

I don't know what you mean by "real-time processing," but the sounds do
loop until note off, and the GUS seems to respond to touch-sensitivity
in sequences. One sequence I played also had a fade-out, and the GUS
handled it perfectly - the volume decreased smoothly to nothing.

>Has it got any forms of modulation of the sounds (pitch, filter, envelope)?

Dunno. If I had a sequence with some continuous controller stuff in
it, I could try it.

>By the way, can the thing cope with multi-samples (i.e. a series
>    of samples of the one instrument at different pitches) ?

Do you mean can it do polyphony? Yes, it will. I assume *all* the
patches are comprised of a series of samples at different pitches,
or it would sound weird. It doesn't - it sounds fine.

>4)  Is it currently possible (or will it ever be possible ?)
>    to use the card with either Cakewalk or Cakewalk for Windows? (In fact,
>    with any sequencer software?)

See above - I ran it with Cakewalk Professional in Windows last night.

>Keyboard magazine in October suggested that Win 3.1 was useless for
>playing back samples along with sequences because
>the timing was appalling (3/4 of a second slop each way).

What keyboard was talking about was triggering .WAV files from MIDI
sequences, which has lousy performance. I didn't notice any problems
playing MIDI sequences with Cakewalk Professional in Windows.

The big problem is that with the current version of the software, you
have to load a sequence in the Media Player first, then in Windows
to get the patches to load correctly. But more on that in another note.

Again, Gravis told me that they want this fixed before Christmas. They
will also be doing more testing with various sequencer programs. In
addition to the MIDI stuff, a newer, better SBOS is supposed to go
out too.

Ken

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

Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 17:33:42 -0500
From: ylee@norton.uwaterloo.ca
Message-Id: <9211132233.AA28562@norton.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: SCDEMOS.ZIP
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Hi everyone,

I've uploaded SCDEMOS.ZIP to epas.utoronto.ca. SCDEMOS are 13 MIDI demo songs
for Roland SCC series synthesizers. I believe these cards ( SCC series )       
conform to general MIDI and all songs play fine on GUS. They sound even better
with new set of percussion patches and new version of playmidi so try them out,
most of them are stereo songs too.

- Yuri

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

Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 10:30:45 PST
From: mtichy@sfu.ca
Message-Id: <9211131830.AA26695@fraser.sfu.ca>
Subject: software and problems
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

	 Well, the author of Blaster Master, Gary Maddox is 
getting his latest version Ultra Master tested by Gravis.  
This will probably be the first shareware release for the GUS 
to appear.
 
	 I've had some strange things I noticed with the 
UltraSound.  I installed the software on my Quantum 240S which 
is drive D running from an Adaptec 1542B and the setup program 
does not work on that drive.  I moved it to drive C, an MFM 
drive and then the setup program for GUS works.  Really strange.
 
> This is because the drums are on channel 10, with no patch
> associated. The
> driver should have the possibility to assign a drum kit to channel
> 10.
 
How do I do this?
 
> Why would you want to run sbos before windows? You can deinstall
> sbos with the -f option.
 
So when I multi-task small dos games, I can get soundblaster 
emulation.
 
Incidentally, I heard a claim on the Adlib Echo, that SB PRO emulation 
was demonstrated by a dealer to this person.  I'm currently 
trying to find out the correct switch.

I thought the Gravis BBS was supposed to up by now.  Where is it?

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

Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 11:00:34 CST
From: eason@ncp1d.StPaul.NCR.COM (Dale Eason)
Message-Id: <9211131700.AA06267@ncp1d.StPaul.NCR.COM>
Subject: Ultrasound Daily Digest V1 #18
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

>If all the discussion on the mailing list is posted to the news, what is the
>point of having a list at all? Just kill the list and start reading news 
>instead.

>Here's my suggestion: periodically (once a week) post info about the list, 
>including how to get on it, how to get files from the server etc.
>Maybe that would reduce the entirely too frequent add-to-list requests on the
>mailing list, too.

I agree.  It is much easier for me to use news than mail.  But of course then we
don't get a history of the messages saved into digests that we can eventually
look back at.   Once a FAQ is created then maybe we won't need a history.

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

Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 12:22:25 EST
From: lin@eecom.gatech.edu (Brian Lin)
Message-Id: <9211131722.AA20872@eecom.gatech.edu>
Subject: unsubscribe
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>



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

Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 11:34:36 -0500
From: tai@eclipse.sheridanc.on.ca (Francis Tai)
Message-Id: <9211131634.AA00265@eclipse.sheridanc.on.ca>
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

================================================================
[With sorries to all the people which I've deleted some parts of 
 their messages..]
================================================================
>Date: 13 Nov 1992 00:24:39 +1000
>From: Steven Junacko <CS19242546G@lust1.latrobe.edu.au>
>Subject: CARD-REVIEW

>Could I get the review of the card please.

   If you have ftp access, You can get the reviews, back issues of the 
digests, midi files, etc.. Off epas.utoronto.ca ftp site.

   or you can use the mail server by sending mail to
ultrasound-request@dsd.es.com with a subject of help and it will give
you the list of commands which you will need..

=================================
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 14:02:08 EET
From: s106275@ee.tut.fi (Anssi Saari)
Subject: Getting the word out

>If all the discussion on the mailing list is posted to the news, what is the
>point of having a list at all? Just kill the list and start reading news 
>instead.

  The point of having the list is that all the issues within the list is
all about GUS.  I know that I wouldn't like to browse though the message
conference with all other messages within it. It justs takes too much time..
this method is far much more easier for me.. 


=====================================
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 10:01:05 -0500
From: adam@epas.utoronto.ca (Adam Iles)
Subject: Getting the word out

>I am not sure how many subscribers you have for the mailing list, but
>if it's a significant number we could always look at trying to start a
>new news group (say comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.gus) that would be
>gatewayed to the mailing list.  This would also ensure that people who
>reply to the digest via news will have their response included in the
>next digest.

   Hmm... If this happens, other people would start asking for their
own newsgroup [ie: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.pas, etc] and as a 
result, the messages on comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard will trickle down..
not that I'm against it.. I'm all for it..  


===================================
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 21:32:09 -0500
From: ylee@norton.uwaterloo.ca
Subject: Patches

Hi,

>I just figured out that percs.pat ( drum set patch ) has only 13 sounds out
>of 46 sounds defined in general MIDI spec. It's already 150kB in size and
>if they put all sounds in one file, it will grow over at least more than 256Kb.
>Possibly more than 500kB... 

 Is it possible for you to post your file containing the drum instrument
listing???


=================================
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 18:25:32 MST
From: ddebry@itchy (Dave DeBry)
Subject: The Administrator's Suggestion

>   Disadvantages:

>   o More work for me.  (I have to stay late on Thursday nights
>anyway, but this is still going to take time.)  I wouldn't even
>volunteer to do this, except I got a letter from Chris Yuzik saying
>how much Gravis appreciates the Digest.  Thanks, Chris!

	 I'm sure that the rest of the GUS owners on the net really 
appreciates your work with the digest.. It's pretty well done..


------------------------------
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 09:56:50 PST
From: biggles@berlioz.nsc.com (Winston Worrell)
Subject: The Infamous Midi Cable

>3: A list of games (present and future) that have direct support for the GUS.

   I second that... It's very time consuming to figure out which
settings work with the games...

>4: Will Gravis ever release a document that describes the GUS and how to 
>   program it that does not contain proprietary information. I would really
>   like to write code for it (at first for my own use). Anybody have
>   any pointers as to how to start?

>ps Is the sample file format proprietary or is there a document that describes
>   it floating around.

   I think this is where the developers package comes in... Anyone cares
to add to this??

========================================

Francis

 ---------------------------------------------------------------
| Francis Tai               | uucp: tai@eclipse.sheridanc.on.ca | 
| 3rD Year Systems Analyst  |   or: francis.tai@canrem.com      |
| Sheridan College          |                                   | 
| Brampton, Ontario, Canada |                                   |
 --------------------------------------------------------------- 

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V1 #19
******************************

