GUS Daily Digest            Thu, 19 Jan 95  9:37 PST     Volume 18: Issue  18 

Today's Topics:
                              AMS format
             avi file sound or RE:quarantine and warcraft
                      Drums in Recording Session
                       GUS and Pops and Clicks.
                  GUS Daily Digest V18 #17 (2 msgs)
                               GuS MaX!
                                 help
        Mega-Em not compatible with Helix Multimedia Cloaking
                               Megarace
                               Midi-in
                            Playmidi ideas

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: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 22:18:56 +0200 (EET)
From: Saari Anssi <s106275@cs.tut.fi>
Subject: AMS format

> Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 08:32:38 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Harry C Pulley <hpulley@uoguelph.ca>
> Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V18 #16
 
> AMS format:
> 
> Does anyone know what the .AMS format is?  It seems to be some sort of 
> MOD like format but I can't find a program which recognizes it.  Does 
> anyone know of a program that plays AMS files well on the GUS Max, 

It's the song format Extreme's Tracker uses. It comes with some object
code for a player and a very rudimentary interface which you can
compile with tasm, or make your own...  The tracker is available at
ftp.eng.ufl.edu, I think. Look for etrack*.

> or of a converter to MOD, S3M, MTM or some other common format?

I'd say you can forget about that.

Anssi

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

Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 13:59:06 -0700 (MST)
From: JECHRIST@velara.sim.es.com
Subject: avi file sound or RE:quarantine and warcraft

ragnar@bsp.is writes:

> I recently (well, before Christmas) changed the sound drivers in Windows to 
> 5.47. I didn't notice anything strange until I played an avi file.....
>
> I get absolutely no sound in avi files. Not just choppy (I had fixed that)
> but now I get absolutely nothing....

A few digests back, I wrote about this same avi  problem with another problem
to do with King's Quest 7 (thanks, Chris (chrisj@seattleu.edu).  That tip got
me into KQ7 but now it is aborting with an underflow or divide by zero error
very shortly after it starts.  I need to get back to KQ7 when I have time.).

Anyway, on the avi problem, I am using the 3.59 disks which uses the same
Windows drivers (v5.47) I believe.  Although I do not have a solution yet, I
have something that sort of works.  By the way, yes, I have reduced the DMA
record and playback buffer to 512 (no help) and yes, I have the v1.1 video for
Windows.  After unchecking the L/R Lock box in Mixer (which I don't think is
really necessary), I found if I started the avi file and then quickly stop and
start it again (basically a double click on the play button), the sound plays
fine.  This is far from ideal, but at least you can hear the avi.  I would
like a true solution myself, so if anyone has any more ideas, I'm sure several
GUS users would like to hear...

Thanks in advance and Good luck to all...
Jeff Christensen
jechrist@sim.es.com

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

Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 10:45:08 GMT
From: Clarke Brunt <CLARKE@lsl.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Drums in Recording Session

>The question is: how can I play MAX's drums from the
>keyboard? In Midisoft Recording Session I can play all patches via MIDI, but
I 
>can't access the drums. I have MIDI channel 10 set to "1024 Drums" in the
MIDI
>mapper, channel 16 to MIDI OUT and the rest to MIDI synth. In the demo song
>of RecSession they sound great. I can also play them writting directly the
notes
>on the pentagram, but not from the outside. There must be an easy way that I
>just can't find...
>By the way: in the MIDI mapper, what's the difference between chosing 
>Ultra 1024 and Ultra 512? Is it just a name for the bank or it loads
different
>patches?

If the drum patch was actually loaded onto the GUS, and your keyboard
was sending on channel 10, and the app had 'MIDI thru' or whatever
enabled, then they would play.

Most likely, the patches just aren't loaded.

How about just putting a dummy note in the MID for each drum you
intend to use, play it (to get the patches loaded), and then
should play from the keyboard.

As for MIDI Mapper, you could avoid it completely by not choosing to
send output to it from Recording Session (can't rememeber what the
option is called). Choose to go straight to the GUS instead.

If you do use MIDI Mapper, then you should *only* be using the various
configurations with numbers in them (512, 1024) if you have an app
which does not load patches. Normally you just select the setup called
'UltraSound' or something. The ones with numbers map all the GM patches
and drums onto a restricted set which will fit in the particular amount
of memory at one time, so you won't always get the patch you ask for.
MIDI Mapper does *not* load patches for you - if you must use
the setups with the numbers, then you have to load the matching set
of patches by some other method - see thes sample .mid files with
the same number (512, 1024) in their name and e.g. use PatchMan's
option to load patches from MIDI file.

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

Date: Wed, 18 Jan 95 13:00:16 -0800 (PST)
From: Francis Li <fli@nermal.santarosa.edu>
Subject: GUS and Pops and Clicks.

I read that someone was having problems with pops and clicks in SVGA 
games with the GUS.

Yes, the pops and clicks are coming from your video card.  I had the 
problem also with the Orchid Kelvin 64 VLB video card.

The pops and clicks come when a program (like WC3 or SC2000) uses the 
built-in BIOS of the card.

I have found that running a software VESA Extensions TSR (like the one 
that comes with WC3) will solve the problem.

The TSR that comes with WC3 (UNIVBE.EXE) works, and is also nice in the 
fact that it can be easily uninstalled...

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

Date: Wed, 18 Jan 95 22:13:47 -0400
From: "Chris Campbell" <campbell@fox.nstn.ca>
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V18 #17

On Wed Jan 18 09:37:03 PST 1995, 
GUS Server  <gus-general-request@gaia.ucs.orst.edu> wrote:

>Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 21:47:52 -0500
>From: adu@freenet.vcu.edu (Andrew Du)
>Subject: GUS & AWE 32
>
>When you mentioned a "GUS emulator for AWE 32", did you mean an
>"AWE 32 emulator for GUS"?  If there is ever an AWE32 emulator
>for the GUS, that would be awesome!

Why?  What can the AWE do that the GUS can't?

And where does AG get off promising PMODE mega-em to their customers by the 
end of 1994?  It's the 3rd week in January, 1995.  Where the heck is it?

 ____________________________________________________________
 \ JPEG Picture: ftp://ftp.nstn.ca/in.coming/campbell.jpg   /
 / First Tune (S3M) ftp://ftp.nstn.ca/in.coming/heavymf.zip \ 
 ------------------------------------------------------------
|      campbell@fox.nstn.ca / Exams (x'ams), n. Hell         |
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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

Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 20:28:04 +1030 (CST)
From: harrie@apanix.apana.org.au
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V18 #17

Hi Martinus

I am a lover of the GUS but not a musicus.  That does not stop me from 
experimenting and trying to learn from people who know more than I do.  
You must be one of them seeing you are at Delft....

Would love to get more info from you, Martinus and bij voorbaat dank.

Harrie Scholten
14 Railway Ave
Bridgewater SA 5155.

Snail or E-mail is fine.

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

Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 21:09:30 -0500 (EST)
From: lalancej@JSP.UMontreal.CA
Subject: GuS MaX!

OK, first, I've just change my motherbaord because the old one didn't
have the NMI procedure enabled... (warranty!) Now the strange part, 
the only way that they could use my max in the new motherbaord 
was to open Disable CD-Rom jumper (JP3)?? If not, the system don't 
want to start, it stopped rigth after the Starting Ms-Dos message appear...
Bizarre....!

Now, I've posted to gus@tech.com but still no response. I think this
is the cause of SBOS and MegaEm problem... They NEVER works for me
in any games, and yes, i've read the g-list.... I've tried different
settings, but nothings happens.... Any ideas??????? 

Here is my system:
486 dx2-66 256k cache/ 8megs RAM/ CH-498B VLB motherbaord
CL-5428 VLB 1meg video card / Vision QD6500 VLB IDE card (controller)
Modem USR Sporter 14.4fax 
and Gus MAX rev 1.8 1meg...

Thanks!!!
-- 
Jose Lalancette, Dept. Informatique
Universite de Montreal
e-mail: lalancej@jsp.umontreal.ca

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

Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 15:37:01 EST
From: hallo276@osiris.elte.hu
Subject: help

I have a problem with the following games with my gus card: Warcraft, Beneath 
the steel sky. Can anybody help me out? 
             Thanks!                         
                         Herpai Gergely

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

Date: Thu, 19 Jan 95 08:51:00 MST
From: tschmidt@pefs1.micron.com (Tom Schmidt)
Subject: Mega-Em not compatible with Helix Multimedia Cloaking

I recently bought and installed Helix Software's Multimedia
Cloaking (from the makers of Netroom).  After installing their cloaking
drivers for MSCDEX and CACHECLK (cloaked replacement for SMARTDRV), I found
that Mega-Em 2.03 would no longer work.  It gives a "EMM compatibility
problem: Can not expand server GDT" error.  I've try using both 386MAX 7
and DOS 6.2's EMM386 for EMM drivers, but neither work if the CLOAKING.EXE
driver is loaded.  I tried using the -RGDT and -FGDT options of Mega-Em
as well, but all they do is lock up the system.  At this point, Mega-Em
is the only application that I have found that is not compatible with
the Multimedia Cloaking drivers.

I looked through prior digests, and all I could find is that
Mega-Em starting with V2.02 supports Netroom 3.  But it appears that the
cloaking driver for Multimedia Cloaking is different than the one for
Netroom 3.

Gravis, does the new Mega-Em that we have all been waiting for
since before Christmas fix this problem as well?  Can't we see an alpha
or beta version of the new Mega-Em like we did for MAXSBOS?  I'm sure
that you'd have hundreds of users that would gladly Beta site test it
for you, running many more applications than you have internally.

My configuration:  486DX33VLB, DOS6.2, WfWG 3.11, GUS 2.4 with 1MB,
V3.59 GUS software.

Thanks...Tom

_____      ___     Tom L. Schmidt, Manager, Component Characterization
  |  |    /   \    Micron Technology, Inc.
  |  |    \___     2805 E. Columbia Rd.  Mail Stop 376  P.O. Box 6
  |  |        \    Boise, Idaho USA  83707-0006
  |  |____\___/    tschmidt@pefs1.micron.com

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

Date: Wed, 18 Jan 95 7:54:42 WET
From: MAMMET Jean-Francois <mammet@univ-mlv.fr>
Subject: Re: Megarace

In yesterday's digest Terry Lee asked for info about megarace with the gus.

There is a patch available directly from cryo on most bbs (didn't check on
ftp,
but I can't seem why they would'nt be there too)
This patch allows you to use sbos with this game.

I'd like to say that this game was programed to have a native gus support
with soudtracks music. I know from the musician from Cryo that these
soudtracks
where ready, and even ths gus routines ! As I know, Interplay didn't wanted to
include the gus support, but I don't know why ...

That's the same thing with dragon lore !
But with Commander Blood, the latest game from Cryo, you'll have a gus native
support in the new version, not the first one (they had a lat minute bug)
If you like impressive musics, you can buy it, it's awesome !
--
Mamos Of Lego System, Aka Jean Francois Mammet
mammet@merlin.univ-mlv.fr

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

Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 22:42:59 +0000 (GMT)
From: Quentinus <Samuel.Marshall@durham.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Midi-in

On Wed, 18 Jan 1995, GUS Server wrote:

> jase@nedlog.demon.co.uk (Jason Nedlog) writes:
> 
> > All gus functions (wav and midi) appear to work perfectly from both DOS
and
> > Windows except MIDI-IN which does nothing.
> 
> > However I suspect that I can reject hardware/connector/wiring failure as
if I
> > use the midifier.exe, MIDI-IN works OK.
> 
> Most likely is that your new motherboard doesn't support NMI. It is used by
> SBOS and by Windows for MIDI IN. If possible, bring your system back as it's
> not really an 100% IBM PC Compatible...I'd check it out via SBOS to be
sure...

Do you use Stacker? If so, Novell's DPMI function causes MIDI-IN to work 
incorrectly.. the solution is not to use the DPMI loader (Gravis tech 
support say they're working on the problem). This problem really got me 
bad 'cos I was working on a midi-sequencer at the time... it suddenly 
stopped working, and I thought it was my program, when it was Stacker...

By the way, we can't get UAKM to give sound, even though it uses HMI 
drivers. Music is fine and the card autodetects right, but the sound 
is garbled. (It seems to play 1/2 a second, then skip a second, then play 
1/2 a second, etc). Is there a fix for this? The manual says it's because 
our video card is too slow (which it is) but this shouldn't affect the 
game when it's not displaying any video (eg the sound setup, or when you 
look at an item).

Sam

--> Home Page <-- ** Go on, try it! ** --> http://www.dur.ac.uk/~d405ua <--

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

Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 15:22:42 GMT
From: "Mark D. Billinge" <PPYLMDB@ppn3.physics.nottingham.ac.uk>
Subject: Playmidi ideas

I was just using Playmidi, and thought how nice it would be if there 
was a realtime oscilloscope or FFT display.  I doubt it's beyond the 
speed of many PCs to do this, and surely it's just a matter of 
fiddling with the data from the line or mic in of the GUS, which 
seems to contain the synthesized output - at least it does on mine!

Just a thought, but it would look very impressive.

Mark

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End of GUS Daily Digest V18 #18
*******************************
