Ultrasound Daily Digest     Mon Aug 16 00:45     Volume 5: Issue  15  

Today's Topics:
			  Another Attmept: Chris6.uue and Chris8.uue
			   BioMenace, Prince of Evil + SBOS Compat?
					 Custom patches, Sonic Sound.
Gus/other sound cards (like sonic sound) .......................................
						GUS and 8-ball deluxe
					  Mega-Em 1.00B014 Available
				  Mega-Em sometimes worse than SBOS?
				  Returned mail: User unknown (fwd)
					 Shorter Patches thoughts ...
					Ultrasound Daily Digest V5 #9
							 Update Disks

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: Sun, 15 Aug 93 6:41:22 PDT
From: Christopher Jon Wilkins <chrisw@leland.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Another Attmept: Chris6.uue and Chris8.uue
Message-ID: <199308151341.GAA10034@power.Stanford.EDU>

O.K. I think there's a real hope this time. I've put Chris6 and Chris8
on epas as uuencoded pkzip files. I know this is weird and I'd appreciate
if someone with an ethernet link could uudecode them and replace the
ascii versions with the uudecoded versions. The current filenenames are
Chris6.uue and Chris8.uue.

I'm pretty sure these ones are O.K. because I downloaded Chris6.uue
from the VAX machine I'm using after uploading and it came back without
any errors (if anything's gone wrong it would have to be in the ftp
stage to epas which seems very unlikely).

Chris7 will have to wait a week (I'm moving back the patch names for
the 808 drum set for Francois but going on holidays first).
Chris6 and 8 use some custom drum patches included in the zips but don't
use Francois' 808 set.

To people on the Chris file Email list - I'll try to get around
to mailing out copies in a weeks time. Or you can work out how to use
the ftp by Email machine.

Chris.

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

Date: Sat, 14 Aug 1993 23:12:42 -0700 (MST)
From: Charred Corpse <mfinkel@gas.uug.arizona.edu>
Subject: BioMenace, Prince of Evil + SBOS Compat?
Message-ID: <Pine.3.07.9308142342.A16828-b100000@argon>

I cannot seem to get Bio Menace (by ID) to work with SBOS. It freezes
every time a digitized sound attempts to play.  Actually it freezes when a
digitized sound would occur even if sounds are turned off.  It also froze
when I had it set to play the AdLib music and then sounds on the PC
squeaker.  The only time I could get it to run properly was without
loading SBOS and just running out of the speaker.  Has anyone been able to
get this game to work - with  what switches etc?  I have never had to use
switches on any of their other games before, so this is an oddity to me. 
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Also, there is a game called Prince of Evil - a japanese game.  I have
tried most switch combinations through sboscfg.exe and have only achieved
to get music to play on it.. no digitized sounds whatsoever.  It doesn't
freeze, just no sounds.  If anyone is familiar with this game, and any
setup peculiarities it might have, please let me know.  

Thanks,

Mike

******************************************************************************
*  --> Mfinkel@gas.uug.arizona.edu * A good day is a flamethrower, a pile of *
*   Tucson, Arizona U.S.A.     *  corpses, and a full tank of gasoline!  *
******************************************************************************

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

Date: Sun, 15 Aug 1993 04:56:17 -0400 (EDT)
From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Custom patches, Sonic Sound.
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9308150415.A11466-d100000@sciborg>

> Date: Sat, 14 Aug 93 2:29:16 PDT
> From: Christopher Jon Wilkins <chrisw@leland.Stanford.EDU>
> Subject: Custom patches, banks, etc.
> Message-ID: <199308140929.CAA05489@power.Stanford.EDU>
> 
> On the topic of how to organise custom patches ...
> 
> The current idea being thrown around is to create a `bank loading' 
> program to swap ultrasnd.ini files. This might be O.K. as a temporary
> solution, but I think we should really seriously lobby Gravis to
> modify the windows drivers instead.
>
[...]

Managing custom banks/patches can be quite complicated.  If we get to
define multiple banks in ultrasnd.ini, how will we choose among them
in a .mid?  We can use controller 0, but then we would have to modify
Media Player and other sequencers to look for it to keep track of 
which program calls occurred in which banks so that the correct patches
can be cached.  Thus, we will need to ask Twelve Tone, Howling Dog,
MidiSoft, Microsoft, etc., to revise their software to accomodate bank 
switching on the GUS.  (I'm assuming that current sequencers ignore
controller 0 when scanning for patches to be cached.)

A possible work-around might be to have the driver load patches as it
encounters new program changes instead of having the sequencer scan the
.mid for patches to cache.  That way, the driver will "experience"
the bank switching messages and be in the right bank for the program
changes that follow.  This will introduce pauses into the song when
it is first played, though.  We can place all controller 0's and 
program changes at the beginning of the melodic tracks so that all the 
pauses occur at once before the song plays, but what about the percs 
which are keymapped?  I guess we can attach a header to the perc track 
that turns the channel volume to zero and then send note on messages for
each of the perc patches that are in the track to force them all to 
load at the beginning of the .mid.  This might seem a little involved,
but I don't think it's any more involved than setting up sampling synths 
to play a particular piece.  

To be really useful, the driver should support the option of NOT 
responding to MME caching calls if it is going to support bank switching
via something like controller 0 and on-the-fly patch caching.  That's
because current sequencers that do not take the bank switching into
consideration can cause a bunch of inappropriate patches to be cached.

> Date: Sat, 14 Aug 93 00:15:27 GMT
> From: thomasvk@blackhl.hacktic.nl (Thomas van Kuipers)
> Subject: The new sound card (what's REAL and what ISN't!) .... Sorry for wrong informatio
> Message-ID: <gsco9B4w165w@blackhl.hacktic.nl>
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I saw your reply about Diamonds Sonic Sound. I'm the guy who 
> placed the artikel.
>  
> A Friend of Mine has bought a card (SOLD his GUS) for about 
> $250. I ALREADY found out that there wasn't RAM on it, BUT IT 
> HAS CACHE RAM (64kB) and has the rom modules. Further it has 

As far as anyone's been able to ascertain, the SRAM cannot be
used to store custom samples.  It appears to only hold instructions 
for the DSP.  Sample memory needn't have the fast access times
of expensive SRAM.

> an upgradubility to 8 mb rom (the dealer said) for about $120. 
> Further It has SCSI-2 on board, it's totally 16-bit (recording 

Be careful about the 16-bit recording.  Another user who bought
an Aria-based card noted that his only records at 12-bit resolution,
even though each sample was represented in 16-bit words.  (Only
12 of those 16 bits would be significant.)  If recording is done
by the Aria chip itself, and not by an auxilliary ADC, then all
Aria cards may only have 12-bit recording.

> and playing) and has HARDWARE comp. Soundblaster / adlib on it. 

The SB/Adlib is emulated.  The card doesn't have an OPL FM chip
on it.  Some say the emulation is worse than SBOS.  Maybe the
sound quality is worse, but I would expect hardware emulation to
work with more games than software emulation.

> So you have for about $50 more the two daugterboards 
> (scsi/16-bit) AND hardware SB comp. (Oke i'll know dan that 
> the aria isn't comp with gus totally)

The Aria isn't GUS-compatible in the slightest.  For example, to
play MODs, you'll have to mix and resample all in software when
dealing with the Aria.  Not very GUS-like, is it?

> I know a lot about computers and i like MY GUS very much, but 
> after that it is still a good priced card with an high 
> performance and it DOES sound better than a GUS, you know.
						  ^^^^^
I hope you meant that the card's _specs_ seem better than the GUS' 
because I'd be very surprised if a 0.5 MB Aria card sounds better
than the Ultrasound.  All I've heard from people who have auditioned
both types of cards is that the GUS definitely sounds better than an
Aria with 0.5 MB of ROM, or even 1.0 MB.  Now, if the ROM was upgraded 
to 8 Megs, then it would not be too surprising that your friend's Aria 
would be the better sounding card.

I find nothing appealing about any of the Aria cards currently released,
including the Sonic Sound.  Lack of RAM, small ROMs.  They don't even have
a MIDI processor like the other ROM-based synths to make them attractive. 
They're basically GUSes that have the RAM ripped out and replaced with
ROM.  The added frills of SCSI and 16-bit recording don't make up for the
lack of flexibility.  The DSP is programmable, but it's also the synth, I
believe.  While it's doing the wavetable synthesis, it might not be able
to do anything else. 

If you're getting weary of the GUS, save your money and wait for
something else.  There are much better cards than the Sonic Sound.

Phat.

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

Date: Sun, 15 Aug 93 01:35:06 GMT
From: thomasvk@blackhl.hacktic.nl (Thomas van Kuipers)
Subject: Gus/other sound cards (like sonic sound) .......................................
Message-ID: <85aq9B2w165w@blackhl.hacktic.nl>

First:

Hi Dan, (pccmoddan@aol.com)
 
In you letter yesterday you said:
						   
"I'm friends with several guys at Diamond so I'll ask them about the 8mb 
ROM..
last thing they told me was that the card could only have 1mb ROM. So far 
the
largest ROM patch sets available have been the 4mb Proteus ones in the
Waveblaster and the Multisound, and the largest Aria ones have 
been 1mb."
 
**** Very easy to have direct contacts to companies as 
Diamond. I then think you know it better than me, but from 
what i heard from the dealer and others and so ... i heard the 
standard Sonic sound is with DSP with 512Kb Rom expandable to 
1mb rom. As you buy the upgrade then (they say) there will be 
8 mb of rom installed (BUT they didn't mention what sort, 
perhaps those fools mean 8 M BIT Rom, which is ofcourse 1 mb 
rom (i know i know i allways should ask those guys EVERYTHING 
i would/must like to know ..... otherwise WE 'experts' can't 
rely on it .... as with 'our' misunderstanding). Nonetheless 
THEY say that it ISN'T patches or so, but special software in 
rom to use more of DSP (voice renognition) (8 (?!) Mb rom of 
SOFTWARE ?????!! weird, but yeah it the dealer). (shouldn't 
rely on dealers, but yeah ......)
 
"When doe it sound better? MIDI? Digital Audio Playback? For MIDI, the 
GUS
sounds better ..."
 
**** It don't know for sure ... yet ... my friend say that SB 
HARDWARE comp. is very handy and the OVERAL sound does sound 
better. And Yes he already has drivers for the 
Midpak/Digpak. 
I don't know yet IF Midi sounds better if played over RAM. I 
know the advantage, but especially if you compare Waveblasters 
4 Mb rom with 1 Mb ram on Gus i don't know (that why i was 
very pleased when i heard about a card with RAM and ROM, which 
is the best i think ... I hope a card with at least 4 Mb rom 
and 1 Mb ram expandable to 4 or 8 mb ram ... better because of 
software and Ram but also don't have to load EVERY patch 
(takes longer .. alright it musn't count but yeah ..))
 
Oh yeah, I preferable Gus over Aria also, because two things:
- One Aria ISN't GUs comp. (only upport the same feature (the 
hope))
- Software doesn't support Aria, gus is software supported 
ALREADY. (at least)
 
By, 
 
BTW, I have a NON-gus question: You don't have a account on 
internet/uucp/usenet or email, don't you? I readed some 
America Online connection or so. I have those programs here 
also, only using a modem from holland to canada is very 
expensive so i don't do it ... The question is: @aol.com is 
the only thing neccessary to Email to someone from AOL? (I 
know then another 'gateway')
 
Thomas van Kuipers
Email: thomasvk@blackhl.hacktic.nl  

Second:

To Phat H Tran,

I don't know what you think (and other guys) but Ram in favour of rom is 
from which point of view you do see. Ram is easy 'upgradable' but with 
you have steady 'working' pathches. I mean i have seen people with SB 16_ 
AND WAVEBLASTER or WITH ROLAND CANVAS and i must say i love my gus and 
don't find the trouble of checking sbos or ail or other drivers to use 
with a game/program, but when you play a few games  and EVERY time you 
has to find out it, than it become disturb me. You don't get that with 
wave/canvas it SIMPLY works (oke i'll know YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR IT), but 
from the working point of view it simply WORKS. (gus will mostly work, 
but the average time to do that is at least a few minutes depending on if 
you use sbos or ail or such)
THAT's the reason i want a card with 4 mb rom and 4 mb ram on IT! 
hopefully it's a GUS!!

Thomas

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

Date: Sun, 15 Aug 93 10:30:49 -0400
From: <cs911084@ariel.yorku.ca>
Subject: GUS and 8-ball deluxe
Message-ID: <9308151430.AA22833@iris.Ariel.YorkU.CA>

Hiya,
Anyone got the settings for this?  I've been using SBOS from my upgrade 
disks (2.06) with the -o2 option, but the sound sounds like it could be 
improved.  I'm thinking of download SBOS 1.2.  Sound reasonable?  I haven't
yet looked at the AIL/Miles drivers.  I don't really know what they are.  Would
the help in this case?  Are they meant as a substitute for SBOS?
Thanks for the help.
Nemo De Furia.

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

Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1993 11:03:16 +0800 (WST)
From: Jayeson Lee-Steere <leesteer@tartarus.uwa.edu.au>
Subject: Mega-Em 1.00B014 Available
Message-ID: <199308160303.LAA18369@tartarus.uwa.edu.au>

Mega-Em 1.00B014

Since I've had few problems with 13B, this will probably be the final
Beta for version 1.00.

Look for megem14b.zip at the following anonymous FTP sites:

archive.epas.utoronto.ca in pub/pc/ultrasound/submit

tartarus.uwa.edu.au in pub/leesteer

New in this release:

After almost giving myself an ulcer, Mega-Em should now work with
386MAX.

Master music volume control.

Pitch bending. I'm not very happy with this. Many MT32 tracks sound like
a $10 dollar walkman with flat batteries.

Increased the demo time to an excessively long 20 mins (unless your a
Civ. fan).


Jayeson Lee-Steere
leesteer@tartarus.uwa.edu.au

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

Date: Sun, 15 Aug 1993 14:51:06 -0500
From: John Riedl <riedl@cs.umn.edu>
Subject: Mega-Em sometimes worse than SBOS?
Message-ID: <199308151951.AA05259@xerxes.cs.umn.edu>

>I agree with Adrian, Megem (13b) offers far more superior sound than
>SBOS.

Hmm.  I've tried Megaem 13b with The Incredible Machine, and the sound
is quite a bit *worse* than with SBOS.  The music sounds out-of-tune,
and the notes sound odd, almost as if two melodies are playing at the
same time.  Am I missing an option or something, or is Mega-em like
SBOS: works with some, doesn't work with others?

John

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

Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1993 09:22:57 +1000 (EST)
From: Andrew See <asee@st.nepean.uws.edu.au>
Subject: Returned mail: User unknown (fwd)
Message-ID: <199308152322.AA10068@arthur.st.nepean.uws.edu.au>

> I am using the MCS stereo program V 1.0 in Windows, to play
> Mids, Wavs, and CD Audio thru the GUS, but I can't get the
> MCS mixer.exe program to run.
> Is it incompatible with the GUS driver?
> 
> 
> 

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

Date: Sun, 15 Aug 93 4:53:44 PDT
From: Christopher Jon Wilkins <chrisw@leland.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Shorter Patches thoughts ...
Message-ID: <199308151153.EAA09901@power.Stanford.EDU>

The general principle of shorter patches is O.K., but I'd like to point out
that AM and particularly FM can chew up a fair bit of CPU time on the GUS.

Now I know that that doesn't mean much to the 486 users (me, usually),
but at the moment I'm on a 386sx and it gets kind of tricky to keep those
notes coming out at full speed. you'll notice that Chris6-8 are a bit
sparser on note usage).

Also, I don't know about everyone else, but my GUS has a pretty severe
frequency rolloff when I sample under 44.1khz. Even when I do it sounds
like it's gone through a fair sharp LPF at about 10khz. 

Anyway, I'm about to try to upload Chris6 again as its own .zip file
with patches. Hopefully this time it may work (trying yet another
different method). I'm going on holidays for a week tomorrow  so
the other two will have to wait until I get back. Sorry about all these false
announcements...

Chris.

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

Date: Tue, 10 Aug 93 21:02:04 EDT
From: n4zfd!frodo@rylos.n2idf.ampr.org (Jim Blakely)
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V5 #9
Message-ID: <745444698@rylos>

Re: MIDI Mapper

Midi Mapper is an intrinsic part of Multimedia Windows. It is not the
place for implementing patch caching - patch caching is, according to
the Multimedia specs, supposed to be handled by the application
program, in most of our cases, that means the game or sequencer. The
GUS multimedia driver does support the API calls that provide
information on current patches, etc., for use by a patch-cache aware
application.

WinJammer is a patch-cache aware application, as is Midisoft
Recording Session, Midisoft Studio, and Windows' own Media Player.

If you obtain a .MID file that does not play any sound, it is an
error on the part of the composer of that file, which is a form of
the old programmer's error - forgetting to initialize. According to
specs, the patch present on a MIDI channel is *undetermined* when a
sequence begins. Some MIDI devices provide a default - others don't.

The solution is to load the .MID file into a sequencer, such as
Recording Session, and select a starting patch for each of the
tracks.

--Jim Blakely

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

Date: Sun, 15 Aug 1993 19:35:15 -0500 (EST)
From: STU_JABIRCHE@VAX1.ACS.JMU.EDU
Subject: Update Disks
Message-ID: <01H1SARRZ6YA8WWIAJ@VAX1.ACS.JMU.EDU>

Got my disks yesterday. Odd. Thank you Gravis. :)
I really like Power Chords. Some odd things, though. When I go to write a bass
line sometimes, if i hit play in the Rhythm editor sometimes, it won't sound,
but when I hit play in the song window, then hit play in the Rhythm editor
it plays. Also, sometimes when I play a file from power chords in Midisoft Rec.
the rhythm track won't play. Cakewalk doesn't have any problem with Power
Chords songs, tho. All in all, nifty stuff. Thanks again. I'm workin on a
Power Chords/Cakewalk hybrid rendition of Stone Temple Pilots' "No Memory",
an instumental piece. The jazz guitar isn't good enuff for this. If anyone can
make me a REALLY reverbed electric guitar patch, I'd be highly appreciative.
-=Marc=-

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V5 #15
*************************************
