GUS Daily Digest            Tue, 21 Dec 93  0:07         Volume 9: Issue  21  

Today's Topics:
						   Again, 7th guest
						 au to wav converter
						   Best(?) speakers
				   Dear Cliff I know how you feel.
								Fed up
					 Gravis Gamepad and Doom v1.1
				   GUS Daily Digest V9 #20 (2 msgs)
				   Police Quest 4 causes headaches
				   Sound effects in doom - trouble
					standard v. 386 enhanced mode

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: Mon, 20 Dec 93 10:55:22 -0600
From: ks25!dougw@uucp-gw-2.pa.dec.com
Subject: Again, 7th guest

I plead to the good people of this digest for the 7th guest sound files
that I need for 7th guest.  I read in one of the digests that it is 7gfix3
or something along that line.

Please tell me where I can get the file.  Ftp site, dir path, and filename
will be greatly appreciated since I can only FTP stuff using FTP mail.

My account is going away soon, so please email responses to:

chuck@ks25.uucp 

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

Date: Mon, 20 Dec 93 15:26:17 EST
From: Philippe Chayer <chayer@info.polymtl.ca>
Subject: au to wav converter

Hi,

I'm looking for an *.au to *.wav converter (*.au is sounds for the suns
at school on unix) is one ? if so where can I get it ?

Thanx in advance, and keep on gussing !
-- 
		   Philippe Chayer
				   chayer@info.polymtl.ca
_________________________________________________________cut here______
If it's there and you can see it, then it's real.
If you cannot see it and it's there, then it' transparent.
If you cannot see it and it's not there, then you deleted it...
						  ;)       See ya !!!

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

Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1993 10:33:07 -0500 (EST)
From: RBIRCHAL%WNEC.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: Best(?) speakers

I have a quick question about speakers for my GUS output.

I currently have the card attached to a low-end Pioneer receiver
(20 watts per channel) using some OLD three way no-name speakers.
I have looked at the review of amplified speakers in the Oct. issue
of PC/Computing (they recommend the Acoustic Research) and was
wondering if I could or should get a new pair of speakers for
$100-200?  Will I see a big difference in sound quality?  What
should I get?  Thanks.

Russ Birchall    RBIRCHAL@WNEC.BITNET

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

Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1993 22:11:58 +0500 (EST)
From: Gunnar Swanson <gunnar@gibbs.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: Dear Cliff I know how you feel.

Dear Cliff,
	I read your letter of frustration and I agree.  The GUS is a
very flaky card and with out the digest we'd all be sunk.  I still think
that the card is not for those who love to tinker with their computer. 
Also if I had to do it all again I might get another card that had fewer
problems.

	I think the main thing would be to clean up the initial set up and
get Mega-Em out to all of the users.  The GUS may be the next sound
standard or it may fade away as the BetaMax of sound cards. I recently
upgraded to one meg and reevaluated the card and the sound is really rich
and those games that I have written for it sound great.  Also those games
that have Roland support are great with it too.  I would love the GUS to
really take off but I do not know since it has problems as you mentioned.

	Oh well it is only money and with any computer gizmo it is out of
date the minute you buy it.

	Anyway I wanted you to know that you are not alone in your
frustration.  Oh and if they have threatened your life and flamed your
wife for blaspheming the GUS the almighty, they did it to me.  



			Merry Christmas
			  Peace on Earth
				Good will to all men


			Gunnar Swanson





P.S. Cliff we should start a cult of GUS survivors support group  :-).


gunnar@gibbs.oit.unc.edu


end.

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

Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1993 10:17:03 -0700 (MST)
From: jknepley@nyx10.cs.du.edu (Jim Knepley)
Subject: Re: Fed up

re: Cliff Addy being fed up

Cliff,

  I'm sorry you're having such bad experiences with your Ultrasound.  I, 
for one, do not share your frustration.

  I have never gotten mail back from Gravis either, then again, I wrote 
one message to them that bounced.  The question was answered two days 
later in comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard, however.  Oh yeah, and I got my 2.06a 
disks with the big "stuck in customs" mailing.  IMHO, the 2.06l disks are 
just as good, I'm not a big fan of the composers they sent.

  So, you don't have internet access?  No biggie, Gravis is on FidoNet 
too, which is just about as large as the internet, just a lot slower.  If 
you're lucky enough to live around a "Support Board" then you don't need 
the internet anyway.  I only wish there were a support board in the 
Denver area, maybe I'll start one.

  Compatibility.  Ah, the battle cry of the truly desperate.  FYI, I've 
been using PCs since 1981 as well (with a year or two on a Commodore 
before that) and have had a lot more trouble with hard drive controllers 
than with my Ultrasound.  Every game I own uses either SBOS or the Miles 
drivers without complaint (although I am disappointed in Sierra for going 
32bit and NOT updating the drivers), MegaEm improves things even more.  
The only game that I have that I'm NOT satisfied with is Stunts with SBOS 
(WAY too slow), so I use MegaEm...

  "Stupid users?"  Nyah.  If the Ultrasound doesn't like your 
motherboard, you're history; bad luck hardly reflects user intelligence.  
There are stupid users out there, that's for sure, but they're the ones 
that returned the thing after an hour and a half because they didn't know 
what an IRQ was and why they had to have the ULTRASND variable set first.

  If this seemed mildly like a flame it's because it was a mild flame.  
You're certainly allowed to voice your dissent, but really, what did it 
accomplish other than getting you a warm fuzzy feeling?

Jim

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

Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1993 23:15:38 +0800 (WST)
From: Roderick Nasir DAVID <ruffus@tartarus.uwa.edu.au>
Subject: Gravis Gamepad and Doom v1.1

About v1.1 Doom ,

I installed it and well apart from the gamepad problem I also found
problems with the Music and Sound for the Ultrasound. The music seemed
alot slower and the digital (when used) seemed to 'reduce' the speed
of the game considerably.

I think the bottom line is... if your into ultrasound products..stay
with v0.99!!! ;) Seems all the gravis stuff works well there!

Cheers and Beers,

Nasir.
-- 
*  Cheers to the W.A Greens! | "My mistress eyes are Nothing Like the Sun"  *
*                    _+-_|\  |                William Shakespear            *
*                   /      \ |   Nasir David at the...                      *   
* Perth , W.A ----> +_.--._/ |   University Of Western Australia.           *

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

Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1993 00:49:03 -0700 (MST)
From: Ido Bar-tana <bartana@uni.Colorado.EDU>
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V9 #20

Andy,

Thanks for airing your frustrations with the GUS on the digest. I hope
it will make the supprot w're getting from Gravis a little more serious. While
I totally agree that the GUS doesn't get the top-down support it should
from Gravis, I'd like to put things in perspective (my perspective):

I've been an SB owner for about three years, during which sometimes I
programmed the sodding card. I have mailed/called/left messages to Creative
Labs COUNTLESS times during that period. NEVER have I goet ANY reply from
them. I have vowed since not to by any product made by CL and not to recommend
any of their products. Frankly, Creative Labs turned me into a passionate
Sound Blaster hater.

Then I got my GUS. WOW. What grassroot support. In my 12 years of PCing I don't
recall a single hardware product that got so much bottom-up support. Sure, I had
to fiddle and tweak it a bit, but it was part of the fun. Than I got my 2.06 disks,
and downloaded patches published by Gravis (you don't need Internet access, BTW, they
have many BBS mirrors around the country, and the distribution disks list them all).

I like Gravis because they're not Creative Labs: they're small, efficient and
on the whole responsive to most of the gripes their customers have. Having said
that, I'd wish they'd straighten up their database once and for all so all
customers would get the 2.06 disks. If you still havn't got them, I'm willing
to ftp you a copy of mine.

Ido



type 'finger bartana@sashimi.colorado.edu' for 
my address index card.

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

Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1993 14:28:04 -0500 (EST)
From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion)
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V9 #20

> From: Cliff Addy <raddy@unf6.cis.unf.edu>
> Subject: Fed up
> 
> 1)  Gravis themselves:  I read in a recent digest about some poor fella
> who had to wait three months to receive his 2.06a disks.  Well, buddy,
> I've been waiting *six* months and have seen hide nor hair of mine.

The disks are all shipped at the same time in big bunches, that's why some
people missed a shipment and had to wait. But in your case, have you tried
calling Gravis? That's the first thing i'd do. Then, after they confirm
they have your registration card, send an email after a while to remind them
(or pressure or whatever), so you'll know the status of your disks.

> And
> neither has my friend, who bought hers 6 weeks earlier.  And yes, we sent
> in the registration cards.

At the correct address? Have you checked with Gravis that they had received the
cards?

> Add to that the complete ignoring of several help requests mailed to 
> Gravis.  Or for that matter, product purchase requests.  Just a simple
> "piss off, we're too busy" would have been nice, since I would have known
> not to wait.  But nothing, nada, zilch ....

Mail or email? If it's thru mail, dont you start wondering if you dont have
the old Gravis address? If it's thru email, then i am very surprised that
John Smith hasn't answered... hell must have frozen. What email addy did you
use?

> 2) Compatibility problems:  It won't work with this, or that, or that ....
> 
> It's simple little stuff like have to initialize the Windows driver every
> time Windows starts.

I have not heard about this problem... could you explain? what is there to
initialize? You just start windows and it works, no? At least all the multi-
media systems i've sold all work 100% in windows...

> Or that having software work seems to be dependent on
> the particular hardware configuration, the type of BIOS used, and the phase
> of the moon.

This is clearly your frustration showing, but the GUS works very well. All
my friends,family and clients have GUS and they were mostly installed by me and
they have not had a single problem to date. Of course if your motherboard is
faulty, then you can expect problems, but in my case i test everything i sell
so i know there is NO problem with them. Why do you think it cost a little
more when you buy something fully configured instead of just the card thru
a mail order? People who dont know computers too well dont install hardware
themselves.

> After several weeks of trying to upgrade the RAM, I finally
> determined that the GUS only likes *CERTAIN BRANDS* of RAM.

All 424256 or 44256 chips work flawlessly on the GUS. The Sanyo that have
surfacede recently are 324256 (note the *3*) and so will not work on the GUS.
I've sold full of DRAM for all the GUSes i've installed plus to some netters
and all work with no problem at all.

>I've had 12 years of working with PCs and *NEVER*had this much ongoing trouble 
>with a piece of hardware.

Clearly you have not had to install intelliports, any eicon products, SCSI
systems, HP scanners, frame grabbers and network cards etc... All these are
clearly more prone to problematic installs. The GUS, to the contrary have been
always plug and play up to now (well over 40 installed, owning 2 myself).

> If *I* have this much trouble, I really feel for the 
> poor schmuck who finds a GUS under his Christmas tree.

He will put the card into his computer, turn it on, type install, and voila.
Of course, if it doesn't work (it may happen), the person will surely ask
the place where it was bought how to correct the problem (THE reason not to
buy mail order when you are a newbie).

> Of course, if Gravis
> would answer my email ....

I have no problem emailing them... what email do you use?

> 3)  Product availability:  God help those without InterNet access.  They'd
> never know about epas or the Digest.

Actually, for any product (i've sold most anything you can think of), even as
a VAR, i've never received upgrades thru post. It was either thru compuserve
or thru the company BBS. In the case of Gravis, it's available on america
online, compuserve, Gravis BBS, all gravis nodes (a lot of bbs) plus internet.
There is not another product that has that level of support. Also, any good
reseller will have all the software upgrades available.

> *Is* there a CD-ROM or 16-bit recording
> daughterboard available?  Where do I buy one?  How to upgrade?  Of course,
> if Gravis would only answer my email ....

The CDROM boards have been available for quite a long time. You can find them
in good retail stores. The 16 bit option is ready and i think it should be out
very soon. I'm sure the first batch is almost all reserved however, so act
fast to order it from your local computer store.

> I think you see the common theme running through all this.  *WAKE UP,
> GRAVIS!!!  YOUR CUSTOMER BASE IS GETTING PISSED OFF!!!*

Gravis is the manufacturer, so the disk are their business, but the instalation
is your computer store business. I think it is well worth it paying 20$ more
to a local store than to a mail order house if you have good after sale
services.

> You're hiding in
> your little shell in Canada and expecting the few of us out here in positions
> to talk to tell the world to beat a path to your door.

How can you say they are hiding? they answer regularly their email and that is
not a small task. I know, cause i have a huge amount of gus related email in
my mail box everyday (around 50) so i can imagine gravis getting at least that
amount in their mailbox.

> As an instructor here at UNF, I've been recommending
> the GUS, mainly because I thought the Internet support would outweigh the
> compatibility problems.

Which it does by several orders of magnitude.

> However, given the lack of response from Gravis, 
> I'm going to stop.  The SB make have poor sound, but all too often, the 
> GUS has no sound at all.

Gravis are working their ass off to release software upgrades, new products
and answer their customers, so you have to give them credit here. I've had
a lot more problems with Creative Labs and Turtle Beach over the years.

> As a side note, I was in the mall the other day at Babbage's.

And we all know how knowledgeable the salesmans at babbage's are.

> A customer
> asked about the GUS and was told that they had stopped carrying it.  Seems
> they sold about a dozen of them and they were all returned because they
> were incompatible.  And don't try blaming it on ignorant users.

Why not? Clearly i'm not the only one who had no problem with a large amount
of GUS, but when i see again and again the same questions (most of the time
answered in the last 24 hour) asked, i wonder if people are ignorant or just
plain lazy. Most people dont read the manuals that come with their software
or hardware and dont read the FAQs or digest even if they have access to it.

> Just who
> do you think the vast majority of the market is?

Informed buyers who buy their products from knowledgeable people.

> From: n4zfd!frodo@rylos.n2idf.ampr.org ("James M. Blakely")
> Subject: GUS Daily Digest V9 #18
> 
> When you use the Windows versions of the Sierra games, and properly load the 
> GUS with patches, it'll work fine. Sierra games are MPC compliant games, and 
> support all Windows sound cards.

You wouldn't have to load the patches if Sierra games were MPC compliant.
I have a microsoft note here that says MPC requires patch caching.

> From: phaedrus%triples@Triples.Math.McGill.CA (Phong Co)
> Subject: Line-in while playing DOOM?
> 
> I've got a portable CD player hooked up to the GUS line-in, and can use
> the CD while in Windows, playing Wolf3D, etc.  It seems that games which
> support the GUS directly, such as DOOM or Epic Pinball, does not mix the
> line-in.  I've got -l on ultrinit, with no results.

True, these reset the line in. However, the CDROM in cannot be disabled by the
games, so just do a cable for the connector. molex 4 inline on one side, a
stereo minijack or dual RCA on the other. Check out jp5_jp7.txt on epas. I
give the pin assignment and also you can use the cable for JP5 on JP7 (cdrom)
too, so this is basically the cable you have to build.

> From: Brian Go <bgo@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
> Subject: Loud Pops from my Sound System.
> 
> I have once again hooked up my stereo to  my GUS, and once again the
> sucker is now giving me these static pops every once in a while.  Has
> anyone else experienced this?

Does your sound system audio ground is isolated from the power ground? If not
you may get either a 60hz buzz or occasional pops (depending on the input
stage). I've posted a few solutions like a ground loop isolator, lifting the
ground on the sound system and other things like that on comp.sys.ibm.pc.
soundcard last thursday.

> From: Vincent Poy <hippo@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu>
> Subject: Microphones
> 
>   I am looking a Microphone to use with the GUS, what Microphones
> are available that are Stereo? Thanks!

You dont need a stereo microphone. A mono microphone will work ok. Only thing,
it has to be either dynamic or self powered condenser. Check micro.arj if you
want to make one or use a Mac microphone. (I've put it on epas, but dont
remember the directory). BTW, somebody had promised me a Mac microphone...
If you are out there, i'm still interested you know, cause i had to canibalise
my mac microphone to do micro.arj...

>   I'm planning on getting new speakers for my GUS as the Labtec
> SS-700 I have kinda sucks.  Is there any particular speaker anyone out
> there would recommend? I saw Altec Lansing, Labtec, Koss, Sony, AR
> Speakers but are not sure which is the best...

The best are the Accoustic Research 570 powered partners. If you have nowhere
that amount of money, get Sony SRS-D2K (i've heard about D4K but dont know if
they have the same quality/price ratio).

> or maybe I should get a
> cheap SONY Receiver and hook up some Polk or Infinity Speakers ;-) Thanks!

It's purely a budget thing...

BTW, it's just out of curiosity i checked the Gus general today. Microphone,
speakers, amplifiers, interconnects and music at large is discussed in gus-
music. That's where i'm at, along with most people serious about their GUS
making music...

Ciao,
-- 
Francois Dion
	'  _   _   _ 
 CISM (_) (_)  _) FM       Montreal , Canada       Email: CISM@ERE.UMontreal.CA
	  (_)  / . _)             10000 Watts          Telephone no: (514) 343-7511
_______________________________________________________________________________
Audio-C-DJ-Fractals-Future-Label-Multimedia-Music-Radio-Rave-Video-VR-Volvo-...

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

Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1993 20:33:18 -0800 (PST)
From: davep@teleport.com (Dave Pancoast)
Subject: Police Quest 4 causes headaches

I hope someone else out there has purchased Police Quest 4, and knows a 
little about how to get it to work with the Gravis.  Here's what I've tried:
-Sbos with ALL of the possible combinations of X and O
-Megaem on both Sound Canvas and MT-32 modes, and with both Sound Blaster 
and Thunderboard for sound effects, as well as "none"
-All of the above with the Sound Blaster substitute option
-Ultramid: both versions 1.05 and the GUSDRV.EXE I ascertained off of epas
-ALL of the above after updating my game to version 1.0b, the patch for 
which I got from Sierra Completely Off-Line's BBS in California

Here's what it gives me in return:
-with certain combinations of sbos parameters, I get a very happily 
locked computer
-with other sbos combinations, I get a very odd error featuring lots of 
hex codes and other fun stuff
-Megaem gives me error number 29 when attempting to use any kind of 
digital audio, and when digital audio is off, I get no music and a very 
slow game
-Ultramid and GUSDRV just bail out with the hex codes again

The only way I can get anything to work on the thing is to run it through 
Windoze, and even then I have to load LOAD1024.MID, or something like 
that, before hand to get any music, while the audio is sporadic at best.  
As a non-sequiter, did someone say something about Sierra giving out free 
Gus's when their products don't support them?  I'd like to get a couple 
freebies out of this program, or maybe I'll sue them for lost hair and 
brain cells.  I've tried what seems like everything, to no avail.  I 
desperately hope someone out there was the one on the phone with Sierra 
Out-of-Line when I was trying to call them, and can give me a brief, no 
more than 15,000 word essay, description of what I have to do to make 
their otherwise excellent game better.  Oh well.  Woe is me.
					-Dave Pancoast
					davep@teleport.com

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

Date: Mon, 20 Dec 93 12:38:30 EST
From: "Frank Pikelner" <frank@cs.yorku.ca>
Subject: Sound effects in doom - trouble

I've installed and finished Doom over the weekend. The only thing I could not 
do was get the sound effects working on my GUS (1MB). The music plays fine
and I ended up using the speaker for sound effects. For sound effects the 
gravis only game me very soft pops when the gun was fired. Have I done 
something wrong in the install or setup? I triedd both 4 and 2 channels when
running the game setup. Also since I upgraded my hard drive I reinstalled the
2.06 disks - did I miss someting during the reinstall maybe?

THanks,

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	   ___/     /   Frank Pikelner                                        /~\
	  /     _/ /    Technical Assistant, Department of Computer Science  <v.v>
	 __/   ___/     York University (Toronto, Canada)                    ,\^/;
   _/    _/         Internet: frank@cs.yorku.ca                          _{!}_
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1993 10:42:15 +1100 (EST)
From: Charlie Brady <charlieb@tplrd.tpl.oz.au>
Subject: Re: standard v. 386 enhanced mode

> Date: Sun, 19 Dec 93 02:13:00 PST
> From: n4zfd!frodo@rylos.n2idf.ampr.org ("James M. Blakely")
> Subject: GUS Daily Digest V9 #18
> 
> Someone erroneously once said:
> 
> 
> > Yes, it does.  The GUS is the first card to use the MultiMedia extensions
> > that are new with Win3.1.  They are loaded only in Enhanced mode.  There
> > is no way to fool the GUS driver into running in Standard mode.  I know,
> > I've tried. :)
> 
> > Other cards work in Standard mode because their drivers pre-date the
> > MultiMedia extensions.
> 
> The multimedia extensions have nothing to do with this point. The multimedia 
> extensions, in fact, require only a '286 and standard mode.
> 
> The reason the GUS driver won't run under standard mode is that it wasn't 
> written to run under standard mode. I imagine they probably used some '386 
> specific instructions.

The '386 mode allows access to specific I/O ports and memory locations to
be trapped, so that the effects of accessing those locations on other
hardware can be emulated.

Charlie Brady * (W) charlieb@tplrd.tpl.oz.au * (H) charlieb@budge.apana.org.au
"Make it as simple as possible - | Tel: (02) 413 6838 ____Telectronics__| /\__
  but no simpler"   Einstein, A  | Fax: (02) 413 6868 Pacing Systems    \/  

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

End of GUS Daily Digest V9 #21
******************************
