Ultrasound Daily Digest     Sun Aug  8 00:07     Volume 5: Issue   7  

Today's Topics:
				   2.06 Disks and Midiconnector Box
				Changing Chord Rhythm Patch in PowCho
					  Gravis Ultrasound support!
					   Improve Your Gus Patches
						  I stand corrected
							MegaEM Author

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.

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Date: Sat, 07 Aug 1993 16:22:13 SST
From: "FLAT^^TOP AT DISCS, NUS, SINGAPORE" <kohkhang@iscs.nus.sg>
Subject: 2.06 Disks and Midiconnector Box
Message-ID: <00970AC7.796B01A6.465@dec7000.iscs.nus.sg>

Help people,

i've sent in my GUs registration card ages ago (like 2 months back) but i think
to the wrong address (my card came with the 1.21 disks) I faxed my registration
ans also an order for the MIDI connector box about 3 weeks after i mailed my
registration card (this time i got the right fax number) and I got a return fax
from Advanced Gravis, stating that my order is being processed and the MIDI
connector will only ship abt 3-4 weeks from then....(think his name was Roger
Poo) Later on, i mailed them again, informing them to include my 2.06 disks
with the ordered MIDI connector box. This time i sent it to the new address in
Canada.

Well, recently, a friend of mine couldn't locate my name in the list of registered gravis
users, and i have yet to get my MIDI box yet.

how can i go about rectifying this ? Can i check if they have really got my
order and are processing it ? how can i make sure i get registered ? 
Can anyone help ?

Can someone also post the complete Gravis Address, Fax and Tel numbers for
reference oor email it to me...

i'd appreciated any help or suggestions.

regards

Jerry Koh
/===============================================================\
| Jerry Koh aka FLAT^^TOP  Email Address: kohkhang@iscs.nus.sg  |
|    MSWindows User, Games Fanatic, Battletech and SW Fan !     |
\===============================================================/

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Date: 07 Aug 93 08:18:09 EDT
From: "Eric Bell, Howling Dog Systems" <71333.2166@CompuServe.COM>
Subject: Changing Chord Rhythm Patch in PowCho
Message-ID: <930807121808_71333.2166_DHQ60-4@CompuServe.COM>

> From. Brennan Stephens <stephens@cs.unc.edu>
> Subject. Oh ye gurus hear my plea...

> 2.  Is there any way to change the rythm patch in Power Chords?  Can I
> change it in .ini file?

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

Date: 7 Aug 93 08:31:00 PST
From: CVADRSFX@CSUPomona.Edu
Subject: Gravis Ultrasound support!
Message-ID: <9308071532.AA07165@orca.es.com>

I must say that Advanced Gravis' support on their GUS cards is first
rate!  This is the first company I've ever come acrossed with that truly
cared about their customers.  I have a bunch of other peripherals that
ended up in the trash box because of lack of support or lack of upgrade
policy from their respective makers...including Creative Labs.

Anyway, I'd like to know whether Gravis will offer a competitive upgrade
for their Ultrasound MAX, once it's released, to regular Ultrasound owners.
I don't mean a $200 upgrade with the old Ultrasound card in exchange for the
MAX, but a REASONABLE upgrade.  If that would be the case, I'm better off
buying someone else's product and sell my old GUS!  I hope Gravis extend
their support by offering this sort of upgrade.  If anyone else have
an opinion on this matter, please voice it out to let Gravis know.

Secondly, I received my Gravis MIDI connector box ($40 US), just last week.
It works with my Roland MT32, sure enough....under Windows, that is.

Anyway, keep up the good work Gravis!!!

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

Date: Sat, 7 Aug 93 15:57:44 -0700
From: dna@netcom.com (David Altekruse)
Subject: Improve Your Gus Patches
Message-ID: <9308072257.AA26001@netcom4.netcom.com>

						IMPROVE YOUR GUS PATCHES

1.  INTRODUCTION

If you have a GUS board but haven't yet gotten into the world of creating
your own patches, perhaps because you don't have access to quality instrument
samples or you are waiting for the 16-bit recording daughter board, I am
going to attempt to change your mind.  You can improve the GUS patches to 
your musical tastes, if you haven't already done so. 


2.  PATCH PROBLEMS

I played the excellent gm_midi files the other day.  Others on here have 
commented on how good they are.  They currently exist in the ultrasound 
archive sites at ..../submit/gm_midi.zip.  However, I almost fell out of 
my chair laughing when I played "gmfigaro.mid" (Mozart's "Le Nozze Di 
Figaro").  I've long been bothered by some of the patches with excessive 
release decay times.  But Figaro, with its fast introduction using "String 
Ensemble 1" (marcato.pat) came out one blur not unlike laying down on a 
piano keyboard.  That is when I decided it was time to attack the problem. 

Some of the patches have defects which probably can't be solved without 
starting off with better raw audio samples.  For example, a couple of the
"Acoustic Grand Piano" (acpiano.pat) samples in the middle of the keyboard
are poorly looped causing the attack to be out of tune with the loop.  But 
many of the patches can be significantly improved, made more musical and 
realistic, by modifying their envelope parameters.  Fortunately this is 
fairly easy to do with GUS and existing software.

GUS patches which I feel are primary candidates for envelope modifications
are the strings, organs, and pianos.  In the case of the strings and organs
the decay times are much longer than real instruments.  The result, not
surprisingly, is that the instruments are not realistic sounding and nearly 
all music using these patches is very muddy and unmusical.

For example, there may not exist an instrument on the face of the earth with 
faster attack and decay characteristics than a Hammond tone-wheel organ (like 
the B3).  When you press a key the sound starts instantly in mid-waveform 
(giving it the characteristic key-click that many users have come to like).  
The release decay time is very short.  But the "Hammond Organ" (homeorg.pat) 
patch has long decay times.  Another example is the piano.  In the upper 
range, acpiano.pat has much longer decay times than a real piano. 

So why do some of these patches have unreal envelope characteristics?  My
guess is that the designer was attempting to simulate natural acoustic 
reverberation.  But reverb isn't at all the same as additional decay time.  
Reverb is a complex set of echos which when added in the right amount can
add to the warmth and "lushness" of the sound without turning the music
into mush.  Adding additional decay times to the patches may add some of
the effect of reverb but it does it at the cost of nearly always muddying
the music and making the instruments sound unnatural.  


3. HOW TO IMPROVE GUS PATCHES

If you haven't experimented with creating or modifying GUS patches, I'll
describe one way to go about it.  First of all, if you haven't already
done so, get 'patch.exe' from your favorite GUS archive location.  For
some reason, this essential DOS program is hidden deep in 'gusdk201.zip' 
located in ..../gravis/util directory.  

Once you extract and install these files, you'll find patch.exe in the 
ultra3d directory.  While you are connected, also get Francois Dion's 
'patchkit.arj' located in the ..../sound/patches/util directory.  This 
contains some documentation and examples using 'patch.exe'.

If you are expecting patch.exe to be fully debugged, user friendly, and
well documented, you will be very disappointed.  Try to think of it as
a game like "The Seventh Guest" where trying to find out the rules is
part of the fun!  With patch.exe, there will be ghosts and monsters out
to get you (so always make sure you have recently backed-up patch files).
There are hidden features and functions that work differently than
they are labeled.   

Fortunately, as I mentioned above, modifying an existing patches envelope
parameters is pretty straight forward.  First pick a GUS patch.  You
can translate the General MIDI name to a GUS file by taking the GM number
and looking it up in either ultrasnd/ultrasnd.ini or ultrasnd/midi/
default.cfg.  I suggest starting with a patch that contains just one
sample, like church.pat, homeorg.pat, or slowstr.pat.  Then copy that
file into your working directory.  

In DOS (patch.exe will not run in windows), you can load the patch by either
entering the patch name in the command line (patch church.pat) or you can
just load patch and then type "l" on the keyboard and you will be prompted
for the patch filename.  Once in patch you can get some hints to playing
this game by by typing F1.

In patch, in the lower left quadrant, click the mouse on the box labeled
'RANGE'.  You have entered a new room and additional data will appear on the 
screen.  In the top section of the screen you will see sample ranges.
The current range is in white, additional samples (if there are more than
one in the patch) appear in red.  You can change samples by typing '+' or
'-' (or their lower case characters, '=' or '=').  But beware of the "NO
RANGE CHECKING MONSTER"!  If you type hit the +/- into a sample that
doesn't exist, you will eventually be sorry.  If you started out with
a one-sample patch, you can go now to the next room type clicking the
mouse on the "ENVEL" box.

Now the top half of the screen displays a lot of interesting data including
an envelope graph with amplitude on the Y axis and time on the X axis.
First, listen to the root tone in the current sample by clicking on "TONE"
or entering 't'.  It will sustain the tone until you click or type 't' 
again and then it will play the release part of the sample.  

Before you start changing the envelope parameters, I suggest you write down 
the original amplitude/time values.  There are at least two ways to change
the parameters.  One way is to just move the graph points around with your
mouse.  I find it hard to make fine adjustments that way, however.  Another
way is to select a parameter with the mouse (if there is another way, I
haven't found it yet) and then change the amplitude and time parameters
by clicking on the red boxes on the lower-left of the graph.  Clicking
the vertical boxes changes the amplitude and the horizontal boxes the time.
Note, however, that the time boxes are backwards  (Hitting the '-' box
increases time.)

It is best to play around with the values and then listen to the change
it makes in sound.  You can also experiment with the Amplitude Modulation
(Tremolo) and Frequency Modulation (Vibrato) parameters by clicking on the
AM/FM boxes and then clicking on the new parameter boxes that will appear
to the left of the graph.  However, so far I haven't had any reason to
change these values of the GUS patches.

If you have a patch with more than one sample in it, then you can move
to the next sample by typing +/- as described above.  Again, be careful
not to go out of range of your existing samples.  Once you have the patch
set up the way you want, type "s" and you will be prompted for a file name.
For some reason, your original file will be deleted even if you pick
another name for the save file, so be sure you've saved your original
before going into patch.exe.  


4. SUGGESTED PATCH MODIFICATIONS

Just as musical taste vary, I suppose no two people will agree on what
constitutes the best patch samples characteristics.  Obviously the GUS
patch designer(s) and I are not in agreement.  The great thing about
having patches stored in RAM is we can all have them the way we want.
In addition, patches that are optimum for a small, well-damped room, may 
not be when played in a large room or when played through a reverb effects 
processor.

However, I'd like to describe what changes I've made so far.  First, I
reduced the "String Ensemble 1" (marcato.pat) and "String Ensemble 2"
(slowstr.pat) envelope release decay parameters to about half of their
original values.  I trimmed down the times on "Church Organ" even more
and left very little decay on the "Hammond Organ" (homeorg.pat) patches. 

I attempted to make the "Acoustic Grand Piano" (acpiano.pat) envelope
characteristics as close to a Steinway Grand (in this case, a 1926 6' 
Model 'L') as I could.  I measured its decay times and came up with
the following values:

			  6' Steinway Grand Decay Times
					  -----------------------------

							NOTE       TIME (seconds)
							----       ----
							 C1         15 
							 C2         18
							 C3         21
							 C4         15
							 C5         12
							 C6          5
							 C7          2
							 C8      1


Since I had to work within the existing sample ranges, I changed the values
as follows:

				  GUS "Acoustic Grand Piano Changes
				  --------------------------------- 

					 RANGE       FROM(sec) TO(sec)
					 -----       ----      --
					 A0-G2   13.3      19.9
					 G2#-E3      10.0      19.9
					 F3-C4    8.0      13.3
					 C4#-A4       8.0      13.3
					 A4#-G5       8.0      10.0
					 G5#-G6       6.6       3.6
					 G6#-C8       4.4       1.3

As you can see, I increased the decay times in the lower and mid ranges
and decreased them in the upper range.  Also, on a real piano, there are
no dampers in the high range.  On this Steinway there are no dampers above
E6.  So I made the decay and release times the same (by clicking on the
'SUST' box in patch.exe).


5. RESULTS

I believe that all the above changes are significant improvements to the
GUS patches on all the MIDI files I've listen to so far.  I'm sure that
there is still room for improvement.  When I add a reverb effects processor
I'll probably reduce some of the decay times further.  There are also some 
other patch files that I suspect can be improved as well.

The biggest single improvement was in the "String Ensemble 1" patch, 
probably because it is used so much.  The improvement it makes to the
Figaro file I mentioned above is dramatic, in my opinion.  It is now much
more realistic and listenable.  Even much slower music using that
patch sounds better to my ears.

On the other hand, the modifications to the "Acoustic Grand Piano" patch is 
normally not very noticeable, probably because most MIDI files release the 
notes long before the decay times come into play.  But there is an improvement
in the upper range.  I haven't decided if "removing the dampers" in the
top range is a really a good idea or not. 


6. Conclusion

Based on my simple modifications to the GUS patches, I urge any GUS owners 
who haven't already done so to experiment with improving GUS patches to their 
own musical tastes.  It is easy to do and well worth the time and effort, in 
my opinion.

If you want to try out the patches I've modified as described above, they
are available (for a couple weeks) via anonymous ftp at netcom.com in
pub/dna/gus/patch.zip (there are no other files there).  Be sure to backup
your originals first.  I'd be very interested in hearing what you think of
these patches or any changes and improvements you've made to GUS patches. 


- David Altekruse, dna@netcom.com

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

Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1993 12:12:25 -0500 (CDT)
From: David Britton <fishead@cwis.unomaha.edu>
Subject: I stand corrected
Message-ID: <9308071712.AA17577@cwis.unomaha.edu>

Apologies to all on my previous post about the grand piano patch.  obviously,
I was clueless; thanks to all who helped straighten me out :)

Now for a question; I downloaded Win Mod Pro from wuarchive and tried to
set it up for stereo output to no avail.  Any suggestions about getting it
running in stereo?

Once again, sorry; next time I'll keep my :0 shut.

** David L. Britton                **I love a good fight with my computer! **
** University of Nebraska          ** I have no opinions to express, only  **
** fishead@cwis.unomaha.edu        **               TRUTHS!                **
** I am the Lemon Merchant         **   Don't blame me, I voted for Bush   **

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

Date: Sat, 07 Aug 93 18:07:25 GMT
From: mike@batpad.org (Mike Batchelor)
Subject: MegaEM Author
Message-ID: <znr744746845k@batpad.org>

> Date: Thu, 05 Aug 93 19:06:25 MESZ
> From: SGREENWO@mhs.novell.de (Scott Greenwood)
> Subject: MT-32 & MEGAEM
> 
> Hi,
>      I tried the MegaEm MT-32 emulator for the GUS, I found a few
> problems with using dr.-DOS, these were generally memory origh an 
> ICE (in circuit emulator) I found that it
> seems to be looking for specific memory managers QEMM, 386MAX etc. so it
> can patch them (WHY ???).
>      I tried E-mailing the author of MegaEm with a report of this but I
> got no response, does anyone know how MegaEm works or how to get in
> contact with Jayeson Lee-Steere? If so could you e-mail me or post it
> here.

Yes, Jayson, please contact me.  I work for Quarterdeck Office 
Systems.  If you need to do something that prompts you to patch 
QEMM, I assure you there is a better way to do what you want via 
the published API, or through one of the specifications QEMM 
supports.  Please contact me and I can arrange some assistance 
for you.

If Scott is mistaken, write me anyway, I'll still get you some 
help if you need it.
--
Mike Batchelor        | Windows : DESQview/X :: Solitaire : Network BlaqJaq
mike@batpad.org       |
Mar Vista, California |               This space for rent

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End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V5 #7
************************************
