GUS Daily Digest            Sun, 1 Jan 95  9:37 PST      Volume 18: Issue   1 

Today's Topics:
                         A little flaming...
                      Building a MIDI interface
        CODEC and MAXSBOS, GRAVIS MIDI BOX vs. other adaptors?
                            Crystal_CODEC
                       Gravis sends you disks?
                             GUS and Hell
                       GUS Daily Digest V17 #30
                        GUS Musician's Digest
                 How do I get AOD to work with a GUS?
                          MegaEm countdown.
                     So where's Megaem? (2 msgs)

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, 31 Dec 1994 15:14:41 -0500 (EST)
From: Vincent Cojot <coyote@step.polymtl.ca>
Subject: A little flaming...

In short: can someone give me a good reason to keep my GUS?


	Hello Everyone out there that owns a GUS, this message is not
intended to be a "flame" but merely to express some points of
dissatisfaction that I have and be able to share it with others. If you
are unpleased with what I say and want to flame me, please don't take it
to the mailing list.  You can flame me as much as you want in private
email but I can't promise I will answer. 

	My first sound card was a Sound Blaster and later I got an SBPRO, 
three weeks ago, I decided to upgrade to a 16Bit Sound Card to be able to 
get more performance. Impressed by the performances and the praise that 
the GUS got and by its technological advances in computer sound, I got a 
GUS Max. Now, even if the windowze 3.x drivers work very nicely and got 
me to listen to some of the better sounds I have been given to hear on a 
computer, I have found out that:

	- There are no and apparently will never be Window NT drivers (I 
	assumed that there would be drivers for it since it's getting to 
	be a well-supported OS). I was wrong and it's annoying since I use 
	NT a lot with multimedia apps.

	- I found out that SBOS does not work as well as advertised (I am 
	no SBOS expert, though ) and sometimes it just won't work with 
	what some people try to run on my computer. And when it works, 
	the sound "sounds" just a little strange most of the time.

	- Gravis technical support is annoying inexistant. I spent a 
	whole day trying to get in touch with them to ask them about 
	possible NT Drivers. The phone was always busy and the few times 
	I got through, the phone was ringing without any answer. The 
	sales dept, however, told me that tech support was really there 
	and working. They don't seem to answer email either.

This is no flame, but by expressing publicly my concerns, I am hoping that 
someone will point out to me the few reasons that I should be happy to 
have a GUS because I am seriously thinking of sending it back and getting 
a SB 16 or an SB AWE 32 in exchange (It works with everything without a need 
for an emulator since I think it's SB/SBPRO compatible and I know It will 
work in Windoze, Linux _and_ NT ).

Any comment would be apreciated and don't be afraid to get technical.

________________________________________________________________________
Vincent, Polytechnical school of Montreal, Canada. Computer Engineering.
coyote@info.polymtl.ca

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

Date: Sat, 31 Dec 1994 16:20:00 -0500
From: eddie.maste@ablelink.org (Eddie Maste)
Subject: Building a MIDI interface
Message-ID: <1e.109143.50@ablelink.org>

>Date: Wed, 28 Dec 1994 01:04:15 -0500 (EST)
>From: quaestor <balkov@Cybernetics.NET>
>Subject: SB/GUS midi interface box problem...
>
>Hello;
>        Being an adventurous sort of person, I decided to build a
> midi interface box for my GUS. The circuit described in the
> GUS-FAQ didn't make any sense to me; it's some of the worst
> ascii art I've ever seen, and the accompanying text description
> was no better. So I decided to use a circuit description I got
> from the Creative Labs BBS some time ago.

Well, I've just finished one.  Actually it's still sitting on the
breadboard...  I haven't got around to putting it in a case.
It's based on the one in the GUS-FAQ.  I had a few problems at
first, so here's a few general suggestions I can offer you

- make sure the two signal pins from the MIDI connector are not
reversed (try a regular LED in place of the phototransistor to check)

- if you have a darlington phototransistor or one that has the
base connection brought out to a pin, tie this to ground
through about 1M.  I didn't do this at first and was getting a
lot of noise from it

- use a logic probe on the MIDI in line to the GUS - it should
be high but go low momentarily when you press a key (or it may
spew out a pulse train continuously like my Yamaha but it
should remain high most of the time.)

- there is a program on the GUS sites called MIDITEST.ZIP
which reads the MIDI input stream, decodes it to the screen
and also echos it back out the MIDI out.  This is what
identified the noise problem for me.

If you have any questions, I'd be glad to help if I can, here or via
email.

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

Date: Sat, 31 Dec 1994 23:10:14 -0800 (PST)
From: "Peter C. Chien Jr." <pchienjr@ocf.Berkeley.EDU>
Subject: CODEC and MAXSBOS, GRAVIS MIDI BOX vs. other adaptors?

> >I thought there was no signiffigant hardware differences between theGUS 
> >and the GUSMAX.  So what's the deal with the Crystal CODEC chipthen?  I 
> >own a MAX (for the CDROM interface, mainly) and it's amazing. So what's 
> >in the Crystal CODEC that the standard GUS ain't got?  Justwondering. 
> >

Oops, my fault.  I thought you were talking about the patch set, but many 
have pointed out that you were referring to the CODEC.  Anyway, for us 
GUS - regular flavor - users, the CODEC is just what makes MAXSBOS work 
for the MAX, although, we shouldn't be too disgruntled at Gravis for 
making this a MAX only software *for the time being, and not permanent I 
hope* because it's only a version 0.10 alpha.  It's probably something simple
that can be corrected, such as the call vector? perhaps.  At least the 
music portion of MAXSBOS works on the GUS.

On a different note, I have been delaying my purchase of a Gravis MIDI 
box because a) if I send in its registration card they may lose it and  b) 
it's much more expensive than other MIDI adaptors.
Okay, so here's the question: is there anything that Gravis' MIDI adaptor
does that other adaptors can't (such as MediaVision's)?  I have heard 
that, aside from the cool flashing LEDs, supposedly it can retain the 
function of supporting two joysticks, something that supposedly isn't 
possible with other MIDI boxes.  Can anyone confirm or deny this?  I am 
posting this here rather than the Musician's Digest because there's no 
traffic there and I want to know about the dual joystick connection issue.
						-Peter

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

Date: Sat, 31 Dec 1994 14:07:54 -0500
From: Led Mirage <lmirage@io.org>
Subject: Crystal_CODEC

I believe Crystal_CODEC is referring to the ADC/DAC featured on the GUS MAX
and the 16-bit daughter card.
As for the guy who dumped GUS, feel sorry for you. Name me one company that
update their drivers as frequent as Gravis. As far as I'm concern, Gravis has
the BEST customer support, period.

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

Date: Sun, 01 Jan 95 19:32:24 IST
From: Doron Shikmoni <P85025@VM.BIU.AC.IL>
Subject: Gravis sends you disks?

My experience with Gravis concurs with what's just been posted on
the digest. I have sent them the registration kit a long time ago
(like 9-10 months). Not a word since then. I sent them about 4-5
E-Mail messages about this. Not even a reply. The "why me" feeling
sounds familiar...

Gravis, do you have a policy as to who you accept registration info
from and who you don't?

Doron Shikmoni                                  <P85025@BARILVM.Bitnet>
Mgr., Communications and Networking             <p85025@vm.biu.ac.il>
Bar-Ilan University                             <doron@nova.cc.biu.ac.il>
Israel                                     Tel: +972-3-5318783
                                           Fax: +972-3-5344446

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

Date: Sat, 31 Dec 1994 23:57:56 -0800 (PST)
From: nullset@netcom.com (nullset)
Subject: GUS and Hell

Hello out there.

Anyone out there have a GUSMAX and Take 2 Interactive's CD game, "Hell"?
It's supposed to have native GUS support (it autodetected mine), but it 
doesn't seem to want to work properly.

The digital portion sounds screwed (skips or hiccups), and the music 
portion is virtually non-existent.

I have gotten the game's digital FX to work with another card installed in 
my PC, and if I use Megaem I can get music from the GUS. A decent 
workaround, but I'd like to use the GUS for digital FX.

BTW, I have tried this game on another PC with a GUSMAX only installed 
(no other card), but have gotten the same results.


Thanks,
Alvin M.
nullset@netcom.com

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

Date: Sat, 31 Dec 94 21:50:20 MST
From: dchow@stu.athabascau.ca (Donald Chow)
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V17 #30

> Date: Fri, 30 Dec 1994 18:25:42 -0800 (PST)
> From: "\"h0mi\"" <homi@netcom.com>
> Subject: New Gus owner
> 
> 5> Does the gus play back 16bit wav files? I seem to be having problems 
> (in windows) playing these. 

  It should, unless you're trying to play mondo huge wav files, it should
work.  Assuming your windows setup is correct of course.. :)

  Let's see, what's that formula, the size of the wav file is rate*length,
*2 if stereo, and *2 if 16bit.

  So for 10 secs at 44khz(44*10) = 440k, and at 16bits stereo, (44*10*2*2)
= 1.76 megs.  And that's only for 10 secs.. :)

> 
> 6> Final question: I've had a few problems with the system one day not 
> recognizing any gus card plugged into the isa bus, and then later that 
> day or the next day, the card is recognized and the driver programs work 
> just fine. It is currently working right now, but my next bootup, the 
> system could decide not to find the card. Would this be due to a problem 
> with the card, the moboard (its new) or just a bug in the ISA bus which 
> wouldn't be fixed by getting, say a new GUS or even a different sound 
> card altogether?

  Is your card all the way in?  You could try another slot.

Don


-- 
Donald Chow                       | X-Phile, GATB & SSTB
dchow@a.stu.athabascau.ca         | Call (202) 555-6431 for a 'IDDG' time
bf298@freenet.carleton.ca         | Go-o uchi masuka?

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

Date: Sat, 31 Dec 94 18:47:40 EST
From: banshee@rbdc.rbdc.com
Subject: GUS Musician's Digest

Is anyone else not receiving the GUS Musician's Digest anymore?  I haven't 
gotten one in over a week now.  Could someone tell me how to resubscribe to 
it, (the address and command to subscribe)?  I'd really appreciate it!

Oh, I still can't get Cyberia to work with my GUS...is there anyone else out 
there that has this game?

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

Date: Sat, 31 Dec 1994 17:21:19 -0700 (PDT)
From: Shannon Bradford <sbradfor@ecst.csuchico.edu>
Subject: Re: How do I get AOD to work with a GUS?

I just got a copy of Aces of the Deep on CD.  I can get sound in the 
intro, but not in the game or during the interviews (on the CD).  Dynamix 
said to use SBOS but didn't mention which version or what parameters to 
use.  I've tried SBOS 3.82 with all of the parameters I could think of 
and couldn't get it to work.  I've also tried changing my ULTRASND= and 
SBLASTER= environment variables.  Does anyone have ANY ideas?

Thanks,

Shannon

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

Date: Sat, 31 Dec 1994 23:19:07 -0800 (PST)
From: "Peter C. Chien Jr." <pchienjr@ocf.Berkeley.EDU>
Subject: MegaEm countdown.

Well, we must give Gravis all the leeway possible, so when they said 
MegaEm will be out by the end of this year, I reckon they have about 40 
minutes left to keep good their word, or offer yet another explanation.
I hope it will fix things for regular games as well, such as X-Wing, 
which, when I play it, sometimes have the speech playing really fast, or 
really slow, or with something said at the wrong time, such as my 
destroying a tie fighter and then my wingmen saying something like 
"Roger, using designated target."

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

Date: Sat, 31 Dec 94 21:52:43 MST
From: dchow@stu.athabascau.ca (Donald Chow)
Subject: Re: So where's Megaem?

> Date: Fri, 30 Dec 1994 10:11:54 -0800 (PST)
> From: Seth Delackner <dax@rahul.net>
> Subject: So where's Megaem?
> 
> Well, here we are at the end of December and Gravis has yet to release 
> the new Megaem.  Will they ever? I don't care anymore.  I've finally 
> dumped my GUS.  Too little too late, that's all I can say about Gravis' 
> "support" of the GUS.

  So if you don't care anymore why are posting to the digest?  Are _we_
supossed to care?  What do you want, everyone to beg for you to change
your mind?


-- 
Donald Chow                       | X-Phile, GATB & SSTB
dchow@a.stu.athabascau.ca         | Call (202) 555-6431 for a 'IDDG' time
bf298@freenet.carleton.ca         | Go-o uchi masuka?

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

Date: Sat, 31 Dec 1994 23:02:12 -0800 (PST)
From: George <gmontem@mercury.sfsu.edu>
Subject: Re: So where's Megaem?

> Well, here we are at the end of December and Gravis has yet to release 
> the new Megaem.  Will they ever? I don't care anymore.  I've finally 
> dumped my GUS.  Too little too late, that's all I can say about Gravis' 
> "support" of the GUS.

And I would like to say what great support they have. Really, Advanced 
Gravis does support their card real well.  They worked hard with the 
alpha version of OS/2, the AIL 3.10 drivers, and a MAX version of SBOS.  
And now you're blaming their lack of support for not releasing the new 
Mega-Em?  Would you rather have them release you an unfinished product 
that may not work very well since it has not been given the time to 
thoroughly test it?  I am waiting for the new Mega-Em, and I pretty 
content with what is going on so far.  So what if they delay it if it's 
for a good reason?  

-George
<EOT>

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End of GUS Daily Digest V18 #1
******************************