GUS Daily Digest            Sun, 27 Feb 94 0 :07 erv     Volume 11: Issue  25 

Today's Topics:
					   GUS & PCREVIEW Magazine
					  Help with OS/2 2.1 and GUS
							linear vs. log
						Links 386 Pro and GUS
					   New Playmidi (response)
			 Path in Patch names when using Ultrasnd.ini

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, 26 Feb 1994 11:14:59 +0000
From: aim1 <aim1@aber.ac.uk>
Subject: GUS & PCREVIEW Magazine

Ok someone made a fair point in that the GUS should not automatically be
recommended to all users (I would hesitate to recommend it to gamers without
Internet access - but this is another thread... ). However, the point with
this magazine article is that the two reviewers were incompetent:

- The GUS was compared to an Orchid SoundWave32 and the latter was deemed
  to have better sound quality.

- They cited the fact that the version of Doom they had didn't work with the
  GUS in native mode (nor with SBOS) as typical of the incompatibilities
  encountered when using the GUS. I know of only about 3 games which cannot
  be made to work with a GUS and I believe that this is to be rectified shortly.
  They seemed to think that if people couldn't plug-and-play then they wouldn't
  be interested. This may be true for some/many people but there are others who
  would rather spend a few minutes finding the best setup for a game and then
  reap the rewards for many hours after.  
		  
- They didn't mention MegaEm leading me to believe that they do not know of
  its existence. Nor did they mention the Miles drivers. I was left with the
  impression that they thought that it was either SBOS or native mode or
  nothing.

If you wish to let them know what the GUS is really capable of then you can
mail the magazine at

pcreview@CIX.compulink.co.uk

but please no flames - constructive criticism only.

Adrian.

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

Date: Sat, 26 Feb 94 20:27:54 +0000
From: Robert Stone <rds@ukc.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Help with OS/2 2.1 and GUS

>
>   I've installed the GUS drive (v3.7), but have yet to hear anything 
>from my board.
>
>Does anyone have any tricks or tips to try??? I can load SBOS (LOADSBOS, 
>use ULTRMIDI.EXE, and all teh others through DOS, but when I try to use 
>them through WINOS/2, on starting the full-screen session (AFTER making 
>sure the settings are made for the enhanced mode!), it tells me that the 
>Windows session must be set for Enhanced Mode. But I did! I did! I swear!
>
>But all through it, in DOS or Windows, not a peep from my board... Help 
>me, someone!
>
>-- 
>Dingo - He who ventures where no wolf has been before!
>dingo@cns.cscns.com

Ok first off, the GUS's Windows drivers will not work in WINOS/2.  This is
because WINOS/2 does not support VxD's (VxD's are virtual device drivers) and 
the GUS's Windows driver uses a VxD (grvsultr.386), this is why even though
you set WINOS/2 to enhanced mode the message about requiring enhanced mode
appears.  This problem will be fixed in OS/2 2.2 (or possibly even in the 
soon to be released service pack).

Ok now SBOS, SBOS uses a NMI (a non-maskable interrupt, the memory parity 
failure interrupt), OS/2 unlike DOS actually uses this interrupt for its 
origional purpose, that is to inform the operating system if the memory
parity test has failed (a sure sign of memory problems).  Because OS/2 uses 
this interrupt it will not allow programs to 'tamper' with it so SBOS does 
not work.  Unlike the VxD problem this is actually a failing of DOS the guys 
at Gravis have exploited, unfortunately this assumes a working NMI 
(something not all mother boards have) and that the operating system does 
not use the NMI itself (but of course OS/2 does).

Ultramid, I don't know why you can't get ultramid to work, but all I can say 
is that Ultramid does work under OS/2, you could try the following DOS
settings:

	DOS_HIGH        on
	DOS_UMB         on
	HM_ROM_TO_RAM       on
	HW_TIMER        on
	IDLE_SECONDS        10
	IDLE_SENSITIVITY    100
	VIDEO_RETRACE_EMULATION off
	VIDEO_ROM_EMULATION off


Hope that helps

Robert

P.S. You do know that two different third party OS/2 MMPM drivers have been 
	 released? They are both on epas in the submit directory (the last time 
	 I checked), the files are ultra01c.zip and gus0s201.zip

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

Date: 26 Feb 94 09:50:26 PST
From: zapo@pil.ness.com (Zapo Zapper)
Subject: linear vs. log

Regarding: GUS Daily Digest V11 #24
 
> > So what's the deal?  Is this another CL "lower quality" standard?
> No.  Linear volume is used by Roland and virtually every other synth
> because it's more intuitive.  

Actually, the "General Midi" draft specifies an exponential volume scale.

-Scott

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Public Image Limited VBBS (510) 831-3634 [ASV] Guest Account open
Home of VUUCP/2 USENet Interface! [VSP]  VBBS 6.10   [Primary Dist. Site]

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

Date: Sat, 26 Feb 1994 13:19:59 -0600 (CST)
From: The Iceman <gaw55299@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Links 386 Pro and GUS

Anyone out there get Links Pro to work with....anything?   I've tried
the switches with SBOS and it still randomly crashes on the digitized
sounds.  I have a recent version, like 1.20 or something.  Any ideas on
IRQ's or anything appreciated.

The Iceman
g-wood@uiuc.edu

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

Date: Sat, 26 Feb 1994 07:09:15 -0800 (PST)
From: mikebat@netcom.com (Mike Batchelor)
Subject: Re: New Playmidi (response)

Not the GUS Server once wrote...
$  
$  ------------------------------
$  
$  Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 02:08:46 -0500 (EST)
$  From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
$  Subject: New Playmidi
$  
$  > Date: Mon, 21 Feb 1994 12:14:55 -0800 (PST)
$  > From: mikebat@netcom.com (Mike Batchelor)
$  > Subject: Gripes about new Playmidi
$  > 
$  > Got the gus0040.zip last night, and I am not at all pleased with the new
$  > playmidi.exe.
$  
$  I am!
$  
$  > First of all, the background color is hideous.  Please, Gravis, go back to
$  > the black background, or let us choose a background color.
$  
$  I think you can change the colour by editing the grvcolor.ini file.
$  But what's wrong with a blue background?

Grvcolor.ini?  Aha!  Good.  The blue background is hideous, that's what's
wrong with it.  Obviously, a subjective statement like that is a matter of
opinion, but MY opinion is what counts for MY playmidi. :)  Thanks for
the tip on changing it.  I DO like the way the note bars bend up and down
to show pitch bending.

$  > But that's a minor quibble.  On to the major stuff:
$  > 
$  > 1.  Having owned a GUS for a year and a half, all my MIDIs are converted
$  > over to log volume.  Now the default is linear volume.  I must use a
$
$  Linear volume is a much needed improvement.  Virtually every other
$  synth uses a linear volume curve, so it's better the the GUS have
$  linear volume than log.  Also, vmapped MIDs played on a log curve

Yes, yes yes, I know all this.  My complaint was that the default is
linear.  I think the default should have been log, with a switch for
linear.  The next version - after we've all had time to convert to linear
- can have log with a switch.

$  don't sound quite as they should non-vmapped on a linear curve due to
$  rounding errors in the conversion.  These rounding errors get even
$  worse when you use the -r switch to go undo the vmapping.  That's why 
$  I've advised users to keep their original un-vmapped MIDs around for 
$  the eventuality that all the GUS software go linear.

Well, I didn't.  Disk space is not unlimited, you know.  And now I face
the daunting task of going through my c:\midi dirtree and trying to figure
out where I got everything, and getting them all again.  Phoo.  I'd rather
delete the lot and start over.


$  > that events are going by, but no sound comes out.  Chase.mid is a notable
$  > example.
$  
$  This is because chase.mid uses out-of-date custom patches.  Use
$  'pupdate -check_patch *.pat' to update the patches.

And another thing - Gravis' README files are incomplete.  This is just yet
another example, as is the grvcolor.ini, the purpose of -umid, and so on
and so on.  Were you not a GUS owner, no one would know these things, it
seems.  I have my doubts about whether this will work, though, since it is
silent with -umid as well, and that plays it with NO custom patches.  Not
all instruments are custom, one would think the standard patches would
play fine, with the custom ones silent.  But I'll try it.

$  > 4.  Really major BUG:  detune values in the .cfg file are ignored, as are
$  > the volume values.  With the old playmidi, I could adjust a particular
$  
$  I haven't checked this out as I don't use any detune or volume 
$  parameters in my default.cfg.

I wouldn't want any in my default.cfg.  But, for instance, bluemond.mid
uses some guitar at the beginning that is an octave too high to my ear, so
I detune them with default.cfg copied over to bluemond.cfg.  The detune
values and volume values are ignored now in the bluemond.cfg.  Maybe it
would read them in default.cfg, but I want song-specific config files
again.

$  > So, for the majority of the MIDI files I keep, the new playmidi produces
$  > no sound, or poorer sound, compared to the 2.06a playmidi.
$  
$  For me, the new PlayMIDI is a definite improvement for the singular
$  reason of it having a linear volume curve.  

I suppose.  It would be better if it was never log to begin with, but
we're stuck with what it was, and Gravis didn't help much by abruptly
switching to what everyone else does, with little or no documentation on
how to convert.


-- 
Mike Batchelor      | UseLinuxUseLinuxUseLinuxUseLinuxUseLinuxUseLinuxUseLinux
mikebat@netcom.com  | xuniLesUxuniLesUxuniLesUxuniLesUxuniLesUxuniLesUxuniLesU

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

Date: Sat, 26 Feb 1994 14:52:11
From: (Curt Maughc)
Subject: Path in Patch names when using Ultrasnd.ini

Is it just me or is that you cant use path names in ultrasnd.ini. By this I 
mean I have some patches in a subdirectory of the directory I told the Patch 
bank to look for files. I remember before I was able to use path names to find 
files but now I can't do that anymore and that is really annoying when using 
megaem and the latest windows drivers. I don't understand why they got ride of 
this feature which was in the past version of the windows drivers. I can use 
path names in ultramid.ini and default.cfg with no problems what so ever but 
when doing to ultrasnd.ini all the programs that use it just same it can't 
find the patch name. an Example would be :
[bank 0]
PatchDir=c:\ultrasnd\midi\
0=patch2\acpiano
where patch2\acpiano would be in the subdirectory patch2 and the patch file 
acpiano.pat. This works with ultramid.ini and default.cfg. I hope Gravis is
watching this and fixes this problem when they release the next update to 
megaem and the windows drivers.

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End of GUS Daily Digest V11 #25
*******************************
