Ultrasound Daily Digest     Fri May 21 00:07     Volume 3: Issue  51  

Today's Topics:
						   Cakewalk V. 2.0!
					 Cubase fixed & Sierra games
			 Gear for writing midi files on a gus (FAQ?)
						GUS and text-to-speach
				gus channels and (sorry) game problems
							MIDI keyboard
							 midi madness
				 Missing Notes in Playmidi -> A Clue!
			  SB and GUS coexistence (something weird!)
							  Ultrasound
			   Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #50  (2 msgs)
				Writing Midi on Gus FAQ: some changes

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: 20 May 1993   11:06:18 PST
From: chrisw <chrisw@leland.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Cakewalk V. 2.0!
Message-ID: <9305201815.AA14678@leland.Stanford.EDU>

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

Typical. As soon as I write a posting the info is obsolete.

Anyway, the impending v2.0 of Cakewalk for Windows does have some
sort of notation printing facilities. That's all I know. I read it on
the net. More info when the upgrade offer arrives from 12tone.

I get the impression this is Real Soon Now, which is good for GUS users
'cause I think this one will have patch cacheing.

Chris.

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

Date: Fri, 21 May 93 0:03:56 EST
From: adrianr@ecr.mu.oz.au (Adriano_Ennio RAIOLA)
Subject: Cubase fixed & Sierra games
Message-ID: <9305201403.20361@ecr.mu.oz.au>

Hi,
Firstly, thanks to everyone for their advice on my Cubase problem, though
everyone thought I was forgetting to load the patches with patchmanager, It
wasnt that, I was loading them. The problem was that I hadnt manually selected 
Ultrasound Midi synth, instaed of Ultrasound MIDI output, for every individual
track. Its a pain the rear having to do this for every new midi file I load up,
and if someone has a solution so that cubase will select the midi synth as the
default, id love to hear it!

Secondly, someone AGES ago mentioned how they got the new Sierra games working
under Windows using midi mapper, I recently reinstalled Space Quest V to
try this, and when executing the windows executable, i get a 'Cannot find
sierra.ini' error message. can anyone tell me the right way to go about
installing this thing so it will work! Or send me a sierra.ini to use, ive
tried creating one in all appropriate directorys, but the error message does
not go away..

any help there again appreciated.

thanks

-- 
| adrianr@ecr.mu.oz.au --------| Adrian -aka- Plugger | *  * *  *   *  |  _/_\
| adrianr@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au -| What time is love?   | *_*  * *_  *_  | / OZ |
| adrianr@mundil.cs.mu.oz.au --| I think its gonna be | * *  *   *   * | \__-_/
| -- I want more accounts! ----| long, long time.     | *  * *  *   *  |     v

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

Date: Thu, 20 May 1993 17:25:34 -0500
From: ken@austin.ibm.com (Ken Goach IBM)
Subject: Re: Gear for writing midi files on a gus (FAQ?)
Message-ID: <9305202225.AA17802@daedalus.austin.ibm.com>

Here's some additions for the potential FAQ:

>1) MORE MEMORY

Also, if you plan on creating your own patches (the record -> WAV2PAT
method) you'd do good to upgrade. Some of the patches I've created
had much bigger file sizes than the GUS patches.


>2) A MIDI INTERFACE

I'd say $50 is about right for a used basic card. You can pick up
a new one for around $80, and several mail-order places have
been running bundled specials with MIDI cards.
I got a Music Quest one and it works fine with Windows/Winjammer/
GUS.

If you're just starting out, get the simplest card. One MIDI
IN and one MIDI OUT is really all you need. SMPTE or FSK are
nice, but you don't really need it just starting out. Some
cards have multiple outputs, etc. For a basic setup, you
don't need this either. Heck, you could eventually add a
MIDI patch bay if you wanted to get really complicated...


>3) A MIDI KEYBOARD

If you're really wanting something cheap, just go to Target or
WalMart or somehwere like that and get a cheap Casio that has
MIDI OUT. Sure, it may not have advance features, but as long
as you can input info to a sequencer, you're happening. Some
models are touch sensitive and have ptich/mod wheels. Trust
me, you really *want* the pitch/mod wheels, and a velocity
synth is nice if you can play at all (beginners might do
better to stick with a constant-velocity synth for starters).

One advantage of getting a pretty nice keyboard to use is
that you can also use its sounds. Just set MIDI Map to
send certain channels to it instead of the GUS, and you'll
have two synths to use. I'm looking at a Roland D-5 myself...

>and you can play from Windows

with patch manager as well - it has a MIDI IN function.
Was Gusorgan updated to use other MIDI interfaces besides
the GUS MIDI IN? The version I had only worked with the
GUS MIDI IN port.

>What do you look for in a sequencer.

I use piano roll all the time. Sometimes it's easier to
have a graphical representation of where notes happen,
how long they are, etc. If you're not really experienced
in reading music, piano roll might be the answer for you.

I've found that there are some things you can only do with
the event list. Like removing a patch you specified (when
you don't want a new track to load a patch but instead to
be on the same channel as an existing track, thus picking up
its patch) or editing a tempo change (note that I'm using
Winjammer).

>Two cheaper possibilities I have limited experience with are Winjammer


I've used this extensively and have discovered a few secrets.
The docs on it are kinda sparse, and sometimes I think it
could almost use its own FAQ!

Personally, I'd suggest that people ftp (or get from someone)
the Winjammer demo and the Cakewalk for Windows demo and whatever
other Windows sequencer demos they can get ahold of and try
them out. See if you can live with the functionality that
Winjammer has. Sure, it doesn't have some of the more advanced
features that Cakewalk has, but if you can live with it, it's
only $50.00 to register, where Cakewalk is between $250-300.



NOTE: If you're just testing the waters (not sure if you
want to take the MIDI plunge), then go the cheap route
where possible. See what you have already that may work
(that old Casio keyboard I got for Christmas two years
ago has MIDI OUT), or borrow some equipment (MIDI card,
synth, etc). Depending on where you live, there may even
be music stores that rent such equipment. You could rent
a MIDI card and synth, get Winjammer or the Cakewalk demo,
and play around with MIDI sequencing for a very minimal
"investment."


Ken

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

Date: Thu, 20 May 1993 09:41:06 -0400
From: "Frank Pikelner" <frank@cs.yorku.ca>
Subject: GUS and text-to-speach
Message-ID: <9305201341.AA26362@cs.yorku.ca>

Hello,

Is there anyway to do text-to-speach conversion with the GUS (ie. ASCII batch
files)? If I'm not mistaken this is possible with the SB, if so do I need
some sort of program.

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

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

Date: Thu, 20 May 1993 02:36:45 +0700 (MST)
From: Adam Cowen <cowen@ee.ualberta.ca>
Subject: gus channels and (sorry) game problems
Message-ID: <Pine.3.03.9305200245.A11368-b100000@bode.ee.ualberta.ca>

About Patches:
Patches, for example midi sounds, are sound samples that can be loaded
into the gus's onboard ram. You can put as many patches as will fit in
your gus's memory. (I don't think there is a limit? anyone?) Voices on the
other hand are how many sounds can be played simultaneously. ie: the gus
acn have 32 mono patches played simultaneously (max) or 16 stereo patches
(1 stereo sample =1 left+1right=2 voices to be picky) I hope this has
cleared things up for people who did not understand fully. Sorry if I
offended any with exhaustive simplicity.

Game Problems (I'll try to keep it short):
I just bought Underworld 2, and I have icky problems. When using digitised
sounds it is jerky, and when a digitized sound occurs it actually
interferes with movement. Up and to the right, which is very annoying in a
fight sequence. I didn't have these problems with Underworld 1, but with 2
they are downright annoying. Also I can not get speech to work on either
version of Underworld. Hopefully with the announcement of Origin using
GUSMIDI/GUSDIGI to replace the SB drivers we will be in for a treat, and
my problems may be solved that way. BTW tried 1.20, 2.04 and 2.07.
I am also running a 386-40 box with fast components. So speed isn't a
problem. My friend with a 486-33 also has the same problems. He also gets
no speech and he's got 16M of ram, so that is not the problem either. Hmmm,
might have to get the new Norton SpeedCache, supposed 2 be amazing. 

Thanks 4 reading, I will stop rambling now
Adam "Still waiting for native support and gravis disks" Cowen
cowen@ee.ualberta.ca

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

Date: Thu, 20 May 1993 09:46:19 +0100 (BST)
From: Dave Ingles <davei@central1.lancaster.ac.uk>
Subject: MIDI keyboard
Message-ID: <3350.9305200846@central1.lancaster.ac.uk>

> Anyway, the real question when buying a keyboard is: 
> how much do I want to spend? Keyboards go from about $100 for a second
> hand non-velocity sensitive 3 or 4 octave thing to about $2000 for a 
> 88-key weighted fully featured controller keyboard.

Well if anyone is interested, I have a full size 88 key (weighted keys)
MIDI master keyboard for sale. It is a Cheetah 770 and it is still in
as good as new condition. The first person to give me 350 pounds
sterling can have it. It is quite heavy, so any postage required will
cost extra. 

Davei

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

Date: Thu, 20 May 93 10:36:19 BST
From: "James Andrews, User Support" <james@sol1.east-london.ac.uk>
Subject: midi madness
Message-ID: <13034.9305200936@uk.ac.uel.sol1>

I just uploaded some midi files to epas, that I wrote.  They are techno style
pieces, but if you like real nose bleed stuff then you'll have to crank
the speed up a bit as they only run at 120 bpm.

The 2hazy one is some riffs ripped out of the nice hazy.mid that recently
appeared on epas, but I've fiddled about with them to make a more crazed tune.
What chord sequences do I use to make a frightening and scarey bass line, thats
what I want to know.

The other files use a couple of custom patches and the patches and a .cfg
file is included.
They arent the greatest stuff you ever heard but I think someone out there
might be interested.  In particular, I am only just getting the hang of 
programming the controllers so they sound too much like a computer.

Comments, suggestions and abuse to:
james@sol1.uel.ac.uk

James Andrews

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

Date: 20 May 1993   11:59:01 PST
From: chrisw <chrisw@leland.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Missing Notes in Playmidi -> A Clue!
Message-ID: <9305201908.AA21517@leland.Stanford.EDU>

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

Hi all. I suppose everyone has noticed how playmidi drops notes 
occasionally when playing back a file? Well, I've at least found
a clue for where they go. 

If you play back chrisnot.mid and watch the volume level on the organ
track (midi channel five) then just before the change to the trumpet part
it misses a note and you see the volume level slowly move in the wrong 
direction. (That is, start at nothing and gradually increase, rather than
the correct start high and fade off quickly after note release).

This makes me think that the missing notes are being absorbed by some
bug in the volume envelope software. Anyone else see this?
Gravis got any opinions on why this happens?

Chris.

P.S. Hey everyone! Just got a phone call telling me I just got a job
I was after! (Well, it's only an RA job but it's with a real famous guy!)
Guess I'd better start studying for my exams so he's not too disappointed!

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

Date: Thu, 20 May 1993 21:54:13 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Timothy C. Gion" <gion@ravel.udel.edu>
Subject: SB and GUS coexistence (something weird!)
Message-ID: <Pine.3.03.9305202113.A29763-a100000@ravel.udel.edu>

I'm at it again.  I'm trying to get the SB and GUS to co-exist.  I've had a
little more luck this time.  Xwing and Rampart use the SB when I cold boot
and don't install any of the GUS drivers/files in my config.sys and
autoexec.bat.  However, Strike Commander still won't recognize my SB.  In
fact, I tried to just use SBOS and something really weird happened.  I set
up SC to use the GUS settings, and it started playing the music out of the
SB!  I didn't get digitized sound though, and I don't know if music was
coming out of the GUS at the same time because I don't currently have
stereo speakers (I borrowed the ones I used before and am using an old box
speaker for the SB).

Here's my set up:  SB a=220h IRQ=5
		   GUS a=240h IRQ=11 DMA 7 SB-IRQ=7

Any body have any explanations?


Tim Gion   AKA  /     \     University of Delaware - Computer Science
			   -Merdion- 
				\     / 

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

Date: Thu, 20 May 93 13:52:09 BST
From: Colin Kidgell <Colin.Kidgell@uk.cray.com>
Subject: Ultrasound
Message-ID: <9305201252.AA27192@bard.uk.cray.com>

Hello

Could someone tell me what a .arj file is and if it is similar to a .zip file
then what do I need to decompress it.

Cheers
Colin.Kidgell@uk.cray.com

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

Date: Thu, 20 May 1993 09:40:49 +0100 (BST)
From: Dave Ingles <davei@central1.lancaster.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #50
Message-ID: <1936.9305200840@central1.lancaster.ac.uk>

> I just got off the phone with someone at Howling Dog (local call for
> me..) who assured me that the PowerChord version that will be shipped
> with the new release is not restricted to only 25 bars of music. They
> do have a newer version (1.1) with more features than the free gus
> version, but he said that there will be a coupon to upgrade the gus
> version to the new 1.1 version for $20.00 (US? Canadian?).

I'm afraid you didn't understand my original message quite right. I
didn't mean to imply that Powerchords was restricted to 25 bars. I
found that when I was working on a piece of music, Powerchords issued
me with 'I give up' type messages after my first 25 bars. Powerchords
works with 'modules' and I guess that it has a maximum number of these
'modules' that you can use. It's just that after only 25 bars, I
managed to reach that limit. This is why I thought it was a restricted 
version, but obviously not.

Davei

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

Date: Thu, 20 May 1993 13:20:02 -0400
From: Bill Norton <wbn@merit.edu>
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #50 
Message-ID: <9305201720.AA25570@fox.merit.edu>

DRAM Upgrade
------------
One thing that would be *very* useful to know is what companies have
provided DRAM for $24 / 6 as stated in the FAQ.  I haven't been able to
find anyplace under $4.50 each!  

Bill

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

Date: 20 May 1993   17:21:15 PST
From: chrisw <chrisw@leland.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Writing Midi on Gus FAQ: some changes
Message-ID: <9305210030.AA00105@leland.Stanford.EDU>

Hi everyone. Just put through some changes to the pseudo FAQ I posted 
yesterday on shopping for midi gear to write music with including /
responding to some comments from Ken Goach (ken@austin.ibm.com).

They're not really significant enough to flood the digest with yet again,
but if you're really interested you should get the new version on epas
in the submit directory. It's called 'GUSmidi_shopping.FAQ'. There's
more on midi interfaces, keyboards, sequencers and notators. Hey,
that's all the topics that are in the thing!

Chris.

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #51
*************************************
