Ultrasound Daily Digest     Sun May 16 00:07     Volume 3: Issue  46  

Today's Topics:
					  Chris the bigot speaks ...
			 Clicks in samples & sampling noise comments
				   New chip on 16-bit daughterboard
							  PatchCon!
						 Protostar by Tsunami
							   SB & GUS
							   SBOS...
					Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #44

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: 15 May 1993   00:27:46 PST
From: chrisw <chrisw@leland.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Chris the bigot speaks ...
Message-ID: <9305150733.AA11536@leland.Stanford.EDU>

Hmmm. I shouldn't really reply to this in public, but since the post was
public, I figure I should have a right of reply.

Anyway, I posted as a description of my midi file:

=> Anyway, it's kind of background music for any slow paced war movie
=> eg. when the hero of the story finds that his best friend has been
=> reduced to a red pulpy mess by the nasty enemy. (Now don't get any
=> wrong ideas - they're JUST FRIENDS. This is the army, after all)

And this is what came back:

>>hey, Hey, HEY!!!  I take strong exception to a post like this!  This
>>digest is for the discussion of GUS and related topics.  Please keep
>>your UNrelated, bigoted opinions to yourself.
>>
>>Lance Hartmann (lance%hartmann.austin.ibm.com@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com)

My problem is this: I can't actually figure out which side I'm being
criticised from: am I being told that I am being intolerant of homosexuality,
or am I being told that I am intolerant of the military? Or is Lance just
ferociously anti-issue of any sort?

Anyway, Lance, just in case you missed it, the intial posting was 
not entirely serious. It was, of course, an anti-discrimination statement,
though I didn't think it was too terribly counterfactual in its suggestions 
about military culture. 

I apologise to all: I was not aware that this was a humour free zone.
Guess I'd better stick to music and leave comedy to the professionals.

Chris.

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

Date: Sat, 15 May 93 18:21:26 GMT+0200
From: Walter Prins <prins@cs.sun.ac.za>
Subject: Clicks in samples & sampling noise comments
Message-ID: <9305151621.AA14751@itu1.sun.ac.za>

I read in yesterday's digest of 'clicks' getting in samples, apparently
due to the motherboard makes and stuff. Well, although this may be true,
it's *very* important to check that it's not the GUS's RAM chips, 
specifically if you've upgraded it to 1 Meg.  I say this since I have
upgraded my GUS to 1 Meg as well a while back, and had subsequently
found that clicks and pops appears in some of the patches, or samples
especially when loaded into higher GUS memory.  Even switching the chips
around didn't do anything. 

After being quite baffled for a while, I traced the problem to incompatible 
RAM chips.  It seems there are quite a number of RAM makes which is 
incompatible with the GUS.  The chips are 70ns Goldstar chips, so beware.  
I might add that someone else had exactlly the same experience with 70ns 
Goldstar chips.  This is just to keep people from accidentaly blaming
inoccent motherboards when it's actually the GUS's RAM thats at fault.

Regarding sampling and sample noise I can just say that it's rather
strange that so much noise is picked up, since my GUS's sample value
does not vary *at all* when sampling silence.  Sampling anything else
is very good indeed, although the frequency response isn't exactly 
linear :)  Anyway, it samples exceptionally well in my opinion, considering
it's 8 bit samples. I suppose in general a 1 bit variance isn't much, but its 
strange, since my card does not exhibit this behaviour.  Well, perhaps
I've been lucky 8) and got a well calibrated card...

Regards....


---------------
Walter Prins                                  Email: prins@cs.sun.ac.za
University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.            prins@itu.sun.ac.za
Department of Computer Science. 

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

Date: 15 May 93 13:12:15 +0100
From: Bjorn Havard Kleven <BJORNHK@dhhalden.no>
Subject: Re: New chip on 16-bit daughterboard
Message-ID: <1314AD35238@sofus.dhhalden.no>

>
> As far as "the same as used on the Turtle Beach Multisound", does this mean
> the recording daugtherboard will have a DSP chip, and not fixed-function
> chips to perform compression/decompression?  Perhaps something in the way of
> the SB-16's ASP chip?

No, it will not be a DSP. As I said, I don't remember exactly what
chip it was (I got a lot of info in that converasation, and I forgot
to take down the type of the chip) - but I think it was the ADC.
Now, don't hang me on this if I'm wrong, I really don't know for sure.

	 -=* Bjorn :: bjornhk@dhhalden.no
   ACCESS DATA :: TEL: (+47)-9-17 50 48/61-97 311 FAX: 61-97 312
				  BBS: 61-97 945 300-14400 bps, 24 hrs

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

Date: 15 May 1993 10:45:10 -0700 (MST)
From: AUAND@ACVAX.INRE.ASU.EDU
Subject: PatchCon!
Message-ID: <01GY79KULKJ4002DTN@ACVAX.INRE.ASU.EDU>

I read that someone wanted to convert the GUS MIDI pathces to 8bit raw
samples.  No Problem!  I've written a program called PatchCon that converts
the patch files to several single octave 8 bit samples... for instance,
the OBOE patch has 14 different octaves.. my program reads in all the octaves
and dumps each one out.. OBOE.1 OBOE.2 OBOE.3 - OBOE.14.. You get the point..
They're GREAT samples for using in MODs.. I've uploaded them to a few BBSs
locally (Phoenix, Arizona), but I'll upload the patch converter to EPAS
sometime tonight... if you DON'T see it there in a coupla days, PLEASE PLEASE
send me E-Mail and ask for it again!  I'm very forgetful, and the program is
at my office with the Ultrasound. :)  Oh yes.. one of the things that makes
my program so cool ( Sorry, I'm tooting my own horn. :P) is this.  Not ONLY
does it spit out raw 8 bit samples, it also generates a .DAT file that
contains the length of each sample, AND the starting and ending loop points!
This is EXTREMELY handy.. ESPECIALLY for you MOD writers out there..  anyway
I'll try and remember to post it later to night.
 
  -Andy                      +-----------------------------------------+
   AUAND@ACVAX.INRE.ASU.EDU  | "Well the superintendent thought it was |
							 |  an almond whirl.  People won't expect  |
							 |  there to be a frog in there.  They're  |
							 |  bound to think it's some form of MOCK  |
							 |  frog!"  -Monty Python #6               |
							 +-----------------------------------------+

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

Date: 16 May 1993 00:55:17 -0500
From: "Bryon Daly, ECE Dept, UMass, Amherst" <DALY@ecs.umass.edu>
Subject: Protostar by Tsunami
Message-ID: <01GY82YMJQN68Y52NH@UMAECS>

I just picked up Protostar today.  I would say it's in the same genre as
Starflight and Galactic Trader.  Anyhow, I am unable to get the game's 
digitized samples to play using SBOS.  It accepts Adlib/SB for the music, 
but refuses to accept the SB for digitized playback.  It tries to load a 
driver in when the SB option is selected, and then reports a driver 
initialization failure.  Using several different SBOS's (1.20, 2.04, 2.07),
I have seen the install reboot my system when trying to select the SB for
digitized playback.  I have tried using various parameters such as -O1, -O2,
-X1, and -X2, but with no different results.

Anybody have any ideas or better luck?

Thanks,
-Bryon

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

Date: Sat, 15 May 93 11:45:29 CDT
From: Joe Cheng <jcheng@post.its.mcw.edu>
Subject: SB & GUS
Message-ID: <9305151645.AA15704@post.its.mcw.edu>

Well, after reading many reports on being able to use both a SoundBlaster and
the GUS in your system, and the fact that SBOS2.04 makes my 486 system run as
if it were a 386sx, I decided to buy a sound blaster to replace SBOS, but now
I have all sorts of headaches getting my system to work right.  Some games now
think there is no sound board at all, some hang up, some (like WC2) don't have
any digitized sounds, etc.  My config is : GUS Port240, DMA 3,3 , GF1 Irq 11,
& Midi Irq 15 with the SB Port220, DMA 1, Irq 2.  My printer uses 7 and 5 is
already in use for the Irq.  If any of you have working setups I would
appreciate the help


										   Thanks,

											-Joe-

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

Date: 15 May 1993 10:25:40 -0700 (MST)
From: AUAND@ACVAX.INRE.ASU.EDU
Subject: SBOS...
Message-ID: <01GY78KHU60M002DTN@ACVAX.INRE.ASU.EDU>

First off, let me say that I've had my fair share of problems with SBOS..
Its NOT a perfect package, switching off between versions seems to help tho..
:)  Anyway.. Although I HATE getting involved in these things, I'm going to
anyway.  EVERYONE has problems with SBOS.  Shouldn't this be expected?  I mean
for crying outloud, you're asking a card which is COMPLETLY hardware
INCOMPATIBLE with the Adlib FM Music stuff to EMULATE it with software!
And a TSR nontheless...  MANY MANY games take control of the system, I know
of some that take over interupts ALLL to themselves and DO NOT call the old
interuupts, hence rendering all TSRs a waste.. :)  For what SBOS does, its
an amazing piece of software wizardry..  it doesn't sound too hot sometimes,
but you MUST expect this..  I think the guys at Gravis have done an excellent
job with this software.  They could have just left us out in the cold and
not supported the Sound Blaster or Adlib at ALL, but they work hard to update
it the software regularly.  Another thing, people ask for fixes for specific
games QUITE often.  Are you expecting Gravis to run out and buy every game
that comes to market just to make sure their software works?  I'm not. :)

Okay, I'm done flaming now.  :)

  -Andy                             +---------------------------+
   AUAND@ACVAX.INRE.ASU.EDU         | "I'm sorry, but I'm going |
									|  to have to shoot you."   |
									|     - Monty Python        |
									+---------------------------+

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

Date: 15 May 1993 10:54:54 -0700 (MST)
From: AUAND@ACVAX.INRE.ASU.EDU
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #44
Message-ID: <01GY79XHQIQU002DTN@ACVAX.INRE.ASU.EDU>



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End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #46
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