Ultrasound Daily Digest     Thu, 15 Apr 1993     Volume 3 : Issue  15 

Today's Topics:
				  [Gus] List of working motherboards
		   Advanced Gravis MultiMedia CD Rom package Review
							 archive.epas
					   Cakewalk or similar Prgm
								CSound
				   Drum Patches with WinJammer 2.24
					   Gravis Hardware question
							 GUS Patches
				  invalid sboslib.sbs error message
					 Source codes for Ultrasound
							   Ultima 7
				   Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #14 
	  Ultrasound FTP Sites - New files validated - April 12, 93

	Information about the UltraSound Daily Digest (such as
mail addresses, request servers, ftp sites, etc., etc.) can be found
at the end of the Digest.

	*** HEY!!! *** 

	Before you ask a question, *** READ THE FAQ ***.  It's
available on the request server and the ftp sites, or check the
newsgroup archives.


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

Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1993 17:08:31 GMT
From: mer6g@fuggles.acc.Virginia.EDU (Marc Rouleau)
Subject: Re: [Gus] List of working motherboards
Message-ID: <C5HGy8.KB2@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>

ReprintFrom: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard

Last week I asked people with motherboards which support all of the Gravis
Ultrasound's features to write me.  Thanks to all who did so.

I'd like to refocus and continue this study.  I think it was unwise of me
to ask specifically about working motherboards.  Knowing about the ones
that don't work is just as important if you're shopping for a new computer
or a replacement.  So let's try again with only three brief questions:

1.  Describe your motherboard.
2.  Can you use 16-bit DMA?
3.  Any other problems?

I'm not sure how to interpret all of the responses I have received in this
context.  I'll attempt the beginning of a table right here and include the
responses at the end of this article.  The first entry is my own; the others
were extracted from my email.

Please email me with your contributions to this list.

	-- Marc Rouleau

1.  486-33, OPTI ?/?/82C206Q, 1/93
2.  No
3.  Windows crashes after doing too much sound-oriented stuff.  DOS stuff
	works fine: sbos, playmidi, gusmod, p669gu0, etc.

1.  386-25/33/40, OPTI 82C391/82C392/82C206
2.  Yes
3.  No reported problems

1.  Micronics 386, 2/91 (Gateway 2000)
2.  ?
3.  No reported problems

1.  DTK 486-33dx, Symphony, 8/92
2.  ?
3.  No reported problems

1.  486-50 VLB, Bioteq
2.  ?
3.  Didn't work

1.  386-40, Bioteq
2.  ?
3.  No reported problems

1.  486-50 VLB, UMC
2.  ?
3.  No reported problems

1.  486DLC (Cyrix), Opti 391 motherboard, 12/92 (HI-TECH)
2.  No
3.  No reported problems

1.  286-20, C&T NEAT 82C212B/82C206/?
2.  Yes
3.  No reported problems

***************************************************************

From: f92-hst@nada.kth.se

Works great with my MB...


> - Processor(s) supported

386-25/33/40

> - Chipset description

OPTi 82c391, 82c392, 82c206

> - Brand name

PAT38PX

> - Source
> - Date purchased
> - Cost

Don't have a clue.

> - Anything else of interest

This is the infamous "82c206" chip which supposedly won't work with 16-bit
DMA's. However, I use both a SCSI card and the GUS with 16-bit DMA:s and
it works fine.

***************************************************************

From:    "Matthew E. Bernold" <MEB117@psuvm.psu.edu>

My motherboard works fine with the GUS.  Here's the specs that I know right
off hand.

386 processor.  8 SIMM slots (max 1meg SIMMs though).   Made by Micronics,
shipped with my Gateway 2000 system in February of 1991.  Phoenix BIOS.
Don't know what chipset it is though.

***************************************************************

From: ttrusk@post.its.mcw.edu

In answer to your post on c.s.i.p.s.:

I have a 486dx-33 with 4Mb of non-parity memory (3-chip SIMMS).
The Symphony chipset is on the motherboard. (I don't remember the
specifics, but next time I open the box I'll get them for you.)
The brand is KLH (they went out of the computer business last winter),
but all the parts (including BIOS) suggest a DTK product. I bought the
system in August of 1992 for $2000.

The GUS installed with no problems whatsoever. All the software seems to work
fine as long as I follow the advice I see in the DIGEST. Windows does not
crash (even with SMARTDRV 4.1). XWING experiences NO slowdowns as long as music
is turned off. Links386 works with -x2 on SBOS 2.04.
All in all, a (thankfully) uneventful installation.
Hope this is helpful.

***************************************************************

From: Wake of the Flood <cs163wci@sdcc8.ucsd.edu>

	My old chipset didn't work - Bioteq chipset on a 486-50
	Vesa LB.  But it did work on a Bioteq chipset on a 386-40!

	I got a 486-50 UMC chipset Vesa LB and GUS works fine.

	I am, however, returning it to the store.  Pain in the neck.

	Hope you find the info useful in your report which will save
	the Gravis folks a big headache.

***************************************************************

From: Dennis Ernst <ernst@tymnet.com>

> - Processor(s) supported
	486DLC (Cylix)
> - Chipset description
	OPTI  (OPTI 391 Motherboard)
> - Brand name
	HI-TECH
> - Source
	HI-TECH
> - Date purchased
	12/20/92
> - Cost
	~ $1300
> - Anything else of interest
	16 bit DMA hangs the machine, everything else seems to be ok

***************************************************************

From: David Vu <ccdvu@cc.uq.oz.au>

The GUS works fine under DOS for me.  I don't use Windows :)
Using 16 bit DMA too!

My system's specs:

	AT clone
	DOS 5.0
	286 - 20 MHz
	Chips & Tech NEAT chipset, I think it's 82C212B, 82C206, and another one,
		which I can't remember.

I personally think any PC with a Chips&Tech chipset should drive the GUS well.

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

Date: Tue, 13 Apr 93 02:30:10 GMT
From: frandsen%milo@plains.nodak.edu (Bill Frandsen)
Subject: Advanced Gravis MultiMedia CD Rom package Review
Message-ID: <1993Apr13.023010.21644@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>

ReprintFrom: alt.cd-rom,comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard

Hello.  A few  weeks ago someone asked if anyone had seen/tried the Advanecd
Gravis Multi-Media CD Rom package they saw at their local "superstore"
(BestBuy).

Well...here's my review:

Good Points:
------------
1. Inexpensive!  $379 on sale from $399 during a "Everything's on Sale" Weekend.
2. Came with Software Toolworks MM Encyclopedia.
3. Came with SelectWare Demo CD of products for DOS, Windows, OS/2, MM, more..

Bad Points:
-----------
1. SBOS Crashes when shelling to DOS in Windows. (No morre sound after that or
   a EMM386 error=REBOOT)
2. Gravis's SB emulation was poor.
3. CHEESY way daughterboard attached to Gravis board.
4. Corrupted FAT and files due to sampling with Graivs + Dos 6's DBLSPACE.

Well, thats the summary.  Here is the nitty-gritty:

As I mentioned, it was inexpensive.  Even at $399, I thought, "HEY! A complete
package, with 2 ROMS, a 16 bit sound card, one slot, CADDYLESS, what more could
I want/need......Alot I found out"

First the drive, since that was the reason I bought it:

It's a CM205 LMSI (Laser Magnetic Storage Incorporate), a subsidiary of
Phillips, sub of Phillips NA, sub of Phillips Europe.  This drivve is the same
one sold by Insight called the "Talon" I *THINK*.

It claimed on the Gravis Box:  <375 ms access speed, 154k/sec Mode 1, 174K/s
Mode 2.   But oddly enough the specs in the LMSI manual stated 400 ms AVG
access speed, no greater than 600 ms latency.

It was nice that the drive was caddyless.  It however, was not as nice as
your home CD player.  There was a tray that you had to physically TUG out,
drop the disk in, and SHOVE back in until it clicked (Locked). It would return
out about 1/2 an inch.  To Stop the disk and eject, you SHOVED it back in,
it clicked, and then TUG it all the way out.  All the time it felt like you
were going against a gear (sorta like your home CD player if your tray door
is closing, and you try to pull it open manually).  About 50% of the time,
I did not get the disk seated and the drive would not recognize a disk was
inserted.  I had to unlatch it, and reseat it and try again.

On the front was a headphone jack, a volume control (and switch, that if you
pushed in the control, and had an audio CD in, it would start plaing track 1,
and each push would skip to the next track).  It also had a gree LED that
indicated the reading of the disk (either Audio/ROM).

On the back:  A Proprietary 20+ pin ribbon cable, a 4 pin Audio-Out and
a proprietary location to connect for digital sub-code out (not used), and
of course a standard 4 pin power jack.

The Software for the CD Rom:
A driver loaded in CONFIG.SYS, and MSCDEX 2.21.  I just got DOS 6, which has
MSCDEX 2.22, which could be loaded into UMB's, and worked fine.  The manual
didn't state anything about PHOTO-CD, but the readme on the disk stated
"Is now PHOTO-CD compatible, contact Eastman/Kodak for software".  It didn't
state Singe or multi-session, and I didn't get a chance to try.

The Controller:
The long awaited LMSI daughter board for the Gravis sound card.  It consisted
of a NEC? Chip, I think a 74S something and a few resistors and capacitors.
It connected to the Gravis directly above the 8 bit part of the expansion
slot connectors via a long row of "jumpers" (like most daughterboards).
Problem was, the Capacitors on the Gravis, and the chips on the LMSI controller
tochehed each other (in fact two flat chips were sandwiched together!). And
this only allowed the pins to connect about 1/8 of the 1/4 inch given, and
therefore, if I bumped the case, or through heat expansion, the board came
loose multiple times.  I could not make it stay together at all.

The Gravis:
Well, enough has been said about it, both good and bad.

It had EXCELLENT sound in its native mode (Zone66, and the demos that came
with it).  It blew away the sound I remember from my Old Amiga.  However,
when it came to Soundblaster support, it was horrible.  It came with the
1.2 manuals, and 2.04 disks.  SBOS would load fine from DOS, then when
I entered windows, about every other time when I shelled out to DOS, I'd
get a 5 second delay before the prompt (or program to start), and a msg
indicating SBOS interrupt error.  I tried all the interupts to no avail.
Sometimes it'd give me a EMM386 Error right from windows and have to reboot
the system. After the error, no sound in DOS or Windows permanently.

Sampling with Sound Recorder and the mixer in windows was good (60 seconds
of 22Khz Mono).. but in DOS at any rate with it's USS8 program, I'd get
clicking every few seconds. (I hear this is due to only 256 K of memory)
But why didn't it do it in windows?  Also, It only came with 256k of
memory instead of the 512K I thought they were shipping "standard" now.

The 2.04 disks had a date of 3-13 or something on them, so the package was
only 1 month old (The CD Rom stated Jan 93 MFG)

Also, after installing DBLSpace on the drive and sampling with USS8, I started
to loose my device drivers in windows, it claimed "corrupted" files, I
couldn't even reinstall them, I had to blow away dblspace and windows
then reinstalled them. (Taking off Dblspace is another story.....but that's
for comp.sys.ibm.pc.*)  It also corrupted my DOS directory, etc..

Since I took off Ultrasound, and reinstalled dblspace...no problems.

I returned the package for a refund, and will probably wait for better
support from Gravis for SB, a better controller connection, and a faster
drive (200ms/300k) in about a year I'll bet those will be down to the $400
for a package deal...

Anyone else have a similar experience with this package?

Bill

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

Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1993 18:03:02 -0500 (EDT)
From: adam@epas.utoronto.ca (Adam Iles)
Subject: Re: archive.epas
Message-ID: <9304142203.AA04342@epas.utoronto.ca>

On Tue 13 Apr 1993, Morgan Stair <Morgan_Stair@dl5000.bc.edu> wrote

> I think the problem is that the name server for epas is screwed up or so
> slow that it doesn't respond in time. 

It seems to be either one of the name servers between the root name
server (anyone know which that is off hand?) and our nameserver.  I
cannot find any problems with our name server, and haven't messed
around with it recently.

> The address (128.100.160.36) always seems to work, however.

This will work until the archive/machine is moved to a different IP
address (not likely in the foreseeable future).

> -Morgan

I'd also like to warn you that over the next few days archive.epas may
come down periodically between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. EDT.  We're
doing some testing of network software on that machine which involves
swapping cards.  It should be up continuously outside of those hours.

-- 
Adam Iles -- EPAS Computing.       adam@epas.utoronto.ca

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

Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1993 13:24 AST
From: CHRIS FORGERON <CS328A012@HUSKY1.STMARYS.CA>
Subject: Cakewalk or similar Prgm
Message-ID: <01GX045CHSCK000SJX@HUSKY1.STMARYS.CA>

 Anyone know where I can obtain Cakewalk (FTP Site, ect) or a similar
program so I can run Windows intensive software without Win-doze?

 Tnx

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

Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1993 19:14:43 -0400
From: Scott D Palmer <palmer@chopin.udel.edu>
Subject: CSound
Message-ID: <199304142314.AA20899@chopin.udel.edu>

Hi,
I was wondering if there any ports of CSound to MSDOS that are available.
I thought that I saw someone saying that they were working on one, but I
can't seem to find any info on them anymore.  If anyone can point me in the
right direction, I'd really appreciate it.

----------------
Scott Palmer
palmer@chopin.udel.edu
University of Delaware, CIS/MIS '92

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

Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1993 11:27:40 -0500
From: Nathan Sandland <sandland@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Drum Patches with WinJammer 2.24
Message-ID: <199304141627.AA20215@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>

	I recently obtained WinJammer 2.24, and tried playing around with
making and editing midi files, when I found that I can't figure out how to
use patches from the percussion set of patches--only the melodic ones in making
a midi file.  Looking at pre-written midi files, I found that those tracks with
percussion instruments had "none" listed in the patch column, and also all used
channel 10 to play the percussion with.  I looked through the help information
supplied with WinJammer, and found no information about this.  Does anyone know
how I can specify a percussion instrument in a midi file created by WinJammer?

Thanks!
	   ____
  /\  /    \                             o  o
 /  \/      |                             <
	/      /                             \__/
   /      /   ___   __|__    ___                      Nathan Sandland 
  /      |   /   \/   |     /  /                      University of Illinois
 /        \ |     |  /|    | /                        n-sandland@uiuc.edu
/          \/\___/\_/  \__/ \___/                     sandland@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu

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

Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1993 16:11:56 -0700
From: Eric N. Liao <liaoe@aero.org>
Subject: Gravis Hardware question
Message-ID: <199304142311.AA13342@aerospace.aero.org>

What's the fastest sampling rate the GF1 chip supports?  With playfile, the
maximum is 65535 Hz.  Is this the hardware limit of the GF1 chip, or did Gravis
just decide to use a 16-bit register to store sample rate, even though the
Gravis can do better?

I tried to make my own MIDI patch, but it didn't work.  I think I did everythig
right.  Here's what I did.  I sampled a piano with a microphone (the resulting
.WAV was 8-bit 22KHz, and pretty noisy.)  Then, I wrote my own C program that
ripped out the patch header and "sample block" header from the ACPIANO.PAT
file, and wrote the two headers & actual piano sample in the correct order, to
a different file.

I adjusted the "number of samples", "sample length" and the "flag byte" (I'm
using the terminology of the new PATINFO program) with my C program.  In the
flag byte, I turned off looping, and changed another bit so my patch would be
identified as an 8-bit patch.

Then, I ran patinfo on my newly created custom "patch", and everything looked
fine.  All the important numbers were correct (I have no idea what vibrato,
tremolo, etc. are for.)  But when I tried to use it with a MIDI file, 
playmidi returned an error.  I forgot what exactly it was, but I have 1024k
on my GUS, so it's not related to memory.  And, there wasa lot of discussion
about "load patch error - 6", and I know it was NOT that.

The only thing I could think of is that maybe playmidi can't handle 8-bit
patches.  Can anyone confirm this?  All the GF1/Forte MIDI patches are 16-bit.
I even tried the "-8" option to load my patch as 8-bit, but I still got the
same error.  I am modifying my program, so I can enter in the values I want
changed.  (The first version had certain values "hard-coded," and I didn't
feel like using Norton Diskeditor and a hex calculator just to locate the
patch header.  I figure I'll save time in the long run if I just rewrite the
C code that grafts a patch heaer and sample.)

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

Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1993 16:59:55 GMT
From: adhir@wam.umd.edu (Al Dhir)
Subject: Re: GUS Patches
Message-ID: <1993Apr14.165955.12651@wam.umd.edu>

ReprintFrom: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard

In article <1993Apr14.042006.13879@rose.com> francisco.perez@rose.com (francisco perez) writes:
>Anyone know if there's a way to convert any of the v1.21 patches to the
>v2.01 patches?  GUS patches, that is.
>
>I don't know if it's just me, but the ACPIANO.PAT in the version 2 disks
>don't seem to sound as good as the version 1.21's.  What I want to do is
>replace the v2 ACPIANO.PAT with the v1.21, but I heard that the headers
>don't match.  Any of you GUS techies know how to do this?
>---

On a related note, I really miss the helicopter patch from the last set of
disks...I lost it ever since installing the new set of disks.  The patch on
the original disks sounded like a big engine starting up with a satisfying
growl...loved it!  But the new one sounds like a real helicopter...which is
OK, but I miss the old one.  Is there any way I can keep both?

Also, the new flute sound doesn't sound as good as the old one either.

Comments?
-- 
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Al Dhir                                   Technical Consulting Staff
 Internet: adhir@cygnus.umd.edu      University of Maryland, College Park
 Bitnet:   adhir%cygnus.umd.edu@Interbit      (301) 405-1500 * (301) 405-3014

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

Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1993 11:52:21 EDT
From: Marc Rouleau <mer6g@fuggles.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Subject: Re: invalid sboslib.sbs error message
Message-ID: <9304141552.AA01482@orca.es.com>

On Apr 12,  4:14pm, "Dave Bakken" wrote:
> I installed the new five 2.01 disks Saturday, and they seem
> to work wonderfully.  Then I installed the SBOS 2.04 files
> as directed, i.e., by unzipping them into my ultrasnd/sbos
> directory.

There's another part to the installation.  It's described in the
doc file that comes with sbos2.04.  You have to copy the two executables --
I think they're called loadsbos.exe and sbosdrv.exe -- to the main
ultrasnd directory.  Also I suppose sbos.bat should go up there.

Also, there's a bug in the sbos.bat file that's included with one
of these distributions -- it presumes that you're using emm386 as
a memory manager by doing "lh sbosdrv.exe".  This will really mess
things up if you use qemm or 386max.  I have had trouble loading
sbosdrv high with emm386 anyway, so I recommend taking the "lh "
out regardless.  Loading sbosdrv high with 386max works fine for
me, btw.

> P.S.  As an aside, I found it interesting that the install program
> modified my autoexec.bat file to call sbos.bat, even though I
> later fire up windows.

The new sbos disables itself automatically when you start Windows,
so this should not be a problem for you.

	-- Marc Rouleau

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

Date: 14 Apr 93  9:49 -0700
From: Thomas Wong <twong@civil.ubc.ca>
Subject: Source codes for Ultrasound
Message-ID: <3404*twong@civil.ubc.ca>

Seems like we are getting more and more developpers/programmers for the
Ultrasound (HURRAY!). What I have done on the archive thus far is dump
all the code in ..../ultrasound/util and the unix ones in .../util/unix.
But these directories are really for finished products/programs so if
there is really going to be a group of developpers forming here and we
want to start collecting a library of routines for all to share and
contribute to. I'll make a new directory called ..../source.
And if this come to exist, do you want me to have subdirectories by
language (c, basic, assembly) or by platform (pc, unix, os2...)?

Thomas.

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

Date: Wed, 14 Apr 93 14:47:42 CDT
From: Michael J Stumpf <mjs7529@tamsun.tamu.edu>
Subject: Ultima 7
Message-ID: <9304141947.AA13733@tamsun.tamu.edu>

To make ultima 7 work:

You're probably using irq 7 in the autoexec... change the blaster variable
to irq 5, and set the ultima 7 sound set up to irq 5.

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

Date: Wed, 14 Apr 93 09:22:10 EDT
From: mmetzger@Athena.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #14 
Message-ID: <9304141322.AA20469@m66-080-15>

	Yeah , I cut off in the middle of a sentence because my mail program was
being flaky, and I realized I had to be in class. Curious to know if the last
sentence you saw was the last one I typed. Anyway, sorry about that, and I'd
love to tell you more about how wonderful LISP is, But I've been programming in
it since 10 'o the clock last night, continously. Worse yet, the program I was
working with was itself a LISP interpreter. Apparently no one told MIT that CS
students aren't supposed to do this sort of thing until they are seniors. Anyway
my brain is fried, I haven't slept in 26 hours and probably won't get a chance
for at least another 15 or so, and the only thing holding me together is my
unshowered skin and a large cup of black coffee. I'll get back to you later when
I'm feeling less zombyish.
						Bye
							Me
							

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

Date: 13 Apr 1993 04:54:03 GMT
From: twong@civil.ubc.ca (Thomas Wong)
Subject: Ultrasound FTP Sites - New files validated - April 12, 93
Message-ID: <1qdh1bINN7p8@iskut.ucs.ubc.ca>

ReprintFrom: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard

					GRAVIS ULTRASOUND FTP SITES NEWS
==========================================================================
Ftp Site: archive.epas.utoronto.ca     Directory: pub/pc/ultrasound
		  wuarchive.wustl.edu                     systems/msdos/ultrasound
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are the files I validated today, April 12, 1993....


Subdirectory: ..../sound/midi/files

chopin.lzh, rushstuf.zip, scdemos.zip (new), tomneat.zip, tomsdinr.zip,
gusmid1m.zip (Gravis' new midi demo. Need install disk 2.02 and 1 meg GUS.
Some of the best midis I've ever heard!)


Subdirectory: ..../sound/midi/util

cmf2mid.zip - SB's CMF to MIDI convertors version 1.0


Subdirectory: ..../util/dos

gusdram.zip - Ultrasound DRAM tester from Forte (programmer for Gravis)
gustest.exe - GUS Tester version 1.21


Subdirectory: ..../sound/voc/util

gvoc15.zip - GVOC voc player version 1.5


Subdirectory: ..../sound/misc

mmv110.zip - Module Menu 1.0 shell/menu interface for other players
noismstr.zip - NoiseMaker 1.0 sample (wav,voc) editor for Windows


Subdirectory: ..../misc

wmd0022w.exe - Waffer! Multimedia Digest issue #22 for Windows


Subdirectory: ..../game

sc2_demo.zip - Star Control II demo, a must see for those with Ultrasound
			   but haven't bought Star Control II yet, awesome sound


Well, that's it for this time. Have fun GUSers!!!


Thomas.

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #15
*************************************

