Ultrasound Daily Digest     Fri, 30 Apr 1993     Volume 3 : Issue  30 

Today's Topics:
					  Buzz Aldrin's GUS support
	 GLDWAV10.ZIP - GoldWave: Sound player/editor for Windows 3.1
				GUS and MOD... what about the PAS16 !
					 Looking for GUS mail servers
						 New GUS : questions
		  New Midi Files Specially for GUS (+ multiplexing)
						  Playmidi problems
						 Problem w/ gusclear?
						  StarCon2 problems

	Meta-info about the GUS, this digest, and other GUS resources
can be found at the end of the Digest.

	Before you ask a question, please READ THE FAQ.

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

Date: 28 Apr 1993 03:56:45 GMT
From: blaze@uclink.berkeley.edu (Donald K. Wong)
Subject: Buzz Aldrin's GUS support
Message-ID: <1rkv9t$7l1@agate.berkeley.edu>

ReprintFrom: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard

Well, looks like my initial excitement over Buzz Aldrin's GUS support
was all for naught.  Here's an exerpt from the readme file included in
the game:

  Advanced Gravis Ultrasound (GUS) Notes
	If you select the GUS for either Music or Sound then BARIS will use
	it for both Music and Sound in the game.  BARIS relies on the GUS
	to be set up according to it's installation program.
	Currently only the game's Digitized sound is supported through this
	device.

BARIS is the executable that runs the game.  As it says, no music, just
some digitized speech.  Seems like it's just using the GUS as a dumb
DAC, which is quite misleading.  If it says supports Gravis Ultrasound
on the box, one should expect speech AND MUSIC...this is bad practice
on the part of the game companies, IMHO.
-- 
Donald K. Wong
blaze@uclink.berkeley.edu

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

Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1993 07:16:46 GMT
From: chris3@cs.mun.ca (Chris Craig)
Subject: GLDWAV10.ZIP - GoldWave: Sound player/editor for Windows 3.1
Message-ID: <9304280716.kp3513@tacom-emh1.army.mil>

ReprintFrom: comp.archives.msdos.announce

I have uploaded to WSMR-SIMTEL20.Army.Mil and OAK.Oakland.Edu:

pd1:<msdos.sound>
GLDWAV10.ZIP    GoldWave: Sound player/editor for Windows 3.1

GoldWave v1.0, by the creator of ScopeTrax, is a new, powerful sound
processing application for Microsoft Windows.  This application combines
the standard Windows graphical interface and large memory management with
the sound editing features of the original ScopeTrax.

Features:
  * Supports all MPC sound cards (SB, SB16, PAS16, GUS, ...)
  * Full 16-bit stereo editing
  * Multiple re-sizable file windows with time axis and
	 "Overview" box.
  * Independent left/right channel editing and viewing
  * Detached "Scope and Controls" window with an oscilloscope
	 and play, pause, stop, record, volume, balance, and speed
	 controls
  * Intelligent editing that automatically converts
	 sampling rates, bits, and channels when copying and
	 pasting to different file formats
  * Built-in support for WAV, VOC, IFF, AU, SND as well
	 as the ability to open RAW files
  * Tool Bar for editing, zooming, and opening files
  * Standard effects: echo, volume, reverse, ...
  * Flexibility to choose input/output devices
  * NEW! Expression evaluator for any type of sound generation
	 and manipulation (in time domain)
  * Shareware, with NO FEATURES DISABLED !

Chris Craig
chris3@garfield.cs.mun.ca

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

Date: 27 Apr 93 08:54:21 MDT
From: sl859@cc.usu.edu
Subject: Re: GUS and MOD... what about the PAS16 !
Message-ID: <1993Apr27.085421.66814@cc.usu.edu>

ReprintFrom: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard

Petri Jarre grossly misquoted:

> 2) The GUS is a mathematical paradox because it violates the above.
> In addition, as you pointed out, GUS can perform sound compression
> with improbable results.

You see you are fighting too hard against the natural order of things!
You must open your heart to GUS and it will flow within you.  Paradoxes 
exist all about us.  Take for instance ... LOVE!  Love, supposedly that
trait more admirable than all causes such pain and suffering, and YET 
a lack of it will cause even more suffering and pain... Yet Due to love 
the world is in a constant state of turmoil...  Is it truly a paradox,
or can it be that we simply do not understand it!?  I believe the second...

	The universe is a place that defies man's greatest attempts of
explanation...  We think we understand the natural order of things and
suddenly we are bombarded with an entire realm of different ideas and 
changes.  In the 1700s people thought that Newton had discovered all there
was to discover about physics, and yet we now find that his ideas were all
limited in concept, due to a very limited perspective or reference frame.

	Can it be that we humans are just on a too limited perspective or
reference frame to fully comprehend the grandeur of GUS!?  Can we really 
hope to attain the level of complete and absolute GUSdom?  GUS is not an 
object, it is a state of being!  A feeling that is fostered by a mother as 
she pulls her helpless child against her bossom and nurtures it with her 
very own essence!  To comprehend the GUS you must open yourself to the 
universe!

	So my final word and warning is, Fight not against the massive 
forces of the universe that dictate the transcendental communion with 
spiritual serenity that is known simply as GUS!  But join in the happy 
throng and seek not to thwart its perfection by trying to explain away 
it's being with such fraudulent premises such as physics or mathematics!
For in the end GUS will remain and you shall thrash against a wall of
indominable forces...

				Now go thy way and be one with GUS...

						wReam...
				The Chief Accolyte to the High Realm of GUS

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

Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1993 08:58:41 GMT
From: zh@news.uni-konstanz.de (Z. Horvat)
Subject: Re: Looking for GUS mail servers
Message-ID: <1993Apr28.085841.169342@eratu.rz.uni-konstanz.de>

ReprintFrom: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard

Roy Shepard (shepard@bcarh535.bnr.ca) wrote:
: I'm looking for email  servers  that people who don't have FTP access,
: like me, can email to for files.

Tried to contact you via e-mail, but the mail bounced.

A mirror of wuarchive's gus-software is available via
	mail-server@nike.rz.uni-konstanz.de

send a message to this address with a blank subject line and the following
text in the body :

	send help
	index gus

if you like a postscript-formatted version of the users manual,
request it by putting the following line in your request:
	send mservusr.ps

if you have perl installed, the following tool might come in handy
	send unpack.pl

(You may request all items at once).

have fun.

--

 --------------------------------------------------
SYS337654 Could not locate coffee - Operator halted 
 --------------------------------------------------
					 ++++++++++++++
Z. Horvat                |  MIME &    |
Rechenzentrum Universitaet Konstanz  |  METAMAIL  |
++49-7531-88-2405            |  ACCEPTED  |
					 ++++++++++++++
zh@nike.rz.uni-konstanz.de      
rzhorv@nyx.uni-konstanz.de

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

Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1993 17:27:18 GMT
From: Steph <CT80@music.mus.polymtl.ca>
Subject: New GUS : questions
Message-ID: <29APR93.13451584.0045@music.mus.polymtl.ca>

ReprintFrom: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard

Hi there.  Bought a GUS card two days ago and as yet I haven't had
a chance to try it with anything else but Xwing, a few mods and one
or two shareware games.  Sounds good, but I have a few questions about
it :

o) Is there a way to turn OFF the software volume control?  I'd even
   like it if I could remove the keyboard handler on it.  I simply
   hate software playing with my keyboard interrupt.

o) I have a Roland MPU-IPC-T (That's a MIDI MPU-401 card) in my machine,
   as well as the standard multi IO card with the game port on it.  I
   don't have a joystick.  Do I have to disable the game ports on
   both, none, or can I leave it like that?  And do I have to take out
   my MIDI card, can I disable GUS' MIDI port?  Etc etc..

o) In Xwing, the voices sometimes play, sometimes do not, and sometimes
   they play _really_ faintly.  Makes me wonder if they play all the
   time but they get drowned in the music.  Any way to fix this?
   Some MODs gave me the same problem - either voice or the whole
   thing would stop for a while (even though the waveforms on the
   screen were still going crazy).

Ah, well.  Looks like a great card, but may not be simple to use for the
average Joe.  Mind you, I've been on PCs for over 10 years now..

Steph.

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

Date: 29 Apr 1993   18:08:57 PST
From: chrisw <chrisw@leland.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: New Midi Files Specially for GUS (+ multiplexing)
Message-ID: <9304300111.AA21028@leland.Stanford.EDU>

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

Hi gussers.

I'm in the process of uploading a pair of midi files written by me and 
fine tuned for GUS usage. I think they're worth listening to as 
demonstrations of how a GUS midi file can almost sound like music.

I'm afraid they're called Chris1.mid and Chris2.mid. I'm not really much into
naming things. If you prefer more florid names, they were originally named 
Cooljazz and Wildfunk. (Yeah, I know they're pretty tacky names, but at least 
I can remember which file is which on my HD).

Anyway, I thought I might as well repost my yesterday's posting to the digest
since it didn't seem to materialise. (Hope it won't pop up twice!).

Chris.

P.S. And, by the way, Francois, I think you are on some sort of global 
kill file. I went back through the last two days of stuff on the net and in
the digest and couldn't find your words of wisdom on Gus mixing anywhere.

-----

Subject: Multiplexing and the how many voices question

This multiplexing business sounds pretty likely to me. In particular, it can
probably explain the 'choose your number of voices' which doesn't make a great
deal of sense in the 32 DACs theory.

My (completely unsubstantied) theory is this. When you choose 16 voices rather  
than 32 each voice gets 2 values per cycle in the 32 part multiplexing 
operation. This isn't going to make much difference to something recorded
at 44.1khz and played back at 44.1khz : it'll just put out the same value
twice instead of once. IF it's a 44.1khz sample being played back at 8 times
the rate it was recorded at (a 3 octave pitch shift), then obviously it's
going to have to throw out a lot of the data. In the 32 voice system it may
just play back every 8th byte while in the 16 voice system it could play back
every 4th byte. This could make a difference in terms of aliasing problems.

At least this is one hypothesis to explain the clavinet test (i.e. changing the
number of active voices and playing the top octave of the clavinet patch ->
very different sound quality).

Chris.

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

Date: Thu, 29 Apr 93 09:36:21 -0400
From: decvax!cg-atla.agfa.com!pasky@uucp-gw-2.pa.dec.com (Robert Pasky)
Subject: Playmidi problems
Message-ID: <9304291336.AA21417@cg-atla.agfa.com>

I haven't seen any mention of this. Does anyone have a problem running
Playmidi on a Diamond SpeedStar (1Mb)? For me, it only plays a few
notes here and there, real slow, and seems to hang on certain .mid
files, sometimes with a note on. Also, it will hang with an empty
directory display if I start it with no or bad midi file arguments.

I was using playmidi from the latest installation downloads and at
first I figured it was a bad d/l, but I just d/l'ed pmidi405.zip and
the same thing happens. The original version worked, but of course it
had no interactive display. That gave me a clue, so I tried running
the new ones without the display ( -video option ) and it works
perfectly!

I thought I remembered someone saying that playmidi used interrupts
for timing, so I tried changing the SB/midi interrupt from the default
of 7 to 5. Still didn't work.

Ok, so not having the cute display isn't earth-shattering, but anybody
got a clue about what's happening here?

Vital stats:
	Gateway 2K 486/33
	MS-DOS 5.0
	ULTRASND=220/11/1/1/7  (I'm writing this from memory so I may
				have the syntax a little wrong.)
	386MAX
	Stacker 2.0
	Diamond SpeedStar Plus (1Meg memory, TSENG4000 chipset)

-- Bob

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

Date: 28 Apr 1993 05:18:44 GMT
From: blaze@uclink.berkeley.edu (Donald K. Wong)
Subject: Problem w/ gusclear?
Message-ID: <1rl43k$a2f@agate.berkeley.edu>

ReprintFrom: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard

Ok, here's my problem...I boot up windows, play a few midi files, they
sound great, everything's fine.  Then I open up a DOS box and run gusclear.
After that, any midi file will start to sound different, like everything
is a lower pitch now...(I'm no music expert, that's as well as I can
explain it).  I have to restart windows to get it sounding right again.
Anyone else experience this problem?  Gusclear seems to work perfectly
fine in DOS, it has no effect on the playing of midi files.

Also, on an unrelated note, how do programs like media player which were
written before the Ultrasound came out know about patch caching?  If it
doesn't, then how does it load the patches?  If it does, then why doesn't
Sierra write their Windows games w/ patch aware?  Forgive me if this
is already common knowledge.
-- 
Donald K. Wong
blaze@uclink.berkeley.edu

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

Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1993 14:52:44 GMT
From: hutch@bellman.lanl.gov (John Hutchinson)
Subject: StarCon2 problems
Message-ID: <1993Apr27.145244.8706@newshost.lanl.gov>

ReprintFrom: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.GUS,comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard

Is anyone else having difficulty with Star Control II with their GUS?

I just installed it last night and it loads/runs _very_ intermittently.
I've reconfigured my config.sys and autoexec.bat to be the absolute bare
minimum and no TSR's exist to cause a conflict, but still, SCII will work
only about 25% (or less!) of the time.  The docs say it needs 580Kb of
low memory but I'm giving it at least 639Kb!

I always get the title screen and the copy-protect screen, but it usually
locks up after that after some disk access.  And those few times when the
game actually does run, it crashes the system after only a few minutes of
play. My system is a 486-33DX with 8Mb RAM and Stealth VRAM. Nothing fancy.

I'm beginning to wonder if their is an IRQ address or something to do with
GUS installation that one must avoid for using SCII.  Any help would be
appreciated as I'd really like to try this game out.

Thanks in advance!
---

___________________________ John "HUTCH" Hutchinson _________________________
_________________ Fair Dinkum Technologies     Member - IAAD  _______________
________________ "No worries, mate... it's from Fair Dinkum!" _______________
____________ email: hutch@bellman.lanl.gov   GEnie: FAIR-DINKUM _____________

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

Date: (null)
From: whiles%sunoco@relay.nswc.navy.mil (William Scott Hiles x1568)

I need some opinions.  Essentially, we are at the point where we want
to put a CDROM on my system (486DX33) via a soundcard.  I want a generic
SCSI daughter for GUSSCSI disk and a soundcard which is supported by OS/2.
Firstly, I have not seen any information on the progress (or availability)
to use this card.  My option is the PAS16.


technology, but I require compatibility with OS/2.  If the GUS OS/2 support
and the SCSI interface is reasonably close (2 months max) I would like
of the GUS SCSI card that people were talking about.  Does anyone know
Secondly, it appears that OS/2 support is not a near-term item based on
Thanks for any help,

I have been following the progression of the GUS support for OS/2 and
the comments I have seen in the newsnets.  Does anyone have an update
We are looking to buy within the next couple of weeks.  I want wave-table

Scott Hiles
whiles@relay.nswc.navy.mil

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

Date: (null)
From: Matthew Spewak <mspewak@walnut.prs.k12.nj.us>

Has anyone seen some of the games comming out this month?  I just saw
a glimps of PRINCE OF PERSIA ][.  This game looks incredible!  For
those of you who remember the original, you probobly remember it was
the best action game ever to have superb animation and great sound and
music.  I will be very dissapointed, (as I have been with games like
SC and LEMM 2 which were supposed to support GUS) if POP 2 does not
support GUS in native mode with full music and dac.  Has anyone heard
from broderbund (the makers of POP 1 and 2) about their gus support?

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

Date: (null)
From: odd_oden@gih.no (oden odd@1ae)

Not FAQ, but close...here, with SERIOUS questions. (Like mine) :)
This digest is starting to look like a games digest. Always the same
questions about the same games. Now, lets try to keep a SERIOUS environment
  Why can't software developers agree about a common sound volume? I prefer
	 ajust it etc. I'd be very happy.
  I think that's called.
  to wear a headset when I'm listening to music, gamesounds etc. through
  the GUS, and that headset does not have a volume chooser. That means that
  if some of the MOD-players plays at maximum sound level, I have to take
  off the headset so that my ears don't blow up. And some of the MIDI-files
  plays at souch a low volume that I can barely hear most instruments.
  It should be very simple to make music/soundeffects with the right volume.
  Just connect a headset into the line out, and start listening! Common sence,
  1. I've moved the soundcard at the bottom of my PC (by the way, a CUBE
		one firm 'spot'?)
Questions:
	 flexpro 486SX), and the VGA card to the top. And all loose wires have
	 been put out of GUS'es reach. But still, when I'm recording absolute
	 silence with nothing connected to neither line in's, I get this white
	 noise. Not very loud, but very detectable... When viewing the sample
	 files in an editor, I see that the noise is produced by one bit that
	 keeps 'jumping' up and down between level 129 and level 130! Some
	 guy told me that it could be the result of the middle offset signal
	 not beeing rightly set. He also told me that I could ajust that offset
	 by turning a screw in the sampler! Now, I don't fancy myself attacking
	 my new GUS with a screwdriver, so if somebody could give me advice
	 about exactly what to do, where I find this screw, how I much I should
  2. I just upgraded my GUS to 1meg. (Oh, no! Not one of those questions
	 b) Are the 3d players PD? Free? Gratis?
	 again!), and tested it with a DRAM checker programme. Seems like two
	 of the chips were faulty. The upper ones. Now, should I ignore this?
	 some of the postings have suggested that it is the programme that is
	 faulty, and not the chips. I, of course, bought 70ns chips, but some-
	 thing weird stuck me when I looked at the 256k old chips already in-
	 stalled. The number '80' was written at the end of that code on the
	 chips. Does that mean that those chips are 80ns chips?? And something
	 else also struck me as odd: The chips looked like they were second
	 hand chips! Compared to the new chips installed, they looked like two
	 old weather worn stones beside six jeweles. I suspect foul play...
  3. Please! Write a midiprogram that alows one to edit the notes with
	 the PC program! Yes, I am going to buy a MIDI-keyboard in the future,
	 but until then I can only play simple accords with KBmidi. And not even
	 being able to record them, well... It's kinda depressing. :(
  4. Could somebody please explain this little things about GUS3d:
	 a) One does not have to buy surround stereo equipment? The 3d sound
		can be played through stereos with two loud speakers or headset?
	 c) Can one sample be played multidirectionally? (Not just assigned to
Well, I'd appreciate answers to these simple but thorough questions.
Odd K. Oden.

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #30
*************************************
