Ultrasound Daily Digest     Wed May 19 00:07     Volume 3: Issue  49  

Today's Topics:
							  669 Files
					 CUBASE for Windows with GUS?
			 Lance must have been having a Bad Hair day.
							 Many Thanks
		  More reliable solution to Star Control II problems
		Multitrack-Recording [Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #45]
						   Sampling noise?
				 SBOS 2.0B7 - didn't work for me ...
							   software
						  speech synthesis.
				   Star Con 2 and Dune 2 Problems.
						Stupid Questions R Us
					 Subscribing to pc soundcard
						The Chris.mid secrets
							Ultim 7 Part 2
			   Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #48 (2 msgs)

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: Tue, 18 May 1993 17:55:18 -0500 (CDT)
From: Phil Johnson <pjohnso2@ub.d.umn.edu>
Subject: 669 Files
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9305181718.A22936-9100000@ub.d.umn.edu>

  I'm thinking about writing a 669 player with Turbo Pascal.. I use the
player Tran made, but I'd like to make things look nicer.. I have the .669
file format on file, but, well...I'm not entirely sure of what other
control there is over a 669 file.. please email me with any help, advice,
or even code, if you can.. Like I said, I do have the format, and I've
gotten as far as recognizing the file, should it exist, and making sure
it's a 669... help?

Phil Johnson

pjohnso2@ub.d.umn.edu

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

Date: Tue, 18 May 93 16:58:03 EST
From: adrianr@ecr.mu.oz.au (Adriano_Ennio RAIOLA)
Subject: CUBASE for Windows with GUS?
Message-ID: <9305180658.28393@ecr.mu.oz.au>

Hi,

Has anybody tried out the (excellent) sequencer Cubase for Windows V1.0?
I tried a friends copy to get it working with my GUS, and althought it
does have a driver for Windows Multimedia extensions (presumably this
means midi mapper, does it?) and does give mme and option for output
to Ultrasound Midi synth, I just get no output from it at all.

Has anyone tried Cubase with a GUS and got it to work? Can you help me? This
looks like the sequencer I would spend my money on to buy (it was even 
recommended as the best by an Atari ST synth owning friend) but I want to 
be sure it will work with the GUS

If anyone can help, Ill be eternally grateful!

-- 
| 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: Mon, 17 May 93 8:16:18 CDT
From: ibmpa!hartmann.austin.ibm.com!lance@ibminet.awdpa.ibm.com (Lance Hartmann)
Subject: Lance must have been having a Bad Hair day.
Message-ID: <9305171316.AA13510@hartmann.austin.ibm.com>

My apologies go out to Chris (with whom I've been in contact via email)
and to the fine, other members of this mailing list.  The satirical
reference struck a raw nerve and I reacted too quickly.  I must admit,
however, that the end result -- Chris' revised mid "libretto" -- was
altogether most amusing.

And now, we return to the GUS.....

Lance Hartmann (lance%hartmann.austin.ibm.com@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com)
			   Yes, that IS a '%' (percent sign) in my network address.
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
All statements, comments, opinions, etc. herein reflect those of the author
and shall NOT be misconstrued as those of IBM or anyone else for that matter.

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

Date: 18 May 1993 14:11:14 +0200
From: MATERIA1@IPDUNIVX.UNIPD.IT
Subject: Many Thanks
Message-ID: <01GYBNNUSM9E000S7H@IPDUNIVX.UNIPD.IT>

I just wanted to thank all the people that kindly helped me after I posted a
note with a list of needs/complaints. I'd like also to acknowledge the support
received from Gravis: I think they provide an excellent support for their
product. 
Ciao Paolo Colombo (sometimes known as "that poor guy in Italy"....).

MATERIA1@IPDUNIVX.UNIPD.IT

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

Date: Tue, 18 May 93 23:55:33 CDT
From: ddebry@itchy (Dave DeBry)
Subject: More reliable solution to Star Control II problems
Message-ID: <9305190555.AA24167@itchy>

	I think I've found a better solution to just zeroing out the
GUS' memory before running Star Control II (those of you with 1meg GUS
cards have to do this).  This came up because simply running
'gusclear' or 'gustest -z' didn't always clear things out.

	I've found that this solution works 100% of the time:

gustest -t
gustest -z

	For some reason, gustest -z won't work on all of the memory
unless it has been tested beforehand.  Running the test patterns seems
to unlock the rest of memory.

	Don't ask me why.  After zeroing and testing and dumping
memory in many different orders and states of the machines, this is
the one that seems to work.

	(Hope this helps the guy who posted in this digest about this
problem.  I'm on a Packard Bell 386sx box (16mhz) w/8 meg memory, oak
vga, and a couple of IDE drives.)

-- 
Dave  ddebry@ debry@   \ "Rick VonSlonacker is tall, rich, good looking,
DeBry dsd.    peruvian. | stupid, dishonest, conceited, a bully, liar, 
	  es.     cs.utah.  | and thief, an egomaniac and probably a psychotic.
	  com     edu      /  In short, highly attractive to women."

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

Date: 17 May 93 11:53:48 GMT+0100
From: "Alexander Majarek, Sascha, SAM"  <Alexander.Majarek@uibk.ac.at>
Subject: Re: Multitrack-Recording [Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #45]
Message-ID: <MAILQUEUE-101.930517115348.352@subz-nov>

Hi !

First of all: The numbers didn't seem correct. For ONE instrument you
need 44100 Hz * 2 bytes (16-bit) * 2 (stereo) = 176.4 KB and not the
double.

Concerning your question of multiple tracks. I don't know, but ....

do you really need to mix multi-tracks on the fly (when outputting)?

If the GUS is not able to mix tracks, simply mix them offline, via
software. When doing that, you have an editing list, can try out the
mixed sound, etc. and if the sound seems right, then the software
copies the soundpieces & tracks to ONE .WAV, .VOC, etc. file. It's
easy isn't it.

Hope this helps,

SAM

*********************************************************************
*Alexander.Majarek@uibk.ac.at * There are 3 ways (fast, sweet, sure)*
*Perthalerg. 1c/11            * for a man to ruin himself:          *
*A-6020 Innsbruck             * 1. Gamblin'   (fast),               *
*AUSTRIA (EUROPE)             * 2. Women      (sweet) &             *
*Tel.: 0043-512-84-26-15      * 3. Computers  (sure)                *
*********************************************************************

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

Date: Sun, 16 May 93 10:24:10 PDT
From: cs64sbg@sdcc8.UCSD.EDU (Anthony Tang)
Subject: Sampling noise?
Message-ID: <9305161724.AA27400@sdcc8.UCSD.EDU>

With all this talk about sampling noise, I thought I'd add my own
little snippet.  If I sample silence using my GUS, I get a file
completely filled with 77H, with a few 76H's dispersed here and
there.  Now, I realize this is way way off what should be "silence"
(Is it 7E or something?)  Anyway, this file generates a buzz
interdispersed with clicks.  Granted, my system is kind of noisy:
486/DX50, all 8 expansion slots full, although I have the GUS under
a Scanner card.  Above that is my MIDI card, then the video card
(Diamond 24x), then a SCSI controller for the CD-ROM, then the I/O 
then something for the TapeDrive, and then the HD/FD controller. (IDE).

But, silence should still be centered at "silence", right?  Or is
this an attribute of all GUSes?  When I record off a CD (via the
CD-ROM), I get crystal clear recording, normally.  It depends on
what I'm recording.  If I try to record something like classical
music (lots of stringed instruments), it comes out staticy.  If I
record more contemporary music (i.e. Amy Grant), it comes out great.
But, if I view the sample with a WAV file editor (I'm recording in
Windows, BTW), it's centered below the center.  Strange...)
Any ideas?  Anyone else notice this?  Am I the only one with this
problem?  Help!  (I've had the GUS since November or so.  Rev. 2.2)

Thanks...

Anthony Tang
aktang@ucsd.edu

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

Date: Tue, 18 May 93 08:54:03 -0700
From: Bob Beck <rbk@sequent.com>
Subject: SBOS 2.0B7 - didn't work for me ...
Message-ID: <9305181554.AA19848@eng2.sequent.com>

I ftp'd SBOS 2.0B7 (gus0024.zip) from epas and tried it last night.  With
wolf3d, whenever I fired the machine gun, I got one "bang" every 1/2 second
or so.  Ie, severly degraded performance from SBOS 2.04 that I was using. I'm
back to using 2.04.  This was running it via "sbos" at the DOS prompt, not
running the .sys file.

FYI, mine is a 33Mhz i486 with 16Meg ram.  Most previous SBOS's have worked
pretty well, and SBOS 2.04 has been about the best (that's why I'm using it).

					- Bob (rbk@sequent.com)

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

Date: Tue, 18 May 1993 00:09:34 -0700
From: dross@ultrix4.csubak.edu (Dean Ross-Smith)
Subject: software
Message-ID: <9305180709.AA18286@ultrix4.csubak.edu>

1st off, if any of you can stand (or enjoy) Monty Python, get Twilight Zone's
new demo (its a tribute to them) In Search of the Holy Halibut.  If you
consider yourself politically cleansed (ie politically correct) DON'T watch
this.  It's 900k (a 10 min call to Canada at 14.4k), but worth the visual
treat.

2nd off, can we get a list of entertainment software that supports the GUS
w/o SBOS?
I have seen Tetrolis, Zone 66, Star Control II.
a Windows prog MIDIDrum is kinda weird.
Brix (Epic strikes again!) sounds nice w/SBOS
Any others out there w/o problems?

Has anyone got a hint on how to get the old Broderbund game Stunts working
with SBOS?  It sounds like a orchestra that's like, totally stoned! Plays
ok, though.

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

Date: Tue, 18 May 1993 01:32:05 +0700 (MST)
From: Adam Cowen <cowen@ee.ualberta.ca>
Subject: speech synthesis.
Message-ID: <Pine.3.03.9305180104.A10580-a100000@bode.ee.ualberta.ca>

I think the idea about using the gus to store the phenomes(sp?) is a great
idea. What a blast that would be to have the digest read to me as I sit
and drink my morning coffee. Or how about sending voice mail that doesn't
take hours to transmit over the wire. the only forseeable problems would be
synchronizing the speech properly, and the algorithm to change a text file
to a midi stream using the phonetic patches. do you read the input and
speak in real time, or do you crunch the text first and convert it into a
midi file then play it back. it would probably be better to crunch the
speech beforehand to ensure speech that 'flows' and isn't staticky. just
rambling and trying 2 induce something new.

hmmmm, food for thought. (the sdk would be nice right now come to think of it)

anyone else have any insights/comments on this.

ciao gus'ers
Adam
cowen@ee.ualberta.ca

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

Date: Wed, 19 May 1993 01:06:11 -0400 (EDT)
From: Brian Go <bgo@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Star Con 2 and Dune 2 Problems.
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9305190111.A2707-a100000@sciborg>

I posted stuff concerning problems with these two games.

StarCon II :  Garbled Music...
			  Many GUS users share these problems.
Dune II    :  Hangs before/during/after a digital sound is played.
			  Again many GUS users share these problems.

I posted these problems 'bout 2 weeks ago.  I got replies from sympathetic
GUS users but no solutions.  Well?  Your move guys!

P.S. SBOS 2.07 solves a lot of little problems, Good works guys!

Brian Go             bgo@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca         Chemistry at Waterloo
In which a banquet is held and of what comes after, 
concerning diplomacy, and bedrooms, blackmail, and threats, 
and an unusual recipe for Sausages...   <Sandman>

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

Date: Tue, 18 May 93 13:23:06 EDT
From: pccmoddan@aol.com
Subject: Stupid Questions R Us
Message-ID: <9305181323.tn12698@aol.com>

Well, got a *really* stupid question here, so I might as well ask it:
what do I change in an SB (Pro) MIDI adapter to use it with the GUS? The SB
Pro is fast becoming useless to me, and I'd like to put another nail in it's
coffin. 

P.S., everyone check out Chris'  (chrisw@leland.stanford.edu). great MIDs!
All very good, with wise usage of the GUS' abilities!

- Dan

________________________________________________________________________
| Dan Nicholson    |                    | email: pccmoddan@aol.com     |
|  aka             |  Levisionet Group  | uuencoded: moddan@bowker.com |
| Maelcum [KLF]    |  553 Thoreau Terr. | America Online: PCC ModDan   |
|  and             |  Union, NJ 07083   | VirtualNet: 2 @ 9082         |
| [PCC] ModDan     |                    | Voice Phone: currently down  |
|__________________|____________________|______________________________|
|                                                                      |
|                    No longer the Phantom Chicken.                    |
|______________________________________________________________________|

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

Date: Tue, 18 May 93 09:44:00 PDT
From: rra@pcsi.com
Subject: Subscribing to pc soundcard
Message-ID: <2BF91256@mailpo.pcsi.com>

Can someone please tell me how to subscribe to comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
digest (if there is any).  Also, is there any groups out there that just
relate to the Roland sound cards?
Thanx
 

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

Date: 18 May 1993   11:42:43 PST
From: chrisw <chrisw@leland.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: The Chris.mid secrets
Message-ID: <9305181851.AA05211@leland.Stanford.EDU>

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

Andy Hewett (ahewett@mround.bt.co.uk) wrote:

>>Well, it took me a couple of days, but I finally got around to running
>>your mids. I'm impressed ! Especially with the 100% GUS mid. If it's
>>not giving away too many secrets, how did you do the special effects ?

This is becoming a bit of a FAQ, so here goes an outline of special 
effects on your GUS. Perhaps someone could put it up on epas somewhere?


HOW TO MAKE YOUR GUS SOUND LIKE IT COST MORE THAN IT DID (in mids):

1) CHORUSING EFFECT: 
This is probably the most common one I use to make the sound richer. The
basic idea is to set up two channels with the same patch, put them in 
different stereo positions using controller 10 messages (eg. 0 and 127).
put a small pitch bend message (eg. about +-200) in one or both channels
(i.e. in opposite directions if on both channels!), and then send the same
note messages to each channel. This can be done very quickly on Cakewalk:
use the 'track clone' command, change the midi channel number of the new  
track and use `event view' and the insert button to put in the pitch bend
message.

2) DELAYS:
Pretty obvious one this. Just play the note again at a different volume
level (and different stereo position if using a second midi channel). If you
want more echoes, just do it again and again and again (four is the most
I've tried so far in warfilm.mid, but if someone wants to go the full 16...).
A few different types of delay: there's the 3/4 of a beat or beat and a half
delay, both of which are good for padding out solo noises. Then
there's the 'doubling' delay - a quite short delay just to stagger the
nosies a bit: I generally use this along with the chorusing effect above -
makes the effect a little more intense (good for pad type nosies).
Again, really easy to do in Cakewalk: Use track clone, then use the 'time'
column in the track info. This gives how many ticks you want to shift the 
track (+ or -). Then change the volume levels and you're done.

3) REVERB:
This one's the tricky one. What you have to do is look for a patch that's
similar to the one you're using but has a different volume envelope to it
(one that cuts off slowly). Then you double the two sounds as for chorus 
and muck about with the volume level to try and get things right. An 
extra trick is to use the Cakewalk 'edit length' (I think that what it's
called) command to lengthen the duration of the notes in the second part.
The only one of my attempts at this I'm really happy with is the voice noise 
on Chris3.mid which is really quite a convincing `reverb' effect.

4) STEREO PANNING EFFECTS:
Well, what you need here is some way of recording midi controller 10 messages
on to your track. In my case I can just assign one of the wheels or sliders on
my keyboard to do this and then just record while sliding noises around.
If you've got Cakewalk for Windows, there's a window that let's you do a
similar thing with the mouse. Another trick for people with keyboards that
don't send controller 10 messages: you can always send controller 1 messages:
(mod wheel) and then convert them to controller 10 (for example, using
Cakewalk's interpolate command).

5) VOLUME FADES:
Same as panning but using controller 7 messages. Only problem is, if you've
got to do 10 tracks this becomes pretty boring on a track by track basis.
Still, it works, and it makes you think about how each individual track 
should fade. Just thought of another approach that I've never used, though:
If you used 'Expression' messages (controller 11?) then you could fade all
the parts equally without destroying their intial controller 7 mix
levels. (i.e. record one track then copy the controller 11 messages across
to all the others). This would get an absolutely uniform fade which would be
good for the 'fade on endless loop of chorus' type strategy used when you 
can't figure how else to end the damned thing.


Well, that's most of it. If I can think of anything else I'll use it first
and then reveal my secrets later. Check out Chris1-5, Chrisnot and 
Warfilm for demonstrations of these. (You can actually see a lot of them in
the flashing lights of playmidi).

Chris.

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

Date: Tue, 18 May 1993 06:52:32 -0700
From: ejohnson@flute.calpoly.edu
Subject: Ultim 7 Part 2
Message-ID: <9305181352.AA24875@flute.calpoly.edu>

Did someone say there is a memory fix for Ultima 7.5?  I'd like to be able to load stuff high and get s disk cache in.  Also so people with 486 CPUs get lock-ups in the game when creating new characters?

I heard babout Origin working on an MT32/SB emulator for Strike Commander.  Will this work on their games like U7 and Wing Commander2 ?

 -------------------------------------------
Looking him straight in the eye, Jesus said,
`Use the Force, Luke!'
						  - R. A. Wilson
----------------------------
ejohnson@hebe.calpoly.edu
ejohnson@polyslo.calpoly.edu
----------

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

Date: Tue, 18 May 1993 09:49:15 +0100 (BST)
From: Dave Ingles <davei@central1.lancaster.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #48
Message-ID: <27197.9305180849@central1.lancaster.ac.uk>

> I am hoping to use PowerChords for exactly this purpose if it gets 
> in my hands before I'm old and grey (:( ..
> The PowerChords demo version has a drum rhythm editor section that
> seems decent. We are supposed to get a copy of PowerChords free with
> the official 2.xx GUS SW release, so hold on to your cash for a litte
> longer..
> 
> gord@smos.com

Would I be correct in saying that the version of powerchords that
Gravis are now bundling is not the full version of Powerchords but
rather a cut down version ? Ok, the save command isn't disabled like
the demo but I found when I was using it I ran out of space after only
25 bars of a piece of music I was putting together. This seemed rather
restrictive to me.

Davei

-- 
									  ```
									 (o o)
 --------------------------------oOO--(_)--OOo----------------------------------
>>                         D.Ingles@uk.ac.lancaster                           <<
>>                         Telephone (0524) 59 3679                           <<
>>               Higher Education National Software Archive,                  <<
>>    Computer Centre, The University, Lancaster, LA1 4YW, United Kingdom     <<
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: 18 May 1993 15:56:22 -0400 (EDT)
From: PSANTUCCI@DESIRE.WRIGHT.EDU
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #48
Message-ID: <01GYBR67B45E000WVB@DESIRE.WRIGHT.EDU>

I am posting this for a friend of mine w/o net access. I have little detailed
knowledge about his system, but I thought I'd see if anyone might have solved a
similar one.

He is running The Seventh Guest (CD-ROM Game). It will not run w/o a sound card.
the intro runs and played both music and dig. sound through SBOS. The game 
itself crashes and reports a DMA conflict. Sounds like GUS and CD are using
the same DMA channel, but no, not according to the configuration. If you have
gotten this to run w/gus, please mail me.

BTW- His CD rom drive is one of those budget proprietary interfaces. I find
them suspicious.

Pat

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #49
*************************************
