GUS Daily Digest            Sun, 31 Oct 93  0:07 MDT     Volume 7: Issue  30  

Today's Topics:
						  *** PIANO v2.0 ***
			   Ground_loop_isolator::Volume_control ()
							   GUStuff
							GUS with 1016K
						Show your appreciation
					Zork divide error & 16-bit DMA

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: Sat, 30 Oct 1993 23:30:12 +0100
From: bojan.rijavec@uni-lj.si
Subject: *** PIANO v2.0 ***

 
Hi,
 
I'm glad I can announce a new version of PIANO:
 
 
						 PIANO v2.0
					   Keyboard Piano
					 for MS Windows 3.1
 
		  Turns your PC into an electronic piano
		  featuring all 128 GMIDI instruments,
		  volume control, pitch wheel, patch
		  caching...
		  --------- NEW IN THIS VERSION ---------
		   Piano MIDI Driver -- 100% emulation of
			 real keyboards. Now you can record
			your compositions with your favorite
				 MIDI sequencing software.
		  ---------------------------------------
		  Requires WIN 3.1 and a sound card (GUS,
		  PAS, SB...). Nice surprise included.
 
 
 
It's waiting for you in file PIANO20.ZIP (19kb) in submit
directory of archive.epas.utoronto.ca - coming to other FTP
sites soon.
 
							   Gregor Brecko

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

Date: Sat, 30 Oct 93 15:14:11 MDT
From: Steve "Bongos" Larson <larson@ee.ualberta.ca>
Subject: Ground_loop_isolator::Volume_control ()

Bonjour, GUSland!

: There was a mention of this Ground Loop Eliminator that you 'd use
: between a line out and an amp to eliminate ground noise.
: My local Tandy doesn't know what it is and I doubt if other electronics
: shops know about it.  So what is the device, how does it work, and
: how to construct one - I've got my soldering iron ready :-)
: 
: -David-
: ---------------------------------------  
: I got my Ground Loop Isolator at radio shack, cat no. 270-054...I was
: suprised when I hooked it up, I didn't realize I had so much noise! About
: $12 can getcha one.
: 
: Tim

	Okay, here it is for those who waited patiently...
	MCM electronics sells two models,
	(1) Deluxe-In-Line-Noise-Filter............#60-405........$8.95 ea.
	(2) In-Line-Noise-Filter...................#60-345........$4.50 ea.
	The apparent differences between these are (1) has gold plated
	connectors and a larger case (perhaps to house more windings).
	Either one is a bargain. I have the ~405 and it works great!
	Get one (or many?) from MCM Electronics, 650 Congress Park Drive,
	Centerville, Ohio 45459-4072. Toll free number (good in Canada and
	U.S.) == 1-800-543-4330; FAX == 1-513-434-6959.
	They accept major credit cards.
	Hell, their whole catalog has lotza neat stuff @ decent prices!

	Or you could walk into your local Radio Shack and look for a 270-054
	(don't ask for help, they *aren't* trained for that... :-)
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
: Subject: Volume on GUS
:
: In GUS Daily Digest V7 #23 someone mentioned a way to make a volume control
: for the GUS.
: Since I bought mine I have been using the following :
: I connect my speakers to a small headphone volume control I bought from
: Tandy  here in Australia.  I then connect this to the GUS (using an adapter
: as the plug on the volume control is larger than the socket on the GUS.  The
: volume control has a left and right speaker and seems to 
: work.
	The 33-8600 Radio Shack part you describe is okay if you own an older
	GUS (with 2W/ch amp) and 8ohm (or higher) speakers. But the newer GUS's
	are rated at 4W/ch (GUS owner's manual, pp.16) and with 4ohm speakers,
	and a "fortissisimo" performance, you'll likely burn your control. The
	volume control I posted earlier circumvents this problem and eliminates
	extraneous dangling wires and allows easy-to-access volume contol.
	(I have a text of the original posting on file if anyone wants it.)
					   
Hope this helps. Bien-tot!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Steve Larson,        Dept. of Computer Engineering, University of Alberta
larson@bode.ee.ualberta.ca  c311-47@ucs.ualberta.ca (if bode bounces)

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

Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1993 10:15:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: mikebat@netcom.com (Mike Batchelor)
Subject: Re: GUStuff

GUS Server once wrote...
$  
$  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
$  
$  Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1993 16:04:13 -0300 (EDT)
$  From: "K.S. Holly" <u8843389@muss.cis.mcmaster.ca>
$  Subject: 16 bit DMA channel
$  
$  I hope this doesn't sound too foolish but what is the major NOTICEABLE
$  difference in using a 16 bit DMA channel as opposed to an 8 bit channel.

The major NOTICEABLE difference is that a GUS on a 16 bit DMA channel
won't conflict with something else on any 8 bit channel.  And that's all.
AT class PCs simply have 4 more channels to choose from than XT class
machines.

$  16 bit channels are numbered 5-8 and above are they not?
$  
$  Kevin

The 8 bit channels are 0-3 and the 16 bit channels are 4-7.  They have no
more "bandwidth" than the 8 bit channels.  You just need a 16 bit bus to
address them, which the XT lacks.

Certain machines may rarely have a problem with simultaneous DMA on two 8
bit or two 16 bit channels.  This is because of cheap or buggy DMA
controller chips, or even because of some other DMA-using adapter (buggy). 
But the vast majority of even cheap PC clone motherboards will handle
multiple active DMA channels without a hitch.

=================

P.S.  I am starting to become annoyed at the lengthy duplicate petition
posts on two mailing lists, some of which seem to have leaked out again
because of mail server burps, and some of which were deliberately posted
twice.  Please, in the future, post long articles like that only ONCE to
only ONE list, and then post pointers to the article on the other lists. 
The idea behind the split is to reduce traffic, not to give more places to
post the same article.  You could even upload a copy of it to epas, and let
people on the other lists get it there if they wish.  Blasting our inboxes
gets our attention, but I am beginning to see now just what a pain we
might have been a few weeks ago when we did it to the game vendors. :)

-- 
Mike Batchelor      |
mikebat@netcom.com  |                  This space for rent
mikebat@qdeck.com   |

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

Date: Sat, 30 Oct 93 21:24:07 +0400
From: Lexy Bekhly <l914@suearn2.bitnet>
Subject: GUS with 1016K

	  ...A weird scene inside the goldmine:

	  PatchMan: "1016k of memory remains" when nothing loaded

	  Playmidi load1024.mid:  "load patch failed banjo - 7"  (I
   think banjo is the last to load, but what is "7"?)

	  Every possible DRAM test: "OK, OK, OK, 1024!.."

	  I never heard of not a whole chip but just  some  several
   kbytes to fail.  Is it possible?  BTW a month ago everything
   was ok... Any suggestions?


	  P.S. Another  mystifying thing is that different programs
   (patchman, session) appear to load different sets of patches
   for the same load1024.mid... A Session's bug?

	  Lexy Bekhly

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

Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1993 22:48:49 -0400 (EDT)
From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Show your appreciation

Hello all,

Please take the time to thank those game companies which have started to
support the GUS.  They need to be encouraged to continue to support our
card.  Let them know that they are making sales that they otherwise would
not have made had they not include GUS support, and ask about GUS support
in future titles that interest you.  Every company wants to see a good
return on each expenditure, and the time and effort spent to integrate the
GUS into their games is indeed an expenditure. 

Phat.

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

Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1993 15:33:52 -0400 (EDT)
From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Zork divide error & 16-bit DMA

There appears to be two possible solutions for the divide error in Return
to Zork.  You can either use Ultramid 1.00, or you can fiddle with your
memory manager (someone has said that switching from EMM386 to QEMM 7.01
got rid of the divide problems, but you [Stuart] are already using QEMM). 

In reply to someone else's query about NOTICEABLE advantages of putting
the GUS on a 16-bit DMA channel compared to putting it on an 8-bit one,
there really aren't any.  The only case where a 16-bit channel works
noticeably better than an 8-bit one is Star Control 2, but that's only
because the game has a bug which prevents it from downloading samples to
the GUS across an 8-bit DMA channel properly. 

Phat.

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

Date: Sat, 30 Oct 93 1:18:07 PDT
From: Alex <alex@four-lab1.berkeley.edu>

I saw that the gus costs $109 in some places according to a message i read on
the .soundcard newsgroup, but does anyone have the name and number of where
they got that price from?
						Thanks,
	Alex

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End of GUS Daily Digest V7 #30
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