Ultrasound Daily Digest     Wed,  3 Mar 93       Volume 2 : Issue  59 

Today's Topics:
						 [GUS] MOD Composers
				  Developing a GUS driver for Linux
					Did the GUS kill my computer?
					   GRAVIS NEWS - SBOS 1.4B2
							GUSMOD problem
					   Major ultrasound lockups
						New GUS owner queries
					   problem with GUSMOD 2.04
								 SBOS
							  Sbos 1.37B
						 sbos 1.37b and xwing
					 Sierra - Lets Boycott Them!
					 X-Wing and GUS flawless????

	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: 1 Mar 93 18:45:55 MDT
From: sl859@cc.usu.edu
Message-Id: <1993Mar1.184555.64661@cc.usu.edu>
Subject: [GUS] MOD Composers
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

In article <1mtqj4INN13m@menudo.uh.edu>, st1qb@Rosie.UH.EDU writes:
> Anybody know which one of the many MOD Composers will work well with
> the GUS and SBOS?  If so, which one?  I know Tran and Josh are working
> on a GUS specific but was wondering which one works good with SBOS.
> Then maybe I could sell my SBPro to help cover my habitual spending
> on computer things. 

Never fear.  I'm just finishing up a little 16-channel Protracker composer.  I
gotta compress the patterns, and then I'll release it along with Gusmod 2.10
and GTSR 1.10.  Next day or so, I'd imagine.

Josh

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

Date: 2 Mar 93 12:49:22 CST
From: CHRISL@county.lmt.mn.org
Message-Id: <MAILQUEUE-101.930302124922.416@county.lmt.mn.org>
Subject: Developing a GUS driver for Linux
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Hi,

I started working on a GUS driver for Linux a couple days ago.
Things are at a very early stage right now--mostly, I have C code
written to cover all of the GUS functions described in the ultradox
put out by Renaissance.  I've successfully read and written from GUS
memory, but have yet to get my board make any noise except for an
occasional click.  I'd love to share ideas and code with anyone else
who's also working on a Linux driver.

I'd really like to see some C code to play a voice . . . I admire the
group Renaissance for digging around enough to get info on how the GUS
works, but I'm really tired of looking at assembly code.  Is there a
reason to not most GUS code in C or another high-level language?

Also, Francis Dion was suggesting that there were a lot of Ultrasound
capabilities not listed in the ultradox, e.g. tremolo and vibrato.  Is
this just a guess, or can the GUS really do this stuff in hardware?
If so, it seems like it would be very worthwhile to get the SDK.

Chris Laurel
chrisl@county.lmt.mn.org

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

Date: 2 Mar 1993 10:38:59 -0500
From: jyanowit@mtholyoke.edu (Jason Yanowitz)
Message-Id: <1mvv2j$2rp@slab.mtholyoke.edu>
Subject: Did the GUS kill my computer?
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Well, prepare for a tale of woe.  I've tried calling tech support
(not helpful, in addition to being difficult to reach), emailing
them at compuserver (no response) and john.smith@gravis.com
(no response).  So, I turn to the net:

December, 16, 1992:  At last, my GUS has arrived.  In an excited
frenzy, I open it, look at the manual, pop in my additional
768k RAM, and go to install it my computer.  After grounding myself
throughly(sp), I installed the card in a slot.  (Keep in mind, I had
a PAS (ptui, ptui, ptui) and it worked as well as a PAS can work.)
(I've also had a fair amount of experience messgin with computer
innards, so I know basic safety stuff, even if I'm ignorant in
many areas). I go turn on my computer, and nothing happens (the
power supply turns on, and that's it).  Slightly alarmed, but
aware of everyone's GUS problems, I uninstall the card (turning
everything off, of course) and my computer still doesn't work.
This is disconcerting.  After playing the cards shuffling game, it
still doesn't work. <I don't have the OPTi Chipset, I do have
a 386-40, with 4 megs, 60ns ram, ATI VGAWonder card, SCSI
controller cards>

[December 17 to January 25, 1993: Numerous mailings of various
computer parts, including my motherboard (sans CPU) and other
stuff.  Computer tech support thought I had cracked the motherboard
in installation.  Suitably embrassed I started mailing stuff back.
However the motherboard was fine, which meant my CPU
was fried (that was the confirmed final diagnosis).  That's
right, my 386-40 CPU was dead.]

During this time (b/f I learned it was my CPU), I installed the
card in a friend's computer, so we could hear it.  Well, playmidi
was quite impressive, but SBOS (v1.21) wasn't working.  We tried various
options with Wolf3d, none worked.  Then, all of a sudden, his video
collapsed to a single line.  (he doesn't have the Opti CHipset, does
have a 386-40).  We turned off his computer.  THe upshot was he had
(according to his tech support) "severe DMA conflict" - he pulled
out all his cards, reinstalled them 1 by 1, and all's well again.

So, my question (I now have hte Opti chipset, unforunately, but I think
it's the acceptable one):  is it possible that my GUS could
nuke my CPU?  Or was it something else?  I ask, because I haven't
installed it in my new, working computer yet (but boy do I want
to).  Oh yes, I also noticed (before installing it in my friends machine),
that I hadn't set one of my RAM chips properly (one pin wasn't in the
socket -- I'm so embarassed), but that shouldn't make a difference,
right?

Please, please, please advise!

Thanks,
Jason "desperate for GUS sound (and a linux driver)" Yanowitz
(last posting I noticed was forwarded to the GUS list.  I'm not
sure what the mechanism is that causes that, but I guess I'll
let that machine/person do so again -- if it's a person,
thanks and sorry I didn't do it myself).

-- 
Jason Yanowitz                | PGP 2.0 key available via fingering and email.
jyanowit@orixa.mtholyoke.edu  | <Insert pithy saying here, I'm all out.>
PGP key fingerprint: 0F D1 7C A1 A3 1F B7 26 B6 27 4A CE 1A 6D 91 6B
"A pox on Columbus" -- Bernstein, in the movie _Hester Street_ (Go see it!)

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

Date: Tue, 02 Mar 93 17:29:20 
From: john.smith@gravis.com
Message-Id: <9303021729.A1203wk@gravis.com>
Subject: GRAVIS NEWS - SBOS 1.4B2
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

This message was originally addressed to ALL
and a carbon copy was sent to you.
					----------------------------------------
Important Gravis News
=====================

Gravis has released the wide beta version of SBOS 1.4B2,
(GUS0014.ZIP).  You will find this file at the following locations:

CompuServe: GO PCVENB                     Area #14
InterNET:   archive.epas.utoronto.ca      pub/pc/ultrasound/submit
FidoNET:    1:153/978                     FREQ
SBCNET:     13:900/3                      FREQ
CDNNET:     94:850/103                    FREQ


Gravis BBS:        (604)431-5927
Infinite Dreams:   (604)733-6432
MIDI 1040:         (604)732-4446
The Sound Barrier: (718)979-6629 and (718)979-9406


About this new SBOS version
---------------------------
There have been MANY changes to SBOS over the last few months.  Here
is a quick list:

   ~ The .SBS files have been replaced by a single SBOSLIB.SBS
   ~ SBOS no longer interferes with Windows operations, and will
	 even re-load itself upon exiting Windows.
   ~ Improved compatibility
   ~ Sound quality improved

In general this is a COMPLETE re-write over previous versions.


Thank you for your time and patience.

John Smith, SysOp of Advanced Gravis BBS

cc: MATT ION @ 1:153/7040
	NORMAN YEN @ 1:153/7042
	WAYNE DUVAL @ 1:153/914
	CHARLES SCHEFFOLD @ 13:420/0
	ultrasound@dsd.es.com
	jeki@oscar.bbb.no
	sl859@cc.usu.edu
---
 ~ QMPro 1.01 05-8925 ~ It's not hard to meet expenses, they're everywhere.

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

Date: Mar, 02 Mar 93 11:30:58 FRA
From: 9269Z%FRESTP11.BITNET@pucc.Princeton.EDU
Message-Id: <9303021034.AA12398@orca.es.com>
Subject: GUSMOD problem
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Date: 02 Mars 1993, 11:28:07 FRA
From: 9269Z    at FRESTP11
To:   ultrasound@dsd.es.com

following up my recent post:

I almost forgot to specify my Ultrasound setup: the board release number is
2.4 and it is 768kb populated. Since GUSMOD work for one of my friend's 512kb
setup, I'll try to withdraw 256kb tonight.

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

Date: Tue, 2 Mar 1993 17:04:21 PST
From: Bob Tinsman <bobti@sco.COM>
Message-Id: <9303021704.aa20149@scooa.sco.com>
Subject: Major ultrasound lockups
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

I just got my ultrasound and, at first, would get very frequent lockups.
I haven't downloaded all the goodies from epas yet, so I was just running
the demos on the Gravis disks. After running playfile a couple times, I
would inevitably get a system lockup so solid I had to power-cycle my 
machine--even resetting wouldn't help! I've got a no-name 486/33 motherboard.
The chipset is made by Intel (yes, the chipset AND the cpu). I solved a lot
of the problems by pulling out a tape controller board, but the system will
still lock up if I try running SBOS (I think it's 1.22) and then playing 
a Sierra game. It locks up right at the beginning when it's trying to init
the sound card. I haven't tried with any SBOS switches. I have another box
I can try it on, so if it works on that, I guess my motherboard's bogus.
Any comments?

Bob Tinsman

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

Date: Tue, 02 Mar 1993 11:06:05 +0000
From: Clarke Brunt <CLARKE@lsl.co.uk>
Message-Id: <00968E73.22461580.1081@lsl.co.uk>
Subject: New GUS owner queries
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

I acquired my GUS yesterday, and pleased to say it seems to work fine.
No apparent problems with parity or DMA (tried channels 1 and 5) under
DOS or Windows, despite the warning about my UMC chipset in the FAQ.
(If anyone wants further details of chipset, please ask). I've not
been able to do any FTPing yet, so sorry if my questions would be
answered there.

How do I tell what SBOS I have got? A dump of the .EXE reveals the
characters 1.20 so maybe that is the answer. My installation disks
were 1.21 (the 1 being written on afterwards).

My aim is probably to use MIDI, connecting a keyboard. The bundled
software is not much help for this. Are the 'hundreds' of general MIDI
patches ('free when you send your registration card') any different from
the loads of patches already in the MIDI subdirectory?  Will the
'MIDIsoft Recording Session' software (which the FAQ says Gravis has
a licence to bundle with the card) be supplied free also? My supplier
(OPTECH, U.K., probably related to Logitech) said that it would.

More documentation of the two windows drivers (neither of which is called
ULTRA.DRV as the manual says) would be appreciated.

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

Date: Mar, 02 Mar 93 09:16:19 FRA
From: 9269Z%FRESTP11.BITNET@pucc.Princeton.EDU
Message-Id: <9303020817.AA09680@orca.es.com>
Subject: problem with GUSMOD 2.04
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Date: 02 Mars 1993, 09:10:10 FRA
From: 9269Z    at FRESTP11
To:   ultrasound@dsd.es.com

Hello there |

I've tried unsuccessfully the new version of GUSMOD (2.04) yesterday.
Although I configure it using the defaults (ie: SET GUSMOD=2531102,C:\ULTRASND)
(the default setup of my GUS), it just play the first note of the MODs I tried
(AXEL-F, BARTDANCE), and I'm unable to use other program for the GUS anyafter.

My system is loaded with TSR and device drivers, but I tried with a clean
config without any luck. My system is a 386/33dx with SiS 85C320 chipset.

Hopefully the 2.10 will run well on my computer | (1.10 run well)

+---------------------+-------------------------------------------------+
|   Benjamin RYZMAN   | "...And now something completly different |"    |
|      ESTP Paris     |             -Monty Pithon                       |
| EMAIL:              | "640 kb should be sufficient for anyone"        |
|9269Z@FRESTP11.BITNET|             -Bill Gates, 1981                   |
+---------------------+-------------------------------------------------+

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

Date: Tue, 2 Mar 93 16:28:49 EST
From: jagati1@SERVER.uwindsor.ca (JAGATIC JASON            )
Message-Id: <9303022128.AA11062@SERVER.uwindsor.ca>
Subject: SBOS
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

In yesterday's Ultrasound Digest, John Smith from Gravis mention that they are currently working on SBOS 1.4B2.   I was wondering if future versions of SBOS
would support SBPro (is that even possible?) or SB16.  And are there any plans 
to create a driver(emulator?) for other hardware?  Possibly PAS16 or one of the more popular Roland Cards...  I am not sure if any of this is possible, but it 
would be interesting to have...

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

Date: Tue, 2 Mar 93 10:53:56 EST
From: thanatos@hyperion.wright.edu (Terry Chlebek)
Message-Id: <9303021553.AA16581@hyperion.wright.edu>
Subject: Sbos 1.37B
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

>
> From: john.smith@gravis.com
> Subject: SBOS 1.37B
>
> It seems SBOS 1.37B is turning up on BBS's around the world.  This is a month
> old beta version which DOES CONTAIN PROBLEMS.  We are currently on V1.4B2.
> Since V1.37B was not a release copy we will not be supporting it.  Use it at
> your own risk.  Many things have changed in SBOS over the last month including
> better sound and compatibility.
>
> Thank you for your attention.
>
> John
>
 
Maybe you should check with your support people on America Online.  That is
where 1.37B came from.  They released it there around Feb 20th.
 
Terry
 

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

Date: Tue, 2 Mar 93 8:15:34 CST
From: Michael J Stumpf <mjs7529@tamsun.tamu.edu>
Message-Id: <9303021415.AA13324@tamsun.tamu.edu>
Subject: sbos 1.37b and xwing
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

It was very easy for me to get SBOS 1.37b and XWING working..

At first, 1.37 did not work with anything and I was a bit dismayed, but after
some toying around I managed to find that the -o3 option is required with
nearly everything.. it makes it work like 1.23 (seemingly).

This is a very nice version (compared to what I've been using).

A C library of fn supporting the GUS is a great idea, but alas my hands are
tied from such actions.

Mike..

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

Date: Tue, 02 Mar 93 07:45:41 EST
From: mspe@phsbbs.princeton.nj.us (Matthew Spewak)
Message-Id: <uyBsZB3w164w@phsbbs.princeton.nj.us>
Subject: Sierra - Lets Boycott Them!
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Here is a message that Sierra wrote back to me conserning the GUS, after 
I suggested that it would be in their best interest to support the card 
very soon:

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

Date: 2 Mar 93 13:23:09 EDT
From: Richard Wyckoff <RWYCKOFF@cardinal.sc107.wesleyan.edu>
Message-Id: <MAILQUEUE-101.930302132310.841@cardinal.sc107.wesleyan.edu>
Subject: X-Wing and GUS flawless????
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

	In the last issue of the digest there are no less than two messages saying
that X-Wing works *flawlessly* with SBOS...what do you mean by flawlessly?
I've got SBOS 1.20, 1.22, 1.23, and 1.37B and the ones I've tried (1.22 and
1.37B) *usually* play the music correctly (although it tends to crap out
during missions), but worse, DIGITIZED SOUND EFFECTS RENDER THE GAME
UNPLAYABLE!  I've got a 486/33, and I usually run the game with a disk cache,
so I know it's not a speed problem, it's an SBOS problem.  And before you ask,
no I don't have an OPTI chipset, and I've never had any of the many and varied
problems described in this digest.
	Again I ask (as I have several times to newsgroups and in e-mail)
can anyone actually use the digitized sound effects in combat with SBOS?  If I
have them on, firing cannons will cause the game to 'jump', and when Tie
fighters roar by, the frame rate drops to about 2 fps for the duration of the
sound.  Does anyone else experience this problem, and if not, what are your
machine specs/SBOS settings?  Or are people just turning off the digitized
sound or living with the jumping?

**              Richard Wyckoff - Catullus - .Sig radio edit               **
** RWYCKOFF@CARDINAL.SC107.WESLEYAN.EDU  --  RWYCKOFF@EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU   **

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

Date: (null)
From: (null)
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Date: 28 Feb 93 03:43:40 EST

From: Sierra On-Line <76004.2143@compuserve.com>

To: <mspe@phsbbs.princeton.nj.us>

Subject: Gravis Ultrasound Support

 

Although Sierra supports more sound cards than any other company in the

industry, it does not look like we will be directly support the Gravis

UltraSound card in the near future.  This may change over time, but so 
far

we do not have plans for any support for it.

 

Happy Gaming!

 

- Mike/Sierra On-Line Tech Support

 

 

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

I say SCREW THEM, TOO!  We have to keep sending these guys e-mail.
Someone, please repost a list of all game companies e-mail addresses 
along with mailing addresses.  Lets get working guys!  We can make the 
difference.

-----
Matthew Spewak, Princeton High School BBS
DNS: mspe@phsbbs.princeton.nj.us      UUCP: ...!princeton!phsbbs!mspe
Disclaimer: Author bears full responsibility for this message.

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V2 #59
******************************
