Ultrasound Daily Digest     Mon, 22 Mar 93       Volume 2 : Issue  77 

Today's Topics:
					Clicks in new patches (2 msgs)
					General MIDI driver for games
						General MIDI emulator
						 GusMod 2.11 Problems
					 internal radio interference
							 MIDI and GUS
						 MPU-401 and Midi-in
								Sierra
							SOME QUESTIONS
						   truncated e-mail
			   Ultrasound Daily Digest V2 #76 (2 msgs)
					weird file after installation
					XWING, no go with ANY SBOS :(

	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: Sun, 21 Mar 93 13:10:02 EST
From: apervazo@sas.upenn.edu (Adrian Pervazov)
Message-Id: <9303211810.AA12739@mail.sas.upenn.edu>
Subject: Clicks in new patches
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

I posted a message on this subject but got only one answer. After
reinstalling the new patches I discovered that a lot of them click when
playing. I have this problem with patches 4, 11, 16-18, 20-23, 40-44, 48,
53, 54,, 56-60, 62, 64-72, 75, 77-79, 103, 110-111. The clicks are rather
loud and annoying. The interval between the clicks changes - somethimes 1
second, sometimes more or less. Now, I am sure that this clicking was not
present before the reinstallation of the disks. What could be the reason
for that?

Another question. Is it possible to have more than 128 melodic patches in
the .ini file? Or, if you add some new patches, how do you deal with them?
Do you have to put them instead of some General Midi patches or what?

Please, if someone has had similar experience with the clicks, send a
message - in the newsgroup or by e-mail. Thank you in advance!

-- 
|===============================================|
|   Andrian Pervazov                    |
|   University of Pennsylvania              |
|   Music Department                        |
|   Internet: apervazo@mail.sas.upenn.edu   |
|   Phone: 215-382-0798                     |
|===============================================|

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

Date: Sun, 21 Mar 93 20:29:39 EST
From: apervazo@sas.upenn.edu (Adrian Pervazov)
Message-Id: <9303220129.AA19585@mail.sas.upenn.edu>
Subject: Clicks in new patches
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
Subject: Clicks in new patches
Summary: 
Expires: 
Sender: 
Followup-To: 
Distribution: 
Organization: University of Pennsylvania, School of Arts and Sciences
Keywords: 

Again, I'm writing hoping that somebody might have encountered the same
problem. Many of my new epas patches have clicks. I am sure that the first
time I installed the disks there were no clicks at all. After I
reinstalled them (for no reason, as it turned out later), I got terrible
clicks in about 40 of the patches!!! The clicks are rather strange - they
don't occur periodically, but rather randomly. In addition, I get clicks
on other patches, too, when using more pitch bend or modulation wheel.
Somebody suggested that the reason for the click might be the memory (I
have 256 KB only). But the memory test is OK, and, most important, - I
didn't have any clicks before. Today I reinstalled the patches again with
the same outcome. And the clicks are not the only problem. It seems that
the MIDI Thru in Patch Manager is not working. I cannot use a synth
connected by MIDI to audition patches if Winjammer is not running in the
background (in a strange way, Winjammer solves the problem). This, too, is
very annoying, but it's nothing compared with the click problem. Please,
help me if you can! 

-- 
|===============================================|
|   Andrian Pervazov                    |
|   University of Pennsylvania              |
|   Music Department                        |
|   Internet: apervazo@mail.sas.upenn.edu   |
|   Phone: 215-382-0798                     |
|===============================================|

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

Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1993 07:44:17 -0800
From: Eric N. Liao <liaoe@aero.org>
Message-Id: <199303211544.AA28873@aerospace.aero.org>
Subject: General MIDI driver for games
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

I think that even though you can't fit all 7 megabytes of GM patches (why are
they so long?  The TB Multisound uses only 4 mbytes for patches) it would still
be possible to make a GM driver.  Assuming that software can be "tricked" into
seeing a GM device (just like how SBOS tricks software into seeing a SB),
all Gravis has to do is make a driver that loads a custom set of patches that
fit all 192 patches into 1024k.

Of course, the sound quality wouldn't be as good as using the regular MIDI
patches, but I for one would rather listen to a "cheaper" GM rendtion of
music rather than SBOS's rendition.  With GM, there are no FM operators to
decode, so I assume the music would be much more accurate, and hence the
GM driver would be easier to code (no digital sound playback to worry about.)

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

Date: 21 Mar 1993 23:32:07 +0800
From: TC <SH7126146@NTUVAX.NTU.AC.SG>
Message-Id: <01GW36D2DZZYAC3SGM@NTUVAX.NTU.AC.SG>
Subject: General MIDI emulator
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

> I think it would be great if we could put together some sort of
> software emulation (its cheeeeper :).  If a Gen. Midi Driver si
 
The method I was thinking of shouldn't be too expensive, because all we
need is to feed in the correct pins into the serial port with the proper
current limiting resistors.
 
If there is a way to trap the output to the MIDI ports on the Gravis,
then we can do without the hardware interface. But I'm not sure on
this, anyone?
 
> possable, I think that (with dynamix and sierra games alike).  You can
> take their Gen Midi Driver and put it into thier other programs.  In
> example, I have Red Baron, and Front Pages Sports Football.  It Looks
> and I stress LOOKS, like I can just take the Gen. Midi driver from
> FPSF and put it into Red Baron. That would solve alot of problems for
> many many many people if we could conjour up a MidiOS driver!
 
That I suppose would be the industry standard Miles driver.
 
.tc
--
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
	 Lee Teck Chee        Internet: sh7126146@ntuvax.ntu.ac.sg (155.69.1.1)
	 NTU, Singapore                 Lee.Teck.Chee@f408.n600.z6.fidonet.org
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

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

Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1993 09:51:42 +0700 (MST)
From: Adam Cowen <cowen@ee.ualberta.ca>
Message-Id: <Pine.3.03.9303210942.A11965-a100000@bode.ee.ualberta.ca>
Subject: GusMod 2.11 Problems
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

I just started playing with gusmod 2.11 today and found that it has major
problems on my system! It seems to not be handling the interrupts
properly. For example the beginning few notes are right, but then the
channels pop in and out and dont play at the right time etc, making me
suspect it is not handling the interrupts. gtsr does the same thing! I
have tried multiple setups of my gus, but to no avail! Previously I have
never had any problems with my gus or with any of the gusmod programs! Only
this one is buggy. I have also tried digikit01.exe and it also worked
fine. FYI my setup is as follows:
386-40 BIOTEQ chipset 
4 Megs RAM
GUS 1 Meg 70 ns
Paradise VGA 512k
ultrasnd=220,7,7,15,5

BTW: for gusmod, why don't you guys just read the ultrasnd environment
variable? I think that would provide for a much more easy installation of
the software.

Also Gusmod is a great program, please help me out guys! 
sincerely,

Adam Cowen
cowen@ee.ualberta.ca

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

Date: Sun, 21 Mar 93 04:03:00 PST
From: GUIA@bldghsc.lan1.umanitoba.ca
Message-Id: <2BAC59D0@adminbldg.lan1.umanitoba.ca>
Subject: internal radio interference
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

i get that same problem as well..   i'm sure there are video cards which are 
better shielded, mine is not one of those.  Most of the programs i run are 
windows based, and while working i like to have music going...    i've 
noticed that between selections, or when there's nothing on but the output is 
switched on with the mixer, i get noise which indicates quite faithfully the 
level of activity of my video card.  I'm sure this is normal, even though 
there is little distance between the sound generator chip and the op-amps on 
the gus, that little distance is placed inside a machine which is essentially 
a radio frequency generator (that's the reason that regulations require that 
a computer be completely encased in metal, to shield the radio signals 
generated within it)

now another question:   does the microphone input line have auto-setting 
volume control?   i've noticed that when there's a resistance on that line i 
hear crackling and a bit of hiss even when the microphone is switched off...  
 or is this caused by the fact that the off switch on the microphone just 
shorts the leads?
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>one last thing, being the worrier that I am.  How much noise do most of you
>get from your GUS?  If I have nothing playing, and I turn the volume on my 
>AMP all the way up (It's only 40Watts), I get a ncie clicking and high 
>frequency buzz to go along with my HD and Screen activity.  If I have 
>anything playing,though it's hardly noticable.  (basically drowned out)  
>I've got a pretty full system (All 8 expansion slots full and 2 HDs), but 
>the GUS is far waya from HDs, HD controller and Video cards.  Is this a 
>"normal" amount of noise?
>Anthony Tang
>aktang@sdcc13.ucsd.edu

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

Date: Sun, 21 Mar 93 15:10:57 +0100
From: d91-sme@nada.kth.se
Message-Id: <9303211410.AA18609@dront.nada.kth.se>
Subject: MIDI and GUS
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

I have a Roland D-10 synth and an UltraSound. Can I use the MIDI
interface on the GUS with the D-10?

/Smedis (Niklas Smedberg, d91-sme@nada.kth.se)

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

Date: 21 Mar 1993 23:28:14 +0800
From: TC <SH7126146@NTUVAX.NTU.AC.SG>
Message-Id: <01GW367Z1TW2AC3SGM@NTUVAX.NTU.AC.SG>
Subject: MPU-401 and Midi-in
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

> Speaking of a General MIDI driver for the Gravis, someone mentioned
> trying to write one to loop through the serial port into the Gravis
> midi IN.
 
Actually I was referring to looping the MIDI Out into the serial port.
 
> This gave me a n idea, but I don't know if it would work.  I have a
> PC-MIDI (MPU-401) card in my computer.  Would I be able to take the
> midi out of that and put it into the MIDI IN on the Gravis, choose GM
> on any game, and let it fly?  The only problem I see here is will the
> Gravis be able to interpret the MIDI in coming in and play everything
> correctly (what with all the patch loading, etc.) Interesting
> proposition?
 
The problem is that Gravis does not make use of the MIDI-In signals,
other than just to pass them along to whatever application wants to read
those ports.
 
We have to provide the driver ourselves in order to interpret the MIDI
signals.
 
.tc
--
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
	 Lee Teck Chee        Internet: sh7126146@ntuvax.ntu.ac.sg (155.69.1.1)
	 NTU, Singapore                 Lee.Teck.Chee@f408.n600.z6.fidonet.org
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

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

Date: Sun, 21 Mar 93 15:50:18 EST
From: pccmoddan@aol.com
Message-Id: <9303211550.tn54563@aol.com>
Subject: Sierra
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

This I received in reply to posts regarding ultrasound support by Sierra:

Subj:   Gravis UltraSound support
Date:  93-03-18 20:51:53 EST
From:  Sierras
Posted on: America Online

Are you guys paid by Gravis? As long as we make a great product, people will
continue to buy regardless of the sound card support. We have added
additional  PC speaker sound emulation for FPS:Football, due to the amount of
people that don't own sound cards.  

Bill :})  

May I please point out the following very wrong statement:

>>As long as we make a great product, people will
continue to buy regardless of the sound card support.<

Here is my reply:

re: Subj:   Gravis UltraSound support

>Are you guys paid by Gravis? As long as we make a great product, people will
continue to buy regardless of the sound card support. <

Bill, no offense, but you must realize that >part of what makes a great game
is great sound<. I don't care what game it is, if it doesn't have sound it
will bomb. This is what the market is like nowadays. Multimedia is the big
buzzword my friend, and that means great graphics AND great sound. Supporting
the Ultrasound will do nothing but increase your sales. I hope I'm mistaken,
but it would seem you guys don't give a hoot about sound support. If this is
the case, then I'd suggest laying off all your musicians. 

And no, I have never received financial compensation from Advanced Gravis,
nor has anyone else. That would be an unethical practice akin to putting a
magazine on the newstands which was nothing more than an advertisement for my
products.

- Dan

________________________________________________________
Dan Nicholson    -    PCkS Associates - (908)964-8066 - ModDan
							  553 Thoreau Terr. 
							  Union, NJ 07083
________________________________________________________
			   
					Rakin' in the canadian bucks from B.C   :).
________________________________________________________

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

Date: 21 Mar 93 15:16:51 
From: SWHITTAK@gst-soft.demon.co.uk (Simon Whittaker)
Message-Id: <9303211602.AA01366@orca.es.com>
Subject: SOME QUESTIONS
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

YO Gussers !!!

I've a few questions, which really need to be answered :

1.  A short while ago, there was talk of a PC game that supported
	SBOS better than most games by including an SBOS patch. What
	was this game ? Is the patch included, or what ?

2.  I have a GUS with 256K 100ns ram on board, and I want to
	upgrade to 1 Meg. Is adding faster memory, eg. 80ns, an
	advantage - i.e. will the GUS's performance be better ? Or
	can this cause problems, such an sync. etc ?

Cheers

Simon



=====================================================================
Simon Whittaker                                 GST Software PLC
Software Engineer                               Meadow Lane
Research and Development                        St. Ives
												Huntingdon
email : swhittak@gst-soft.demon.co.uk           Cambridgshire
voice : +44 (0)480 496789  ext 2204             PE17 4LG
fax   : +44 (0)480 496189                       England

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

Date: Sun, 21 Mar 93 04:18:00 PST
From: GUIA@bldghsc.lan1.umanitoba.ca
Message-Id: <2BAC5D2B@adminbldg.lan1.umanitoba.ca>
Subject: truncated e-mail
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

some system operators try to save space on the network memory by reducing the 
maximum size of e-mail (this is actually quite common from what i'm told)

contact the operator of the network server where your mail is held and ask 
them to increase the maximum message length

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>From: brentwh@aol.com

>My E-mailed version of the Ultrasound Daily Digest is usually truncated. 
>Anyone know why?
>Brent

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

Date: Sun, 21 Mar 93 22:03:17 EST
From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Message-Id: <9303220303.AA24219@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Ultrasound Daily Digest V2 #76
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

> Date: Sat, 20 Mar 93 15:34:12 MST
> From: Apollo Shau-Yang Wong <apollo@ee.ualberta.ca>
> Message-Id: <9303202234.AA05420@orca.es.com>
> Subject: Some Problem with PLAYMIDI and Media Player
> To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I just installed the new disk sets and it is time to test out those midi files
> again. While playing l1002_06.mid in Media Player, I noticed that the leading
> track was gone (so was some of the percussions.) Playing the same file in
> PLAYMIDI shows that the track was at channel 16. Did anyone have similar
> problems?
>

Edit the Ultrasound setup in MIDI Mapper so that all 16 channels are active.
 
> Also, while playing some midi files in the archive midisngs.zip, there is a
> strange piano sound on channel 10. Playing the same file with Media Player
> again, the strange piano note goes away. Any suggestion? I have a 1 MB card
> and my setting in Windows is HiFi (16-bit) with 32 voices.

The files in midisngs.zip and gsfiles1.zip on epas have percussions on
channels 16 and 10.  To play these files reasonably correctly on the
GUS, change the destination channel for channel 16 to 10 in Windows'
MIDI Mapper.

Phat.

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

Date: Sun, 21 Mar 93 15:13:46 EST
From: moddan@bowker.com (Daniel Nicholson  )
Message-Id: <ND4R1B2w164w@bowker.com>
Subject: Ultrasound Daily Digest V2 #76
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

Well, well, well. A few things to say today:
   1) The intention of my message was not to say that it's up to
	  Gravis to develop a GM driver. It >WAS< to say that it is up
	  to Sierra, Lucasfilm etc to support your card if they want 
	  your money.
   2) Along this note: if a company won't support you, then DON'T
	  support them. Don't buy their games and then say "SBOS doesn't
	  sound right with it". I think the companies are getting the 
	  wrong message - they see that you are in fact still buying 
	  their products despite lack of support for your hardware.
	  The customer is ALWAYS right. If a company doesn't believe this
	  then take your business elsewhere. You wouldn't buy many games
	  (make that "a game") that only supported one brand of VGA card
	  would you? 
   3) I will say it once and for all, I hate general midi. The intention
	  is good, the implementation is terrible. This is not to flame 
	  those of you who want general midi emulation, I think it would be
	  a neat gimmick to. But PLEASE don't let these companies abuse the
	  GUS in just the same way they currently do because of SBOS. GMOS
	  would probably turn into another excuse for no native support of
	  the GUS. The GUS is far more capable than a ROM based GM card. 
   4) PCkS is looking for a programmer and possibly a scriptwriter. 
	  Contact me for more details.
  
- Dan Nicholson
pccmoddan@aol.com, moddan@bowker.com

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

Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1993 17:34:21 +0700 (MST)
From: Adam Cowen <cowen@ee.ualberta.ca>
Message-Id: <Pine.3.03.9303211721.A28578-a100000@bode.ee.ualberta.ca>
Subject: weird file after installation
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

I installed the new disks last week, and had the same weird directory as
others had. But today I also found a hidden file in my root called
ambjadce. It seems this was also created at install time. When looking
through the file (and noting creation date) it seems to be a file the
install makes. Now I had to install of of my hd since I don't have a
1.44 floppy drive (yet). It could be an isolated case, but since the file is
430k I thought you should maybe check for it as its a waste of space!

Ciao gus owners!

Adam Cowen
cowen@ee.ualberta.ca

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

Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 00:21:50 AEST
From: Keith Smith <ksmith@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au>
Message-Id: <9303211421.AA14495@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au>
Subject: XWING, no go with ANY SBOS :(
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <ultrasound@dsd.es.com>

I recently got X-wing and tried it with SBOS 2.02.  As most ppl found,

no digitised sound was forthcoming.  I got v2.04 (the xwing fix incorporated,

so I've read), and STILL no sound when I set XWING up to use the soundblaster.



I tried going back to 1.43B, apparently ppl were using that with no probs..

nothing!!  Grrr...it's annoying, because I know most of you guys are getting

it to work :(  Should I be using any switches? I've tried it with most

of them.  Right now, I can only get it to make any sound when I'm using

Adlib, not Soundblaster.  PLEASE help!



System?

486-33DX 256K cache

8 meg RAM

140Mb NEC HD (ESDI) using Stacker 3.0

QEMM 6.03 (ST:M)

I'm not loading SBOS high, ANY SUGGESTIONS?

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V2 #77
******************************
