Ultrasound Daily Digest     Mon Jul 12 00:45     Volume 4: Issue  41  

Today's Topics:
						   Cubase with GUS
						  GUS with Syndicate
							   Links386
					 Logarithmic volume response
				 Midi coming out all wrong - Cakewalk
						   MT-32 and games
						MT-32 Emulator on EPAS
							   RE>SB16
							Tristan + SBOS

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.

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Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1993 14:35:35 +0001
From: "Z. Horvat" <zh@nike.rz.uni-konstanz.de>
Subject: Re: Cubase with GUS
Message-ID: <93Jul11.143544dft.1034@nike.rz.uni-konstanz.de>

To the guy who asked about running Cubase with a GUS : (Francois ?)
I am using this combination, it works.
This is how i do it :
I load both Patchmanager and Cubase, so i can switch between them to
load and unload sounds "on the fly". 
Use the Cubase setup program to configure it for Windows MME.
And, thats important : Everytime you jump out of Cubase (to load
a patch for example) use "RESET MIDI DEVICE" from the pull-down
menus. Otherwise you won't hear anything. Strange.

Btw. Cubase is a fine package, but you'll run into problems
using it with gus. Cubase is designed to work in Windows
standard mode and does not perform well in 386 Enhaced mode.
So you get timing problems, sooner or later.
Further it seems to me they never heard about GM.
I don't know about the new version, as i have only version 1.01.
I have tested demo versions of other sequencers and they seem
to work much nicer with the Ultrasound.

Hope it helps,
		-Zeljko

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

Date: Sun, 11 Jul 93 22:19:00 EDT
From: Jon Spewak <Jon.Spewak@lambada.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: GUS with Syndicate
Message-ID: <9307120219.AA12799@lambada.oit.unc.edu>

> From: paulwang@uclink.berkeley.edu (Paul Wang)
> Subject: Syndicate
> 
> Has anyone got digitzed sound to work with Syndicate?  I can get music
> but no luck on the digitized sound.  I tried the gus-synd in epas
> and still it doesn't work correctly.  Also, when digitzied sound should
> be heard, I get slight freeze.  Thanks.

Yea.. It works on my system.  486/33DX 8MB.  I do run QEMM though -
version 7.0 or something.. the newest version.  It might be 7.1.  Not sure.

I use one of the latest SBOSs too, then run GUS-SYND to run the game.  It
does work completely (at least I do hear as much sound as I think
is included in the game), and it works fine.  I have had problems with
minor slowdown when I shoot a gun, and after playing for a long while, it does
hang the computer.  Other than that.  No problems over here..

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

Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1993 11:55:21 -0400 (EDT)
From: Pete Kilcullen <pmk@access.digex.net>
Subject: Links386
Message-ID: <199307111555.AA17421@access.digex.net>

To get Links 386 Pro to work with GUS, you need to load sbos.bat with the
-x2 switch. Then click on options and pick Soundblaster. Test. It should work.

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

Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1993 09:30:38 -0700
From: Eric N. Liao <liaoe@aero.org>
Subject: Logarithmic volume response
Message-ID: <199307111630.AA05355@aerospace.aero.org>

I've noticed that SBOS and the GUSAIL drivers correctly "remap" the volume
response of the GUS, so music & SFX don't seem unusually "quiet."

My question is, if Gravis already has a linear volume curve for ultramid and
SBOS, why not PLAYMIDI and the Windows drivers?  How about it, Gravis?  It
gets annoying to use VMAP to convert every file.

Just curious, how many voices does the gusail driver initialize?  Are they
customizeable?  (Like if you are using an MT-32 setting & digital audio, can
you lower the #active voices from 32 to 14?)

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

Date: Fri, 9 Jul 93 23:20 AEST
From: simon@lsupoz.apana.org.au (Simon Rumble)
Subject: Midi coming out all wrong - Cakewalk
Message-ID: <m0oEINi-0005LXC@lsupoz.apana.org.au>

ReprintFrom: apana.syd.list.ultrasound

I've written a short song in Cakewalk using a little piece
I've grabbed from a Jean-Michel Jarre midi file.  I've
added a deep bass-line and a heavy bass drum beat.  The
problem is, the Gravis seems to get overloaded when it
has to think of too many things at once.

The song basically has 5 tracks which pretty much go all
at once.  The bass beat is heavily quanitsed and is all
exactly on time.  When I mute the other tracks and play
just the bass beat, things come out fine.  When I play
all of it together, the bass beat comes out all wrong.

What I think it could be is that the midi pipeline is
overloaded (midi is serial) with data or the Gravis
can't keep up.

Anyone else had this problem?

--
+-___----------------------------------------------------------------+
||___               "This House is Live"                             |
| ___| H E R M                             simon@lsupoz.apana.org.au |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

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

Date: Sun, 11 Jul 93 21:33:24 EDT
From: Stephen Ferguson <FERGUSOS@QUCDN.QueensU.CA>
Subject: MT-32 and games
Message-ID: <9307120136.AA03535@orca.es.com>

I've been using SBOS and MicroProse's World Circuit with reasonable
success (except for the fact that 800hp GP cars shouldn't sound like
flatulent Vespa scooters) emulating a soundblaster.  WC also offers
Roland MT-32 as a sound option, and I figured I'd give it a try.
Is it possible to make the GUS behave like the Roland card?

sjf

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

Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1993 11:16:03 +0800
From: Jayeson Lee-Steere <leesteer@tartarus.uwa.edu.au>
Subject: MT-32 Emulator on EPAS
Message-ID: <199307120316.LAA26626@tartarus>

Well it's still in Beta and doesn't emulate a Sound Blaster
yet, but I thought I would release it anyway in hope of some
feedback.

It's called Mega-Em. Check ARCHIVE.EPAS.UTORONTO.CA in the
directory PUB/PC/ULTRASOUND/SUBMIT for MEGEM04B.ZIP. The
README.1ST file contains a list of known problems that should
fixed before the first proper release.

It currently emulates a Roland MPU-401 MIDI interface and
incoporates MT-32/General MIDI music player, and hence can
be used to emulate Roland MT-32/LAPC1/Sound Canvas devices
using your Ultrasound Card. It is primarily designed for
games.

Several obvious questions come to mind:
How does it sound?
Is it compatible with everything?
How slow is it?
How many gigabytes of DOS memory does it take up?

Last to First:

Low DOS memory required: NONE

Nope. The whole thing loads into EMS, beyond the first
megabyte of DOS memory. It only needs about 32k of EMS,
but everything is allocated in 16k blocks, so the end
result is about 64k of EMS used. But since it requires
an EMM (such as EMM386.EXE) and 386 protected mode,
games such a COMANCHE, ULTIMA 7 etc. can't be used with it.


Speed?

Well on a 486-33 I couldn't notice any slowdown, even
with the turbo off. However I'm not accustomed to playing
games with the turbo off. Some 386 SX users may notice
some speed problems, however I haven't optimised the
Ultrasound playback routines yet - this should halve any
speed problems.


Compatibility?

I consider something being compatible if it runs correctly
and produces sound, irrespective of how it sounds. With this
in mind everything except the few games listed below work
perfectly:

1. STRIKE COMMANDER: Doesn't work. Mega-Em's emulation fails
			if the sound drivers are operated in protected
			mode.

2. WINDOWS: Same as 1. But it's not really necessary is it?

3. LASTEST BETHEDSA GAMES: Not really sure why, but these
			games will most likely crash for most people.
			They just seem to be unsociable. I remember
			reading that Wayne Gretsky Hockey crashed when
			used with the Gravis/Forte AIL drivers as well.

4. LEGEND TEXT ADVENTURES: (The ones with the small graphic
			in the top right hand corner of the screen). Well
			I've only tried one, but this will probably hold
			for most others as well. Apart from having very
			non-standard routines, the Roland drivers
			also mess up the PC's interrupt controller,
			resulting the Ultrasounds playback from being
			muted. Bummer.

Thats all. Everything else works fine (so far).


Most importantly, how does it sound?

Music: Well it ranges from very good (read: much better
	   than Sound Blaster) to rather ordinary. But the
	   music player is far from complete, and does a poor
	   job of playing MIDI files when compared to PLAYMIDI.
	   Once I find comprehensive info on FORTE's patch
	   format (.PAT), it should sound much better.

FX:    Many MT-32 programs place custom sounds in the MT-32
	   memory. Mega-Em does not support this feature and is
	   stuck with the General MIDI patch set. Despite this,
	   most sound effects are still quite usable. Only 2
	   major problems were found:

	   1. Engine noises just don't work. Instead of an engine
		  you get the occasional piano note.
	   2. The Gunshot patch really needs to sound like a gunshot.
		  It sounds a bit out of place when your expecting a
		  big explosion and instead get a wheeeeee noise.

How does it compare to the Roland Cards?

I don't know. I've never heard one. But my goal wasn't to
duplicate the sound of the Roland cards. I just wanted
a better form of music support for a wide range of games
than SBOS can offer.

In any case a few people I know are now considering buying a GUS.


Jayeson Lee-Steere
leesteer@tartarus.uwa.edu.au

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

Date: Fri, 25 Jun 93 17:44:41 PDT
From: jakub@eskimo.com (Jake Cholewczynski)
Subject: RE>SB16
Message-ID: <9306260044.AA26638@eskimo.com>

>Date: Thu, 24 Jun 93 17:38:01 GMT

>From: kresge@lims.lockheed.com (Jim Kresge)

>Subject: Re: SB16 ASP and(!) GUS anyone

>Message-ID: <1993Jun24.173801.21191@lims.lockheed.com>

>

>ReprintFrom: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard

>

>Why I bought the Soundblaster 16 ASP instead of the Pro 

>Audio 16 or the Viva Maestro 16VR, OR THE GUS:

> ...

>Keep in mind that I don't have the fastest machine.  I 

>evaluated the cards on a 386/SX16 with 4 mb of RAM

> ...

>against both.  It comes down to two cards for me--the Gravis 

>Ultrasound or the SB16 ASP.  I chose the SB16 ASP because of 

>the DSP, the compression, the FM synthesis capability, and 

>THE NAME.  I ALMOST bought the GUS though.  The final 

>deciding factor for me was that the GUS needs options to 

>make it acceptable.  The price for the GUS options was more 

>than the price for the Soundblaster/Waveblaster combo:

You are forgeting that GUS has 3-D Sound, also 32 Digital Voices..

 

>GUS                                                                   150.00

Come on.. You can get the GUS for about $128.00 the most expensive I seen 

'em was about $140..

>Additional RAM to make 1 MB                                            30.00

>16 bit sample add-on board for recording                              150.00

>SCSI add-on board                                                      50.00

 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 1. remember that is only if you have a CD-ROM without a 

 Control Card... GUS already has sound imputs from a CD-ROM.. 2. SB16 has

 only limited support as far as CD-ROMs, unlike the GUS SCSI card which

 supports most of the CD-ROMs on the market

>Cakewalk software (this would be my choice)                            75.00

 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 1. That is your choice but the 16 bit upgread comes with

USS 16, and if you send in your registration card you can have special pricing

on lots of diffrent sound software

>TOTAL                                                                 455.00

 

>Soundblaster 16 ASP (includes 16 bit, DSP instead of RAM, 

>SCSI interface                                                        200.00

^^^^^^^^ Hmm... are you an owner of a computer store?  

the retail price on the SB16 is $299 the best price I found was $250!

>Waveblaster (includes Cakewalk and more wavetable instrument 

>presets)                                                              250.00

>TOTAL                                                                  450.00

 

>Remember that the Soundblaster combo INCLUDES FM synthesis 

>as well as wavetable after the above 

 

You also have to remember that if you are a regular user like I am 

and just want the best sounding sound out of appl. ok, recording, ext.

Then the GUS will run you $154 that is with the "RAM UPGREAD" and  

the SB16 will run you $250.. 

 

P.S. If you get the a basic GUS you can expect to get 16 bit Digital CD Sound 

out of it, If you choose the SB-16 without the Waveblaster you will get 

16-bit sound but it will not even come close to the GUS.. 

 

Beside the point if we crossed the $450 total, why souldn't you get T.B.

sound card and get the real $500 sound..

 

jakub@eskimo.com   

 

P.S. 

- yes, I am a GUS owner-

 

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

Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1993 19:53:53 +1000 (EST)
From: Michael Daniel <mdani@wilbur.mbark.swin.oz.au>
Subject: Tristan + SBOS
Message-ID: <Pine.3.07.9307111949.A23962-a100000@wilbur.mbark.swin.oz.au>

Hi there,  has anyone been able to get Tristan (pinball game) to work in
soundblaster mode using SBOS,  I have tried SBOS version 1.20 and 2.02 to
no avail.  It works in Adlib mode, but in SB mode there are heaps of
digitized sounds ( I played back one of the files with playfile and I
could hear them) and I would rather have these than Adlib sounds.  Also,
does anyone else notice that windows take ages to load with the GUS
installed, I think it has something to do with the patches being loaded of
disk.  On my computer windows takes about 4 minutes to load if I don't
have smartdrv running, and about 2.4 if I do.  (I have a very slow hard
drive (>70ms access!!) but windows wasn't this slow beforehand)  I have a
386-40 with 6 meg RAM, 1 meg GUS, at 220,5,5,11,5.

				bye,
					 MPD 8-)

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End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #41
*************************************
