Ultrasound Daily Digest     Sat Aug  7 00:07     Volume 5: Issue   6  

Today's Topics:
			  Demos with no sound/how many pholyphonic?
						First of the 7 signs.
							 grand piano
					  GRAVIS AND ASSEMBLY ' 1/2
					  GRAVIS AND ASSEMBLY ' 2/2
						I see everything ONCE!
							 Megem09b.zip
						  MIDI connector box
						 MIDI connector box.
					  MIDI Mapper, perc. patches
					 Oh ye gurus hear my plea...
				 OS/2 and my GUS. 2 weeks later.....
						turtle beach maui card
					Ultrasound Daily Digest V5 #4 
					Ultrasound Daily Digest V5 #5
						   upgrade disks..
						  WinJammer and GUS?

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: Fri, 6 Aug 93 22:57:10 +0300
From: tjakobs@mswe.dnet.ms.philips.nl (THEO_JAKOBS TEL.62667)
Subject: Demos with no sound/how many pholyphonic?
Message-ID: <9308061957.AA20696@muxgw1.ms.philips.nl>

Hi....

I recently downloaded two demo's, Virtual2.zip spiral.zip..
they both claim to have gus sound, but neither of them brings sound through
my speakers. Is somebody out there having the same problems???

I wan't to know how many voices the gus can bring out (in Stereo) at the same
time ( i mean how many voices polyphonic IN STEREO)..
because if it is 32 voices, why can't somebody make a SBOS but then supporting
the SoundBlaster Pro....

Has somebody got an ail driver for STRIKE COMMANDER... (or a patch)

Is somebody out there experiencing the same problems with FLIDEMO (the program
that came with the gus) because when i start it, it only produces some terrible
noices and my computer doen't do anything anymore.....

My setup:
		  -486/25 SX
		  -SCSI 320/150/80 MB harddisks
		  -SCSI converted ESDI 150 MB Harddisk
		  -Adaptec 1542B SCSI controller
		  -SCSI 2.5 GB Tape Streamer
		  -Dos 6
		  -4DOS
		  - Qemm 6.?
		  - Trident vga
		  - And ofcourse the Gravis UltraSound

Andre Jakobs
  MicroBrain Technologies Inc.
	The Netherlands

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

Date: 06 Aug 93 06:19:10 EDT
From: "Eric Bell, Howling Dog Systems" <71333.2166@CompuServe.COM>
Subject: First of the 7 signs.
Message-ID: <930806101910_71333.2166_DHQ12-1@CompuServe.COM>

I received my GUS disks today. The system worked!

The address for us in the manual is the old one. We are now at:

Howling Dog Systems
Kanata North Postal Outlet
Box 72071
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
K2K 2P4

Phone: (613) 599-7927
Fax:   (613) 599-7926

Our CompuServe ID is: 71333,2166
or GO HOWLING

Would the creators of TOYTRAIN.POW and SLITHER.POW please contact me? 

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

Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1993 13:23:38 -0400
From: jericho!gord (Gord Wait S-MOS Systems Vancouver Design Center)
Subject: Re: grand piano
Message-ID: <9308061723.AA03774@smos.bc.ca>

David Britton writes:

>I'm going to assume that the patch you're referring to is the MIDI grand 
>piano patch.  If it is, you're disappointment in the quality of the sample
>is understandable, considering that those patches are created using synthesis
>and not sampling.  You'll find that sampling any instrument with some degree
>of accuracy takes about 4 or 5 sampled notes from the instrument at different
>ranges (i.e. octaves) accross the 88 note spectrum.  It'd be nice if the gus
>did sampling like that with all the control of a MIDI patch, but the tech.
>required pushes sampling keyboards upwards of $6000.  My suggestion to you 

Now I am not totally certain that the grand piano patch is sampled, BUT:
the GUS IS A SAMPLING SYNTH MODULE!!!

The patch file contains 4 or 5 digital audio samples of an instrument,
adds start/end/looping points, etc. for wavetable playback. I am 99%
sure that the piano patch IS sampled, its just that either the sample length
isn't long enough, or the gus can't make it long enough to sound more realistic. IE
the only question I have is can a better piano patch for the gus be made?

While I'm sure that a (new technology) $6000.00 synth is going to smoke
the gus, the gus is pretty amazing at under $200.00. As well, I would
hope that a sample playback keyboard that costs that much would have as
many sampled notes as there are keys on the keyboard, not just 4 or 5
like a little olde gus card...

Feel free to shoot me down, or back me up anyone....

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

Date: Fri, 06 Aug 93 16:42:54 
From: john.smith@gravis.com
Subject: GRAVIS AND ASSEMBLY ' 1/2
Message-ID: <9308061642.A7875wk@gravis.com>

										Advanced Gravis -  Aug 5, 1993

						Summary of Assembly '93
							(Jul 31-Aug 2)
							  John Smith

[This is part of a memo I sent to everyone here at Gravis. I've
 stripped out those sections/sentences that were not relevant to
 the public or were not considered politically correct <grin>. So sit
 back, relax and GUS on]

This is a summary of my trip to Assembly '93 in Kerava Finland. I knew
you would all be anxious for some information and details so during the
conference I was taking notes <grin>. This summary contains facts,
opinions, gossip, and suggestions not only from me but also from others
that I talked to at this event.

About Assembly '93
==================
The event was held in a high school in Kerava, 20km outside of Helsinki.
There were some 1400 attendees from mostly Northern Europe. This was
roughly split into 20% Amiga and 80% PC. Most of these attendees were
either musicians, graphic artist, script writers, or coders. My
discussions with many of these people were either on a one to one basis
or in group/roundtable environment.

The bulk of the competition was done Saturday evening and finished early
Sunday morning. In total there were some 80 different PC entries in 5
categories: 4 Channel Music, 4+ Channel Music, Graphics, Intro, and Demo.

About the Competition
=====================
The caliber of this years entries were high. We saw many more Amiga
groups moving over to the PC. Including one group called Silents. They
have only had a PC for 6 months, and at ASM-93 they released their
first demo. The kicker of this is that they came second only to
Future Crew. These are definitely people to keep an eye on.

The only two cards' supported at ASM-93 were the GUS and SB. For those
who haven't heard the GUS/SB together it was an overwhelming
expierence. My favorite part was in between one demo when they had to
reboot a computer with the SB plugged in. During boot up you HEARD
everything over the loud speakers including the sound of the hard
disk winding up! (This NEVER happened on the GUS.) It was a nice
felling hearing the crowd chuckle at this.

It was something to hear the cheers when the first GUS demo
was played and people could not only hear the GUS but feel its
power (bass). It brought smiles too quite a few peoples faces.

It was also thrilling to see the GUS as the center piece for over
1400 people. All music compos were done over the GUS. If your demo
or intro didn't have direct GUS support the general question was
"Why not?".

This year 50% of the PC intro's and demos contained direct GUS support.
After hearing what the GUS can do we can expect this figure to jump to
well over 80%.

Gravis, being the main sponsor of this event followed by Epic
Megagames and the Waite Group, gave away as prizes: 

		  6 GUS cards with SDK,
		  2 MIDI boxes,
		  5 Analog Pro with SDK, and
		  5 PC Gamepad with SDK

The nice thing about this was that all the winners walked away with
at least one Gravis product.

The results of this competition were:

PC Demo's                                    PC Intro's
 ------------------------------------------- --------------------------
1 477 FC        Unreal 2: The Second Reality 1 378 EMF       Eclipse
2 403 Silents   Optic Nerve                  2 196 Epical    Tangle
3 242 Xography  Elements                     3 165 Darkzone  Debut
4 126 Dust      Saga
5 78  Extreme   Extermination

Music 4+ Channel                             Music 4 Channel
 ------------------------------------------- --------------------------
1 215 FC/Skaven                              1 133 FC/Purlpe Motion
2 178 FC/Marvel                              2 98  Avalance/Leinad
3 164 FC/Purple Motion                       3 90  Sonic PC/Cybelius

Graphics
 -------------------------------------------
1 176 FC/Marvel
2 144 Delusion/Cascada
3 106 Zenjug/Blackmind

Game Support
============
In total I saw and played some 5 different games all with UltraSound
support. I also heard from many more people who are either writing,
or will be writing a game with GUS support.

Mark Rein of Epic Megegames is a definite GUS preacher. He is working
with many of these demo/games programers on future titles. All of which
will have GUS support.

GUS Programming
===============
I talked to many programmers at the show and had an opportunity to see
what they had to say about Gravis and the UltraSound when it came
to programming for our products.

Their biggest complaint was trying to get information out of Gravis when
we first released the UltraSound. Most of them now have the new SDK and
are quite pleased with it. The two sections they found most useful
were the hardware description chapter and the low level register section.

They would like to see more example source code for various UltraSound
sound engines. We currently only have two, GUS MOD V2.11 source code and
GUS Play. Sometimes all it takes to fix a programming problem is to
see how someone else approached the problem. I'll be trying to hunt down
more programming examples from other sources and post them.

I also managed to find out some very interesting facts about the GUS
from a programmers' point of view.

On average it takes from 2 hours to 1 week to build an UltraSound
engine. The time varies with the programmers knowledge, time
available, and ability to get information. It was nice to hear that
it was actually quite easy to program for the GUS compared to other
sound cards.

It seemed from talking to these groups that nearly 60% of the GUS
sound engines out there started from the GUS MOD source code written
by Josh Jensen of Ren. The only problem with this is that GUSMOD does
have problems and some limitations. However, Josh is suppose to have
finished a new version of this and I'm looking forward to taking a
peek at it. I would hate to see 100 games out there all having the
same problems and limitations that GUSMOD V2.11 has.

I didn't realize this but on average mixing 4 channels at 20kHz on a
regular SB with a 386SX can take as much as 40% of the CPU time. On a
GUS this is less than 1%! Mainly due to our hardware mixing. This was a
definite plus and is one of the reasons why programmers like our card
so much. It saves them programming time, cause they don't have to worry
about mixing, and it saves them CPU time so they can do faster and
better graphics.

I also had many requests for a digital joystick. Apparently joystick
routines, because of their timing limitations can take 5-10% of the CPU.

Here is one of my favorite stories from the conference. I meet this one
fellow who asked me if he could have an UltraSound, fairly standard
request. When asked him why, he replied, "I've added UltraSound support to
my latest game but I do not have an UltraSound and I would like to see
if it worked". We walked over to his computer I opened up a GUS and gave
it to him. We plugged it in, he loaded his game and, there was no sound.
He looked kind of frustrated and told me to hang on a second. He quickly
loaded up his Borland compiler edited some of the source code recompiled
the game and presto it worked. Don't you just love happy endings <grin>.

Other Notes
===========
1) Future Crew, in the next month, will be releasing a disk magazine
   that will contain information on how ASM'93 went. They will
   probably go into much more detail than I will here.

2) It was VERY difficult to get any groups to allow me to have a copy
   of their demos. Many of them were still coding their program up
   until a half hour before the deadlines. Because of this rush, many
   of their programs will only work on very specific hardware, such
   as only a trident video card, or only a GUS at address 240 etc...
   They have all promised to send me a copy of their demos/intros/games
   when they are debugged. I emphasized how much we are all looking
   forward to seeing them.

3) On another topic, Phil Shatz has written a book for the Waite Group
   called "Walk Through's and Flybys". This is a book all about
   commercial, medical, legal and non-comercial demos. This book does
   not currently discuss the UltraSound but Phil was so impressed with
   the UltraSound at ASM-93 that he promises to make sure it will be in
   his next book.

Conclusion
==========
This trip has proved very benifical for Gravis. We have established a
very solid relationship with not only these Northern European
programmers but with all programmers who may read about our support
through the nets or magazine articles.  We have proven to them that
Gravis is dedicated to making the GUS the number one supported card
in the world and they are an integrated part of this plan.

Gravis has been very supportive of these people and it is definitely
paying back. It had a really big impact seeing all the major groups
directly supporting and preaching the words of GUS. That in itself
speaks far more to someone than what we can tell them. We most
defiantly have a religious following. Someone once said to me that,
"the GUS is not just another sound card but an expierence that one
never easily forgets".

I would like to finish off by thanking Future Crew for putting on
Assembly '93. There were a few technical problems (blown amps, speakers,
power outages, etc..) but all in all it was well done. Thanx. See
you all there next year!

(Continued to next message)
---
 ~ QMPro 1.50 05-8925 ~ Go straight to the docs.  Do not pass GO.  Do not
collect

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

Date: Fri, 06 Aug 93 16:42:54 
From: john.smith@gravis.com
Subject: GRAVIS AND ASSEMBLY ' 2/2
Message-ID: <9308061642.A7876wk@gravis.com>

(Continued from previous message)


Cheers and happy GUSing

John Smith
---
 ~ QMPro 1.50 05-8925 ~ Go straight to the docs.  Do not pass GO.  Do not
collect

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

Date: Fri, 6 Aug 93 06:24:28 PDT
From: deraud@power.amasd.anatcp.rockwell.com (Robert Lee DeRaud)
Subject: I see everything ONCE!
Message-ID: <9308061324.AA21199@power.amasd.anatcp.rockwell.com>

>From: David Britton <fishead@cwis.unomaha.edu>
>Subject: Re: grand piano
>I'm going to assume that the patch you're referring to is the MIDI grand 
>piano patch.  If it is, you're disappointment in the quality of the sample
>is understandable, considering that those patches are created using synthesis
>and not sampling.

Well, no...I suppose it's POSSIBLE that the GUS patches are samples of 
synthesized whatevers, but it's highly unlikely.

>                   You'll find that sampling any instrument with some degree
>of accuracy takes about 4 or 5 sampled notes from the instrument at different
>ranges (i.e. octaves) accross the 88 note spectrum.

Actually, a good digital piano (e.g. Technics) is multisampled on the order of
4-5 notes per OCTAVE: that's why they have several MB of ROM sample storage.

>                                                  It'd be nice if the gus
>did sampling like that with all the control of a MIDI patch, but the tech.
>required pushes sampling keyboards upwards of $6000.  My suggestion to you 
>is if you want a good piano, buy the Proformance (I believe it's by EMu) for
>about $500.  It's a sound module that has sampled about 8 piano's.

The quality of the GUS patches (samples) has exactly NOTHING to do with 
the ability of the GUS to sample: the samples are almost certainly done 
on something a good deal more upscale. (BTW, pro quality samplers can be 
had for more like $2K these days). The PLAYBACK technology OTOH is very 
simple: roughly 20-20% the cost of the sampling side.  So the EMU module 
(pro quality, more or less) costs $500 (take your word for it) while the 
machine to create it's samples is more like $2K.  On the lower end, the 
GUS is $150 vs the Multisound at $500 which has all the expensive 16-bit
44KHz A/D widgets built in.  There ARE some limits on the GUS technology
for playback: an absolute memory size limit and the apparent inability of
the various drivers to handle multisampled patches > 256K even if the 
individual "sub-patches" are much smaller.

>From: jericho!gord (Gord Wait S-MOS Systems Vancouver Design Center)
>Subject: Piano patch, midi etc.
>Grand Piano Realism: Seems to my ear the biggest problem with
>the piano patch is that it doesn't sustain long enough. I don't know
>if it could be made longer, or if it already uses up the full amount
>of ram it's allowed to. 

See above: he's agreeing with something I said (which is unusual enough) 
BEFORE I said it...one hell of a trick IMHO.

>I have noticed that a few of the patches show tonal 'jumps' when playing 
>a chromatic scale, which shows that there are not quite enough samples for
>the instrument. I don't complain at the price of the gus. If it was a
>Fairlight, sure I'd complain...

If I could get a used Fairlight for the price of a GUS...nah, never 
happen. :-)

>From: "M.C. Ng" <mcng@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca>
>Subject: MIDI connector box.
>Anyone recieve their MIDI connector yet??   I've been waiting for 3 weeks
>and I was hoping to play with it before School. I hope this is NOT another stall..
>I can tolerate it once... but not twice...  

Got mine Tuesday...but then again, I DON'T live in Canada! :-)

************************************************************************
Lee DeRaud                             Will program Windows for food.
Rockwell Int. AESD                    (Hey, I'm easy but I'm not cheap!)
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
	  My own opinions only, not those of Rockwell International.
		 (Yeah, right: like anyone around here cares...NOT!)
************************************************************************

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

Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1993 09:38:26 -0230 (NDT)
From: Ed Reddy <ereddy@morgan.ucs.mun.ca>
Subject: Megem09b.zip
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9308021130.B18135-9100000@morgan.ucs.mun.ca>

There is a BOGUS version of megem09b.zip on utoronto.ca. Anyone have a
good version? IF so, re-upload it please...
 
	_____       - If every man stopped thinking about war and hatred,
   / ### \        and started to think about Space, just imagine how 
 ()\_____/()          close a reality Star Trek would be right now..
ereddy@morgan.ucs.mun.ca & edward@dragger.ifmt.nf.ca

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

Date: Fri, 6 Aug 93 12:16:39 MDT
From: jechrist@xyroc (Jeff Christensen)
Subject: Re: MIDI connector box
Message-ID: <9308061816.AA04140@xyroc.sim.ES.COM>

Yep!  I received my midi connector (along with the ordered Yeager game) about
a week ago.  I spent last weekend getting both the in and out directions
working with my keyboard...

Anyone know how to turn up the volume using Recording Session when playing
from the keyboard to the GUS?

Jeff

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

Date: Fri, 6 Aug 93 14:31:06 EDT
From: "David Penick" <penick@vnet.IBM.COM>
Subject: Re: MIDI connector box.
Message-ID: <9308061835.AA18240@orca.es.com>

> Date: Thu, 5 Aug 1993 18:50:11 -0400
> From: "M.C. Ng" <mcng@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca>
> Subject: MIDI connector box.
> Message-ID: <93Aug5.185022edt.43252-2@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca>
>
> Anyone recieve their MIDI connector yet??   I've been waiting for 3 weks and
> I was hoping to play with it before School.   I hope this is NOT anothr
> stall..
> I can tolerate it once... but not twice...

I received mine this week.  I ordered it right after I got my update
diskettes (a few weeks after the first people announced in the
digest that they had received theirs).

It works great.

David

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

Date: Fri, 06 Aug 1993 10:40:14 +0000
From: Clarke Brunt <CLARKE@lsl.co.uk>
Subject: MIDI Mapper, perc. patches
Message-ID: <009709CE.88F86261.18535@lsl.co.uk>

> RE: Midi mapper setups: the New 2.06 drivers include midi mapper
> setups that preload a lower quality GM patch set into ram so
> that apps that don't cache patches don't have to. So this could
> be a reason for a windows startup delay..

I've said before - MIDI Mapper *cannot* load patches of its own
accord. If you were using these setups, you still have to load the
patches yourself using e.g. PatchMan and the supplied MIDI files which
contain just one note on each of the required patches.

> Here is a problem I have found (minor one): It seems that the
> drivers pay no attention to midi note off commands when it comes
> to percussion instruments. I was trying to get a cut off crash
> cymbal sound... 

You might be right, but I think it more likely that the difference
is in the patch files themselves. Just how a patch plays through its
6-point envelope is one of the less well explained details of patch
format. I seem to remember that a patch was flagged as either
percussion or melodic, and there were also several control bits
for sustain etc. Basically, I think that some patches will stop
almost as soon as they get note-off, but others still play the
through the rest of the decay sequence.

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

Date: Fri, 6 Aug 93 09:31:38 -0400
From: Brennan Stephens <stephens@cs.unc.edu>
Subject: Oh ye gurus hear my plea...
Message-ID: <9308061331.AA18140@hatteras.cs.unc.edu>

  I have three questions for all you GUS gurus out there.  I hope these
weren't in the FAQ.

  1.  Since I now have this really nice soundcard and will soon have the
midi interface I would like to get a midi keyboard.  However, the GUS
patches sound pretty good so I don't really need anything fancy.  Does
anyone know of a basic (meaning inexpensive) keyboard with a midi
interface that doesn't come with a lot of samples and mixing tools that I
don't need?  Basically, just a keyboard?

  2.  Is there any way to change the rythm patch in Power Chords?  Can I
change it in .ini file?

  3.  Is there anyway to get rid of the 'pop' static noise when the GUS in
initialized?  (I know, complain, complain.)  This isn't a big deal as I can
always turn the speakers on afterwards, but I thought I'd ask.

  Thanks ahead for any and all advice.  Stephens@cs.unc.edu.

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

Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1993 20:22:57 -0400 (EDT)
From: Brian Go <bgo@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: OS/2 and my GUS. 2 weeks later.....
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9308062045.F19019-a100000@sciborg>

It's been 2 weeks since my last post to the Digest.
I've reached a cross road.   I love GUS and I love OS/2.  I can't stand
the fact that OS/2 won't acknowledge GUS and GUS rarely speaks to OS/2.  I
fear one of them will move out if I can't patch things up.  OS/2 has been
eyeing the PAS-16 for sometime now.  I think he might soon be having an affair
behind GUS's back.  

Please do something to patch up this relationship.  It's out of my hands now.

Brian Go             bgo@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca         2nd Year Chem Stud....
If he's chubby, black and carries a Sax.
Chances are, he is amazing!
					  <14eme Festival International de Jazz de Montreal>

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

Date: Fri, 6 Aug 93 16:59:43 BST
From: James Andrews <james@vortex1.exeter.ac.uk>
Subject: turtle beach maui card
Message-ID: <12558.9308061559@euclid.vortex1.exeter.ac.uk>

Just read this in csips:

>
>Maui ships with 256K of sample RAM which is upgradeable to 8 megabytes
>of storage RAM.
>
>Maui is also MPU-401 compatible, so its installation into an existing
>Windows environment is quick and painless.
>
>Maui's list price is 199.00 and will be available worldwide from
>authorized Turtle Beach Dealers starting on September 1, 1993.
>

Come on gravis, the competition is catching up!
This isnt the only wavetable card with ram that I've heard rumoured.  A huge
bucket load are due in time for xmas.

-- 
James Andrews, Computer Development Officer, Exeter University Maths Dept

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

Date: Fri, 06 Aug 93 11:38:53 -0400
From: "Momentary language, sexual situations" <dantonio@magick.tay2.dec.com>
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V5 #4 
Message-ID: <9308061538.AA02433@magick.tay2.dec.com>

> The GUS has 128 melodic and 60+ percussive patches.  Each patch contains
> one or more samples of an instrument.  The patches were created for the
> GUS by Eye & I.  I don't think they stole patches from Roland synths since
> that might be a bit illegal.

I think that Eye & I also produced patch sets for some sample synths, so
this might be why the patches sound familiar. I was kinda impressed that
Gravis/Forte would get their patches from these folks...

DDA

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

Date: Fri, 6 Aug 93 16:10:52 EDT
From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V5 #5
Message-ID: <9308062010.AA12615@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>

> Date: Thu, 5 Aug 1993 12:02:43 -0600 (CDT)
> From: ddebry@grue.dsd.ES.COM (Dave DeBry)
> Subject: DIGEST ADMIN: REPETITIVE DIGESTS
> Message-ID: <9308051802.AA16275@grue>
> 
>   However, I *think* I've fixed the recursive digest problem.

No duplicates today...

>   Oh, BTW: There are GUS boards being used in displays here at
> SIGGRAPH!  Color me impressed!
>

Neat!
 
> Date: Thu, 5 Aug 1993 10:28:06 -0500 (CDT)
> From: David Britton <fishead@cwis.unomaha.edu>
> Subject: Re: grand piano
> Message-ID: <9308051528.AA28295@cwis.unomaha.edu>
> 
> I'm going to assume that the patch you're referring to is the MIDI grand 
> piano patch.  If it is, you're disappointment in the quality of the sample
> is understandable, considering that those patches are created using synthesis
> and not sampling.  You'll find that sampling any instrument with some degree
> of accuracy takes about 4 or 5 sampled notes from the instrument at different
> ranges (i.e. octaves) accross the 88 note spectrum.  It'd be nice if the gus

Hmm...  I don't quite follow.  The acoustic grand piano contains seven
samples of what sounds like a real piano.  I think the weakness in the
patch is that there's not much activity in its sustain and decay.  

[Ooops.  I deleted the header of Gord's message.]
> 
> RE: Midi mapper setups: the New 2.06 drivers include midi mapper setups
> that preload a lower quality GM patch set into ram so that apps that
> don't cache patches don't have to. So this could be a reason for a windows
> startup delay..
>

The 256k/512k/1024k MIDI mapper setups themselves do not cause the driver
to load up the patches.  You still must use Media Player or Patch Man to
load up the patches in the files load256.mid/load512.mid/load1024.mid.
 
> Here is a problem I have found (minor one): It seems that the drivers pay no
> attention to midi note off commands when it comes to percussion instruments.
> I was trying to get a cut off crash cymbal sound (like when a live drummer
> hits the crash, and then grabs the cymbal to stop it for a punch effect).

Sure the driver responds to note off for the percs!  Try fooling around
with the open hi-hat, for example.  The patch itself must use a sustain
mode that can be affected by note off.  The crash cymbal patch has Sustain
Off, so it behaves as though a note off was sent immediately after each
note on.  If you edit the crash cymbal patch, change its Sustain to On, 
and modify its envelope so that there's a slow decay during the Sustain
period and a quick release after the note off point, you can get the 
"punch" effect you want.  If only all such patch modifications can be 
done via SysEx messages... (hint to Forte :)

> Date: Thu, 5 Aug 93 8:47:58 CDT
> From: ibmpa!hartmann.austin.ibm.com!lance@ibminet.awdpa.ibm.com (Lance Hartmann)
> Subject: PUPDATE.EXE runs very slowly, but appears to work okay for me.
> Message-ID: <9308051347.AA15259@hartmann.austin.ibm.com>
> 
> The only thing I noticed when running PUPDATE.EXE was that it took a
> looooooooong time to run (and, I have a 486/50 [true DX] with 20MB of RAM)!
> Aside from the lengthy run time, all appears to have worked properly.
>

Using a write-delayed cache should speed things up significantly.
 
Phat.

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

Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1993 18:35:27 -0700 (PDT)
From: Scott Rowin <amigo@halcyon.com>
Subject: upgrade disks..
Message-ID: <199308070135.AA11860@halcyon.com>

	Course a few months back everyone went on about the upgrade disks
and how some didn't get them while others did.. My guess in this
case is that Gravis is sending them out somewhat in sequence to those
that bought the Ultrasound. May or not be the case, but sure seems that
way since I just received my V2.06a disks today. Bellingham is only
about 60-70 miles away from Seattle area (where I'm at), hence its nothing
to do with US Mail. I bought my card in early '93, henceforth its a lot of
disks to send (6 to some what? 100k-200k users?). 
	
					Just a few notes..
						Scott

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

Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1993 10:53:23 +22311151 (CDT)
From: read@utpapa.ph.utexas.edu (Dave Read)
Subject: WinJammer and GUS?
Message-ID: <9308061553.AA22835@utpapa.ph.utexas.edu>

So does anybody out there know how to set up Windows/GUS to work
together so that WinJammer works?  I was able to get WJ running, but
it refuses to make even a peep.  Yes, I did pick an output port before
trying...Similarly I can't get WinMusic to work either!

Confused,
Dave

-- 
Dave Read   (read@utpapa.ph.utexas.edu)      "When in doubt, sheet it out."
UT-Austin High Energy Physics Grad Student 
PGP public key available by 'finger'

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End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V5 #6
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