GUS Daily Digest Sun, 5 Mar 95 9:37 PST Volume 20: Issue 5 Today's Topics: archives of this digest Bureau 13 and GUS GUS Daily Digest V20 #4 GUS DRAM chips in NL Mem for GUS.. Mem poll again.. results of GUS memory poll Win95 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: Sat, 4 Mar 1995 16:50:29 -0600 (CST) From: rwright@dhostwo.convex.com (Randy Wright) Subject: archives of this digest I have uploaded /pub/pc/ultrasound/submit/daily.tar to the submit directory of archive.epas.utoronto.ca. It contains a reconstruction of the Ultrasound Daily Digest archives. A listing of the tar file is attached. I have re-processed the issues which exist in the ancient systems/ibmpc/ultrasound/digests directory on wuarchive.wustl.edu. I was able to supply a few missing issues, and I have consistently adding leading zero's to single digit numbers. The one old daily digest which was saved as vol-1.lha is now a zip archive. There are a few missing issues, and a very few issues have been edited to remove complete repostings or mime-encodings of files already existing on the archive sites. In the MISSING file, I say: GUS Daily Digest missing issues. It's quite possible none were issued with these numbers: vol-03/{03,32} vol-04/15 vol-08/02 vol-11/{47,48} vol-12/11 vol-14/{02,03,04} vol-15/11 vol-16/28 vol-17/{17,18,21} vol-05/{01,02,03} were missing from the "old" archives, but have now been located. vol-08/{01,02,03} were missing. 01 and 03 have been found, 02 is still awol. vol-11/02 mis-names itself as v5#2 - clearly it is vol11 vol-16/11 was posted twice, with slightly different content. Both copies are archived as vol-16/11.1 and vol-16/11.2 Much as I hate censorship, I hand-edited a couple of issues which obviously contained complete reposts of previous digests. This is the only instance of any hand editing I performed on old digests. Specifically, I editted vol-17/01, vol-17/02, vol-18/05, and vol-18/06 to remove repostings of previous digests. Also, I removed a Mime-encoded posting of usail30.zip from vol-19/01. Listing of archive: rwxr-xr-x 1264/67 0 Mar 4 16:20 1995 daily rw-r--r-- 1264/67 550 Mar 4 14:05 1995 daily/fixhead.awk rw-r--r-- 1264/67 941 Mar 4 16:13 1995 daily/MISSING rwxr-xr-x 1264/67 0 Mar 4 16:15 1995 daily/vol-20 rw-r--r-- 1264/67 26031 Mar 4 16:15 1995 daily/vol-20/01 rw-r--r-- 1264/67 24649 Mar 4 16:15 1995 daily/vol-20/02 rw-r--r-- 1264/67 56740 Mar 4 16:15 1995 daily/vol-20/03 rw-r--r-- 1264/67 463587 Mar 4 16:16 1995 daily/vol-01.zip rw-r--r-- 1264/67 784471 Mar 4 16:16 1995 daily/vol-02.zip rw-r--r-- 1264/67 439747 Mar 4 16:17 1995 daily/vol-03.zip rw-r--r-- 1264/67 377176 Mar 4 16:17 1995 daily/vol-04.zip rw-r--r-- 1264/67 223684 Mar 4 16:17 1995 daily/vol-05.zip rw-r--r-- 1264/67 232078 Mar 4 16:17 1995 daily/vol-06.zip rw-r--r-- 1264/67 349692 Mar 4 16:17 1995 daily/vol-07.zip rw-r--r-- 1264/67 240851 Mar 4 16:18 1995 daily/vol-08.zip rw-r--r-- 1264/67 292758 Mar 4 16:18 1995 daily/vol-09.zip rw-r--r-- 1264/67 285368 Mar 4 16:18 1995 daily/vol-10.zip rw-r--r-- 1264/67 467848 Mar 4 16:18 1995 daily/vol-11.zip rw-r--r-- 1264/67 281458 Mar 4 16:19 1995 daily/vol-12.zip rw-r--r-- 1264/67 253073 Mar 4 16:19 1995 daily/vol-13.zip rw-r--r-- 1264/67 54350 Mar 4 16:19 1995 daily/vol-14.zip rw-r--r-- 1264/67 302895 Mar 4 16:19 1995 daily/vol-15.zip rw-r--r-- 1264/67 292814 Mar 4 16:19 1995 daily/vol-16.zip rw-r--r-- 1264/67 246708 Mar 4 16:19 1995 daily/vol-17.zip rw-r--r-- 1264/67 268840 Mar 4 16:20 1995 daily/vol-18.zip rw-r--r-- 1264/67 244569 Mar 4 16:20 1995 daily/vol-19.zip -- Randy Wright Usmail: Convex Computers Phone: (214) 497-4868 3000 Waterview Pky. Email: rwright@convex.com P.O. Box 833851 Richardson, TX 75083-3851 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Mar 1995 00:39:56 -0500 (EST) From: Chi K Poon Subject: Bureau 13 and GUS Hi all, I was wondering if anyone who has "Bureau 13" notice any problems with the sound and music from the GUS. The game supports the card, but the sound and music coming from it sound static'ky whenever they are played. Anyone else notice this? I have a GUS Max with 1 meg of ram. I am running the game with emm386 instead of QEMM which gave me noise when I used it. The card and speakers sound fine with other applications. Thanks Steve +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | \|||||/ | Steve Poon | | |O O| | UNIX: chipoon@acsu.buffalo.edu | | \ o / | VAX: V131N4E4@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu | | \-/ | | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------| | *This message was brought to you by your local friendly "Fido-Net"* | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Mar 1995 19:51:16 +0000 (GMT) From: Sam Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V20 #4 On Sat, 4 Mar -1, GUS Server wrote: > From: Dave Woldrich > Subject: <: Memory poll rebuttal and other fun stuff :> > > Well, I'm glad I got a little response to my apparently shocking opinion > that 4meg should be the GUS2 memory standard.. Let me give some more > arguments in favor: > > * When the original gus came out, it was shipped with 256K! This choice 256k ain't enough. > then THEY will MAKE MONEY!! Simple capitalism. So, if they have lotsa > samples to play -- more than one meg for instance, then developers will > demand that you get more ram for their game!! Microsoft plays games Don't see any games requiring 28 meg of RAM in the AWE32s... Seriously: 4 meg is too expensive (approx 100 UKP, which would double the cost of a standard GUS here). GUS needs to be cheap, because if it ain't, it can't compete with Creative's brandname. 4 meg is completely unnecessary for games and not essential for music (esp. mod-type, MIDI throws memory around more). What's more, as software and drivers are worked on some more, dynamic patch caching could be used, which would further improve the situation. Currently the only memory problem with games is the emulation, and the loading-all-patches-used-at-one problem with HMI etc. Emulation should be less necessary and the HMI drivers could be improved. (huh, especially over the UAKM ones, which don't work on our system). Pro-quality synthesizers (the cheaper ones anyway) often only have 4 megs rom (ok, ok, so QuadraSynth has 16, but that ain't cheap). If you ask me, 4 megs ROM is less than 1 meg RAM for nearly all use. If the extra cost is going to be there, it should have been used for more important things. Creative's AWE32 has resonant filters, which are great (well would be if there was programming info etc!), and I don't think Interwave has filters at all. Which is pretty desperate and I hope someone can correct me. If we were talking about ROM, I'd recommend at least 4 megs or - just possibly - 2 megs compressed, though I don't like compression much. But RAM? Nah. Leave people to upgrade if they need it for music. They won't need that much for games. (but of course, it would be easy to fix megaem, loadpats etc to use higher resolution or more patches when more ram had been installed by the user). Sam --> Home Page <-- ** Go on, try it! ** --> http://www.dur.ac.uk/~d405ua <-- --> Latest Feature: BUGFIX: realtime fractalzoom in 3K (486/P5).. <-- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Mar 95 04:38:38 MST From: rmwalker@nyx10.cs.du.edu (rod walker) Subject: GUS DRAM chips in NL W H Li once wrote >Date: Thu, 2 Mar 1995 18:33:27 +0100 >From: "W.H. Li" <130314@pc-lab.fbk.eur.nl> >Subject: Midi >Hi Gussers >I own a GUS Max (512K) and I totally new in the world of MIDI. >Most of the MIDI files I played sound a bit "airy", missing ------- stuff deleted--------- >I live in Holland and the store, where I bought the MAX, sells the >256k chip for f100,- (about $58). Is this a fair price?------------- Well W H $58 for a 256kX4 DRAM chip seems pretty excessive to me in the UK. A 70nS 256X4 DRAM chip sells here for about #5 (say $7 to $8). You must be getting ripped off! Perhaps the price you saw was for the full 1Mbyte - which would be 8 chips - then $58 is a good price!! Rod Walker (rmwalker@nyx.cs.du.edu) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Mar 1995 09:35:40 +0100 From: Martin Laukkanen Subject: Re: Mem for GUS.. > Sorry i didn't send in my vote earlier, but i think for affordabilities > sake, 1 or 2 megs would be good. But i must say this: 4MB RAM does NOT cost > $300. Jesus! I sell 4MB 72pin SIMMs for about $160. 30pin memory sould be > similarly priced. Me thinks someone out there is getting ripped off. The price of the mem is different when you dont live in the US, here in AUS, you have to first add 25% to the US price to cover the exchange rate then double the cost you have there just because to get the chips here it go's throug so many different places, and also you cant get it anywhere else so they have the price where they want it! And to upgrade to 4mb would cost for me probably about $200, that is to by the sims, so it isnt cheap! > ---- Random OF xTatic.... or Martin OF Laukkanen. (martin@triode.apana.org.au) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Mar 1995 09:28:29 +0100 From: Martin Laukkanen Subject: Re: Mem poll again.. > * I know this is gonna make you cry, but .. Developers of software > don't give a CAT'S A** about catering to you!! If it's easy to develop > for the card, AND if there's a big base of people who own the card, > then THEY will MAKE MONEY!! Simple capitalism. So, if they have lotsa So, the fact is that they dont need to use much more than a couple of megs! Face it almost ALL game developers (except the makers of the best PC game, that is no other than Star Control 2), are going to make the music for shitty SB FM, via the midi type stuff (HMI, ADV), and with those if more than 1mb of samples or 2mb then the funky GUSx will patch cache! > Think of it like this .. if a game company throws a great game out on > the market that you cant resist, and you've got the card to play the > game .. but not enuf ram .. what are you gonna do? Play in silence, or > upgrade the ram!! Why not just accept it!! THAT'S why I think the GUS2 No, where going to PATCH CACHE! :) > comes to this issue, IMHO. Anybody wanna change their votes yet?! :>' No. Sorry not convinced yet, if you want 4mb on your gus2 they you buy it, the fact is it COSTS a LOT if MONEY. I still say 1mb should be what you get when you buy the card, and then just about everyone will then upgrade to 2 or 4mb after getting it.. Which is fine by me, when i first got my GUS the next thing i did was upgrade it, there was no problem with that.. I know well settly this, how about if the standard is 4MegaBits!!! :) ^^^^ Later.. ---- Random OF xTatic.... or Martin OF Laukkanen. (martin@triode.apana.org.au) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Mar 1995 17:30:58 -0600 (CST) From: rwright@dhostwo.convex.com (Randy Wright) Subject: Re: results of GUS memory poll In V20 #2 we saw... > Date: Wed, 1 Mar 1995 15:35:43 -0800 (PST) > From: Dave Woldrich > Subject: Welp, heeeeere's the results of the GUS memory poll > ... > Returns: > 256K?!!? : 1 (silly person!) > 1meg : 10! (Why?) > 2meg : 1 (You're getting warm..) > 4meg : 1 + me (Y-Y-Y-YES!!!) Although my anonymity was protected in the poll, I'll confess to being the ``silly person.'' But I want to provide an explanation. In my response to the poll, what I said in full was that 256K of RAM was sufficient ... if the General Midi patches were pre-loaded in ROM! In this scenario, the 256K RAM would be needed only for generating digital audio - for instance .wav playback. My idea is that the ROM provides a set of low-fidelity pre-loaded patches, thereby avoiding the need for patch loading/caching software for entry-level uses, while professionals and audiophiles who want to load hi-fidelity patches or do sampling could add RAM for this purpose. -- Randy Wright Usmail: Convex Computers Phone: (214) 497-4868 3000 Waterview Pky. Email: rwright@convex.com P.O. Box 833851 Richardson, TX 75083-3851 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Mar 1995 15:01:37 -0600 From: Michael.Murphy@dlep1.itg.ti.com (Michael Murphy) Subject: Win95 and GUS I realize this has been discussed before on the Digest, but could someone who has gotten the GUS and Win95 to work together let me know how it is done. I have tried loading the 3.56 and 3.57 drivers using the "add hardware" wizard. The CD-Audio sounds OK, but .WAVs and .MIDs don't sound good at all. The .WAVs get cut off in the middle, repeat themselves randomly, and generally sound "sucky". The .MIDs don't even play. Please help. My configuration: GUS w/ 1 MB RAM 486DX2/50 w/ 20MB RAM Win95 Beta Build 345 GUS is using DMA 3, IRQ 5, Address 220h, MIDI IRQ 7. I've tried using different buffer sizes with no difference in the "sucky" sound. Thanks for any help in advance. -Murph ------------------------------ End of GUS Daily Digest V20 #5 ****************************** To post to tomorrow's digest: To (un)subscribe or get help: To contact a human (last resort): FTP Sites Archive Directories --------- ------------------- Main N.American Site: ftp.orst.edu pub/packages/gravis wuarchive.wustl.edu systems/ibmpc/ultrasound Main Asian Site: nctuccca.edu.tw PC/ultrasound Main European Site: src.doc.ic.ac.uk packages/ultrasound Main Australian Site: ftp.mpx.com.au /ultrasound/general /ultrasound/submit South African Site: ftp.sun.ac.za /pub/packages/ultrasound Submissions: archive.epas.utoronto.ca pub/pc/ultrasound/submit Newly Validated Files: archive.epas.utoronto.ca pub/pc/ultrasound Mirrors: garbo.uwasa.fi mirror/ultrasound ftp.st.nepean.uws.edu.au pc/ultrasound ftp.luth.se pub/msdos/ultrasound Gopher Sites Menu directory ------------ -------------- Main Site: src.doc.ic.ac.uk packages/ultrasound WWW Pages --------- Main Site: http://www.xmission.com/~grue/gus.html Main European Site: http://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/ultrasound/ Main Australian Site: http://ftp.mpx.com.au/archive/ultrasound/general/ http://ftp.mpx.com.au/archive/ultrasound/submit/ http://ftp.mpx.com.au/gravis.html Mirrors: http://www.st.nepean.uws.edu.au/pub/pc/ultrasound/ GUS digest: http://gpu.srv.ualberta.ca/~itam/digest.html MailServer For Archive Access: Email to Email to New Submit Files Mailing List: Email to with content "subscribe epas-list " Hints: - Get the FAQ from the FTP sites or the request server. - Mail to for info about other GUS related mailing lists (programmers, musicians, etc.).