SuperHack/SuperHack CD.bin/CODING/SOUND/08.ZIP/08

Text File | 1996-04-18 | 13.7 KB | 334 lines

Ultrasound Daily Digest     Thu, 8 Apr 1993      Volume 3 : Issue   8

Today's Topics:
                           CD-ROM Questions
               Dolby pro logic and poor man's surround
                              GUS probs
                             installation
                              recording
                      Unlucky GUS for recording?
                      XWings and major slowdown

.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: 07 Apr 1993 11:12:01 -0500 (EST)
From: DEATH BEFORE DISCO <[e-mail]>
Subject: CD-ROM Questions
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

1) Will the SCSI cables that are (presumably) being made for the GUS
   support the Texel 3024?

2) When will the SCSI cables be available for retail??

3) Assuming I use the GUS as a controller for the aforementioned CD-ROM,
   will I be able to use the CD-ROM to install software into an operating
   system (like OS/2, UNIX, Xenix, etc) that doesn't have a driver for the
   card?

---> Incidentally, Aren't you sick of Micro$oft calling Windows an operating
     System?? Yeah...It operates on my GPF's. It seems that all of their
     adverts (especially the unbiased rubbish that announced the DOS 6 release)
     call it one. I can't wait for more of this....sure, Windows multitasks.
     Why?? Because it says so in our ad. If windows was an operating system
     instead of a pretty extender for DOS, it wouldn't have any of the
     limitations that DOS imposes on it. Food for thought.

4) Any word on an OS/2 driver yet?? Media Vision's is being blessed and
   released soon....

Enough carping. If anybody from Micro$oft wants to get a hold of me,
feel free to e-mail me. I need the ego boost.

Jeff

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

Date: Wed, 7 Apr 1993 23:42:06 -0400 (EDT)
From: [e-mail] (Francois Dion)
Subject: Dolby pro logic and poor man's surround
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

>From: [e-mail] (ElseWare Corp, B Bauermeister,PAS)
>Subject: Dolby -- another try

>Matthew Spewak <[e-mail]> writes:
>>Here's something else to think about... In addition to all the
>>talk about 3d sound and QSound, I was wondering why there was no
>>discussion of Dolby Pro Logic Surround Sound. ...Does anyone know
>>more about the subject?

The GUS 3D uses FOCAL POINT, not QSound. QSound can only be rented - that's
all i can say for now about it, or else i'll be flamed by them...

>Here's a quick rundown of how Dolby Stereo (also known as Dolby
>Pro-Logic Surround) works:

>Dolby takes 4 separate sound channels (left front, center front,
>right front, surround or "rear") and mixes them into two channels
>using a special encoding (which I will explain below). There are
>five speakers in the typical home setup because the surround channel
>has two speakers to spread out the sound (in a movie theater, there
>are often ten or more surround channel speakers).

With a dual speaker stereo system you can of course get left front, center
front and right front, so a 3 speaker surround system is possible. Typically
people use 4 (some have 5 speakers, with the 5th one beeing either the
center channel or a subwoofer, like one Phillips receiver).

>The only requirement for Dolby Surround is a stereo source. There is
>no reason why the GUS shouldn't be able to generate a
>Dolby-decodable signal.

Or you can use a more friendly surround decoder (like the one i made in
surround.txt and is in the FAQ too) that will work even with standard stereo
signal. More info below.

>How it is encoded:
>In summary:
>Dolby Channel           Stereo Channel(s)
>-------------           -----------------
>L Front                 L
>R Front                 R
>Center                  L+R

Which is how most stereo is recorded (always recorded like that with two
microphones), but sometimes there is no center channel.

>Surround                L+(inverted)R

This is usually noted L-R. This principle was first applied by Mr. Hafler in
1967 and in the early 70s it was fairly popular in the 3 speakers form (what
was called quadraphonic. Some manufacturers also had 4 speakers setup but
it was the same circuit, with a balance. Circuit.txt is an improvement on
that). I have several vinyls from that era that state quadraphonic recording,
and even one that explains how to connect a third speaker (ambiance):
"Captain matchbox whopee band" _smoke dream_ (australian band). You do get
a signal anyway on the "presence" speakers (the rear ones) on these older
receivers. Same thing with surround.txt. With Dolby Pro Logic it is however
muted when there is no surround channel (L-R) so it's the reason it doesn't
work with a lot of stuff, the GUS included.

>How the GUS could produce Dolby Surround:
>In principle, (keep in mind I'm not that familiar with GUS
>internals), one could assign each patch to any one of the four
>channels. A patch for the center channel, left, or right is easy:
>use center pan, full left, or full right. Any pan settings in
>between will generally split the sound among the three front
>speakers in some fashion.

The center channel speaker is very optional. Also to note: with Dolby
surround the speaker placement is critical, while with the Hafler design,
the surround speakers can be anywhere in your back, the farther, the better.
But anyway, i dont really see the point to introduce a new system since
Focal Point works extremely well.

>Of course, you also need to posess a Dolby Pro-Logic decoder
>and run the GUS signal through it, but I think that goes without
>saying. :)

Or a simple circuit that always work 8).

I didn't think there was interest in surround, but if people want i can
add this info and explain more and give examples in surround.txt. So?

Ciao,
--
Francois Dion
    '  _   _   _
 CISM (_) (_)  _) FM       Montreal , Canada       Email: [e-mail]
      (_)  / . _)             10000 Watts          Telephone no: [phone]
_______________________________________________________________________________
Audio-C-DJ-Fractals-Future-Label-Multimedia-Music-Radio-Rave-Video-VR-Volvo-...

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

Date: Tue, 6 Apr 93 19:33:51 MDT
From: [e-mail] (Stephen Clawson)
Subject: GUS probs
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

     well, i've had my GUS for almost a month now, and it still isn't
working completely.  more or less, SBOS dosen't like my machine.  i can
get adlib music, but absolutely nothing soundblaster...it just completely
hangs my machine when a program tries to play music.  interestingly
enough i haven't had any problems with gusmod, any of the gravis demos,
the .669 player...in effect anything that uses the GUS in native mode,
even with 16bit DMA.  so, since almost nothing supports the GUS in native
mode (which works) i was wondering if you knew anyone locally that wanted
to buy a GUS.  i haven't sent in the registration yet and i just got the
new install disks off epas.

blah, blah,
     steve

--
// stephen [e-mail]
// university of utah...        [e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 8 Apr 1993 00:34:39 -0400 (EDT)
From: [e-mail] (Francois Dion)
Subject: Re: installation
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

This was sent by DDA to me and the digest of saturday but the issue never came
out: (BTW, when forwarding or quoting, be sure the From is preceded by a
character or else it fucks up the digest. Ex: >From:

*start of forwarded message*
>From: "It's your hand, Buckaroo" <[e-mail]>
X-Mts: smtp
Status: RO

> A note to evrybody installing the 2.x disks. If you have a shell other than
> program manager (for example: appbar, nextbar, xerox etc...) it will not
> complete the installation. This is pretty bugging since you need to
> reinstall progman, set it up (dont forget to deinstall your shell first).
> Then after the installation do everything back.

Would it work just to HAVE progman running when you do the install?
Granted, the group will get created in progman and you'll have to copy it
over to your real shell (not hard with NDW, which is what I use)...

> Now it would have been so easy to do it right...

Yup, damn sloppy if ya ask me...

> You can still install it manually by renaming oem.tmp to oemsetup.inf
> in the \ultrasnd\windows directory, then run the driver applet in control
> panel and add the drivers from that directory.

Is it necessary to ren oem.tmp? I just went into the Control Panel and
installed the drivers (it seemd to get it right)...

DDA
*end of forwarded message*

What i can say is that if oemsetup.inf is not there it cannot be installed
manualy. Maybe you had an older copy of the .inf file... Also, i cannot
run progman before wingus starts. Or maybe i can... wait a minute! I'll
try that tomorrow: put progman in the run= line of win.ini.

One thing i have noticed is that all Gravis representatives are quite silent
these days...

Ciao,
--
Francois Dion
    '  _   _   _
 CISM (_) (_)  _) FM       Montreal , Canada       Email: [e-mail]
      (_)  / . _)             10000 Watts          Telephone no: [phone]
_______________________________________________________________________________
Audio-C-DJ-Fractals-Future-Label-Multimedia-Music-Radio-Rave-Video-VR-Volvo-...

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

Date: Wed, 7 Apr 1993 21:07:22 -0700
From: [e-mail] (Mike J. Chen)
Subject: recording
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Hi, I just started trying to record using the line in on the GUS
and the USS8 program that came with it.  It seemed to work okay
except for the fact that the connector I bought was mono and didn't
fit into the port too well.  One thing I wished for was the ability
to sample for a longer time (I think the limit was about 1 minute
with USS8).  Are there any public domain progams out there that
will allow me to do this?  Anthing on epas?

-=Mike

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

Date: 7 Apr 1993   12:46:14 PST
From: chrisw <[e-mail]>
Subject: Unlucky GUS for recording?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

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

Hi. Just noticed something weird about recording with my GUS. If I record
with both inputs shorted I get much more noise in one channel than in the
other. One channel seems to remain prefectly anchored on 7EH and so has
more or less no noise at all. The other channel moves back and forth a lot
between 7AH and 7BH (which are both actually a fair way from 7FH). The result
is lots of nasty hissing and buzzing.

Does this mean that I was just unlucky in getting one ADC that happens to
have 0 volts just at the crossover point between 7A and 7BH ?  Is there any
way of fixing this?

If I could get the same (zero) noise that I can get from the other channel
I'd really be pretty happy with the recording quality of the GUS. In theory
I could go through and change any bits of silence on recordings to a single
value with a hex editor, but that's getting ridiculous.

Unfortunately the channel that's no good is the one that is the default
channel for mono recording. Anyone know of any way of changing this?

What I'd really like to know from fellow GUSers is whether the good or the bad
channel is the typical one. Should I be complaining to Gravis that my bad
channel's no good or should I be pleased that I got one unusually good
channel?

Anyone else tried checking out the hex values of recorded silence files?
(Or even just listening to the left and right channels seperately?)

Chris.

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

Date: Wed, 7 Apr 1993 20:26:57 -0230 (NDT)
From: Edward Reddy <[e-mail]>
Subject: XWings and major slowdown
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

I have X-Wings running on a 386DX 25MHz. I encounter MAJOR MAJOR slowdown
every time a Tie Bomber comes in real close.

Lets say, the screen just flips like pages in a book to update. Usually, I
get a Tie Fighter like scream when a Tie Fighter goes by, but there is
major slow down for the bomber...

Suggestions?
BTW - There is still some considerable slow down when text is being
printed and some animation is taking place (absent when no sound card is
selected)
    _____..- If every man stopped thinking about war and hatred,
   / ### \ ..  and started to think about Space, just thing how
 ()\_____/()..  close a reality Star Trek would be right now...
[e-mail] & [e-mail]

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

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