SuperHack/SuperHack CD.bin/CODING/SOUND/GUS-141.ZIP/GUS-141.TXT

Text File | 1993-01-26 | 26.0 KB | 635 lines

Ultrasound Daily Digest     Mon,  7 Dec 92       Volume 1 : Issue  41

Today's Topics:
                           a few thoughts.
                  comment and question (vplay.exe)?
                Corrected MT-32 patch map uploaded...
                   GUS incompatible w/ Norton's NCC
               GUS incompatible w/ Norton's NCC -- NOT!
                      MT32PAT.CFG works, but...
                    Of GUS and men, act1, scene 40
                            OPTI Chipsets
                      SBOS 1.22 Beta impressions
                     Software support for the GUS
           Subject: Will the GUS work with a OPTI chipset??
                      ultrasound daily digest v

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              To post to tomorrow's digest.

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                          To contact a human if the server has troubles.

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People responsible:       David DeBry, Adam Iles, Thomas Wong, Chris Yuzik,
              and many others who should be thanked often. :)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 16:13:39 -0600
From: Michael J Stumpf <[e-mail]>
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: a few thoughts.
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

Herw's a bit of idle chatter:

First, I believe the worry is premature (of software companies not supporting
us).. especially with the promise of an mt-32 emulator (be it from gravis or
a third party) being designed.  I don't remember any product (including the
sound blaster) coming off as error free as this one on first run.  Keep in
mind, most of you SB owners have version 1.5 or 2.0!  Ever talk to anyone
with a 1.0?  I have, and let's just say gravis is doing very, very well IMNSHO.

Second, it seems to me that Spectrum Holobyte's "testimonial" to the GUS
was very.. biased.  They claim to be designing [big booming voice: on] "the
next generation of pc sound cards" [big booming voice:off].  It's kinda like
asking Creative labs what they think about the Pro Audio Spectrum, IMHO.

My $0.018125 (after taxes)

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

Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 17:00:45 -0600
From: [e-mail] (Bran Muffin)
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: comment and question (vplay.exe)?
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>


I just did a weird thing with my GUS.  I was playing a .wav file with
playdigi, and tried to load my comm program.  It gave me a "not enough
memory" error, so I warm booted, but the song kept playing through the
whole boot, and is even now still playing a 4 second loop of the song,
even after the boot is complete.  Weird.  Can anyone explain how it managed
to keep going?

I also have a collection of .voc files from when I had my SoundBlasterPro,
and I'd like to play them using vplay under sbos.  Can anyone tell me how
to load the ctvdsk.drv that is needed to run vplay.exe?  I tried putting it
in my config.sys as a device=ctvdsk.drv, and the computer refused to boot.


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

Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 10:18:13 PST
From: [e-mail] (I should be studying)
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: Corrected MT-32 patch map uploaded...
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

RE: Only the mid file was in the archive I ULed.

I dunno how THAT happened.  Anyway, I've uploaded just the patch map
itself as the file "MT32PAT.CFG"  (not archived.  Heck. It's only a
text file.  I'd just post it directly here, but it's kinda' long and
boring).  Now, will someone please test it and tell me how it goes?
Thanks.

Anthony Tang
[e-mail]

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

Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 16:16:45 EST
From: [e-mail]
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: GUS incompatible w/ Norton's NCC
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

Well, someone mentioned a while back that they had problems with Windows.
(Not the infamous Windows MIDI driver problem)

I had some similar problems, in that when I started Windows, it would
play a snippet of the .wav and then pure static would scream out the
gus.  Then later if I tried to exit Windows it would hang.  Flidemo,
if it worked, would play some of the first part of the ultra.snd file
then pump static out as well.  But, these problems seemed to be
intermittent, and 99% of the time they would go away if I ran playmidi
first.  So then I did a little more searching (and cursing) and found
that the last line in my autoexec.bat was responsible.

NCC /L

(from Norton Utilities 6.01).  All I thought it did was to display the
current date and time -- it seems it was an ultrasound corruption
utility in disguise.  :-)  So I don't run NCC anymore.

Sam

+++ Hardware:
386DX-33 Laptop w/ Docking Station
32K ext. cache, VLSI(?) Chipset, Award BIOS 3.20
386Max 6.02, SBOS loaded high, MSDOS 5.0

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

Date: Mon, 7 Dec 92 1:06:29 EST
From: [e-mail]
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: GUS incompatible w/ Norton's NCC -- NOT!
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

Forget everything I said about windows in that last message -- I just
read something about SBOS being responsible for that -- but Norton's
NCC /L does cause the FLIDEMO to emit some interesting sounds.

So where do I go to wipe egg off my face?  :-)

Sam

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

Date: Mon, 7 Dec 92 2:42:35 EST
From: [e-mail] (Francois Dion)
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: MT32PAT.CFG works, but...
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

MT32PAT.CFG (an MT32 mapping configuration on epas) works correctly with
most of the midi files, until one request key 38: snare. the GUS patch
name is snare1, not snare. replace 38 snare by 38 snare1 and all will be ok.

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: Mon, 7 Dec 92 2:40:22 EST
From: [e-mail] (Francois Dion)
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: Of GUS and men, act1, scene 40
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

> From: [e-mail] (Carl Litt u)
> Subject: Compare Ultrasound to SB16
>
> Up until recently, I've been despirately waiting to get a GUS.  I've been
> following this project for at least 8 months now, and from what I've heard
> from others, the card _sounds_ great.  But now I'm getting a little
> apprehensive about the GUS.  The 'SB compatability' seems to have a long

Well, SBOS doesnt work with 2 games for now. I have yet to find other
games that will refuse to work. Some rare exception won't have voice or
FX. The adlib part is working correctly. Some games sound better, some
quite different, and sometimes effects are off track a bit, but i still
prefer weird sounds to hiss. I play games with electrostatic headphones,
so it makes a good difference. One game where i like the Adlib music
better than the real thing is lemmings. A much more techno feel to it. I
prefer that 8). This is one game where GUS support would make a real
improvement cause Adlib and other FM synths are not too hot with
percussions...

Anyway, here's a list of supported games (there are lot more):
It's compiled by [e-mail] (Ron Dippold)
-begin-
Let me know any additions or updates for this.  This is from my
personal testing and the testing of others.

Native GUS Support
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Star Control II
Chuck Yeager Flight Combat Simulator

SBOS 1.20
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alone in the Dark                       No settings
AV8B Harrier Attack                     -o2
Blaster Master                          -x3
Civilization                            No settings
Escape from Alcatraz                    -o3
F-15 Strike Eagle II                    -o3
Fate of Atlantis                        No settings
Formula One Grand Prix                  No settings (-o2 if sound cuts out)
Front Page Sports Football              No settings
Galactix 1.3                            -o3
Heart of China                          No settings
King's Quest VI                         -o3
Leather Godesses of Phobos II           -o1
Legend of Kyrandia                      No settings
Legend of Robin Hood                    No settings
Lemmings                                Lemmings -x for PC type
Links 386 1.05 or later                 -o1 -x2  (turn off background sounds)
PGA Golf                                -o2
Prince of Persia                        -o1
Monkey Island II                        No settings
Reader Rabbit II                        No settings
Red Baron                               No settings
Siege                                   -x3
Sim Ant                                 No settings
Strange Deadfellows                     GF1 int = MIDI int
Unreal Demo                             IRQ must be 2
Where in the World is Carmen...         -o1
Willy Beamish                           No settings


SBOS earlier than 1.20
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dune                                    -o2
Earl Weaver Baseball II                 -o2
King's Quest V                          -o2
Wolfenstein 3D                          -o2

-end-

I have tested these also that are not on the list (i have sbos 1.22b):
amazon                                  No settings
catacombs                               No settings
nova 9                                  No settings
Street fighter II                       No settings

also wolf3d works with no settings for me and lemmings work in all modes
so -x is not needed.

Visual player works fine with no settings, but dmp140 is either not
working properly, or sbos make it go too slow. Anybody got dmp140
working on his SB?

> way to go before being what it claims to be, the card seems to require
> at least a college degree to install, and now some of the gaming

The problem is with opti chipset (the dma controller). If you have another
chipset, i really doubt you'll have a problem. In fact, not all opti
are problematicstwo persons i know have the GUS and opti board.

> industry leaders (read: Sierra, etc) say they don't plan on supporting the
> GUS.  So this is my dilemma...

They wont have the choice: Beamscope says it's the highest selling card
presently in Canada. US will follow.

> I would like someone to compare the GUS to the up-and-coming SB-16, and
> offer some insights into the near future of each.  I would do this
> myself, but I don't have much info on the SB-16.

SB16 is a 16 bit SBPro. The "options" are just lure. In fact Gravis is
also in this situation with the SCSI interface, since it could definitely
be stand alone. The wavetable synthesis on the SB16 is a fake option in
the sense that it could be a separate card instead of a daughterboard.
Just this option is priced higher than the GUS with 1 Mb... So what do
you think will be popular? You can have a GUS+SCSI+CDROM for less than
the SB16 with wavetable. And SB16 without wavetable is YAFMC (yet
another FM card)

> ------------------------------
> From: [e-mail] (Anssi Saari)
> Subject: GUS and bus speeds > 8MHz?
>
> As I'm probably getting a GUS next week, I just wanted to know if there are
> any problem with running it at higher bus speeds than 8MHz? After I recently
> upgraded to a 486-33 I can't afford a better monitor and accelerated video,
> so I pushed the bus speed to 16.5MHz.

I have a 386-33 with a bus speed of 16 Mhz, 1 wait state. No problemP,}s.

> So, has anyone tried the GUS with higher bus speeds? Also, has anyone had any
> problems with the joystick port? As it is now, some games don't recognize my
> joystick, some don't work well and some work ok. The controllers I have is the
> one on the Thunderboard, the other is on my Multi-I/O card (no, I don't use
> both at the same time). Both of them have the same behavior and this happens
> with any bus speed.

On the GUS is an eliminator joystick port fully compensating, so you wont
have a problem (disable the port on your i/o and thunderboard).

> ------------------------------
> From: Phat H Tran <[e-mail]>
> Subject: My own jukebox player
>
> I've just uploaded a jukebox MIDI player that I've written to epas.
> It's nothing fancy, but I think it has a few features that Gary Maddox'
> JBU does not have.  (I haven't checked out JBU that closely.)  Anyway,
> it's free for the taking.  I'd appreciate some feedback as well.
>
> Oh.  The file name is jukebox.zip.  You can't miss it.
>
> BTW, I'm not a programmer by trade.  I wrote the program out of necessity.

Hehe, support for the GUS even comes from chemists... Keep on GUSing Phat!

> ------------------------------
> From: [e-mail] (I seem to be a verb)
> Subject: Stereo MIDI Programming
>
> Also, can someone make a decent saxophone patch.  I haven't heard one yet,
> on a soundcard or a synth.  Korg comes close.  From what I've heard about

If it's the Korg wavestation you are referring to, you can get the sample
from the Korg thru midi sysex dump. Once you have the samples, i'll be
glad to do a GUS patch with it. (I don't have a decent sax either, and i
don't have a real sax.)

> the multi-sampled patches the GUS can use, I'd think that a decent sounding
> patch could be made, of courese the SDK kit will probably have to be released
> first.

If you have not noticed, patches have started appearing at epas... 8)

> Has anyone been able to get Wing Commander to work with the GUS?  What
> sbos settings are you using.  I get good music, but I can hardly move
> my mouse an inch in a minute.

Conflict maybe? And also, you wouldn't be trying to play WC on a 286?

> ------------------------------
> From: [e-mail] (QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES.)
> Subject: WHAT AM I MISSING?!?  SBOS Probs!
>
> All has gone well, 'cept for games.  Mididemo, Flidemo, Windows all work
> flawlessly (the midis were even better than I imagined.)
>
> However, I can't get a single game or mod player to work with it.  Nothing
> seems to see the existance of the GUS or SBOS.  Examples:
>
> Here's my Environment stuff:
>    SET ULTRASND=220,1,1,11,7
>    C:\ULTRASND\ULTRINIT
>    SET ULTRADIR=C:\ULTRASND
>    SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T1
>
> I originally went with the factory defaults which had the Midi IRQ and
> Blaster Irq at 5, but those didn't work either.  In fact, I tried a number
> of combinations of IRQs and DMAs, but no luck.  Nothing that used my
> Soundblaster finds the GUS.
> SBOS loads fine - I get the stupid voice.  WHAT AM I MISSING???

What do you have in your computer? Have you tried removing all your cards,
except the GUS? Also what is the chipset on your board? Last, why did you
set the GUS on DMA 1? Have you tried DMA 7? Also, what is your version
of SBOS?

> ------------------------------
> From: Albert Foo <[e-mail]>
> Subject: What is the correct SBOS settings
>
> Hi, I 've been trying to get the correct SBOS settings to run
> for games such as JILL of jungle, KILOBLASTER and infact most of
> EPIC games but to no avail.  KILOBLASTER loaded, played for a while then
> locked itself.

I did run it, but i dont remember the settings, cause i removed the game
from my HD.

> Could some kind soul please tell me (or us, for those whose interested
> as well) what are the SBOS settings to use?  Also, are there any
> FAQ for lists for games on how SBOS should be used?  Maybe someone
> can compile a list?

Check at the beginning of the message.

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: Sun, 6 Dec 92 22:39:15 PST
From: Andrew Krenz <[e-mail]>
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: OPTI Chipsets
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

I've been hearing some stuff about the Gravis not liking motherboards
with the OPTI chipset.  I'm waiting for mine t o come in the mail
and this concerns me because, of course, i have an OPTI motherboard.
Is this for 486's only, or 386's too?  I have a 386-40 with the usual
Trident SVGA, generic multi card, etc etc...

Any advice would be appreciated....

|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Andrew Krenz       | Visit          | Chevy Caprice 9C1 Police Pkg |
| [e-mail]| Beautiful      | Bad Boys Bad Boys...         |
| UC Santa Barbara   | Isla Vista, CA | What ya gonna do...?         |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------|

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

Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 18:29:51 EST
From: [e-mail]
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: SBOS 1.22 Beta impressions
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

Here are my impressions of the new SBOS 1.22 Beta:

ftp epas.utoronto.ca: /pub/pc/ultrasound/submit/gus0008.exe

OVERALL

This to me is a major upgrade -- over half my games are now playing
digitized sounds that I haven't even heard with previous versions of
SBOS, and are now playing them properly, with less slowdown in the
graphics and music.  Get this as soon as possible!

NOTE:  None of the following required any options with SBOS.

GOBLINS2_PREVIEW (Cocktel Vision)

This is the sequel to Gobliiins (by Cocktel Vision) which has some
really great music and some funny sfx.  Previous SBOS played two sfx
as static,  the game and music completely slowed down, and a lot of
actions led to no sound output. New SBOS -- I'm hearing sfx for every
action, NO slowdown, and the ratio of new sounds is almost 10-to-1!

WEEN_PLAYABLE_DEMO (Cocktel Vision)

I'm hearing at least ten times as many digitized SFX as before, and
what used to be loud patches of static (with SBOS 1.20) is now water
sloshing about, a fly buzzing, a hammer smashing metal, and a cork
popping out of a bottle.

GOBLIIINS & INCA_DEMO (Cocktel Vision)

No change.  These two worked fine with the previous SBOS.  Gobliiins
had some sfx and the Inca_Demo had speech, music and sfx.  Note that
Ween and Goblins2 seem to be using a new sound/gfx engine, which now
plays properly with SBOS 1.22 beta.

LEGEND_OF_KYRANDIA_DEMO (Westwood)

Someone had already mentioned that this had a great soundtrack, and
now the drums and percussion sound a lot cleaner!  The main difference
is that now I'm hearing a snare instead of just a gentle thud.

GALACTIX (Cygnus)

I can now configure this game to use the SoundBlaster, since the
sfx sound appropriate, and the game does not slow down to a crawl
as it did previously.  The game overall may be running slower than
when configured to be silent, but the game no longer slows to a
crawl when playing digitized sounds.

KILOBLASTER (Epic)

Same as above.  I hear voices (from the game), correct sfx, and
it is very playable now.

ACES_OF_THE_PACIFIC (Dynamix)

More sfx that previously was not heard.  There is some slowdown, but
now I hear machine guns and proper sfx instead of just an overly-loud
engine roar.

OUT_OF_THIS WORLD_PLAYABLE_DEMO (Delphine)

Again, I got to hear over three times as many sound effects whereas
previously was silence.  If I install to the slow speed with Soundblaster,
the sfx sync with the animation and there is a lot less slowdown.

WOLFENSTEIN_3-D (ID)

This worked fine with the old SBOS (no options) and still works fine.
I did notice that when a guard dies and emits his death scream, if
another digitized sound is playing (like your machine gun shooting
more bullets), then the scream gets cut off.  I haven't heard this
(or any) game with a soundblaster, so I don't know if this is normal.

==EURODEMOS==

THE PARTY (Future Crew) - Crash & Burn (i.e. complete computer lock-up)
FISHTRO (Future Crew) - Kinda works, but very very very very very slow
UNREAL (Future Crew) - Kinda Works, music stutters, works with IRQ 5
LAMER (DEA) - Crash & Burn.
CDA_XMAS (Cascada) - Works!
CRONOLOG (Cascada) - Works!  (If I tell it I have a 286-6 Mhz)

++++ My HARDWARE ++++

386DX-33 Laptop w/ Docking Station
32K ext. cache, VLSI(?) Chipset, Award BIOS 3.20
386Max 6.02, SBOS loaded high, MSDOS 5.0

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

Date: Sun, 06 Dec 92 17:07:44 EST
From: [e-mail] (Daniel Nicholson  )
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: Software support for the GUS
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

I firmly believe that Sierra and LucasArts will support the GUS before long.
Ken Williams is always a bit behind the times, and it sounds like LA is just
in need of some new staff. An important thing to note is that Electronic
Arts is supporting the card in future releases. This means that not only EA
stuff, but stuff from EA subsidiaries (of which there are quite a few) will
probably support the GUS. Don't worry too much; when the Soundblaster came
out nobody seemed to want to support the SB DAC at all. With the GUS we
already have companies supporting it! This card is actually doing very well.

 - Dan

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

Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 22:01:28 -0800
From: [e-mail] (Thomas Pearson)
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: Subject: Will the GUS work with a OPTI chipset??
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

I have heard that for some reason or another the GUS will not work with
OPTI chipshits????

I have a 25Mhz 486DX with a OPTI chipset 2 (c) 1989 chipset.


Will I be able to get the GUS to work with this motherboard or what??

I was going to buy a GUS this week,  but if I can't get the thing to work
with this motherboard---FORGET IT!!!

I can't replace the board because I have had it for over a year now.

It seems to work with EVERYTHING!!  I mean programs, games, and I have had
no problem with my scanner.  Of coarse, I don't have a sound board or a
CD-ROM or something that useds the DMA so I can't tell you anything more.

Is there a way a can tell if I have a proper 16-bit DMA channel or do I
just have to buy a GUS and find out that I don't.

Does anyone have a OPTI chipset that the GUS works with???

That is all.

Please post to the usergroup or mail to this list.

-----
/****************************************************************************\
* Thomas Pearson                     |Internet:                              *
* California State University, Fresno|[e-mail]          *
\****************************************************************************/

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

Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1992 19:00:00 -0500
From: Yuri Lee <[e-mail]>
Message-Id: <1992Dec6.104.146079@dosgate>
Subject: ultrasound daily digest v
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

UG>Up until recently, I've been despirately waiting to get a GUS.  I've been
UG>following this project for at least 8 months now, and from what I've heard
UG>from others, the card _sounds_ great.  But now I'm getting a little
UG>apprehensive about the GUS.  The 'SB compatability' seems to have a long
UG>way to go before being what it claims to be, the card seems to require
UG>at least a college degree to install, and now some of the gaming
UG>industry leaders (read: Sierra, etc) say they don't plan on supporting the
UG>GUS.  So this is my dilemma...

SB compatibility is not perfect but is more than respectable in my opinion and
you do not need college degree to install the card. In fact, quite frankly,
it was much easier to install than my SB 1.5 and was a lot easier to change
settings later on ( software configurable ). As for the game maker's support,
it's just not clear whether they will or not support GUS in the near future
but they eventually will. BTW, I do not understand why you posted this message
here. What are you trying to tell us ?

UG>I would like someone to compare the GUS to the up-and-coming SB-16, and
UG>offer some insights into the near future of each.  I would do this
UG>myself, but I don't have much info on the SB-16.

It's a shame that you want yo compare SB-16 to GUS. SB-16 will eventually come
out next year but won't live long enough. If you want to find more about SB-16,
go elsewhere to find it. This is GUS mailing list and I DO NOT want to see CL
sh*t anymore. There are many more other cards coming out next year ( based on
 Sierra Semiconductor's ARIA chipsets ) that are much more advanced ( like GUS )
than SB-16 at comparable price. If you've followed GUS for 8 months, you should
know that.

UG>BTW: Where is Chris Yuzik???

Why would you want to find him ?

 regards,

 - Yuri -

** Waterloo, Ont.,Canada *** internet: [e-mail] **
---
 ~ DeLuxe} 1.26b #10704 ~ I tried the rest but bought the best!!!!
--
Canada Remote Systems  - Toronto, Ontario
World's Largest PCBOARD System - 416-629-7000/629-7044

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V1 #41
******************************