Experimental BBS Explossion 3/Experimental BBS Explossion III.iso/gus/digestv2.zip/V2N50.TXT

Text File | 1993-02-22 | 20KB | 492 lines

Ultrasound Daily Digest     Mon, 22 Feb 93       Volume 2 : Issue  50

Today's Topics:
                         16-bit Daughterboard
                    Boy, Gravis sure does care...
                            Doppler effect
                     GUS and Adaptec Controllers
                            GUS and SBPro
              GUS is great, but GUS is *damn* confusing!
                             Gusmod 2.10
                               MIDI IN
                             Registration
                     Reply on registration cards
                          Sox, tran and epas
                     Unix Drivers for Ultrasound

    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: Sun, 21 Feb 93 03:11:02 PST
From: "Johnny Y. Ow" <[e-mail]>
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: 16-bit Daughterboard
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

Here's some info I grabbed off of Advanced Gravis's BBS:

The 16 bit daughter card can record and playback in stereo or mono.

         - 16 bit CD quality sound 5.5kHz-48kHz sample and playback rates
         - Conveniently attaches to existing Ultrasound Card
         - Provides greater flexibility - No additional slots occupied
         - On board Filtering for High Fidelity Audio
         - Companding hardware compression - supports 8 bit U-Law or A-Law
         - Supports and mixes 4 Stereo Inputs Lines-Line In, Mic,
               Synthesizer, Aux
         - UltraSound Studio 16 a program for recording and playing 16 bit
               sampled sound

Price is $150 retail.

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



Date: 21 Feb 1993 23:45:10 -0400 (EDT)
From: DEATH BEFORE DISCO <[e-mail]>
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: Boy, Gravis sure does care...
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

I'll try and keep this one down to a dull roar, but consider....


1) The software support for the card is crap. Where is the OS/2 driver
that everybody says 'Oh, it's on the way...". I asked the people who
write the drivers wheter or not a driver is on it's way.

I was told sometime after January. Yeah, January. What?? 1997??

2) This #$%%^&*% about the memory is a joke. The designer of the
card (yep, the real designer) recommended the 1MB extra AS SOON AS
I BOUGHT THE CARD. I don't suppose Gravis hasn't let this become
common knowledge until everybody found out, have they...??

3) Evidently, the 3D stuff is a higher priority than the real
software we need. You know, the MIDI patches, etc.

4) More than likely, the audio support for games is because Gravis
is oh so open about programming the card. Anybody got any info on
programming it??

5) The fact that people on this newsletter want to write code for the
card should be telling Gravis something.

One last comment.

Beta was better than VHS.
OS/2 is better than windows.
Ultrasound is better than most everything.

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

Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1993 11:10:58 -0600 (CST)
From: Pawlo P Prawdiuk <[e-mail]>
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: Doppler effect
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

About the 3d sound in the GUS support I believe no one yet has mentioned the
doppler effect which explanes many of the situations which the GUS would
be reprodusing these are very simple formulas for the doppler effect and
if the GUS using the Qsound technology can use then to reproduce the
quadrophonic sounds .

So say we have a sound at a point source in a position relative to the the
listener say the listener is at 0,0 and the point source is at 1,2


cartesian coordinates take for example if this sound is stationary two
microphones in the same position as the listener will be using straight
stereo recording would be just fine but as soon as this point source moves
any little bit say for example to 2,2 you will be able to follow the
movement because of the change in the velocity of the object will cause a
doppler effect causing you to here Qsound Simple enough in the formula

These three should do it ..

Frequency head with an observer in motion f'=f(1(+-)Vo/V)
Frequency heard with source in motion f'=f(1/(1(+-)Vs/V))
Frequency heard with observer and source in motion f'=f((V(+-)Vo)/V(-+)Vs))

(-+) shows add or subtract depending on the condition..

So with this if you have a point source all you have to do is be able to
control the recording volume and frequency which will allow the
reproduction of the Qsound in the relative position to the listener, as
far as that goes, you could make the listener feal as they had sat in a
car and started to drive away.

Yes/No?

-   Paul-> [e-mail]  -|
-   Ans Machine   @ [phone]         -|   A signature in cyberspace
-                                          -|   what is that?
-   There is an art in living life, But    -|                    _O_
-   as of yet I have not found it. -Who-   -|                   ( | )
-                             -Me maybe?-  -|                    / \   paul?!

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

Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1993 09:01:41 -0500
From: Scott D Palmer <[e-mail]>
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: GUS and Adaptec Controllers
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

I'm a proud new owner of a GUS v2.2 and I'm having problems getting it
to work with my Adaptec 1542B and an IDE drive.  If I take the 1542B out
of the system the card works (and nicely).  I have seen a message from
someone else with a 1522 having problems.  I have checked everything and can
find no conflicts.  Has anyone else gotten this combination to work ?  Help !

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

Date: 20 Feb 93 10:48:18 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Anssi Saari)
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: GUS and SBPro
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Jim Nelson) writes:



>What I want to know is how do I get the GUS and the SBPro to cohabiate
>in the same machine.  So far I have left the SBPro at it's defualts.

If you want to keep the SBPro at its defaults, the simplest way is to
only change the GUS base address and DMA channel, assuming, of course,
that you have IRQs 5 and 11 free.

There's a small problem with this, however: some games don't detect the
SBPro unless you install and remove SBOS first. I'd really like to see
program that does this, as it takes so long to install SBOS and I'd
like my disk back...

Anssi
--
Anssi Saari [e-mail]
Tampere University of Technology
Finland, Europe

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

Date: 21 Feb 93 04:15:09 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Phat H Tran)
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: GUS is great, but GUS is *damn* confusing!
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (James R Lendino) writes:
>[...]
>
>   SBOS is freaky.  As of right now, I haven't gotten a single program
>to sound anything resembling normal with it.  Ultima Underworld I sounds
>grating.  The voices are very clear, but the music is... *wierd*.
>No crash cymbals, the low beating drums are pretty much lost.  And
>the sounds used to play the melody lines sound almost exactly like
>the Creative Music System chips on my Soundblaster v1.0, which is to
>say very Nintendo like.
>

I've tried UW1 with SBOS 1.20 (and am now playing UW2 [w/ SBOS 1.20]),
and thought the emulated FM music sounded quite good.  What speakers
do you have the GUS hooked up to?  The sound from the GUS is very
bright--you get very crisp high frequencies.  Unless your speakers have
sensitive bass response, the card will sound shrill (thus, your comment
that the "low beating drums" are gone).  I have my GUS temporarily hooked
up to a stereo amp and Bose Optimus speakers, and I get both the high
trebles and low bass in UW's music.

>   Stunts is AWFUL.  No other word for it.  Everything is ruined.
>

I've only heard a short bit of Stunts through SBOS, but I also thought
it sounded fine.  The game did run somewhat slower than without SBOS,


however.

>   I've been fighting with the Unreal demo.  I still have some more
>stuff to try.
>

Unreal has never worked for me, even with my REAL SB1.5.

>[...]
>   I called Tech support about this.  They said that 1.23 is not an
>official version, and it was never meant to be released.  There
>supposedly are things wrong with it.  The guy said, "be careful, there
>might be viruses."  Give me a break.  Everyone else is using it.
>"ooooo, mommy, I'm scared.  There mite be wiruses."
>

I only use 1.20 nowadays, as the later versions of SBOS do not work
as well for me.  But between 1.22 and 1.23, 1.23 was the much better
version (for me, anyhow).

>   Anyway, the PLAYMIDI program works great, and GUSMOD 2.04 is
>also incredible (*GREAT* job, Josh, don't let me EVER hear you
>say "terrible job" again.  Got that?  :-)  Actually, I seem to recall
>hearing mods in *true* stereo on my friends PAS16, whereas the MODS
>played by GUSMOD just have a fixed pan for each channel.  Was I
>hearing things when I heard the PAS16, or is there really a difference?
>

MODs don't have true panning.  In fact, GUSMOD 2.0x is the only MOD
player that has user-variable panning for each channel (all others
have 1 and 4 panned 100% left, and 2 and 3 100% right).

What you probably heard was "fake" panning, in which a sound on channel
1 (left) is faded out as the same sound is faded in on channel 2 (right).
I know that Beyond Music does this.

>   Enough rambling.  This is basically it:
>
>   1)  What version of SBOS should I be using?

Just stick with 1.20 and wait for 1.36, which Gravis say works with
almost everything, and should be released any day now.  Actually, you
should use the *.SBS patches from SBOS 1.23, and the .exe's from SBOS
1.20.  (The *.SBS patches are used to mimick FM instruments and sounds,
and the ones that come with SBOS 1.23 are better than the ones that
come on the 1.21 distribution disk.)

>   2)  I guess I have the defective OPTi chipset afterall.  No
>       luck in 16-bit DMA.  Yet, everything plays either WAY too
>       slowly or not at all, so I'm not sure what's going on.  We're
>       talking screeching, wavering pitch/tempo changes in the
>       Unreal demo here.



Unreal plays MODs by directly feeding the DAC, I believe.  SBOS does
not work well with programs that do this.

>   3)  Is SBOS really that unaccurate?

No, not from my experience with it.  It never has sounded like the
real SB for me, but sometimes it can get quite close.  I don't find
the FM emulated music to be worse than the real FM in most games.
Perhaps I've just grown accustomed to it.

Phat.

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

Date: 21 Feb 93 00:15:01 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: Gusmod 2.10
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

Just a couple of questions in case my original message to Lars Hamre didn't
make it.

Gravis is including Gusmod in their software release.  I want to add a few more
goodies and clear up, I believe, the last Protracker effect that doesn't really
work right.

1)  How do Protracker extended tempos work?

2) How does one build a period-based spectrum analyzer?

Code snippets, explanations, etc, will all be welcome.  Give a hand in making a
product released by Gravis the best!

New features for 2.10 (at least planned...I just got off the phone with them):

* File selection
* Environment variable only includes location of files:
    SET GUSMOD=C:\GUSMOD
* Setup program
* Period-based spectrum analyzer
* Sample player (pseudo-keyboard for playing samples inside mods).
* Making those dumb extended tempos work.
* 15 instrument mods.

I'm NOT getting any form of compensation for this version for Gravis.  It will,
of course, be publicly released on epas before Gravis does.

BTW, 2.10 should also not lock up on exit to DOS.  I left an interrupt active
that I wedged into and fixed that.

Josh



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

Date: Mon, 22 Feb 93 01:48:50 -0500
From: [e-mail]
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: MIDI IN
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

Yes, I also built MIDI connector box for GUS and was waiting for
new patchman with MIDI IN support. Since there seem to be others
who want this kind of program, I made some additional modifications
to my modified KBMIDI and got it to work with my MIDI keyboard.

Try it out, although not pretty, it's functional. It's on klingon.epas.
utoronto.ca submit directory.

- Yuri

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

Date: Sun, 21 Feb 93 10:32:22 PST
From: [e-mail]
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: Registration
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

> Oh yes it does! By sending it in, you will recieve the 192 General
> MIDI patches and (probably) MidiSoft Recording Session and
> PowerChords for free! These pieces of software are almost finnished
> now, and it shouldn't take to long time before you get them!
> Besides,
> how is Gravis supposed to be able to give you product upgrade info
> if they don't know your address?

Ah hah!  You got me on the daughter board pricing Bjorn but
I've got you here.  Unless, Gravis has changed their plans, the
MidiSoft Recording Session and PowerChords costs an extra $10
US or $15 Canadian.  It was $14 but that was a mistake.  You
must be a registered user to get it for this price.  However I
imagine that when the new UltraSound packages start shipping
with the complete stuff those will be included.

Da Lazer (of Da Ghetto Buwdaz)

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

Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1993 13:18:54 -0500 (EST)
From: [e-mail]
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: Reply on registration cards
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

Well, Id like to say, I bought my card in early september of 1992, and received


it in the beginning of October.  My card came with version 1.1 of the Gravis
disks and has almost nothing mentioned on epas or otherwise(I got all this
myself).  I turned my registration card in the minute I received the card
and have yet to hear word 1 on wether they received it, if I am going to get
any upgrade information or equipment, what they need from me for information, orif they even care.  This kind of aggrevates me, because every other company
I have ever sent a registration card to has at LEAST replied to me in a form
latter, and some of the larger companies have even replied personally.  I
would really appreciate them sending me the upgrade in software and and
product information.  Like a said before, my card came with almost nothing,
and I paid good money for it.  Someone needs to get on the aftermarket on
the Gravis team, to prevent everyone from being pissed off.  I am a reseller
and sugest noone to buy the card until the new releases come out, or
at least until I get my updates.  Is this a common story or what?

treason@gnu

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

Date: Mon, 22 Feb 93 1:20:23 EST
From: [e-mail] (Francois Dion)
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: Sox, tran and epas
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

Sox 7 for dos + source is now on epas. Sox is a sound converter between
formats (wav, snd, voc, raw etc...). I think the author is on this list, if
my memory serves me well.

Transpose 0.9 is also on epas. It takes a .wav file and extract the notes.
It works best with solos and simple instruments sans bender, and requires
mono 8 bit .wav files. 11025 Hz sampling works best and is faster. I have
tried it with several files and it gives acceptable results but you have
to tweak it. For example, it found CCCA#A#FGG... for Move this by technotronic
but it should have been CCCAAFGG...To its discharge, lets just say that
the signal on the song is far from a sinus!

Another interesting utility on epas is a newer midi monitor with a control
panel to change patches (it doesn't do patch caching, but with patch
manager, it's not too critical. Someone with a compuserve address should
send mail to the guy who did it.). It is based on the midimon source that
comes with the Windows SDK (also available on epas).

Last thing (i didn't upload this one) is vocpak. This program compress 8 bit
audio files to 50% and up! Much better than any other algorythm i have seen,
it is lossless. (compress .wav, .snd, raw etc... anything). It is not for
16 bit samples. (it wont compress much). Check it out!

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, 21 Feb 93 20:38:13 -0500
From: "It's your hand, Buckaroo" <[e-mail]>
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Subject: Unix Drivers for Ultrasound
To: Ultrasound Daily Digest <[e-mail]>

Two things...

First off, Chris Metz went through this nightmare early on in the life of
the Gravis. He ended up recommending a PAS 16, since they have a free SDK
and the tech support people were quite helpful.

Second, don't call Tech Support, call Brad Craig at Gravis and ask him (or
one of his assitants, I think the extension is 117 for Brad, 118 for
assistant). Brad's assitant seemed like a very reasonable person and they
do have an SDK (for DOS) for around $40, although last I heard they were
rewriting it to be more useful.

Third (ok, so I lied about the 2 things), really let them know that the
home Unix market ain't a "niche" AND about the surly tech support weenie.
It seems IMO to take Gravis some time to "get the message" whenever they
are presented with something that doesn't fit their version of reality. But
eventually they do seem to get it...(I hope)

DDA

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V2 #50
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