Experimental BBS Explossion 3/Experimental BBS Explossion III.iso/gus/digestv3.zip/V3N42.TXT

Text File | 1993-05-12 | 20KB | 534 lines

Ultrasound Daily Digest     Wed May 12 00:07     Volume 3: Issue  42

Today's Topics:
                            .PAT to .SAM?
                   Answers to Gus + Music questions
                        CD-ROM Drives for GUS
                         Change Vol/Issue #'s
                      GUS disks / Patch Caching
                          Prince of Persia 2
                      Prince of Persia with GUS
                       Problems with GUSTEST...
                      SBOS V2.0B7 - QUICK FEEDBA
                   Sound in UltraBots by NovaLogic
                          tech support woes
                             UK software
                             VMAP and GUS
                         WAV file generation

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: Tue, 11 May 93 11:23:25 MDT
From: Apollo Shau-Yang Wong <[e-mail]>
Subject: .PAT to .SAM?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Hi there,

Just a quick question this time. Is it possible to generate a raw 8-bit sample
from the General Midi patch provided with the GUS? Especially the sample
is used for MOD (i.e. the New PS16 Mod)
--
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Apollo WONG S.Y.                 | Fourth Year Electrical Engineering,  |
| Internet : [e-mail] | University of Alberta, Canada.       |
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: 11 May 1993   01:14:53 PST
From: chrisw <[e-mail]>
Subject: Answers to Gus + Music questions
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Amazed to see that there may have even been a majority of non -
'how do I get game xyz to work with my GUS' questions in yesterdays
digest!



So, hopefully a million other people haven't posted the info
(particularly to that poor guy in Italy) but, as far as I know, there have
still been no sightings of the GUS midi connector (or, for that matter, the
16-bit recording daughtercard). I'm a bit surprised about this.
The midi connector seems pretty trivial - not exactly an enromous R&D job.
And there's obviously a market for it. So, Gravis, WHERE IS IT? (You're
throwing money away ...)

Anyway, just like to point out another interim solution instead
of modifying a SB connector or soldering from scratch: just buy a 2nd hand
Mpu-401 and use that instead. This is not as silly as you may think. Used
Mpu-401 compatibles go for about $50 including shipping on the
rec.music.makers.synth discussion group. And you get MPU-401 compatibility
which is useful if you're using any non-Windows 3.1 software.

On the topic of keyboards to use with the GUS, it's probably also worth
checking rec.music.makers.synth. Seems to be a bit of turnover in those
Roland PC-200 (?) things. By the way, a good shopping question for buying
a keyboard is whether it has user definable continuous controllers
(seriously!). If you're doing any music writing you'll find that these come
in handy for doing mixing on the GUS. You can record controller 7 and
controller 10 messages to do stereo mixing (pan and volume). Probably a bit
ambitious for the cheap end of the market though.

Onto the topic of sequencers. Cakewalk for Windows does not patch cache at the
moment. It's a hassle but not an impossible one. You just keep a copy of
Patch manager running in the background and 'alt+tab' between them. The
annoying thing is that whenever you load in a new file you have to go back
into patch manager and use 'get from file' or whatever that options called.
Supposedly this will be fixed with the next maintenance release (I think I
read this somewhere or other).

As far as Cakewalk teaching you to play the piano -> not a chance.
Cakewalk is a great program, but it's for sequencing, not piano lessons.
Don't know what's available. (I learnt by the technologically obsolete
human teacher method).

Lastly, vmap is needed to convert midi note velocity information from
EVERY OTHER PIECE OF EQUIPMENT IN THE WORLD to the Gus. The gus has to
be fed a log transformation of the velocities to get it back to a
reasonably normal volume response curve. This is VERY annoying. Note that
this problem will also occur if you try to write anything at all on a GUS.
The velocity curve of any keyboard you connect to the GUS will not be very
useful. The current method I use is to put a +40 on to every velocity as I
play using Cakewalk for Windows midi thru capabilities. If JOHN SMITH is
listening: I am losing patience with this - PLEASE FIX IT. (Sorry for raving,
everyone, but it really is my least favourite feature of the GUS).

One more thing, as far as someone's 'modifying patch allocation on the fly'
question I don't really know what this was meant to mean. However: you can't
(easily) load new samples into GUS memory while it's playing back things;
but you can easily send program change messages on any midi channel to


get a change of patch to another one already in memory. Also, remember that
you can always play back .wav files at the same time in dumb DAC fashion.

Hope some of this clears up something for someone,

Chris.

P.S. Hope everyone caught Phat's tip for public distribution of midi
files with custom patches -> use playmidi and a .cfg file with the same
name as the midi file containing the new patch name list.

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

Date: Tue, 11 May 1993 18:30:34 +1000
From: [e-mail] (KWT Wong)
Subject: CD-ROM Drives for GUS
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

To all you GUS experts out there:

Is there any CD-ROM drives that will work properly with the GUS and recommended?
I am new with this CD-ROM stuff so e-mail me the works and you suggestions.
Do I need an interface card to get sound out of the GUS ?

Oh, yeah have anybody in Australia receives the new Setup disks yet ? Sent
my registration 2 months ago and still no word.

Oh, yeah I have an ISA/VESA local bus motherboard and don't intend to
change to SCSI because of $$$$$.

Thanks in advance

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

Date: Wed, 12 May 93 02:52:38 +0200
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Change Vol/Issue #'s
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

In GUS Digest Vol.3 Issue #41 ddebry@itchy (Dave DeBry) wrote:

> I'm thinking about changing the volume/issue counter for the
> digests, so that the volume gets incremented every month instad of
> every quarter.  This makes individual archive files smaller and easier
> to download and search through.
>
> Any comments?

It'll cause some grief for us GUS Digest-distributing SysOps at first,
but it's nothing but changing a couple of area names really, so ..
you can count me in on the 'no problem' side. :)

 /Erik



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

Date: Tue, 11 May 93 9:33:18 PDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: GUS disks / Patch Caching
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

In the last issue:

> I live in Italy and am an happy owner of a GUS. Anyway I do have some (!)
> complaints.  The first one is that I sent my registration card to Logitech
> in Switzerland and, after almost three months, I am still waiting for the
> diskettes ...

Hey, I bought a GUS the first day they were released and I still haven't
received anything.  And I live about 10 minutes from Gravis.

> I am looking for (Windows) Midi sequencer that are able to use Patch Caching.
> Are there any other than Win Jammer and Session (I hope Cubase or Cakewalk Pro
> will be GUS Aware in the next version).

Greg Hendershott of 12-tone assured me that patch caching will be
supported in their next release - due out this month.

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

Date: Tue, 11 May 93 18:28:03 MET DST
From: (FunkyTrip) [e-mail]
Subject: Prince of Persia 2
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Okay someone told me to use sbos 1.20. (On this maillist I think). I tried
it but you should use sbos -o1 (at least I had to). If i didn't the opening
doors would start in a eternal loop and I had to reset (hard) my pc. I still
don't think this is a good solution though, cos everytime a sample is played
Prince2 has to wait till it's finished. Lousy when fighting monster.


Greetings from a funkee dude ..

 'Peace Y'all. I'm at:   [e-mail]    YO  Peace Increase
 'Freedom is free of the need to be free' - George Clinton YO     from me
 'With love there is no death' - Prince                    YO    FunkyTrip
YOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYO

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

Date: 11 May 1993 18:26:07 +0800
From: TC <[e-mail]>
Subject: Prince of Persia with GUS
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>



Mike, [e-mail] says:

> DAC to the best of my knowledge to do this.  It seems to crash if I allow
> the speech to occur, or it will crash (bypassing the speech) as soon as a
> digital sound (such as an enemy dying/screaming) happens.  Is there any
> mix of switches to fix this?

I believe Prince of Persia 2 does something funny because I can't get it
to recognize EMS if I select 'Standard 640K' mode. Thus, no digital
voices for me. If I select 'UMB' however, it locks up.

> Also, the music is out of tune to itself.  It is not so bad if
> instruments are all out of tune a uniform amount so that they are in

The music works in sync for me if you select AdLib for music instead of
Sound Blaster.

.tc

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

Date: Tue, 11 May 93 15:11:29 CDT
From: ddebry@itchy (Dave DeBry)
Subject: Problems with GUSTEST...
Message-ID: <9305112111.AA09970@itchy>

    As suggested, I tried using 'gustest -z' to clear out the
onboard dram.  Just to check, I then ran 'gustest -d' to dump the
memory and see if it had really been cleared out.

    Around 0x10000, the GUS's memory was still filled with
garbage!  (And, to back check, I ran star control 2, and got the noise
problem again.)

    No, I wasn't running SBOS.  :)

    Any suggestions?  Is this a bug?

--
Dave  ddebry@ debry@   \
DeBry dsd.    peruvian. | "It's not whether you win or lose the race, but how
      es.     cs.utah.  |  you look with the big cardboard taco on your head."
      com     edu      /

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

Date: Tue, 11 May 93 17:37:44
From: [e-mail]
Subject: SBOS V2.0B7 - QUICK FEEDBA
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

I released SBOS V2.0B7 today (GUS0024.ZIP).  Can someone upload this to EPAS
for me? Basically all it does is fix the load high problem people where having.


 We have to make sure that SBOS is working CORRECTLY before we dup 20,000
disks.  Give us some quick feedback, its holding up the mail out.

John

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

Date: Mon, 10 May 93 22:37:11 EST
From: [e-mail] (Steven Morrison)
Subject: Sound in UltraBots by NovaLogic
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Is there any way at all to get sound out of UltraBots on the Ultrasound?

Is NovaLogic planning a patch for this game?

Thanks!
--
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=
            (Gated via FidoNet Node 1:1/31)
 Steven Morrison      Internet: [e-mail]

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

Date: Tue, 11 May 93 14:56:55 EDT
From: [e-mail] (Rodney CHANG)
Subject: tech support woes
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Last week I went to a computer expo and I saw a guy who just bought
a gus (with the new install disks).  My first reaction was not of
elation for a new-to-be guser but of pity. "Good luck trying to get it
working with your computer", I thought.  Don't get me wrong, I love my gus,
but unless you live in B.C. or have an internet or compuserve account, you
ain't gonna get much tech help from nobody.  Luckily I had no problems
installing the card, but for the computer illiterate this is his/her
worst nightmare.  I just don't know how someone without an internet account
can solve problems without spending mucho dinero on phone bills.  The lack
of good, cheap support and documentation will be the death of this great
card.

--
Rodney Chang          | This space available for rent.
[e-mail]  | #include <favorite_rush_quote.h>
[e-mail] | ** Les Expos & Nordiques in '93, '94, '95, '96  ... ***

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

Date: Wed, 12 May 1993 01:33:35 +0800 (WST)
From: [e-mail] (Adam Boyt)
Subject: UK software
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>



IMPORTANT!!!

Good People, John Smith has just informed me that the software which is to
be bundled with the new disks hasn't been released yet.  Therefor the UK
company must be using older copies of the stuff (which might explain why
the software seems to have problems).  If I were you I'd start asking
questions.

Also the new SDK (I think the public one) will have in it the 3D sound
drivers and should be out soon.

Cheers.

Adam (Ferrous) Boyt

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

Date: 11 May 1993 18:22:02 +0800
From: TC <[e-mail]>
Subject: VMAP and GUS
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

[e-mail] says:

> What does vmap mean anyway... is it that the GUS-windows-midi drivers
> and GUS-DOS-playmidi use logarithmic volume scale, and thus midi files
> need to have all their "volume" information changed for GUS?

Correct. The GUS's volume control is logarithmic, while Roland's
synthesizers use linear volume control from 0-127.

One of the functions GMOS will perform is to use a lookup table
to convert these linear volume to logarithmic volume.

.tc

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

Date: Tue, 11 May 93 20:08:57 +0200
From: [e-mail] (Jan Bergman)
Subject: WAV file generation
Message-ID: <9305111808.AA02595@pepsi>

WAV file generation
--------------------

This is a repost from comp.sys.dsp

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Alex Sauleung Lee) writes:
>Jerry Bruce ([e-mail]) wrote:
>: I am in dire need of some source code for WAV file generation.
>: I have tried to use the WAV/RIFF specs from the net but they
>: are quite terse and hard to follow.  My attempts at coding have


>: failed, and I thought if I had some true and tried code that my
>: subsequent attempts might be more sucessful.
>
>: Does anyone have some source to create .WAV files for playback.
>: Any language is fine, but C/C++ is preferred.  If so, please
>: send me a copy via e-mail.  Thanks in advance.
>
> You can try mtlabsnd.zip (for matlab 3.5 or above). THis files contains
> program to convert matlab data file (.mat file) to .wav file.  Good for
> playing sound and doing some analysis in windows.
>
> The file can be found in oak.oakland.edu /pub/msdos/windows3 (or any
> simtel mirrors).
>
>Alex Lee
>Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
>email : [e-mail]


Other methods of conversion have been posted (MatLab scripts and SOX),
but here is some C code to get to the "guts" of the .WAV file!

This is a "slightly" modified version of the file that I
recieved from Tom Wallace <[e-mail]>.  I compiled it under
Borland C/C++ for OS/2 with no problem and made .WAV files that sound great.

NOTE: the input file is a file of floating point numbers between -1 and +1.
      if your data is not in this format, read it in and manipulate it so
      that it is signed and full value (8bit or 16bit) before writing to the
      .WAV file.  This can be made very powerful (I read in a MatLab .MAT
      file and write out a .WAV file)

Several of us owe Tom Wallace <[e-mail]> a large "thank you"
and I personally would like to offer a hearty "To HELL with Georgia!"

Also, thanks to everyone else who mailed me code, and happy WAVing!
----------------------- cut here -------------------------------------------
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <ctype.h>

void write_1(signed char w, FILE *outfile);
void write_2(short w,FILE *outfile);
void write_4(long w,FILE *outfile);

void main(int argc,char **argv)
{
/*
  Reads a data file containing floating point numbers between +1 and -1,
  and writes it to a (mono) WAV format file with Fs kHz and 1 or 2 byte samples.
  1st entry in <infile> needs to be the number of samples in <infile>.
  Not much error checking is done, so WATCH OUT!



  syntax: makwav <infile> <outfile> <Fs> <bytes>

  See also: PC Magazine Feb. 11, 1992, p.369.
*/
  FILE *infile,*outfile;
  short bytes, data;
  float d;
  long nsamp, i, Fs;

  infile = fopen(argv[1],"rb");        /* note this file is binary */
  outfile = fopen(argv[2],"wb");
  Fs = atol(argv[3]);
  bytes = atoi(argv[4]);
  if ((bytes !=2) || (bytes !=1)) bytes = 1;

  fscanf(infile,"%li",&nsamp);           /* make sure that number of samples */
  printf("%ld\n",nsamp);               /* is first entry in infile */

  fputs("RIFF",outfile);               /* id for a RIFF resource file */
  write_4(bytes*nsamp+36L,outfile);    /* size of waveform chunk (bytes) */
  fputs("WAVEfmt ",outfile);           /* id for a WAV file */
  write_4(16L,outfile);                /* size of format chunk (bytes) */
  write_2(1,outfile);                  /* indicates PCM encoded data */
  write_2(1,outfile);                  /* number of channels */
  write_4(Fs,outfile);                 /* sampling rate in Hz */
  write_4(bytes*Fs,outfile);           /* data rate in bytes/sec */
  write_2(bytes,outfile);              /* bytes/sample (round up) */
  write_2(8L*bytes,outfile);           /* bits/sample */
  fputs("data",outfile);               /* id for data chunk */
  write_4(bytes*nsamp,outfile);        /* length of data chunk (bytes) */
  for(i=0;i<nsamp;i++) {
    fscanf(infile,"%f",&d);            /* read a data item from <infile> */
    printf("%f\n",d);
    if (bytes == 2)
      write_2(0.5*d*32768,outfile);    /* write to the WAV file with 2 bytes */
    else
      write_1(0.5*d*128,outfile);      /* write to the WAV file with 1 byte */
  }
  fclose(infile);
  fclose(outfile);
}

void write_2(short w,FILE *outfile)
{
  putc(w % 256,outfile);
  putc(w / 256,outfile);
}

void write_4(long w,FILE *outfile)
{
  int i;
  for(i=0;i<4;i++) {
    putc(w % 256,outfile);


    w >>= 8;
  }
}

void write_1(signed char 2, FILE *outfile)
{
  putc (w, outfile);
}


--
J.W.Bruce
Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Electrical Engineering
Digital Signal Processing Group
Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0250

INTERNET: [e-mail]

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #42
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