Experimental BBS Explossion 3

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Experimental BBS Explossion 3 / Experimental BBS Explossion III.iso / gus / digestv3.zip / V3N50.TXT < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1993-05-20 | 50KB | 1,185 lines

Ultrasound Daily Digest Thu May 20 00:07 Volume 3: Issue 50 Today's Topics: Cakewalk and GUS CUBASE and Win3.1 Feedback on SBOS V2.0B7 Gear for writing midi files on a gus (FAQ?) Great news from Gravis!!! GUS and Mitsumi CD-ROM GUS and Win NT Miscellaneous answers More 669 Help Multitrack Recording (clarification) Musicator and stuff os2 2.1 & GUS PowerChords (2 msgs) Sampling Noise sequencing wavs Speach synthesis. speech synthesis speech synthesis. Star Con II Problems Subscribing to the newsgroup Ultima 7 part 2 memory management (final) Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #49 What the difference between the digest and usenet? 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: Wed, 19 May 1993 19:31:11 +0001 From: "Z. Horvat" <zh@nike.rz.uni-konstanz.de> Subject: Cakewalk and GUS Message-ID: <AfyavTg00000AoaG9T@nike.rz.uni-konstanz.de> Adriano Raiola wrote : >Has anybody tried out the (excellent) sequencer Cubase for Windows V1.0? >I tried a friends copy to get it working with my GUS, and althought it >does have a driver for Windows Multimedia extensions (presumably this >means midi mapper, does it?) and does give mme and option for output >to Ultrasound Midi synth, I just get no output from it at all. Cakewalk does NOT load the patches automatically. It works perfectly if you load the patches with another program which is capable of patch-loading, e. g. Windows Media-Player, Patchmanager, or the Winjammer Sequencer. -------------------------------------------------- SYS337654 Could not locate coffee - Operator halted -------------------------------------------------- ++++++++++++++ Z. Horvat | MIME & | Rechenzentrum Universitaet Konstanz | METAMAIL | ++49-7531-88-2405 | ACCEPTED | ++++++++++++++ zh@nike.rz.uni-konstanz.de rzhorv@nyx.uni-konstanz.de ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 93 2:15:17 CDT From: cowles@hydra.convex.com (John Cowles) Subject: CUBASE and Win3.1 Message-ID: <9305190715.AA08978@hydra.convex.com> adrianr@ecr.mu.oz.au (Adriano_Ennio RAIOLA) writes >Hi, > >Has anybody tried out the (excellent) sequencer Cubase for Windows V1.0? >I tried a friends copy to get it working with my GUS, and althought it >does have a driver for Windows Multimedia extensions (presumably this >means midi mapper, does it?) and does give mme and option for output >to Ultrasound Midi synth, I just get no output from it at all. > >Has anyone tried Cubase with a GUS and got it to work? Can you help me? This >looks like the sequencer I would spend my money on to buy (it was even >recommended as the best by an Atari ST synth owning friend) but I want to >be sure it will work with the GUS > >If anyone can help, Ill be eternally grateful! > >-- >| adrianr@ecr.mu.oz.au --------| Adrian -aka- Plugger | * * * * * | _/_\ I have CUBASE for Windows and I bought it for the same reasons you're thinking of doing. It was HIGHLY recommended by an ATARI user (in my case it was also recommended by a MAC user). I was VERY disappointed! It is NOT a Windows program, and was VERY unintuitive to me, who is used to Wincake, MTPro, Winjammr, Encore, etc. It uses a very different concept for manipulating midi files, and also goes to great lengths to make it seem like you are on a Mac or Atari. This probably would be great if this was what I was used to doing, but I'm not. My BIGGEST disappointment was that it is a VERY limited first port. What was most frustrating was the lack of the notation capability that is present in both the AMIGA and MAC versions. Like Wincake, it does not do patch-caching, and patches must be loaded externally by patman. If your symptoms were that it LOOKED like it was playing, but you were getting no sound, then that is your problem. The word on Compuserv is that a new version of CUBASE for Windows is due momentarily, so please make sure that it's the NEW version you're buying. If they make a demo on Compuserv, perhaps it could be uploaded to epas and you could try it out before you bought it. Although I haven't been pleased with it doesn't mean I won't be pleased with the next version - but I'm skeptical to say the least! John -- John Cowles cowles@hydra.convex.com Convex Computer Corp. 214 497 4375 3000 Waterview Pkwy Richardson, Tx. 75080 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 93 09:49:04 -0600 From: davids@hwcae.az.honeywell.com Subject: Re: Feedback on SBOS V2.0B7 Message-ID: <9305191549.AA01585@seville.hwcae.az.Honeywell.COM> This is my informal review of SBOS v2.0B7 that I e-mailed to John Smith on 5/15/93. For those of you who haven't reviewed this version yet, I recommend you try it out and return feedback to John. I downloaded SBOS V2.0B7 from epas the other day and tried it out 5/14/93. I quickly tried out a complement of programs. Here are the results: Comanche Maximum Overkill SUCCESS Music and Digitized Audio were fine. Seemed the same sound quality as with SBOS v2.04, which I have been using for some time. No pauses or glitches. Wolfenstein 3D v1.4 (Shareware) PROBLEM Music sounds fine, but game pauses while the audio card is playing a lot of digital samples (as when a number of guards are killed one after another). This is quite annoying and is different from SBOS v2.04 Monster Bash (with 'bashfix3.zip' installed) PROBLEM Same problem as with Wolfen 3D above. Music is fine, but game pauses while the audio card is playing a lot of digital samples... Annoying. This worked fine with SBOS v2.04. As with SBOS v2.04, the music is out of tune here and there. I am not sure what it should sound like, as I do not have a SB card... Major Stryker PROBLEM Same problem as with Wolfen 3D. Music is fine, but game is pausing here and there. Again, this worked fine with SBOS v2.04 Commander Keen Part 4 (KEEN4E) PROBLEM Music here sounded somewhat different, but I wasn't sure what was missing. Commander Keen Part 6 PROBLEM Going into the 'Factory' portion of the game, the first couple of gunshots were barely audible, and movement was somewhat jerky. After that, music was different, but gunshots were back to normal volume (this was repeatable if I started the game over after a reboot) As with Keen4, the music sounded different than with SBOS v2.04. But, I don't know how these sound on a SoundBlaster, so I don't know whether they are more accurate now?? Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure OK, BUT OUT OF TUNE This game worked the same as with v2.04, including the 'out of tune' music here and there (prevalent in the first level of the game). **** SUMMARY **** Looks like something with Digital Audio (DAC) that worked fine with SBOS 2.04. This problem didn't exist in 2.04. Also, Is there anything that can be done about the 'out of tune' music?? My PC Setup: FastMicro 486DX-33, UMC Chipset, AMI BIOS EMM386 run with no EMS, except for Monster Bash Dos 5.0 ZNix Mouse Driver SMARTDRV Hard Drive Cache setup, IDE drive (Same setup worked for all above with SBOS v2.04) SBOS v2.0B7 loaded LOW (I did not use loadhigh) Install Procedures Copy existing c:\ultrasnd directory to \ultraold Unzip GUS0024.ZIP and put all files in \ultrasnd Reboot ------------------------------ Date: 19 May 1993 20:39:56 PST From: chrisw <chrisw@leland.Stanford.EDU> Subject: Gear for writing midi files on a gus (FAQ?) Message-ID: <9305200349.AA23262@leland.Stanford.EDU> ------------ Hi all. Mead Himelstein wrote to me: >I'd like to start recording my own midi music, but am midi illiterate. >First off, what's an inexpensive keyboard with midi capabilities that >you'd recommend? Also, what additional hardware/software will I need to >make decent midi recordings? (I have a GUS with 256K and no other midi >equipment). Variations on this question arrive about once a day: so here goes another potential FAQ contribution. I guess I'll post this in the epas submit directory and it can be moved into the info directory? I'm really sorry it's so long. I'd just leave it on epas, but I know that some of the people who send me mail don't have epas access. Chris. HOW TO BECOME A MIDI MUSICIAN WITH OR WITHOUT GOING BANKRUPT: Okay, you've bought yourself a GUS, been impressed by the sound of my midi files :-) and want to know where you can go from here. 1) MORE MEMORY If you're going to be a real GUS musician you're going to need the 1M upgrade. There is an obvious reason and a less obvious reason: the obvious reason is that with 1M your songs can contain more patches with 16-bit quality. The less obvious reason is that if you're writing something you often want to carry around a lot of noises in memory (many of which may not end up in the final track) just for experimentation. Most of the time when I'm writing my GUS is pretty close on 1M. At $25 it's truly great value for money. (If only I could buy a 2nd meg!) 2) A MIDI INTERFACE Well, how can you be a midi musician without a midi interface? A quick overview of the options (more details of which can be found elsewhere) is: buy a Gravis connector for your GUS (which isn't released yet as far as I know); build your own connector for your GUS; modify an SB midi cable for your GUS; or buy a stand alone MPU-401 interface card. Which of these is right for you probably depends on your budget, your soldering skills, and your need to run MPU-401 software (probably fairly slight if a GUS is the only sound generating unit you ever intend to own). I bought a 2nd hand MPU-401 compatible on the net a few months ago for $50 (including postage) so that's an indicative price for this option. 3) A MIDI KEYBOARD While some people seem happy with the idea of typing in notes from a computer keyboard, this seems to me a pretty slow way of writing music. Even if you can't play very well, remember that you can always play along really slowly and then speed it up. Also remember that you can often use `step write' options which allow you to take as long as you want to choose the next note. What's more, you can edit your mistakes, push your playing into time using a `quantise' function, and play things in lots and lots of little takes. That said, I have to admit, playing ability helps ... Anyway, the real question when buying a keyboard is: how much do I want to spend? Keyboards go from about $100 for a second hand non-velocity sensitive 3 or 4 octave thing to about $2000 for a 88-key weighted fully featured controller keyboard. I'll assume most GUS users are interested in close to the bottom end of this range. The possibilities that spring to mind are: bottom of the line controller keyboards (new or 2nd hand), obsolete proper synths with midi outputs (2nd hand), and little `home/organ - toy synth' type things generally made by Casio or Yamaha (new or 2nd hand) as long as they have midi outputs. Some parameters to consider. Does it have full size keys? The little ones are awful if you ask me (but probably much cheaper I guess). How many keys does the keyboard have? How important this is depends on your playing skill and how much space you've got. If you're going to be playing with two hands (piano parts, etc), it's nice to have 60 or more. If you're going to be playing with one hand and you haven't got much space, 49 is probably O.K. An important thing to look for is velocity sensitivity (the ability to send messages as to how hard the key was struck). This is very useful. Also a pitch bend / modulation arrangement is very useful. Both of these will allow your music to sound less mechanical and more expressive. Beyond that we get into the `luxury' features: aftertouch, extra continuous controllers, transmission on multiple midi channels with splits/zones etc. I don't really have many concrete examples for you, but I'll give you some stray cases just so you can get some idea of what you're looking at/for. Firstly, the cheapest 'reputable' brand thing I know if is the Roland PC-200 controller keyboard. These are traded fairly often on the rec.music.makers.synth newsgroup for asking prices of about $180. They have 49 full size keys, are velocity sensitive, and have a pitchbend/modulation joystick. They're fairly compact and light. I've seen one but haven't used one so I can't say much beyond this. Secondly, I use a 2nd hand Yamaha Kx-76 which I bought for $450 not so long ago. It's got 76 keys with velocity and aftertouch sensitivity, pitch bend and mod wheels, 4 sliders and various switches and a fairly flexible structure of assigning controllers to send various messages. It's also enormous and very heavy (which is good for stability, but it takes up a lot of space and is hard to move about). It's not going to break in a hurry. Thirdly, going from an ad in front of me, you can buy something called a Yamaha PSR-300 keyboard which "offers a whole new world of music expression and creativity" (ha ha!) with a 61-key keyboard which I guess is velocity sensitive ("featuring touch response") new for $349 (probably less if you haggle). But frankly, I wouldn't be seen dead with one of these :-) . Probably plenty on the 2nd hand market a month after Christmas though! 4) A SEQUENCER Now, if you just want to play then you don't need one of these. You can play from DOS using Gusorgan and you can play from Windows using whichever of kbmidi, splitmidi, etc. works for you (all on epas). But if you want to write, you're going to spend a lot of time with your sequencer. The first thing is that you're going to need a Windows 3.1 based sequencer product. As far as I know you need to be able to use the GUS windows drivers so that's the end of that. This is a terrible shame because Cakewalk for Dos is a great product. It's got almost almost all the features of Cakewalk for Windows except prettiness, and it's much cheaper. Still, I don't think there will be GUS drivers for the DOS products because there's quite a lot of work for the GUS driver to do. It's not the same as making a midi driver. (If anyone knows better, please correct this). What do you look for in a sequencer. A personal list includes: measure view and event view as basic requirements (staff view is nice for looking at other peoples work but I've never used piano roll view in my life); midi through mapping to different channels (so that you can move between tracks and change sounds without changing settings on your keyboard); an `event filter' so that you can perform operations on particular midi events easily; an `interpolate' command; and sysex librarian facilities (although currently useless on a GUS). This is a personal list. But these are things that would drive me crazy if I didn't have them (of course, this is because I'm used to them). Seriosuly, though, I use these all the time. Things not to get excited about: the ability to have 100s of tracks. I tend to use one per midi channel plus sometimes a couple for drums. This is a pretty small number - say 20 at most if just on a GUS. At any rate you're not going to notice the difference between 32 and 256. The ability to have enormous files: frankly they normally aren't very big. Midi is quite compact because it doesn't have to contain sound data. I don't know if this is an issue, though since all WIn 3.1 products probably support big files. Anyway, my personal choice is Cakewalk for Windows. However, it's not cheap. I don't know what it goes for from scratch but the upgrade from Cakewalk for DOS is $150. (Note that it may actually be cheaper to buy the DOS product and then get the upgrade than to buy the Windows product outright). Just found an ad: list retail is apparently $350. Two cheaper possibilities I have limited experience with are Winjammer (which wasn't useful to me since it didn't have a measure view), and Trax (which doesn't have an event view or sysex facilities). Even cheaper I guess is this Midisoft recording studio that we're meant to all be getting in the mail: absolutely no experience with this. After that, things seem to get expensive quickly: Cadenza is $300 list, Mastertrax is $495 (gasp!). Cubase is another unknown quantity: it's actually the dominant product on Atari computers that has been moved across recently to a PC version. In the expensive league. 5) A NOTATOR PROGRAM ?!? If you want to print out sheet music look versions of your files you're going to need a notator program. Some sequencers have some form of this built in, although there are also very expensive dedicated programs. Cakewalk for Windows DOESN'T have this capability. I have no experience at all with any program which does. Anyone who does is welcome to fill this space. 6) MORE GEAR If you've made it this far and you're not bankrupt, well, the world's an exciting place! Buy yourself another midi module. Buy an effects unit. Go on an overseas holiday. And, for the neighbour's sake, get some decent headphones. Suggestions, corrections to Chris Wilkins (chrisw@leland.stanford.edu) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 1993 23:10:01 -0300 (ADT) From: Shadow Of Fear <markus@Info.UMoncton.ca> Subject: Great news from Gravis!!! Message-ID: <Pine.3.02.9305192301.A5237-d100000@clement> /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/= \ Directly from his dark office on the top of a dark Tower..... \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\= / These are some messages I came accross on Gravis BBS. I though you might be interested!!! ---------------------------------- =C4 Area: G-Gustec =C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4= =C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4= =C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4 Msg#: 161 Date: 05-12-93 06:01 From: Joni Moilanen Read: Yes Replied: = No=20 To: All Mark: = =20 Subj: Midpak/digpak =C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4= =C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4= =C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4= =C4=C4=C4 Hi! So the Miles drivers MIDPAK/DIGPAK has finally been completed for GUS! Like John Smith said, Origin uses them but I suppose they are supported by Sierra, LucasArts and so on, aren't they? I'd like to know how many compani= es uses them and have the drivers been sent forward. If they are as popular drivers as I think, it won't take for long to have native support for GUS!?! -=3DJoni=3D- -!- TosScan 1.00 ! Origin: StarPort - The Future Crew World H.Q. - (2:220/630) =C4 Area: G-Gustec =C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4= =C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4= =C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4 Msg#: 178 Date: 05-13-93 06:04 From: Jamie Stafford-evans Read: Yes Replied: = No=20 To: John Smith Mark: = =20 Subj: Strike commander =C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4= =C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4= =C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4= =C4=C4=C4 On 05-07-93 15:08, John Smith opened a channel and transmitted to Michael Haip =3D> JS> Yep. Origin uses MIDPAK and DIGPAK. We have completed the MID/DIGPAK JS> GUS drivers. Origin will be showing off Strike Commander at Commdex JS> (2 weeks) using these drivers for the GUS in native mode. HURRAY!!! A *good* game with GUS support! Now, the obvious question is how do us GUS users that have already bought Strike Commander get their hands on this driver? This also brings out another question: Are MIDPAK & DIGPAK for use by developers to create an "add-on" driver for the GUS, after the fact, or are they for use in the actual game development? What I mean is, will we start to see add-on drivers for established games or is this for future game releases? Again, Thanks for your help and all your time... -=3D{ Jamie }=3D- ... "If I dood it, I get a whippin" - <*SMACK*> - "I dood it" - B. Bunny ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12 -!- TMail v1.31.3 ! Origin: Advanced Gravis BBS, CANADA - (604)431-5927 (1:153/978) =C4 Area: G-Gustec =C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4= =C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4= =C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4 Msg#: 215 Date: 05-19-93 06:22 From: Jamie Stafford-evans Read: Yes Replied: = No=20 To: John Smith Mark: = =20 Subj: Strike commander =C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4= =C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4= =C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4=C4= =C4=C4=C4 On 05-12-93 09:32, John Smith opened a channel and transmitted to Jamie Stafford-evans =3D> JS> Actually it is simply a matter of copying these files into the SC JS> directory. I was talking to Origin today and they got the MIDI JS> portion working great with the GUS and they LUV IT! They are still JS> working on the Digital Audio. They plan to show of SC with FULL GUS JS> support at Comdex and CES at the end of the month. They'll have to JS> have it done by then. So I guess I'll be getting an update then. Very Nice Indeed! I have since taken SC off my system (43 megs is a bit much) but that puppy will FLY back to my hard drive once GUS support is available! JS> Actually they are drivers used by developers that they usually add in JS> at the time the game is written. BUT, you by simply copying our JS> drivers over top of the Roland/SB one you can have GUSMIDI/GUSDIGI. JS> Great! OK - so if I follow you correctly, the drivers are mainly for development but they can also be added in after the fact... Maybe with just a slight "push" from GUS owners... ;} Groovy.... ... -=3D{ Gravis UltraSound - The Power of PC Sound }=3D- ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12 -!- TMail v1.31.3 ! Origin: Advanced Gravis BBS, CANADA - (604)431-5927 (1:153/978) ------------------------------------- So, what do you think? :) +--------------------------------------------------------------------------= -+ |Name: Marc Y. Paulin Address: markus@info.umoncton.ca = | | Age: 21 Talk Deamon: @clement.info.umoncton.ca= | | Occupation: Student in computer programming = | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------= -+ | "Kirsty and Tiffany re-enter the labyrinth, where Tiffany finds th= e| | puzzle box in its diamond form. Tiffany stand before Leviathan an= d| | begins to work the box. Channard arrives menaces the girl, but Juli= a| | appears behind Tiffany, and snatches her away. Channard is distracted b= y| | a prolongned kiss from Julia, which gives Tiffany time to resume closin= g| | the Lamen Configuration. Channard realizes too late what is happening= ,| | and slices Tiffany's hand open with a tentacle blade in an attempt t= o| | stop her." - HellBound: Hellraiser II - Clive Barker = | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------= -+ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 93 05:28:11 EDT From: ralphr15@aol.com Subject: GUS and Mitsumi CD-ROM Message-ID: <9305190528.tn20069@aol.com> Will the GUS accept the 4 wire audio line from a Mitsumi CD-ROM drive without changing wires, or other fabrications? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 1993 09:44:52 -0400 (EDT) From: shamel@Mais.Hydro.Qc.Ca (Stephane Hamel) Subject: GUS and Win NT Message-ID: <9305191344.AA04299@tdsb-s.Mais.Hydro.Qc.Ca> I waited a couple of days before asking this cause I tought someone else would talk about it... I've been running the March Beta of Windows NT almost without problem (note the "almost"... anyway...) but never have obtained anything regarding my GUS. Does anyone know if Gravis is working on a driver? Can we do something to use the SoundBlaster driver (wich is already included with Win NT...)? Is there a way to load the drivers (or make the GUS work) in a DOS shell? ------------------------------ Date: 19 May 1993 01:00:33 PST From: chrisw <chrisw@leland.Stanford.EDU> Subject: Miscellaneous answers Message-ID: <9305190809.AA23179@leland.Stanford.EDU> >>From: cs64sbg@sdcc8.UCSD.EDU (Anthony Tang) >>Subject: Sampling noise? >>But, silence should still be centered at "silence", right? Or is >>this an attribute of all GUSes? It's an attirbute of the two GUSes I've tried out. One in the left and one in the right channel. The static comes from the ADC's moving back and forth a bit. It doesn't contribute to noise when there's a signal (because you'll get that anyway from 1 bit variance) and you won't hear it much if the levels are high. Of all four GUS ADC's (2 left and 2 right) I've checked not one of them has been on 7F. I hope the 16-bit daughtercard will solve this. (Damn! deleted the header by accident). It's about the TZ python demo.. >>It's 900k (a 10 min call to Canada at 14.4k), but worth the visual treat. Hmm. Don't want to start another flamefest here (like the pc.soundcards one), but I will point out that it's considerably cheaper via ftp to epas (and that the 'treat' is more audio than visual) >>I'd like also to acknowledge the support from Gravis: I think they provide >>an excellent support for their product. >>Ciao Paolo Colombo (sometimes known as "that poor guy in Italy"....). Hey. That's unfair! John Smith STILL doesn't reply to my Emails (even when they're offering him free mid files for demoing the GUS!) >>Ok, the save command isn't disabled like >>the demo but I found when I was using it I ran out of space after only >>25 bars of a piece of music I was putting together. This seemed rather >>restrictive to me. 25 bars: I guess 2 renditions of the 12 bar blues plus a one bar intro? Chris. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 1993 02:00:16 -0500 (CDT) From: Phil Johnson <pjohnso2@ub.d.umn.edu> Subject: More 669 Help Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9305190216.A5808-a100000@ub.d.umn.edu> I had another "aha"... if there is anyone who could offer help on how to actually spit the music into the GUS... i.e. coding for playback, etc.. Would the GUS TPU for Turbo Pascal do the trick? I'd like to get the @#$@! SDK and hopefully it'd shed more light on it, but I just don't have the time to figure out the logistics behind it.. I figure it'd be a little nicer, actually to code it in assembly, for speed, but I haven't got the time. College, ya know! :') Thanks again for any help! *Phil Johnson pjohnso2@ub.d.umn.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 93 8:54:31 MDT From: Stuart Yoshida <yoshida@elektra.fc.hp.com> Subject: Re: Multitrack Recording (clarification) Message-ID: <9305191454.AA08751@elektra.fc.hp.com> "Alexander Majarek, Sascha, SAM" <Alexander.Majarek@uibk.ac.at> writes: > Subject: Re: Multitrack-Recording [Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #45] > Message-ID: <MAILQUEUE-101.930517115348.352@subz-nov> > > Hi ! > > First of all: The numbers didn't seem correct. For ONE instrument you > need 44100 Hz * 2 bytes (16-bit) * 2 (stereo) = 176.4 KB and not the > double. For one instrument, your numbers are correct. But for multitrack recording you need to also *PLAYBACK* a pre-recorded soundfile simultaneously so that you can "sync up" to it. So that means you must transfer double the amount of information you have indicated. Why do you need to playback simultaneously while you record? It's because you need a *REFERENCE* track. For instance, it's *VERY* difficult to record a killin' guitar solo if you never hear the rhythm track (although you may get interesting results :-), especially a rhythm track that has key and/or chord changes. This applies to performing harmony vocals, percussion, etc. Here's a typical stereo multitrack scenario: 1st Pass - Tracks 1/2 : Rhythm Synth (drums, bass, synth chords) 2nd Pass - Tracks 3/4 : Rhythm Guitar 3rd Pass - Tracks 5/6 : Lead vocal 4th Pass - Tracks 7/8 : Harmony vocal 5th Pass - Tracks 9/10 : Lead guitar During each subsequent pass, the muscian(s) have to hear at LEAST the Rhythm Synth track so that he/she can play in time and in the correct key. > Concerning your question of multiple tracks. I don't know, but .... > > do you really need to mix multi-tracks on the fly (when outputting)? No, I don't need to mix multitracks on the fly. But I *DO* have to be able to playback a track while I'm recording (or at least playback the MIDI seqence -- PLEASE REREAD MY ARTICLE FOR MORE DETAIL!). The final mixdown can be done at my convenience. If you have a different/better way of multitracking, PLEASE LET THE NET KNOW ABOUT IT!!! Write it out (as I have above) so that we can use this technique. > Hope this helps, I hope this clarifies what I need for multitrack recording. > SAM > > ********************************************************************* > *Alexander.Majarek@uibk.ac.at * There are 3 ways (fast, sweet, sure)* > *Perthalerg. 1c/11 * for a man to ruin himself: * > *A-6020 Innsbruck * 1. Gamblin' (fast), * > *AUSTRIA (EUROPE) * 2. Women (sweet) & * > *Tel.: 0043-512-84-26-15 * 3. Computers (sure) * > ********************************************************************* -- Stuart Yoshida Internet: yoshida@elektra.fc.hp.com Voice: (303) 229-2324 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 May 1993 10:58:50 +1000 (EST) From: s904858@minyos.xx.rmit.OZ.AU (Stuart Gough) Subject: Musicator and stuff Message-ID: <9305200058.14581@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au> Hi, I have a few bits and pieces. First Off. Adrian, the guy who asked about cubase and GUS, have you tried using Patch Manager with this program? You see, the patches for the GUS have to be loaded into the GUS's memory first before you can play anything in the way of mids. So first, load patch manager and then minimize it then load cubase. Before you play your songs through cubase make sure the instruments that you use are loadedin patch manager first. (ie if you want Instr1 then load Instr1 in Patch Manager Second. If have got Musicator for Windows. Now while I find this package quite good ( although it only has sixteen tracks) I have had a couple of problems with it. For example, the manual says that if you want to enter a sharp or a flat using the mouse, then you click and hold the mouse on the note you want and then press's' for sharp or 'f' for flat before release the mouse button. I have tried and tried but I cannot get this going Strange enough, however, last night while doing some work, every note I place ended up being a double flat (ie it was if I had typed 'F' before releasing the mouse button - but I hadn't). Has anyone got any solutions on how to write the sharps and flats and why note entry might stick on write double flats all the time? I would appreciate some help! Third. Has anybody got SBOS working with Startrek The 25th Aniversary game. I tried lots of things but no sound with sound blaster setting only ADLIB. Any answers pls mail me or post in digest Stuart Gough s904858@minyos.xx.rmit.OZ.au ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 93 17:30:00 WET DST From: dp@hydra.carleton.CA (Dave Perry VE3IFB) Subject: os2 2.1 & GUS Message-ID: <9305192130.AA13138@hydra.carleton.CA> Since os2 2.1 supports windows 3.1 applications in enhanced mode, has anybody tried to run GUS with it? Dave ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 93 11:49:35 PDT From: jericho!gord@uunet.UU.NET (Gord Wait S-MOS Systems Vancouver Design Center) Subject: PowerChords Message-ID: <9305191849.AA01564@ jericho> Dave Ingles writes: > Would I be correct in saying that the version of powerchords that >Gravis are now bundling is not the full version of Powerchords but >rather a cut down version ? Ok, the save command isn't disabled like >the demo but I found when I was using it I ran out of space after only >25 bars of a piece of music I was putting together. This seemed rather >restrictive to me. Oh no!! I hope not! Don't tell me I've been waiting all this time for my free copy of PowerChords, only to find out it's little more than a demo copy!! >:{ Sigh.. Anyone know how much a GUS compatible REAL copy of powerchords is worth? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 93 12:28:26 PDT From: jericho!gord@uunet.UU.NET (Gord Wait S-MOS Systems Vancouver Design Center) Subject: PowerChords Message-ID: <9305191928.AA01707@ jericho> I just got off the phone with someone at Howling Dog (local call for me..) who assured me that the PowerChord version that will be shipped with the new release is not restricted to only 25 bars of music. They do have a newer version (1.1) with more features than the free gus version, but he said that there will be a coupon to upgrade the gus version to the new 1.1 version for $20.00 (US? Canadian?). So, now I can sit back and wait for the new sw... (and wait and wait ...) Gord Wait (yeah yeah, I've heard it before!!) ^^^^ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 93 11:42:14 PDT From: jericho!gord@uunet.UU.NET (Gord Wait S-MOS Systems Vancouver Design Center) Subject: Re: Sampling Noise Message-ID: <9305191842.AA01537@ jericho> Anthony Tang Writes: > With all this talk about sampling noise, I thought I'd add my own > little snippet. If I sample silence using my GUS, I get a file > completely filled with 77H, with a few 76H's dispersed here and > there. Your samples of silence should have been at 80H. I wrote sndfix.exe (stored at the utoronto archive as sndfix.zip) to fix sound files. sndfix.exe post-processes raw sample files, and adds a user specified amount to the data to cause the silence to be centered at 80H. One of these days, I will be pulling out my GUS to see if I can fix the hardware itself to get rid of this 'dc-offset'. As to the Buzz, I suspect what someone else posted (on usenet or here?) which is that the A to D inputs are not set to bang on 0 volts (ie 80H) and could be set right at the edge between two sample values (ie in your case right at the edge of 76H and 77H). The result is that the slightest noise will cause your input to wobble back and forth between 76 and 77 hex, giving you that nice buzz. This tends to get masked when you record music, especially non classical. Classical tends to have more sections of quieter music, which allow you to spot the noise.. Gord Wait ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 93 11:17:03 +0100 From: zccaj19@ucl.ac.uk (Mr Stefan Magdalinski) Subject: sequencing wavs Message-ID: <9305191017.AA84781@link-1.ts.bcc.ac.uk> Please help me. I'm trying to make some vaguely housey music and want to sequence lots of homegrown samples (under Windows). At the moment, this is what I am doing; 1. Record/ edit/mash up Sample 2. convert 2 patch file using Wav2pat 3. Edit ultrasnd.ini to include my patch over one of the defaults 4. Restart Windows so that it takes notice of the changes 5. Start to do something interesting Please someone, There Has to be a Better Way, (or am I just being thick?) and to all you 'I love Gravis and want to have their babies' writers, are you on the payroll? Here are the facts (Damage control) 1. Yeah, Great Sound (if you're lucky) 2. Lousy documentation- If you want to use your GUS for anything other than games, you wouldn't stand a chance unless you've got access to CIS or the InterNet, or don't mind huge phone bills. It's the only card I've ever seen where the documentation didn't have pinout diagrams or anything technical at all. 3. Frequent upgrades to SBOS- Great. If you read the back of your box, it says 'Fully Soundblaster compatible.' This, with SBOS, is just not true, and while I'll admit it's an impressive attempt, Gravis have to keep churning out the fixes. I wonder how many GUSes they would have sold if they said 'partially soundblaster compatible'? (I'm not even going to discuss this 'Compatibility Plus' nonsense.) 3. We've got to keep them on their toes haven't we? How much support will we carry on getting if we tell them we're in love with them all the time? I'm sorry if this is too much of a rant, I've just come out of an exam. Stefan Magdalinski (zccaj19@ucl.ac.uk) <"Your Majesty, you are like a stream of bats' <piss"> <"What?"> <"I mean, you shine out like a shaft of gold when <all around is dark"> ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 1993 17:10:07 EDT From: Carey Steller <carey@winkle.bhpese.oz.au> Subject: Re: Speach synthesis. Message-ID: <0096CBF0.E98E3900.11978@winkle.bhpese.oz.au> I had been thinking about phonem patches on the GUS until I counted 53 of the blighters in my pocket dictionary. With my limited technical understanding of the workings of the GUS I guess I assumed that with the 32 channels you would have a limit of 32 patches. Could someone out there in GUSland with a technical knowledge of the GUS's innards please clarify if you can have 53 or so patches in GUS memory and use them all on the assumption that only one or two are active at the same time. Thanks, ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Carey Steller ( carey@winkle.bhpese.oz.au ) BHP Information Technology, Newcastle, Australia #include <std_disclaimer_witty_quote_and_ascii_graphic_bandwidth_wasters.h> ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 93 8:26:52 EDT From: Peter G.N. Scheyen <scheyen@csd.uwo.ca> Subject: Re: speech synthesis Message-ID: <9305191226.AA24907@mccarthy.csd.uwo.ca> I don't think storing phonemes solves the speech synthesis problem. Consonants change their sound depending on what vowel follows. For example, the 'd' in "dig" is quite different than the 'd' in "dog" (even the 'g' sounds different). With only a phoneme database you'd get very "detached" sounding works -- something like 'd-og'. I can imagine it becoming very difficult to make words out in this fashion. By the way, I am no expert in phonology or sound spectral analysis. If a "real" expert has anything else to add (or correct) jump right in because I'm sure there are alot of people interested in making their GUS speak to them (on those long lonely nights). Peter scheyen@csd.uwo.ca ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 1993 13:17:14 -0500 (CDT) From: markl@hunan.rastek.com (Mark Larsen) Subject: Re: speech synthesis. Message-ID: <9305191817.AA00581@hunan.rastek.com> Using GUS patches for phonemes sounds like a neat implementation and I believe the wav2pat utility might help you get started without the SDK being available. Just sample some phoneme sounds on the GUS and run the utility to convert them to patches. I think you will have to temporarily rename the patches to be the same names as existing patches so the MIDI Mapper could load them ( I haven't figured out how to use my own patches with their own names yet.) The only problem with phoneme speech generation is that it sounds very mechanical and is hard to understand because of the sudden changes in sound from one phoneme to the next. Usually the audio equivalent of polymorphic tweening is used to smooth this out some. I haven't tried this but cwould the pitch bend feature be used to smooth out the sound transitions ?! It wouldn't be perfect but it might be better than the computationally intensive methods of generating the proper transition between phonemes. -- markl@rastek.com "This R2 unit has a bad motivator!" - Luke, Star Wars, Episode 4??????? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 1993 11:25:00 -0400 (EDT) From: Brian Go <bgo@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca> Subject: Star Con II Problems Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9305191158.C6375-a100000@sciborg> I forgot to mention this yesterday. I do run the 669 player before I play SC2. The static problem disapears. I get garbled music. Random drum beats, especially in hyperspace. I know what it is supposed to sound like. It seems to work the first few times I enter Hyperspace, but then the music just degenerates. Same thing happens with other scenes. Brian Go bgo@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca Chemistry at Waterloo In which a banquet is held and of what comes after, concerning diplomacy, and bedrooms, blackmail, and threats, and an unusual recipe for Sausages... <Sandman> ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 1993 11:41:26 -0300 (ADT) From: Shadow Of Fear <markus@Info.UMoncton.ca> Subject: Subscribing to the newsgroup Message-ID: <Pine.3.02.9305191126.C3500-b100000@clement> Hi, Someone on the digest yesterday asked how to subscribe to comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard. I'd like to have the information too, please. I usually use Trumpet to travel in USENET, but I'd like to subscribe to soundcard by email. Can anyone transmit me the info? +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Name: Marc Y. Paulin Address: markus@info.umoncton.ca | | Age: 21 Talk Deamon: @clement.info.umoncton.ca | | Occupation: Student in computer programming | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "Kirsty and Tiffany re-enter the labyrinth, where Tiffany finds the| | puzzle box in its diamond form. Tiffany stand before Leviathan and| | begins to work the box. Channard arrives menaces the girl, but Julia| | appears behind Tiffany, and snatches her away. Channard is distracted by| | a prolongned kiss from Julia, which gives Tiffany time to resume closing| | the Lamen Configuration. Channard realizes too late what is happening,| | and slices Tiffany's hand open with a tentacle blade in an attempt to| | stop her." - HellBound: Hellraiser II - Clive Barker | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 93 11:29:02 EST From: Jerry <QAAA@vm1.si.USherb.ca> Subject: Ultima 7 part 2 memory management (final) Message-ID: <9305191558.AA22245@orca.es.com> Seems that this will be the last posting about the subject. My very bad opinion about Origin's memory manager still holds and is even made stronger by my last studies. I will send my registration card with a long letters describing the problems I have, so it may take a long time before I get any answer from them. Here is the problem: Ultima 7 part 2 STEALS the memory allocated for the cache in extended memory when you use SBOS. Even with HyperDisk memory locking option, the cache gets corrupted and I get the "Buffer memory corrupted, cache will shutdown" error message. Here's how I detected this problem: I currently have 3M of extended memory. - When I use 2M of cache (1M free), Ultima 7.5 doesn't display any graphics during the intro, but the sound and speech is OK. - When I use 1.6M of cache (1.4M free), I get the graphics and the sound, but when I "Journey onward", the game hangs at some point (because the cache gets corrupted) in the initialisation. - When I use 1M of cache (2M free) the game hangs a little further in the initialisation (seen with the debug mode of U7.5) - At this point, the ultima setup got corrupted and even without SBOS and a cache, I could not play at all. I will have to reinstall the game for the 4th time. - There a little hope that with a cache of 512K I could play. We will see after reinstallation tonight. For those who wonder how I can use SBOS and a cache, I simply use The Last Byte memory manager to load things in UMB. UMBDRVR can do the same also. Here is the current setup: HIDOS.SYS loaded in a UMB (I use DRDOS 6.0) HYPER386.EXE loaded in a UMB (HyperWare's Hyperdisk cache) MOUSE.SYS loaded in a UMB DRDOS system loaded in HMA This gives me 620K free, enough to load SuperStor driver in low memory. So long, and thanks to all who gave advice... Jerry QAAA @ UdeSVM QAAA @ VM1.SI.USHERB.CA P.S. Is there an E-mail address for tech support at Origin??? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 1993 09:12:46 +0100 (BST) From: Dave Ingles <davei@central1.lancaster.ac.uk> Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #49 Message-ID: <28159.9305190812@central1.lancaster.ac.uk> > Has anyone tried Cubase with a GUS and got it to work? Can you help me? This > looks like the sequencer I would spend my money on to buy (it was even > recommended as the best by an Atari ST synth owning friend) but I want to > be sure it will work with the GUS I once bought version 1.0 of Cubase for Windows but I got a refund a few days later as it was full of bugs and that it does not have anywhere near the amount of features that the Atari ST version has. Davei -- ``` (o o) --------------------------------oOO--(_)--OOo---------------------------------- >> D.Ingles@uk.ac.lancaster << >> Telephone (0524) 59 3679 << >> Higher Education National Software Archive, << >> Computer Centre, The University, Lancaster, LA1 4YW, United Kingdom << ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 93 20:14:45 CDT From: Albert Foo <C580503@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu> Subject: What the difference between the digest and usenet? Message-ID: <9305200119.AA04727@orca.es.com> Greetings GUS users! I wonder how much of those messages posted in comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard are reflected in this digest? I have access to comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard, and I do not wish to waste bandwidth if all messages are in this digest are also channelled thru the newsgroup. Any help from the sys. admin? Thanks. Albert ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #50 ************************************* To post to tomorrow's digest: <ultrasound@dsd.es.com> To (un)subscribe or get help: <ultrasound-request@dsd.es.com> To contact a human (last resort): <ultrasound-owner@dsd.es.com> FTP sites: archive.epas.utoronto.ca pub/pc/ultrasound wuarchive.wustl.edu systems/msdos/ultrasound Hints: - Get the FAQ from the FTP sites or the request server. - Mail to <ultrasound-request@dsd.es.com> for info about other GUS related mailing lists (UNIX, OS/2, GUS-MIDI, etc.)