Experimental BBS Explossion 3/Experimental BBS Explossion III.iso/gus/digestv4.zip/V4N34.TXT

Text File | 1993-07-05 | 16KB | 403 lines

Ultrasound Daily Digest     Mon Jul  5 00:07     Volume 4: Issue  34

Today's Topics:
                 AIL with UW2 - Making it work better
                             Alt.Grow.Up
                             Canada Post
                      Detuning in drum setups ?
                          Dune 2 AIL no work
                                EPAS!
                            FILES on Epas
                       Is John Smith superman?
                           Super Ultrasound
               Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #33 (2 msgs)

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: Sun, 04 Jul 93 12:41:49  GMT
From: Mike Parkins <[e-mail]>
Subject: AIL with UW2 - Making it work better
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

I have been experimenting with ULTRAMID.INI to see if it is possible
to stop the delays due to patch loading every time the song changes occur
in Underworld II. Apparently this is not a problem with a 256k GUS, only
with upgraded cards.

By changing the "1024k" column to resemble the "256k" column, you can
reduce the number of patches that Ultramid needs to load during the game.
There appears to be little difference in sound quality or variety of
instruments used with this method and you can always try restoring some
of the patches, a few at a time, until the delay reoccurs.

The music really shows off the GUS, better than any .MOD file I have heard
and better than most midi files too (except maybe CHRIS4.MID!). I wish I
could find a way to pause it straight after getting killed so I could hear
the whole of the death theme :-).

Mike.

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

Date: Sun, 04 Jul 93 22:04:32 EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Alt.Grow.Up
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

[e-mail] writes:

>How do you KNOW they sent them *ALL* out?  Yeah, your >comments were worth
$0.02 cents alright!  Read my previous >posting again.  I said I gave John
Smith my _new_ address that first >time and he replied saying that indeed the
address was different >from what was in their records, and that he would
update it.  I >thanked him for changing it and then continued to wait for the
disks.

Problem number one: method of communication. To get something done reliably,
*DON'T* use email. *CALL* Gravis and TALK to someone in customer support.
John gets over 200 messages a day, and it's quite ridiculous to expect him to
be able to handle all of that himself. Gravis' number is 1-800-663-8558.

>Did he not update it like he said he would after that first time I sent >the
address to him??  I am questioning the way Gravis operates.  It >seems like
they can't keep their records straight.  Why should you >assume my package is
in the mail when John Smith himself did >NOT say that it was.  All he said
was that "all the packages" have >been mailed out.  So what?
>Does that include mine?  If so, why is it that I and a bunch of other
>people still have not received their disks??  Oh, sure, blame the >postal
service, but, quoting Francois Dion,
>
>"What is the problem here? Gravis, have you shipped ...  or not?"
>

No offense to anyone, but this is quite silly. It is a Known Fact that Gravis
*has* mailed disks addressed to *everyone* who was in the database at the
time of the mailing. This was a LARGE mailing. The vast majority of
registered users DO have the disks. So asking whether Gravis has shipped or
not, after 1) Gravis has officially said that they have, and 2) many, many
people have *received* the shipment, is really pointless.

- Dan Nicholson

________________________________________________
| Dan Nicholson | email: [e-mail]     |
|  aka          | uuencoded: [e-mail] |
| Maelcum [KLF] | America Online: PCC ModDan   |
|  and          | VirtualNet: 2 @ 9082         |
| [PCC] ModDan  | Voice Phone: currently down  |
|_______________|______________________________|
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|           553 Thoreau Terrace                |
|           Union, NJ 07083   U.S.A.           |
|          (Formerly PCkS Associates)          |
|______________________________________________|

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

Date: Sun, 04 Jul 93 05:31:16 EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Canada Post
Message-ID: <9307040931.AA21561@vongole>

[e-mail] (Adrian Kwong) writes:

|>Well people, Canada Post just doesn't seem to be in the right gear.  I
|>don't think all you people should be whining to Gravis about "wheres
|>my disks".  Truth of the matter is, they're stuck in Canada Post.

Canada Post may not seem to be doing their job well, but why do you
insist that Gravis HAS ALREADY sent out the disks to those of US who
haven't gotten them yet??  There is a likelihood that Gravis has
misplaced a bunch of registration cards, did not update their address
list, or not sent the disks out yet.  I know it is possible that
Gravis might have wrong addresses because...sigh, just read my
last post.

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

Date: Sun, 4 Jul 93 3:22:26 PDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Detuning in drum setups ?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Just wondering if anyone can help me with the following problem. I've got
quite a few drum patches sitting around that I'd like to make into a channel 10
drum setup. Only problem is, I've made them all up with middle C as the root of
the patch. I assumed that I could fairly easily put in detune offsets so that
I could get channel 10 note messages to always play middle c's.

But so far I have not managed to figure out how to detune single notes of
drum setups in either Windows or using playmidi (with playmidi I can detune
the melodic patches but not the drum patches).

I really want to do things this way because I would like to have a couple of
different drum setups and don't want to have multiple copies of every drum
patch with different root frequencies.

Surely this is possible?

Chris.

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

Date: Sun, 4 Jul 93 9:30:21 EDT
From: Matthew Spewak <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Dune 2 AIL no work
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

[my quote removed]
>Works fine on my machine <386-33 4 meg>
>The only time I ever get the out of memory error is if I don't load ultramid
>high. So try loading both your mouse and ultramid high if you can.
>this sucks, since I normall load my CD-ROM drivers high, so I can't listen
>to some music while playing Dune 2. Ah well...

I have tried this:  LH MOUSE (to
load my mouse driver) and LH ultramid -c.  But it seems as though it
doesn't load ultramid high, as it takes up the same amount of memory
without the LH statement.  Also, what version of AIL do you use, and how
much memory do you have free?

-MS




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

Date: Sat, 03 Jul 93 20:15:02 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Thomas van Kuipers)
Subject: EPAS!
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

The right epas adress for me is: archive.epas.utoronto.ca

I can access and download it in the Netherlands, so i assume it works for
other also.

To the guy who can't ftp from epas

bye,

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

Date: Sat, 03 Jul 93 20:01:37 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Thomas van Kuipers)
Subject: FILES on Epas
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Hello gus-users,

I have downloaded serveral things from archive.epas.utoronto.ca ftp
adress and something work fine, but a number of files which use the
zip-format don't work by. I use PKZIP/PKUNZIP 2.04G shareware version and
he tells me that there is a error in it and i have to use pkzipfix, which
can't repair it good, so it sames....
I suspect that the zip-version isn't good, but i think i'll use the
latest zip (2.04g is just released).

I downloaded through ftp the following files which are having problems:
GUSAIL97.zip GUSAIL10.ZIP DUNE2AIL.zip

Thanks, and i hope i can use GUSAIL-drivers finally!!

Thomas

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

Date: Sun, 04 Jul 93 14:50:44 EDT
From: Steph <[e-mail]>
Subject: Is John Smith superman?
Message-ID: <04JUL93.16033368.0040.MUSIC@POLYTEC1>

Golly whiz.  Everyone is whining to Mr. Smith.  What is he exactly at
Gravis?  Seems to me he's programming, answers complaints, takes care of
distribution, does a little database access here and there...  Maybe
what they need is someone else to monitor the net - and answer
questions.  I would love to see him devote more time to programming and
let someone else handle all the gritty work of the complains department,
which seems to be growing.

Maybe Gravis hit it too big, too fast.  It doesn't seem like they were
quite ready for it.

Steph.

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

Date: Sun, 4 Jul 1993 14:56:53 +0800 (WST)
From: Nasir David <[e-mail]>
Subject: Super Ultrasound
Message-ID: <Pine.3.07.9307041453.C6698-b100000@tartarus>

to Michael who asked about the super ultrasound...

I'm currently on holiday in Vancover Canada and I was lucky to a  tour
of the gravis factory here in B.C WOW!!! thats all I can say!!

On the tour John (yes I actually met john smith!!!) showed me the
new prototype of the ULTRAMAX card that gravis will be bringing out.
Its got the full blow SCSi interface and the 16 bit add on built into the card
I assume its gonna be fully compatable with the cards we own. John didnt say
anything about 'incompatability' with the stardard card. I dont think
he mentioned anything about the price though or the release date.
Like I said it was still a prototype!! Looks great though!!

I hope that helps Michael,

Nasir

BTW I'll write more about what I saw at gravis later and thanks
    alot John for the tour!!!!!!


* "What America's Cup??"     | "My mistress eyes are Nothing Like the Sun"  *
*                    _+-_|\  |                William Shakespear            *
*                   /      \ |   Nasir David at the...                      *
* Perth , W.A ----> \_.--._/ |   University Of Western Australia.           *

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

Date: Sun, 04 Jul 93 14:48:18 EDT
From: Steph <[e-mail]>
Subject: Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #33
Message-ID: <04JUL93.15989667.0040.MUSIC@POLYTEC1>

Hey, a reply from Howling Dog.  They made some valid points in there;
let's go over them one by one, if you please.  First off, I don't know
who exactly it is that replied, seems the list screwed it up somehow.
I'm assuming it is from :

Eric Bell, Howling Dog Systems" <[e-mail]>

Oh well, here goes nothing.

> > either) : why not start an email server, somewhere, for the damn disks?
> > The way I see it, people don't care for the _disks_, they want the
> > _software_ on it.  If it's GUS-related, only GUS-users have any use for
> > it.  So what if people copy it?  It'll only be used by GUS users, no?
> > Unless of course powerchord and all support other cards.
>
> We're the makers of Power Chords. It would be disastrous for us if GUS owners
>  circumvent the distribution of disks through Advan
> ced Gravis for a number of reasons.
>
> 1) We get paid a royalty for each copy of Power Chords for UltraSound that
> Gravis ships. If you don't send in your registration card and get the software
> from a friend or FTP site, we don't get paid.
>

Makes sense.  Someone mentioned an e-mail server with the serial number
as the password.  If Gravis put up the server, would it be possible to
get paid just the same for requesting the program?  (Naturally, only
once per customer!)

> 2) If you don't send in your reg. card, you don't get the upgrade flyer that
> is included with the disks. This is a lot of revenue for us. But you might not
> upgrade or buy other products if you don't know they are available.
>

I'm sure that a simple READ.ME or some sort, packaged with the software,
would do just fine.  Which is better?  A text file, or not receiving the
package at all?  :)

> 3) If you don't send in your reg. card, we have no record of you. The list of
> GUS customers is part of our deal with Gravis. If you're not on it, we cant
> market upgrades, other products of interest etc. to you.
>

Makes sense.  But here we're not talking about _not_ sending the card.
I mean send the card in and then, when they have it, requesting the
program through internet mail.  Seems to me it's much, much faster than
(dare I say it?) snail mail.  It's hard for me to be thrilled with your
software if I never receive it.

> 4) It's illegal to copy Power Chords and distribute it.
>

That, I can understand.  But, again, if you control the email server it
might be possible to restrict it to registered GUS owners.  After
someone gets a copy, the odds that they are going to copy it to someone
else are just as high as when they actually receive the disks.

> Please do us a favor and make Gravis fulfil their commitment to their
> customers. I am very upset with the way this has been handled, and all the
> delays, gaffes (mismatched icons, misspelling our product name in their
> adversising) etc.
>
> For what it's worth, I have not yet to received my GUS disks either. I live
> outside Ottawa, Canada.
>
> Eric Bell, Howling Dog Systems
>

Ah, there's the name.  Guess I was right.  :)

Thanks for your reply, Eric.

Steph.

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

Date: Sun, 04 Jul 93 20:23:26 EDT
From: n4zfd![e-mail] (Jim Blakely)
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #33
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

I'm really getting tired of seeing the Canadians bellyaching about
not receiving their disks. It's well known that the Canadian post
office is one of the poorest in the world - during their last strike,
whole containerloads of mail were dumped into lakes by Canadian
postal workers.

The lack of forwarding of registration cards & the fact that
virtually the only group that hasn't received their disks is
Canadians, all point to the inefficiencies of your postal system.
Instead of costing everyone along the net money with your complaints,
why don't you contact your governmental officials about your
country's mail problems.

And contact Gravis directly via telephone about your own disks. They
do have an 800 number, ya know, so you wouldn't have to spend a dime
of anyone but Gravis' money.

And, while we're at it, it was stated several times by John Smith
that Gravis sent disks to everyone who was on the mailing list, and
via simple mail - they are *not* traceable. I applaud them for
sending them at all - most other companies charge for updates.

Lastly, I didn't get my disks with the first mailing either. I sent
email to John, and they were mailed out to me the next day. I expect
they've been mailed to all of you who asked -- so ... once again,
complain to your post office.

-Jim

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #34
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