Experimental BBS Explossion 3/Experimental BBS Explossion III.iso/gus/digestv4.zip/V4N54.TXT

Text File | 1993-07-26 | 11KB | 277 lines

Ultrasound Daily Digest     Mon Jul 26 00:07     Volume 4: Issue  54

Today's Topics:
              Accolade's StarControl II (SC2) revisited.
                    A native GUS sequenced song...
                               Arkania
                          GUS Software v2.06
                        Installation Problems
             Midisoft Recording Session 32nd & 64th notes
                   Need filenames of various games!
                        Some new drum patches

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.

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Date: Sun, 25 Jul 93 13:43:38 CDT
From: ibmpa!hartmann.austin.ibm.com![e-mail] (Lance Hartmann)
Subject: Accolade's StarControl II (SC2) revisited.
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Every now and then I still see posts about the "1MB static problem" in
Star Control II and occasionally the followup solution of playing 669 files.
For the benefit of those who may have missed a posting of another solution,
I'd like to re-affirm that the GUSTEST.EXE program successfully eradicates
the problem as well.  Note, however, that simply using the "clear" (-z) option
was not enough.  I had to run the "test" option (-t) as well:

    gustest -t -z

Finally, has anyone noticed any differences with regard to SC2 with the
LATEST (2.06) software from Gravis (PLUS the GUS0034.ZIP update)?  Since
installing the latest software, I found that I no longer can run
SC2 (ie. my system appears to hang) without EXPLICITLY specifying the sound
card on the command line, eg.:

    starcon2 /s:GRAVIS

Previously (ie. with the older GUS software), I never had to specify
the sound card option.  No, I have not added any new hardware, changed
ANY settings (IRQs, DMAs, etc.) of ANYTHING.  No, I don't have SBOS or
any of the other sound TSRs loaded.  I even tried booting "cleanly" off
a floppy.  The ONLY thing that has changed is that I removed starcon2 from
my C: drive (where GUS is installed) and re-installed starcon2 on my
D: drive.  I did verify that my GUS environment variables DID specify a drive,
too.

I haven't played around with the anomaly (like re-installing the old software
or moving starcon2 back to C:), but was nonetheless curious to see if anyone
else experienced anything similar.  I'd also like to add that I've NEVER
experienced ANY problems whatsoever with my GUS until I hit this.


--
Lance Hartmann ([e-mail])
               Yes, that IS a '%' (percent sign) in my network address.
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
All statements, comments, opinions, etc. herein reflect those of the author
and shall NOT be misconstrued as those of IBM or anyone else for that matter.

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

Date: Sun, 25 Jul 93 14:29:52 MDT
From: Stuart Yoshida <[e-mail]>
Subject: A native GUS sequenced song...
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

I've put a native GUS sequenced song onto EPAS in the submit directory.
The file is named "toytrain.zip".

TOYTRAIN.ZIP contains:

toytrain.mid (a MIDI file)
toytrain.pow (a PowerChords file)

I have included the PowerChords sequencer file so that people with
PowerChords can see how I built the song.

This song is a Christmas lullaby which I sequenced with the help of
friend of mine, Julie Briggs.  I don't know who the original composer
is, but it's a very pretty song.  Julie provided the chord progression
and melody, and I sequenced them into a song with PowerChords.  I would
like to point out that I sequenced the song entirely on a PC without the
aid of a MIDI keyboard, or any other type of MIDI input device for that
matter.

I found that PowerChords (v1.1, the upgrade from Howling Dog) was
adequate for what I was doing.  In fact, I think that in the future I'll
be using PowerChords to rough out the song, and then I'll add the
embellishments and final details with Cakewalk Pro for Windows.

These are General MIDI compatible files, so theoretically you could play
it on a SCC-1 card and it would sound fine.

Enjoy!

--

  Stuart Yoshida

Internet: [e-mail]
   Voice: [phone]

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

Date: Sun, 25 Jul 93 14:46:41 EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Arkania
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Has anyone been able to get Realms of Arkania to work with the Miles drivers
beyond the intro?  It seems to work fine in the intro, but gives a hardware
not found message when the main program comes up.

It does work fine under SBOS though, but the music isn't quite as good
(obviously).

  -Johnny Ow

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

Date: Sun, 25 Jul 1993 16:36:37 -0700 (PDT)
From: Vincent Poy <[e-mail]>
Subject: GUS Software v2.06
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

I also tried starting from scratch installing Windows and then the GUS
v2.06 disks and after it installed the Windows stuff and rebooted the
machine, when I run Windows, It says PROGMAN Error, General Protection
Fault in ULTRASND.DRV... Does anyone have any ideas what's going on?
Please let me know. Thanks!

Vince

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

Date: Sun, 25 Jul 1993 10:53:44 -0700 (PDT)
From: Vincent Poy <[e-mail]>
Subject: Installation Problems
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

I am having some problems with the new v2.06 disks in WIndows.... This is
what I did:

1) I first installed the v1.20 disks to the system and then install the
Windows drivers and the Midimap.cfg file from the C:\ultrasnd\windows
directory and setted up the MIDI Mapper in Windows as the Manual said.

Then to upgrade to the v2.06 disks, all I did was delete and removed
everything in and under the C:\ULTRASND directory and removed the
C:\ULTRASND directory as well....

2) I went to drive B: and typed INSTALL and it did the installation, and
after it finished installing everything and said it was going to do the
Windows installation, as it was loading up windows, it said Progman
something error and offered Close and Ignore so I choose Ignore and it
said General Protection Fault in ULTRASND.DRV and then it just exited back
to the GUS install.  Does anyone know what is wrong? I would appreciate
your help and thanks in advance!


Vince

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

Date: Mon, 26 Jul 93 02:02:55 -0400
From: John DeGood <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Midisoft Recording Session 32nd & 64th notes
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

In digest V4 #53, [e-mail] writes:

> Can someone please tell me if their Recording Session has the 32nd and
> 64th note buttons as well as the tie buttons?  The Recording Session I got
> in the mail does not have those buttons in the toolbox even though the
> online help says it does.

I have some Midisoft product literature that shows only whole through
16th notes in the screen views of Midisoft Recording Session, but whole
through 64th notes in Midisoft Studio.  Recording Session is a
stripped-down version of Studio that they sell at a lower price point.

There are other places in Recording Session where they forgot to remove
Studio features from the Help file, e.g. the "humanize" quantize option.

John DeGood  [e-mail]
Hewlett-Packard Little Falls Site (Wilmington, Delaware)

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

Date: Sun, 25 Jul 1993 18:50:10 -0300
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Need filenames of various games!
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

I was talking to some friends of mine up here in Nova Scotia, and I came to
a conclusion: one of the main deterrents to people buying ultrasound is that
you have to "figure out" how to get sound out of a game before you can use it.

So, sez I, that's not too hard to fix.  I just write a little program that's
preconfigured for every game ever made.  It is ready now; works well with all
my games.
  However, there are a lot of games which I don't know the filenames for
<my program searches by filename; this might be a problem with the various
"golf.exe" and "bridge.exe" games, but I can get around that. (I really don't
want to make people memorize a list of "alias" names for games.  e.g. the
GSBridge or GrandSlamBridge or GrandSlam etc...too much to bear!) >

Anyhow, If anyone knows the filenames associated with a good part of the
GUS.FAQ [sbos settings] games, or the games which use ultramid [and whether
they work better with patch caching or preloading], or the filenames of
games which work best with MegaEm, please mail these to me!
[There'll be a non-megaem version also, as not everyone will reg/use MegaEm]

The whole idea of this is to be able to buy a new game and run it
immediately, no muss, no fuss.  I wouldn't dream of charging a registration
fee for it [as that might qualify as either muss or fuss; maybe both] <grin>

Well, hopefully this will be out very soon..
(I'm still working on my ultramid patch customizer by the way, but there wasn't
 enough response to give it 100% of my free time.. It'll be freeware whenever
 I finish it.  I'm just taking my time, enjoying the programming...)

Bruce Dodson
[e-mail]

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

Date: Sun, 25 Jul 93 0:43:00 PDT
From: Christopher Jon Wilkins <[e-mail]>
Subject: Some new drum patches
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Hi. Just thought I'd mention for anyone trying to write music on the
GUS out there that I uploaded a couple of new drum patches about a week ago
in the file NEWDRUMS.ZIP. They're not great since they're only from 8-bit
samples, but they're still more useful than some of the Gravis patches.
Thre's a couple of snares, kicks, cymbals, hi-hat etc. More dancy than the
Gravis patches. (And I almost forgot - a useable triangle).

Unforunately, 8-bit samples of 808 and 909 kicks don't really work I'm afraid
(nor of 808 toms) so I didn't bother including them. (Too much buzz).

On the music front, my poor old 386sx over here in Australia can't seem t
cope with GUS sequencing so there probably won't be any new Chris*.mids
for a while. Might get around to making some analog style synth patches though.

Chris.

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #54
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