Experimental BBS Explossion 3/Experimental BBS Explossion III.iso/gus/digestv6.zip/V6N8.TXT

Text File | 1993-09-09 | 20KB | 502 lines

Ultrasound Daily Digest     Thu, 9 Sep 93   :46 MDT      Volume 6: Issue   8

Today's Topics:
                           AIL confusion...
                         FC_PANIC using GUS?
                        General Midi question
                  GUS/Mitsumi/Toolworks Encyclopedia
                    GUSDELAY v0.2 uploaded to epas
                       Microsoft Arcade and GUS
                        ORDERING FROM GRAVIS.
                            Origin address
                            Return to Zork
                      Seal Team with Ultramid !!
                      So I wrote a Farandole...
                      Ultramid TSR 1.02 ... bug?
                Ultrasound Daily Digest V6 #7 (2 msgs)
              Where in Berlin is the MIDI connector box

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: 7-SEP-1993 22:16:26.70
From: Richard Wyckoff <[e-mail]>
Subject: AIL confusion...
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

  Gunnar Swanson, this is the second time (if I've counted correctly) that
you've called the AIL drivers 'Not native GUS' - Well, slap me on the griddle
and call me a flapjack if'n software that uses GUS 16-bit instruments and
all 32 GUS voices (if you want) as well as playing game samples ain't native
mode!

  OK, AIL drivers do not allow software companies to include their own
instruments, OK, AIL drivers only support one channel of digitized sound,
but nonetheless, they support the GUS as it is described on the box - 32
Voice 16-bit sample playback/General MIDI compliant.  We're NEVER going to
see 32-voice music using custom instruments and multiple sample channels
until there are other soundcards that can do these things as well, or the
GUS becomes the #1 selling soundcard - be realistic, would you fill your
game distribution disks with 16-bit samples for *just one soundcard*?  Would
you make use of 4 channels of sound effects which would have to be mixed
by the CPU for the other lame cards out there?

  AIL drivers, unlike SBOS, take advantage of the unique abilities of the
GUS, producing beautiful music on the games that use them - But AIL can't
be GUS-specific - this is a commercial product, remember, designed to save
game designers development time while simultaneously allowing everyone to
get the most out of their soundcard.

  The only game I know of to make an attempt at native GUS support was Zone
66, and 8-bit faux-techno music just don't cut it for me - the multiple channels
of sound effects, on the other hand, were nice, but they did not play an
integral role in gameplay.  7th Guest, on the other hand, blows me away with
AIL drivers (until it locks up, but that's another story).

  So let's hear no more AIL slagging - these drivers (or MegaEm)
do for me what the GUS was supposed to do - make awesome music, instead of
FM crap that doesn't even approach DX7 quality...
--
RWYCKOFF                      /Richard Wyckoff\                      CATULLUS
@EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU          /   aka Catullus  \    @PELICAN.CON.WESLEYAN.EDU
             "Sage of the Labyrinth, Knight of the High Odiamor"
                           /- Robert Anton Wilson\

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 12:04:37 CDT
From: Jon Holt <[e-mail]>
Subject: FC_PANIC using GUS?
Message-ID: <9309081705.AA06426@camax01>

I finally got around to grabbing some of the demo stuff from wuarchive.
However, I can't get FC_PANIC to work with my GUS.  I tried resetting the
GUS to defaults, no soap.  What's the scoop with this demo?

Nice artwork on Zone 66.


--
Jonathan Holt       V "There is pleasure in being in a ship beaten about by
CAMAX Systems, Inc. V  a storm, when we are sure that it will not founder."
[e-mail]      V                                           -Pascal

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

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1993 09:54:24 +0000
From: Clarke Brunt <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: General Midi question
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

> There is a midi file in many of the popular midi file
> respositories named "ad.mid". If play this file using
> WinJammer 2.24 I notice a distinct percussive sound (a
> cowbell) during the introductory portion of the piece. If I
> play this using Microsoft mediaplayer the cow-bell is
> missing (also if I play it with Mycroft's Surfin' jukebox).

My guess would be Media Player and Mycroft used output via MIDI
Mapper using the default GUS setup which has channels 11-16 disabled.
Media Player has no choice but to use MIDI Mapper, I don't know
whether the Mycroft program offers a choice, but WinJammer
certainly allows selection of GUS MIDI Synth directly, which would
not have any channels disabled.

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 08:51:50 EDT
From: "Burns Fisher, VMS Engineering  08-Sep-1993 0853" <[e-mail]>
Subject: GUS/Mitsumi/Toolworks Encyclopedia
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

>I received Tookworks Multimedia Encyclopedia with my Mitsumi CD Rom drive
>and cannot get it to work properly with the Ultrasound card. I can get
>sound out of sound files, full motion vidio but cannot get it to play
>sound/video at the same time. The software wants to see the sound card
>driver before loading it's driver in the config.sys. Does anyone have a
>suggestion on how to get this application to work correctly with the
>Ultrasound card?
>Thanks,
>Jim O'Brien

Hi Jim,

I tried both the return address you supplied, and the one that appeared in the
GUS digest, and am also mailing this to the digest.  Sorry if you get two
copies...

I take it that you have the DOS version of Toolworks?  One thing you could try
is to get it changed for the Windows version.  That works well for me.  (The
full motion video is a bit jerky, but I figure that is because of the speed of
the CD drive).

I have a couple ideas for the DOS version, though.  The Mitsumi has three ways
that you can set it up:  DMA, Interrupt driven, and programmed IO.  I started
out with it set up for DMA, but discovered that Sherlock Holmes would not work
properly with it set this way.  It hung after a few seconds of simultaneous
audio/video.  Changing it to interrupt driven solved the problem completely.
That might help in your case as well.

You might also want to try the general midi simulator rather than SBOS, if the
encyclopedia can deal with a Roland card.

Good luck!

Burns

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

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1993 17:42:10 -0400
From: [e-mail] (David MacMahon)
Subject: GUSDELAY v0.2 uploaded to epas
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Hi,

I have uploaded GUSDLY02.ZIP to archive.epas.utoronto.ca in
the directory /pub/pc/ultrasound/submit.

GUSDLY02.ZIP contains GUSDELAY.EXE v0.2 and GUSDELAY.TXT

GUSDELAY.EXE is a program written by David MacMahon (me) that
enables your GUS to record data and playback those same data
after a delay.  The delay can be soshort that you can't notice it,
or it can be as long as the GUS' memory/samplerate will
accommodate.  It demonstrates (quite well) that simultaneous
recording and playback is both possible and well within the realm
of the GUSand the low level SDK.

Version 0.2 supports stereo and allows you to record to disk
while simultaneously sampling and playing back data.

Dave

David MacMahon
Systems Administrator
[e-mail]  <---New address, use this one
[e-mail]     <---Old address, don't use this one

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 16:06:19 EDT
From: NABAHI NARIMANE MR  <[e-mail]>
Subject: Microsoft Arcade and GUS
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Hi everybody!

    I just have a (minor?) problem with Microsoft Arcade and my wonderful S. It does not depend of the game I try: it always lock up my computer when more than 2 sounds are played (I think it's 2 but.... I don't know if it's the reason). Any idea?
Thanks in advance.

Xavier Rustom. -----> Montreal Quebec Canada. <------

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

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 93 20:30:35
From: [e-mail]
Subject: ORDERING FROM GRAVIS.
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Chris Cunningham said..."how do I order a GUS"

>Would someone please send me the mailing address or phone number for
>Gravis so I can order a GUS?

>Have a nice day,

Here's how to order from Advanced Gravis.  You can mail your order in
with a cheque or money order, or, if you're using a credit card you can
either fax in your order ... or if you want, you can e-mail us.

You should call (or e-mail) in first to check out the latest prices.
Okay? ... oh, yea ... I'm having a nice day :-)


Advanced Gravis, 101-3750 North Fraser Way, Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5J 5E9
Tel: [phone]    Fax: [phone]     BBS: [phone]
email: [e-mail]


Matthew
Advanced Gravis Tech Support Group

[e-mail]
---
 ~ QMPro 1.0 05-8925 ~ Advanced Gravis...it's not just a job, it's an
adventure.

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 09:32:05 -0400 (EDT)
From: Phat H Tran <[e-mail]>
Subject: Origin address
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9309080904.B23110-9100000@sciborg>

To the person who wanted Origin's address to ask about Shadow Caster:

    [e-mail]

The rep there has been quite helpful in the past.  Also, the first two
Ultima Underworlds used the AIL drivers, and work well with the GUS AIL
and Ultramid.  Hopefully, Shadow Caster will continue the tradition if
it doesn't support the GUS outright.

Phat.

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

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 93 13:21:32 EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Return to Zork
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

W. Volk (Activision)" <[e-mail] (in a message posted to the
Gravis Digest by Phat Tran) writes:

>We just barely managed to get a set of Gravis drivers (for digital audio and
MIDI) working properly in the product this previous week.  It was a huge
effort, but it looks like it worked.  Right now I'd say that there's a very
good chance that the Gravis stuff will be in the release product.  Only
remaining issue (for the floppy, not CD) is the size of all the Gravis
stuff..<

Well, if they think that using a set of AIL drivers is a "huge effort," I'd
hate to see them write their own music system! :) But the real important
thing is that they *did* expend the effort. I do have one problem here
though: William writes "Only remaining issue... is the size of *all the
Gravis stuff.* Whoah! What all do they think they need to include? All that
really needs to go on their disks are the rather miniscule GF1xxxx.ADV
drivers (17k for the two). Now, I guess from their standpoint, because Gravis
does not currently ship the UltraMid app with the GUS (time for a disk
update), they'll have to include the UltraMid.exe, .ini, which adds another
39k for a total of 56k. Now, I can remember when this might have been a
crucial amount of space on a product, but in this day and age of games
shipping with 8, 9, 10+ disks, it's not something that is worth worrying
about.

- Dan Nicholson
 ------------------------------------
       The Levisionet Group
    Aural Landscape Specialists
 ------------------------------------
Dan Nicholson, Director of Dev.
InterNet: [e-mail]
          [e-mail]
 ------------------------------------
553 Thoreau Terrace, Union, NJ 07083
 908-688-0708 * [e-mail]
 ------------------------------------

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 20:15:30 -0400
From: [e-mail] (Grego Filippo)
Subject: Seal Team with Ultramid !!
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Hi,

did anybody managed to figure how to make the digi/AIL pak drivers
work with the demo Seal Team (e which is in wuarchive) ???
If yes, then please send me E-Mail or post of how to make it work !!

Thank you.

-Red Tswo-                        [e-mail]

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

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1993 12:55:37 -0500 (EST)
From: [e-mail]
Subject: So I wrote a Farandole...
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

I am the author of the Farandole song communion, found as comunion.zip on
epas. I downloaded the composer and ran it with virtually no problems. I have
a 486dx33 with 4 megs of RAM, a Diamond Speedstar 24x video card, a SB Pro,
and a GUS with 1 meg. Here is my setup:

AUTOEXEC.BAT:
@echo off
SET CPBACKUP=C:\pctools\data
SET PCTOOLS=C:\PCTOOLS\DATA
SET SOUND=C:\SBPRO
SET TEMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
SET GUSMOD=c:\utils
SET ULTRADIR=C:\ULTRA
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T1
SET ULTRASND=210,7,7,11,7
c:\sbpro\sbp-set /m:15 /voc:15 /fm:15 /cd:0 /line:15
c:\qemm\loadhi /r:1 c:\utils\24xmode monitor
PATH c:\ndw;C:\utils;c:\WINDOWS;C:\DOS;C:\llpro;C:\QEMM;C:\PCTOOLS;c:\pckwik;c:\;C:\ULTRA;c:\photo
C:\ULTRA\ultrinit.exe -l -o
nav c:\
c:\utils\setscrn
c:\qemm\loadhi /r:2 c:\utils\vesa
prompt $p$g
mode con: cols=80 lines=50
c:\qemm\loadhi /r:1 c:\dos\doskey /insert
superpck/ep+/h+/q+/*+/m1+/o+/s:1024
@echo off
cls
echo "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."
echo In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulu waits dreaming.

CONFIG.SYS:
device=c:\qemm\qemm386.sys ram x=b000-bfff nosh
DEVICE=c:\qemm\loadhi.sys /r:1 c:\utils\nnansi.sys
DEVICE=c:\qemm\loadhi.sys /r:1 c:\pckwik\pckwin.sys
device=c:\qemm\loadhi.sys /r:1 c:\mouse\mouse.sys
STACKS=9,256
files=40
buffers=30
dos=high
shell=c:\dos\command.com c:\dos\ /e:1024 /p

I have also run the program in flat mode, with no discernable difference. I
only get lockups if I try to load two MODS in a row or two 669's in a row.
I found this program to be less irritating that ultratracker because I could
get in and out of it without being HARRASSED for 2 minutes just because I
needed a new sample or something. Anyway, I included my autoexec.bat and
config.sys verbatum just in case (better safe than sorry). Hope this helps.
-=Johnny=-
[e-mail]

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 93 10:25:41 GMT
From: "Bjarni R. Einarsson" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Ultramid TSR 1.02 ... bug?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Hi

    I just did some FTPing from epas.. (grabbed MEGEM100 and UMID102)
and I am having alot of trouble with the new ultramid.  For some reason
the new TSR won't play some .MIDs, that the old one would.  (I am using
the ummidi program in the developers kit).  It says "divide error" and
then freezes the computer next time I try to access my hdd.

    Mega-Em works fine, though.. great program!  Has Gravis considered
buying this program from Jay?  It works alot better than SBOS on computers
that can run it.  This would probably squash alot of unhappiness among GUS
buyers without net access.. more compatibility = more sales?  Well... nuff
about that.. it is just a matter of time B4 I register it.. :-)

P.S.  Is there any guestimate as to when 1.1 (with SB dac emu) will be
      released?
  ______________________________________________   ___________________
 /                                              \ /                   \
( "Shee, you guys are so unhip its a wonder your O Bjarni R. Einarsson )
(  bums don't fall off!" -- Zaphod Beeblebrox    O  - - [e-mail] - -  )
 \______________________________________________/ \___________________/

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

Date: 8 Sep 93 08:30:00 EST
From: "NORSE::WATTERS_C" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V6 #7
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

From:    GATE::WINS%"[e-mail]"  8-SEP-1993 02:53:09.28
To:    NORSE::WATTERS_C
CC:
Subj:    Ultrasound Daily Digest V6 #7


>>I have been having lots of trouble getting Wolfenstein 3-D to work
>>with my Gravis....I am afraid it may be the doublespace messing another program
>>up.

>Could be because an Engineer here had trouble with doublespace corrupting data,
>I think it's a known bug. I have no trouble with wolf3d and SBOS2b10. Can you
>run it without D/S to check?

Not that this is a GUS issue - but: DoubleSpace is SAFE - SmartDrv is safe

but the combination of the two - or DBLSPACE and a write-cached HD controller
is a volatile situation:  if the power is interrupted before the cache is
flushed to the physical media, you've probably corrupted the drive.

If you're using DBLSPACE, you need to disable write-caching, ESPECIALLY if
you're in a place with sudden power outages, or if you have a habit of hitting
the "RESET" button or cycling power.  CTRL-ALT-DEL (the three-fingered salute)
under DOS6 (which you should have to run DBLSPACE) has a built-in delay
to allow the buffers to flush before it reboots.

Anyhow, sorry to be off-topic, but (tho' I don't like Microsoft) the DBLSPACE
product, if used correctly, is a safe product.

-Coyt

OBGUS:  Anyone tell me how to get better Music from RAILROAD TYCOON DELUXE and
    still get the sampled sounds?  The new Steam Whistle is wonderful, but
    the "tink tink tap tap tink tink tap tap" of the loco's rolling out
    from the engine house is enough to make me scream.

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 11:05:53 -0400
From: Alex Harden <[e-mail]>
Subject: Ultrasound Daily Digest V6 #7
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

In his last message to the digest,
    [e-mail] (Peter Davies) wrote:

>There is a midi file in many of the popular midi file respositories named
>"ad.mid". If play this file using WindJammer 2.24 I notice a distinct
>percussive sound (a cowbell) during the introductory portion of the piece.
>If I play this using Microsoft mediaplayer the cow-bell is missing (also if
>I play it with Mycroft's Surfin' jukebox).

>I'm led to understand that the Microsoft mediaplayer is some sort of de facto
>standard so my question is, what is WindJammer reading from the file that
>Mediaplayer (and Mycroft's jukebox) is missing?

i think you have winjammer's metronome turned on.

later all!

alex harden-------------- "if we forget yesterday, we're bound to repeat it
university at buffalo----  tomorrow; it's not too late to start today,
[e-mail]--  better off safe, than sorry."
[e-mail]----                     - extreme, "stop the world"

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1993 12:35 GMT+0100
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Where in Berlin is the MIDI connector box
Message-ID: <01H2PF9UMB9S8WYBRO@btmv56>

Can someone tell me where in Berlin I can buy the GUS MIDI connector box.

Thanks

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V6 #8
************************************

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Hints:
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