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Apparently-To: john.smith@gravis.com GUS Daily Digest Fri, 10 Dec 93 0:07 Volume 9: Issue 10 Today's Topics: Confirming rumors about the MAX connecting a walkman to the gus line-in DOS midi keyboard recorder Facts of Life Demo GUS-Mixer and SBOS bug? GUS CD-ROM audio-in cables GUS Daily Digest V9 #8 GUS Daily Digest V9 #9 (2 msgs) Let's make a list of what we want to see in a GUS ad! My MB chip set is UMC 82c206 should I buy GUS? Problems with the New Windows Drivers and Communication Programs Sam&Max + patch Sbos & Os/2 SoundWave and Native compatibility Sw32 Tetrispro Windoze Drivers (GUS0035) problems XMI 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: Thu, 9 Dec 93 10:50 EDT From: EVIL GM <CHEDBERG@hamp.hampshire.edu> Subject: Confirming rumors about the MAX This goes to all our friends on the list who work for Gravis. Can we have a more definitive list of the Gus Max's characteristics (e.g., what it can do, what is on it for memory, how much it will cost, when it'll ship)? The rumors on the list are making my mouth water, but unless you guys are playing Santa and don't want us all to know, I'd love to hear about it. I plan to start saving up to replace my GUS (anyone out there selling a used one?) which was burned out a while back. I want to know whether it's worth it to go for a MAX, and how much it will cost. Thanks, folks! -Chris Hedberg ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 19:35:44 -0600 (CST) From: Antonio Guia <guia@CC.UManitoba.CA> Subject: connecting a walkman to the gus line-in those of you trying to connect a gus to the line-in of the gus: wrong line levels! i think it will work fine if a capacitor is serially connected along the center lead (positive), but without knowing the volume output i'm not sure what capacitor values would be indicated. you may be better off connecting the walkman to the microphone inputs instead. this may work since the gus seems to have an automatic amplification of the mic in based on the line level (this is a guess since if there's no sound coming into the line in, then the first sound heard will be extremely loud and gets clipped... ah well, 8-bit anyways) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 20:44:45 -0500 (EST) From: asimard@emr.ca (Andre Simard) Subject: DOS midi keyboard recorder Anyone know of a DOS program that will allow me to use a midi keyboard on the midi port? Thank you. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 21:28:17 -0500 (EST) From: gt7039a@prism.gatech.edu (An anonymous word of wisdom) Subject: Facts of Life Demo Well, I'm very satisfied with my GUS- and after listening the change in sound in games such as Return to Zork and X-Wing, I am truly amazed... unfortunately, I am having a problem with a couple sound demos... notably Facts of Life, which locks up whenever I run it. Does anyone know of a solution? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 15:30:53 -0500 (EST) From: "Todd C. Gleason" <tg2k+@andrew.cmu.edu> Subject: Re: GUS-Mixer and SBOS bug? Excerpts from mail: 9-Dec-93 GUS Daily Digest V9 #9 by GUS Server@dsd.es.com > I was wondering if there was a TSR GUS Mixer similar to the PAS16's Mixer > for the GUS? I would love to be able to have keyboard (TSR) control of > volumes, and such in DOS. Any luck? Gravis, can this be done? There is a GUSMIX10.ARJ available on klingon.epas.utoronto.ca somewhere, it's about 7K in size. I have a copy, but haven't used it yet myself. I have my unamplified GUS out connected to a receiver so I can get louder sound. Which reminds me--I recall someone here saying that the "surround" effect from the 2nd Reality demo is not really a surround effect. This is wrong. It appears to actually produce Dolby Pro-Logic surround encoding, as when I set my receiver to pro-logic mode, the ship overhead was clearly coming almost entirely out my rear speakers! I'm not sure whether the GUS's spiffy 3-D effect was being used there, but Dolby Pro-Logic most certainly WAS. (It was obvious when my really cheesy rear speakers started to take over the sound, especially since they don't sound all that good.) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 10:54:52 -0800 (PST) From: Mark Harrison <harrison@lclark.edu> Subject: Re: GUS CD-ROM audio-in cables > Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1993 11:18:53 -0800 (PST) > From: Vincent Poy <hippo@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu> > Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V9 #8 > > > > And also where I can get the cable for the connection? > > > > I made my own. > > Mark, > How do you exactly make your own cable for the connection? Thanks. Well, that depends on the drive and all. The Mitsumi I currently have came with a cable that goes from the drive to the interface board. From there you can use the line-out from the interface board to go to the line-in on the GUS. This is the easy way out for a Mitsumi drive. But then the CD audio-in is actually coming through the line-in rather than the CD audio-in. This isn't as clean and if you want the line in for anything else, you need more equipment. But to use the CD audio-in pins on the GUS, I just unpluged the cable from the Mitsumi interface board, removed the wires from the connector on that end, and connected the wires to the GUS pins (they can be pushed on if you remove them rather than cutting them.) Very simple and free. Just check the FAQ for the pin layouts on the GUS and the Mitsumi manual to see what wires do what. For the Chinon, I had a harder time, but it still wasn't too bad. I had to order a cable from Chinon that had a connector for the drive, and ended in bare wires. I wasn't able to find the right parts to make a proper connector for the GUS end, but I hacked together something anyway. I picked up some wire, some spare jumpers, and some metal posts. I soldered the wires to the metal posts, pluged them into the jumpers on one side, and connected the other half of the jumpers to the GUS pins. Then it was just a matter of connecting the bare wires to each other. Cost a few dollars at most. The hardest part is finding a connector for the CD-ROM end of the cable. I didn't think it was worth it trying to build my own since Chinon had one for a few bucks. And I never did get one made for the Panasonic drive since I only kept it a few days. Send me e-mail if you need more help. Mark Harrison harrison@sun.lclark.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 20:27:53 -1000 (GMT-10:00) From: Paul Murgatroyd <s1114@kowande.Bond.edu.au> Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V9 #8 > Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1993 04:29:05 -0500 > From: mchen@sol4.cse.psu.edu (Michael Chen) > Subject: Can the Windows driver do multiple simultaneous WAVs? > > I was thinking of getting a sequencer that lets you put .WAV files into your > sequences for stuff that wasn't too terribly time-critical (soundbites, etc.). > Do the GUS drivers let you play back more than one .WAV at once? If not, is > this a possible thing to add or hack? I'd really like that, and I'd rather > not have to write my own sequencer... > > -- Mike There is a guy here at the uni who just did something similar to what you describe. He wrote a program that allows you to have a .WAV file (multiple samples all blended into one huge file), and to play the .WAV at the same time as you play a MIDI file. You can record the .WAV into a script file, and whenever the MIDI file plays back, it will trigger the correct section of the .WAV file to play back. I saw a demo of this program today, and it works quite effectively. I have no idea what he has called the program. It is a windows based system. He also wrote two other programs, one that loads the UltraSound percussion set onto the card (since patch manager is lacking in that area), and the other was a program to control his Korg WaveStation synthesizer (to avoid using the interface on the Korg, which he tells me is difficult to use). I should be getting a copy of these programs in the near future. I told him that he should put the sequencer and percussion loader on the net...he probably will. Currently he is the only one to have tested it though. I guess I will be his beta-tester :-) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ____ ___ ____ / \ / / \ / \ Paul Murgatroyd (s1114@kowande.Bond.edu.au) / / / / Student of Computing Science \----\ / / \----\ School of Information & Computing Science / / / / B O N D U N I V E R S I T Y \____/ / \___/ \____/ Gold Coast, Queensland, AUSTRALIA ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Dec 93 08:27:59 MST From: tschmidt@pefs1.micron.com (Tom Schmidt) Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V9 #9 In the GUS general digest Volume 9 #9, Christopher L. Mackay asks: > I'd heard a rumour that some EMS chips from some old EMS boards would work > just fine.....I have an old EMS board with some chips that have these > markings on them(some of the chips are made by OKI): > M514256-10 | M5M44256AP > OKI | 9152J1H-10 > JAPAN 8X2019 | > > As far as I can gather, these are 256K chips. I don't about their > nanosecond ratings, though. Thanks for any help you can give me. The OKI M514256-10 parts are 256Kx4 DRAMs with 100ns access times. The second part number, M5M44256AP-10, looks like Mitsubishi's 256Kx4 DRAM, also 100ns. Although the GUS manual recommends 80ns parts, these may work. Go ahead and try them. After installing them, run the GUS DRAM test, GUSDRAM.COM. If it passes, let the entire computer warm up a while, and have the GUS looping on a MIDI file or something so that it is getting used alot so that it generates some good heat. Then run GUSDRAM again. If it still passes, then the -10 parts should be fine. Most every IC will have its slowest performance at higher temperatures. That is why you may see intermittent failures of systems after they have been running a while because of the self-heating. See my general digest posting in V8 #6 for a 256Kx4 DRAM vendor cross reference. Tom Schmidt Micron Semiconductor, Inc. tschmidt@pefs1.micron.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 10:47:25 -0500 (EST) From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca> Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V9 #9 > Date: Wed, 8 Dec 93 20:47:02 PST > From: ud907@freenet.victoria.bc.ca (Christopher L. Mackay) > Subject: EMS chips for GUS RAM?? > > just fine.....I have an old EMS board with some chips that have these > markings on them(some of the chips are made by OKI): > M514256-10 | M5M44256AP > OKI | 9152J1H-10 > JAPAN 8X2019 | > > As far as I can gather, these are 256K chips. I don't about their > nanosecond ratings, though. Thanks for any help you can give me. The 4256 and -10 markings indicate that they're the right type and speed (100ns), so they should work. If they don't, you won't damage anything by trying. > Date: Wed, 8 Dec 93 18:29:15 CST > From: Erick_Bergquist@edtng.Kenosha.WI.US (Erick Bergquist) > Subject: GUS-Mixer and SBOS bug? > > Also, I noticed a small problem with SBOS (not a big deal), but if its not > loaded and you do a SBOS -F to free it, it saids can't find interrupt or > something like that, and saids keyboard interrupt hooked I think. And > SBOSDRV stays in memory? I just thought I would let people know about it. I Make sure that SBOS is the last TSR you load. Loading TSRs after SBOS has loaded may prevent you from unloading SBOS. > Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1993 11:29:26 -0800 (PST) > From: Vincent Poy <hippo@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu> > Subject: Recording Music > > I attempted to record music from my Sony Walkman under the Microsoft > Window Sound Recorder under Accessories and it not only recorded the music > but even the voices, but it can only record 60 seconds maximum, is there > anyway or anything out there that will make longer recordings? Thanks! If you move the position marker to the end of the first 60 seconds you recorded, you can record another 60 seconds. You can add 60 seconds this way until you run out of memory. When you have the time that you need, then return the position marker to the beginning and you'll be able to record the entire time span in one go. > Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1993 08:08:23 -0600 (CST) > From: mjs7529@tamuts.tamu.edu (Michael J Stumpf) > Subject: ultrasound sound quality vs. orchid 32 > > Has anyone actually compared the GUS and the Orchid card > head to head? I read that the Orchid card is compatible with everything, > but some GUS users say it sounds bad.. Just curious if anyone with a > good sound system has tested dynamic response , distortion, etc.. A couple of people have tried the GUS and the Orchid SW32 and reported their findings on the newsgroup. The verdict was unanimous. The GUS sounded a lot better. > I can't believe some of my friends that buy SB16's.. I ask them why, > when it sounds so pathetic. They listen to 2nd reality on my > sound system and 1/2 of them say "what? so what? Mine does that > too" [imbeciles] and the other half seem to think they've made a > HUGE mistake. ;) 2nd Reality is not a very effective way of showing off the GUS since the demo will sound similar on all of the soundcards it supports. This is because it uses samples for the instruments. On the GUS, these samples are mixed in hardware and stored on the card (so you should point out the improved speed and reduced memory requirements, as well as the slight improvement in sound quality). On the other cards, these samples are mixed in software and stored in main memory, but they'll still sound like they're supposed to, except with a bit more noise, less bass, etc. Hardly a dramatic difference from the GUS in sound quality alone, especially since 2nd Reality has relatively lousy GUS music routines (noisy compared to Crystal Dream 2, for example). A better demonstration would to play a game such as Terminator Rampage, the 7th Guest, etc. on the GUS with GUS support, and have your friends play the same games on their SB. This way, you'd be comparing the synth sections of the GUS (wavetable) versus those of the SB's and PAS's (FM). An even better comparison would be to play your favourite MID with the new Windows linear volume drivers, set to high-fidelity and 24 voices, and then have your friends take the MID home to play on their SB16's. Their FM chips won't do the chris* MIDs or nausicaa.mid any justice. Phat. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 12:10:17 -0800 (PST) From: "George A. Montemayor" <gmontem@eis.calstate.edu> Subject: Let's make a list of what we want to see in a GUS ad! Many of us have been complaining the the GUS ad is not too convincing. Maybe we should write a compiled list of what a GUS mag ad and GUS radio ad (yes they have radio ads!) should mention. This is what I think they should mention. Feel free to add/modify the list. 1) 5.6 MB of 16-bit patches. Many Aira chips and that Orchid board only have 512K or 1MB of patches (probably 8-bit patches). 2) Compatibility. The GUS now supports ROLAND. None of their ads mention this, but their latest radio says that it supports all of the hottest games. 3) Replaceable patches. If you don't like the piano patch, you can replace it. The MAUI ad is giving GUS some competition because it says on their ad that they have SAMPLESTORE, the ability to use custom patches. Gotta go now. Feel free to add/modify the list. -George ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Dec 93 14:28:09 +0800 From: h8901002@hkuxa.hku.hk (Yip Kin Man Stephen) Subject: My MB chip set is UMC 82c206 should I buy GUS? Hello I heard that GUS is not compatible with UMC chipset so what should I do . Should I buy GUS. If yes how can I solve the problem. Please reply directly. Not to the digest. Stephen Yip ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Dec 93 09:21:20 EST From: rjf1@ho1focus.ho.att.com Subject: Problems with the New Windows Drivers and Communication Programs Has anyone else run into this problem? When playing a midi file using the Media Player, WinJammer, Recording Session or Animotion's Midi Player and when I'm downloading a file using zmodem, compuserve-b, kermit or xmodem I get communication errors and then the download times out. This did not happen when I used the older driver that came with my gus (2.05). I have had this happen with Procomm+ for Windows and WINCIM. My pc has 1 16550 UART, communication programs and the Window serial port is set to 38000+ baud. Buffer in Procomm+ for Windows is set to 16k. The pc is a 486DX 33MHz with 20 meg of ram, a chinon 535 cd-rom, paradise video accelerator (wd), logitech serial mouse. Driver are all current, i.e., latest. I have tried running with the the prior releases of the drivers for my vga card and mouse, the problem persists. Bob Flynn ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 09 Dec 93 03:23:31 EST From: <gizzy@aol.com> Subject: Sam&Max + patch I wasn't following the Sam&Max stuff closely, until, well I bought it today. It works fine with my setup using Megaem and the Roland default. The only thing I don't like is that in the Carnival stage, I guess its maybe a snare drum, but it sounds like static and I don't like it. But I'm a dunce at the changing patch thing. Is that the same as the gunshot patch people are talking about for X-wing? Can someone Email those to me if they are short. My internet access is kinda weird. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 09:08:41 +0100 (MET) From: Marco Valentini <valentm@dsi.unimi.it> Subject: Sbos & Os/2 Sbos now works with os/2!!! Impossible you say?No. It is true: Os/2 it is only a game with no sound problem so sbos -o3 fix it Without NMI problem!! Great you say?NO it isn't great because my PC emit some sound but I had noticed strange side effect: Street fighters 2 lock up after few minutes of good sound. FS5 works (bad). Tornado don't works. I hadn't try with other games. Why Gravis don't fix sbos so -o3 switch works better under os/2? -- | / / /Marco Valentini/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / | | /Computer Science Dept./ / / E-mail: valentm@ghost.dsi.unimi.it/| |Univ. Statale - Milano - ITALY / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / | ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 10:29:04 -0600 (CST) From: Joerg Bashir <spinoza@shamu.micro.umn.edu> Subject: SoundWave and Native compatibility I think that a lot of people are missing something when they say that emulation is better than native compatibility because it forces the game companies to write for the card. I don't think so. Think about it.. if the GUS was 100% hardware compatible with SB or SB16, there would be a LOT more people buying them, since there was no worry about previous software. They would also then be aware of the Native GUS capabilities. Then, because there were so many more of them out there, the game companies would be more pressed to support it natively. Look at SB16... it was better than SB, but fully compatible. Once there were enough of them out there, Games started to supprt it (20 voice, 16 bit), While I think that the GUS is one of the best sound cards available, I think it would have had much more support by now if it were fully compatible, only because there would have been so many more out there. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Dec 93 23:34:00 +0100 From: lars.gronsberg@thcave.bbs.no (Lars Gronsberg) Subject: Sw32 To: gus-general@dsd.es.com To: gus-general@dsd.es.com From: lars.gronsberg@thcave.bbs.no In 9-9 Michael J Stumpf wrote: Has anyone actually compared the GUS and the Orchid card head to head? I read that the Orchid card is compatible with everything, but some GUS users say it sounds bad.. Just cous if anyone with a good sound system has tested dynamic response , distortion, etc.. I can't believe some of my friends that buy SB16's.. I ask them why, when it sounds so pathetic. They listen to 2nd reality on my sound system and 1/2 of them say "what? so what? Mine does that too" [imbeciles] and the other half seem to think they've made a HUGE mistake. ;) I might buy one of these Orchid cards, but if I do, it will only replace my sound bastard, leaving my gus where it is. ----------------------------- I have compared them head to head on my $ 16000.00 HI-FI. I was really impressed by the spec fax from the distributor,WOW a card that has it all,but when it arrived I was really disappointed! The SW32 is NOT compatible with everything! All games I tried with MT32/GM screwed up after a couple of minutes,Orchid has put out a new driver for MT32 and GM since then,but reports from users tell they are not perfect yet. A experienced user in another conferance stated compatibility with 70% of the games. The distortion in Soundblaster mode is huge , very irritating background noise.The manual says OPL 2 chips as on the original Sound Blaster. The only thing I could hear , that sounded better on the SW32 , was some of the drum sounds.But most of the instruments in GM and MT32 sounded very "plastic". SW32 also refused to work properly in 2 of my machines , the GUS worked well on all 3. I returned the card after a couple of days,and will never ever consider it again. Conclusion: If you own an original SoundBlaster,you will love the "great" GM/MT32 sounds.But if you have heard a GUS,forget it !!! lars.gronsberg@thcave.bbs.no --- > QMPro 1.51 > You really got me till the end of the message. ---- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Thunderball Cave BBS 47 22 56 70 18 / 47 22 56 88 09 (HST DS V.32bis) | | -- thcave.bbs.no -- Oslo Norway -- | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 12:24:25 -0500 (CDT) From: Mike Allen <mlallen@uafhp.uark.edu> Subject: Tetrispro Has anyone had any luck getting tetrispro to run? I get past the intro screen but when it goes to load the ddisk it locks up. I have plenty of memory (6megs of ram). I have tried tried booting off a floppy, selecting no music card( I get music at the startup screen)and only loading himem.sys. I don't know what else to do. I downloaded the program twice thinking that something might have been bugged in the transfer but it didn't make any difference. any help would be appreciated. Mike Allen ------ _________________________________________________ | Mike Allen | | University of Arkansas | | email | | mlallen@uafhp.uark.edu | |_______________________________________________| ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 09 Dec 1993 03:46:14 -0200 From: ADALBERTO@VORTEX.UFRGS.BR Subject: Windoze Drivers (GUS0035) problems Hi everybody I just finished downloading the 2.06L disk set last night and installed the new Windoze driver. What a surprise! It can't play 16-bit 44.1Khz stereo WAVs nor does load the correct patches. With certain MIDI files, it just play nothing, while PLAYMIDI play perfectly (but w/o linear response). The interesting is that my old drivers (GUS0012) worked almost perfectly w/ the paths it had (1.21 disk set), it could even play 16bit 44.1Khz stereo WAVs! I have already tried lowering the # of voices to 14 and to change patch maps and/or setups in MIDI Mapper in order to solve my two problems with no luck. Any ideas?? Jorge P. Vasquez ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Dec 93 12:28:14 +0200 From: Baruch Pekelman <baruchp@carmel.technion.ac.il> Subject: XMI Does anyone know of a program that allows me to play XMI files (eXtended MIdi) ??? I have a few XMIs I want to hear, and I haven't seen ANY program that plays them....(MOST PREFERABLY a DOS program - not a Windows one...) ------------------------------ End of GUS Daily Digest V9 #10 ****************************** To post to tomorrow's digest: <gus-general@dsd.es.com> To (un)subscribe or get help: <gus-general-request@dsd.es.com> To contact a human (last resort): <gus-general-owner@dsd.es.com> FTP sites: archive.epas.utoronto.ca /pub/pc/ultrasound wuarchive.wustl.edu /systems/msdos/ultrasound archive.orst.edu /pub/packages/gravis theoris.rz.uni-konstanz.de /pub/sound/gus FTP mail server: mail-server@nike.rz.uni-konstanz.de Hints: - Get the FAQ from the FTP sites or the request server. - Mail to <gus-general-request@dsd.es.com> for info about other GUS related mailing lists (programmers, musicians, etc.).