Experimental BBS Explossion 3/Experimental BBS Explossion III.iso/gus/digestva.zip/V10N6G.TXT

Text File | 1994-01-06 | 15KB | 344 lines

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GUS Daily Digest            Thu, 6 Jan 94   007          Volume 10: Issue   6

Today's Topics:
                            CD audio pins
                                 DRAM
                            Epas is slow!
                              GUS/CD Faq
                       GUS Daily Digest V10 #5
                                MegaEm
                       More on the FS5 patch...
                           Star Control II
                              Unreal 1.1
               Yet another mention of GUS in a magazine

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, 5 Jan 1994 06:28:24 -0700 (MST)
From: "Lloyd Miller" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: CD audio pins

> From: Ron Dippold <[e-mail]>
>
> > 1.  Does anyone know what the CD2 pinouts are on the new gus cards?  I have
> > the cd1 pinouts (l-gr-gr-r), but was wondering what that cd2 was for.
> >
> > it is a 3 conductor dip male socket.
>
> I haven't seen anything about the GUS CD2 pinouts, but the standard
> 3-pin connector for CD audio cables these days is left - ground - right.

The Toshiba 3401 that I have is g-r-l tho!

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

Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 08:24:09 EST
From: [e-mail] (Christopher L. Tumber)
Subject: DRAM

I'll be upgrading my GUS DRAM this week-end, but I don't really know what
I'm looking for...Can anybody clue me in? In particular, I've heard
there's a couple brands to avoid, which?

Thanks!

--
******************************************************************************
*   Christopher L. Tumber         "Extinct is...                             *
* [e-mail]           Just another marketing tool"           *
******************************************************************************

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

Date: 5 Jan 94 08:31:00 PST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Epas is slow!

Yeah...I've experienced the same problem.  I downloaded something last night,
and the transfer rate went only 1.2k per second!  Before it used to be about
8k to 25k per second.

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

Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 09:36:45 EST
From: "Burns Fisher, VMS Engineering  05-Jan-1994 0909" <[e-mail]>
Subject: GUS/CD Faq

For the FAQ:

There is a company called CD-ROM ACCESS which will make audio cables
for all manner of sound/CD combinations for about $12 (+ S&H...$4 US,
$6 CA).  They specifically mention the GUS.  They are a good,
inexpensive source for some CDs also.  (They are a good source for
many CDs, but some cases they are much cheaper.  In other cases, only
competitive.) A small, friendly outfit with EMAIL!.

VOICE   [phone]                                     CD-ROM ACCESS
FAX     [phone]                                  27361 MOODY ROAD
ORDERS  [phone]                               LOS ALTOS, CA 94022
                                                Mon-Fri 7-7, Sat 8-5 PDT
PAYMENT: We accept VISA or M/C (no surcharge), checks, and money orders.

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(I have no connection whatever to this company except as a satisfied customer.)

Burns

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

Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 13:29:23 PST
From: Scott Bobo <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V10 #5

Hi all -  I've read a couple of complaints about the new windows drivers
supplied with Patch Maker Lite.  I too am having problems - I can barely
hear the music on wav and midi files.  The normal chord.wav that sounds
when I start Windows is barely audible, even with the volume turned all the
way up.  When I run Midisoft Recording Session, I turn the main volume all
the way up, and the sound is very weak, not nearly as loud as the old drivers.
Really unsatisfactory.

I looked in system.ini and increased a Vol parameter from 127 to 255, but no
luck.

Any hints as to what I may be doing wrong?

Regards,

Scott

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

Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 22:39:21 -0500 (EST)
From: Peter Joseph Guillaume <[e-mail]>
Subject: MegaEm

Just a quick question about MegaEm.  I recently upgraded to a meg on my gus and
tMegaem automagically detects that and loads my patches at 44khz, but still
only at 8-bit.  Is there something I am doing wrong or a limitation of the
program.

Also, I got Rebel Assault the other day (after being pleased to see a great
game with native GUS support) and was horrified when I loaded it up.  The
sounds are choppy to the point of being intolerable.  It sounds like an old
record with skips and all.  I've read at least one other post concerning this
and it seems to have gone unnoticed.  Has anyone else had this problem and more
importantly, found a solution.

Thanks,
-Pete

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

Date: Wed, 05 Jan 1994 12:34:55 -0700
From: [e-mail] (Thomas C Trusk)
Subject: More on the FS5 patch...

I have uploaded FS5PATCH.ZIP to the EPAS submit directory. See
FS5PATCH.TXT for the readme that originally accompanied the file.
The install directions are missing: simply unzip and place the .fso
file into your \FLTSIM5 directory with the other .fso files.  The
patch has a unique name and does not replace any existing file.

I quickly tested FS5 with the new SBOS and the patch in place...
my computer freezes up during loading after a bit of garbled noises.
In the next few days I will attempt to get it working and post my
results here.  Input from anyone else is encouraged!  By the way,
the site ftp.iup.edu was back online just a few minutes ago.  There are
more files FS5 owners may wish to investigate, but there are no
new patches.

Thomas

*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*
*Thomas Trusk, PhD                   *  MaBellNet: [phone]   *
*Dept. of Cellular Biology & Anatomy *  PAGERnet: [phone]    *
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 include "disclaimer.h"

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

Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 16:38:42 -0500 (EST)
From: [e-mail] (An anonymous word of wisdom)
Subject: Star Control II

Need some help on Star Control II... Star Control II sounded great with
the GUS set at 256k RAM... However, when I upgraded to 1024k, I kept
getting some problems with the instruments clearing... I tried clearing
the GUS RAM before I ran the game... but in the middle of the game even,
some of the instruments will not change...

Is there a patch to fix this problem? I understand that Accolade assumed
256k when writing the game...

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

Date: Wed, 05 Jan 94 11:12:10 -0500
From: "Momentary language, sexual situations" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Unreal 1.1

Has anyone been able to get this to work? If so, what OS are you running
(i.e. MS-DOS, DR DOS, OS/2)? I'm running DR DOS 6.0 and it consistently
says it needs 14xxx more bytes, despite the fact that I have 625K free,
thanks to QEMM's Stealth. When I run it under OS/2 2.1, the music plays at
about 1/2 speed. And it appears that FC changed some of the scroller
messages!

Anyway, if anyone from FC is out there, it should be not be difficult for
such fine coders as yourselves to get Unreal to work under DR DOS. Second
Reality does (for the most part).

On the same note, does Avalanche's Motion (version 2) produce sound for
anyone? Is this yet another case of the "GUS must be at 220h to work?"

DDA

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

Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94  08:22:02 EST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Yet another mention of GUS in a magazine

==================    *ENCLOSURE*     ==================
FYI...

In the Dec 27th-Jan 3rd, 1994 (2 weeks in one) issue of PC Week Magazine, page
59, Jim Seymour's Opinion column, paragraph 7:

"Price is always an issue with equipment for homes PCs, so its low price (just
over $100 on the street) makes another Advanced Gravis product, the UltraSound
card, one of my favorites.  It sounds worlds better than any other low-priced
sound card, and it's one of the easiest to install."

(he also recommends the Advanced Gravis' PC Game Pad in paragraph 5).

I have to agree with the *easiest to install* part.  Over Xmas
vacation my brother wanted a sound card for his machine. Since he
wanted it primarily for games, I did *not* recommend the GUS. We
bought a PAS Basic. Although it worked in SoundBlaster emulation, it
had numerous DMA conflicts in its diagnostics program and I could not
get it to play any MOD files with its Trakker software or DMP 2.78.  I
took it back and bought a Logitech SoundMan, which is basically the
same thing as the PAS (minus a jumper). I did get that to work after
fooling with the settings (my brother has a local bus machine, by the
way). Everything seemed to be working except when I was playing mods
with DMP on the day I was leaving, a song blew up in the middle of
playing. Since the card has no problem with games, I gave up on mods.
I've NEVER had any problems playing MODS with my GUS, and have always
used the defaults for normal stuff.  Of course, I always play MODs
with GUSMOD, which seems to give me richer sound with no static than
any other MOD player.

--Dave ([e-mail])

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

Date: Wed, 05 Jan 94 11:45:00 PST
From: Richards Roger <tcemail!rnd1.indy.tce.com![e-mail]>

I have used both of the latest GUS Windows drivers; first the one in
gus0035.zip and then (released about 6 weeks later) the one shipped
with pmak110.zip.  The gus0035 driver fixed a number of problems:
previous drivers consumed too much conventional memory and therefore
would not allow some windows programs to work such as Outside/In for
Windows and the Lasermaster WinPrint Postscript interpreter.  In
addition, I noticed that it also allowed me to set the REMIX parameter
in wavemix.ini (this is installed by Microsoft Arcade) to be enabled
(set to 1 instead of 2).  If REMIX was set to 1 with previous drivers
(the default) the MS Arcade games would lock up.  Before gus0035
drivers were released, Gravis tech support said that setting REMIX=2
would fix the lockup and it did but the sound quality was poor (only
one sound at a time-no mixing.)  This made the GUS sound not near as
good as a Soundblaster or Pro Audio Spectrum when playing MS Arcade.
Now when I got the gus0035.zip drivers, I played with the REMIX
parameter and set it to 1 and it worked!  No more lockup and the GUS
was now starting to give as good of sound in MS Arcade as other sound
cards.  Well, I installed the "latest" drivers found in pmak110.zip
and now MS Arcade locks up if REMIX is set to 1, so I have to set it
back to 2 and the lousy sound returns.  Fortunately, the memory
problems are still fixed and Outside/In and Lasermaster WinPrint still
work with the pmak110.zip drivers.  Also, it is interesting that the
Gravis Mixer/control panel looks very different in each of these
driver releases.  The gus0035.zip drivers looked like they were
developed for the GUS MAX since it had mixer controls that I could not
use.  Does anyone know the story behind all of these various GUS
Windows driver releases?  Has Gravis taken a step backwards with the
latest Windows drivers?

Now, my other problem with the GUS is this: The microphone input, if
it is enabled, is *always* mixed with the sound output of the GUS.  In
my experience, this means that when the microphone is enabled you can
hear it through the speakers and in most situations I get feedback!
Now to do something as simple as recording a .WAV file, I have to go
into the Mixer and turn off the output and enable the microphone, do
my recording and then go back to the mixer and disable the mic and
enable the output to listen to what I recorded. This is a royal pain.
I wonder what it would be like to use the voice recognition programs
for Windows?  I'd have to pick between sound output or voice input,
never both at once.  I can't think of any reason why I would want the
microphone input to be mixed with the GUS output. This should be
adjustable in the Mixer (and other sound cards do let you do this!)
This is what I consider to be one of the GUS's greatest design
weaknesses.  I have heard that the GUS MAX does have better mic mixing
control.  What I would like to have is a hardware hack that
disconnects the mic from the GUS output.  The mic input should only be
routed to the analog to digital converter input.  The Line input is
properly routed, it is mixed with the GUS output so that you can mix
CD audio with GUS output.  It appears that the GUS mixes the mic in
and line in and then applies that to the analog to digital converter
*and* the output.  Does anyone know the circuit design?  Is a hardware
hack possible?  If I knew the schematic, I would take a crack at it.
Gravis, will there be a trade-up deal to the GUS MAX?

Signed,
Feedback-in-Indy
(Roger Richards)

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

End of GUS Daily Digest V10 #6
******************************

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