Experimental BBS Explossion 3/Experimental BBS Explossion III.iso/gus/digestvb.zip/V11N9G.TXT

Text File | 1994-02-11 | 24KB | 593 lines

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GUS Daily Digest            Fri, 11 Feb 94  0:07         Volume 11: Issue   9

Today's Topics:
                            Dolby Surround
                            External DACs?
          GUS0038.ZIP: lost or corrupted some patches?!?!??
                         GUS and Disney games
                       GUS Daily Digest V11 #6
                       GUS Daily Digest V11 #7
                       GUS Daily Digest V11 #8
                        GUS DRAM Discontinued?
                               GUS MAX?
                             Help request
                             Lotsa stuff
                           Master of Orion
                              midi-cable
                        Patches 0-127 or 1-128
                        Seventh Guest patch...
                              Syndicate
                       The Dust caveman demo..
                               Ultima 8
                             unsubscribe
               WAV volume within Windows with AfterDark
                         What can cause this?

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, 10 Feb 1994 16:59:47 -0500
From: Dale Luther Bewley <[e-mail]>
Subject: Dolby Surround

    I have my GUS output routed through my Sony Dolby ProLogic
receiver. Does the GUS output in Dolby format or just use stereo?
I ask because the 3d demo doesn't seem too 3d to me. Should I use
Dolby or no sound field ? should I disable my rear speakers?

    I only bought my GUS because it was $82 w/1Meg and I guess
it's better than my SBPro, except for this emulation thing w/ some
games and it's getting a little annoying. I wish I didn't sell my SB.

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

Date: Thu, 10 Feb 1994 12:24:46 +0000 (GMT)
From: Toby <[e-mail]>
Subject: External DACs?

I have a two part CD system in my Hi-Fi (CD transport and High quality
external DAC) and I was wondering if is is possible to eliminate noise
and improove sound the sound quality of my GUS by taking an output from
the GUS before it's own DACs and feeding it into my external CD DACs. If
this were possible the channel separation and S/N ratio of the card
truely would be "CD Quality"

Any thoughts?


 ***               _______   _____    _____   .     .                ***
 ***                  |     |     |  |     |  |     |                ***
 ***                  |     |     |  |   <<    \   /                 ***
 ***                  |     |_____|  |_____|     |                   ***
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       Pessimism? It'll never work.

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

Date: Thu, 10 Feb 94 8:17:02 CST
From: Jon Fletcher <[e-mail]>
Subject: GUS0038.ZIP: lost or corrupted some patches?!?!??

Hello fellow Gussers,

Please help.  I recently upgraded my gus with the upgrade in gus0038.ZIP.
Everything went smoothly during the install, but now I have notice
that some of my favorite midi files will not play in either windows or
in dos.  The only clue I get is when I attempt to load these certain songs
into PLAYMIDI.  PLAYMIDI gives me one of the following messages (depending
on the mid file I select):
--
Error patch info call for honky: DOS error

or

Error patch info call for piano.pat: DOS error
--

I went and looked in my directory that holds my .pat files and I couldn't
find either of the above mentioned patch files.

So, what has changed with the upgrade, in this regard?
The upgrade wouldn't have removed these patches, would it?

You may respond via e-mail or the Digest.
Thanks in advance -Jon <[e-mail]>
--
 --------------------------------------
Jon Fletcher                           |
UCI/Unified Communications, Inc.       |
Software Engineer                      |
email [e-mail]            |
 --------------------------------------

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

Date: Thu, 10 Feb 94 11:45:25 MST
From: [e-mail] (Tom Schmidt)
Subject: Re: GUS and Disney games

In the Feb 10 digest, Sharan Kalwani has problems with Disney games:
> I am trying to use my GUS with a Disney game
> (Mickey's Birthday Party).  When I use the latest
> version of SBOS,  the music sounds garbled and the
> voices are hard to understand.  Using Mega-em helps
> a little (both music and voices are somewhat clearer),
> but as soon as I hit a key the game bombs.
> Any pointers ?

I bought Mickey's Colors and Shapes for my pre-schooler.  It supports
SoundBlaster and compatibles.  I tried using SBOS with a multitued of
different switches and it always sounded scratchy and un-intelligible.
So then I tried Mega-Em.  What an improvement!  I even had music (it
appears that the music is SB digital).  So to speed things up, I used
Mega-Em with the -ROFF option so Roland emulation was not needed and
there was not reason to wait for EMUSET to load patches.  I have since
bought Mickey's 123's and ABC's for my son's birthday, but have not
installed them yet since it's not his birthday yet.  I am assuming that
they will work the same as Colors and Shapes, and probably the same
as your Birthday Party program.

Attention Gravis:  Why does Mega-Em's SB emulation work so much better
than SBOS?

_____      ___     Tom L. Schmidt
  |  |    /   \    Manager - Component Characterization
  |  |    \___     Micron Semiconductor, Inc.
  |  |        \    2805 E. Columbia Rd.  Mail Stop 376
  |  |____\___/    Boise, ID  83709-9698
                   [e-mail]

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

Date: Wed, 09 Feb 1994 18:59:00 +0100
From: [e-mail] (Edwin van Ouwerkerk)
Subject: GUS Daily Digest V11 #6

 > Has anyone tried the newest (or any for that matter) Windows drivers
 > with Windows for Workgroups 3.11 Add-on for Windows (try saying that 5

Yes, I'm using it this very moment, and they work fine.
(Something which can not be said of the add-on procedure 8-/)
I am using the latest drivers, 4.01/3.32/1.01 for
GRVSULTR.386/ULTRASND.DRV/ULTMPORT.DRV respectively

CU,
   Edwin ([e-mail])

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

Date: Thu, 10 Feb 1994 20:54:16 -0800 (PST)
From: [e-mail] (Mike Batchelor)
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V11 #7

Not the GUS Server once wrote...
$
$  ------------------------------
$
$  Date: Mon, 7 Feb 1994 23:37:45 -0800 (PST)
$  From: [e-mail] (James Tang)
$  Subject: Question about DOS4GW
$
$  Since this had been brought up here before, I thought i might be
$  related to GUS.  What is DOS4GW anyway?  It's in my Syndicate
$  directory, but what do I use it for?
$
$  thanks for your help.
$
$  james

You don't need to do anything with it, it will be loaded automatically by
the game program.  DOS4GW is the 32-bit DPMI extender used by protected
mode programs built with the Rational Systems toolkits.  DPMI is a method
of managing extended memory in protected mode, while still allowing a
program to come back to real mode so that DOS can be used (for reading
files, etc.).  If no memory manager is present, DOS4GW will load and put
the machine into protected mode, taking control of it away from DOS.  If a
memory manager is present, DOS4GW will use VCPI calls to allocate memory
and enter protected mode from virtual 8086 mode.  VCPI is an earlier
method of allowing a protected mode program to run and still access
real mode DOS.  Some games continue to use it exclusively, like Links386.
Many other "useful" programs use it, too, like AutoCAD and Paradox.  Even
Winodws 3.1 standard mode is a VCPI client.

DOS4GW is popular because it can be distributed royalty-free, unlike the
Phar Lap extenders.  Performance-wise, it is somewhat of a dog, compared
to others (but still beats Windows enhanced mode by a long shot :).  It
has some compatility problems in recent versions with some hardware.
Supposedly these two standards allow one to build a protected mode program
that can utilize any VCPI or DPMI "host" (such as QEMM, 386MAX, or Windows
enhaced mode), but in practice, this does not happen.  Standards are
wonderful - there are so many to choose from! :)

$  ------------------------------
$
$  Date: Tue, 8 Feb 94 09:37:16 -0500
$  From: decvax!cg-atla.agfa.com![e-mail] (Robert Pasky)
$
$  Subject: Problems with new Gravis software
$
$  > First of all, the Windows MOD player seems to be CPU sensitive.  It
$  > plays on my 386-40 but it sounds like a 45 being played at 33.3 and
$  > is, as such, pretty worthless to me.  WinMOD may not sound that
$  > great, but it doesn't drag like that.
$
$  Is it just slow (intermittent?) or off key? I've had that problem
$  (going off key) with every version of MODUS I tried. Actually, I
$  noticed the intermittent problem, too. Anytime Windows is busy for
$  more than a second or two, the music pauses.

I have to off-key problem as well, and it is pretty annoying.  Even more
annoying is that when I try to play a 6 or 8 channel MOD, it causes a
General Protection Fault (non-fatal) and terminates.  Has anyone
successfuly played a MOD with more than 4 channels with this pile?  It has
8 channel indicators... one would think it is supposed to do this.

$  [...]  MODUS got
$  sent to the trashcan -- again.
$

Yup.  Gravis should not include it on the distribution diskettes.  It
gives a very bad impression, and most people will not realize that it is
not a Gravis product.

$  BTW, I'm running a 486DX/33, so I *hope* it's not a CPU speed problem.
$

Same here.

--
Mike Batchelor      | UseLinuxUseLinuxUseLinuxUseLinuxUseLinuxUseLinuxUseLinux
[e-mail]  | xuniLesUxuniLesUxuniLesUxuniLesUxuniLesUxuniLesUxuniLesU

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

Date: Thu, 10 Feb 94 13:59:58 +0000
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V11 #8

Whenever I try to run Syndicate with those
new 32bit gravis drivers I allways get a
divide by 0 error. Does anybody know how to
stop this happening?

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

Date: 10 Feb 94 10:54:38 PST
From: [e-mail] (KSoule)
Subject: GUS DRAM Discontinued?

>Date: Wed, 9 Feb 1994 15:28:56 -0216 (GMT-2:16)
>From: "J.Waghorn" <[e-mail]>
>Subject: DRAM's impossible to get in UK

>Can anyone in the UK get 44256 or equivalent DRAM chips without going
>to the L40 mark for 6 ????

>It appears that several manufacturers have stopped producing them &
>left all us UK GUSsers in the lecherous money grabbing hands of RS (who
>charge 7.5 pounds each excluding VAT)


UK GUS users aren't the only ones about to have chip problems.
We picked up a GUS for eval about a month ago; we are
affiliated with a motherboard manufacturer, and used our usual
contacts to request "engineering samples" to populate the board
with the full 1MB of memory.

So far, we haven't been able to get any memory, although one
source finally looks promising.  We have heard the same thing
from ALL of our sales reps; to wit, this memory is being
discontinued and they will only supply their existing accounts;
they will not supply (or even send samples to) new accounts.

This memory is still available in the retail channel here in the
U.S. but, if our sources are correct, Gravis is about to have a
problem.  When you hear the same story from a number of
unaffiliated sales reps, for different manufacturers, you begin
to take note...

While the FAQ states that Gravis will sell memory, our call to
Gravis yielded the response that we should source it locally.
It may be necessary (prudent?) for Gravis to go into the memory
supply business.

Kent

TaterTot News & Mail * San Francisco,CA * VirtualNET @1415008 * ManicNet @2
415.255.8340 * @tatertot.com * WWIVNet @4552 * Link @14552 * GAYnet @4500 *

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

Date: Thu, 10 Feb 94 14:13:10 AST
From: BRYENTON T <[e-mail]>
Subject: GUS MAX?

Is the Max out yet?  If not when, and what's the holdup it was
supposed to come out last November....

Damon.
[e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 10 Feb 94 9:27:52 CST
From: Daniel A Nielsen <[e-mail]>
Subject: Help request

Anyone use the Space Adventure CD ROM with the GUS?  I get music, but no
speech from the video sections.

thanks
dan

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

Date: Thu, 10 Feb 94 02:07:46 -0800
From: [e-mail] (Real Athletes Throw! )
Subject: Lotsa stuff

First, to the gentlemen who inquired about Windows for Workgroups 3.1.1,
yes, it appears to work fine (as was stated yesterday), although I have
run across a few problems after installing gus0038.zip.  So many in fact,
that I had to re-do my GUS installation from scratch, leaving out the
GUS0038.zip on the reinstallation.  I fixed the ultrasnd.ini and everything,
but I found everything to be quite unstable.  But again, without
gus0038 installed, it runs perfectly.

Second, after installing the gus0038.zip, many of my other programs
stopped working.  These included gustrit, and my favorite, second reality.
The sound w/ gustrit just became unbearable, and second reality froze
about 5 seconds into the demo...anyone have any comments?

Third, I'm always looking for files, (demos, games, etc.) that demonstrate
the GUS's full capabilities.  Unfortunately, I have yet to find one.  Does
anyone know of a game or demo that uses the GUS to it's MAX (or close to
it)???

Thanks in advance,

Mike

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

Date: Thu, 10 Feb 1994 21:40:47 -0800
From: Harlan Hilman <[e-mail]>
Subject: Master of Orion

  I got MOO_GUS.ZIP, and installed it according to the instructions, bot it
  (the install program) gives me addresses 300, 330, 332, 334, 336, etc.
  When my GUS is on 220. And whenever I try to run Orion, it bombs out with
  reconfigure hardware options. The readme.1st file also tells me to load
  ultramid, it doesn't mention megaem or emuset. What should I do?

  And also, I don't understand what the Speech card DRQ needs to be set to.

  And also, what should I set the GUS to(adresses, IRQs, etc.)?

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

Date: Thu, 10 Feb 94 15:12:19 +0100
From: johan linder <[e-mail]>
Subject: midi-cable

Is it possible yo use a PAS midi-cable on a GUS card? Or is
there any better alternative???

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

Date: Thu, 10 Feb 1994 11:16:36 GMT
From: Clarke Brunt <[e-mail]>
Subject: Patches 0-127 or 1-128

Re yesterday's query about whether patch numbers go from 0-127 or
1-128, there is unfortunately no definite convention.

Just go with whatever convention is adopted in the file you are
editing. MIDI Mapper and some sequencers allow you to choose which
numbers you want to see, but these are only cosmetic changes to
the numbers displayed, not changes internal to the program.

What is definite is that in MIDI data, the patch number is stored
as 7 bits of binary, which most people would say represents the numbers
0-127. It's just that some software, having a strange dislike of 0,
adds 1 to all of them before displaying them to the user.

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

Date: Thu, 10 Feb 94 15:51:13 EST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Seventh Guest patch...

Nope,
    There IS NO patch to run T7G in native mode, BUT BUT there is the
UltraMID AIL (Audio Interface Library) driver that runs the sound in native
support.
    ANY game that uses an unhacked version (unlike Origin or Sierra) of the
Miles Drivers (AIL) gives native sound support (MIDI music, digital sound
f/x) with the GUS using UltraMID.
    Grab a copy of it off the Internet or a BBS, or get the 3.xx UltraSound
software update, it has it as well.  Then read the docs.
     Later.

     --Joe

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

Date: Thu, 10 Feb 94 10:26:03 EST
From: [e-mail] (Act of Treason)
Subject: Syndicate

I don't know if this has been posted before, but:

When I run syndicate and use the 32 bit AIL drivers all is fine until it
plays the 'success' scene after you win a scenario.  When the 'car' flies
past on the screen a TERRIBLE patch plays out of the gus, overiding all other
sounds that play (fireworks ans such).  Has anyone found which patch this is
and placed in an appropriate one?  Thanks in advance.

Treason

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

Date: Tue, 8 Feb 1994 15:45:05 -0500 (EST)
From: Stoney <[e-mail]>
Subject: The Dust caveman demo..

So far as I know, the 3d Dust demo you saw in the store won't be generally
distributed because (a) it's 20MB (gotta admit that's somewhat unwieldy to
have around :) and (b) it's not public domain since someone (I'd assume
Advanced Gravis) paid Dust to make the demo for them.  In that case, it's
Gravis' decision if it gets distributed, but I doubt it due to reason a.

K.Gifford

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

Date: Thu, 10 Feb 1994 10:37:32 -0600 (CST)
From: Fitzgerald Jr Steele <[e-mail]>
Subject: Ultima 8

I don't think that Origin is pursuing GUS support too avidly.  I wrote a
real letter to Origin (licked the stamp and envelope and
everything...remember those?).  I got a reply a couple weeks later.  It's
hand typed and personally signed (even the envelope was written, not
typed).  Here's what they have to say in regards to Ultima 8.

[...]

In answer to your questions.  Ultima VIII should be out some time in late
Summer of this year.  We're taking some extra time on it to insure you get
the best product possible.  I'm sure you'll agree that it's the best
Ultima yet.  Second, we may support the Gravis Ultrasound card in the
future but it's hard to say.  The card has some definite incompatibilities
but if it becomes more of a standard we will look into it.  As for now we
highly recommend Sound Blaster or Sound Blaster Pro.

[...]
Lisa Acton
Product Support

Something tells me no GUS support from Origin this year...

--------------------==========*********==========----------------------
Jerry Steele                   "Give me a lever, and a place to stand
[e-mail]                  and I will move the world"
[e-mail]                     -- Archemedes
--------------==============*************==============----------------

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

Date: Thu, 10 Feb 1994 21:50:03 +0200 (EET)
From: [e-mail] (Heikki E. Riippa)
Subject: unsubscribe



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

Date: Thu, 10 Feb 94 12:05:11 MST
From: [e-mail] (Tom Schmidt)
Subject: WAV volume within Windows with AfterDark

I have noticed that when AfterDark kicks in a screensaver under Windows
that it changes the WAV volume thereafter.  I have the Mixer volume set at
about 7/8 full scale.  I have AfterDarks volume set one notch below full
volume.  My intent was to have the AfterDark screensaver volume to be about
1/2 of the normal WAV volume.  But instead, the volume of the screensaver is
very low.  Plus now, any other WAV's played by windows is at this same very
low volume.  I have to open mixer and set the volume back up.  But if I leave
the AD volume at full scale, it does not effect the volume set by the GUS
mixer.

Shouldn't these two be independent?  Why is the AfterDark volume control
not appear to be linear when using the multimedia output?  If I set AD to use
the PC speaker instead, the AD volume control has no effect on the GUS mixer
and appears to have linear response.

I haven't seen anyone else post any comments about this.  FYI, it has done
this regardless of driver versions (2.05, 2.06a, 3.1).

                    Thanks...Tom

_____      ___     Tom L. Schmidt
  |  |    /   \    Manager - Component Characterization
  |  |    \___     Micron Semiconductor, Inc.
  |  |        \    2805 E. Columbia Rd.  Mail Stop 376
  |  |____\___/    Boise, ID  83709-9698
                   [e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 10 Feb 1994 15:37:03 MET-1
From: "Juhasz Norbert" <[e-mail]>
Subject: What can cause this?

Hi GUSers!
My problem is a bit complicated. Help me please to find a solution,
because I'm not able to do so.

1.Many times it happens that GUS freezes or reboots my computer within
various situations.(eg. when I play Doom or play a sound file under
windows, or use Ail driver with certain games etc.) When it happens,
the GUS starts to play it's patches from the memory one by one a
kinda circulating until the boot reaches the ultrinit.

2.Sometimes when I try to play a midi file under windows it drops me
out to dos, however at other times when I play the very same file
there's no trouble at all. Other problems such as Page Faults in
progman.exe etc. also occur. (I have not changed the old windows
drivers yet and this problem might be caused by a bug in them)

The point is, that since such things do not happen regularly,
I can't really solve the problems with ULTRASND variable changes.
The truth is, that I haven't tried many combinations.
I have some theories but I need someone to help.

My configuration is:   486 DLC-40 4Mb RAM, ISA  (OPTi chipset !)
                       GUS with 1Mb RAM
                       TRIDENT 8900 video card 1Mb
                       ??? i/o card with game port (ultrajoy disabled)
                       AT-bus HD Western Digital 420 Mb
                       both floppies

Please answer if you have experienced similar things and/or can give
me a helping hand.
Greetings.
Happy GUSing!
                                       Norbert Juhasz
                                       PMMF, Department Of Informatics

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

End of GUS Daily Digest V11 #9
******************************

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