GUS Daily Digest Tue, 29 Mar 94 9:37 PST Volume 11: Issue 53 Today's Topics: 'Very Best' MIDI compilation .au files for GUS 16 bit AIL/.DLLs audio CD pin assignments CGW article revisited Doom lockups DOOM Problems DOOM Problems: Solved! GUS Daily Digest V11 #43 GUS Daily Digest V11 #52 HELP: Gabriel Knight Hiss in Recordings (2 msgs) Newest install-disks? no MIDI in gus0041 One more note On the subject of Windows AVI and GUS Origin Miles Drivers SBOS and GUS v2.2 Ultima VIII and the Gus uss8 Windows 4.0 running SBOS or MEGA-EM, ha! Wing Com II & MW2DEMO 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: Tue, 29 Mar 1994 11:21:15 +0200 From: Gerd Reichinger Subject: 'Very Best' MIDI compilation I am making a compilation of the best MIDI files for the Gravis Ultrasound (GUS) at the moment. When I have the impression that I have heard enough .MID files I want to make them available to all GUS owners (free of charge of course!). Please send me infos about good MIDI files you have come across! They should sound good on a GUS, of course. I would also greatly appreciate any infos about FTP sites where I can get these or other MIDI files. Thank you in advance, Gerd. P.S. Join me on IRC #GUS - Powergerd. +----------------------------------------------------------+ I Gerd Reichinger Schpne Grv{e aus sterreich I I TU Wien no German font - no greetings ;-) I I----------------------------------------------------------I I email to: greichin@tick.cslab.tuwien.ac.at I +----------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Mar 1994 11:03:01 +0800 (WST) From: Tien Choon Wei Subject: .au files for GUS Just a question....does anyone know what programs for GUS supports Sun's au sound format? -- ---------------------------------------------------- Address:alextien@tartarus.uwa.edu.au Favourite character? Ayukawa Madoka, of course!!!! You may have guessed that I am a KOR fan..... +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Mar 1994 19:43:34 -0800 (PST) From: Public Image Subject: 16 bit AIL/.DLLs Hmm, I'd like to think that the A16*.DLLs are standard 16-bit links for WATCOM compiled projects. Like the A32*.DLLs are for 32-bit WATCOM projects. The MidPak developement kits DOES point out that the GUS ail drivers are NOT up to date with the current version of the spec. Jayeson, would you like to tackle this one? :) -Scott ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Mar 1994 16:14:26 -0800 (PST) From: Peter C Chien Jr Subject: audio CD pin assignments Dear anyone, Can someone PLEASE tell me what the pin assignments are for the two audio CD jumper connectors, i.e., which pin is LEFT, RIGHT, and GROUND? I must have emailed tech@gravis.com about 10 times and never got a response (maybe I'm supposed to know it already, but it isn't in the manual). I have card version 3.4, but it's probably constant throughout the versions. Thanks. Peter ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Mar 1994 20:02:17 -0500 (EST) From: "K.S. Holly" Subject: CGW article revisited After reading the post in last Wednesday's digest about Don Griffin's soundcard article in CGW I wrote to them basically slamming Don for not acknowledging the GUS and what it can do. To my surprise I received a reply from the on-line editor the same day! Alan Emrich responded by saying that I should not stop reading CGW just yet because the next issue will address the situation in their 'letters to the editor' section. He forwarded my letter to the editor and Alan is hoping that he will use it along with their reply (whatever that is....). I hope this generates more interest in the GUS and it's capabilities. Either that or it will just give them a chance to slam the GUS even more.... Thanks to Fok Leslie Li Sze for last Wednesday's post about the article in CGW. Kevin ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Mar 1994 10:27:37 -0500 From: Bryon Daly Subject: Doom lockups Hello, I'm at the end of my rope with Doom 1.2. It locks up on me every time I play, within 20 minutes or so of starting, and usually sooner. What happens is the screen freezes or distorts, and the music goes bonkers. I have to powerdown to shut the GUS up. (I suppose ultrinit would reset it, but I'd have to listen to it during the whole reboot). Anyway, I sent mail to help@idsoftware.com a week ago, but got not reply. I currently have set ULTRASND=220,7,7,7,5. Prior to v1.2, Doom hardly crashed at all on my system, maybe once in a while after playing for a few hours. Now it crashes EVERY time. This is in the registered version of 1.2. I tried changing my settings to 1,1,7,5 once and the game crashed then, too. I have the gus0041.zip software installed. Does anyone have any suggestions on what might be the problem? Thanks, -Bryon ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Mar 94 9:31:24 EET DST From: Vaggelis Blathras Subject: Re: DOOM Problems > It boots OK (no obvious crap outs), but now DOOM does not play > music. I have a batch file which changes the IRQ from 11 to 7, > then runs DOOM.This has always worked in the past, but now only gives > me the effects. > > Secondly, I can't play MIDI files under DOS (haven't tried under > Windows yet). PLAYMIDI gets a DOS error. > This is just the same problem. The ultrasnd.ini is somehow different, and maybe some patches may not be there. If I am wrong , please correct me, but this is the same problem I had , and it was corrected by editing the ultrasnd.ini and commenting out some patches I don't have. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Mar 94 03:39:28 EST From: phaedrus%triples@triples.math.mcgill.ca (Phong Co) Subject: DOOM Problems: Solved! I posted yesterday that after installing the new drivers I no longer get music in DOOM, and started to get errors trying to play MIDI files. The problem is that, even though I had deleted my ULTRASND directory, the INSTALL program still detected my system as an upgrade, either because it saw the environment variables, or detected ULTRINIT. In any case, it did not copy the *.PAT files to my MIDI directory. Copying the files from my old directory gave me music in DOOM and MIDI. I also notice (I think it was mentioned in the DOOM list) that v1.2 does support IRQ11, so no batch file is necessary. I also complained about the "IMPROVED" MOD player. After copying over the *.PAT files the MOD player still plays, but the display is totally garbled. It seems funny that fixing a MIDI problem would wreck the MOD, but that's a minor problem that I can fiddle with. Thanks for everyone who sent suggestions. -- ========================================================================= Phong T. Co phaedrus@Math.McGill.CA McGill University Computer Coordinator Montreal, CANADA Department of Mathematics (514) 398-8448 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Mar 94 19:41:43 -0500 From: Phil Longstaff Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V11 #43 >Date: Tue, 22 Mar 94 11:52:00 PST >From: n4zfd!frodo@rylos.n2idf.ampr.org ("James M. Blakely") >Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V11 #43 > >Paul Murgatroyd said... >> > >> > Will the Gus function with pure Windows? And if so, what programs will >> > function properly with Gus and Windows? >> >> My advice....forget about Windows 4.0! If you want to get rid of dos, then >> OS/2 is the way to go. I was introduced to OS/2 two weeks ago, and liked >> it so much that I deleted Windows off my hard drive (OS/2 will run all my >> Windows and dos apps). > >Well, except for one small..teeny tiny little thing... > >*NONE* of the major developers are developing applications for OS/2. > Except for Lotus, or do you not consider them major? Also, since OS/2 can run Windows apps better (yes, it does depend upon the definition of "better") than Windows can, I don't absolutely *need* OS/2 apps to gain major benefit from OS/2. >*ALL* of the major developers (and several thousand smaller ones) are >developing Win32 applications, which will run under Windows 4.0 and Windows >NT, but, alas, too bad, not under OS/2. OS/2 version 2.2, due some time this year, and probably many months before Windows 4.0 a.k.a. Chicago is rumored to have Win32s support. There are also rumors of support for VxD's (such as the current GUS Windows driver). > >And, as has already been pointed out, Chicago (a/k/a Windows 4.0) will >support existing Windows 3.1 device drivers, soooooo... > >Oh, and it also has a "Single MS-DOS Application Mode" where you can run an >MS-DOS app, such as a game, that violates the "rules". It'll be interesting >to see whether SBOS & Mega-Em will run in this mode (they should). It is also reported that Chicago is mostly 16-bit code with only a bit of 32-bit code, and that its interface is mostly a rip-off of other interfaces. If so, why should I wait for MS to produce an inferior system when I can have all of the benefits now? This is all off-topic of course. I suggest this be taken up on the net on comp.os.os2.advocacy. Phil ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Mar 94 16:02:26 +0200 From: Yossi Oren Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V11 #52 >From: ksoule@tatertot.com (Kent E. Soule) >Subject: EPIC Pinball; Errant Sound > >I have noticed a slight problem with EPIC Pinball (which ships >as Bonus Software with the GUS Rev. 3.7 card). There are two >major sound tracks in the program; the one that plays while you >are going through the introductory material, and the one that >plays while the game is actually being played. *booop* da da dum, badabadum, da *booop* da dum da da da dadum? Like that? >I have found that when the program starts (intro mode), while >the music is playing there is a random solid tone about every >10 seconds. Short duration, perhaps 3/4 of a second. It >continues every 10 seconds or so, until the game mode starts. >No problems in the game mode. Further, if after being in game >mode, I return to the intro/setup mode, the theme plays fine >WITHOUT the random note. This was disussed on CSIPS a while ago, and Josh Jensen (author of MASI, the sound interface used in EP) said it's because the modules were composed using Future Crew's Screamtracker, then converted to MASI, and the conversion was imperfect. He's got a release coming along (someday) which might take care of that. Yossi. +---+---+---+---------------------------------------------------+---+---+ | = | E |_|/| Signature 1.31 | V | ^ | +---+---+---+---------------------------------------------------+---+---+ |Yossi Oren, Al-Daf Techno-Mercenaries, Rishon Le-Zion, Israel. Help | |TInternet EMail:LIOREN1@WEIZMANN.WEIZMANN.AC.IL TT The people are T| ||Bitnet EMail:LIOREN1@WEIZMANN || with the Golan || ||Drag yer damn objects around. I've got work to do.|| Heights! || +====================================================++================++ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Mar 1994 19:09:47 -0400 (AST) From: Jurassic Mark Subject: HELP: Gabriel Knight G'day, I'm desperate. I just bought Gabriel Knight: Sins Of The Father (CD-ROM Edition) from Sierra On-Line today. Since the 32bit GUS/Sierra drivers are not publicly released yet, I installed the Windows version to play. People told me that under Windows, GK will work with my Ultrasound. I tried and tried and tried everything. But I keep getting to strange error messages after a few seconds in the game. Messages like "SCIW caused a General Protection fault in module will close" or "Fatal Eeeor - 7801 is not a selector for uEvt Script". Even worse, some error messages have weird names like "Ert1wd46t". Seems like random names for me. I tried everything. I tried with QEMM and with EMM386. I tried with Norton Cache and with SMARTDRV and without a cache. I created a boot disk with only the drivers I needed (CD-ROM, mouse, memory manager). Nothing worked. I went into Sound Mapper and checked the box "Use prefered drivers". Didn't do anything. The movie works though. I mean the "making of..." movie. But the game just doesn't want to work. I also tried with and without loading my patches with PatchManager. I tried with linear or exponential volume. I tried with 8bit and 16bit samples. I tried everything!!! I don't have anything running in Windows. I had King's Quest VI CD under Windows before and it was working perfectly. This one is giving me real troubles. Do you have any idea of what I should do that I didn't think of? Any suggestions? If I can't get this game working, I'll have to return it. That's too bad because it seems like an incredible game. Marc Y. Paulin - Jurassic Mark (Usenet) - J-Mark (IRC) Graduating CS student in search of a job... - markus@clement.info.umoncton.ca (Talk 'n Mail) - (506)856-9518 - Inertia Player Beta Tester - Author of the G-List for Ultrasound owners ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Mar 94 18:33:35 EST From: brian@ee.cornell.edu (Brian Kelley) Subject: Hiss in Recordings >Date: Mon, 28 Mar 94 08:38:04 TZ >From: Daryl James >Subject: Hiss in recordings .. Text Deleted ... > I too have the same problem. Since I got the GUS I have tried >recording using USS8 and the standard Sound Recorder Applet in Windows >3.1, but my recordings all suffer from the same hiss. I have also >tried using Line-in and Microphone in, 3 different microphones (one mic >from Windows Sound System, and the others were professional dynamic >mics) all with mini stereo jacks- all of these produced a very >distorted sound even before recording starts by just playing directly >thru GUS using the Mixer applet. When I am recording with a microphone into the mic input under Windos, I too had bad problems with hiss until I muted Line In and Output using the mixer applet. Hope this helps. brian brian@marvin.ee.cornell.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Mar 1994 10:01:53 -0700 (MST) From: "Shawn T. Rutledge" Subject: Hiss in recordings > Date: Mon, 28 Mar 94 08:38:04 TZ > From: Daryl James > Subject: Hiss in recordings > > > From: Haroon Sheikh > > > > Why is it that no matter what sampling frequency that I record at, I always > > get a layer of hiss (noise) over the entire recording. I've tried all > > I too have the same problem. Since I got the GUS I have tried > recording using USS8 and the standard Sound Recorder Applet in Windows > 3.1, but my recordings all suffer from the same hiss. I have also > tried using Line-in and Microphone in, 3 different microphones (one mic > from Windows Sound System, and the others were professional dynamic > mics) all with mini stereo jacks- all of these produced a very > distorted sound even before recording starts by just playing directly > thru GUS using the Mixer applet. I have only been able to get the level Distortion too? That sounds pretty serious. I thought Haroon was just being nitpicky, but maybe not. I get a little hiss from mine, but it's no worse than, say, the background hiss on a non-Dolby cassette recording. No, I don't have the daughtercard. I suspect either there is something wrong with your card or something wrong externally if you're getting any more hiss than that. I do use pretty good microphones. You should also be sure you're not shorting one channel out - it's easy to do with 3-conductor 1/8" jacks. I wish they'd used something else. But anyhow, make sure you don't short out one of the channels. I accidently did this by using an adapter that I THOUGHT was a splitter - 1 1/8" stereo to 2 1/8" mono, but actually it went to 2 1/8" stereo. Then I had two 1/8" to 1/4" adapters plugged into that one, and the result was that my right channel was shorted. That was on the speaker out. I still got sound out of both speakers, but I noticed that one sounded much more distorted than the other, and I had no panning control. So, to see if that's your problem, use GUSMOD and see if you can pan sounds left and right. I'm wondering if shorting out a channel on any of the other jacks wouldn't also cause problems for recording. > Can someone please tell me what the input impedances/sensitivity are > for the Line-In and Mic inputs? I recall that the "Standard" for > line-in is usually 1 volt into 600 ohms, but maybe it is something > different in the GUS? I don't know about GUS, but usually line ins and line outs are around 50000 ohms. You are probably thinking of mikes - I think they are usually 600 ohms. Also, the usual line-level impedance is high enough that you generally don't have to worry about it - it won't make any significant difference if it's 10K or 100K instead of 50K. -- _______ KB7PWD (_ | |_) shawn.rutledge@asu.edu __) | | \__________________________________________________________________ * anti-Macintosh * C * Star Trek * Internet * ARS * ham radio * GUS * ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Mar 1994 15:46:42 +0300 (EET DST) From: agranhol@bilbo.abo.fi (Alexander Granholm) Subject: Newest install-disks? Greetings, I just bought my GUS (last week, actually) and I'm very pleased with it so far anyway. However, the install disks that came with the soundcard are stamped 3.1 and with a revision date of january -94. So far I've only read about the 2.06 disks that are available in the archives. So, anyone else got the 3.1 disks? (Or am I just imagining things?) -- Alexander Granholm (agranhol@bilbo.abo.fi) / ------------------------------- Institution of Societal Sciences / "Put knot yore trussed Abo Akademi University, Vasa, Finland. / in spel chequers" ---------------------------------------/ ------------------------------ Date: 29 Mar 94 07:30:00 MET From: "VISX80::GRECNER" Subject: Re: no MIDI in gus0041 > > Since I upgraded to Winslows 3.11 and GUS Install 3.1, I've lost > the MIDI > > in Windows. The .WAVs play fine, but I can't get .MIDs to play at > > all. I don't know if this is the point, but in gus0041.zip (install 3.1) there are no MIDI patches. So after I've installed 3.1 software into new directory, I had to copy my old patches to .\MIDI subdirectory manually. Further more I had to edit ultrasnd.ini to change path to my ULTRASND direc- tory since it's not in C:\ULTRASND. Maybe one of these two is the reason why you have no MIDI sound... Hope this helps Martin ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Mar 1994 20:10:04 -0500 (EST) From: "K.S. Holly" Subject: One more note I hear that Pc Magazine gave the GUS a bad review. Maybe we should all take 5 minutes and respond to these reviews by writing to the magazines on e-mail. That's what I did with CGW and I got a response in hours! Then again, PC Magazine IS one of the most blatantly biased magazines, at least from my observations...... Kevin ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Mar 94 13:48:21 EST From: brian@ee.cornell.edu (Brian Kelley) Subject: On the subject of Windows AVI and GUS First of all, I agree that the GUS drivers slow down video playback. At first I assumed that the various Audio/Video formats were just not very good. I have had some problems with QuickTime movies as well. One slight fix for using AVI files is as follows: 1) Enter the Control Panel and select the "Drivers" applet. 2) For the selection "[MDI] Microsoft Video" select "Setup" 3) make sure that the "Skip frames if behind" button is NOT selected. (I hope I have the driver name right, I'm doing this from memory) This will stop the jumpiness of the video, but the sound still won't sink with motion. While I'm at it, I just Purchased Bethesda's Arena: the elder scrolls. Even on my puny 256k GUS, it has the best soundtrack I have EVER heard in a game. (Except for the scramble music in Wing Commander, that still ranks as my favorite, even though I have only heard it on a soundblaster) Ultramid is still a memory hog though. brian brian@marvin.ee.cornell.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Mar 1994 15:57:03 -0500 From: Fok Leslie Li Sze Subject: Origin Miles Drivers Well, as I read posts about Ultima 8 and these Origin "custom" Miles Drivers, I am wondering since Origin loves to hack the standard drivers to pieces, perhaps Gravis could give them a taste of their own medicine and hack their drivers so that we GUS owners can get decent sound support? I am hoping that either Gravis would come out with a patch or something for this game. Or else I guess I have to invest in a new soundcard, because I am too much of a Ultima fan. (and I wish I know enough to hack the drivers myself). ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Mar 94 15:32:37 PST From: ebulalacao@csupomona.edu Subject: SBOS and GUS v2.2 I've got the latest SBOS from GUS0040 or something...and I have a GUS v2.2. Ever since I got the newest disk set, I haven't been able to get the sound from Mortal Kombat. I get garage sound, then the program crashes. Is this an ULTRINIT problem? I changed my SBOS to an earlier version, and the problem persisted. This problem only occured after I installed the newest disk set. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Mar 1994 13:42:03 -0330 From: Johathan Park Subject: Ultima VIII and the Gus I've seen the following message on usenet: >I CAN'T GET ANY SOUND OUT OF THE GUS WITH U8! > >1. These are the files that look sound-related: >ULTIMA8\AILXMI.DLL 18,568 >ULTIMA8\SOUND\SOUND.FLX 1,229,584 >ULTIMA8\SOUND\MUSIC.FLX 1,378,135 >ULTIMA8\SOUND\A16SBFM.DLL 18,568 >ULTIMA8\SOUND\A16MT32.DLL 13,191 > >2. Setup History Iteration Table (SHIT) >SBOS 3.08 - Hangs with params -x1, -x2, -x3, -o1, -o2, and no params > >MEGAEM 2.03 - Hangs with params -mt, (no)-mt > - Haven't tried -RIRQ yet to see if that helps (I doubt > it will) > >GUSAIL3214 - I tried renaming the A32... files to be called A16... > This made things worse - U8 exited with a gnarly error > >I don't want to play this without any sound, of course. I have >confidence that someone somewhere will figure something out, just >like with U7 and U7.5. > >My impression of the game so far is that it's boring without sound! > >Greg My question is does anyone know what the ailxmi.dll file is used for exactly? Are the settings for general midi cards or sound blasters hard coded into it? It looks as if the other two should be fine with gusail3214 replacements and I was wondering if the other file could be the problem. As an aside... How many digital channels does the ail32 spec allow for? People have said that u8 has several at once and i'm wondering if its through another driver mixing the sounds or if origin is once again using modified drivers to suit their own purposes. Sorry if this took up a lot of space, Jonathan Park - jpark@engr.mun.ca Long live the GUS! ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Mar 94 15:59:39 +0200 From: johan linder Subject: uss8 When I record and playback music at 44100 sample rate, drop outs occurs, is my disk to slow or is a software problem? Is there any other good program for recording and mixing sound? Johan Linder v92jl@hh.se ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Mar 1994 10:51:44 -0500 (EST) From: rjm@dretor.dciem.dnd.ca Subject: Re: Windows 4.0 running SBOS or MEGA-EM, ha! Jim Blakely said... > Paul Murgatroyd said... > > > > > > Will the Gus function with pure Windows? And if so, what programs will > > > function properly with Gus and Windows? > > > > My advice....forget about Windows 4.0! If you want to get rid of dos, then > > OS/2 is the way to go. I was introduced to OS/2 two weeks ago, and liked > > it so much that I deleted Windows off my hard drive (OS/2 will run all my > > Windows and dos apps). > > Well, except for one small..teeny tiny little thing... > > *NONE* of the major developers are developing applications for OS/2. I think you forgot about a few tiny companies like Lotus. > *ALL* of the major developers (and several thousand smaller ones) are > developing Win32 applications, which will run under Windows 4.0 and Windows > NT, but, alas, too bad, not under OS/2. That's right. Look how many native NT apps there are already! :). > And, as has already been pointed out, Chicago (a/k/a Windows 4.0) will > support existing Windows 3.1 device drivers, soooooo... I'll believe that when I see it. > Oh, and it also has a "Single MS-DOS Application Mode" where you can run an > MS-DOS app, such as a game, that violates the "rules". It'll be interesting > to see whether SBOS & Mega-Em will run in this mode (they should). I wasn't going to reply until I read this ridiculous statement. Microsoft Solution provider? Reads more like frustration generator. Robert. -- # Robert J. Manley, rjm@dretor.dciem.dnd.ca # # NTT Systems Inc., Toronto, Ontario, CANADA # # OS/2:OSs :: 92,93 Blue Jays:MLB :: Canada:World # ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Mar 1994 12:46:03 -0500 From: Martin H Rogers Subject: Wing Com II & MW2DEMO FWIW, Babbages had Wing Commander II with speech pack marked down to $19.99 so I thought I'd give it a try. I set it up for Roland music and digital speech and used Megaem 2.03. Seems to be working just fine. Only one lockup in about 5 hours of play. (Takes 20 MB of disk space, though!) The Mech Warrior 2 playable demo made it to a local BBS and I tried it as well. Set it up for SB clone for music and digital FX. As was reported here earlier, it comes with ultramid.exe, but doesn't have GUS as an install option. I copied the GF166.COM over the SBCLONE.COM and ran ultramid before playing. Sound effects are pretty good, but the game seems pretty slow on my 386DX/33 (8 MB RAM, MS DOS 6.2, EMM386). I'll probably try it out on Roland music before too long, 'though my interest in the game isn't too great (keep getting killed and can't seem to figure out just what to do). Also have the old version of Chuck Yeager's Air Combat, using SBOS 2.08. Just double spaced last night, and now Chuck seems to lock up when the digital voice should start up at the opening menu screen. I haven't had time to try putting it on an uncompressed partition -- any idea what to try if that doesn't work? (I'm kinda stuck using dblspace for a while -- the ol' 250 MB hard drive just doesn't seem to hold as much as it did a year ago.) -Martin ------------------------------ End of GUS Daily Digest V11 #53 *******************************