
Ultrasound Daily Digest     Fri Jul  9 00:07     Volume 4: Issue  38  

Today's Topics:
               AIL drivers and Ultima7 AND Xwing probs.
                        as usual, a few things
                         Customizing ultramid
                         damtrak and p669v105
                         Dune2 and AIL works!
                  Edit Patch Button Grayed - Answer
                             General MIDI
         GoldWave and PatchEditor don't mix too well...(GUS)
                 Gravis 1st Quarter Report Released 
                        Gravis Users Database
               GUS and Strike Commander native support
                     GUS Bad DMA problem....help!
                         GUS drivers for OS/2
             Haven't seen your post yet?  Not a problem.
                      JUST TO LET YOU KNOW  1/2
                      JUST TO LET YOU KNOW  2/2
              problem with Windows drivers & Winprinter
                              Space Hulk
                              subscribe
                           trouble with gus
                   Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #35 
                    Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #36
                    Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #37
            Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #37 Xwing now works
                            X-Wing and GUS

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, 08 Jul 93 09:58:44 -0700
From: cliff@trifid.astro.ucla.edu
Subject: AIL drivers and Ultima7 AND Xwing probs.
Message-ID: <9307081658.AA01827@trifid.astro.ucla.edu>

1. Has anyone been able to configure UltraMid to work with Ultima7?  I tried
 setting it up by copying over the .adv files, but I keep getting sound card
 initialization errors whenever I start the game.

2. I have been trying for some time to get Xwing to work with SBOS. I have tried
  version 1.20, 2.08, and 2.09B without any success.  2.08 and 2.09B simply lock
  up when I try to start Xwing with SoundBlaster (DIG and music).  With 1.20 the
  game starts up with music and the opening scenes but then locks up when speech
  should be played. I've tried disabling smartdrv and loading SBOS low but the
  results are always the same. I have two SCSI hard disks in my system connected
  to an UltraStor 14F controller if that makes a difference. I'm also using
  MS Dos 6.0 with himem and emm386.  Thanks in advanced.

 cliff

 cliff@trifid.astro.ucla.edu

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

Date: Thu, 08 Jul 93 13:41:52 EDT
From: pccmoddan@aol.com
Subject: as usual, a few things
Message-ID: <9307081341.tn10332@aol.com>

1) Whoever was talking about Origin & EA *not* supporting the GUS is
misinformed. Richard Garriott himself stated (at CES) that Origin's new sound
system will support the GUS. This is highly likely information considering
#1, Rich is God at Origin, and #2, the Origin guys have *obviously* spent
some time these last few months working with the GUS, because that ain't SBOS
that Strike Commander runs under when Gravis shows it at their show booth. 

I've heard that some upcoming EA games will indeed support the GUS too.

The only companies at this point in the industry who have an "excuse" to not
support the GUS are companies like LucasArts and Sierra, who use their own
proprietary music systems, and not the AIL drivers. However, if everyone else
starts shipping games with AIL support for GUS, and Origin has added GUS
support to their sound system, I'd say it's only a matter of time until the
good people at LucasArts decide to support it. Sierra, on the other hand,
will diddle and daddle and make excuses for a little while, and then go out
and hire a programmer or two to do the work for them. :)

- Dan

________________________________________________
| Dan Nicholson | email: pccmoddan@aol.com     |
|  aka          | uuencoded: moddan@bowker.com |
| Maelcum [KLF] | America Online: PCC ModDan   |
|  and          | VirtualNet: 2 @ 9082         |
| [PCC] ModDan  | Voice Phone: currently down  |
|_______________|______________________________|
|                                              |
|           Levisionet Technologies            |
|           553 Thoreau Terrace                |
|           Union, NJ 07083   U.S.A.           |
|          (Formerly PCkS Associates)          |
|______________________________________________|

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

Date: Thu, 08 Jul 1993 18:38:17 -0300
From: DODSON@ac.dal.ca
Subject: Customizing ultramid
Message-ID: <01H0B5BAKFJM003NV1@AC.DAL.CA>

I noticed a few people are having probs with sound effects in Dune, etc.
I don't have this game, so I don't know if the sound FX are midi patches
or stuff sent to GF1DIGI.  If it is midi, I have a fix:

I have been playing around with ultramid.ini, and have figured out how to do
a few things.  I think there are some very good possibilities here.  If you
have a game which uses, say, drums (or that silly slide whistle patch) for
gunshots, and you want "real bullets" all you have to do is built/get a new
patch, change ultramid.ini, and away you go.  I built a batch file which
handles multiple .ini's (defaulting to the original one), and if there is 
interest I'll write a program to automate the customization, e.g. keeping
track of free mem on the card.  (Actually I'll write it anyway, but if there's
interest I'll make it better, easier to use)

I think that having RAM -not ROM patches should be used as an advantage, rather
than I liability.  Being able to "fine-tune" patch choices will show that 
advantage.  

By the way, if this idea catches on, we could eventually have a library of
custom .ini's/patches for games, on the FTP sites.  Or maybe I'm taking this
too far?

Anyway... I think I'll go play with these ideas now :)

The happy GUS'er.  dodson@ac.dal.ca     Bruce Dodson

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

Date: Wed, 07 Jul 93 13:01:57 -0400
From: "Momentary language, sexual situations" <dantonio@magick.tay2.dec.com>
Subject: damtrak and p669v105
Message-ID: <9307071701.AA02578@magick.tay2.dec.com>

Has anyone been able to get these to work properly? damtrak makes no sound
and none of the scopes move. The position counter DOES increment (rather
quickly, too!). Is this normal (since it's a beta release to test SVGA
stuff)? What I suspect is that the program is assuming that my GUS is at
the standard hex address and IRQs...Which it's not.

p669v105 correctly finds the GUS and plays the sound (nice display, BTW),
but when I tried to exit, it locked up my system...

Any help would be appreciated...

DDA

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

Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1993 12:20:02 -0400
From: Ryan Kim <rkim@eecg.toronto.edu>
Subject: Dune2 and AIL works!
Message-ID: <93Jul8.122008edt.19087@picton.eecg.toronto.edu>

Here's a few hours' worth of my effort I'd like to share...

First of all, Dune2 & AIL does not work with QEMM.
This leaves me with himem.sys which resulted in 'insufficient
memory' message from Dune2.
I didn't realize that I needed to load emm386.exe to use loadhigh.
(That DOS manual became handy at a time like this...)
So, now, in my config.sys, I have, among other stuff:

  deivce=himem.sys
  dos=high,umb
  device=emm386.exe noems

And I call ultramid as:

  lh ultramid -m100 -c

This should give you about 620K of free DOS memory after loading
mouse driver and ultramid to high and Dune2 is happy again.

I got Dune2 and AIL working with either MT32 or Sound Canvas as
MIDI device and Sound Blaster Pro (I think) as digital sound device,
using the patch program from EPAS and some hex-editing.
I guess, with the new patch program available now from EPAS,
you wouldn't need any hex-editing.
Besides, selecting Sound Canvas generates much better sound
and has no annoying 'MT32 initializing...' or disk drive seek.

Enjoy!

Ryan

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

Date: 07 Jul 93 09:27:21 EDT
From: "Eric Bell, Howling Dog Systems" <71333.2166@CompuServe.COM>
Subject: Edit Patch Button Grayed - Answer
Message-ID: <930707132721_71333.2166_DHQ97-1@CompuServe.COM>

Afzal Ballim wrote:

> Next, has anyone else had a problem that the "edit patch" button
> in PowerChords seems tpo often be inactive when it should be active?

The 'Edit Patch' button is inactive when you are editing parameters for a
Chord Rhythm. This is because the patch for chord parts is set from the
Tuning Options dialog, for the on-screen instrument. (From main menu
'Options', then 'Tuning...'.

You can compare by double clicking on a chord rhythm in a song or in the
palette, and then closing it up and double clicking on a melody in a song or
in the palette. The melody will allow access to 'Edit Patch', and the chord
rhythm will not.

Power Chords Pro will in future allow you to set a patch for each chord
rhythm (ie change instrument sounds in the chord part on the fly during a
song).

Eric Bell, Howling Dog Systems

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

Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1993 12:09:50 -0500 (CDT)
From: Siu-fung Lee <umlee182@ccu.umanitoba.ca>
Subject: General MIDI
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9307081250.A25240-a100000@ccu.umanitoba.ca>

Speaking of GMIDI, why doesn't Gravis write a tsr of some sort to
correctly emulate it for games?  Since I don't know the code involved, I
can't say how hard it would be.  But seeing that GUS _is_ GMIDI, it
couldn't be that hard.  Guess Gravis is already swapped with requests for
this and that....  It's okay actually, since GMIDI cannot do speech
for games.


Hmmm... would a sound coprocessor be useful on a GUS?  Sort've been
wondering that myself.  I'd guess only slightly....

Ack!



GUS GUS GUS -> MIDI MIDI MIDI!!!!!!!
Keyboard!  I need a keyboard!

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

Date: Mon, 5 Jul 1993 21:29:29 GMT
From: KJOHNSSON@FINABO.ABO.FI (Kim-Erik Johnsson INF)
Subject: GoldWave and PatchEditor don't mix too well...(GUS)
Message-ID: <1993Jul5.212929.12242@abo.fi>

ReprintFrom: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard

Frustration!

Today I downloaded Goldwave, and I immediately started to like it. Previously I
used USS8 (which I don't particularly like) for sampling, so GW was a big step
forward for me (I bought GUS a week ago).

But, lo & behold, when trying to insert .wavs (recorded with GW) with the 
patch editor, I get the message Ouch, not a mono sample when, in fact, that's 
just what they are.

After I encountered this problem I naturally assumed every program on my
hard-disk was lethally virus-infected and that there was absolutely no way I 
could ever enjoy sampling&playing again. So I regressed back to USS8,
and this time I had no problems with inserting with PE.

After that I tried the WaveToPat program, and it worked ok for sounds sampled
with USS8.

Then I triedWavToPat with .wavs made with GW, and this time I actually managed
to create a patch, but it sounded just plain awful: the original sound was
there, but immediately afterwards came some noise which I after a while
recognized to be a sound I had sampled previously...so now my patches have
developed a short-term memory! GW sure works in mysterious waves...

And, I might add, I find all of this *extremely* annoying!

Have any of you had this same problem?!? If not, lucky you.

Is somewhere out there another program like GW, but without this neat
automatic mono->stereo-conversion feature?!?

Just asking for help...

...HELP!

--

  nhn          Kim Johnsson, CS @ ]bo Akademi                 That
s(. .)s             Luostarinkatu 6 B 11                   thing down 
 K o J                  20700 Turku                       there is the
   O                      Finland                    movie quote of the day
"Rambo is a pussy!"
       - Sylvester Stallone, Tango & Cash

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

Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1993 01:03:39 GMT
From: dedmunds@beaufort.sfu.ca (Darran Edmundson)
Subject: Re: Gravis 1st Quarter Report Released 
Message-ID: <dedmunds.741920619@sfu.ca>

ReprintFrom: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard

gkirikos@epas.utoronto.ca (George Kirikos) writes:

>Advanced Gravis' 1st Quarter Report was released on Friday, and here
>is what was printed in today's Globe and Mail (Saturday, July 3, 1993,
>Report on Business, page B2). Here it is:

>"Advanced Gravis Computer Technology Ltd., Vancouver
>3 months to Apr. 30, 1993                  Year Ago

>Revenue		$4,398,807		$2,648,139
>Net profit	     8,319		   170,548
>Net profit/share       nil                    0.02

>Well, it was as bad as I thought it might be. The stock hit a 52-week
>high on Friday of $3.75, but closed down a nickel on the day to $3.55.
>I don't know whether the earnings were released during the trading
>day or after the close.

Surprisingly, Gravis gained $0.05 on the TSE to close Monday at $3.60.
I had put in a "stop loss" for $3.50 on Sunday night - luckily, it wasn't
necessary.

What are your thoughts George on why the stock didn't take a dive?

-- 

Darran Edmundson
dedmunds@sfu.ca

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

Date: Thu, 08 Jul 93 13:24:10 +0100
From: zccaj19@ucl.ac.uk (Mr Stefan Magdalinski)
Subject: Gravis Users Database
Message-ID: <9307081224.AA21419@link-1.ts.bcc.ac.uk>

John Smith writes:
>But I have
>exported the May '93 dbase of GUS Reg. users as an ASCII Text file and
>chopped out a bunch of the fields so all you get now is FIRST, LAST,
>STATE, last few digits of phone.  You can get the file from our BBS as
>GRAVDBAS.ZIP and I'm sure you'll find it on the FTP sites by the time
>you read this.  This is a copy of the dbase that actually went down to
>the fulfillment house in the states.

Does this list include non-U.S. registrations?
(not on EPAS yet)
How can I find out if my registration card got to Switzerland?
Also, I've been trying to get the software from the store where I
bought the card. They told me to contact Zye technology, who
are the British distributors apparently. Zye told me that they had
not received the updated disks yet either !!!
 shurely shome mishtake?

Stefan Magdalinski
zccaj19@ucl.ac.uk
These views are mine, but you can borrow them if you like.

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

Date: Tue Jul 06 09:06:46 1993
From: monty@butler.cps.com (Montgomery Kosma)
Subject: GUS and Strike Commander native support
Message-ID: <2c3986f8.butler@butler.cps.com>

> pccmoddan@aol.com wrote:
>true; it *hurts!*), two machines running games (one running Strike Commander
>with *native GUS support*, and the other running a large variety of games

Anybody know anything about how to get a hold of this?  Will it be a SC
update?  In fact, it looked like SC uses the Miles drivers, but I couldn't get
it to work...

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Montgomery Kosma
monty@butler.cps.com					  Phone: 816-968-3542

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

Date: Mon, 5 Jul 1993 20:13:09 GMT
From: ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca (Phat H Tran)
Subject: Re: GUS Bad DMA problem....help!
Message-ID: <C9pK5y.AIw@watserv2.uwaterloo.ca>

ReprintFrom: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard

In article <darrenj.741740979@morgan> darrenj@morgan.ucs.mun.ca (Darren Jacobs) writes:
>	I have problems with my gus locking up my computer.  After using
>the Diagnostic utility with SETGUS I get an this error message about 30%
>of the time:
>
>     UltraSound DMA Channel 3 test - Bad dma data compare (read)
>
>	This error message pops up only occasionally; most of the time
>the diagnostic says that everything is fine...but my computer still
>locks up.  

I have a similar problem using 386Max and my GUS.  If I have my multi-I/O
and my internal modem installed, then the computer would lock up when
there's a DMA transfer to/from the GUS.  In fact, trying to access my
floppy drives (which are on DMA 2) would lock up my computer just as tight.
If I take out my multi-I/O, and leave my modem in, then 386Max will
work with my GUS and floppy drives once I let the components warm
up.  If my modem is cool, then I get sporadic DMA errors, such as
the one you got in SETGUS.  Such errors caused random lockups of
SBOS, playmidi, and ultramid -c.

I also purchased a single COM port, and if I take out my modem and
stick in that serial card, then I can get 386Max and GUS working
after a warm-up period.  I get sporadic DMA errors if the serial
card is cool.  If I slap a second UART on the serial card to get
COM2, or install my internal modem (which has a UART of its own) in 
addition to the serial card, then 386Max and GUS would fail to work 
no matter how long I allow for the components to heat up.  I even 
wrapped the cards in styrofoam.  The DMA problems persisted regardless 
of whether I use an 8-bit or 16-bit DMA channel for the GUS, or whether 
I use OPTIFIX or not (I don't have an OPTi chipset, BTW).

However, I can get my GUS, 386Max, my multi-I/O card and my modem
to all work together if I use them under Windows.  The GUS' Windows 
drivers work fine with 386Max, and even the GUS' DOS utilities will work
in a Windows DOS box if I comment out all the GUS drivers from
system.ini.  (I had to hack playmidi so that it wouldn't abort saying
"Can't run this program under Windows", but after that, it played
.mids just fine, even in the background.  SETGUS reported no problems
except for the SBOS diagnostic, and SBOS, obviously, didn't work
under Windows.)

I have no DMA problems if EMM386 is my memory manager, or if I don't 
use any memory manager at all.  However, I do have problems with the 
new SBOSes which are related to my I/O card and modem.  SBOS' DAC 
emulation will not work properly unless I only have my modem or my 
single UART serial card installed, and give the cards some time to warm 
up.

>Would purchasing a new motherboard be a solution? (I put the
>GUS card in another computer and it seemed to work fine.  BTW the
>computer locks up almost all the time when SBOS is run, even ULTRAMIDI
>-C (the Miles Drivers) will lock up my computer.
>

SBOS and Ultramid -c both do a lot of DMA transfers to the GUS, so it's
not surprising they'll lock up.  Try commenting out all your GUS drivers
from system.ini (grvsultr.386 in [386enh] and ultrasnd.drv and 
ultmport.drv in [drivers]) and then run setgus and ultramid -c under
Windows.  Also, see if pulling out your multi-I/O or modem card will
solve the problem.  It's not a viable solution, but I would like to 
know if anyone else is experiencing the same multi-I/O-DMA-386Max
problems that I am.

I called Qualitas up to see why I couldn't use my floppies with 386Max
(this was long before I got my GUS), and they said that it was a BIOS
problem, and that I should upgrade my BIOS.  They might be right.  Do
you have an old BIOS yourself?

Phat.

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

Date: Thu, 8 Jul 93 20:40:52 EDT
From: Jon Spewak <Jon.Spewak@lambada.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: GUS drivers for OS/2
Message-ID: <9307090040.AA11851@lambada.oit.unc.edu>

> Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1993 22:16:38 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Brian Go <bgo@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
> Subject: Good work Gravis...
> Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9307062238.B28970-a100000@sciborg>
> 
> I want OS/2 2.1 drivers.  I have spent many unsuccessful hours trying to
> make my GUS work in native OS/2.  How much longer does a guy have to wait?
> Gravis has sent staff to IBM and has copies of 2.1 GA.....
> I sit and wait, but my patience is draining....
> Flame off....

I myself am about to install OS/2 2.1, and have a GUS.  While I was at
PC/Expo, I asked Gravis about the OS/2 drivers.  They said what I already
know was that there are no GUS drivers for OS/2 yet.  But, he did say that
they are working on something which won't be available for another month
or two or so.  He had no details about it, but at least that's something.

Another thing...  I just got off the phone with IBM and asked a question
about the GUS working under DOS under OS/2.  I asked that if I opened up a
DOS session under OS/2, could I run DOS applications that access the GUS
such as games, and Ultrasound sound editors, etc.  They said NO the sound
card would NOT work as long as the computer boots up with OS/2, and I
could only use the card if I run off of a bootdisk or don't boot OS/2. 
But, they did say if the card emulates the Soundblaster, then the SB
drivers might work.  I don't know if this would work.

I just got OS/2 and am reluctant to install it.  Those of you running OS/2
and GUS, I'd appreciate your input about how you guys manage.

Gravis..  The GUS OS/2 drivers would be greatly appreciated by us loyal
GUS owners.

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

Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1993 14:01:30 -0600 (CDT)
From: ddebry@itchy (Dave DeBry)
Subject: Haven't seen your post yet?  Not a problem.
Message-ID: <9307082001.AA13785@itchy>

	You may have mailed to one of the GUS addresses in the past
few days and had no response.  Here is the reason (as quoted from one
of the sysadmins here):

> Apparently several days ago our domain, ES.COM, dropped out of the
> domain name services at uunet or some other domain nameserver.  This
> appears to be the cause of our News stoppage and may be affecting some
> mail coming into the Company from outside E&S.  I am working with
> UUNET Technologies to resolve this problem.  Please be patient.  Thank
> you!

	This problem has now been solved.  If your mailed bounced,
please resend it.  If it *didn't* bounce, that means it was put in a
queue somewhere and is waiting for ES.COM to be put back into the
domain list, which should have happened by now.  So your mail will get
here the next time the mail queue is run.

-- 
Dave  ddebry@ debry@   \ 
DeBry dsd.    peruvian. | "A jar of eyes can be a tasty treat."
      es.     cs.utah.  |
      com     edu      /  

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

Date: Thu, 08 Jul 93 15:22:11 
From: john.smith@gravis.com
Subject: JUST TO LET YOU KNOW  1/2
Message-ID: <9307081522.A9697wk@gravis.com>

JUST TO LET YOU KNOW #5
=======================

Hello fellow Gravoids <g>

Canadian Upgrades
-----------------
The case of the missing Canadian upgrades seems to have been solved.
Alan Alvarez has been doing a lot of calling this week and has traced
them down.  It seems that the fulfillment house used the courier DHL
to get the packages into Canada.  All 2000 Canadian upgrades were sent
to DHL Chicago to clear customs.  Now for the real kicker.  They sat
in the DHL warehouse for 1 1/2 weeks before anyone decided to do
anything with it.  It then took them another week and 1/2 to get the
packages cleared through customs.  As of July 2nd, 1993 ALL Canadian
packages are actually in this country. Canada post assures us that
all packages will be delivered in 6-9 days.  This means everyone
in Canada SHOULD start receiving their packages the week of July 12th.

We have been getting a lot of run arounds here as to where our packages
actually were.


DBase Online
------------
We have converted the dBase of the UltraSound reg. cards to an ASCII
format and have posted it as GUSDBAS.ZIP.  This dBase contains a list
of all names of users who were mailed the upgrades. It only contains
FIRST/LAST NAME, STAGE/PROV, and the last few digits of phone numbers.
This should give you enough information to figure out if your package
was shipped.


GUS0034
-------
As many of you have been so kind to point out, <grin>, there were a
few minor problems with the V2.06 software.  Namely:

- The Power Chords tutor and demo icons were reversed in Windows
- DEFAULT.CFG was calling a patch called TREMSTR.PAT which didn't exist
- WConvert V1.01 was causing General Proctection Faults in Windows

I have patched these problems and there is now a V2.06a. I know I am
going to get people saying "well, I want the new version", so instead
of having you download another 8Mb's I have created a file called
GUS0034.ZIP which contains the above mentioned changed files.  You can
download it off of our BBS or any of the FTP sites.


Me and the Mail
---------------
I will be (attempting) to devote more of my time into other Gravis
related projects. I have asked two other people in tech support to help
me out with the mail, Paul Malcolm (paul.malcolm@gravis.com or
tech1@gravis.com) and Matthew Arbeid (matthew.arbeid@gravis.com or
tech2@gravis.com).  Both people are within 15 feet of me all day long.
So if they don't know how to answer your questions they can yell it
at me ;-) I'll be posting these addresses in future BBS nodelists.


Vacation
--------
Yes I do get time off. ;-) I will be away from July 17th until July
24th, for a fun filled week of white water rafting, camping, and
visiting friends in Calgary.

During this time PAUL MALCOLM will be reading/responding to my mail. He
has been doing mail for me every Wed. for the last 3 weeks.  But I'm
sure he'll be a pro by the time I come back.  Any messages he can not
answer he will print out and give them to me to respond once I get back.


Finland
-------
There is a very good chance that I will be going to Assembly '93. If
I do go I'll be away July 28th until Aug 5th. You can bet I'll bring
our luggable and load it up with great UltraSound software while I'm
over there.  There should be some great 3D demos comming out of
this show.


AIL/DIGPAK
----------
Here is some news about our AIL/DIGPAK drivers. I have been informed
that Trilobyte is cutting some new 7th Guest CDROM disks, which are
suppose to have UltraSound drivers on them. There is an update to
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT II which fix some bugs and ADD UltraSound
support (ROE2UP.ZIP). Return to Zork by Activision is going to have
GUS support (AIL) and there should be a demo of it floating around
the nets someplace..... I know I'm forgetting some others but I can't
think of them now.

Latest Gravis Node List
-----------------------

.                        Authorized Gravis BBS Nodes List
.                                    as of
.                                July 7, 1993

