The GUS Daily Digest Friday, 5 January 1996 Volume 27 : Number 003 Today's Topics: IRQ Problems Starting CPA 4.0 with an original GUS. Re: The Dig Interwave and Win95 Re: GUS game support Re: Command and Conquer Re: Command & Conquer & choppy sound Re: OS/2 MIDI How do I know if my GUS is causing the choppy audio? Re: Looping sounds in W95 Simple question re Win95 drivers audio CD to WAV utilities OS/2 MIDI Re: The GUS Daily Digest V27 #2 Using the GUS as an external MIDI synth 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Mario D'Alessio" Date: Thu, 4 Jan 1996 11:14:59 -0600 Subject: IRQ Problems I just recently started having a problem with my GUS. I can't get the MIDI to work. I can play sounds, MOD files, even some games. However, anything dealing with the MIDI capabilities of the card do not work. Gravis' playfile works, but playmidi tells me that the ultrasound is not found. I found I had a serial port set to use the same IRQ as the MIDI on the GUS (IRQ 5), so I disabled the port. The problem persisted. I used the GUS setup program to try out different IRQs, and the problem persisted. In the setup program, under Diagnostics, if I click on the "Check SBOS Mode", it warns: Multiple SBOS IRQ's generated If I click on "Check SB/MIDI IRQ", it warns: SB/MIDI IRQ Timeout This was with IRQ 5. If I change the IRQ, the SB/MIDI error message goes away, but the SBOS error continues. Playmidi still won't work, either. I also tried booting clean. No luck. However, I was able to play MIDI files under Windows 95. It looks like there's an IRQ conflict, but I can't find it. Help! I have a GUS 3.7 board, and version 3.59 (I think) of the software. Mario *********************************************************** * ___ ____ ____ * * /o o\ //oo\\ ( oo ) Mario D'Alessio __/\__ * * \_O_/ \__/ \__/ dalessio@cig.mot.com \RUSH/ * * WooWoo Work: (708) 632-2323 |/\| * * Woo 9am to 6pm Central Time * * * *********************************************************** ------------------------------ From: John Swan Date: Wed, 03 Jan 1996 20:11:45 GMT0BST1 Subject: Starting CPA 4.0 with an original GUS. > > >Does anyone have Cakewalk 4.0 working with the Original Ultrasnd???????? >If so whats the trick??? Do I need a patch or is there a special setup? >When I try to start it up I get "unable to initialize audio device". >There seems to be a problem with the wave in device. > An ordinary GUS (not Max) has only 8 bit recording although 16 bit playback. CPA 4 needs 16 bit recording & playback or it won't run... If you have an additional 16 bit card in your machine, you can get CPA to run if you make the 16 bit card the first Wave device defined in SYSTEM.INI - -- John Swan Edinburgh, SCOTLAND. ------------------------------ From: "Moebius" Date: Thu, 4 Jan 1996 20:24:05 +1 Subject: Re: The Dig >From: Jarrod Kinoshita >Date: Wed, 3 Jan 1996 11:32:50 -1000 >Subject: The Dig >Hi, >I just picked up the LucasArts game "The Dig". The game is pretty >good >except for the choppy sound. I called Lucas Arts tech. support and >they said it choppy because of the way the GUS works, takes up too >much CPU time or something. Does anyone else have the same problem? >I got a 486/66, 2x CD ROM, 8MB RAM. I'm running off the boot disk >right to play the game. Are there any fixes? Come on a GUS using too much CPU Time....it is one of the force of the GUS...it doesn't use any CPU Usage ! (in fact yes but 0,5 to 2% Max !).In fact it is their routine which is crappy.I have both GUS and a Awe32 in my PC.In SB mode the sound is good but ooups in GUS mode there is a lot of back noise !.I think Lucas need to keep a bit much attention to their soundtracks.The sounds of Rebel Assault 2 is a real crap !.When you use the SB in it the game is faster than GUS mode ;-(((.Look at the game StoneKeep the sound is incredible. lotsa bass good treble...you think the sound comes straight ahead from the CD....but not...it is a sampled file.. Moebius ------------------------------ From: Jeff Salzmann Date: Thu, 04 Jan 1996 14:34:30 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Interwave and Win95 Question- Anybody with an Interwave have any problems with Win95, like the GUS does?? ------------------------------ From: Walter Scott Date: Thu, 04 Jan 1996 08:27:51 -0500 Subject: Re: GUS game support >>>> I have both a SB16 and GUS and while I have generally been able to get most games working well with the GUS in the past, I'm finding the new trends in sound support accommodate the SB16 much more adequately. This generally means that unless the game supports MIDI I use the SB16 because the GUS support is usually flawed in some way.<<< >>>When you use "usually," do you mean greater than 50% of non-MIDI games, as I think the word means? What kind of flaws are you seeing? <<< Ya know...I used to have a list of this and it was a monster... Rise of the Triad: Decreased performance using a GUS. (Says this in the README.DOC) Terminal Velocity: Can't play it in stereo, and produces static. Dark Forces: a warning saying GUS owners may experience performance penalties due to the way the GUS interacts with the processor. The new Crusader-No Remorse: No sound whatsoever. Lands of Lore CD: Patrick Stewart's voice is garbled and unhearable. (we were told by Gravis there would be a patch. It's been over a 18 months now). The Dig: Decreased performance and garbled audio using a GUS because of the way it interacts with the CPU. Command & Conquer: Garbled digital audio and decreased game performance. I mean, come on. And these are only on the games I've had and know about! And like I said, I used to have list about twice that big, but when I switched to a Soundscape ELITE, I threw it away (ahhh...a soundcard that works and sounds great...imagine that!) The GUS is a good card to use if you're a heavy midi/user composer, but if you're still using a GUS for games, you got a hole in your head. **WES** ------------------------------ From: Walter Scott Date: Thu, 04 Jan 1996 08:42:07 -0500 Subject: Re: Command and Conquer >>Can someone please tell me how to stop the awful crackling static sounds that keep happening (I guess the music is clipping) when playing Command and Conquer?<< You can't. It's due to the way GUS "interacts with the CPU" (i.e. It's a CPU pig). Try turning the music off (all the way down), that will help some. Gravis says it's a probelm with C&C and Westwood needs to do a patch, and of course Westwood says it's a problem with the GUS driver and Gravis needs to make a patch. Gee, we've only heard that with about 20 or 30 other games. Welcome to the wonderful world of the Ultrasound and games. (Note the sarcasm) **WES** ------------------------------ From: KrisJon Hanson Date: Thu, 04 Jan 1996 09:06:20 -0500 (EST) Subject: Re: Command & Conquer & choppy sound Do you have a rev 2.4 board? If so there may be no solution. I did an informal test with a few games (Doom1.6, Doom2, Heretic, C&C, Warcraft I&II) with a v2.4 and a v3.7 board. The 2.4 board had the choppy digital while the 3.7 worked just fine. I think this would point to at least a hardware problem/difference between the two that comes up in these games' drivers. - -KrisJon Hanson hansonka@rosevc.Rose-Hulman.edu ------------------------------ From: Harry C Pulley IV Date: Thu, 4 Jan 1996 09:21:35 -0500 (EST) Subject: Re: OS/2 MIDI Which driver are you using? The current public version of the Manley drivers does have MIDI but it outputs only to an external synth. The gravis driver does have MIDI but there are many timing problems with it. Robert Manley now has the rights to the Gravis OS/2 drivers (I think the Windoze driver too). I've beta tested a version of the new driver which contains code from both of the old ones. I don't know when it will be finished but just wait alittle longer. This combined driver looks very good! With the Manley drivers you can just open a DOS box and use playmidi (-v for no video if you like) to play MIDI files for now. Harry <:-{} hcpiv@snowhite.cis.uoguelph.ca http://shakti.cis.uoguelph.ca/~harry \ Compuserve: 103203,211 Mind/Matter==Communication/Transportation Real programmers don't drink Zima.Read Melissa Scott's Trouble_and_Her_Friends !@#$%^&*()-+=\|/? This message released to the PUBLIC DOMAIN ?/|\=+-)(*&^%$#@! ------------------------------ From: David Bakken Date: Thu, 4 Jan 1996 09:39:15 -0500 Subject: How do I know if my GUS is causing the choppy audio? I'm having problems with audio being choppy on a few kids edutainment programs, and I'm wondering how I can know if my GUS is the problem. I have an older GUS (bought early 1993 (I assume this is an "Ultrasound Classic"; at least that's how I configured the Windows 95 driver). I finally got Windows 95 installed cleanly by formatting my drive, reinstalling DOS and Windows 95, installing the GUS 4.10 disk set and my CD-ROM drivers, then installing Windows 95 from this, then of course the Windows 95 drivers for my GUS and CD-ROM. I have a 486/33 with 16MB RAM and a Creative Labs Blaster 4X CD-ROM drive. I have no real-mode drivers running; its all Windows 95 ones. I bought a number of edutainment games for my kids in the last few weeks, and some of them sound choppy (meaning that the audio is missing from 0% to 50% of the time). I have two games from Edmark: "Sammy's Science House" and "Trudy's Time and Place House." Sammy's works just fine, but Trudy's cuts out 25%-50% of the time, depending on the scene. Neither has significant moving animation, in case this matters. And both are supposed to work on a 386/33 though they recommend a 486/33 with 8MB RAM and a 2X CD-ROM, so since I have a 486/33 with 16MB RAM I should be fine. The other game is "Reading Blaster Jr," which cuts out 5%-10% of the time (which is enough for the kids not to understand it). All 3 of these games are "Designed for Microsoft Windows 95." I called the tech support for both companies yesterday, and their suggestions didn't help. Neither had found this problem with the games, and they said that my 486/33 ought to be powerful enough (indeed, it ran edutainment games just fine under Windows 3.1 and my GUS). I called Microsoft's free 90-day support (which is wonderful, BTW), thinking I had misconfigured Windows 95 somehow and was taking a performance hit. They suggested: - change the role of the computer from deskop to network server, since that gives you more buffers - change the Windows 95 cache for the CD-ROM drive to the lowest possible, since that can conflict with the caching in the drivers and/or the drive - uncompress my drive on which my games were installed These were clever suggestions but alas did not help. So has anyone got these games working well with the GUS Windows 95 drivers? I'm beginning to strongly suspect that the problem is in the soundcard or (more likely) the Windows 95 drivers, especially since others have reported this problem on the mailing list. Also, I bought a special-order cable to go from my CD-ROM to my GUS, but I have no idea if I have to tell either the GUS or the CD-ROM drive to use this to communicate sound (as opposed to using IDE, I presume). Do I need to do anything more here to use this cable? Is it likely to help anything? Finally, is there a way I can find out the rev of my GUS board? >From the driver, or is it stamped on the card? From the date of purchase (probably 3/93 -4/93) maybe someone knows offhand. Thanks for any help. This is really frustrating, and I need to know in the next week or so if the problem is fixable (i.e., not my CPU being underpowered) so I can return the games in the 30-day period. I must say if the problem is the GUS or its drivers I'm very upset about this. While I don't have much spare cash right now, I need to get this going for my kids and will probably go out and buy another sound card if I don't get this cleared up soon. And I would no be inclined to buy a Gravis, unless I hear reports on this list that their new cards work much better..... Dr. David E. Bakken Distributed Systems Department BBN Systems and Technologies 10 Moulton Street MS 6/3D Cambridge, MA 02138 USA Voice: 617-873-6072 FAX: 617-873-4328 email: dbakken@bbn.com ------------------------------ From: banshee@ols.net Date: Thu, 04 Jan 1996 11:44:44 -0500 Subject: Re: Looping sounds in W95 >I had same problem with my GUS MAX and looping sound (at start as >well as anywhere else). I solved it : > >My problem was, that I always started Cubic at start. If anything >DOS based starts during initialization (mean DOS based which has >something to do with soundcard), sounds are looping. >Now it's OK. Are you talking about Cubic Player? If so how are you getting it to work with your GUS while Win95 is running? I can't get any mod players/editors to work. I'd like to know as I definitely prefer Cubic Player over Mod4Win. Thanks! ------------------------------ From: "Alan J. Snyder" Date: Thu, 4 Jan 1996 16:16:31 -0500 Subject: Simple question re Win95 drivers - ------ =_NextPart_000_01BADAC0.0325E0E0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable A simple question - Do the Win95 drivers require me to define GUS, = ULTRADIR and BLASTER environment variables, and run ultrinit.exe at boot = time, or do they set the card up when windows starts? - - Alan Alan J. Snyder asnyder@artorg.hmc.psu.edu - ------ =_NextPart_000_01BADAC0.0325E0E0 Content-Type: application/ms-tnef Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 eJ8+IiAVAQaQCAAEAAAAAAABAAEAAQeQBgAIAAAA5AQAAAAAAADoAAENgAQAAgAAAAIAAgABBJAG AEQBAAABAAAADAAAAAMAADADAAAACwAPDgAAAAACAf8PAQAAAFUAAAAAAAAAgSsfpL6jEBmdbgDd AQ9UAgAAAABndXMtZ2VuZXJhbEBhcG9sbG8uY29zYy5nb3YAU01UUABndXMtZ2VuZXJhbEBhcG9s bG8uY29zYy5nb3YAAAAAHgACMAEAAAAFAAAAU01UUAAAAAAeAAMwAQAAABwAAABndXMtZ2VuZXJh bEBhcG9sbG8uY29zYy5nb3YAAwAVDAEAAAADAP4PBgAAAB4AATABAAAAHgAAACdndXMtZ2VuZXJh bEBhcG9sbG8uY29zYy5nb3YnAAAAAgELMAEAAAAhAAAAU01UUDpHVVMtR0VORVJBTEBBUE9MTE8u Q09TQy5HT1YAAAAAAwAAOQAAAAALAEA6AQAAAAIB9g8BAAAABAAAAAAAAANhQQEIgAcAGAAAAElQ TS5NaWNyb3NvZnQgTWFpbC5Ob3RlADEIAQSAAQAhAAAAU2ltcGxlIHF1ZXN0aW9uIHJlIFdpbjk1 IGRyaXZlcnMA1AsBBYADAA4AAADMBwEABAAQABAAHwAEABsBASCAAwAOAAAAzAcBAAQAEAANACMA BAAcAQEJgAEAIQAAAEE0NUZEQjBGOEE0NkNGMTFCQkYzMDAyMEFGRDZCMjA5AFcHAQOQBgAIAwAA EgAAAAsAIwAAAAAAAwAmAAAAAAALACkAAAAAAAMANgAAAAAAQAA5AKCC+Orp2roBHgBwAAEAAAAh AAAAU2ltcGxlIHF1ZXN0aW9uIHJlIFdpbjk1IGRyaXZlcnMAAAAAAgFxAAEAAAAWAAAAAbra6ern D9tfpUaKEc+78wAgr9ayCQAAHgAeDAEAAAAFAAAAU01UUAAAAAAeAB8MAQAAABsAAABhc255ZGVy QGFydG9yZy5obWMucHN1LmVkdQAAAwAGEEYHidoDAAcQxgAAAB4ACBABAAAAZQAAAEFTSU1QTEVR VUVTVElPTi1ET1RIRVdJTjk1RFJJVkVSU1JFUVVJUkVNRVRPREVGSU5FR1VTLFVMVFJBRElSQU5E QkxBU1RFUkVOVklST05NRU5UVkFSSUFCTEVTLEFORFJVTlUAAAAAAgEJEAEAAACAAQAAfAEAAA0C AABMWkZ1oywg2P8ACgEPAhUCqAXrAoMAUALyCQIAY2gKwHNldDI3BgAGwwKDMgPFAgBwckJxEeJz dGVtAoMzdwLkBxMCgH0KgAjPCdk78RYPMjU1AoAKgQ2xC2DgbmcxMDMUUAsKFFGtC/JjAEAUsCAA kG0LUFhlIHEKUBPAaQIgIIAtIERvIHRoG2BCVwuAOTUgZAUQdq8EkAQgFhAbgGkWECAHgB8cUBxA DbELgBtgR1VTACwgVUxUUkFECElSIABwZCBCTLBBU1RFH5AJ8HYdwOcCIAeAAjAgdgrABzACYCcH kB8AH7JydQOgdWyGdAUQAwB0LmV4G2D2YQVABuBvBUAbwAeAHwB1BbFkHEN5GwARwBxTY+MLESJQ cCB3HHADoAPwOR/Ab3cEIBPACsB0c+4/CoUKhRwQQRjxCoUoAsggSi4GAG55BIEKhTRhcylDQCax BbBnLoBobWMucHN1IuD+ZAxwGdwTUCOABZAFQAqFBRUxAC3AAwAQEAAAAAADABEQAAAAAEAABzBg pW+C6dq6AUAACDBgpW+C6dq6AR4APQABAAAAAQAAAAAAAABExw== - ------ =_NextPart_000_01BADAC0.0325E0E0-- ------------------------------ From: David Burton Date: Thu, 4 Jan 96 14:50:57 PST Subject: audio CD to WAV utilities Thanks to all who replied about my question. The various utilities recomended are: cdgrab20 da2wav14 cdt cdcopy I found cdgrab20 and da2wav14 in the Simtel SimTel/msdos/cdrom archive. Thanks again and I hope these help the people who requested the results of my search also. davidb@mcm.hp.com ------------------------------ From: s106275@cs.tut.fi (Anssi Saari) Date: Thu, 04 Jan 1996 16:49:08 +0200 Subject: OS/2 MIDI :>From: kyhsin@singnet.com.sg :>I am currently running OS/2 Warp and I have loaded the OS/2 drivers for GUS :>but I could not get any MIDI. Other than this, the GUS seems to work fine. Is there a question? If you want GUS midi, the alpha drivers from Gravis give that. I'm not sure if the current release of the Manley drivers does midi yet, but at least this beta version seems to work fine. ------------------------------ From: SPENCER Darren Date: Fri, 5 Jan 1996 12:34:01 +1100 (EDT) Subject: Re: The GUS Daily Digest V27 #2 > Subject: UAKM static > > What video card do you have? UAKM has trouble with video cards if they > are too slow, in general. What CPU and type of video card do you have? > > If you have a Cirrus Logic 542x card then you may be in luck. You can [stuff deleted] > Anyways, I have a 5428. I could never get rid of all the crackle but %99 > of it was gone. I use a 5428 with no detectable problems in sound, without the use of any tsr's. I originally had a problem with digital only sounds (midi was ok) in UAKM (and also in descent). No matter what IRQ/DMA settings I used the problem was still there. The problem turned out to be the ISA bus clock speed. It appears that some motherboards or maybe some gus's (i have a rev 2.4) have problems with DMA if the bus speed is too high. I had set the bus clock to CLCK/3 for a dx2-66 (11 MHz) this caused the garbled sound problems, changing to CLCK/4 (8.25 MHz) solved the problem. Currently I am using a dx4-120 with the isa bus at CLCK/4 (10 MHz) and have no problems at all. I suggest checking your computers bus speed if it is the same problem I had, since it appears my gus does not like having a bus speed above 10 MHz. Good luck ------------------------------ From: sh01 Date: Fri, 05 Jan 96 00:34:37 -0600 Subject: Using the GUS as an external MIDI synth Hello, I recently had to pull my GUS due to a conflict with a network card (seems the midi port conflicted with the net card) At any rate, I would like to keep using the gus as an external midi synth using the MIDI port on it and the midi out on my SB compatible. My plan is to build a high end 386 system (if one can exist) put the gus in it and pipe the midi out to it like it is a MPU 401 compatible. I figure a custom cable between the two ports aught to do. The 386 system with the gus will only run DOS. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to go about this, or whether it will even work or not. I plan to scrape together the components anyway, so I guess a little experimentation won't hurt. Also, does anyone know if the midifier program included in the 359 release has a command line switch that will start it up ready to go (so it can be started from the autoexec.bat file) better yet, is there a similar program that goes straight to the emulation? This PC will not have a Monitor once it is set up. Thanks, Seth E-mail: sh01@engr.uark.edu ------------------------------ End of The GUS Daily Digest V27 #3 ********************************** To post to tomorrow's digest: To (un)subscribe or get help: To contact a human (last resort): FTP Sites Archive Directories --------- ------------------- Main N.American Site: ftp.orst.edu pub/packages/gravis wuarchive.wustl.edu systems/ibmpc/ultrasound Main Asian Site: nctuccca.edu.tw PC/ultrasound Main European Site: src.doc.ic.ac.uk packages/ultrasound ftp.pwr.wroc.pl pub/ultrasound Main Australian Site: ftp.mpx.com.au /ultrasound/general /ultrasound/submit South African Site: ftp.sun.ac.za /pub/packages/ultrasound Submissions: ftp.orst.edu pub/packages/gravis/submit Newly Validated Files: archive.epas.utoronto.ca pub/pc/ultrasound Mirrors: garbo.uwasa.fi mirror/ultrasound ftp.st.nepean.uws.edu.au pc/ultrasound ftp.luth.se pub/msdos/ultrasound Gopher Sites Menu directory ------------ -------------- Main Site: src.doc.ic.ac.uk packages/ultrasound WWW Pages --------- Main Site: http://www.xmission.com/~grue/gus.html Main European Site: http://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/ultrasound/ Main Australian Site: http://ftp.mpx.com.au/archive/ultrasound/general/ http://ftp.mpx.com.au/archive/ultrasound/submit/ http://ftp.mpx.com.au/gravis.html Mirrors: http://www.st.nepean.uws.edu.au/pub/pc/ultrasound/ GUS Digest Archives: http://gpu.srv.ualberta.ca/~itam/digest.html http://www.student.adelaide.edu.au/~godfathr/gus/gus.html MailServer For Archive Access: Email to Hints: - Get the FAQ from the FTP sites or the request server. - Mail to for info about other GUS related mailing lists (programmers, musicians, etc.).