From: gting@fraser.sfu.ca (Gabriel Sii Kuok Ting)
Subject: Re: GUS 2.4 board?
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 09:52:18 GMT

lebeld@JSP.UMontreal.CA (David Lebel) writes:


>	I just saw someone posting about a 2.4 revision of
>GUS board; is this board really different from the 2.2
>revision, or it is just a re-worked board to take less
>components? I would like everyone to take a look at
>'ragtime.mid' midi-file found in archive.epas.utoronto.ca

Where? I can't find it either in the submit or midi-files directory. 

>to check if there as much static as I have on my GUS.
>After a meeting with Francois Dion, we ended up with the
>fact that some of GUS patches truly need to be re-worked as some
>of them (noticiably acpiano1.pat) brings static and/or clipping
>when playing a note with a high volume or playing many notes
>at the same time. But, in general, the drumkit is incredible from
>some of the .mid files I have here, just hear the drum
>part of 'justify.mid' on media player (on playmidi, its being
>played only on the right speaker, dunno why). Saxophones need
>to be revamped but sound generally good (those patches are
>the most difficult with the acoustic piano to create IMHO).

I used to have an awful time with certain mid files with regards to static.
The 1.21 patches seems to have resolved some of the problems though. 
pachbel.mid (found on archive.cs.ruu.nl) used to have static galore when 
I used the flute1 patch but not anymore. It's one of my favourite tunes 
although it only uses one instrument, and somehow Media Player just refuses
to producce any sound unless another mid file was loaded beforehand, and
it'll proceed to use the previous file's patches. Weird...

On another note, does anyone else notice how terrible the ver1.21 playmidi
plays the strings? synstr1, synstr2 and marcato patches all sound so
distant and soft with the new playmidi file, where it used to be so
full of life. I know it's definitely not the patches' fault since Media
Player manages to play it properly...


>	I posted a message to GUS Digest about it, so
>just take a look at it BTW.

>	After some testing with module players for Windows
>on my 486, WinMod PRO (dispite some major bugs) sounds
>the greatest (I'm an ex-Amiga user, die-hard of Amiga sounds),
>and I can assure you that at 22khz, WMP shines... (ok, I don't
>know if a 386 can deliver this speed w/o bringing Windows to a crawl,
>but on my system, its ok . . . sorta)

Haven't tried Winmod Pro, but WinMOD plays very well on my 386DX-25, just
a teeny-weeny bit slower than when I played the mods on ModPlay on my old
SB. Yes, it was at 22kHz too... Windows does slow down a bit, but the
sound is still great...


>	All in all, dispite _some_ really bad patches (on
>the MIDI side of the card), the GUS is a damn good beast,
>and hopefully Gravis will (I truly hope) fix the patch problems,
>and some third-party programmers will bring out module players for 
>Windows and DOS that will take advantage of GUS' capabilities... There
>must be a way to avoid the CPU mixing and let GUS do all
>the dirty job... Even with a 486/33, my Windows slow-down
>noticiably when playing a mod-file...

Oh well.. let's hope proper gus modplayers will soon arrive.. (keeping my
fingers crossed). Are there any ways to convert the mod files into mid 
files, BTW? Some of my favourite tunes are still in mod format, and I've yet
to see the mid equivalent. Stardust.mod is an example (from ftp.brad.ac.uk)


>	Happy GUSing...




>-- 
>   /            David Lebel | " I  don't  want  to  start  any   blasphemous |
>  /  Universite de Montreal | rumours, but I  think  that  God's  got a sick |
> /  lebeld@jsp.umontreal.ca | sense  of humour  and  when  I  die, I  expect |
>/ (514) 343-6532 ext. 44644 | to find Him laughing. "         - Depeche Mode |