HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: lpw@lance.esd.sgi.com (Lance Welsh)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
Subject: Re: Best, moderately priced soundcard..
Date: 22 Nov 92 01:33:02 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.  Mountain View, CA


	<Lots of debating about hardware capabilities deleted>

What about differences in the bundled software?

Do the all have MIDI sequencers, audio editors, UI sounds, etc.?
Or are they all so compatible that software can be purchased seperately?

-Lance.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
From: adkinsg@watson.ibm.com
Subject: Re: GUS SB emulation
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 20:20:00 GMT
News-Software: IBM OS/2 PM RN (NR/2) v0.14m by O. Vishnepolsky and R. Rogers
Reply-To: adkinsg@watson.ibm.com
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
Organization: IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

In <bjornhk.60.722247279@dhhalden.no> bjornhk@dhhalden.no (BJORN HAAVARD KLEVEN) writes:
>
>True, software mfg'ers are begining to support the SB Pro, but it's still 
>not that much better than the same old SB. 

Agreed that it is only marginally better than the "old SB", but it has been out *far*
longer than the GUS, and we're only *beginning* to se SBPRO support.  How long
do you think it will be until support is mainstream?  Very long.
The gus may very well fall the way of other so called "superior" products,
simply because of poor compliance with industry standards (adlib, sb[&pro], PAS+/16).


>>I don't want to get a card that will not be expelicitely supprted (ie PAS16)
>>and has limited emulation of the mainstream stuff...
>
>It will be, software developers have a better reason for supporting the GUS 
>than the PAS16.
>

Why is this?  As far as developement is concerned the PAS16 is (capably) identical to the
PAS+, (the only diff is pas16 can record 16bit samples, both can play 16 bit samples
and have OPL3) and the combination pas+/16 is more attractive in sheer numbers.
Is it worth it to develop extra features that only a very small segment (total
amount of soundcards, especially soundcards with adlib/sb compatibility) will be
able to enjoy?  I would rather have better graphics, or a better plot, smoother
animation than "superior sound" from my GUS.  Most only (understandably) want
GUS support because it keeps their investment attractive.


>>	Guess only time will tell....
>
>Yes, but wait to hear it will tell you...

Agreed that only time will tell, but what does "but wait to hear it will tell you.." mean?

Garry Adkins
adkinsg@watson.ibm.com
From: twong@civil.ubc.ca (Thomas Wong)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
Subject: Re: GUS and WINOS2
Date: 20 Nov 1992 19:50:41 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Civil Engineering, U.B.C., Vancouver, B.C., Canada
NNTP-Posting-Host: sam.civil.ubc.ca
Keywords: ultrasound mmpm

In article <1egpgcINNl42@agate.berkeley.edu> drkszk@ocf.berkeley.edu (Derek Suzuki) writes:
>	It's been posted that the GUS Windows drivers only work in
>386 Enhanced mode.  Does this mean that when WINOS2 3.1 is released
>that we will still be unable to run Windows Multimedia software under
>OS/2 with the Ultrasound?  Is there a workaround planned?

Yes, there is a workaround.
Wait for the Ultrasound's OS/2 driver which si in the works.

There is also rumors of a 3rd party making a SBOS (Sound Blaster
emualtion program) for the Ultrasound for OS/2 as well.

Thomas.
From: dmatiske@nd.edu (David Matiskella)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
Subject: Does anyone have
Date: 19 Nov 92 21:37:46 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
Organization: University of Notre Dame

Gravis Email address on Compuserve? I would like to find out what they have
and
are coming out with inthe line of programming Documentation. GUS seems like
a
perfect card for Virtual REality simultions.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
From: ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca (Phat H Tran)
Subject: Re: GUS Environment Variables
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 01:27:40 GMT

In article <1992Nov19.161111.9865@newshost.lanl.gov> hutch@bellman.lanl.gov writes:
>
>I'd really appreciate it if you GUS owners would just take a peek
>inside your autoexec.bat file and explain to me how the ultrasound's
>environment variables are set up there.  Like many others, setup.exe
>won't run on my machine so I have to do this manualy.  Unfortunately,
>the manual doesn't tell me what the settings should be.
>
>Here's what I've got so far (from memory, I think this is it):
>
>SET ULTRASND=220,7,7,11,7
>SET ULTRADIR=C:\ULTRASND\MIDI
>SET BLASTER=C:\ULTRASND\SBOS
>ULTRINIT
>

Here is mine:

SET ULTRASND=230,3,3,11,12
D:\AUDIO\ULTRASND\ULTRINIT
SET ULTRADIR=D:\AUDIO\ULTRASND
SET BLASTER=A230 I12 D1 T1

The ULTRASND variable tells ULTRAINIT to look for my card at address 230h,
and then configure it for DMA channel 3, GF1 IRQ 11, and MIDI IRQ 12.
That is, the address has to reflect the jumper setting, and the rest can
be anything you like.

>The ULTRADIR and BLASTER lines were just wild ass guesses.  Could someone
>PLEASE tell me how these are _supposed_ to be defined?
>
>Also, when I run Windows, I get "Error 3 on loading altosax.pat" type
>errors.  I moved the CFG files to the Windows directory and selected
>the Ultrasound driver in Windows but what did I miss?  I suspect this
>is something to do with the ULTRADIR environment variable, above?
>

As you suspected, your problem is that ULTRADIR isn't pointing where it 
should.  It should hold your Ultrasound's base directory, and not the 
MIDI subdir.  That is, change it to c:\ultrasnd.

As for BLASTER, I  don't really know what its settings are.  Axxx seems to
be the address port of the GUS, Ixx seems to be the MIDI IRQ, and I have
no idea what Dx and Tx are for.

>Thanks folks.  I'm anxious to complete my GUS installation.  While the
>installation process has been (is) somewhat of a pain, the results are
>great so far!  :)
>

Phat.
From: exubrst@exu.ericsson.se (Brad Steele)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
Subject: Re: Adlib Gold 1000
Date: 18 Nov 92 17:31:40 GMT
Reply-To: exubrst@exu.ericsson.se
Organization: Ericsson Network Systems, Inc.
X-Disclaimer: This article was posted by a user at Ericsson.
              Any opinions expressed are strictly those of the
              user and not necessarily those of Ericsson.

In article 5Hq@sci.kun.nl, sandvl@sci.kun.nl (Sander van Leeuwen) writes:
>
>
>Am I the only one who knows that Ad Lib is back in business?

I guess you are.  It's good to hear that Creative Labs can't crush them after all.

Brad
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
From: fabian@alkymi.unit.no (Fabian Gonzalez)
Subject: Re: Looking for SCC-1 experiences
Organization: Norwegian Institute of Technology
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 17:01:24 GMT

Since you have a Roland, I will recoomend you to download the following demos
from ftp.uwp.edu /pub/msdos/demos and have a look at them.

tpcdemo.lzh
realthng.lzh

They are both made by us (The Phoney Coders), and support the Roland.

Zax / The Phoney Coders

-- 


          *** e-mail : fabian@alkymi.unit.no ***              
---------------------------------------------------------
   If your feet are smelling and your nose is running,
        check to see whether you are upside down
---------------------------------------------------------
From: tanith@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Michael D Kretzer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
Subject: Re: PAS 16 initialization
Date: 22 Nov 1992 09:54:28 GMT
Organization: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Reply-To: tanith@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: 129.89.7.4
Originator: tanith@csd4.csd.uwm.edu

From article <9211211610.AA23448@thor.tjhsst.edu>, by cmetz@thor.tjhsst.edu (Craig Metz):
> 	I am catching this discussion on the tail end so I don't know
> what the outcome may have been, but I have all the low-level docs and
> have been solving the same problem myself working with another person
> to write a Linux driver for the PAS 16. I can send you code that will
> properly initalize the board for basic uses if you like, and can give
> you information on what needs to be done and what ports do what. Lemme
> know if I can be of any help.

I am the person who originally made the request.  A guy named Ken Nicholson
got in touch with me and I found out how to initialize the board.  For those
who would like to know, here's how to do it:
	1) Write one of the following to the port 0x9A01
		0xBC, 0xBD, 0xBe, 0xBF
	   These are the 'signatures' that a board can be jumpered to.  This
	   is how MediaVision allows multiple boards on a system.  The
	   default signature is 0xBC
	2) Write the following value to port 0x9A01
		(Base I/O address of card >> 2) & 0xFF
	   The default value is 0xE2...I don't know what this does...
	3) Check the port 0xFF88.  If there is a non-0xFF value at this
	   port, the board is a awake.  The value at port 0xFF88 is the
	   revision level of your board.
		I get the value 0x02 returned
	4) Write the value 0x17 to the port 0xB88
		The value 0x17 is a bit field with the following values:
			Bit 0: PCM Feature Enable
			Bit 1: FM Feature Enable
			Bit 2: Mixer Feature Enable
			Bit 4: Soundblaster Feature Enable
	Now the board has been initialized!  You can now proceed to
	initialize interrupts and enable audio output which is in
	the SDK.

	The code I got also shows how to query all the features on the
	board...

What I STILL don't know how to do:

1) How to replicate the T:1 parameter of MVSOUND.SYS.  On my machine at
   home, I get a lot of noise if I don't use this parameter.
2) How to SET the IRQ/DMA on the board

What I'm looking for is the source to MVSOUND.SYS, essentially.  Does anyone
happen to have this?  It's not in the Developer's Toolkit.  I'm also looking
for docs on these 'mystery registers' that are used in the source I've
been getting...they are also not documented in the Developer's Toolkit.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
From: mjohnsto@jenny.shearson.com (Mike Johnston)
Subject: Re: Microsoft Windows Sound System in stores!
Organization: Lehman Brothers
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 20:23:23 GMT

In article <1992Nov15.235422.1151@eng.umd.edu> brymastr@eng.umd.edu (Bryan Lee) writes:

   Anyone know when the Microsoft Windows Sound System is supposed
   to hit the stores?  Or has anyone seen it yet?  I heard it won
   a Byte Award of Distinction.

I saw it a few weeks ago in J&R Computer world, here in NYC. The shelf
price was $229. A bit steep, I think, for a card that can't even run
JetFighter II..... 8-)

I wish MS would sell the voice recognition software to us 
SoundBlaster Pro types.

MJ
--
Michael R. Johnston, System Administrator	mjohnsto@shearson.com
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
depends on the unreasonable man." - G.B. Shaw
From: marc@venus.clearpoint.com (Marc Washburn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
Subject: Re: MODEDIT 301 on wuarchive
Date: 18 Nov 92 21:53:33 GMT
Organization: Clearpoint Research Corporation

In article <Bxx4HK.3E8@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> ssalter@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (-=[SLS]=-) writes:
>marc@venus.clearpoint.com (Marc Washburn) requests:
>
>>  Could somebody please upload modedit 301 to wuarchive?  
>
>Okay, I just uploaded it to wuarchive/pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS. Let me know,
>Marc, if it "unzips" ok...I have never done uploading to an archive
>before. Cool, something new!! :) I did set type to binary so I assume
>all will be will. You will need lha to unpack it though.
>
>>  I have been eagerly waiting to try both GTS and the MODEDIT programs, but GTS seems to >>be incomplete and the servers listed as having MODEDIT seem to be real busy (either that >>or i am using incomplete server names).
>
>GTS appears to be complete still (amazing! it has been almost 24
>hours!) You can grab both from wuarchive if you are quick.
>
>Steve

Steve, great job.  Thanks alot for uploading this software.  I was able to grab modedit 3.01.

But,  damn it all.  I went to lunch, expecting to grab GTS after i had come back and it was gone.  Not only all of GTS but also modedit 3.01.

There are three possible answers:

1.  The wuarchive administrators are so good, they have already filed the software away onto the appropriate msdos directory on a mirror.  (I looked for awhile and gave up)

2.  The wuarchive admin people seem to think that GTS and modedit is not public domain or shareware and deleted it immediatly.

3.  The wuarchive admin people are playing mind games with us.

What do you think?

And please, is there another site to FTP GTS from, or does somebody know where the wuarchive people stuck these files?

Marc
marc@clearpoint.com
(Frustrated pas16 owner, great board, but need more software that directly supports it, more more more...)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
From: bjornhk@dhhalden.no (BJORN HAAVARD KLEVEN)
Subject: Re: Best, moderately priced soundcard..
Organization: Ostfold College
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 11:48:02 GMT

>>>Maybe I can put it this way. If you want a SCSI controller and good quality
>>>sound, the PAS-16 is the way to go. The sound is very good regardless of
>>>what people say. If you don't need the SCSI and you don't need 44.1 KHz
>>>digitizing, I would recommend the GUS.
>>
>>The GUS *IS* actually capable of 44.1 KHz sampling, it *HAS* a SCSI CD-ROM 
>>option. The GUS is just as good as the PAS16 in all respects except for SB 
>>compatability, in most other respects better.
>
>Well, you said it: It is capable but it DOES NOT HAVE IT!. All I am saying,

No, I did not say that! To repeat myself: The GUS has everything the PAS 16 
has (and more), but since it has a better synthesizer solution, it's not as 
compatible with the SB as the PAS. Everything on the GUS works perfectly, 
the only problem for now is that some of the included software is not quite 
as good as it ought to be. (this includes SBOS, the SB compatability 
driver -- which I won't claim is flawless. But then, I don't claim - or 
wish - the GUS to *be* SB compatible!)

>
>Whatever the case, it is up to the user to decide because ultimately he will
>be using the card.

Yes, that's why we are trying to give a user a certain idea on how good the 
cards are,isn't it? And that's why I had to respond to your somewhat 
errorous posting on the GUS vs. the PAS! ;-)

    -=* Bjorn :: bjornhk@sofus.dhhalden.no
  ACCESS DATA :: TEL: (+47)-9-17 50 48/61-97 812 FAX: 61-97 813
                 BBS: 61-97 304/97 945
 
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
From: then@snakemail.hut.fi (Tomi  H Engdahl)
Subject: Re: lpt DAC <-> Disney. Difference?
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Date: 21 Nov 92 12:06:43 GMT

{7s[{In article <1992Nov18.123135.22444@tdb.uu.se> m91mfr@tdb.uu.se (Mikael Fredriksson) writes:

>What IS the difference between a printer port DAC (resistor, active LM386)
>and the Disney SoundSource? A discussed in this area ModPlay 'detects' the

Parallel port DAC simply converts the data in the parallel port bus to
analog signal.

Disney SoundSource is more complicated. It has internal 16 byte FIFO,
internal clock and it can generate interrupts via ACK line. When
data is send to SoundSource, a strobe pulse must be also sent.

The most straigforward way to program the SoundSource is to 
send data to parallel port data bus and the generate strobe pulse.




--
Tomi.Engdahl@hut.fi  !  LOWERY'S LAW:
then@niksula.hut.fi  !  "If it jams - force it. If it breaks,
                     !   it needed replacing anyway." 

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
From: ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca (Phat H Tran)
Subject: Re: Best, moderately priced soundcard..
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 23:41:05 GMT

In article <1992Nov17.044531.25292@zooid.guild.org> Mark Kovarski <kovarski@zooid.guild.org> writes:
>It is obvious that one will always say his card is the best. In terms of sound
>quality, the Turtle Beach Multisound is the best one. In the second place, I
>would put the PAS-16. Third is the Gravis Ultrasound due to its "flaws."
>Last, and I mean by far last, is the Microsoft card. This card is the worse
>thing I have ever seen. It doesn't have anything, it doesn't emulate any
>other cards. What can I say, a typical Microsoft product.
>
>1) TB Multisound (if you want to play games, forget it)
>2) PAS-16 (SCSI and it DOES sound VERY GOOD despite some critics)
>3) Gravis Ultrasound (For a little more I would get the PAS but the GUS is
>   also a very good card)

I would have to disagree somewhat with your ranking.  The only way I think
that the PAS-16 will even start to approach the GUS in terms of music
quality is if you play an extraordinarily clean and crisp MOD file through
the PAS's DAC.  Don't even bother to make the card's FM half try to 
compete with the Ultrasound in terms of realism.  But even with MODs,
you'll be limited to 4-voice 8-bit audio, and a cpu-intensive sound
generation technique compared to the Ultrasound's 16 stereo, 16-bit
voices that are driven by dedicated hardware, thus, freeing up the cpu
for other less trivial tasks.  The GUS is clearly ahead of every FM-based
soundcard now available.  Whatever flaws the card may have (and it has a
few minor ones) does not warrant demoting it to a rank below the PAS-16.
Furthermore, the GUS's flaws are almost all software-related and can be
easily fixed with software updates.  

Phat.
From: neubert@cuphub.cup.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
Subject: Re: ************** Speech recognition HELP ***************
Date: 20 Nov 92 19:29:57 GMT
Organization: California University of Pennsylvania, California, PA

In article <1992Nov13.180202.6440@newstand.syr.edu>, southern@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Southern) writes:
> Hello there. I decided to reply to your request for help not because I'm
> a SR expert, but because I didn't see any other replies. I am however
> quite knowledgable on SB programming. I don't believe that you would have
> much difficultly writing a routine to read the SB DMA, but you might have
> a hard time finding information on speech recognition. I haven't undergone
> any serious projects with SR, but I have written some tone decoding utils
> and so on. I have looked for information on comp.dsp, this newsgroup, I'm
> on mailing lists and so on and there isn't much theory on SR going around 
> as far as I can tell. Until you develop a function to read the SB ports

NOT MUCH THEORY!!!???  I realize we are all enamored of cyberspace, or
we wouldn't be on these nets...but, did you ever consider using....
the LIBRARY!!  Heaven forbid!!  There has been research on speech/voice
i/o since the early 60s (ARPA funded, lot of CMU stuff), with commercial
companies in the field since early 70s.  Jeez, there are theory books
on speech/sound theory for thepast 30 years!  Look it up in *any* good
university library (grad or engineering library might be best for hard
theory) or the better large city pub libraries.  Not much theory, my
eye...just like OS/2 is just learning things mainframe OSes have known
for decades, and NeXT board engineers are learning that mainframe
engineers used decades ago!  Learn our technologies HISTORY...or repeat
the mistakes (and forget the successes...and reinvent the wheel!).

John Neubert

> for speech, you could test your SR by reading .VOC files. Hope that helps
> somehow..
> 
> Good luck!
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
From: ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca (Phat H Tran)
Subject: Re: Anyone heard Ultrasound & Star Control 2?
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 09:20:11 GMT

In article <siRiuB5w164w@bowker.com> moddan@bowker.com (Daniel Nicholson  ) writes:
>
>Well, I'm a bit biased (having wrote most of the music in the game) but the 
>Ultrasound sounds fantastic with SC2. The SB-Pro isn't supported in stereo 
>(unfortunately), although the normal SB output from the game is quite 
>excellent. Still, it would be kind of ridiculous to compare yesterday's 
>technology with today's. The UltraSound is the best sounding card by far fpr 
>(for) the game.  BTW - I personally would suggest anyone listening to Star 
>Con with a GUS to plug into a mixer and pan both left and right channels 
>into mono; we really didn't have enough time to do much with stereo 
>placement (although I did do a >small< amount of "stereoizing"). 
>    - moddan (Daniel Nicholson, PCkS Associates)

Dan,

I wonder if you can shed some light on a certain matter for me.  A
developer has told me that

1) you can't load patches into the GUS's RAM and have it play at the
   same time (which invalidates the idea of dynamically loading patches
   into the card's memory as they are needed in a song if they can't
   all fit at once)

and

2) driving the GUS requires a whole lot of system resources (e.g. he
   claims that playing a MIDI file can consume 580k of base memory).

Basically, he says that though the GUS sounds great, it isn't the easiest
thing to program for.  What have your experiences with composing (and
programming?) for the GUS like?

BTW, in SC2, the music is played with the use of the GUS's wavetable
hardware, isn't it?  That is, the Ultrasound isn't just being driven
as a dumb DAC?

Thanks,
Phat.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
From: Traveler@mindlink.bc.ca (Chris Krohn)
Subject: Re: Adlib Gold 1000
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 21:02:55 GMT

  I too noted that the Adlib Gold card is now out in Canada, and has been for
about a month or two.  I was aware that Adlib had gone under (another
Canadian company bites it *sigh*) but was not aware that someone had started
it up again.

  Could any one tell me who is now in control of AdLib production?  There was
rumour that Creative Labs (makers of the Soundblaster/Pro) were going to buy
it...  Does any one know if this did inded come to pass?

                                                        Chris Krohn.

--
/------------------------------------------------------------------------\
| The Traveler              | Virtual Reality:                           |
| aka Chris Krohn           | "What a long strange trip it's gonna be!"  |
|                           |                                            |
| traveler@mindlink.bc.ca   |                            Seattle Times   |
\------------------
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
From: europa@eng.umd.edu (Tae Hun Kim)
Subject: Where is Ultrasound?
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 19:06:58 GMT
Organization: University of Maryland

I was just wondering if anyone in the US has got a Ultrasound from anywhere
besides PC Zone. It seems Telemart and Computability noth have no idea when
they'll get their first shipment in. Are there any other places where
they are available?

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
From: ariz@sulo.otol.fi (A Salmela)
Subject: Re: Help! My PAS-16 Won't Record
Organization: Oulu Institute of Technology, Finland
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 12:08:19 GMT

From article <8YCTB8RN@cc.swarthmore.edu>, by bgabe1@cc.swarthmore.edu (Bradley Ross Gabe):
> 
> 	I Had purchased a PAS-16 card about a month ago, experimented some with
> the software and found no difficulties until I tried to record with it.  I
> tried
> with the windows pocket recorder as well as the DOS program-no go.  I have
> the card connected to my stereo and the microphone/cd line directly into
> the card.  The microphone seems to pick up sound whether I'm in record mode
> or not... unless I turn down the record input in the mixer.  I know the
> lines are in the right jacks, but when I press record, the recorder runs
> but doesn't pick up any sound, even though sound came out through the
> stereo.  Does anyone know what this could be... perhaps a software or user
> error (I hope!). 
> 
> 																		Thanks in Advance!
>                                 -Brad
When recording from Windows with PREC and MIC, you must set mic to RECORD!
from PMIXER. Click on the bottom of the bar and it turn to red.
THEN you are ready to record.

-Ari
 
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard