Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard, jkb@suned1.Nswses.Navy.Mil (John K Bunk) writes:
> I've always thought wavetable synthesis with RAM loadable sounds was
> the way to go for PC music making.  When I've discovered the Gravis
> Ultrasound card, I thought my prayers have been answered.  However,
> the following problems still prevents me from shelling out the bucks
> quite yet:
>
> 1) Why, oh why, did the card have 16 bit output (great) but ONLY has 8
> bit sampling input as a default (not so great).  I can't think of any
> situation where this combination makes sense.  Furthermore,

  Look at the situation from that of a Game-Player (GP).  Someone who's
  a GP wants the best possible sound (16-bit digital audio playback)
  from his or her card at the lowest price.  A GP is much more
  interested in playing back 16-bit sound than in recording 16-bit
  sound.  (BTW, I am not a GP.  I bought my GUS as a cheap way of doing
  music composition and hard disk recording [HDR].)  From this
  perspective it makes a *LOT* of sense to separate out 16-bit recording
  capability to lower the price.  In addition, the casual sound card
  Business User will also not care if his or her voice memoes are
  recorded in 16-bit digital audio.  Further, the GP's constitute a huge
  market potential, while the semi-serious muscian-types are in the
  minority.  "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

  Does that make more sense to you now?

> 2) Finding the card itself is difficult enought (more so than the
> SCC-1 card I have), but finding the 16 bit daughter card is downright
> impossible (at least from my search).  Without the 16 bit sampling
> input, I cannot buy this card at all.  Nobody at any computer store
> I've been to has heard of GUS or the daughter card.

  I bought my GUS at the local Babbage's here in Fort Collins, Colorado,
  for about $158 (with tax included).  The GUS should be showing up at
  most local retailers very soon.

> 3) Sure the price of the default card is great, but to make this card
> my primary card for music synthesis, I already need the daughter card
> (which I can't find) AND a 1 Meg expansion right out of the box.

  The 1 MB memory expansion is cheap and easy to implement.  You can get
  the six 256kb*4 DIP chips you need for under $40 without any problem.
  Installing them is as easy as pushing them into a DIP socket.

  Also, you talk about "needing" the 16-bit recording card for music
  synthesis, but that doesn't make sense to me.  Does the Yamaha SY77
  need built-in 16-bit HDR capabilities for music synthesis?  I'm sure
  that it doesn't.  But it is a kick-ass synthesizer that has everything
  you need to compose and playback music, including a built-in MIDI
  sequencer.

  The same holds true for a GUS.  It is capable of synthesizing 16-bit
  stereo Wavetable sounds, and it has built-in MIDI sequencing
  capability.

  The 16-bit HDR daugther card for the GUS has not been released
  yet.  Gravis predicts that the card will be released by the end of
  January, but they gave no guarantees.

> 4) The (as far as I know) non-standard MIDI interface (non-MPU401).

  The GUS comes with a *STANDARD* MIDI interface built into the card.
  Unfortunately, the GUS does *NOT* support the non-standard MPU401
  interface.  (Let's get the terminology correct, shall we?  The MPU401
  is a standard MIDI interface with ADDED ENHANCEMENTS.  Therefore,
  strictly speaking the MPU401 is a SUPER-SET of the standard MIDI
  interface, which in one sense makes the MPU401 NON-STANDARD!)

  HOWEVER, the GUS *DOES* support *STANDARD* MIDI In/Out/Thru.

> Furthermore, I don't know if MIDI in / out jacks come standard with
> the card or do I have to find another non-existent daughter card to
> add to the 16 bit sampling!

  You need to buy a break-out box which will have the In/Out/Thru female
  DIN connectors on it.  This is similar to what you need to buy to
  access MIDI on a SB(Pro) card, except it is a more convenient
  implementation (the GUS break-out box will have female DIN connectors;
  the SB break-out cable has male DIN connectors).

> 5) (more of a question than a gripe) Can I drive the GUS with MIDI
> data through the MIDI ports (assuming it has them) instead of
> internally?  I'm looking for a way for GUS to coexist with a Roland
> SCC-1 card and through Windows 3.1.  I was thinking of using the
> Roland card as the MIDI interface and running MIDI data out from the
> Roland, through a MIDI cable, and back into the GUS.  Somewhat
> kludgey, but will it work?

  Unknown.

> 6) Nobody has mentioned any way of converting .WAV, MIDI sample, etc.
> to sounds that GUS can use for wavetable synthesis.  What a market if
> this is possible.  I'm thinking of this as I read many complaints of
> "static" in default waveforms which is packaged with GUS (and how
> everyone says they could be better).

  Francois Dion (an Internetter from Montreal, Canada) has already
  created samples for the GUS.  He has sampled an accordion and an
  analog synth to create the new patches.  According the Francois, the
  trickiest part is converting the samples into a usable GUS format.
  But now that he's done it a couple of times, he will be writing
  conversion utilities to ease the process.

> These items I talk about above probably would not bug me very much
> (especially for the price of the card!), but other cards rumored to be
> coming soon sounds like they would give GUS some real competition
> soon.  So unless Gravis gets their marketing, software, and sample
> library act together, I'm going to wait for something better.

  The choice is yours to make.

  The latest issue of Electronic Muscian lists a sampling of present and
  future sound cards.  For the price, I don't see anything that gives
  the same bang for the buck that the GUS does.  Perhaps in a year's
  time we'll see something that competes with the GUS, but by that time
  there'll probably be a GUS II.

> Hopefully, someone will shed some light on my gripes above, and
> convince me to buy a Gravis Ultrasound soon!

  With the number of people buying the GUS, why do I need to convince
  you to buy a GUS?  There're plenty of GUS owners out there already,
  and Gravis hasn't really made a push yet to advertise the card widely.
  If you want to take the stance of "wait and see," then that's your
  decision.  But if you look (listen?)  more closely at the GUS, I don't
  think you'll need to have your arm twisted to see that it's a great
  card.

> John
>
> -- John Bunk, Code 4G13, NSWC-PHD jkb@suned1.nswses.navy.mil

--

  Stuart Yoshida

Internet: yoshida@elektra.fc.hp.com
   Voice: (303) 229-2324
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard