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X-School: Penn State University
X-Nickname: <<APOCALYPSE>>, Lord of Destruction
Organization: Penn State Star Trek club
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 15:33:06 EST
From: Matthew E. Bernold <MEB117@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
Subject: Re: GUS CH Interface, is it regular SCSI?
 <29133@optima.cs.arizona.edu>

In article <29133@optima.cs.arizona.edu>, bakken@cs.arizona.edu (Dave Bakken)
says:
>
>In article <92366.080650MEB117@psuvm.psu.edu> MEB117@psuvm.psu.edu (Matthew E.
>Bernold) writes:
>>Ok, maybe this will clear up the problems some people have been having
>>with soundcards and CD-ROM drives.
>>
>>To use a CD-ROM drive with a soundcard, you need two things, a controller
>>for the drive, and a connection to the soundcard so you can record from the
>>CD, or play the CD back through the soundcard's amp.  Many people have
>>recently been confusing the two, and I haven't seen anyone trying to clear
>>the situation up.  On Creative Labs soundcards, the INTERFACE part is non-
>>standard (NOT SCSI), but you can still hook up ANY CD-ROM drive that has
>>it's own interface card to the soundcard's audio in (either the 3 or 4 pin
>>CD-in connector, or just a line in) without any problem.  Same type of
>>thing with the GUS.  If you have a CD-ROM with it's own interface, like a
>>seperate SCSI controller, you can still hook up the CD's audio in to the
>>card.
>
>Thank you very much; this is helpful.  I'm not quite sure how this
>affects me, someone who hopes to order a GUS ASAP, so I'll ask a
>followup.  I'm not sure if I need to order the SCSI interface option
>when I order my board.  I don't intend to hookup a CD-ROM right away;
>I'm just getting the board for my kids educational programs and for
>my games.  I really don't care about multimedia games that need a
>CD-ROM to work.
>
>I probably will get a CD-ROM drive eventually, though.  One that looks
>interesting is the $399 Radio Shack one on sale (till 1/23) for $199
>(sorry, but I have the model number at home, not here).   I couldn't get
>a data sheet out of them, but the salesman said he had one at home and it
>works great with his SoundBlaster.  He said that there is some sort
>of audio out so I ought to be able to hook it up to a GUS.  What I'm
>not clear of is if I would need to order the SCSI option or something else
>for this.
>
The answer to this on is fairly simple...if the CD-ROM comes with it's own
controller, then you do NOT need the SCSI option for the GUS.  The SCSI
option effectively turns the GUS into a SCSI controller.

If the CD-ROM drive you buy is a SCSI drive, then you need a SCSI controller
to use it.  This controller can be a seperate board such as an Adaptec, or it
can be the SCSI option on the GUS...it doesn't matter which, as long as there
is a controller there.

If the CD-ROM drive you buy is NOT a SCSI drive, then it should come with it's
own interface card.  In this case, you do not need the SCSI option for the GUS
because the CD-ROM drive doesn't use it.  This is also true if the CD-ROM drive
is SCSI, but it comes with it's own interface, or you already have a SCSI
controller in your PC.  The situation boils down to these cases:

----------

Type of Device                                 SCSI controller      GUS SCSI
                                                 in machine?         needed?

SCSI CD-ROM with no controller included.             No                Yes
                                                    Yes                 No

ANY CD-ROM with controller included.               Yes/No               No

----------

So, after all that spewing out of semi-usefull information, it comes down to
the fact that you only need the GUS SCSI option if the drive is SCSI, and you
don't have another SCSI controller in your computer.  Of course, you could
always buy a SCSI adapter instead of the GUS option, but that's up to you.

Also, as I said before, I don't know what kind of performance the GUS SCSI
option has, nor do I know what kind of drivers are available for it.  Maybe
someone else out there will know that.

Good luck,

       Matthew E. Bernold             MEB117@PSUVM.PSU.EDU
         <<APOCALYPSE>>                  meb@haydn.psu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard,comp.music