From mailserv@gaia.ucs.orst.edu Tue May  3 18:26:16 1994
Precedence: Bulk
Date: Tue May  3 13:45:46 PDT 1994
From: gus-music-request@gaia.ucs.orst.edu (GUS Musician's Server)
Reply-To: gus-music@gaia.ucs.orst.edu (GUS Musician's Digest)
Subject: GUS Musician's Digest V7 #3

GUS Musician's Digest       Tue, 3 May 94 13:45 PST      Volume 7: Issue   3  

Today's Topics:
                           "Real MidiSoft"
                         Announcing UPL v0.2
                            GUS for music
                 GUS Musician's Digest V7 #2 (2 msgs)
                   RAP-10 WAV software and the GUS?
                         VECTOR SYNTHESIS ??
                   Wake up and smell the future...
                        what's my line? (cont)
               What for I use my Gus. (What me worry?)

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 03 May 1994 08:49:15 -0600 (MDT)
From: Alfred Falk 450-5185 <FALK@arc.ab.ca>
Subject: Re: "Real MidiSoft"

dustin@ed.gse.utah.edu

>>(2) How does one insert triplets using MidiSof?  There is a triplet
>>    sign (the number `3' with a curved line over it) in the palette, but i
>>    can't figure out how to use it...
>>
>> ..thanks in advance for what i hope will be simple answers...
>                                              -allen
>
> Ocassionaly 8th notes will become triplets when you use the triplet 
> button, but I usually have to go to the acutal midi event editor and 
> change the note-on times to be correct. Looking at the manual, it also 
> shows 32nd and 64th notes in the toolbar, but I don't have them. I think 
> that the _real_ version has all the features, but the one packaged with 
> the GUS doesn't. -Can anyone verify this?

Unfortunately, The GUS distributed version IS the the real one.  (I bought
MidiSoft Recording Session for $65 (Cdn) a few months before Gravis distributed
it.)  The "real" one and the one distributed by Gravis are identical.  Even
worse, the manuals are too.

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred Falk            falk@arc.ab.ca                     A L B E R T A
Information Systems Dept                                R E S E A R C H
Box 8330, Station F                                       C O U N C I L 
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
T6H 5X2	               (403) 450-5185

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 3 May 94 12:42:29 +0200
From: f93-maj@nada.kth.se
Subject: Announcing UPL v0.2

F.M.J.-Software presents:

:Ultrasound Patch Librarian: v0.2b	[UPL02.ZIP]
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

A program that let's you load an arbitrary set of patches from disk to GUS
memory without ever having to fiddle with ULTRASND.INI. Allows you to load
and save lists of patches as well.


version 0.2s,	<94-05-02>

*  Now handles the drum channel, use 'Drums' and 'Melodic' buttons to toggle.

*  Handles loading of custom patches quite differently now; a really strange
	workaround was necessary in order to fool CakeWalk Pro v2.00, wich has a
	nasty habit to sometimes go off and kill Windows if any program changes the
	patch cache.

*  Added command line mode, call UPL with the name of an .UPL file and it will
	load the patches and then terminate.

*  Added 'Query' button to scan which GM patches (bank 0) are currently loaded
	and translate thoose into an UPL patch map.

*  Added 'Clear' button to uncache all and clear the patch map.

*  When clicking on a melodic patch in the cached list box, UPL will now send a
	program change message to all of the melodic channels.

*  Now using CTL3DV2.DLL, Microsoft's 3D control extension instead of BWCC.DLL.

*  Corrected mispelled directory name, now ENSEMBLE and not esamble as earlier.
	If you have UPL v0.1, please remove the misspeled one.

*  Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

As usual, to be found at archive.epas.utoronto.ca under pub/pc/ultrasound/submit
and (hopefully) at the various mirror archives (not all carry the submit dir).
Filename is UPL02.ZIP.

By(t)e!

/F.M.J.
<f93-maj@nada.kth.se>

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 3 May 94 09:15:22 WST
From: del@pf.adied.oz.au (D Elson)
Subject: GUS for music

Hi,

I'm new to this list, so I suppose I'll start by answering a question
and asking one.

What do I use the GUS for?  I use it to enter music scores from various
early music texts, compose four and six part harmonies (many early music
scores are single [tenor] line only), and record them onto cheap tapes.
My main interest is 15th & 16th century dance music (way away from the
hip-hop stuff and neo-gothic stuff I've heard mention on the list).

Which brings me to my question -- the recorder patch that came with the
GUS is a bit lame (in 6K I wasn't expecting much).  Does anyone know
of where I can get a good one?  I'm also after a few medieval and
renaissance instrument patches that aren't in the general MIDI set,
for example, rebec, crumhorn, shawm*, lute.  Does anyone know about how to
go about getting one of these?  Failing that (since I'm also new to
the GUS), is it a major task to create one from scratch -- I have the
appropriate instruments.

I don't have ftp access, but I can use an FTP mail server (which is very
slow, and it takes about a day to even get a directory listing, so real
file names and path names would be appreciated).

Del

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 2 May 1994 17:24:17 -0700 (MST)
From: "Shawn T. Rutledge" <rutledge@enuxsa.eas.asu.edu>
Subject: Re: GUS Musician's Digest V7 #2

>         (Hmmm!  Envision this:  You draw freehand a spectrum of the waveform.
> You then give it another waveform, and some control points, it basically
> morphs from one to another, making sound everywhere in between. :-)

You read my mind dude!  Sort of a Corel Draw for musical waveforms.  That's
the ticket to be sure.


-- 
  _______                                                             KB7PWD
 (_  | |_)                                            shawn.rutledge@asu.edu
 __) | | \__________________________________________________________________
* cyberspace * packet * GUS * electronics * virtual reality * ARS * Internet * 

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 2 May 1994 20:26:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: Emory Menefee <em@crl.com>
Subject: Re: GUS Musician's Digest V7 #2

> From: dustin@ed.gse.utah.edu  

> >(2) How does one insert triplets using MidiSof?  There is a triplet 
> sign (the number `3' with a curved line over it) in the palette, but i 
> can't figure out how to use it... > 
> -allen > 

> Ocassionaly 8th notes will become triplets when you use the triplet  
> button, but I usually have to go to the acutal midi event editor and  
> change the note-on times to be correct. Looking at the manual, it also 
> shows 32nd and 64th notes in the toolbar, but I don't have them. I 
> think that the _real_ version has all the features, but the one 
> packaged with the GUS doesn't. -Can anyone verify this? 
> 
> Thanks, 
> Dustin 
 
I've been using the Midisoft Studio 3.1 (the "real" version) for several
weeks and it is a big improvement over the Session.  Putting in triplets
with the mouse is straightforward but still a bit of a pain, since there
is no keystroke toggle to get into this mode.  There is a menu called
"score view" that allows setting triplets of any duration, including the
32nd & 64th's missing in Session (these are put in by setting a ruler to
closer spacing). 

I personally like the Studio a lot better than the demo version of
Cakewalk that I have, in terms of ease of use.  One big improvement all
these programs could use, in my opinion, is ability to introduce hard
rests [does anybody know of such software?].  I find it immensely
frustrating to have a section almost complete, only to see it go berserk
when I accidentally plug in a wrong timing or at the wrong place. 

The $29 PowerTracks sequencer does a better job at printing than Midisoft
Studio, and handles triplets as well.  It has an awkward way of handling
multiple tracks that I don't like nearly as well, however.  I guess the
best solution is just to switch back and forth among programs as needed. 

Best,  Emory Menefee

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 03 May 94 10:25:00 PDT
From: "Ford, Richard            x2056" <rford@infocomp.csir.co.za>
Subject: RAP-10 WAV software and the GUS?

Morning all

Can anyone advise me on whether the RAP-10 WAV software works with a GUS? 
 Or, where I can obtain multiple merging WAV software?

I have an SCC-1 and am looking at getting a GUS and a RAP-10, but I have
since realised that the SCC-1 and the RAP-10 will be overkill,  However, if
the RAP-10 software works with the GUS, then I could just get the software,
and I would be away!

Basically, I want to be able to use the RAP-10 software facility of merging
multiple WAV files on a timeline, and then creating a master WAV file which 
I
can then include in Cakewalk and drive the GUS.

Any advice, information, other, would be welcome!

Regards - Richard

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 3 May 94 16:19:12 BST
From: supph@wrksun1.wrk.dupont.com (Paul Hannell)
Subject: VECTOR SYNTHESIS ??

Has anybody heard of a program that can simulate Vector Synthesis ??
I was thinking of a Windows program that could capture MIDI data, alter/add 
data (pitch bend, modulation, etc.) according to joystick movement and send 
on it's way to the card or midi out - all real-time of course. If different 
sounds were assigned to joystick XY positions & volume control added, 
cross-fading could be controlled real-time !!

Is this possible ?? 
If so, and nothing exists as yet, is anybody working on it ??

I'd be very interested to hear from anyone who has any thoughts on this, 
since if no programs are available to do this and it is possible, I might 
have a bash myself.

Regards,
Paul Hannell
PC/LAN HelpDesk
CONOCO UK
UK: 44-0926-404742
Internet: supph@wrksun1.wrk.dupont.com

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 3 May 1994 01:56:48 -0400
From: <Mcq@oti.on.ca>
Subject: Wake up and smell the future...

***IMPORTANT: Please read.***

The GUS is dying. What are we going to do about it? 

The problem is that the GUS has missed its window: It just isn't interesting 
anymore that the GUS has got wavetable synthesis. Lots of cards do. 

Combine that with the fact that *many* game/music/pc magazines have reviewed 
the GUS and decided that it's only "average" and has "compatability problems",
and you've got a recipe for disaster.

There is hope though. There is a way for the GUS to outright *win* the soundcard
wars. That way is through ***GOOD SOFTWARE***. I'm not talking about the fact that
we can emulate GeneralMIDI as well as the rest of them (boring!). I'm talking about 
new and interesting software which just isn't available for any other card. If you 
want an example of how much impact this has, think about the GUS 3D sound stuff. 
Despite that fact that it has so far been almost COMPLETE VAPOURWARE, it has IMPACT.
Heck, it scared Creative Labs enough that they went and got Q-sound. In fact, 
everybody talks about 3D sound support now. You see?

Ok. What we need is the Next Big Thing. We need to write some software which
makes people *lust* after the GUS.

What? You want some suggestions? Ok. Here you go: 

Number one, all encompassing, absolutely the most important:

    EASE OF USE! People must see the GUS as "just working" with *everything*.
    No more "Do I use SBOS or MegaEm?". It's just got to work. If the average
    Luser on the street thought that he would never have to think about his
    sound card again when he bought a GUS, Gravis would sell MILLIONS of them. 
    Of course to do this, *all* of the current Gravis provided software would 
    need to be rewritten. Definately hard, and perhaps impossible.

Of course, that's really not new or interesting, even if it is important,
so here are some ideas for new software which I don't think anybody has done for 
any sound card yet. Be warned though, my personal focus is on music rather than 
games, so I only have one idea that would stand out in the gaming world, and I'm not 
sure how feasible it is.

An idea for the gaming world:

1) *Accelerated* AIL drivers

   The Windows graphics community has been doing this for years: Take the standard
   graphics calls; detect the special cases which can be done more efficiently;
   then implement them as optimally as possible (i.e. in hardware if possible).
   
   How would this apply to the AIL drivers? Well, for example, the driver could
   check if the sample it is being asked to play had been downloaded recently
   (how? make a guess: Is it the same address and is some hash function of the
   first few bytes the same?) and if so, just play the one it has cached in 
   local ram. This probably wouldn't work for all games, but it would work for 
   some.

   Another possibility is: try to detect when multiple samples are being
   played and play them even though AIL can really only do one at a time.

   I don't know. Maybe their's something in this idea, maybe not.

Some ideas for the music world:

1) Universal sample converter

   Do you have any idea how many sounds are available in the formats used
   by commercial samplers? Thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands.

   What we need is a piece of software which takes any (multi)sample, and converts
   it into something we can use on the GUS. It must have enough intelligence
   to know the (musical) ways that samples can be reduced in size so they
   can be used in our limited ram: reducing the number of samples in the multi,
   backing off on the sample frequency, converting to 8-bit if necessary, etc.
   I want to just:
     1. drag-and-drop a sample for some other machine on this tool
     2. turn a nob on it to set how much memory it should take up
     3. let it compute for a while and spit out a gus patch

2) Analog synths are IN!

   Imagine having an application which had a window that looked just like a
   miniMOOG front panel... You twiddle the nobs just like you would on a mini.
   If you hit a note on your music keyboard (the software watches midiIn, of course)
   the software *computes* the sound a miniMOOG would have made with those
   settings (It's just some serious math, after all!), downloads the sample to
   the gus and plays it. When you get the sound exactly the way you want it, 
   you say "Make Patch" and it generates a reasonable set of samples which cover
   the whole keyboard range and constructs a GUS patch. Not quite real-time, but
   it sure would be impressive!

3) Wavestation on a card

   Have you ever heard a KORG Wavestation? It's arguably the only truly interesting
   sample playback synth on the market today. Believe me, if you haven't heard
   what it can do, you should go and listen to one.

   The way it works its magic is by splicing together little segments of many
   different samples and crossfading them into each other over time. They call
   this "wave sequencing". You can set loop points and hold points, pitch, and 
   volume, but that's about it. The results are amazing. Huge sweeping pads and 
   sounds that *seem* natural but you can't quite put your finger on what instrument
   it is (like "pluckrimba" that starts out with a guitar pluck, but ends up
   sounding like a marimba).

   To do this on the GUS, you just need a slightly more interesting driver. It
   would use two voices for each sound it plays (more if you want to allow
   layers (and I do)), and would cycle through the waves according to a simple 
   description. Easy.

Finally, having said all that, I would like to be able to say that I am hard at 
work trying to make the above ideas happen. Unfortunately, I'm not. My life is 
a little (actually, quite a lot) too complex right now. In fact, I've probably
used up my free time for the next year just typing up this message. My hope
is that peoples' imaginations will be fired either by these ideas, or by the
"spirit of the possible" which they encompass to build us the Next Big Thing,
so the soundcard which we all love will have a future.

McQ

p.s. Anybody else got some ideas?

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 3 May 94 11:21:32 EDT
From: echen@verdi.sra.com (Eugene Chen)
Subject: what's my line? (cont)

maybe this is getting off the topic too far, but
i'm curious what everyone's doing with ALL THIS TECHNO music?
(or any kind of music)

myself, as I mentioned, I'm in a working (gigging, recording) band
and we're working on releasing a 7" (on our own dollar).  The band
isn't too excited about using music that I work on solely, so 
things I do with the gus et. al. might go on a solo album (tape) 
or nowhere.  But I'm also starting to look around for commercial work.

Anyway I'm just surprised by all this techno - is it just the 
most fun to write, when writing for fun? or are people pssing their
stuff DJs, pressing dance records...

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 02 May 1994 19:02:52 -0400 (EDT)
From: Quantum <URZNTCB@grove.iup.edu>
Subject: What for I use my Gus. (What me worry?)

I use my gus for a plethora of things. I use it mainly for 
listening to and composing Midi and MOD (S3M) files. I use
Encore 3.0 in conjunction with Master Trax Pro 4.0 to do Midi
(also with my Casio CT-670 (Woo!)). For mods, I use Scream
Tracker 3. (Just came out. Highly recommended.) I mainly
compose what comes to mind at the time (kinda mellow I guess).
I am also a member of a group (I guess we do demos.. I dunno) and
I help write music for that.

---
Kurt Claussen -- Quantum -- Superiority Complex 
"To loose one's mind is a terrible thing, how true."

------------------------------

End of GUS Musician's Digest V7 #3
**********************************

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