edited and
included by www.ZYKLOP.com - original MAZīs famous site
ZYKLOP is not responsible for anything written here - the page is
maintained by MAZ
and we just included it to our service section for solving gus
related problems!
last updated 21-Jan-1997
Be sure to check out the superb unofficial GUS
PnP FAQ, this one here is only a tiny
contribution, collected and maintained by MAZ, hope this helps to
solve some REALLY STRANGE problems with the beloved GUS (PnP).
The texts are NOT typed by me (as long as I am not mentioned as
the author), so don't hit me because of some quick and dirty
hacks
Contributers always welcome! (please send HTML if you can)
Just start IWSBOS first,
subsequently FT2. Tested with 2.0 beta 2 drivers.
Important notes:
----------------------
if midi in port already works fine
and you can get both win95 sounds and general midi play for you,
then you should change nothing in your configuration.
If you dont have the Gus Max
Drivers for Win95, they are available at http://www.gravis.com/
Those who install the win95 driver
for Gus Max and dont have any problem with the midi in port
Should not change anything to their configuration.
Those who can't
make Win95 work with midi in port Shoul read further and find how
to configure the system.
Win95 MidiPortIn Configuration:
-----------------------------------------------
Copy the file named ultmport.drv into Win95\system directory.
Edit System.ini and find the line: MIDI=xxxxxxxx.xxx.
Add MIDI1=ultmport.drv after the above MIDI=xxxxxxx.xxx.
Reeboot your system.
In Control pannel choose Multimedia Icon and double click it.
Click Advanced tab.
Click on MIDI Devices and Instruments and Expand it's branch.
You Shoul see now the Ultrasound Midi Port Driver.
Double click it or choose properities after you click it once.
Check that the radio button for Use this MIDI device is chosen.
Click on settings and set the right configuration according to your Gus Max Settings
You can check The Gus Max Settings in Control Pannel/System icon/Device Manager/Sound ,Video and Game Controllers/GravisUltrasound Max/Properities/Resources.
Click O.K after you set the MidiPort In Driver.
Click on MIDI tab
Check that the UltraSound MIDI port Driver is listed in the Window.
To set it Active just click it once and choose Apply and O.K. Note that now your system is configured for use with the midi port in so you might not be able to play any midi sounds; To Listen to Midi Sounds you Should go back to the control pannel and click once on the other Midi Device in the Midi tab for Multimedia settings.
Good Luck and you can Send me E-mail if you have any questions or if you have a Win95 Driver
For the Gus Max that It's MIDI IN Port is available In the
Primary Device.
This one was originally written in spring 1996,
driven by some dudes misconceptions ...
At first some words related to the concept behind the GUS,
AWE32/64, TurtleBeach Maui, Pinnacle, TerraTec EWS 64 ... in
general and to the GUS (this time NOT PnP) in special, including
some things you will probably never find at www.gravis.com :-)
Let's call it
they all have full 16 bit - hardware mixing of independent channels (GUS & Maui = 32, AWE 32/64 = 30, Pinnacle + EWS64 = 64) - eats up nearly 0% CPU power!
all have RAM onboard where you can upload your own samples for individual music, MODs & Co. - even MIDI: thats why those cards are REAL SAMPLERs, and usually at a very fair price/power relation compared to stand alone devices
all are capable of recording and playing at the same time (full duplex), needed to apply realtime effects with programs like WaveLab, or to play back your guitar track while recording the live drums with ONE soundcard
most cards can add some realtime effects by it's own, like echo, reverb, chorus and surround effects - so does the GUS PnP (NOT the classic GUS)
Now on to the GUS in special - I
want to slow down those BLIND GUS enthusiasts, who never had the
comparison to another wavetable RAM card and do it like GRAVIS on
the cover: always compare it to OPL3 ... nopes! ... better OPL2
...
you will never find any comparison with another wavetable card in the documentation or on the cover of the GUS, GRAVIS always compares it to the SB PRO's FM chip. Is that poor? It is. Where do they live in? But they must have a good reason to do so ... hmm ... all other companies does it the same way ... :)
The GUS playback quality is dependent on the maximum limit of active channels. The GUS can be initialised to play anywhere between 14 and 32 channels. Values below 14 are increased to 14. The lower the number of channels, the higher the playback quality. GUS PnP plays always with 44 kHz, even with 32 channels, but only if the player/tracker/whatever supports it in native Interwave (that's the heart of the new family)-mode. Currently (as of 21-Jan-1997) this is ImpulseTracker only. Check it out! Players which support IW are: CubicPlayer 2.0, Mod4Win 2.4, XTC-Play 0.70c, Silicium Player 2.70, MIDAS Sound System 0.6 ...
So in classic GUS mode 32 channels will be played at 19
kHz. (EWS64, Pinnacle, AWE 44 kHz,
MAUI 38 kHz, GUS 19 kHz), remember: CD quality, as
propagated by every 2nd word at the GUS cover
means 44 kHz ... at least I thought so ...
A decent MIDI needs those 32 channels (or even more!), some games also inititialize 32 channels because it's easier to handle every sound at a seperate channel. So don't say "who the hell needs 32 channels". Hehe, and remember ImpulseTracker with it's intelligent channel management (New Note Actions, 256 channels internally) ...
The worst thing with the
classic GUS: max.
16 bit sample size is 256K! A 16
bit sample must not cross a GUS RAM-segment border
(segment size is 256K). Really sad. Turtle Beach Maui has
a 1 MB limitation per sample too but ... Luckily the GUS
PnP don't has such a stupid limitation.
max.
GUS-RAM-Size is 1 MB, thats pretty
small with XMs, IT's which contain some 16bit/44 kHz
samplez or using some cool GM-libs for playing MIDI. The
GUS PnP can handle up to 8.5 MB RAM.
no bass
nor treble slider within the GUS mixer! :-( That one is sad. Why don't GRAVIS nor AMD spend
such poor stuff which was even at my 3 year old SB16 or
PAS16? It should be the users choice,
what kind of sound he/she wants, dependet if he/she has a
decent amp or not. Thats stupid. There is no really deep
bass nor crispy hihat with GUS, if you DON'T have the
possibility to adjust it with an amp or if you don't have
an amp/speaker system of xxx $.
a few words about the
"old" (version 1) Win95 setup:
(BEFORE I had any GUS in any slot of my computer I
started the SETUP and it blubbered: "GUS succesfully
detected by Win95". Win95 itself did a REAL
detection and was "succesfull" when I HAD the
GUS installed. So only GRAVIS' setup program did that
fake. After finishing the setup I heard NOTHING from my
GUS PnP. And, of courz, it had again
"successfully" selected exclusive only those
DMA's and IRQ's which are NOT free :-(
And if you want to change it manually it says "can
not configure a plug&play device manually"! A prototype of PLUG & PRAY. Under DOS the SB16 and GUS have NO problem at
all together! Btw, there are NO drivers at all for
WinNT4. That suxx badly.
Who carez now because, the public beta 2.0 version just
works great:
Don't miss the GUS
PnP 2.00 win95 drivers!
Let's say some positive words about the classic GUS at the end :
the GUS is supported by EVERY game, EVERY player, EVERY tracker, EVERY demo! That's the only - hehe, but a really HUGE! - reason why to buy a classic GUS. This situation is based on the fact, that the GUS was the first RAM-wavetable card (1993) for the PC and really broke all limits. Nowadays the situation is a bit different, the features of the Gravis Cards are not unique at all ... but still, the price is one of the lowest.
it has a linear frequency spectrum and produces just no basic noise compared to my 4 years old SB16 (I guess, my SB16 is the grandfather-part of my computer )
every single sample (like a WAV) will be played with 44 kHz! Even if you have bad 8 kHz crap the GUS will render it to 44 kHz! But that "intelligence" is not that good if you want to have an 1:1 monitor while producing highQuality samples because you will (maybe) not hear any difference between a good and a bad sample
So the best solution seems to be a
cheap SB16 combined with a GUS PnP (if you want to buy a GUS,
please don't buy a MAX or classic GUS, this just makes no sense,
the price is the same as of the PnP). You should use Kay Bruns's
(mod4win) freeware, an EEPROM-proggy which reduces the used GUS
PnP IRQ/DMA to one, Yes!, ONE! And all devices still work fine.
... while typing this crap in
Billy's word processor, MOD4WIN 2.4 is playing some nice XMs in
background with 0% CPU usage in NATIVE Interwave GUS PnP mode,
which really rocks!
Thanx for reading!
Thanx to Joe Coleman, Vamp (Sysop of german Spirit BBS:
02632-71224) and some others for additional hints & comments
This procedure describes how to
get a Gravis Ultrasound classic and a Pro Audio Spectrum 16 to
work together.
Why is this a good combo you ask? Well, you get the Great Quality
of GUS Midi and it's GF1 Chip for mod's and such as well as the
Nice Mixer and Digital Audio Playback of PAS 16.
-NOTE-
This only works in Win95. I don't
do much in DOS anymore.. Though it's still better.. I will realse
instuctions on that latter.
You will need:
Win 95 <Disk or CD on hand>
1 Gus Classic <With lots of Mem on it>
GUS Classic win95 Drivers.
1 PAS 16 <I use the none revision>
One 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable.
IRQ's: 11,7,5,9
DMA's: 6,7,5,1
Ports: 220,210,388
These instructions + a lot of time and Patients.
-WARNING-
If you try this and mess up or something <Though I don't think you can> You cannot sue me or blame me. This is just how I did it. Your at your own risk!.
<Steps>
1) Install Win95
2) Put your Gus and PAS 16 in your comp.. just throw away the
instructions thier not needed.
3) Plug your CD-OUT audio adapter <SOny or Whatever> into
the GUS, You can do the PAS 16, but I just chose the GUS cause my
PAS was built for LMSI.
4) Plug the 3.5mm cord from the out of the GUS into the LINE IN
<NOT MIC> of your PAS 16.
5) Boot the comp up.
6) When you get into win95 it MIGHT detect new hardware.. If it
does.. then remove it from the device manager for now.
7) Pop in the GUS disks for Dos. And let it install.. DO NOT..I
REPEAT DO NOT install the Windows drivers.. Else your FUCKED!
8) Don't let it reboot yet. Go into your autoexec.bat Remove all
it added -except- the line that points stuff to your midi
patches.
9) Reboot the comp
10) When you get into Win95 <Remove if it finds anything>
goto the device manager
11) Don't look for new hardware.. Instead say, add your own. Then
Click Multimedia devices.. and say, I got the disk.
12) Plug in the Disk for your GUS. and let it install.
13) Go into the Device manager and make these changes to your
gus:
Under Ultrasound setup:
DMA Playback:7
DMA Record:6Resources:
Unclick Use Automatic Setting.
Port 220
IRQ1:11
IRQ2:7
DMA1:7
DMA2:6Click ok.. and Say sure I know it might mess up Plug and Pray.
14) Reboot.
15) When in win95 goto add/remove new devices.
16) Let it search. It SHOULD find all your PAS16 stuff. Or you
can keep resarting till it finds it. It will eventually.
17) Go into the device manager again and make these changes:
Under PAS 16 Resources:
Select Basic configuration 1.
Click the use automatci settings thingy.
IRQ1:5
DMA1:5
Input/Output Range:210-210F
IRQ:9
DMA:1
18) Your gonna have a conflict.
It's between the JOystick ports of the 2 cards. And the 388 port.
<Main of the PAS 16> Ignore it. You should never really
have a problem.
19) Restart the comp. <Boot>.
20) Ok goto your Mutimedia Setup. Change the Audio to PAS 16
<388> playback and record. Click the show volume thingy.
21) Change the midi to Midi for Gravis Ultrasound Classic.
22) NOw you can mess around with the Volume settings and such
till it's to your liking. Enjoy.
Oh you might need to fidly with stuff for a while till it sounds
lovley. =
But it Will after a while. :)
Well, if you can get away with using just one or the other, it'll save you a bit of time doing so, but if you're like me... :). Anyway, to do this, I used a Gravis UltraSound PnP, and a non-PnP SoundBlaster 16 Value Edition. Read this whole document through before attempting this -- it'll help to know what to expect before you try it. Also, the bulk of this is done in the DOS prompt: when booting, hit F8 and choose 'Command prompt only' instead of heading into the GUI.
First, a checklist of what system resources you need free (or can get free):
Interrupts: 5, 9, 10, 11
DMA's: 1, 3, 5, 6, 7 (ouch, eh? It is likely that you could get away without using DMA 6, but I'm not covering that yet)
I/O Ports: 201 (joystick port), 220-22F, 240-24F, 300-301, 330-331, 388-389, it also seems that the GUS grabs the ranges 320-327,32C-32F (did I hear someone say the DMA list was long? :)
Time: I did this in about an hour or two, but that was also the third try
A working knowledge of your system -- hardware and software setup.
Note: if you are using the IDE interface on the GUS, you will need another interrupt, and there is another pair of I/O ranges that are used. I don't want to deal with them right now, so I'm going to assume that when you install the GUS, you've disabled the IDE, and set the driver under Win95 to disabled (if you don't know how, email me). The GUS IDE is the third channel for me, so I ignored it.
I'm going to assume that you're starting a system that hasn't had any of the soundcards installed yet. If the SB16 was already installed, remove the windows drivers (leave the DOS stuff there) and take the card out. If the GUS was already installed, just skip ahead.
Step 1: Installation of the GUS
This part is in the GUS manual, but you need to set the GUS
interrupt to 11, the SB emulation interrupt to 5, the I/O port to
220, and the DMA's to 5 and 7. DMA 1 is automatically used by the
GUS, and I don't think that it is possible to change it (if you
know of a way though, send it to me). Disable the IDE interface,
set the MIDI interrupt to 9, and the MIDI port to 330, finally,
enable the joystick port if you don't have a separate joystick
card. Whether or not you have RAM on the GUS doesn't affect the
installation for the purposes of getting the 2 cards to coexist.
Continue on and install the Win95 stuff too.
Of course, once you have the software installed, test make sure
the GUS works (who me? I always test things :).
Step 2: SoundBlaster Jumpers
This is important! As the SB16 is partially configured by jumpers
(at least, the non-PnP ones are), these jumpers have to be set,
otherwise you're likely to get serious conflicts. So, dig out
that SB16 manual, and find out what the settings are to put the
SB16 on I/O port 240, MIDI port 300, and disable the joystick
port.
Step 3: Install the SoundBlaster
Turn the computer off and plug the SB16 into it's slot. When
installing the software, this is where it helps to already have
the DOS stuff installed, and the windows stuff installed, but now
removed. Use the SB16 DIAGNOSE program to make sure that the SB16
works on I/O port 240, interrupt 10, and DMA's 3 and 6. If it
doesn't, you need to figure out which part isn't working, then
see if you can free the conflict (if the problem is DMA 6, you
can probably get away with the 'Use low DMA' option).
Step 4: Finallizing DOS stuff
Once you've tested the SB16, and made sure it works, exit
DIAGNOSE, but do not save any of the changes. Create a file in
the root directory called SB16ENV.BAT with the following
contents:
@ECHO OFF SET BLASTER=A240 I10 D3 H6 P300 T6 SET SOUND=C:\SB16 C:\SB16\DIAGNOSE.EXE /S C:\SB16\SB16SET.EXE/P /Q
Then edit your AUTOEXEC.BAT file and add a line, after the GUS initialization, that reads:
@CALL C:\SB16ENV.BAT
This way the DOS settings for the SB16 won't be messed up if the Win95 drivers decide that modifying your AUTOEXEC.BAT is a Good Thing.
Step 4.1: Testing 1...2...3...
Once you get this far, before you go into Win95, test both the
GUS and the SB16 until they cry mercy. You need to be sure that
they will work at this point. A good test here would be to have
Cubic Player (1.7) and a mod handy with both the GUS devices and
the SB devices left in the CP.INI file.
Step 5: Into Win95
Now for the last step: add the SB16 driver to Win95. Open the
control panel, choose add new hardware, but do not let it search
itself. Choose No, then 'Sound Video and Game controllers', then
'Creative Labs', then, of course, 'Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16
or AWE-32', then 'Next>'. Follow the prompts from there and
let it install the SB16 driver for you, but don't let it restart
the computer. Once the driver is installed, open the system icon
in the control panel and choose the 'Device Manager' tab. Scroll
down to 'Sound, Video, and Game controllers' and choose (you
guessed it) 'Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 or AWE-32', choose
'Properties', then the 'Resources' tab. Finally, verify the
following settings: I/O Range: 240-24F, Interrupt Request: 10,
Direct Memory Access: 3, 6. If all the checks out reboot the
system, you're effectively done.
Of course, the next step, upon finishing the reboot, would be to quickly test that both cards work under both Win95 and DOS still, then configuring all your programs to use both cards, or just one card, or no cards (gah!), as you will. Have fun.
If I've missed anything, made a typo, etc, etc, etc, email Joe Coleman (me) or visit my web page and complain there. Last modify: 17 April 1996
