Apparently-To: john.smith@gravis.com


GUS Musician's Digest       Thu, 6 Jan 94  2:58          Volume 4: Issue   6  

Today's Topics:
                    Cakewalk and channel 10 error
                       Patcher.zip explanation
                      Patch Maker Light Drivers
                 Piano teaching software/GUS (2 msgs)
             PianoWorks MIDI problems - Partial Solutions

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: Wed, 05 Jan 94 08:25:51 pst
From: "Neal M. STOUGHTON" <NMSTOUGH@uci.edu>
Subject: Cakewalk and channel 10 error

****************original message*******************
Date: Tue, 04 Jan 1994 10:28:53 GMT
From: Clarke Brunt <CLARKE@lsl.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Cakewalk 256k limit


Is it that you get a rather irritating "There is not enough memory on
your sound card..." because there are program change messages on channel
10 (percussion), or a patch selected in the track window for channel 10?
The message will go away if you remove the program changes, and set the
patch to 'none'. Unfortunately, CakeWalk seems to respond to being told
that is is unable to cache patches for channel 10 by not caching the
melodic patches either - I think this is a problem that 12 Tone should
fix.

********************************************************

Actually, it would be easier if the GUS people would fix this problem
with their windows drivers.  It must be the case that the GUS drivers
are returning some sort of error message to cakewalk when the program
change is detected on channel 10.  This then causes cakewalk to
interrupt the patch caching process.  It would seem to me that the
drivers should simply ignore the program change on channel 10.  Maybe
they could fix this and also eliminate that anoying message about the
inability to write to AUX.  Does anyone have an e-mail address for the
GUS windows programmers?

Neal Stoughton

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

Date: 05 Jan 94 12:20:12 EST
From: Erick Christgau <ECHRISTG@OSBORNE.MHS.CompuServe.COM>
Subject: Patcher.zip explanation

OK, sorry for the confusion and bad upload on epas.

The program runs under Windows 3.1/VB 3.0 and helps to make editing the
ultrasnd.ini file easier. It lets you select patches from your midi
dierctory and add/replace them to the .ini list of either melodic or drum
sounds. I added the note name for the drum sounds because that's how I'm
used to seeing it. I'm working on adding patch bank editing and multiple
directories as well. There's not much for docs but this is sort of a beta
version. It shouldn't screw up anything because it doesn't touch anything
that is dangerous to touch, just the ultrasnd.ini file.

I'm re-uploading it to epas today (1/5) and I'll test download it to make
sure it's fine.

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

Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 07:14:12 -0500
From: jdimich@ajiant.dnet.dupont.com
Subject: Patch Maker Light Drivers

   Greets,
	
	I am experiencing a problem when installing the new Windows drivers
	that came with Patch Maker Lite.  I have followed the 4 steps that
	were contained in the readme file, but to my dismay I keep getting
	it wrong.  Could someone tell me *exactly* step by step how to 
	accomplish this?  Is it simply a matter of choosing to install an
	updated driver, or do I actually have to remove the old drivers 
	as mentioned?

							Thanx,
							Jason

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

Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 09:36:02 EST
From: "Burns Fisher, VMS Engineering  05-Jan-1994 0940" <fisher@skylab.enet.dec.com>
Subject: Piano teaching software/GUS

Sometime in the last week or 2, someone was asking about getting PianoWorks to 
run with the GUS.  I have no info on that specific subject, but intestingly 
enough, I got a snail-mailing yesterday from a company called Musicware from 
Redmond WA (sound like a familiar city?).  Actually, I got *two* copies.  With 
First-class postage yet.

Anyway, the flyer is advertising a product called Musicware Piano.
There is not enough info to compare/contrast it with the Miracle and
Pianoworks with the following exceptions:

1)  It runs under Windows

2) It not only explicitly supports the GUS, it includes a cable which
(as nearly as I can tell) allows it to plug directly into the GUS's
joystick port (not requiring the MIDI adaptor).  I'm not 100% sure how
this works...the picture shows a cable that appears to have a pair of
standard MIDI male connectors on one end, and a male and female
joystick-type plug on the other end.  Not much room for
opto-isolators, etc.  BTW, it also claims to support it if you have a
regular MIDI adaptor.

3)  You suppy the keyboard (4 octaves or more required.  It says nothing about 
touch sensitive being required)

Interestingly, on the inside of the brochure, it claims to support the
SB, PAS, GUS "and other major sound cards".  However, on the outside
(the side with the address) there is a tag that says "Learn to play
Piano (sic) on your new Ultrasound card."  That implies they got my
address from an Ultrasound-specific mailing list.  Maybe from AGravis?

Anyway, the price is $99.  I don't have a KB at this point, so I'm not
going to get it.  Maybe sometime...I really *would* like to play the
piano...

Burns

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

Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 09:38:16 EST
From: "Burns Fisher, VMS Engineering  05-Jan-1994 0942" <fisher@skylab.enet.dec.com>
Subject: Piano teaching software/GUS

I probably should have mentioned...they have an 800 number:  800-99-PIANO.

And the usual disclaimer: I have no relationship to this company, nor
do I know anything whatsoever about this product, except for the
brochure.

Burns

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

Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 13:37:39 EST
From: oehler@ispvax.dnet.ge.com
Subject: Re: PianoWorks MIDI problems - Partial Solutions

Good Morning Guser's

I know it may be bad form to answer your own post, but I 
got some new info and some new questions.  Previously, I asked:

>My wife got me a copy of PianoWorks from Temporal Acuity.
>Unfortunately, it does not seem to support the GUS "MIDI"
>port directly.  I have the Gravis MIDI breakout box and a
>Roland PC-200 MKII keyboard that work just fine with 
>Cakewalk for Windows 2.0, but PianoWorks can't find it.
>Thanks,
>Pete Oehler (oehler@ispvax.dnet.ge.com)

And then, in the same digest no less, John asks:

>Hi, Does any know if there is a Voyetra midi driver for the GUS??
>These drivers are used for several dos midi programs including Piano Works
>and Band in a box.  I have Piano Works, which is a great piano instruction
>program by the way, and I would really like to use it with the GUS midi
>port. 
>Thanks,
>John (rush@netcom.com (John Harris))

I, too, called Temporal Acuity and asked about this problem. Their
solution was, "The GUS is a SB Compatable card, right? Use the
SB option."

I was skeptical, but I thanked her and later that evening I tried
it.  Lo and behold, I can now pass their MIDI in test (SBOS 3.7b). 
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to give me an option to use the onboard
synth and just use the keyboard as a controller.  This solution may work
for you, John, since your keyboard must have a synth (since you are 
using a MPU-401 interface card).  Anybody familiar with PianoWorks 
know a solution (MIDI in, thru, echo, channel x, etc)? I'll put in
another call to Temporal Acuity this evening after work and try
to sort this out.

The major problem with this "solution" (besides not getting any sound
out of the PC-200 - surprise, surprise) was that when I attempted to 
start lesson 1 w/o output sound, the program would not accept the
keyboard input reliably.  I could "continue" through a couple of the
early info screens, but then it would no longer take the C key on the
PC-200 as continue.  Time to reboot :<(
 
This problem may be related to my lack of MIDI out going to the keyboard.
PianoWorks talks about "two way" communication between your keyboard and
the computer.  I'm curious if, with a keyboard with synth, the SB
emulation option will work (give it a try, John?).

Anyone else out there using the Ultrasound with PianoWorks?

Have a Day,

Pete Oehler

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

End of GUS Musician's Digest V4 #6
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