Music Production > Tracking

Gravis Ultrasound MAX Demonstration

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Koli:
As some of the IRC users know, today I've been playing around with Impulse Tracker, Scream Tracker 3 and Orpheus.

Since I couldn't get my Gravis Ultrasound MAX to work under Windows 95 (typical, eh?) I thought I'd just go into DOS and try it from there - it works flawlessly. Yay!

Right, here are some modules recorded from the output of my GUS MAX running in HARDWARE mode (so any filters in Impulse Tracker don't work as the GUS doesn't support them in hardware) - I attempted to get software mode working, but it seems the GUS MAX doesn't work well in it. Also, I think running in software mode would pretty much screw up the idea of this experiment in the first place.

The experiment? Play some modules in IT, Orpheus and ST3 over the GUS MAX to see how they fair to software players we use today. I think the Ultrasound is the only sound card that supports hardware tracking (eg, uploading the samples to it's own RAM, then interpolating them via it's APU).

The modules are split into groups, depending on what they are. I'd like to mention one thing about the GUS/GUS MAX. They support up to 32 voices, HOWEVER, over 14 voices causes the sampling rate of each voice to drop. It starts off at 44100hz, then at 25-32 voices the sampling rate drops to as low as 19000hz. Impulse Tracker has the ability to monitor this. Because of this, you may hear certain tunes (ESPECIALLY BLUE FLAME) dropping in quality as they get more intense.

Impulse Tracker
Blue Flame
Drifting Onwards (due to hardware mode, no filters)
The Dark Forest
Digital Serenity
2nd Unreality
SDXB - Board 3

Fast Tracker 2
Cosmic Outflow
Cosmic 'wegian mamas (part of a compo, made with MilkyTracker)
Deadlock
Lab 3
MV Universe
Stranglehold (made purely from sine waves)
Stranglehold - Letting go (made purely from sine waves)
Network
Return to Nebula 9

Scream Tracker 3
Mystique Part One
Mystique Part Two

Orpheus
The Blue Valley (uses Scream Tracker 3 as it's file type, but was composed in Orpheus.)

MODs (played via Impulse Tracker, so may not be played correctly)
Stardust Memories
Spacedel.short
Pinball Fantasies
Vibe the Pipe
Symphonic

UPDATE: Fast Tracker 2 is now working correctly ;D

UPDATE 2: I've been told there is actually a way to upload samples to the AWE32/64's RAM and to interpolate them in hardware too, but it requires forcing a driver to load. I can't really test this as my AWE32/64 only has it's default internal RAM of 512KB. Most of these samples were over 512KB.

I'm willing to record samples at people's requests, however there's requirements in order to do this.

1. The module CANNOT be larger than 1MB. My GUS MAX has it's upgrade to 1MB RAM and that's the highest it'll go in it's current state (I am NOT modding it, so don't even go there).
2. The module CANNOT use more than 32 channels, as channels after 32 will just be ignored (32 voices max).
3. With Impulse Tracker modules regarding requirement 2, 32 channels would mean a lot of poly drop due to the way notes cut off - so be warned, 32 channels doesn't mean it'll play all 32 channels completely.
4. Higher the voices, the lower the quality.

Requirements 1 and 4 can be fixed - however, I'd need to find someone who is willing to sell/pass their Gravis Ultrasound PnP (which has 4MB internal RAM and DIMM slots for up to 12MB if I remember correctly) to me  :)

The quality of the interpolation that the GUS can pull off absolutely amazes me for it's age (it's an ISA card and is 33CM long people).

Comments? Thoughts? Requests?  :)

m0d:
No request from me, but +1 to you for effort and a nice post :)

Saga Musix:
Another +1 here for this very interesting experiment! :)
(Oh yeah, and now guess who provided all these trackers to Skatoony! ;D)

Eagle:
Oh, this is a very neat experiment. High-five! :)

Koli:
First post updated with 5 Fast Tracker 2 samples :)

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