did you *Just* buy them off ebay? for like $15 in a lot of like 20 cards? because I HATE YOU. You or someone else bought them 30 seconds before I did. 🙁 (i cant find the ebay auction)

Yeah, that was me. I contacted the seller to see if he would accept a BIN price, and he said he would a few hrs later, and set one, so I did BIN as soon as he did. Basically I'm tired of bidding on GUS cards and losing out to greedy resellers. Easier to just BIN and get it over with.

secretly, I hate you. I noticed it wasnt a bin, and I was hoping to get it. I was going to use one card and re-sell the other.

I guess hate is the wrong word. I should be glad that someone is going to use it. If both cards work, want to sell me the other?

If they both work I'll be using both, if I end up liking the sound quality. If I dont, I would be open to trading one or both for other parts. I will keep you in mind on it. I've never owned a GUS before, which is why I started the thread. Wanted to find out as much info about them as possible, well, the Plug and Play ones anyway. Was also wondering, is the Plug and Play ones quite different then the original line? I noticed this card seemed to be a joint project with AMD involved?

ProfessorProfessorson wrote:

I noticed this card seemed to be a joint project with AMD involved?

AMD probably just manufactured the chips for Gravis. They used to manufacture 286 chips for Intel too.

Seems that the later cards had AMD chips, while my original version GUS has a Gravis GF1 chip on it.

If you're new to the GUS have a read of this thread, its got links to drivers and downloads, including patches for certain games to give GUS compatibility.
Install Gravis Ultrasound Properly, All files, No Errors (With Pictures!)

This is another good site:
http://www.gravisultrasound.com/

If you have at least 1MB of RAM on your GUS you can try the Pro Patches Lite, which is supposed be higher quality samples. They do sound slightly different to the default ones though.

The GUS excels in games that support it natively. In anything else its pretty hit and miss. It's Adlib/soundblaster FM emulation is woeful. I'm not really a fan of its General MIDI or MT32 emulation and the TSR's you have to deal with to make that work are a bit clunky.
But games with native support sound excellent.

If you're building a gaming rig with the GUS you'll probably want to keep a Sound Blaster or compatible in there as well.

I want a GUS so badly... But they're so pricey!

I wonder if ProfessorProfessorson would be willing to part with one of the "couple" he received? 😀

I'm only willing to do so if it ends up I don't care for the sound quality. I had planned to use both of them in two of my current Win/Dos towers. If I did decide to let them go, it would only be on trade too for other parts. Thats not why I started this thread though, so please don't ask stuff like this right now.

Of course, it was just a passing question, I wouldn't seriously expect anyone to let go of a GUS these days. 😉

I know they are harder to obtain these days, but I don't plan to use them if they don't hold up well compared to my AWE cards. I don't just mean more complex midi music either, but also sound clarity/noise. I'm pretty picky about that stuff.

yeah guyz, gus(classic and pnp) is my wanted isa soundcard too. i do have one but its slightly damaged, with a capacitor's leg broken, and i am not good at repairing them. 🙁

Caps are easy to replace. All you need is a desoldering pump, preferably the iron type with the sucker connected to it, and a normal electronics solder iron for soldering in the new cap. Find you a couple of dead cards to practice on, and after you get the feel of things, go to do the repair.

ProfessorProfessorson wrote:

How do the Gravis UltraSound Plug'n'Play cards hold up, especially compared to the Awe32 and Awe64? Also, on adding ram, is there any specific requirements? And last but not least, is there a archive around that has the drivers for it for Dos on up to Windows 98?

I have a GUS PnP running, that shows f.e. also in this vid: ftp://78.47.153.163/video/bolero_awesome.mkv
(this is on a 386DX-40)

Ahh cool. 😀 Thanks man for giving that link and all.

I did recordings of the Descent setup music on various midi devices:

Descent - Setup Music - Gravis Ultrasound (standard patches)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtynM2jKGyw

Descent - Setup Music - Gravis Ultrasound 1Mb (Pro Patches)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zSh0sPw2Qk

Descent - Setup Music - Roland SC55 mk2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv__2uO_CDw

Descent - Setup Music - Yamaha DB60XG / NEC XR385
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqhicpmz_Ug

Hope that helps!

PS. The Pro Patches Lite pack is definitely recommended over standard!

Well, if he uses a GUS PnP then he can also use the 4 MB ROM patch set with MegaEM.

I know thats a bit difficult, since native GUS classic support gives you all a 1 MB GUS can handle, but if you switch to GM-Emulation and choose GM (at 330h) instead in the game the result may be better.
Also consider GM Emulation within Win9x (like AWE32 does) that allows to use much larger patch sets like Utopia Live.

See here for GUS PnP specific recordings: http://www.swaaye.com/retro/

What are the 4MB ROM patches like - as good as the ~7MB of samples in the Pro Patches pack?

Sorry, the facts were not 100% right, it is 1 MB ROM on the card and 4 MB RAM thats included by default in the GUS PnP software. The direct comparison is difficult, since the quality is not defined by the size of the wavetable. The Interwave DSP f.e. can apply additional effects that a GUS classic is not capable of. So better hear the comparison recordings from swaayes site and judge yourself.
(You have still the option to use the GUS classics Pro Patches Pack with a GUS PnP)

Thanks for all the great info so far. 😀 By chance, does anyone have these files on hand?
gus_pnp_dos,win311_v22.IMA
gus_pnp_win95_v22.IMA
gus_pnp_winnt_beta2.IMA
gus_pnp_windecks_win95.IMA
There was a torrent that had them, but the seeder is no longer active it seems 🙁

EDIT: seed became active, so I was able to get the files 😀