UltraWave(tm) Patch Library Patches Introduction and Quick Install Instructions ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION UltraSound UltraWave(tm) patches are a series of high quality 16-bit uncompressed WaveTable instruments and instrument sets using original samples recorded in a professional studio environment. Your UltraSound's breakthrough PURE RAM based Wavetable synthesis system allows you to choose from an unlimited 'pallet' of wavetable instruments and sounds. Because only the instruments that are needed are placed in RAM, the quality of each instrument can also be as high as required. All UltraSound instruments are uncompressed for un-compromising highest quality. Patch Manager V1.5 (ships with V3.5x UltraSound software) now has a new menu item called 'Patch Bank Manager' which allows setting up and nameing your own custom General MIDI set(s) according to your own preferences. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS What follows here is just enough information to get you started with your new UltraWave(tm) custom piano patches, without going into a detailed explanation of Patch Man V1.5's many new features. For a complete description of Patch Man and the 'Patch Bank Manager' feature, please refer to the UltraSound User Guide. Step by step: 1. Copy the Patches and MIDI files: Copy the Patch files (*.PAT) from the CD or floppy disk to your \UltraSound\MIDI directory. Also copy any demo MIDI (*.MID) files from the disk to your MIDI directory. You may find some '.ZIP' files containing MIDI and custom patches grouped together. Simply un-zip these into your \UltraSound\MIDI directory as well. The new patches will instantly extend your General MIDI instrument set, becoming a part of an ever-increasing library of instruments that are just as easy to use as the standard set. 2. Run Patch Manager: Run Patch Manager (V1.5 or greater) and click the 'Bank Manager' menu item. 3. Select Patch Bank: Click on the 'Selected bank' list box button and select 'melodic bank 0' from the patch bank list. 4. Create Patch/Name Association: Next, scroll to find, and click on one of your new patches in the column on the right named 'patches available'; 'gppiano.pat' for example. Now select 'acpiano.pat' in the column on the left named '# name, and patch'. Now that you have chosen a source patch (from right column) and a destination instrument (from the left column), click on the the '<<' button between the list boxes to complete the association. Your selected patch's name now appears in the 'Patch' column next to the '# name' of the General MIDI patch. 5. Audition and Use new Patches: Click the 'Patch Manager' menu item to return to Patch Manager. Double click on 'Acoustic Grand Piano' to load it, and audition it with your MIDI keyboard or with the mouse cursor on the Patch Man piano keyboard. Use Window's media player or a sequencer to play any demo .MID files that came with the patches. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- HELPFUL HINTS If you play a MIDI file and it sound like there are instruments missing, it could be because you do not have enough RAM installed in your UltraSound. If this occurs, simply click on 'UltraSound Configuration' (included in UltraSound software version 3.5x) in your UltraSound group and select the 'conserve memory' option. This will effectively double the RAM available for loading instruments. With this option selected, patches load into memory as 8-bit but Because UltraSound over-samples every digital file on playback (including patch samples), your MIDI instruments and music will still sound great. You do not have to re-start Windows for the new setting to take effect, but you will have to re-load currently loaded patches. Use Patch Manager's 'Unload All Patches' menu item under the 'Options' pull down menu to do this. Adding RAM to the UltraSound and MAX is an easy and innexpensive option too. If you intend to use your GUS mainly for creating and playing MIDI music, we recomend you upgrade to 1 megabyte. Contact your UltraSound dealer or our Customer Service department as indicated in you UltraSound Manual for your memory upgrade. If notes seem to be missing on playback: - click on 'UltraSound Configuration' and increase the number of active voices to increase polyphony (the number of notes that can be playing at one time). UltraSound MAX is capable of playing back Up to 32 MIDI notes, plus a stereo WAV file, for a total of 34 voices. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BACHGROUND INFORMATION How Patch Banking Works: When 'ACPIANO is selected in Patch Man, or a program change in a MIDI file asks for an Acoustic piano (General MIDI patch #1), GPPIANO.PAT will load and play instead of the original ACPIANO.PAT. UltraSound uses initialization files in Windows and DOS to find the default patches it uses. In Windows, this file is 'Ultrasnd.ini' (in your \UltraSnd\ Windows directory). In DOS, 'default.cfg' in the \ultrasnd\midi directory is used. In order for Windows apps to use the new patches, the 'Ultrasnd.ini' file is altered to point to the new patch's name, instead of the standard patch. In DOS, it's the 'Defaut.cfg' file that is used; You must edit it manually to change patches for use with DOS MIDI programs such as PLAYMIDI or MIDIFIER. The entries in the '.ini' and '.cfg' files look like this: '0 = acpiano'. When a patch is substituted, the Ultrasnd.ini' file is altered to look for the newly assigned patches when requested by the software or user; eg: '0 = Newpatch.pat'. UltraSound's Patch Bank Manager for Windows looks after this mapping for you, allowing new 'Banks' of patches to be assigned and named as desired; eg: 'Jazz GM set #27', 'Garage Rock #6', Al's Funk House' etc. See the 'Help' menu item in Patch Manager for Patch Banking information. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OTHER COOL STUFF Also Included: The MIDI file 'The Last Days of Summer' (c)copyright by Tracy Hurst is provided to demonstrate the GPPIANO patch. This .mid can be played on any UltraSound with 512K RAM or more, or on a 256k GUS with the 'conserve memory' option selected in the UltraSound setup dialog in Windows' Control Panel 'Drivers' applet. Other Patches and MIDI files may also be included. A text file with the same name as the MIDI file it relates to may be included with suggestions on how to assign custom patches for the song. Keep the new patches in your \UltraSound\MIDI directory to make them immediately available to your two default instrument Banks, 'Melodic Bank 0' and 'Drum Bank 0'. Advanced Gravis is continually improving and adding new features to the UltraSound software to bring you the best Sound Card possible. Recent updates include the addition of the Patch Banking feature, simultaneus digital recording and playback, and more. If there is a GUS software update included, unzip it into a temporary directory, and follow the instructions in it's zip file on how to install these updates. Check out our 8-Line BBS or one of our 40 BBS nodes around the World for patches, updates, games, tools, music, and much, more. Gravis BBS #: 604-431-5927 Compuserve ID: 71333,350 Compuserve Forum: GO PCVENB forum #14 Advanced Gravis Internet ID: gravis.com *** Enjoy Your New UltraWave(tm) Patches! ***