computing hardware, the Gravis UltraSound. Affectionately known as the GUS, the UltraSound

was introduced to the market in late 1992 by Advanced Gravis Computer Technology at

a listed price of $199.95. And no, the name has nothing to do with diagnostic sonography,

and everything to do with providing MS-DOS and Windows 3.1-based computers with “ultra”

levels of sound capability. Specifically, the Gravis UltraSound is a sound card that

not only provides up to 16-bit, 44.1 kHz stereo sound and mixes up to 32 sound channels, but

it does so using some impressive sample-based music synthesis, commonly known as “wave

table synthesis.” In other words, instead of music in games sounding like this...

[Duke Nukem 3D Adlib music plays]

...you could have music that sounded like this!

[Duke Nukem 3D UltraSound music plays]

Not only that, but in some situations the GUS was a cheaper

option than similarly-specced competitors, making it an appealing upgrade option for

a time. However, its reputation as a reasonably-priced wavetable sound card is absolutely not the

case decades later, with classic Sound Blasters remaining relatively cheap and a loose UltraSound

commonly selling for anywhere from two to four hundred dollars at the time of this recording.

As such I owe a massive thank you to those of you who donated all the Gravis products

you’ll be seeing throughout this video. I’ve been wanting to make this episode ever

since I started LGR, so truly, thank you, this would not have happened without your

generosity. That being said, there must be a reason for the UltraSound’s continually

rising price tag and avid fan base, so let’s dive into the history of the card, unbox this

original GUS Classic, and set it up with the LGR Woodgrain 486 and see how it performs.

Advanced Gravis Computer Technology was a Canadian company formed in 1982 based in Burnaby,

British Columbia. And throughout their first decade on the market, computer peripherals

were their bread and butter, largely consisting of input devices for the Apple II, Macintosh,

and IBM PC-compatible machines. Things like the Advanced Gravis Joystick, the Advanced

Gravis Super Mouse, and a fascinating combination device, the Gravis MouseStick. But their real

claim to fame, and the first time I heard of Gravis personally, was the legendary Gravis

GamePad. Introduced in 1991 for the Macintosh, Amiga, Atari ST, and PC platforms, the 4-button

GamePad was a godsend for computer gamers who wanted a console-like controller to go

with the increasing number of console-like computer games. Especially platformers like

Prince of Persia, Commander Keen, Zool, and Jazz Jackrabbit, not to mention the growing

popularity of fighters like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II which were even more

ideal with a controller. And with the Gravis GamePad being such an early console-style

gamepad for home computer systems, it sold like crazy, making Gravis the world’s largest

producer of PC game controllers for a time. But ‘91 was a huge year for Gravis for another

reason, and that was the Gravis UltraSound, stepping into the limelight with a press release

from the 1991 Fall Comdex show in Las Vegas, claiming that it was “the ultimate all-digital

sound solution for IBM PCs. Gravis UltraSound matches or exceeds all other PC sound products.”

After several delays and lots of hype, it finally hit the Canadian market in October

of 1992, with the US and elsewhere following in the coming months. It was met with its

fair share of praise, largely due to its hardware-driven wavetable synthesis, outputting at frequencies

up to 44kHz. And with many sound card owners upgrading from AdLib and Sound Blaster cards

that could only play FM synthesized music with far fewer instrument channels, moving

to the Gravis UltraSound for just under $200 was an easy sell. In fact, the GUS could be

downright affordable by comparison. For instance, the Sound Blaster 16 was $349 when it launched

in 1992. And that didn’t even have dedicated wavetable synthesis, for that you needed to

buy an additional daughterboard upgrade. And then by June of 1994, the wavetable-focused

AWE32 was $265, with the original Gravis UltraSound having dropped to $129 by then. Hardware reviewers

directed some well-earned praise towards the GUS, pointing out how impressive its 32-voice

wavetable audio could be, but also pointing out drawbacks like a lack of games designed

to take advantage of it in its first couple years on the market. There was also its subpar

Sound Blaster and FM synth support, making compatibility with existing PC games a chore

due to it relying on a somewhat messy software emulation method to pull it off. Still, the

UltraSound sold decently enough that game developers and Gravis continued to support

the card, with around a couple hundred compatible games and multiple card revisions hitting

the market over the next several years. Speaking of which, let’s go ahead and take a closer

look, starting with this Gravis UltraSound Classic. And man is this a childhood dream

come true, just having one of these in my possession is honestly a bit surreal. First

up we get the card itself, a 16-bit ISA board with a pleasant bright red PCB. Ahh I love

crimson-colored boards, though it seems like it was mostly ATi and Gravis that went with

red back then. Guess it’s a Canadian thing. Next is a plastic package filled with all

sorts of paperwork including a Gravis product registration card, and this one being sold

in the US it referred you to their distributor in Washington state. Next are a couple of

ads for related products, like the Gravis Analog Pro and PC GamePad, as well as games,

adapters, and the GUS memory upgrade kits. Aw yeah, this was back when you could easily

upgrade the RAM to your sound card and it was awesome. Then you get several documentation

booklets, with hundreds of pages of instruction manual goodness covering everything from the

setup of the card, to using the including software, to tweaking your PC in order to

attain sound that is as “ultra” as possible. And while there were multiple bundles available

over time this one came with five high density 3.5” floppy disks containing drivers, demos,

MIDI patches, and programs for playing back and recording digital audio, including UltraSound

Studio 8. Mine also came with this additional package ordered from Gravis, containing the

GUS Software Development Kit version 2.01. So whoever bought this originally had larger

intentions than just gaming. Let’s get back the card itself and admire all those connectors,

interfaces, and ports, oh my. From left to right we have DIP sockets for RAM expansion,

a 4-pin compact disc audio interface, and some lengthy headers for adding either a CD-ROM

controller or a daughterboard for stereo 16-bit recording. And at the heart of the GUS is

a chip known as the GF1, designed in cooperation with Forte Technologies. It’s based on an

older Ensoniq chipset, the ES5506 OTTO, most often used in the Ensoniq VFX line of synthesizers

from the late 80s. Then on the I/O panel you can see we have mic and audio inputs, a joystick/MIDI

interface, line out, and amplified out ports, as the previous owner so thoughtfully noted

for us. Getting it installed is quite simple, and we’ll be using the venerable LGR Woodgrain

486 running at 66MHz for this one. Just gotta take out the Sound Blaster card I had installed,

snap the UltraSound Classic in its place, plug in some speakers and we’re ready to

go with the software. I’ll be using the 2.04 disks that it came with, which provides

a helpful installation menu letting you choose which features of the nearly 17 megabytes

of software you’d like to install. [sounds of disagreeable disk noises as LGR groans]

Or, I tried to at least. Seems the floppy disk didn’t quite agree. I was also sent

this collection of 2.06 disks and well, those turned out to be even worse. DOS couldn’t

even get a directory reading. Thankfully there are plenty of archives online so I wrote my

own disks and all was well. After it’s installed you’ll reach the GUS setup utility to make

sure everything’s working, with a variety of features being adjusted through software

instead of jumpers on the card itself, and if it’s working you’ll hear

plenty of bombastic sound effects.

[sound effects bombastically play]

Finally you’re free to test out the

software that it came with, including an incredibly basic MOD player with various sample tracks,

like this one from the game Star Control II.

[“Commander Hayes Theme” MOD plays]

You can also test out some MIDI playback capabilities using the included MIDI player and sample

files. It’s also an example of the card’s lack of hardware reverb and chorus effects,

so you’re not gonna have the kind of room-filling, wet MIDI renditions you’d get on, say,

a Roland MT-32 or a Sound Canvas.

[upbeat yet dry MIDI tune plays]

Finally, there’s UltraSound Studio, an incredibly simple

and rather clunky audio recording and editing program. Still,

I would’ve found this plenty impressive in 1992, with the ability to quickly record,

cut, and mix audio clips together. -This is a test of the Gravis UltraSound Classic’s

microphone recording capability. "This is a test of the Gravis UltraSound Classic’s

microphone recording capability.” But that’s enough of that, let’s check out some games!

And for me there was no question, the first game I had to try was Jazz Jackrabbit, the

very title that introduced me to the Gravis UltraSound’s existence in the first place.

[music and sounds play, incredibly clearly]

-I don’t know if it’s just me but that sounds... better than I’ve ever heard.

[more Jazz sounds play] Like that right there?

Wow. I didn’t think I’d be able to hear the difference but... good grief, that sounds good.

[sound effects play]

Holy crap!

Yeah, that was my legit first reaction. I was seriously awestruck

by how good this sounded having come from the Sound Blaster Pro 2.0. It may not come

across well depending on YouTube audio compression

and your sound setup, but just listen to these side-by-side.

[Jazz Jackrabbit theme plays]

Here’s another title that makes great use of the card, Epic Pinball

and well, just listen to this awesomeness.

[Epic Pinball menu song plays]

Dude those samples are so crispy and it actually plays more consistently

than my SB Pro. That’s another GUS plus: with games programmed to take advantage of

it, they’ll not only receive high-quality sound but you might also get improved performance

due to how things can be mixed on the card itself without taxing your CPU. As an example,

playing Descent on this 486 machine with my Sound Blaster Pro results in the music irritatingly

speeding up and slowing down. But with an UltraSound? Nah man, the music continues playing

at a more constant tempo, regardless of frame rate.

[sounds of Descent descend soundly]

The thing is, while this makes the GUS a solid choice on lower-end hardware, it is unfortunately

a real toss-up as to whether or not the game you want to play fully supports it. While

hundreds of titles claimed to have Gravis UltraSound support, what that actually means

can vary quite a bit from game to game. Sometimes you get improved performance and great sound

quality when a game has a sound mode specifically built for the GUS, but other times it’s

just wrapping up a General MIDI implementation and mixing audio using your CPU like any ol’

random sound card. Also, it’s worth mentioning that while the GUS Classic is capable of 44kHz

stereo sound, it can only output 14 of its possible 32 channels at that rate. With the

maximum number of channels playing back at once, the quality drops to just 19kHz, so

that’s something to keep in mind when working with more involved music. Keeping on the topic

of tunes, you might see the program ULTRAMID come into play with various games. This program

is sometimes required, and often comes with, games that rely on MIDI playback and use the

Miles Audio Interface Libraries. How well this works depends on how the game loads instruments,

how many it uses at once, how much conventional memory you have, how much RAM your UltraSound

has etc. But typically when you see something using ULTRAMID, I found that results weren’t

exactly optimal, especially on the original UltraSound Classic with the factory-installed

256K RAM on-board. [splat] Oh and in case you’re wondering, yes

you can take advantage of MIDI in and out using

something like the Gravis UltraSound Universal MIDI Connector Box.

While the GUS doesn’t provide MPU-401 compatibility through hardware, there are

some software solutions like Mega-Em to achieve this. Not only that, but this program also

allows you to emulate Roland hardware through software, loading in samples mimicking the

sound of those devices. Although good grief, the headaches I went through to get this working

were all for naught, especially on this 2.4 revision of the unexpanded GUS Classic. It

not only doesn’t have enough RAM to emulate anything close to a full version of General

MIDI, but again there are no reverb or chorus effects built-in, and it won’t load all

the custom Roland patches and parameters for all games anyway. Speaking of lackluster emulation,

Mega-Em as well as another Gravis program called SBOS can attempt to emulate the features

of a Sound Blaster. This was Gravis’s way of getting around the card’s lack of OPL

synthesizer chip or Sound Blaster-compatible DAC, and provide some semblance of compatibility

for games that don’t support the UltraSound. And while the digital audio emulation is actually

pretty good, the Adlib FM synth portion really, really sucks.

[terribly emulated version of Xargon theme plays]

That is just sad. I mean, they tried, it’s better than no sound at

all I suppose, but wow, it makes Adlib music sound like an ice cream truck.

Just listen to Duke Nukem II here.

[Duke Nukem II Ice Cream Edition™ plays]

But all of these positives and negatives so far have

mostly revolved around commercial software, and the appeal

of the Gravis UltraSound reached another, far less mainstream audience as well: the

demoscene. In case you’re not aware, the demoscene subculture is one where programmers,

artists, and musicians work together and compete to produce impressive software demonstrations,

often pushing the hardware beyond what had been seen before. And much like the Commodore

Amiga computers, the GUS became popular among demosceners for its ability to play dozens

of custom, simultaneous sound samples without overreliance on the computer’s CPU, leading

to more impressive audio while freeing up resources for intensive graphical effects.