VOGONS


First post, by BitWrangler

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Greets all,

So I have a yamaha PSS of some kind put away, and another unit, might be a Casio, that may emerge from a bunch of stuff eventually, and I was wondering if there was much point in pursuing their use as general midi output devices on a DOS system. For making sound sound more betterer. Is the PSS gonna sound pretty much like OPL3 anyway? Don't know what they put in Casios. These are both full(ish) 49 or 44 key models with midi ports, found cheap years ago and put away to "screw around with midi and trackers some time" However, I think the yamaha developed a couple of dead keys, or maybe why it was cheap and I didn't notice, and the Casio fried its DC input somehow and will only take batteries at the moment. Anyway, to use them while I'm not "using" them per se, I thought, "what if I hung 'em up on the wall behind a retro box and hooked the MIDI up??". I thought, by the way, when picking them up these were more like top end consumer models rather than the good stuff that musicians try to earn a living with.

So what are we looking at "It'll work but not worth the effort vis a vis enhanced sound experience vs semi decent FM or wavetable" or "It don't quite work, not enough voices." or "Yass this is the ultimate MIDI experience short of an SC55" or "Way too much bother with cable wiring and crap to get a problematic halfass midi setup, if you just want a different kind of noise, drop some waterproof speakers in a half-full tin bathtub."

I've got plenty of stuff to play with, so more into a "is it a good use of play time" rather than a "this would be real interesting to find out for myself" approach, which is why I'm asking. Thanks for any thoughts.

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Reply 1 of 4, by darry

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

I have a Radio Shack ConcertMade 1500 . It is, AFAIK, a rebranded Casio CTK-650 . I has a GM bank and uses PCM samples (from what I recall of the service manual, it has a 2MB ROM size, AFAICR, no idea about compression used if any) . I seem to recall it not carrying the official GM mark and, AFAICR, there was a rather trivial reason for that, but I do not remember specifically what that reason was .

Anyway, it sounds quite decent, IMHO, as a MIDI output device for gaming . See https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/casio-ctk-650 for a non gaming review.

Reply 2 of 4, by darry

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

AFAIU, the problem with using a MIDI accessible FM synth keyboard to play back computer based music meant for OPL2/OPL3 is that, even if the FM synth keyboard allows control over the way voices are generated and various other parameter, that does not directly translate to the way software with direct hardware access to OPL registers works .

I am not an expert on this, so I may be misguided, but I believe the aforementioned makes playing music from OPL2/3 supporting games on MIDI only accessible FM synths with any degree of accuracy challenging, if not outright practically impossible .

Someone will surely come by and correct me if I am wrong .

Reply 3 of 4, by jonas.thornvall@hotm

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I think like darry above, the OPL chip driver have quite other capabilities, then what the game midi encapsulate, and you would have to use a midi driver to communicate with the keyboard and pass them as midimessages.

Oldschool hardware, computing and musicmaking

Reply 4 of 4, by yawetaG

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Any keyboard with the General MIDI logo and MIDI in (or a serial computer interface + the adequate driver) will work for playing back General MIDI.

However, in the case of the Yamaha FM keyboards with MIDI in that won't work, as their MIDI implementation indeed usually does not match with whatever is required for FM MIDI playback, despite their FM chips sometimes being the same as those used in PC sound cards. Also, MIDI ≠ OPL2/3 commands.
That is excluding the FB-01, of course, which will work with any game compatible with that module. You could try a Korg 707, it is based around the same chip as the FB-01, but I have no idea whether the MIDI implementation is the same as on the FB-01. There are various Yamaha 4-operator keyboards based on the TX-81Z, TQ-5, and a few other 4-operator modules, but those are not FB-01-compatible, AFAIK.

I guess it should be possible to build some kind of interface that sends the OPL signal to an external port, and then directly to the chip in a Yamaha FM keyboard, but you'll have to break out the soldering iron...