Hey, I'm looking forward to be able to order an Orpheus II in the next batch!

I've been reading up on it and looking over what kind of issues I could run into and one thing that I noticed is that my P3B-F motherboard BIOS (looking at the docs) doesn't let me reserve DMA 7 for legacy ISA. It does allow DMA 5 to be reserved (also 16 bit I think?) Is that going to be a problem?

Alright. So, I just went ahead and installed one of the SIMMs into the Orpheus II, plopped it into my AMD K6 machine, and everything seems to be working as per usual.

The only thing I needed to make sure to test is the Gravis Ultrasound capabilities, but as of this post, I cannot access the pcmidi.eu website. Because I know that contains a pre-installed version of the ULTRASND DOS program along with its Windows drivers, both of which I didn't quite download yet prior to receiving the Orpheus II.

DoomGuy II wrote on 2023-07-26, 04:47:

[...]I cannot access the pcmidi.eu website. [...]

weird, I wonder what is going on as I have heard this before... it works fine at my end
I have uploaded the DOS drivers here: https://mega.nz/file/1M8nhbpK#KvDGdEuu5_GD4tM … wf7pRU3FOtacCuw
included:
- Orphinit 0.57ß
- Orphinit 0.57ß temp speaker fix
- ULTRASND.ZIP

Alright. So, after about troubleshooting things last night and into the morning, I could not get the Ultrasound side working properly.

First of all, it seems that the pre-installed drivers like the default C:\ULTRASND directory when initialized, because otherwise I would get a "Can't open message file" error even if I change the INI files to point to another directory. I prefer it to be stored in an alternate directory for sake of organization, but I guess what works works. So, when I tried games like Duke 3D, Blood, and Shadow Warrior, all played just fine, even the emulated GM music works fine. Albeit, the sound effects in these games when using the GUS is rather clicky especially when at higher bit rates like 44 khz. I then tried OMF 2097 and I could NOT get any sound out of the GUS. Same thing with Epic Pinball. And even under Windows 98, I could not get anything at all with games that take full advantage of the GUS.

Everything is set as they should be. IRQs, DMAs, the address, and everything. It even initialized just fine under DOS, but again, no sound under OMF or Epic Pinball.

make sure that the GUS IW resources are actually reserved in BIOS for ISA usage and no other devices try to use them
also OMF , Epic Pinball and several other EPIC games (and DOS4GW games) need to be patched with PREPGAME before usage with the InterWave GUS.
PREPGAME is part of the InterWave drivers and present in the ULTRASND.ZIP (make sure to check both GAMES.TXT and ORPHEUS2.TXT)

and indeed, ULTRASND.ZIP assumes it is extracted in the root of C:\ with the -d option to restore directories 😀

remember, for the GUS PnP portion of the card everything that applies to the original card applies to the OrpheusII, they will both work and behave the same.

keropi wrote on 2023-07-26, 17:13:

also OMF , Epic Pinball and several other EPIC games (and DOS4GW games) need to be patched with PREPGAME before usage with the InterWave GUS.
PREPGAME is part of the InterWave drivers and present in the ULTRASND.ZIP (make sure to check both GAMES.TXT and ORPHEUS2.TXT)

That did it! I was able to get GUS support in Epic Pinball!

It seems as though they were not any hints or so on the Orpheus II page to do such a thing unless I missed something on said page. I mean this is honestly my first time diving into the Gravis Ultrasound, especially with regards to its PNP iterations. So, it wasn't exactly clear until I was able to dig in deeper to find out what exactly needs to be done.

But otherwise, everything seems to be working 100%! Have yet to test other games, but this is a good start!

DoomGuy II wrote on 2023-07-26, 17:32:

That did it! I was able to get GUS support in Epic Pinball! […]
Show full quote

keropi wrote on 2023-07-26, 17:13:

also OMF , Epic Pinball and several other EPIC games (and DOS4GW games) need to be patched with PREPGAME before usage with the InterWave GUS.
PREPGAME is part of the InterWave drivers and present in the ULTRASND.ZIP (make sure to check both GAMES.TXT and ORPHEUS2.TXT)

That did it! I was able to get GUS support in Epic Pinball!

It seems as though they were not any hints or so on the Orpheus II page to do such a thing unless I missed something on said page. I mean this is honestly my first time diving into the Gravis Ultrasound, especially with regards to its PNP iterations. So, it wasn't exactly clear until I was able to dig in deeper to find out what exactly needs to be done.

But otherwise, everything seems to be working 100%! Have yet to test other games, but this is a good start!

well there is ORPHEUS2.TXT and GAMES.TXT inside ULTRASND.ZIP and a "Please read the ORPHEUS2.TXT in the archive for more info. " on the ultrasnd.zip section
it is just the new hardware effect, soon you'll be proficient in all GUS PNP things 😀

Well, having a blast with the Orpheus II so far with its GUS capabilities! 😁

Still having a specific issue in some games where the sound effects just keep clicking when using the GUS itself. As I mentioned previously, it does tend to happen in Build Engine games like Duke 3D when the bit rate is as high as 44 khz, even when limiting the number of sounds being played at a time. Though, the clickiness does seem to go away after I bring the bit rate down to 22 khz.

640K!enough wrote on 2023-05-31, 03:32:

vutt wrote on 2023-05-18, 18:49:

Has anyone managed to get Orpheus (I or II) working in native WSS mode with Impulse Tracker 2.14v5 in pure 6.22 DOS?
...

Now, there's a driver for that.

I have semi-ironic follow up on this with my Orpheus II (O2) use case. I'm heavily into 16bit tracker music from around 1995-2000+ (.it & .xm) using DOS playback mostly using headphones on higher volumes. Impulse Tracker v2 is my goto player.
I got Fiio K7 DAC and headphone amp combo since it sports also analog input. So far I thought Interwave is the best playback device using O2 analog output. (I have given up on solving my Interwave to noisy issue with O2 spdif digital output )
So long story short - IT2 with now working Crystal WSS driver on O2 native digital output is head and shoulders above Interwave analog playback on O2. Panning is precise, sound stage is slightly wider, mid to high range is crisp and of course zero idle noise(floor) because it's fully digital. Ironic part is that Interwave is not needed and also carefully designed O2 analog tract is completely ignored 😉
Yes I know comparing Crystal DAC designed mid 90-s with modern more expensive AKM Dac and THX amp on Fiio is unfair. GUS is still valid for my 2nd main use case - enjoying DOS demos so It's all good.

I guess bottom line is htat I'm having blast putting modern spin on retro music consumption.
So looking forward - how about balanced output (XLR) implementation on next Orpheus next iteration 😉 ... and RGB because it's 202x /s

oh yeah, RGB orpheus logo is coming in the next card revision, it will also have onboard fan controller (with RGB support ofcourse) so any 486 will remain cool during heavy sound processing load 🤣 🤣 🤣
glad you are enjoying the OrpheusII vutt, in this case it goes to show that software is equally important as hardware so you can squeeze every bit of functionality from some chip

Just installed my Orpheus ii black. Was wondering, for those with the card, do you notice a big difference between Opl and CrystalFM?

I've tested a few games, it seems like Opl is more..crisp with each "instrument" coming through more clearly. But I also notice the volume is a little louder (this is just by simply changing the .ini file in DOS and nothing else)

I have an Orpheus I, not an Orpheus II, but the issue I consistently have with other cards is that FM music tends to be overwhelmingly quieter than digital sound. If your OPL is loud, that is a GOOD thing.

My workaround is to use a dedicated card just for OPL and route that through the Line-In of my primary sound card to amplify the volume, as well as acquire much finer control over its volume through the mixer.

Many software mixers such as the ESSVOL allow for setting levels for the FM Synth.

I don't recall my exact use case (I don't have a vintage system put together at the moment), but the problem was that there was no dedicated FM slider in the mixer or that the maximum volume was too low and that digital sound effects was tied to the "master" slider in the mixer, so this also affected the FM volume at the same time and made it impossible to boost the FM louder than the digital sound effects.

I believe it was something to this effect. It would have been with an ISA Creative Sound Blaster.

there is a difference between CSFM and Yamaha OPL3
it ofcourse depends on the music playing , for me the easiest test to determine which OPL variant is in use is the map screen in DynaBlaster

volumes-wise it all depends on software, if it programs it's own mixer values or respects whatever was set, if it has it's own mixer etc... there is no winning there atm unless you use something like MIDITO to lock the mixer

keropi wrote on 2023-08-01, 06:25:

there is a difference between CSFM and Yamaha OPL3
it ofcourse depends on the music playing , for me the easiest test to determine which OPL variant is in use is the map screen in DynaBlaster

volumes-wise it all depends on software, if it programs it's own mixer values or respects whatever was set, if it has it's own mixer etc... there is no winning there atm unless you use something like MIDITO to lock the mixer

Interesting, do you have any other examples where it is easy to hear the difference? Is Yamaha OPL generally considered superior in most scenarios? (Hence the reason for adding the chip?)
I notice there is a "layered" option as well. Is this a recommended setting in any scenario?

Yamaha OPL3 is generally regarded as the defacto standard, so that is usually how the composers intended their music to sound. That said, Crystal's FM implementation has much better timbres and balance, and usually sounds a lot more organic to my ears. I would almost always pick CrystalFM over OPL3 (particularly in its unfiltered form, which is the case for most of the SB Pro compatible cards), but it is a great thing that Orpheus has both and the option to choose between them.

I proposed TPM interface previously. Now I stumbled across ESS's patented Transparent DMA technology. US6138183 patent expired in 2020! Is it possible to reconstruct it now to create ordinary PCI card at last?

I read the patent and it was extremely interesting. I'm not certain that it's something that is truly patentable. It reads a lot like a software patent.

One interesting thing I found in it was that they talked about how PC/PCI was originally created by Intel to provide a means to implement ISA over a docking station. Its use on a desktop motherboard for sound cards does not appear to be its intended purpose.

"PC/PCI" is a mechanism that was defined and developed by Intel's Mobile/Handheld Products Group (MHPG) as a mobile docking solution which allows ISA slots to exist in docking stations connected to the notebook's PCI bus. This scheme is now being applied to the desktop PC as well.

AmbassadorCosh wrote on 2023-08-01, 14:04:

Interesting, do you have any other examples where it is easy to hear the difference? Is Yamaha OPL generally considered superior in most scenarios? (Hence the reason for adding the chip?)
I notice there is a "layered" option as well. Is this a recommended setting in any scenario?

There can be quite obvious differences between OPL3 and Crystal FM; it really depends on the content, and is also rather subjective. I posted a few samples from one of the early Orpheus prototypes a few years ago. If you're interested, read this post, listen carefully without reading the answer first, then consider your opinions. If you are using 90s-style "computer speakers", it may be difficult to tell the difference, but you will notice differences if you use better-quality speakers or headphones. I like to use the old Ad Lib Jukebox and Adlib Tracker II for these comparisons.

It has hardly been mentioned since the introduction of Orpheus II (LT), but the layered mode simply uses both FM chips at the same time to play back the same content. In some cases, it can provide a richer result with more punch, and in others, it just sounds strange. It isn't really something to "recommend", it just offers an additional option that someone who is interested can play with; a way to experience something a little different. Why offer it at all? Because it can be interesting and different, and, most of all, because we could.