VOGONS


Reply 320 of 1157, by NinjaWarrior

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Stevogamer wrote on 2023-03-17, 19:56:

Ooh is that a MT-32-Pi I see mounted on there

It is a WP32 McCake from Serdashop, integrates a CM4 and a front panel.

Reply 321 of 1157, by Xanxi

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Very nice, i love those stickers!

Reply 323 of 1157, by 640K!enough

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Marmes wrote on 2023-03-17, 16:00:

To initialize GUS part, just run IWINIT.EXE -V9 to see everything.

I think it is worth mentioning that the "v" in IWINIT -vx (where x is the level of verbosity of the output) must be lowercase. This seems to be a bug in some (most? all?) versions of IWINIT.

As has been pointed out, for DOS, ORPHINIT is currently the only integrated tool that can initialise Orpheus II correctly. Also, since Orpheus II identifies itself differently (or should), UNISOUND may not choose the correct routines at all. For the InterWave part of the board, IWINIT is currently the best option; as has been reported, UNISOUND still seems to have a few bugs in its InterWave routines that cause playback problems with some software.

I'm behind schedule, but I expect to have some new tools for Orpheus II, as well as a new version of ORPHINIT with full support for Orpheus II features some time soon.

Reply 324 of 1157, by JazeFox

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as has been reported, UNISOUND still seems to have a few bugs in its InterWave routines that cause playback problems with some software.

Hi, I'm posting here only to clarify that I believe that this infomation is not correct. Interwave support is working perfectly with UNISOUND so far. For more details , please, check this new post in the corresponding thread:

Re: UNISOUND - Universal ISA PnP Sound Card Driver for DOS v0.80a

Thanks!

Reply 325 of 1157, by KuroHouou

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Marmes wrote on 2023-03-17, 16:00:

To initialize GUS part, just run IWINIT.EXE -V9 to see everything. Also, make sure in orpheus.ini you have it set for orpheusII on configuration.
Orpheus 2 is not supported by unisound yet, I believe it will be in a near future.

I have no idea what happened, booted up the PC to DOS today and the board initialized 🤣. I was going to try the things that were suggested this morning but low and behold it just started working! I know it doesn't make sense... But just was able to confirm all sound options worked in Duke3D, Sound Blaster for Effects and Music, GUS for Effects and Music, and MPU401 to a SC55 for Music!!! Amazing what this card can do, its truly a special piece of hardware!

Tried Jazz Jackrabbit though and selected the GUS in the setup, not sure if it normally asks for any irq/dma info but the game won't start, says to configure the sound setup.. so still trouble shooting that one.

Reply 326 of 1157, by keropi

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KuroHouou wrote on 2023-03-18, 13:33:

[...]
Tried Jazz Jackrabbit though and selected the GUS in the setup, not sure if it normally asks for any irq/dma info but the game won't start, says to configure the sound setup.. so still trouble shooting that one.

as per instructions you need to use PREPGAME.EXE to patch Jazz (and other EPIC games) so they work with Interwave chip

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 327 of 1157, by NinjaWarrior

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KuroHouou wrote on 2023-03-18, 13:33:

I have no idea what happened, booted up the PC to DOS today and the board initialized 🤣. I was going to try the things that were suggested this morning but low and behold it just started working! I know it doesn't make sense... But just was able to confirm all sound options worked in Duke3D, Sound Blaster for Effects and Music, GUS for Effects and Music, and MPU401 to a SC55 for Music!!! Amazing what this card can do, its truly a special piece of hardware!

It may be related to PnP BIOS configuration. Some BIOS give you the option to reset the assigned IRQ/DMA, others not. Until you switch off the PC (not reset), they may keep the previous PnP config.

Reply 328 of 1157, by KuroHouou

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NinjaWarrior wrote on 2023-03-18, 14:34:
KuroHouou wrote on 2023-03-18, 13:33:

I have no idea what happened, booted up the PC to DOS today and the board initialized 🤣. I was going to try the things that were suggested this morning but low and behold it just started working! I know it doesn't make sense... But just was able to confirm all sound options worked in Duke3D, Sound Blaster for Effects and Music, GUS for Effects and Music, and MPU401 to a SC55 for Music!!! Amazing what this card can do, its truly a special piece of hardware!

It may be related to PnP BIOS configuration. Some BIOS give you the option to reset the assigned IRQ/DMA, others not. Until you switch off the PC (not reset), they may keep the previous PnP config.

Ah, yeah that could very well have been it. I switched the BIOS to PnP enabled, I am guessing that solved it for DOS.

Reply 329 of 1157, by KuroHouou

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keropi wrote on 2023-03-18, 14:21:
KuroHouou wrote on 2023-03-18, 13:33:

[...]
Tried Jazz Jackrabbit though and selected the GUS in the setup, not sure if it normally asks for any irq/dma info but the game won't start, says to configure the sound setup.. so still trouble shooting that one.

as per instructions you need to use PREPGAME.EXE to patch Jazz (and other EPIC games) so they work with Interwave chip

Ah, thought I did that.. I know i did it for Duke3d.. thanks again! Jazz sounds awesome!!!!

Reply 330 of 1157, by KuroHouou

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Anyone who is using an external synth with the PCMIDI MPU401 in Windows 98, have you noticed when going to play a game in Windows DOS mode that uses the sound canvas, you lose the ability to send midi when you exit back to the desktop and try to play a midi using the MPU401 with your external synth? For example, ill be in Windows 98 and can play midi files through winamp using my SC-55. Then Ill fire up a game of Doom that uses the SC-55. Then when I exit that and try to pay a midi in winamp again, nothing is being sent to the SC-55 and hence no music 🙁 Just wondering if anyone else is experiencing that?

Reply 331 of 1157, by Kahenraz

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Are you sure it's an issue with PCMIDI and not just a quirk of Windows 98?

Reply 332 of 1157, by KuroHouou

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Kahenraz wrote on 2023-03-20, 14:05:

Are you sure it's an issue with PCMIDI and not just a quirk of Windows 98?

Could very well be.. was just curious I guess if anyone else is having the same issue maybe. Might end up just doing a full windows reinstall for the heck of it to see if there is any chance in behavior.

Reply 333 of 1157, by Marmes

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Jumping from 2 different environments, may cause issues. Try to send a reset sysex command to pcmidi in. Windows. I'm sure there is no issue.

Reply 334 of 1157, by Marmes

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Midi software sometimes doesn't behave as it should. Try to reboot. I

Reply 335 of 1157, by KuroHouou

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The Sysex reset didn't work. Rebooting always works 😉

Just looking at the SC-55, nothing seems to be outputting to it, none of the bars move so it doesn't seem like any data is being sent to it at all. If I switch midi output in the control panel to something like my Audigy 2 or even OPL or GUS those all still work fine going back and forth between Windows DOS window and normal Windows players. Seems specific to the Roland MPU401 output. Also if I go back into the game in the Windows 98 Dos window it still works fine there.

I feel like there is some kind of resource sharing conflict going on maybe, like once you go into the game it takes over and doesn't let it back..

Reply 336 of 1157, by keropi

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there is no need for resets or reboots or other trickery
once you exit the dos box under windows then mpu will become available again to windows , if that does not happen then it's something else going on
you might want to try the other MPU-401 drivers from pcmidi webpage and see if any works better in your system

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 337 of 1157, by KuroHouou

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keropi wrote on 2023-03-20, 14:46:

there is no need for resets or reboots or other trickery
once you exit the dos box under windows then mpu will become available again to windows , if that does not happen then it's something else going on
you might want to try the other MPU-401 drivers from pcmidi webpage and see if any works better in your system

I was using the newest driver you had posted on the pcmidi page "Roland MPU-401 driver for Windows 3.1 & Windows 9x (works correctly in situations where there is stuck notes issue under windows)", but you gave me an idea to delete those drivers and just try the built in Windows 98 driver again.. well that did the trick this time. Happy to say its all working normally again.

Reply 338 of 1157, by keropi

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KuroHouou wrote on 2023-03-20, 15:12:

[...]
I was using the newest driver you had posted on the pcmidi page "Roland MPU-401 driver for Windows 3.1 & Windows 9x (works correctly in situations where there is stuck notes issue under windows)", but you gave me an idea to delete those drivers and just try the built in Windows 98 driver again.. well that did the trick this time. Happy to say its all working normally again.

This driver was only to use when experiencing the stuck notes issue.

In general the microsoft mpu-401 driver is the one you should use as it's a microsoft one and 9x is not exactly the most stable OS out there.
The multiport drivers and especially the Twelve-Tone-Systems one are more suitable for serious windows midi work and the alternative roland one is in case your system has the stuck notes issue.
(I am not sure that the TTS driver even supports dos under windows btw)
I have added notes to the sites about drivers now so things should be more clear.

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 339 of 1157, by KuroHouou

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Thanks for that background Keropi, appreciate the additional notes on what and when to use them.