Wow, 1GB flash for sounds for old DOS games.... Time to whip out the old Dream 5000 SDK and start constructing some fine sounding banks, I guess? 😁

Good work.

Which DAC chip are you using? I'd be interested if this is capable of driving speakers like my Creative Stage Air 2.1 soundbar and at least 250 Ohm headphones (like my Beyerdymanics DT990 Edition). To make it perfect, a switch for toggling between Line Out and Headphone Out would be nice, similar to devices like the M-Audio Super DAC.

In general, I would be quite keen on being able to get my hands on a modern soundcard once more which has the capability of adding a wavetable module. Creative removed that aeons ago. It could even breathe new life into my DB50XG card which I still have in a DOXBox setup here (provided it would be compatible with this). I hope a proper case is also planned for this. 😉

1GB flash is probably really a bit excessive. Often bigger soundbanks are not necessarily better than small ones. In fact, the best modules out there like the SC55 or DB50XG managed to produce excellent MIDI music with just 4MB. But it also depends on what you want to do with it - I am talking about MIDI for classic games from the 90s such as Doom, Duke3D or Descent.

If this is really happening, someone will hopefully make a conversion of H. Bredel's 8MBGM Enhanced SF2 soundfont. I would immediately uninstall VirtualMIDISynth after that. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. ^^ Anyway, a very promising project!

This sounds like a great project. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

Ok.. Not sure how I missed this, but so this basically looks like.. An external MIDI module / USB Audio Device hybrid with digital audio out and headphone amp? I can see that it also has Line In so I am guessing it can do audio processing internally? And there is bot a 64Mbit DRAM and a Micron chip that I think is actual NAND storage? What are you cooking up Serge.. Are you telling me I can actually upload ROM (*cough*MT-32*cough*) files onto this device and run software (*cough*MUNT*cough*) on it or something? Because if you are, take my money..

Ok, ok, this appears to have no processor and the Dream chip does all the interesting stuff. But maybe a similar audio centric SBC that can run MUNT and BASSMIDI, FluidSynth or something instead of using a Dream chip down the line 😉 A man can dream..

Very interested in this project, keep us posted 😀

If this is going to be a full-fledged sound card with a proper DAC, headphone amp *AND* MIDI capabilities that can be used with a modern OS, this would be the most interesting project for me on this forum until now.

Trelokk wrote on 2020-07-07, 11:15:

If this is going to be a full-fledged sound card with a proper DAC, headphone amp *AND* MIDI capabilities that can be used with a modern OS, this would be the most interesting project for me on this forum until now.

yes that's the intention

Outstanding. For me this now just needs to be able to handle 250 Ohm headphones and should ideally have a switch to toggle between Line Out and Headphone Out. Then you could ask pretty much any price actually, I'd still order a unit. With case, no questions asked.

Is it already decided which DAC and headphone amp chip will be used or it's still too early to tell?

Trelokk wrote on 2020-07-08, 08:39:

Outstanding. For me this now just needs to be able to handle 250 Ohm headphones and should ideally have a switch to toggle between Line Out and Headphone Out. Then you could ask pretty much any price actually, I'd still order a unit. With case, no questions asked.

Is it already decided which DAC and headphone amp chip will be used or it's still too early to tell?

I will further develop X8 first , which has no headphone amp

No problem. Curious to see how that one will turn out, too. I'll be waiting for this one, however. Time is not a relevant factor here.

Hey! I might be getting some money today. If I do, no guarantees, get the money, could I make a donation of around $250 USD?

Nitroraptor53 wrote on 2020-10-10, 16:52:

Hey! I might be getting some money today. If I do, no guarantees, get the money, could I make a donation of around $250 USD?

That is very kind, I am grateful for your support, but I am not accepting donations or pre-orders for X16.
Feel free to PM me, especially if you wish to support my projects, by buying other sound cards (that are completed already).

dreamblaster wrote on 2020-10-10, 20:03:

Nitroraptor53 wrote on 2020-10-10, 16:52:

Hey! I might be getting some money today. If I do, no guarantees, get the money, could I make a donation of around $250 USD?

That is very kind, I am grateful for your support, but I am not accepting donations or pre-orders for X16.
Feel free to PM me, especially if you wish to support my projects, by buying other sound cards (that are completed already).

Oh ok. Also this is a cool project and I wish you best of luck!

Lighter redesign of X16, X16L, after feedback :

*Applause*

X16L board ready. - blue edition !
Still quite some firmware development ahead, before possible release.

Very nice !

Is there anything planned on the soundbank front for this (either custom made or from Dream) ?

Wow! I'm totally up for one for my Aureal SQ2500 and SQ3500 Turbo!

Quite impressive. Is there a reason why you use a mini-usb connector, like you did with the x2? 🤔 ....I better stock up those cables.

subnet_zero wrote on 2021-02-02, 22:31:

Quite impressive. Is there a reason why you use a mini-usb connector, like you did with the x2? 🤔 ....I better stock up those cables.

mini usb through hole version, is very solid
as opposed to a micro usb which i ripped off in a prototype, during testing.
so yeah, because i like it, and you can give these old cables a new life 😀