Re: Sound Canvas (and related) comparison project (UPDATED: 22nd March)

Posted on Yesterday, 22:51

by

by RetroGamer4Ever

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

On a seemingly random notion, I just installed the last version of Quicktime For Windows on my computer and the MIDI (Roland GS soundset) works wonderfully. It kicks the crap out of the Microsoft Synth and it's DLS file. It doesn't match up to the SoundCanvas VA, but it's pretty passable with GM and …

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Re: The Internet Archive has been hacked

Posted on Yesterday, 13:01

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by RetroGamer4Ever

in Milliways

in Milliways

Makes me wonder who would benefit from making the site unavailable ... besides copyright holders, that is. In the hacking scene, everything is about clout and credit. You do anything and demonstrate proof that you did it, you get some street cred and clout. It doesn't matter if you hacked the …

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Re: EAX appreciation thread

Posted on 2024-10-09, 10:56

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by RetroGamer4Ever

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

KainXVIII wrote on 2024-10-07, 09:03: I wonder if anything can be done with that (via mad hacking skillz) 😅 Like most older games, it uses a text file for config info/settings, so changing the text in the file for sound settings should enable it, as that's how you did it back in the day, when the …

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Re: What game are you playing now?

Posted on 2024-10-01, 13:19

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by RetroGamer4Ever

in Milliways

in Milliways

I find myself having a bit of motion gronk from using the - now common - larger display sizes of 27 and up, especially with third-person/first-person open-world games where I might be jumping down from heights or falling or flying through the air.

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2024-10-01, 13:10

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by RetroGamer4Ever

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If I had the skills, I'd buy up the old synth hardware modules and refurb the electronics/electricals, so that they can keep on ticking and be enjoyed for at least another generation. I know it's sort of a waste, but there's just something about the physical presence of hardware, that box of "stuff" …

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Re: Intel publishes a white paper on x86S, a 64-bit only architecture

Posted on 2024-09-30, 20:48

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by RetroGamer4Ever

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

AMD's Strix Point Halo APUs are looking like sexy beasts, with up to 128GB of onboard LPDDR5 and the ability to shift a huge chunk of that to the GPU, leaving the rest to feed a large pile of cores. Maybe we can squeeze a few more FPS out of Crysis, eh?

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Re: Is the interest in retro PC hardware is decreasing?

Posted on 2024-09-28, 18:17

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by RetroGamer4Ever

in Milliways

in Milliways

Yes, and there are a few immutable factors contributing to that.... 1. Old PC hardware availability (CPU/mobo/complete vintage systems/whatever)has decreased significantly, while old PC software remains easily available or grows steadily. What's around may be functional to some degree or going bad/ …

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Re: Dell Physx Card in a non Dell PC?

Posted on 2024-09-28, 18:05

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by RetroGamer4Ever

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I did some noodling around elsewhere and it seems like you have to install the oldest Ageia drivers and then update them to the newest ones to get the things to work properly and the card won't work if you simply install the newer drivers. It doesn't make much sense, but that's what people are …

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Re: Yamaha MU2000EX

Posted on 2024-09-26, 00:21

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by RetroGamer4Ever

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I can't find any information about the output, but input is converted to 16-bit, according to the manual, so it's likely 16-bit/48khz for output.

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Re: Dell Physx Card in a non Dell PC?

Posted on 2024-09-25, 02:42

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by RetroGamer4Ever

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Dell did use custom hardware and drivers back in the day and I have vague memories of situations where you couldn't get some add-in cards to function outside of the Dell units, due to BIOS/software traps that were required to get them working and vice-versa. I serviced a lot of Dell business and …

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Re: Intel publishes a white paper on x86S, a 64-bit only architecture

Posted on 2024-09-24, 19:34

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by RetroGamer4Ever

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

Intel has released the latest draft of it's x86s spec, removing numerous 16/32-bit pieces. https://t.co/vX9R6hINqt

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2024-09-24, 18:38

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by RetroGamer4Ever

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm tinkering with DirectMusic, using the Simple Direct Music Player, by Russell Hicks, which completely bypasses the deficient Microsoft Waveyable Synth in favor of it's own DirectMusic session, which also offers Reverb, though it apparently has no Chorus, despite that being built into DirectSound. …

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Re: Minimum hardware to get Netflix working, needs SSSE3? SSE4x? 2024 browser???

Posted on 2024-09-20, 19:42

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by RetroGamer4Ever

in Milliways

in Milliways

An Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet checks all the boxes. It's relatively rugged, easy to use, can sit on her nightstand or be used in bed, and is not expensive at all. Combine it with a tablet pillow stand and you have the perfect TV-in-bed setup.

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Re: EAX appreciation thread

Posted on 2024-09-15, 12:06

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by RetroGamer4Ever

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

XP didn't fall off the board until 2014 and Creative had their EAX ALchemy available for years, so gaming audio was not an all or nothing scenario with using EAX in the early 2010's.

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Re: Serdaco's X2GS (or X16GS) vs SC55 (or SC88) vs FluidSynth - What's the difference?

Posted on 2024-09-06, 20:38

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by RetroGamer4Ever

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

There are also a few professionally made SoundFont banks from at least one - of the few left - vendor sold as "Roland GS" capable, but I have no idea if they are any good or capable in the slightest. I think they go for $30 bucks or so.

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Re: Best DOS/Windows 9x games for childrens 4-5-6 years?

Posted on 2024-09-05, 22:02

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by RetroGamer4Ever

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Toddle around thrift stores and you can often find the CDs of the old Edutainment games from the 90's and early 2000's and you can easily find ISOs of them on the abandonware sites. At that age, you probably want to try the Mario Education games, the early age MECC stuff like Number Munchers, and …

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Re: Serdaco's X2GS (or X16GS) vs SC55 (or SC88) vs FluidSynth - What's the difference?

Posted on 2024-09-05, 14:56

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by RetroGamer4Ever

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I have no idea what people mean by "doesn't support certain SC features". Nobody has ever bothered to articulate what that claim refers to. FluidSynth has had issues in the past with the imitation Roland soundfonts, but I can't speak to any of that, as I never bothered to use them and the software …

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Re: Serdaco's X2GS (or X16GS) vs SC55 (or SC88) vs FluidSynth - What's the difference?

Posted on 2024-09-05, 14:24

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by RetroGamer4Ever

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The X2GS/X16GS use a soundbank of Roland-authorized sound samples and are officially recognized as GS-compatible MIDI hardware, which many have deemed suitable for gaming. FluidSynth is a collection of software that allows you to implement a HQ Wavetable synth, using SoundFont or DLS soundbanks, and …

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Re: [RELEASE] Nuked-SC55, low-level Roland SC-55 series emulator announcement

Posted on 2024-09-05, 13:12

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by RetroGamer4Ever

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

Apart from the low-quality DLS file used to power it, the Microsoft Wavetable Synth was never really feature-complete software or suitable for use. It just barely worked when it was introduced and could handle basic GM files, but wasn't GS-compatible in the slightest, despite being inferred as such, …

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Re: smallest computer that can run windows XP with supported hardware (especially video card?)

Posted on 2024-09-04, 10:56

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by RetroGamer4Ever

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Prices are all over the place (Low-WTFH?!) for those AMD OEM cards and they run very hot, due to cheap cooling and being over-powered.

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