Re: Noisy AWE64 recording from any input (line in, EMU8000 MIDI, etc) + upcoming AWE64 comparison

Posted on 2021-02-05, 08:57

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I think I know what you mean regarding the cymbals, I think that I feel similarly regarding the rendition of the timpani in Duke Nuke 3D's Waterworld track https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p=914688#p914688 on the SAM9733 with the Roland GS "cloned" soundbank . It may be a nitpick, but it really …

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Re: Noisy AWE64 recording from any input (line in, EMU8000 MIDI, etc) + upcoming AWE64 comparison

Posted on 2021-02-04, 21:58

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Here are some raw recordings of the tracks that you requested played with the Voice Crystal SF2 soundbank. Thanks! Those sound great, and I have to say Voice Crystal might be even better balanced across multiple games and music styles than Creative's GM35REVC.SF2. Personally, I prefer the guitar …

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Just got a Roland SC-155 and I have some questions

Posted on 2021-02-04, 19:28

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

SC-155.jpg I just got this SC-155 today. From what I gather, it's a somewhat uncommon variety of the original SC-55. This is my first external MIDI device, so please bear with me if some of my questions seem silly. :) Before we get to that, I should mention that I have already initialized the SC- …

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Re: Using Audigy drivers with a Sound Blaster Live

Posted on 2021-02-04, 17:28

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Since I have recently acquired a Roland SC-155 I have added some recordings for comparison with the SBLive: Sound Blaster Live + Patch93's SC-55 soundfont vs. Roland Sound Canvas SC-155 Enjoy!

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2021-02-04, 12:44

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

SC-155.jpg Just got my first external MIDI device: a Roland SC-155. It's a less common version of the original SC-55, with a bunch of sliders for easy volume/panning adjustments. Currently having a blast testing all of my favorite games with this! As expected, Doom and Duke3D sound epic, and early …

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Re: Sound Blaster AWE64 OPL3 Creative Music Synthesizer Audio Rip

Posted on 2021-02-04, 04:12

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

AWE64 cards don't use OPL3 for FM synthesis. They use CQM instead, which is Creative's proprietary FM synth solution. CQM sounds different from Yamaha OPL3. Here's some material for comparison, if it helps: OPL3 vs. ESFM vs. CQM vs. SBLive

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Re: AWE64 Gold + Win98SE. Missing AWE Synthesized music

Posted on 2021-02-04, 03:57

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

If you are installing DOS drivers under Win9x, you need to use a special process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiSM5pUGab4 Try that method if you haven't already and see if diagnose.exe behaves the same. If it still fails, it could be a hardware issue.

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Re: Difficult games to get working

Posted on 2021-02-03, 06:30

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

But Cutemouse has too many issues for me. So Microsoft mouse for me. Same for me. I initially used CuteMouse 1.9 because other drivers take up a lot of conventional memory. However, I noticed that some of my games were slowing down whenever rapid mouse movement was employed. This is most evident in …

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Re: Interesting OS2Museum posts

Posted on 2021-02-03, 05:27

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I found their article on OPL3 copies very informative: http://www.os2museum.com/wp/opl3-copies/ Back when I was shopping for my first ISA sound card, it reassured me that getting the ALS100 and the OPTi 82C930 would give me proper sounding FM synth. They were absolutely right, those 1:1 copies sound …

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

Posted on 2021-02-02, 17:16

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Do you have some examples of specific tracks from the aforementioned (or other) games that you would like to hear played back with that soundfont ? I can't make any promises, but I can certainly try to record a few and post in a fresh thread . This would also be a good motivation to continue this …

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Re: Noisy AWE64 recording from any input (line in, EMU8000 MIDI, etc) + upcoming AWE64 comparison

Posted on 2021-02-02, 17:16

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Do you have some examples of specific tracks from the aforementioned (or other) games that you would like to hear played back with that soundfont ? Ok, here are a few tracks that I'd like to hear using the Voice Crystal soundfont. They should be easy to record since they play in the main menu and/ …

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Re: Using Audigy drivers with a Sound Blaster Live

Posted on 2021-02-02, 10:57

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

It's unlikely that the drivers could cause a hardware failure. Probably just an unfortunate coincidence. For what it's worth, I've been using them on my own SB0100 for almost a year now and had no issues.

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Re: Need Help on Choosing Roland SC-55

Posted on 2021-02-02, 07:53

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

If you're only using it for games, any version of the SC-55 is going to work fine. If you want to do more interesting stuff like loading Gameboy Advance music files into it to create high-quality remasters of them, you'll want an SC-88 Pro. I would primarily be using the SC-155 for DOS gaming. …

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Re: Need Help on Choosing Roland SC-55

Posted on 2021-02-02, 04:59

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I've tested and posted about this myself. There are some specific changes with drum set "fallback" between 1.xx and 2.xx units, but the fallback of capital tones behaves exactly the same on both. Just to clarify though, since it seems to be a source of confusion, an SC-55 with 2.xx ROM is NOT an SC …

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

Posted on 2021-02-02, 03:58

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you are willing to pay a reasonable amount, the best 4MB soundfont, IMHO, is the Voice Crystal one . It was made by the people who made the official GUS patchset, among other things . See here for a sample recording and a link to the official web page . https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p= …

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

Posted on 2021-02-01, 21:25

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Tried out a bunch of soundfonts in various games. Came to the conclusion that Creative's GM35REVC.SF2 sounds the most balanced overall, at least to my ears. Also, it often beats much larger user-made soundfonts in terms of instrument quality. For reference, that's the 3.5 MB soundfont which is …

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Re: Do I need a Yamaha FX or Dreamblaster X2 for playing DOS games ?

Posted on 2021-02-01, 11:44

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Well, I actually want to hear the tones in music that the developer intended for the games. There's no way of knowing what every single developer used to compose their music. Very few have revealed this information publicly. That said, it's fairly safe to assume that a SC-55 was the most commonly …

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Re: AWE64 clicking on FM

Posted on 2021-01-31, 19:31

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Where do you find AWEUTIL 1.35? I've got the same problem. This link should lead you to AWE64 Gold driver section of Creative's website. If you select "DOS" in the pull down menu at the bottom, you should be able to download s64basic.exe and ctcmbbs.exe . After you unpack and install both, you will …

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Re: What is this longer PCI slot (IBM netvista)???

Posted on 2021-01-31, 16:09

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Possibly PCI-X.

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Re: Ruined memory of an old game by playing it!

Posted on 2021-01-31, 12:09

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by Joseph_Joestar

in DOS

in DOS

Also, modding old 3D games to run in full HD or higher makes the environment look horribly blocky. Lara's triangular bust in TR1 was passable in 320x200 and questionable in 640x480, but in full HD it's just ridiculous. In Lara's case, that's mainly due to the low polygon count of her TR1 character …

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