Is it possible to set up DOSBox to use a DX-7 keyboard to play back the game music for a Soundblaster soundcard by connecting it to your computer via an M-Audio Uno? Will it work?
Daniel L Newhouse
if you can playback Midi on the keyboard it should be ablw to be used as the output device in the midi device selection.
The DX7 isn't multitimbral and doesn't support General MIDI, so no, it won't work.
You might get output, but whatever sequences the MIDI output would have to be appropriate for the DX-7 or else it will probably be very atonal. For example, Space Quest III supported the Casio CT-460 keyboard using a custom mapping.
All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder
wrote:doesn't support General MIDI,
Neither does a soundblaster
Daniel L Newhouse
wrote:wrote:doesn't support General MIDI,
Neither does a soundblaster
Game drivers often translate GM mappings to OPL compatible data though, and what do you think the Uno is going to be used to transmit? Dosbox will only transmit MIDI data through a game using an MPU-401 driver, and that output will likely be GM compatible data. Even if it could transmit raw data, the DX7 isn't compatible with OPL series chips, and as I said, the DX7 isn't multitimbral. It could never be used to play soundtracks even if a driver was written, as it can't play more than one patch at once. Any driver would only be of use for a TX802, which was multitimbral.
I think it is time for a little explanation. Non-multitimbral synth, such as DX7 or D50 is unable to play several different-sounding instruments simultaneously. It can "remember" many instruments, but switching between them will change the sound of all active voices (or cancel all the voices, don't remember).
Most later Yamaha and Roland synths are multitimbral.
Also, the commands you need to send to set it up to play a specific "patch" are totally incompatible with what is getting written to OPL2 chip of Adlib-compatible, so you would need quite intelligent translation layer implemented in the emulator and the result still won't sound 100% right.
wrote:Also, the commands you need to send to set it up to play a specific "patch" are totally
I'm not trying to play a specific patch, I'm trying to play the BGM on a Yamaha DX-7. I'd really like to try it out.
Daniel L Newhouse
wrote:wrote:Also, the commands you need to send to set it up to play a specific "patch" are totally
I'm not trying to play a specific patch, I'm trying to play the BGM on a Yamaha DX-7. I'd really like to try it out.
Every individual sound in a song is a patch. An OPL2 chip can play 9 of them at once, while the DX7, although capable of much richer sounding patches, can only play one at a time. What you want to do simply won't work. Depending on MIDI implementation, at best you'll end up with a cacophony as the DX7 tries to play every channel at once while set to the wrong instrument, or it'll only play the melody from one channel using whatever random patch corresponds to the program change command it receives.
