VOGONS

Search

Common searches

Best way to enjoy old SoundBlaster music?

Topic actions

First post, by Epy

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I absolutely love the FM sound from all the old DOS games I used to play. Right now I'm using the AdPlug plug-in for Winamp which sounds like garbage. In doing research on the topic, I found a lot of information from this site and was hoping someone could point me in the right direction. I'm wanting to find the most accurate OPL emulation out there, which AdPlug surely does not have. Any information or links would be appreciated. Thanks.

-Jake
Hazudra Fodder

Reply 1 of 3, by Stefan_L

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

If you dont want to use emulation then i think an USB2ISA device could be useful... i have never used it but i been told i could work with Dosbox (OPL passthrough i think it was called?)
http://arstech.com/install/ecom-prodshow/usb2isar.html

Just try and use an Sound Blaster with a real Yamaha FM chip, all SoundBlasters after 1995 when the FM patent expired use FM soundchips that not exactly sound like OPL2 or OPL3.

Reply 2 of 3, by MrKsoft

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

The VGM music format supports the OPL2/3. There is an input plugin for Winamp. The emulation is based on MAME's and sounds very good. (And on your actual OPL hardware you can play it back directly without using emulation!)

However, thing is not a lot of DOS music is packaged in VGM yet. There are some packs over here at vgmrips (I've done a few myself) but the collection is still small. The good news is DOSBox .dro rips can be directly converted to VGM using the utilities on the site. Just make a recording in DOSBox, convert it, trim/loop it if you so choose, and you're good to go. 😀

The OPL Archive - Preserving MS-DOS music in a unified format!

Go to top of page Go to top of page
Back to General Old Hardware
Close window
Close window