firage wrote:

Interested in the production version, especially if the price goes down a little bit. The Yammy and Roland DB's do sound better to me in the context of these old games, but they're not easy to find or cheap anymore.

I'm sharing a similar view. Very interested in a production model, but maybe release two versions of this product. One "simple" one, that's only a wavetable board for a lower price, and then one that has all the additional features.

dreamblaster wrote:

I still have 2 X1's left to go right now (see photo attached, they have the 'limited edition wing').
especially if you like to provide feedback to me, test compatibility with soundcards and games,
do video reviews or promote it online, stuff like that...

I actually wouldn't mind doing a video review, especially since I do believe I have audio cards that support wave table, external midi devices to compare against. 😀

I must admit this is very interesting, the first new MIDI DB in years. The X1 recordings do sound quite good and remind me of the Turtle Beach Cancun FX, which has the Dream SAM9733 chip. Still, I have to agree with FGB, some of the instruments are quite weak; the Synth Pads and Effects have very low volume, and the Bass and Guitars are somehow off (the Overdriven and Distortion Guitars in particular are dreadful to my ears). Then again I'm partial to Yamaha, and the SW60XG has been my mainstay for a long time (even in the face of Roland being the standard other MIDI boards are compared with). I would be interested in one if the price became more reasonable though; it certainly wouldn't hurt to have another MIDI DB on hand, just in case.

IMHO 80eur is a good price for a small production project like this

Noone can make a midi synthesizer everybody likes. Lovely music to some ears, awful noise to others. If you would ask a computer it would tell you the Dream modules more "dry sound" is more true to the original recordings.

To my ears this synth sounds rather good and 80 Euro is not that much...

1 X1 'limited edition' reserved for sunaiac
only 1 left now.

@dreamblaster

consider also using AmiBay for the next batch, it's a sales forum targeted to old platforms (mainly amigas but there are lots of sales/sections for other platforms too) and you can make a sales thread there so people can express interest and "reserve/preorder" a card from your upcoming batch so you can make it accordingly to demand.

keropi wrote:

IMHO 80eur is a good price for a small production project like this

Skyscraper wrote:

To my ears this synth sounds rather good and 80 Euro is not that much...

Sorry, too rich for my blood. Looks like there's nothing worthwhile here after all............

(Quietly walks out of this thread, never to return 😒 ).

JayCeeBee64 wrote:

Sorry, too rich for my blood. Looks like there's nothing worthwhile here after all............ […]
Show full quote

keropi wrote:

IMHO 80eur is a good price for a small production project like this

Skyscraper wrote:

To my ears this synth sounds rather good and 80 Euro is not that much...

Sorry, too rich for my blood. Looks like there's nothing worthwhile here after all............

(Quietly walks out of this thread, never to return 😒 ).

Dont be such a Drama Queen 😜

With the strong US Dollar European gods are cheaper than usual for you Muricans!

Okay, the last X1 board is going to CHiLL72 !!
I'm out of X1 prototypes now.

Amibay ? I'll check it out (thought it was amiga only).

Maybe kickstarter would be a good idea, but it's not available for Belgian projects.
Anyone experience with launching a kickstarter campaign ?

Finally, here are a few more X1 demo's, from your requests :
X1 playing Duke Nukem 3D : Aliens say your prayers : https://youtu.be/97EXW8kEWxU
X1 playing Tie Fighter : Title Theme : https://youtu.be/oDZW5bVJ_gc
X1 playing Tie Fighter : Bridge : https://youtu.be/3kHzlSH05zY

X1 seems to work great, I launched a preorder campaign now for X1,
check out this thread : Dreamblaster X1 - Waveblaster compatible board with 32 mbyte flash - Pre Order Thread
I will post further progress there.

Of and by the way, its small brother, the dreamblaster S1 is still available,
only 29,95 Euro including shipping and VAT.
SAM2195 is obsolete by now, so this will be the last batch.
Grab it while it lasts !

Did a video review on the DreamFace S1 and DreamFace S1 Enclosure

The DreamFace S1 is an interface board that allows you to connect the DreamBlaster S1 wavetabele board to a MIDI port on sound cards or USB MIDI interfaces.

I will talk about pricing and show you how to assemble it and how to use it with your sound card or USB MIDI interface with DOSBox or ScummVM.

So this is the one to buy if I want MIDI on my Yamaha YMF719E right?
I've been searching Ebay for a MIDI Daughterboard and found the originals are very expensive, till I encountered this one (S1) on Google.

If I compare the General Midi that comes with Windows 7 played via Dosbox, this S1 sounds much better, more like a soundfont bank than general midi.
For now the S1 would have to do, because the X1 is much steeper price for an hour of retro gaming at the weekend.

Question,
Can I turn off the reverb in Dos?

My DreamBlaster S1 is here.

Damn, it sounds marvelous in Warcraft 1/2 and Heroes II. 😲
Very happy with the purchase.
Now I realize that Dosbox General Midi sounds like shit... 😎

You mean Windows GM emulation sounds like shit. Use a good midi engine and GM/GS/XG patch set to provide midi for DOSBOX and you should be happy. Having said that, Phil likes his S1 and the comparison with an SC55 and MU80 sounded pretty solid, so I think you've invested in a pretty good product.

You can always get a PCI card with a Wavetable header and configure DOSBox to use the DreamBlaster S1 ^^

Yeah, found about BASSMIDI driver and Weeds SondFont v3.0 just now, and everything sound much better in dosbox.
Still, the DreamBlaster S1 sounds not one bit worse or even better than the 60MB Weeds SoundFont, and that's with only 512Kb of rom size.

I think I've got the Dos sound area covered with the YamahaYMF719 which has the OPL3 chip and now the S1 which gives me excellent Midi music.

SoundFonts have been around for a long time, but what I find really cool about the S1 and X1 is that these are proper hardware wavetable boards for vintage sound cards. I'm not aware of any new wavetable board you can just go out and buy. And regarding the prices, they cost far less than most second hand wavetable boards. And sound nicer 😀

James-F wrote:

Yeah, found about BASSMIDI driver and Weeds SondFont v3.0 just now, and everything sound much better in dosbox.
Still, the DreamBlaster S1 sounds not one bit worse or even better than the 60MB Weeds SoundFont, and that's with only 512Kb of rom size.

I think I've got the Dos sound area covered with the YamahaYMF719 which has the OPL3 chip and now the S1 which gives me excellent Midi music.

The one thing more complete/larger soundfonts usually offer is GS and XG banks.

philscomputerlab wrote:

SoundFonts have been around for a long time, but what I find really cool about the S1 and X1 is that these are proper hardware wavetable boards for vintage sound cards. I'm not aware of any new wavetable board you can just go out and buy. And regarding the prices, they cost far less than most second hand wavetable boards. And sound nicer 😀

Agreed. It's the only way to get a WB compatible board at a reasonable cost. The price of used daughtercards is almost frightening.

Does this Dreamblaster S1 work with Monkey Island 1/2?

I mean when playing the game in DOS, not by playing the music as MIDI how I have seen on Youtube example.