That is great news!

Great, will order this one.

This makes a great alternative for people unable to find a Roland or Yamaha MIDI daughterboard.

Noticed that the previous S1 Dreamblaster is now only 30 Euros shipped.

Interesting. I'd love to see how this compares to the Roland SCD-15 (SCB-55) and NEC XR385 (Yamaha).

Kudos! I have your original S1 Dreamblaster. Thanks for putting in the work for the community!

Hi thanks for your support.

Besides general midi, there are now also some high end piano banks that can be preloaded as an option :
3 possible 8 mbyte banks (only 1 can be combined with the general midi bank) :
Traditional Piano : https://youtu.be/aqSG-MOGOfI
Concert Piano : https://youtu.be/2p51LorWC1Q
Modern Piano : https://youtu.be/_v6YN2Z_NVI

Just out of curiosity, since it has a 32M flash RAM and only comes with a 8M bank.... Is there some way to upgrade the bank? From what I understand (and I'm fully willing to admit I don't really know,) that isn't all that easy through the Waveblaster interface. I see what looks like a 7 pin header and a jack of some sort (stereo??) The description doesn't say if it comes with anything besides just the board. Assuming there is a way, will it include documentation/tools to build/convert sample sets?

Thanks 😀 I'll probably get one when I can be sure I'll have the funds.... Been looking to put something on my AWE32 card.

I'd like to preorder one. What should I do?
BTW, previously I've reading your blog in the net, where was described your projects and progress, but since you start selling dreamblaster s1 on serdashop, I can't find your blog anymore. Is it me or you remove it from public?

I got a few questions:

The board has flash as soundbank memory. Is it possible to change soundbanks on the board and flash soundbanks from the SAM9407 (94B format) on it? (With a tool from DOS command prompt)

Does the board routes Line-In through the DSP such that effects can be applied?

Is the output through analog only or does it also output through S/PDIF ?

@easyjohn
- thanks, you can preorder on my webshop : http://www.serdashop.com/DreamblasterX1
make sure you use the promotion codes at the start of this thread to save some money as vogon user.

- I never had a separate blog . i do have this hackaday page : https://hackaday.io/serge , and Chiel was publishing about my projects early on, on his site : http://members.home.nl/c.kersten/
maybe you saw one of these ?

@eilanda
- right now the card will be preflashed by me. You cannot update it easily, it makes sense to use it as it is.
- I am working on two possible solutions for updating soundbanks by the user :
- I plan to produce some usb programmers and sell them in my shop, these will allow to update firmware and banks. plan A
- I recently added MIDI out to the pcb layout,and am investigating the possibility for a reliable bootloader.
It will still be very slow over midi, but if it works, it could at least be a way to do firmware updates.
If it works reliably, I will ship all boards with the bootloader. (plan B)

- unfortunately it is not compatible with .94B soundbanks, I tried to get this working myself and also asked dream if there is a way to get it working.
It is not possible. soundbanks are actually compiled for a different processor. And even within .94b format there are some vendor dependent incompatible variations.
I don't have documentation on the old or new compiled format. I gave up on getting this working.
- no line in provided on the pcb, so no effects processing.
- output is stereo analog only. (waveblaster compatible pinout).

@feedingdragon
- you will get only the board.
no other hardware of software. but you don't need anything else :
The board is intended to plug and work fine on anything that supports waveblaster compatible boards.
I will put pdf documentation online, on the soundbanks and midi commands.
It does not need additional drivers or software,it should just work with any games that support general midi music through the waveblaster midi connector.
- The pre-order versions will have the additional stereo jack mounted (unless you don't want it --> tell me).
it is line out. It is intended to directly tap the sound to your amp, if your soundblaster adds too much noise.

- yes indeed there is a 7 pin header for a programmer.
I plan to some produce programmer pcb's as well, later on, and put them in my webshop, if there is sufficient interest.
It is a reliable way to update firmware and soundbanks, though also not very fast.

- right now there are no tools for converting sample sets. I would love to have one, but there isn't.
I bought the sound development kit, and this includes software that can import wav files. see this public document : http://www.dream.fr/pdf/Serie2000/Short_Forms … 0-SDK_short.pdf
This is not a cheap kit, and the editing only works with the provided board. To get more dev information, and to be allowed to buy the development kit (with compiler), I had to sign an NDA.
So I cannot disclose more information. But I actually don't have the specs for the compiled bank format, not even under NDA.
I have been in touch with a commercial software developer, about a possible soundbank conversion tool. Hopefully affordable solution will come out of that (also here I cannot disclose, sorry!).
Right now, you'd best assume there is and will be no conversion tool.

Unusual question maybe, but do you offer unassembled DIY kits of this card?

dreamblaster wrote:

yes indeed there is a 7 pin header for a programmer.

Is this a standard pinout? Would it work with the 6-pin ICSP header on my eeprom burner?

dreamblaster wrote:

Besides general midi, there are now also some high end piano banks that can be preloaded as an option :
3 possible 8 mbyte banks (only 1 can be combined with the general midi bank) :

Ok.Tell a bit more about piano banks.
- If I choose one, did it replace some samples in GM bank or not?
- Is there any difference in games or piano part is only accessibly from midi composer/sequencer?

@jwt27
unassembled DIY kits : I don't intend to : the SAM2655 is hard to solder without stencil : a 128pin LQFP with 0.4mm pitch
I will have all boards assembled in a high end factory here in Belgium. (not China!).

7 pin header : no standard pinout, it is for the SAM proprietary programmer. The flash is parallel NOR flash, not SPI flash. It is programmed through the SAM2655.

@easy_john
- piano bank + GM bank : the new piano sounds override patch 1 and 2 (the first 2 GM sounds - grand piano and bright piano).
- games will also use the high end piano. It blends well. actually in my demo's the 'modern' bank was loaded.

some update :
I've been comparing my X1 to the yamaha based XR385.
My X1 firmware now is quite dry, I had some comments on that.
The XR385 sounds much more 'wet' in effects.

I will be working on a firmware which is more 'wet', 'fatter' effects,
will post some new demo's when it is ready.

Maybe I will provide both options, if it makes sense.
What do you like most ?
The 'wet' sound of XR385
or the 'dry' sound of the current X1 firmware (and maybe some other existing daughterboards?).

I might be late to the party to ask this, but are you using the full 32MB of that flash chip? If its just 8MB+8MB, you might be able to create a deluxe version of the board in which, instead of connecting WA22 directly to the flash chip you could, instead, use two jumpers (and add pulldown resistors on the A22 and A23 of the flash chip). Jumper 1 would connect WA22 to the M29W256G's A22, and Jumper 2 would connect WA22 to A23. All jumpers off and you'd get bare GM, jumper 1 on and you'd get whatever piano set was flashed on the 8MB-16MB range, jumper 2 on and you get the set flashed on the 16MB-24MB range, and finally with both jumpers you'd get the third set on the 24MB-32MB range. This, of course, assumes the piano set is just concatenated on the firmware, it not, you could still use a jumper to assert A23 on or off (i.e. grounded jumper and a pullup resistor on A23), so you could still switch between two firmwares.

dreamblaster wrote:

@jwt27
unassembled DIY kits : I don't intend to : the SAM2655 is hard to solder without stencil : a 128pin LQFP with 0.4mm pitch

That's why I asked... I like challenges 😀

dreamblaster wrote:

some update : I've been comparing my X1 to the yamaha based XR385. My X1 firmware now is quite dry, I had some comments on that. […]
Show full quote

some update :
I've been comparing my X1 to the yamaha based XR385.
My X1 firmware now is quite dry, I had some comments on that.
The XR385 sounds much more 'wet' in effects.

I will be working on a firmware which is more 'wet', 'fatter' effects,
will post some new demo's when it is ready.

Maybe I will provide both options, if it makes sense.
What do you like most ?
The 'wet' sound of XR385
or the 'dry' sound of the current X1 firmware (and maybe some other existing daughterboards?).

I would prefer a bit more reverb, if that doesn't make it sound too "metallic".

alexanrs wrote:

I might be late to the party to ask this, but are you using the full 32MB of that flash chip? If its just 8MB+8MB, you might be able to create a deluxe version of the board in which, instead of connecting WA22 directly to the flash chip you could, instead, use two jumpers (and add pulldown resistors on the A22 and A23 of the flash chip). Jumper 1 would connect WA22 to the M29W256G's A22, and Jumper 2 would connect WA22 to A23. All jumpers off and you'd get bare GM, jumper 1 on and you'd get whatever piano set was flashed on the 8MB-16MB range, jumper 2 on and you get the set flashed on the 16MB-24MB range, and finally with both jumpers you'd get the third set on the 24MB-32MB range. This, of course, assumes the piano set is just concatenated on the firmware, it not, you could still use a jumper to assert A23 on or off (i.e. grounded jumper and a pullup resistor on A23), so you could still switch between two firmwares.

Yeah that's a good idea.
I'm currently trying to get a bootloader working, allowing you to load custom banks.

jwt27 wrote:

dreamblaster wrote:

@jwt27
unassembled DIY kits : I don't intend to : the SAM2655 is hard to solder without stencil : a 128pin LQFP with 0.4mm pitch

That's why I asked... I like challenges 😀

Yeah it really be a challenge, you'd also need to program the NOR flash directly,
or build a dream programmer, including figuring out their proprietary protocol. 😲

Hi,
the MIDI bootloader works fine now.
It is very slow (like 70 minutes for an 8 mbyte bank) but it is reliable.
To allow fast soundbank switching, will be adding an 8 bit dipswitch with following settings that will be read at boot time :

update mode : 1 switch : off \ on
reverb : 1 switch : dry (room) \ wet(hall)
omni mode : 2 switches omni on \ omni off channel 1\ omni off channel 2\omni off channel 10
soundbank mode : 3 switches : setup some soundbank configurations A+B (normal), A only (for large banks), B only, C only, D only,A+C, A+D
toggle reset : 1 switch

Or any better ideas for dip switch functions ?