Scali wrote:

James-F wrote:

Can you actually emulate a fully functional MPU-401 on a Creative SBPro2 with SoftMPU?

I believe so, yes. SoftMPU virtualizes the MPU-401 ports anyway, so it doesn't matter whether you have a real MPU-401 or an SB DSP-based MIDI port on the other side.
SoftMPU captures all intelligent commands, performs the MPU-401 emulation, and then outputs 'dumb' MIDI commands to a MIDI port. Whether that port is MPU-401 or SB DSP or something else, doesn't matter. It just writes single bytes to it.

I believe there is a limitation if you have a sound card that doesn't have a dumb (UART) mode MPU-401 MIDI interface.
Intelligent mode games that requires an MPU interrupt won't work on a Sound Blaster Pro 2 if you use the /OUTPUT:SBMIDI switch.

firage wrote:

(...)so the output being out of tune(...)

It is not out of tune, just tuned differently, in this case it is slightly flatter.

carlostex wrote:

firage wrote:

(...)so the output being out of tune(...)

It is not out of tune, just tuned differently, in this case it is slightly flatter.

A matter of perspective. The FM synth is potentially just one instrument among others.

SaxxonPike wrote:

Does the X2 actually fit on the Audician 32? I know that's a short sound card.

Even if it doesn't, you always can resort to an extender cable.

firage wrote:

A matter of perspective. The FM synth is potentially just one instrument among others.

I don't wanna go back and forth with this but the FM synth is not just an instrument. It can be a whole orchestra in which all instruments are in tune with one another. Just because the YMF-289 orchestra is tuned differently to the YMF-262 that doesn't mean the YMF-289 is out of tune. This is the point i'm trying to make all along.

I'm in awe that some people can actually hear a 1Hz difference in pitch without other side-by-side reference and be bothered by it, that is the best case of perfect pitch I've heard of, a true gift!

SaxxonPike wrote:

clueless1 wrote:

I've got the Audician 32 in two of my retro DOS PCs and I couldn't be happier. If a GM daughterboard counts as part of the "one sound card", then I'll take the DreamBlaster X2 on my Audician 32 😉

Does the X2 actually fit on the Audician 32? I know that's a short sound card.

Yes it does 😀

shock__ wrote:

IBM Music Feature Card master race!

Yes!

shock__ wrote:

GUS Extreme for me.

Same for me as well, as I also mentioned in another thread here recently.

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

Yes it does 😀

Thank you! I just purchased an X2 and remembered immediately afterwards that I didn't measure. Whoops...

carlostex wrote:

Just because the YMF-289 orchestra is tuned differently to the YMF-262 that doesn't mean the YMF-289 is out of tune. This is the point i'm trying to make all along.

Yup. It is in tune with itself, which is the most important part. But some people have extremely precise hearing and will know if something they've heard before is now flatter or sharper than it was previously. For most people, this isn't going to matter. For my boyfriend, a music major with impeccable pitch perception, it's annoying in the same way as the uncanny valley (as he describes.)

James-F wrote:

I'm in awe that some people can actually hear a 1Hz difference in pitch without other side-by-side reference and be bothered by it, that is the best case of perfect pitch I've heard of, a true gift!

I've been an amateur musician for about 25 years now although i got a better perception of tuning when i switched to the guitar 20 years ago. Being extremely used to A=440Hz tuning it was immediately noticeable in some songs i used to play along that i wasn't perfectly tuned. IIRC Metallica's For Whom the Bell Tolls was tuned to 445Hz to match the bell sound. Sometimes when playing or improvising along a track or even playing a solo note by note, i can pick up wrong intonation that can be less than a quarter either flat or sharper. Of course this is easier when playing with reference.

But i agree with James-F. Picking up 1Hz or less without side by side reference is a gift. Actually YMF cards don't sound a full 1Hz flatter to me, but close to it when playing side by side with another card using a mixer. It actually produces a very cool unison effect.

carlostex wrote:

James-F wrote:

I'm in awe that some people can actually hear a 1Hz difference in pitch without other side-by-side reference and be bothered by it, that is the best case of perfect pitch I've heard of, a true gift!

I've been an amateur musician for about 25 years now although i got a better perception of tuning when i switched to the guitar 20 years ago. Being extremely used to A=440Hz tuning it was immediately noticeable in some songs i used to play along that i wasn't perfectly tuned. IIRC Metallica's For Whom the Bell Tolls was tuned to 445Hz to match the bell sound. Sometimes when playing or improvising along a track or even playing a solo note by note, i can pick up wrong intonation that can be less than a quarter either flat or sharper. Of course this is easier when playing with reference.

But i agree with James-F. Picking up 1Hz or less without side by side reference is a gift. Actually YMF cards don't sound a full 1Hz flatter to me, but close to it when playing side by side with another card using a mixer. It actually produces a very cool unison effect.

There's a difference between relative and absolute pitch.
Most musicians would/should have a decent ear for relative pitch, and will know when they're out of tune with other instruments.
Certain instruments require you to 'tune' yourself. Eg if you play notes on a guitar, the frets are never perfectly intonated, and you will need to compensate for that with finger pressure and/or bending the strings slightly.
On a violin, there's no reference at all, violinists tend to 'slide' into tune... They will place their fingers roughly in the right place, and fine-tune the note by ear in a fraction of time.
Saxophone is another instrument where you can 'bend' notes with the pressure of your lips on the reed. You will need to 'tune' each note yourself, by ear.

Only a few people have the 'gift' of absolute pitch, where they can tell whether an A is actually 440 Hz or not. I'm not sure if there's a way to learn this. All I know is that I've been playing guitar for some 25 years now, and did keyboards before that. I have a good relative ear, but no absolute pitch.

I've been playing guitar for 17 years and can transcribe and play any tune by ear in no time.
I too have excellent relative pitch and even can name note intervals by ear, but I most certainly don't have perfect pitch, so I can't be annoyed by an "out of tune" OPL3 core. 😀
In any case, the YMF71x chip indeed has a real OPL3 core and should not be looked upon as inferior.

...And Justice For All is my favorite, but Ride the Lightning is good too, up to Black album basically. 😎
In my teens I could play all the rhythm parts and most of the solos from all their albums, I still have my Les Paul guitar and one with a Floyd Rose for shredding.

James-F wrote:

so I can't be annoyed by an "out of tune" OPL3 core. 😀

You could though, when the OPL3 is used in tandem with the DAC.
There are a number of trackers that allow you to combine digital channels with OPL2/3 music, such as EdLib, Scream Tracker 3 and Renaissance's CDFM.

Scali wrote:

Eg if you play notes on a guitar, the frets are never perfectly intonated(...)

There are very talented luthiers that can tune a guitar almost perfectly. Even higher fretted notes can be almost perfectly pitched with below 12th fret equivalents. This demands a high knowledge of the instrument, as there are too many variables that can affect intonation.

carlostex wrote:

There are very talented luthiers that can tune a guitar almost perfectly. Even higher fretted notes can be almost perfectly pitched with below 12th fret equivalents. This demands a high knowledge of the instrument, as there are too many variables that can affect intonation.

Yea, you can get weird stuff like True Temperament frets: http://www.truetemperament.com/
I personally don't care for that sort of stuff much. As you say, too many variables that affect intonation (not in the least the imperfections in the string and tuning of the string itself, or the amount of pressure applied).