dreamblaster wrote on 2020-03-08, 13:40:

Jinxter wrote on 2020-03-08, 12:07:

Suggestion.
Sometimes i need to go to the back of the PC and press reset. Instead i start the opl3test which resets the OPL3LPT.
What about a reset util, or a parameter to the opl2test that only resets?

good idea

Wow that was quick. You already updated github with an oplreset.exe. Thanks. I have entered the oplreset.exe in my autoexec.bat

The readme file states that you have to use EMM386 version 4.46 or later. I Tried the adlipt driver on PC DOS 6.00. With version 4.45 of EMM386. That did not work.
So then i copied the emm386.exe from a MS-DOS 6.22. I was surprised to se that PC DOS 6.00 had no objection to that.
So if you have an older DOS version on your retro PC, you probably don't have to upgrade DOS to a newer version. It is enough with the emm386.exe.
For me, this is important because i am trying to keep my Retro computers true to the time periode they were used.

Here's a new demo of OPL3LPT, running on IBM PS/2 Model 55sx, on youtube channel Retro Erik : https://youtu.be/bQZSTH5bQVQ

Just got an email from Serdashop that OPL2LPT is back in stock! Thanks Serge 😀

Yeah opl2lpt rocks! Great Device!!!

matze79 wrote on 2020-04-11, 19:08:

Yeah opl2lpt rocks! Great Device!!!

It there any reason so choose the OPL2LPT over the OPL3LPT?

Jinxter wrote on 2020-04-11, 19:20:

matze79 wrote on 2020-04-11, 19:08:

Yeah opl2lpt rocks! Great Device!!!

It there any reason so choose the OPL2LPT over the OPL3LPT?

Beautiful through hole chip of course!

Jinxter wrote on 2020-04-11, 19:20:

matze79 wrote on 2020-04-11, 19:08:

Yeah opl2lpt rocks! Great Device!!!

It there any reason so choose the OPL2LPT over the OPL3LPT?

Price maybe, also authentic OPL2 if you want adlib sound.

appiah4 wrote on 2020-04-12, 05:06:

Jinxter wrote on 2020-04-11, 19:20:

It there any reason so choose the OPL2LPT over the OPL3LPT?

Price maybe, also authentic OPL2 if you want adlib sound.

Do they not sound exactly the same. Is not the only difference that the OPL3 has stereo?, and when using OPL2 games, will not the sound be the same?

But it feels different!

Jinxter wrote on 2020-04-12, 11:59:

Do they not sound exactly the same. Is not the only difference that the OPL3 has stereo?, and when using OPL2 games, will not the sound be the same?

OPL3 has more voices, but is 100% backwards compatible. However, with Adlib/OPL2 you actually can't have the same amount of polyphony as OPL3, so it sounds completely different when playing chiptune music etc. as it completely skips some sounds.

Also, most sound cards featuring OPL3 have some kind of filtering going on that makes the resulting sound slightly different from the way an Adlib card does.

I have received and assembled my OPL2LPT and it is working very well! Thanks dreamblaster for the detailed instructions 😀 Also I got a few questions:

- Sometimes when I cold-start the PC the OPL2LPT will emit a sound or series of sounds. This isn't a real problem since it happens rarely and I can reset the OPL2LPT from DOS, but is this behavior to be expected or did I miss something about the assembly? Or could this be caused by the motherboard's BIOS (Abit KT7A) sending stuff over the parallel port?
- I tried to patch Monkey Island 1, and although the patch seems to proceed successfully (two locations were patch), I get no sound. OTOH the ADLIPT program will produce sound when the non patched MONKEY.EXE is run. Any idea?
- Are there particular noteworthy DOS games that make use of the OPL3 more advanced capabilities?

cde wrote on 2020-04-25, 18:59:

- Sometimes when I cold-start the PC the OPL2LPT will emit a sound or series of sounds. This isn't a real problem since it happens rarely and I can reset the OPL2LPT from DOS, but is this behavior to be expected or did I miss something about the assembly? Or could this be caused by the motherboard's BIOS (Abit KT7A) sending stuff over the parallel port?

Yes it could be due to parallel port behaviour at bootup. The reset button or driver initialisation will resolve it.

cde wrote on 2020-04-25, 18:59:

- I tried to patch Monkey Island 1, and although the patch seems to proceed successfully (two locations were patch), I get no sound. OTOH the ADLIPT program will produce sound when the non patched MONKEY.EXE is run. Any idea?

no idea

cde wrote on 2020-04-25, 18:59:

- Are there particular noteworthy DOS games that make use of the OPL3 more advanced capabilities?

Cybersphere has very nice OPL3 music

I can't get this adlib21.drv (windows 3.1 driver) work. The only bin file is adlib21 there. So I'm replacing it in Windows\system directory.
And it doesn't say anything, no errors, just programs working with adlib saying no driver/no music 🙁
Anyone has any luck with Windows driver?
My device is Opl3LPT

New OPL3LPT batch finally ready ! Black, read, and ... IBM enclosures !

Wow, I would have bought one if I had a PS/2 😀 Fortunately I am not a masochist and the only IBM box I have is PS/1. God bless ISA 😁

Have an OPL3LPT on the way, going to be awesome. I'm composing music using real hardware when possible. With a PCIe LPT port and this unit, and ideas on how I could interface this with my DAW? I'm considering just using old software in DOSbox with the appropriate driver, but was wondering if anyone knows of any modern software that can reach the chip directly. This is in Win10 64bit.

Maybe the software for one of the arduino boards can be used?

EDIT: Maybe some Sound Blaster software for windows from back when it was being discontinued?

kvanderlaag wrote on 2019-01-02, 23:36:

I appreciate the offer! Using some of the code I supplied as a base, Darron has provided me with a version of the application wh […]
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datajake1999 wrote:

I can help you with this project, if you are interested.

I appreciate the offer! Using some of the code I supplied as a base, Darron has provided me with a version of the application which can use the OPL3LPT as output, and it's working well so far; my understanding is that he's going to clean up his changes to the code sometime and publicly release a new version with support built-in.

However, I have been thinking that it would be fun to extract the functionality of the Adlib Tracker II instrument editor into a Windows frontend and allow the user to map MIDI controls to parameters; the ability to load AT2 patches and play them from a MIDI controller alone would be a boon. I know I miss the MIDI synth mode from earlier versions.

Are there any interesting applications of the OPL3LPT that I'm missing that would be a better use of time?

Update: Found Darron's site and frontend at http://fm801.kewl.org/app/about/
He has version 4.69a up that has OPL3LPT as a menu selection! Woo! Looking forward to trying this bad boy out.

MichiganderRyan wrote on 2020-12-06, 02:15:

Update: Found Darron's site and frontend at http://fm801.kewl.org/app/about/
He has version 4.69a up that has OPL3LPT as a menu selection! Woo! Looking forward to trying this bad boy out.

That is cool!

It appears he's rolled the changes into the main branch for this release. Glad to see, it still works great with my OPL3LPT. My stage setup gets less janky every day!