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First post, by retro games 100

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1) When using the card in DOS, for games, can I load a soundfont in to the PS/2 RAM stick, and if so, what's the largest soundfont that I can use? (I know the stick can be as large as 64MB.)

2) Again, with DOS games in mind, can I access the wavetable daughterboard inside the "break out" "panel / box"?

3) For OPL3 FM music, can the onboard "synth chip" be used to apply effects on it?

4) To any EWS64 XL owners -- do you like the card, for General MIDI DOS games music?

Thanks a lot for any comments!

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Reply 1 of 19, by realnc

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I never owned this card, but if it uses the same wavetable sounds as the Maestro 32/96, then I'd recommend not using any custom soundfont whatsoever, as the default would be a clone of the Roland Sound Canvas wavetable, which is what the majority of games music was written for.

I found a video where someone recorded MIDI in games with this card:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhOxHBgJyKc

The default soundfont indeed sounds very close to a Sound Canvas, except that the uploader seems to have misconfigured chrorus and reverb settings?

Edit: Nope. Not true. See post below.

Last edited by realnc on 2018-11-16, 12:16. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 3 of 19, by realnc

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Nope, strike that. It only sounds somewhat similar, but many instruments have an overall different sound. It seems they changed the sounds in the EWS64 compared to the 32/96:

EWS64 XL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaaB5WYIfGA
SC-55: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnTJS7VF87c

Still, it seems to sound closer than other cards out there. Different, but not completely different.

(Of course this is subjective. Sounding different is not equal to sounding worse 😀)

Reply 5 of 19, by pyrogx

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retro games 100 wrote:

1) When using the card in DOS, for games, can I load a soundfont in to the PS/2 RAM stick, and if so, what's the largest soundfont that I can use? (I know the stick can be as large as 64MB.)

The whole 64MB of RAM should be usable (maybe even 66MB, EWS64XL has 2MB on-board RAM, but I don't know if they're still usable with a 64MB module). Does a 64MB GeneralMIDI .64B soundbank even exist?

retro games 100 wrote:

2) Again, with DOS games in mind, can I access the wavetable daughterboard inside the "break out" "panel / box"?

Yes, that' s possible. The EWS64 has two MIDI ports, MIDI-1 and MIDI-2. In DOS, MIDI-1 is the Dream Synth and MIDI-2 should be connected to the wavetable header in the front panel module. Both MIDI ports can also be connected to the gameport.

retro games 100 wrote:

3) For OPL3 FM music, can the onboard "synth chip" be used to apply effects on it?

Yes, but you have to configure the card so that the codec output is connected to the synth and the synth output to OUT-1 jack. VogonsWiki: https://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/EWS64

retro games 100 wrote:

4) To any EWS64 XL owners -- do you like the card, for General MIDI DOS games music?

It's a very nice card for DOS games, the Crystal Codec has an excellent SBPro compatibility. FM sounds a little bit off, though. Keep in mind that it takes some time to get used to the card and configure it correctly, especially the effects section.

Reply 6 of 19, by realnc

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pyrogx wrote:

It's a very nice card for DOS games, the Crystal Codec has an excellent SBPro compatibility.

Keep in mind that you should only select "SB Pro" in DOS games if they don't also offer a choice for "WSS" or "Windows Sound System." The Terratec supports WSS and does full 16-bit 48kHz stereo. Also, for DOS games that use the "Miles Sound System" drivers (you can tell, it says "Miles" in the sound setup program, usually SETSOUND.EXE), you can simply copy the miles files from a more recent game that does support WSS and overwrite the miles files of the older game, which should give you a WSS option in the SETSOUND utility these games come with.

People with more recent Creative cards usually do this to get support. See:

"Miles" Sound Updates

But this also works for WSS compatible cards just the same. I've been doing this a lot back in the 90's when I had a Terratec. Games that have 16-bit sound and/or 44.1kHz audio will sound quite crippled in SB Pro compatibility mode. In WSS mode they sound just as good as on a SB 16.

Reply 7 of 19, by retro games 100

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Thanks a lot people for the excellent info/advice!

Can I just double check something please - this card, and also the Creative AWE32, both have RAM slots. Am I right in thinking that the AWE32 can use soundfonts for DOS games, but only if you run the game inside a "DOS shell" inside Windows? If that's right, would that be Windows 3 and 9x, or just 9x?

I've heard of the masterpiece soundfont for the AWE32. I don't know how large it is, but I think it's pretty big. Are these soundfonts all "interchangeable", as in, can you use a soundfont that works for an AWE32, on the terratec? I'm guessing not, but I would like to just double-check.

Does anyone know the name of a large soundfont, that works well for DOS games, for the terratec?

Thanks very much!

Reply 8 of 19, by pyrogx

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AWE32 can use "Soundfonts" (.SF2) for DOS games in a Windows DOS box only (9x at least, not sure about Win 3). In pure DOS, the AWE32 MIDI emulation uses some predefined Soundfont 1.x files (.SBK) and can be tricked into loading some custom SBK files as well. However this only is valid for games using the MIDI emulation which also does not work in protected mode games.
EWS64 (and other SAM9407 based synths) uses .94B soundbanks, which is a different format. SF2/SBK and 94b are not compatible. EWS64 claims to be able to load SF2 soundfonts in Windows but that didn't work for me most of the time...
There's an archive with (almost) all known 94B banks on Vogonsdrivers, GS_8MB.94B for example works fine for me.

Reply 9 of 19, by gdjacobs

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There is a degree of conversion which can be performed to create 94B soundbanks from SF2 banks, but the limits and organization are different with the two formats requiring some hand tuning to work properly.

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 10 of 19, by realnc

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retro games 100 wrote:

Can I just double check something please - this card, and also the Creative AWE32, both have RAM slots. Am I right in thinking that the AWE32 can use soundfonts for DOS games, but only if you run the game inside a "DOS shell" inside Windows? If that's right, would that be Windows 3 and 9x, or just 9x?

I think that, at least for Windows 9x, if you shut down Windows and select the "Restart in MS-DOS mode" option, the soundfont is preserved, because there's no reboot. Windows exits and spawns a new DOS shell, so the soundfont should still be loaded.

Reply 11 of 19, by pyrogx

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Nope, not true, at least not for AWE32. Only the samples for the instruments are kept in on-board memory for AWE32, the presets (=instrument definitions) are located in normal RAM and processed by the windows driver. If you exit from Windows, the presets are lost.

Reply 12 of 19, by retro games 100

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Thanks a lot for the info! I have one final question please. In DOS, when I want to "program" the card, by telling it what "sound font" I want to use/load, and what effects I want the synth chip to apply to it, do I simply execute a one line "sound init .exe" command at the DOS prompt, and also, this action, or using the card in DOS in general, does not take up any memory in DOS? In other words, no driver is required, no TSR, etc? Thanks! Before I begin testing, I thought I'd "load up" a wavetable daughterboard in to its "break out box/panel". I thought I'd try a Korg TopWave, as it's something a bit different to the usual Roland / Yamaha stuff!

If possible, and if anyone knows, I have two further questions about this daughterboard. 1) What does the little On Off switch box do? Is it to set the MIDI port "base address"? 2) What's the little white connector for - located top right edge. Thanks a lot.

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Reply 13 of 19, by gerwin

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retro games 100 wrote:

If possible, and if anyone knows, I have two further questions about this daughterboard. 1) What does the little On Off switch box do? Is it to set the MIDI port "base address"? 2) What's the little white connector for - located top right edge. Thanks a lot.

That is a TopWave 32 Midi Daughterboard. The white connector is stereo analog output. Like for headphones or something, as to avoid host sound card mixer noises. IIRC The blue switch is to select which analog output to use: The normal waveblaster connection or the white connector I just described.

--> ISA Soundcard Overview // Doom MBF 2.04 // SetMul

Reply 14 of 19, by pyrogx

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retro games 100 wrote:

In DOS, when I want to "program" the card, by telling it what "sound font" I want to use/load, and what effects I want the synth chip to apply to it, do I simply execute a one line "sound init .exe" command at the DOS prompt, and also, this action, or using the card in DOS in general, does not take up any memory in DOS? In other words, no driver is required, no TSR, etc?

You'll just call EWSINIT.EXE and pass the soundbank and mixer settings to be loaded as parameters. That's all. AFAIK there is no TSR required.

Reply 15 of 19, by elianda

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I use in most of my old game machines a EWS64XL with a MIDI daughterboard and a GUS / GUS PnP /ArGUS in the same system. There is no TSR needed.

There are three main points to consider:
The most important thing for first putting in a EWS64XL is checking the resources with the EPROM tool and change it on demand.

The circumvention of the external wavetable mute bug by using CS32MIX (also means internal wavetable here)

The correct setting of the MIDI effects in the TTM file as the default TTM file has no effects enabled at all, which makes the card sound completely dry.

Everything else is straightforward.

Noteworthy is that in Win you can load multiple soundfonts, e.g. a separate one for drums, whereas EWSINIT allows to load only one at a time.

My typical configuration is:
EWS64XL Codec at A220 I5 D1, Dream aka MIDI-1 at A300 I9, external midi aka front panel aka MIDI-2 A330 no IRQ
GUS at A220 I7 I7 D7 D7

depending on the midi device fokus it is also possible to exchange the 330 / 300 ports between MIDI-1 and MIDI-2.

Some Boards use IRQ9 for SMI, then I change the MIDI-1 IRQ to 7. The case for digital playback on GUS in parallel with MIDI playback through the Dream that is actually using the MIDI IRQ as well realisticaly never happens.

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Reply 17 of 19, by elianda

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retro games 100 wrote:

Thanks very much for the awesome info, people - it's really appreciated! 😀

There is more info here: Re: Testing a Terratec EWS64XL; includes Doom recording

Example TTM file with effects tuned as described in thread above: http://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/Example_. … r_EWS64L/XL/XXL

My FAQ: https://retronn.de/imports/dream_tricks.html

Maybe this helps too.

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Reply 18 of 19, by PARUS

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elianda, thanks a lot for info about sound banks on your FAQ page!!! I earlier heard or read about this and forgot. They said that it's very difficult and unreliable. What do you think about data loss during conversion? Is it? And if yes is it critical for use it on practice? I want to try SF2>DLS>94B and load in DOS.

Explain me please why you set IRQ for MIDI-1 aka Dream? I use it without IRQ and it works fine. Maybe I don't know something, it is interesting what you think about MIDI IRQ. Why?

I use this scheme now (in one machine):

EWS64XL - WSS-IO=530 SB-IO=220 IRQ=7 DMA=1 RecordDMA=OFF FM=388 MIDI1=300 IRQ=OFF MIDI2=320 IRQ=OFF
AV310 - WSS-IO=540 SB16-IO=240 WSS-IRQ=11 SB-IRQ=5 DMA=0 DMA=5 MPU=330
GUS GF1 - A250 I3 I3 D7 D7
AWE64 - A260 I9 D3 H6 FM=OFF MPU=OFF E640

SoftMPU uses AWE's IRQ 9 and IO address 330. MT-32 is connected to AV310 MPU330. ACPI uses IRQ 10 (it is BIOS mod). Two General MIDI devices, Roland and Yamaha, are connected to EWS64 MIDI-2 channel MPU320.