32kofdata wrote on 2021-05-06, 07:20:Then decided to try Doom 1 and Duke Nukem 3D and nothing. MPU-401 not detected. A bit puzzled.
That's because they are protected mode DOS-extender games. SoftMPU cannot work with such games
Does this work with Windows 95? I really need a sound card with digital out so i can use a proper dac/headphone amp.
ScrewB wrote on 2021-05-07, 19:06:Does this work with Windows 95? I really need a sound card with digital out so i can use a proper dac/headphone amp.
yes with one limitation: currently there is no way to activate the external OPL3 and under windows CrystalFM is used
Hey there, any tips for getting the pcmidi interface to work in windows 98? I installed the crystal drivers from the support page but once I did the roland midi option disappeared (not that it ever seemed to work anyway). Thanks!
PCMIDI is a non-pnp device so you have to add it manually
it is recommended to use one of the MultiPort drivers in the pcmidi page: http://pcmidi.eu/files.html
if it does not work then check your system for IRQ2 availability , the system might use it so you have to make changes accordingly
I keep forgetting to buy this soundcard. What's the current estimated delivery time and best way to order? Cheers.
keropi wrote on 2021-05-08, 18:07:PCMIDI is a non-pnp device so you have to add it manually
it is recommended to use one of the MultiPort drivers in the pcmidi page: http://pcmidi.eu/files.htmlif it does not work then check your system for IRQ2 availability , the system might use it so you have to make changes accordingly
Sorry, I'm dumb. Please be patient with me 😀.
I added the device via the new hardware dialog. I select the win9x from your link on my flash drive, it picks up the inf, it goes looking for an mpu.drv file (which there is none included, so I rename the mpu.dr_ file to mpu.drv because that seems to be what they had in mind) and it installs fine and restarts. I select mpu-401 out from my midi devices and play canyon midi using windows media player.... no sound, no midi signals received by my midi emulator.
I tried the GS and twelve tone driver versions.
The mpu-401 out is using IRQ 2/9. Windows doesn't show IRQ 2 being in use (I am pretty sure that is always system reserved). I reserved IRQ 9 in my motherboard bios for ISA legacy but IRQ 2 can't be reserved. When I try and use midi in a DOS window now I get an error saying that the mpu-401 interface is in use. Is there something else I need to do?
I assume the MPU works fine under pure DOS?
You cannot just rename .dr_ to .drv - at least of the 12tone driver it needs to be expanded with microsoft's expand utility that is included in windows and this process is done automatically when the driver installs.
Also check out the Crystal MPU device - is it also activated and using port330 perhaps?
There is no magic to install the MPU driver under windows, if the resources are free it will just work...
keropi wrote on 2021-05-08, 20:40:I assume the MPU works fine under pure DOS? […]
I assume the MPU works fine under pure DOS?
You cannot just rename .dr_ to .drv - at least of the 12tone driver it needs to be expanded with microsoft's expand utility that is included in windows and this process is done automatically when the driver installs.
Also check out the Crystal MPU device - is it also activated and using port330 perhaps?There is no magic to install the MPU driver under windows, if the resources are free it will just work...
You were right, it was a port conflict. I had to disable the other 401 interfaces and then reserve 330-340 in device manager and that seems to work! Thank you!
I can use the midi interface in pure dos mode just fine but I can't use it in a DOS window now because windows has it in use. Is that to be expected?
did you install the multiport drivers or the stock one?
I cannot remember what happens when you try to use it in a dos window, not even sure I even tried it tbh... maybe someone else can tell us for sure - I am away from my systems atm...
I was able to reproduce that problem using two midi player (winamp in_midi and virtual jukebox). Using microsoft mpu401 driver it would not allow both to play together complaining that the device was in use. Using the Music Quest MPU401 I was able to play both winamp and vjukebox to the mpu401. But I was never able to use the soundcard under dos if it is in use on windows. If nothing was playing, it would work fine under a dos window and I could use the soundcard.
I was not able to make the two multi-port driver Keropi suggest to work under windows, but since the MusicQuest seem to work in multi-port mode I'm not sure there is any added value to it (after an install of the two drivers, they ask for a reboot but are not there after it, maybe I need to uncompress that file manually?). Even if the driver is multi-port, I would be surprised it would allow dos windows to use them. My motherboard is only trouble so even if it say that the device could not be found at port/irq 330/3 it work perfectly so I will let it like that. I think it might be related to directsound / midiout interface of the driver. At least now in nt2k it work (not in multiport) and win98 it work in multiport and pure dos, well... of course it work. Tomorrow maybe I'll try to draw conclusion of all that but now I need a break of all those drivers, conflict, resource in use
the "device is used by another application" is something that plagued early windows drivers , I remember it all too well 🤣
I just tested the MPU drivers with my 98SE setup -
- Music Quest / Roland embedded windows driver: both DOS and Windows applications work fine as long as only one application uses the MPU
- Twelve Tone Systems driver: it can only be used under windows and more than one applications can use it - if a DOS application tries to use the MPU you get this message "MPU is used by Windows"
- GSPanel driver: it can be used by more than one windows application and it will work under DOS but when you return to windows you will get nothing out of the MPU until you restart windows
So basically for gaming one should stick to the MQ/Roland driver that comes with windows and for music creation or windows-only usage one of the multiport drivers can be used.
This is not a PCMIDI thing, same behavior happens with real Roland mpus.
I will add this info to the site , I admit I never bothered running DOS stuff under windows so I learned (or re-learned after I have forgotted) something 🤣
edit:
if one needs to remove the multiport drivers it needs to be done by editing SYSTEM.INI (easily accessible by running SYSEDIT under 9x)
On [386 Enh] section remove the line containing:
mpu.drv (for the GSPanel driver)
vmpud.386 (for the TTS driver)
then at the end of SYSTEM.INI there is a [mpu.drv] section, this needs to be removed completely
after restart you can use the "add new hardware" in control panel to add the Music Quest or Roland driver back to the system.
the multiport drivers are INI-based so they don't appear in device manager.
keropi wrote on 2021-05-11, 09:10:if one needs to remove the multiport drivers it needs to be done by editing SYSTEM.INI (easily accessible by running SYSEDIT und […]
if one needs to remove the multiport drivers it needs to be done by editing SYSTEM.INI (easily accessible by running SYSEDIT under 9x)
On [386 Enh] section remove the line containing:
mpu.drv (for the GSPanel driver)
vmpud.386 (for the TTS driver)then at the end of SYSTEM.INI there is a [mpu.drv] section, this needs to be removed completely
after restart you can use the "add new hardware" in control panel to add the Music Quest or Roland driver back to the system.
and specifically this :
keropi wrote on 2021-05-11, 09:10:the multiport drivers are INI-based so they don't appear in device manager.
thanks a lot, complex problems appear so simple when you understand how they work. This solve the puzzle "why are there new device in the players midi-out list now?!" and "How come after I install the driver it dont show up in device manager?!" 😫
It seem that GS and TTS might work differently. The setup instruction of the GS ask to change the drivers of the device in the device manager and TTS ask for the other drivers to be removed. So I assume the GS work in conjunction with the MQ/Roland one ? I was also wondering where they put all those information, so I will clean up my INI and with this new knowledge, review the setup.
I think what happen to me is that I was using the GS and/or the TTS driver via INI and not the MQ when I was able to do multi-port playback. Hence the device cannot load in the device manager for the MQ error while "cakewalk virtual jukebox" and "winamp in_midi" could be playing together. On a clean setup, I will review my possibilities and decide what work best for me.
Thanks Keropi, I will try to confirm your conclusion and reproduce that "no-sound-after-dos" problem (do you mean like turning an application fullscreen (ah.. oh I miss that) or that exit to msdos thing in the shutdown menu?). Since otherwise that would make the GS card the ideal choice for everyone, maybe there is a simpler way to reset it ? Do you think GS Panel will get angry if you plug an XG device on it ?
What I am talking about is running a dos mpu program within windows - if you completely exit windows and then re-load them then there is no issue
GS Panel does not care what device you use it with - it will send GS messages and it's up to the device to understand and use them...
Basically ask yourselves: do you really need more than 1 Windows application to access the mpu? If you are doing serious work then losing dos-in-windows support is a good tradeoff but otherwise it does not worth it IMHO
I was able to clean the mpu drivers and got back the the original setup with the MQ driver when I noticed the dreamblaster was sounding weird, like very light with lack of bass. So I took it out on a modern pc to test it with winamp and it seem to sound ok, but I took the advantage to put buran 1.1 on it, but the upload eventually crashed and now I can't detect the card anymore. The green led still light, but I'm not sure what it mean apart power on the line. Can we brick such a device from soundbank upload ? That kind of kill the fun for me on this one ... Maybe when the caps will have drained out the device will reset itself, on the orpheus dosmid play a file to it but there is nothing to be heard from the card of the x2 1/8 jack plug.
No you cannot brick the X2, try uploading the bank and preset again it will be fine 😀
Is there any way to know how far down the queue I am for the Orpheus card? No rush, just was wondering.
RockstarRunner wrote on 2021-05-12, 12:55:Is there any way to know how far down the queue I am for the Orpheus card? No rush, just was wondering.
send me a PM with the email you used
keropi wrote on 2021-05-12, 13:17:RockstarRunner wrote on 2021-05-12, 12:55:Is there any way to know how far down the queue I am for the Orpheus card? No rush, just was wondering.
send me a PM with the email you used
I was wondering the same thing. I will send you a PM.
In my case both GS and TTS would disable dos prompt support for the pcmidi, but allow correct multi-port on win98. In that case I would then prefer Music Quest driver on win98. The only place this multi-port and no dos support style setup would make sense is when that computer is booted to win2000. Unfortunately, but with little surprise, those drivers would not work on this os. Maybe there is other multi-port mpu401 drivers for nt kernel ? A quick google search dont yield so much positive outlook...
