That's a speed issue. If you have a pentium M or Celeron M ,try to use cpuspeed or other app to slow down CPU. You can search here in vogons.

Marmes wrote on 2024-01-03, 10:31:

That's a speed issue. If you have a pentium M or Celeron M ,try to use cpuspeed or other app to slow down CPU. You can search here in vogons.

Bingo thank you, used throttle.exe to 75% and everything works now except Adlib Tracker 2, which I am now assuming is an Adlib Tracker 2-specific problem. Would still like anyone else to try AT2 to see if it acts the same. AT2 works if you change the adtrack2.ini opl_latency=1

First time testing SPDIF output and it's very quiet, too quiet. Need to set volume to the max from amplifier. All the volume levels are top notch from the analog side of the card. Any ideas?

Edit: orpheus.ini is ok. Volume levels are ok from analog output but digital output is lot quieter. Other digital outputs to amplifier are on same level as analog output from Orpheus II, only digital output from Orpheus is the quiet one. If I set Orpheus volume levels louder then wavetable header audio starts to clip the sound from analog output. There is no way to set SPDIF volume alone?

You need to check your converter, the output is standard. If you are in MS-DOS check your orphinit in file.

Hello. After approx 1 week I received a card and tried to test out everything I need/use I post my message for some help 😀

First, thank you very much for this card (Orpheus II). I have a Gravis Classic and a Gravis Extreme, the second was used as my best ever sound card for pure DOS due it's overall function coverage in games. I have also a Roland MT-32 and an SC-55MKII so with an MPU card the setup was complete. I really wanted to get a spare Gravis Extreme but it never happened due to the price and how modern economy works so I decided when first saw this card to apply for it and now I am a happy customer/user/gamer 😀

I had my issues, tried to figure everything out before I post and also tried to read through the forum. First issue was that orphinit reported DSP issue which was solved by PnP OS=YES setting in BIOS. Other IRQ DMA option I have there basically makes no difference, no conflicts I experienced with other devices with setting to ISA or without. I am using Asus P5A-B motherboard.

But. When I saw 16MB FPM module is the "best", immediately ordered one from ebay which was not the smartest idea as 1 day later I bought a pile of memory modules and also found a double sided 8MB at home...Anyway. For testing I tried to use Gravis' setup which was mostly working, sometimes not. Test passed any regardless I got music/sound in games with Ultrasound set up, smile on my face.

Next issue I have faced, there was a conflict between Orpheus.bat and Ultrasnd.bat...I got no sound with soundblaster setup anywhere. Then I have figured out (also some hints from here) that possibly setup program modified iw.ini and put values to soundblaster emulation or something. I have nulled those out (or put no value at all pherhaps works as well) and now I have everything working.....almost.

I have an MP-32PI McCake wavetable module so it was also a main reason wanting so much this card. I was just installed it and instant action, nothing to be changed. However when I just tried to compare my used soundfonts against SC-55 I noticed the wavetable volume setting does nothing. mute/31/mute;31 in any combination or even different number given as volume level didn't make any difference, same loud music came out from the speakers.

So this would be my only concern and question for now. What could be the reason and solution to be able to change wavetable header volume and/or mute. Could be that something I have completely missed but from my understanding is that only "WTHeaderVol=8" line is responsible for this which I am cluless how to troubleshoot more. Edit: Jumpers on the card are on default, IRQ2, and all handled by PCMIDI. Thank you again, you guys rock, your work is much appreciated, greetings from Hungary ! 😀

Since WT is Synth you should try to lower down FM vol. which is also a synth, please test it 😀

Is there no separate mixer option for FM vs wavetable?

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-01-18, 17:33:

Is there no separate mixer option for FM vs wavetable?

nope, the SB way is both tied at the same input
that way games control music volume no matter what the device is: midi or fm

remember there are 2 MPUs on the orpheus, one is PCMIDI the other CS4237 so one can achieve "isolation" so not everything plays at the same time

keropi wrote on 2024-01-18, 17:52:

nope, the SB way is both tied at the same input that way games control music volume no matter what the device is: midi or fm […]
Show full quote

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-01-18, 17:33:

Is there no separate mixer option for FM vs wavetable?

nope, the SB way is both tied at the same input
that way games control music volume no matter what the device is: midi or fm

remember there are 2 MPUs on the orpheus, one is PCMIDI the other CS4237 so one can achieve "isolation" so not everything plays at the same time

Thank you both. I will need time to test out and will report back. But if not PCMIDI handles MIDI then I lose intelligent mode, right?

EDIT: Okay, this was simple as...pie 😀 I just changed the jumper 4 for MIDI connector to crystal managed and now I have separated Wavetable header and external sound modules. Addresses of course to be changed in the ini 300 vs 330 but it works. I won't use the real MT-32 as basically sounds the same but for experiments and testing for soundfonts it is good to be able to easily switch between McCake and real SC-55. The only remaining thing is the sound volume...FM volume is way too low compared to the wavetable header volume but I think that also can be compensated within the config file of the McCake.

So I am fine for now (OPL3 vs Crystal I don't think will be an issue but if will be, I can just change it temporarily when needed).
Hopefully these will be informative for others as well or if others have also some experience, please share 😀

atomeec wrote on 2024-01-19, 10:01:

Thank you both. I will need time to test out and will report back. But if not PCMIDI handles MIDI then I lose intelligent mode, right?

correct, Crystal MPU is only UART-mode compatible

atomeec wrote on 2024-01-19, 10:01:

The only remaining thing is the sound volume...FM volume is way too low compared to the wavetable header volume.

My solution for this is to use a dedicated card for OPL3 and route that to the Line-In of my primary sound card. That way I can control the OPL3 volume independent of the Wavetable MIDI in the mixer.

Volume depends on wt card. FM has a volume. That can be either lower our higher. All was calculated for 2.8vpp input. Therefore you need to regulate volume depending on what you want to use. Me for example, I use different.bat files of orphinit to set volume depending on what I use.

I'm not suggesting that there is anything wrong with OPL3 on the Orpheus. I have this issue with OPL3 being too quiet on other sound cards as well, and I really like being able to control it on an independent slider in the mixer.

I noticed that with Creative cards, for example, Adlib OPL3 is very quiet but OPL3 when chosen as "Sound Blaster" is much louder.

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-01-19, 15:56:

I'm not suggesting that there is anything wrong with OPL3 on the Orpheus. I have this issue with OPL3 being too quiet on other sound cards as well, and I really like being able to control it on an independent slider in the mixer.

I noticed that with Creative cards, for example, Adlib OPL3 is very quiet but OPL3 when chosen as "Sound Blaster" is much louder.

Oh, you didn't say anything wrong, you pointed a valid solution. Orpheus card is done this way. But there are solutions. Yours and this one I pointed.😅

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-01-19, 15:41:

atomeec wrote on 2024-01-19, 10:01:

The only remaining thing is the sound volume...FM volume is way too low compared to the wavetable header volume.

My solution for this is to use a dedicated card for OPL3 and route that to the Line-In of my primary sound card. That way I can control the OPL3 volume independent of the Wavetable MIDI in the mixer.

I was really in hunt for the ultimate card avoiding using multiple cards in the system. I am still playing with the settings but I could lower the volume via config of mp32pi (I face now completely unrelated issue 😁 ), but what I also noticed that line in on the orpheus also quiet on max (or my SC55 is...). For that it seems only via separate card I could make it louder but for now I am not willing to retreat to the multicard-verse...and maybe I just need to play a bit more with the config, not sure (but line-in volume at 7 won't give other options...).

You could, I theory, route all of your outputs to a powered mixer that is capable of boosting the volume even further. The connect your mixer to your speakers.

I have opted to daisy chain my sound cards together via Line-In, which may not be "optimal", since there are analog losses for each additional stage, but I can't tell the difference and it is sufficient for my needs.

I'm not certain of this is true, but it feels like passing my Adlib sound in this way provides some additional amplification from the second card.

I am fine for now. External mixer was on the table for years but finally didn't get one, my desk is too crowded. I could balance now the things except the external modules (I could still lower internal volume but it is fine for now). I am happy, and that is the most important point 😁

I will just enjoy now the setup and check back regularly for news and stuff 😀 Have a good weekend people!

Orphinit 0.58β is now available thanks to 640k!enough 😀
the only change is that the pc speaker output bug is now fixed and the extra pcspeak program is no longer needed

I'm trying to setup my Orpheus 2 (v1.1) on my IBM PC 350 (Pentium 200 MMX) but I'm having some problems...

First question... am I supposed to run ORPHINIT (ORPHEUS.BAT) first or ULTRASND (ULTRASND.BAT)? I'm using ORPHINIT (v0.58b) and the preinstalled GUS (v.4) drivers from the website.

If I run ORPHINIT first, it says "Unable to reset Sound Blaster DSP." If I run ULTRASND.BAT first it says "UltraSound card not found." However, if I run ORPHINIT (and it displays the SB DSP error) and then run ULTRASND.BAT, it does detect the GUS ("UltraSound card #1 initialized.")

My BIOS is an IBM BIOS ("SurePath") and I've tried enabling and disabling PnP support in the BIOS. The BIOS also shows the following "ISA legacy resources" available:

IRQ 3, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 15
DMA 0, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7
I/O Ports (lots of different ones)

The only jumper I've changed on the card is for PCMIDI to use IRQ 3 because I can't seem to free up IRQ 2. I've also temporarily disabled the parallel port (IRQ 7) but it didn't help.

sofakng wrote on 2024-02-04, 01:01:

The only jumper I've changed on the card is for PCMIDI to use IRQ 3 because I can't seem to free up IRQ 2.

That might be a video card/chip issue. Some video cards specifically reserve IRQ2 for backwards compatibility with EGA modes.

Check your BIOS and see if there is an option to disable IRQ reservation for video modes.