ES688 doesn't have a MPU401 interface in hardware (like SBpro doesn't for example), ENMPU is a software emulator and this always results in some sort of incompatibility compared to actual hardware implementation. SoftMPU most likely has much better compatibility compared to it.

Thank you for your comment, and yes, that's the common knowledge I already learnt reading the forum.
I'd just like to know if (and how! 😉 ) someone has actually managed to produce audible wavetable sound out of ES688 card specifically using ENMPU.

Yep, I've seen other users here say that the TSR works fine for them. I've got a 688 and did not have success with MIDI, however that card turned out to be faulty.

Just to make sure all the troubleshooting bases are covered:

- Did ENMPU indicate that it saw the card and initialised ok? (For me, it wouldn't recognise the presence of the card at all).
- What's your ESSVOL look like? "A" or "AuxB" should be the wavetable volume, and set somewhere higher than zero of course.
- Definitely no other sound cards or lingering configs present that could be stepping on port 330?
- I assume you've tested a good range of MIDI games to be sure it's not working with anything

Pierre32 wrote on 2022-10-18, 09:43:

Just to make sure all the troubleshooting bases are covered: […]
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Just to make sure all the troubleshooting bases are covered:

- Did ENMPU indicate that it saw the card and initialised ok? (For me, it wouldn't recognise the presence of the card at all).
- What's your ESSVOL look like? "A" or "AuxB" should be the wavetable volume, and set somewhere higher than zero of course.
- Definitely no other sound cards or lingering configs present that could be stepping on port 330?
- I assume you've tested a good range of MIDI games to be sure it's not working with anything

- Yes, it confirmed MPU-401 at port 330 and IRQ9 (quite oddly that IRQ - should it be anything else?). Both cards I tested were basely set A220/I7/D1 or A220/I5/D1. I tried to force ENMPU to use IRQ5 or 7 respectively together with P330, but it still didn't make wavetable audible
- Correctly set to volume 8 as the other sources
- nothing else
- tested few, but mostly IMUSE setup program of Dark Forces, which always works for wavetable daughterboards or onboard solution on anything else than ES688 😉 There's no error and the program attempts to play general midi music on port 330, but there's complete silence.

I have to correct myself. Reading some old posts, I said at the time that ENMPU actually did appear to start correctly. But then, silence. So the same symptoms as you.

(It later turned out that my card's ESS chip was cooking, and eventually it would start crashing the system after a few minutes play just using the SB component. So I put all my issues down to that.)

Here's my failure-journey of a thread that went from "what is this thing" to "ok this card is sweet" to eventually an unmentioned RIP. But at least I learned a lot about the card and documented its jumpers along the way:

No-name ES688F card: Time to ditch it?

In that thread, appiah4 posts about his success with the Edison Gold variant of the card, along with his config screens.

So, is possible to configure ESS ES688 (Gold 16) to work with wavetable device? With system Windows XP is possible to use the card (digital sounds), the card have ESFM, but possible to use/install MPU-401?

Xmodule999 wrote on 2023-01-18, 09:02:

So, is possible to configure ESS ES688 (Gold 16) to work with wavetable device? With system Windows XP is possible to use the card (digital sounds), the card have ESFM, but possible to use/install MPU-401?

ESS688 does not have ESFM, ESS only introduced that on the ESS1488, so FM synthesis needs an external OPL3 or clone.

As for MPU-401, I'm another person never able to get ENMPU to work. I'm sure it can work, but not under any conditions that I've been able to use.

The same for me, two different ES688 cards produce only silence for wavetable, no matter what I tried.

Sounds to me like the perfect candidate for a HardMPU add-on.

tpowell.ca wrote on 2023-01-18, 15:25:

Sounds to me like the perfect candidate for a HardMPU add-on.

I think the same. This "MPU" looks like a serial port in disguise to me.
Hopefully it has an UART FiFo, at least. Like the real V.24/V.28 ports using 16550A and later.
Then it could be supported by SoftMPU, maybe.

If driver ES968.COM V2.5 is loaded in memory for some reason is impossible to use USB or PS/2 keyboard. With V2.8 all is OK. How to use V2.5 with working USB or PS/2 keyboard (need this version to gain sound effects like in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJJwC-St24U ), right?

EDIT: V2.5 was originally bundled as a floppy disk with the soundcard ESS ES688 + ES968.

EDIT 2: If DOS is installed on hard drive instead of floppy V2.5 is working for some reason.