VOGONS


First post, by commander_spuds

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I saw this ISA card on YouTube and decided to give it a go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_L_1tvH1Ew

I intend to use this entirely under DOS, so I got the DOS driver on the YouTuber's site: https://www.philscomputerlab.com/audician-32-plus.html

And I grabbed a cheap gameport to MIDI adapter on ebay.

I can get MIDI out of the X2GS wavetable module that I got for it, and it sounds pretty great. I'm happy with that at least, but I'd like to use it with my MT32-pi as well, and I'm getting no response from it at all. I tested the MT32-pi with a modern computer and a USB to MIDI cable, so I know that works at least.

The MIDI adapter I got is probably just too cheap. I opened it up and it's sending two wires directly to each MIDI port, and nothing else. So I'll get something better to replace it.

But here's my question: perhaps this card is simply incapable of outputting to the gameport MIDI in pure DOS, or can't support both wavetable and the gameport at the same time; can anybody with this card verify that these features work for them, before I go too deep down the rabbit hole?

Reply 1 of 4, by Xanxi

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The Audician 32Plus definitely works in msdos with MIDI stuff out of the gameport, I have used it with mt32 and sc55. No intelligent mode of course.
As for using both the gameport and the wave blaster header at the same time I don’t know.

Reply 3 of 4, by Kamerat

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commander_spuds wrote on 2023-03-31, 18:24:

The MIDI adapter I got is probably just too cheap. I opened it up and it's sending two wires directly to each MIDI port, and nothing else. So I'll get something better to replace it.

There you have the problem. You need a circuit that provides enough and correct current to drive the optocoupler in your MIDI device.

DOS Sound Blaster compatibility: PCI sound cards vs. PCI chipsets
YouTube channel

Reply 4 of 4, by commander_spuds

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Thanks for the help everyone!

Aw too bad about the intelligent mode. The video said it did have that. (at least, that's what I assumed he meant by 'full mpu-401 midi interface with no hanging note bugs' but maybe that's not what that means?)