Uses ESFM not true OPL2/3

giantclam wrote on 2023-09-18, 05:42:

Uses ESFM not true OPL2/3

I know, I am aware that ESS cards don't have a real YMF262 chip or anything. I'm just confused because I used to have a Packard Bell PC growing up that had an ESS Solo integrated audio chip and OPL emulation on that was actually pretty good, so I was expecting this to be on the same level.

I also installed probably the wrong driver first as it caused all audio to be capped at 11050 KHz, not only OPL emulation. With another driver I got to fix all issues with the audio itself and now it plays as it should, but not the OPL audio.

Do you have a model name/number on the presario that the motherboard came from?

CoTeCiO wrote on 2023-09-18, 19:39:

I know, I am aware that ESS cards don't have a real YMF262 chip or anything. I'm just confused because I used to have a Packard Bell PC growing up that had an ESS Solo integrated audio chip and OPL emulation on that was actually pretty good, so I was expecting this to be on the same level.

...well that's a subjective statement, as our ears/hearing deteriorate with age ~ I can think of many things I listened to growing up, they all sound different 60 years later =)

That sample you posted is being fed into the DSP reverb shizzle by the sounds of it ... but then, I only use real OPL2/3 based cards and it sounds very 'foreign' to my ears anyway 😎

giantclam wrote on 2023-09-18, 05:42:

Uses ESFM not true OPL2/3

No, it's not ESFM.
Among the ESS PCI based cards only the Solo-1 has real hardware ESFM (that is really OPL 2/3 compatible, and in its native mode even better than OPL3).
Later PCI based ESS cards ( Meastro, Allegro, Canyon) have inferior software emulated FM synthesizer that can sound quite bad.

Falcosoft wrote on 2023-09-19, 05:09:

Later PCI based ESS cards ( Meastro, Allegro, Canyon) have inferior software emulated FM synthesizer that can sound quite bad.

Yeah, that's what I was referring to ~ after yamaha took them to court, they had to drop the original ESFM design (but I think they still referred to the software implementation by the same name =)

warmachine wrote on 2023-09-18, 22:23:

Do you have a model name/number on the presario that the motherboard came from?

It was a Compaq Presario 7463

giantclam wrote on 2023-09-18, 23:30:

CoTeCiO wrote on 2023-09-18, 19:39:

I know, I am aware that ESS cards don't have a real YMF262 chip or anything. I'm just confused because I used to have a Packard Bell PC growing up that had an ESS Solo integrated audio chip and OPL emulation on that was actually pretty good, so I was expecting this to be on the same level.

...well that's a subjective statement, as our ears/hearing deteriorate with age ~ I can think of many things I listened to growing up, they all sound different 60 years later =)

That sample you posted is being fed into the DSP reverb shizzle by the sounds of it ... but then, I only use real OPL2/3 based cards and it sounds very 'foreign' to my ears anyway 😎

Yes, of course. We sold that computer in early 2005 so it's been quite a while. I recently found a pretty cruddy cassette recording of the Descent II OPL soundtrack played through the ESS Solo-1 and from what I can hear, it sounds alright. Of course, being a really crappy cassette recording, there isn't much nuance, but even then, that cassette is already leagues better than what the ESS Allegro-1 sound like.

Yeah, I have no idea what's going on with the sound there. The sound effects sound perfectly fine. At least on DOS. I discovered that anything lower than 22 KHz on Windows sound absolutely horrible, so anything that plays samples in 11 KHz like Doom 95 sounds like garbage.

I own a couple of Sound Blaster cards with the YMF262 chip and I have another machine with one of the cards installed, so I have a pretty good idea of what OPL stuff should sound like. Unfortunately the motherboard only has PCI slots, so I can't use them here.

Falcosoft wrote on 2023-09-19, 05:09:

No, it's not ESFM. Among the ESS PCI based cards only the Solo-1 has real hardware ESFM (that is really OPL 2/3 compatible, an […]
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giantclam wrote on 2023-09-18, 05:42:

Uses ESFM not true OPL2/3

No, it's not ESFM.
Among the ESS PCI based cards only the Solo-1 has real hardware ESFM (that is really OPL 2/3 compatible, and in its native mode even better than OPL3).
Later PCI based ESS cards ( Meastro, Allegro, Canyon) have inferior software emulated FM synthesizer that can sound quite bad.

Oh interesting! I didn't know about this, it would make sense that the Allegro sounds like garbage if that's the case. That's very unfortunate. The ESS Solo-1 thing that I had on my old PC sounded really well from what I remember, at least when compared to the cards I had after that computer was sold. I had a Diamond card, a SB Pro 2 and a SB16 CT2890. Currently using the CT2890 on my "main" retro rig. I would love to put the SB Pro 2 on this computer, but the motherboard has no ISA slots.

giantclam wrote on 2023-09-19, 05:56:

Falcosoft wrote on 2023-09-19, 05:09:

Later PCI based ESS cards ( Meastro, Allegro, Canyon) have inferior software emulated FM synthesizer that can sound quite bad.

Yeah, that's what I was referring to ~ after yamaha took them to court, they had to drop the original ESFM design (but I think they still referred to the software implementation by the same name =)

I do not think that this is historically correct. On the one hand Yamaha had not won the case at court on the other hand after they settled in May 1996 ESS still released new generations of cards with hardware ESFM.
I think the omission of hardware FM chips on later PCI cards were rather a cost saving decision since DOS compatibility was less and less important and wavetable Midi was the new trend.
AFAIK they they did not use the ESFM™ acronym in case of later PCI cards that lack hardware FM chip (but I'm not sure, marketing rules).
@Edit:
At least ESFM is not even mentioned in the Allegro specification:
https://pdf.dzsc.com/88888/200864104028115.pdf
while it is explicitly included in Solo-1 specification:
http://ftp.icm.edu.pl/packages/linux-alsa/man … ess/DsSolo1.pdf

You see it in the drivers..

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Midimap]
"Mapping Name"="ESFM"

...however the 'real' name is... "FriendlyName"="ESS allem3 Wavetable Synthesis"

CoTeCiO wrote on 2023-09-19, 06:40:

but the motherboard has no ISA slots.

Got USB?....ie; retrowave OPL3