Normally I'd go off on a rant about crappy SB16 MIDI bugs, but in this setup you can use the MX300 in DOS for MPU401 duties (including the X16GS), thereby avoiding hanging notes and slowdownd on the SB16. I'd probably leave as-is unless you had some very specific requirements.

You can use a serial port for mpu401 uart. Softmpu for dos and Roland serial midi module for windows

dionb wrote on 2024-02-13, 18:58:

Normally I'd go off on a rant about crappy SB16 MIDI bugs, but in this setup you can use the MX300 in DOS for MPU401 duties (including the X16GS), thereby avoiding hanging notes and slowdownd on the SB16. I'd probably leave as-is unless you had some very specific requirements.

Definitely leaning toward ditching the SB 16. I mainly bought it for nostalgia reasons... and because I thought it would be sick to have 3 distinct sound cards 😁. It's probably overkill though. I agree the MX300 with the waveblaster technically accomplishes my DOS gaming much better. Maybe I'll save the SB 16 for a mid-90's desktop build. That frees up the ISA slot. Would it be silly to then get an MPU-401 card to use with an MPU-401 breakout box?

epborden wrote on 2024-02-13, 20:47:

[...]

Definitely leaning toward ditching the SB 16. I mainly bought it for nostalgia reasons... and because I thought it would be sick to have 3 distinct sound cards 😁. It's probably overkill though. I agree the MX300 with the waveblaster technically accomplishes my DOS gaming much better. Maybe I'll save the SB 16 for a mid-90's desktop build.

Wait a sec - I'm not suggesting using the MX300 for all DOS sound, just for MPU-401 duties.

The Vortex 2 doesn't support SB16 digital audio, and its OPL3 emulation is pretty poor. For non-MIDI DOS stuff the CT2290 is far superior.

If you want better DOS options than SB16 (in particular: something with bug-free MIDI that does not need TSR drivers like the MX300), you could look at the CMI8330 chipset and the one decent (and very recent) card made using it, the MK8330. It gives you SBPro2, SB16 support, a 1:1 OPL3 core, and bug-free MIDI and WSS as well. You get that on all CMI8330 cards, but most are really cheaply built. Alternative 'one card does it all' chipset with SB16 support and no MIDI bugs is the ALS100 (*not* 100+) with essentially the same feature set, albeit with an external OPL3 or 1:1 clone. They also tend to be low-end designs, but better than period CMI8330. Aside from that you can ditch SB16 support and then there's a host of options available that give bug-free MIDI, real OPL3 and good SBPro2 support (in particular, Aztech and OPTi chipsets).

I switched to using the MX300 as my MPU from the SB 16 as recommended. Much better performance. I have also disabled the MPU on the SB 16 via jumper. The MX300 now has MPU enabled and configures MPU to port 330 naturally. It seems like the best MPU “controller” card to use - you were right about that!

I have the Serdashop Dreamblaster X16GS waveblaster connected to the wavetable header on the MX300 as well. This works out perfectly, too. Now I can easily assign DOS games to port 330 for MIDI and in Windows I can toggle back and forth between MPU and the Dreamblaster! I have both the MX300 and SB Live! configured to use the MPU of the MX300 when I want to listen to MIDI songs in Windows or the Dreamblaster when I need Windows MIDI compatibility for some “hybrid” games.

Still, I am using the MIDI adapter cable. To improve on this I am going to buy the DB15 to MIDI adapter and enclosure from Serdashop. This way I know for sure the adapter cable is wired correctly. Then I can just run a standard MIDI cable from the adapter board to my MIDI tower.

I may explore a separate non-adapter serial solution soon I just need to learn about it more.

Here is my audio routing diagram. Can anyone check this out and provide feedback, I'd appreciate it.

The goal is to send MIDI out from the computer to the MPU-105. The MPU-105 will then act as my MIDI thru switch selectively sending MIDI data to whichever device I need. The three MIDI devices then are, via their line out, connected to a 3-to-1 switch so I can toggle between them. From there the single output connects to a 1-to-3 switch which has line in connections to each of my 3 sound cards. This allows switchable MIDI to any sound card from any MIDI device whenever I need it.

The line out for the sound cards are connected to a 3-to-1 switch which feeds to my speakers. So I can switch between the sound cards output whenever I need it too.

Example control usage:

1. Change the MPU-105 to output MIDI data to Roland SC-55 (MIDI thru #2)
2. Change 3-to-1 MIDI audio out switch to position #2 (Roland SC-55 audio output)
3. Change 1-to-3 line in switch to position #3 (SB 16 line in)
4. Change 3-to-1 line out switch to position #3 (SB 16 line out)
5. Play King's Quest VI (DOS) using sound output from the SB 16 and General MIDI music from the Roland SC-55

So unless I am specifically changing the MIDI device most of the switching is just lining up the input/output for each sound card depending on the game and environment (DOS vs Windows).

That should work - although I'd be a bit fearful of added noise, particularly from sending the MIDI output via sound card inputs.

With this hardware it's the best you can do, what you need is a mixer/combiner. Best-case one that can simply handle all six output devices at once (tip: Behringer RX1602), but even a 2-way mixer would let you put the output of the two 3-to-1 switches and feed that into the speakers would be a big improvement.

Awesome, I appreciate you being so helpful. So if I have this right you're saying just skip the switches to the line in on the sound cards entirely and get something like the Behringer RX1602 to take the audio out from the MIDI devices AND the line out from the sound cards altogether. Into one mixer. Then just feed that mixer output to the speakers directly? I'm obviously a novice at this but that sounds way better. I just had these little switches hanging around the house so it was my initial solve but I'd really like to step up to a rack and proper setup now that I am getting more into it.

epborden wrote on 2024-02-19, 16:38:

Awesome, I appreciate you being so helpful. So if I have this right you're saying just skip the switches to the line in on the sound cards entirely and get something like the Behringer RX1602 to take the audio out from the MIDI devices AND the line out from the sound cards altogether. Into one mixer. Then just feed that mixer output to the speakers directly? I'm obviously a novice at this but that sounds way better. I just had these little switches hanging around the house so it was my initial solve but I'd really like to step up to a rack and proper setup now that I am getting more into it.

Correct, that's the way to do it. It not only lets you have each device hooked up with a single cable at the right volume, but you can also play with more than one device at a time.

Be careful of the rabbit hole!

I started off with one RX1602, I now have two and still have to occasionally manually switch wires...

Update. I scrapped all the crazy switches and my diagram from before. Took your advice and got the Behringer! What a world of difference. Everything is piped into it now and I can control things with ease. Now everything gets properly mixed no matter what audio is playing.

Nice setup!

Good to hear it's working nicely for you too 😀

External mixer is absolutely the way to go - daisy-chained outputs into inputs is just a source of more cabling spiders and more noise!

Under the front edge of my desk I have one of these, mounted on a set of 1U rackmount ears:

That's a great looking setup! Really liking the desktop rackmount solution you have.