I don't fully understand what do you mean by builders, you mean buyers? $30 gets you what? the pcb+parts to assemble?

"Builders" as in beta-testers. Since this is a prototype, the builders will buy a PCB, and then they will have to get the parts and build the card themselves.

$30 may sound like quite a lot for just a PCB, but that's because it's a smaller run just to see if the card has any issues or not (like perhaps insufficient amplification). If the design works and there is enough interest, a much bigger run will be made, and the price will be reduced to about $10-$20 per PCB (depending on how big the run is).

lynchaj is involved in the N8VEM homebrew computer project, where buying a PCB and doing the rest oneself is common practice.

OK, thanks for the clarification 😀

I might be interested, does it just basically require buying the parts and soldering together? No programming required? Do you guys have a list of where all the parts might be available from?

Most of the parts are regular TTL chips you can buy at your favorite electronics supplier (Jameco, etc..). The actual OPL2 and YM3412 can be a little more tricky to get, but it should generally be possible to get them for a decent price.

With the OPL2 and the card set to a given address; it could be used as any AdLib clone board, where no programming will be needed.

won't it just be a programmable card you supply basically a programmable chip that has full access to the bus and the final digital output and you can load custom firmware whatever in it depending on what sound card you'd want?

We'd need to know though how many MIPS we need for everything

After all it should be able to run Munt and a few others in parallel if we go through the trouble of making a board...

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

We'd need to know though how many MIPS we need for everything

After all it should be able to run Munt and a few others in parallel if we go through the trouble of making a board...

The board has already been made, and it doesn't put up any requirements when it comes to system speed. This card don't use any programmable microcontroller at all, but it's based on the real OPL2/OPM hardware.

Yeah, works until you have to pay hundreds for the last existing OPL2 chips

yeh i'd rather see some ultimate isa soundcard with some high performance arm whatever chip on it that we could program. Maybe even just add a vga output on it so you could also make your custom video card.

On the other side these high preformance chips aren't very hobbyist friendly.

Well we'd just depend on you to do it hal 😜

Would it sound more cleaner then original Adlib?

I don't see any sense for making third party sound card based on Yamaha OPL2 if this chip is not widely available. In the future the main problem will be lack of this chip. In my opinion we need third party OPL2 FPGA implementation.

Regards! (:

Exactly. I really don't even understand the premise behind the project... it's billed as a cheaper alternative to rare and expensive 8-bit sound boards, but there are still plenty of 8-bit AdLib compatibles out there... they're not particularly hard to find, and they're not much money either. Sure, real AdLib boards are difficult to come by, but this new board is no more a real AdLib than any of the other clones/compatibles available... so if you're not going to use an authentic card, why not just use one of the other cards? You don't have to build and beta-test those.

Granted, there is a limited supply of old sound cards out there, so eventually the sources are going to dry up. But the exact same thing can be said of the OPL2 chips being used in this project. So again... why?

I saw the same point get brought up in the thread over at VCF, and it completely glossed over there too. One guy even got bitched-out for suggesting using a SB 2.0 instead. But, I also found this little tidbit, which pretty well sums it up for me...

lynchaj wrote:

Thanks Per! Good job and ignore the peanut gallery detractors on Vogons. It is easy for them to criticize especially when they can't do anything themselves! We'll get this project working yet!

I think we should start a war. Us and them - Vogons versus VCF. We could arm ourselves with sound cards, and when we approach the enemy, snap off bits of OPL2 parts from crusty old hardware, and hurl them "grenade like" towards the retreating VCF forces, shouting "die, you rebel scum!"

I for one like the initiative taken by the people of the VCF 😀
At least something is in motion, which is a good thing for any of us old computer lovers/addicts 😜

Sure, initiative to develop new components for old hardware is a good thing. I think the XTIDE project is awesome, as are the S100 projects people are doing. But it's not quite so simple in this case, since it doesn't really seem to be filling any great hole in the market, or even providing much of a net benefit at all. For example, I noticed some of the suggested sources of OPL2 chips were other old sound cards.

From what I can tell, this project had simple enough beginnings: somebody wanting a new version of the AdLib. And that's all well and fine... the thought that, nearly 25 years later, you can make a brand new DIY version of the AdLib... that is kinda cool. But the main thing I see in it at this point is some guy trying to prove how awesome he is for developing a sound card. I wouldn't even really have a problem with that, if it were being sold as such. It's the false pretense that it's being done for the benefit of the vintage computing community that irks me.

Old Thrashbarg wrote:

Sure, initiative to develop new components for old hardware is a good thing. I think the XTIDE project is awesome, as are the S100 projects people are doing. But it's not quite so simple in this case, since it doesn't really seem to be filling any great hole in the market, or even providing much of a net benefit at all. For example, I noticed some of the suggested sources of OPL2 chips were other old sound cards.

From what I can tell, this project had simple enough beginnings: somebody wanting a new version of the AdLib. And that's all well and fine... the thought that, nearly 25 years later, you can make a brand new DIY version of the AdLib... that is kinda cool. But the main thing I see in it at this point is some guy trying to prove how awesome he is for developing a sound card. I wouldn't even really have a problem with that, if it were being sold as such. It's the false pretense that it's being done for the benefit of the vintage computing community that irks me.

Even though I agree the way some people want to project an image of selflessness to hide something commercial (believe me when I say I really dislike these kinds of people IRL and I tend to avoid those kinds of people) but in the end I just tend to look at it in the "what good can this be for me, personally?" way 😉

The whole world is commercial, everybody wants money yada yada, but all I care about in the end is to be able to lead my own little merry life ;D

Edit:Btw, my last post promped me to register on VCF as "Tetrium2", since I kinda "misplaced" my password! 😊

Until I find it again, I'll just use that account, just a FYI 😉