I'd like to listen to some Doom/Duke3D/Descent tunes run through this card as soon as it's finalized. Even if it probably sounds very similar, if not identical to the X2GS, considering it's using the same bank.

Trelokk wrote on 2023-01-02, 22:52:

I'd like to listen to some Doom/Duke3D/Descent tunes run through this card as soon as it's finalized. Even if it probably sounds very similar, if not identical to the X2GS, considering it's using the same bank.

It will (most likely) sound exactly like the X2GS, unless the EQ preset it comes loaded with is different, which it may be, because it's a newer offering and real-world testing and use of the X2GS yielded enough information to go in that direction. The GS sound bank is the same one used in the X2GS and the chip design is essentially the same as the X2GS, except with more CPU cores for polyphony/effects.

Outside of testing and sound bank development, is there any other reason to potentially get this wavetable board?

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-01-03, 15:17:

Outside of testing and sound bank development, is there any other reason to potentially get this wavetable board?

One could argue that the X2GS (5504) is more than enough for retro gaming, but this particular product is using the highest end Dream DSP design (5716) that is used in pro-level gear, so it really opens up the door to other high-end hardware down the line, such as a Sound Canvas-type module, with all the bells and whistles for creative use, which is one of the products that this chip is intended for. My own personal interest in buying it is simply because it has good GS sound and high-polyphony count, so I can play back the premium QuestStudios GS MIDI files on it, which have 128 or more polyphony and aren't necessarily suitable for the X2GS. As for sound bank development, I don't think there's anything big going on there and this won't change that unless it ships with far more than 64MB of bank storage to make more comprehensive or higher-quality banks, but it does open up the doors a bit for future projects and it certainly puts "cheap" GS hardware in the hands of people who can use it to make music. 64-bit FluidSynth and massive SoundFont files are pretty much the direction of things these days, so I don't expect this to really change anything for the masses, since it is a niche hardware offering.

@dreamblaster Any update on dxb -> sf2?

I want to buy this so I can use ESFM soundfont (~700Mb). @Hummatro is able to convert them, not sure what software they are using.

Chicken Systems has a piece of software that converts SF and other sample formats to the DREAM one. It is called Translator. Outside that, you can decompile a SF into it's source sounds and recompile it into a Dream bank with the Dream SDK stuff.

I might not be able to resist getting one of these, then again, I might not be able to afford it (so many nice shiny things to chose from).

@DreamBlaster any ideas on ballpark pricing for this, or is too soon to be asking that ?

It will certainly be a bit more expensive than the X2GS, but it won't likely be significantly more so, unless a bunch of bells and whistles are added to the basic board design shown at the end of last year.

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-01-03, 15:17:

Outside of testing and sound bank development, is there any other reason to potentially get this wavetable board?

It will have a full Gigabyte of storage and the ability to flash multiple banks and switch between them within a split second. If you couldn't decide what bank you would prefer on X2 , you can just get X16 and install all of them. And on the other hand it will allow much bigger banks, much higher polyphony, has a higher quality effect engine.

RetroGamer4Ever wrote on 2023-01-09, 00:33:

Chicken Systems has a piece of software that converts SF and other sample formats to the DREAM one. It is called Translator. Outside that, you can decompile a SF into it's source sounds and recompile it into a Dream bank with the Dream SDK stuff.

ChickenSys works very bad at this time and needs so much rework that you could just recreate the soundbank from scratch instead..

The only other option is to convert the SF2 back to DLS1, use ancient software to convert that to Dreams old own format from 25 years ago, use an old version of Dreams modern SDK to import those old files and then load that in Dreams current SDK..

And every single step will have awful limitations and add more bugs. This path works at least, more or less, with very basic soundbanks but it still needs very time consuming manual rework.

And of course every method needs Dream's SDK to compile the bank for DreamBlaster.

A simple way of converting SF2 to Dream just does not and will probably never exist..

Q1 : Since this card has line-out. Can this be made into a "generic" MIDI sound card (ISA/PCI), which bypasses the need of waveblaster header (I know - it can't do sound effects, so it can't be called a proper sound card) ?

Q2 : I assume user is able to capture MIDI sound from line-out port at the same time as it goes to sound card via waveblaster header (or at least pick, where signal should go) ?

agent_x007 wrote on 2023-01-31, 06:47:

Q1 : Since this card has line-out. Can this be made into a "generic" MIDI sound card (ISA/PCI), which bypasses the need of waveblaster header (I know - it can't do sound effects, so it can't be called a proper sound card) ?

Q2 : I assume user is able to capture MIDI sound from line-out port at the same time as it goes to sound card via waveblaster header (or at least pick, where signal should go) ?

As far as Q1 is concerned you would still need an intelligent mode MPU-401 interface between the ISA/PCI bus and the device. This thing wouldn't know how to communicate with either.

one step closer to X16 release, i made a coming soon section : https://www.serdashop.com/Coming-Soon
Listing both variants X16 and X16GS :
https://www.serdashop.com/DreamBlaster-X16
https://www.serdashop.com/DreamBlaster-X16GS

Preparing X16 for launch, this could take several more weeks, but it is coming now !!

I will document and support the final version of X16 in this new thread : DreamBlaster X16 + X16GS Release