IcySon55 wrote on 2023-04-09, 01:51:

That is quite interesting because I recently received my VGA2HDMIPRO (StarTech.com/ConvergeAV) which has an optical input for audio. Should be able to grab even clearer audio than it currently does~

You should be aware, however, that currently-shipping Orpheus cards all use coaxial digital outputs, so unless your converter has both (doesn't look like it does), it won't be a plug-and-play solution.

640K!enough wrote on 2023-04-09, 05:33:

You should be aware, however, that currently-shipping Orpheus cards all use coaxial digital outputs, so unless your converter has both (doesn't look like it does), it won't be a plug-and-play solution.

Aha! Well then, sticking to the analog 3.5mm jacks it is!

The audio coming through the capture device is already really clean from my childhood IBM Aptiva via its S-16WP1/L sound card. Which amazingly has the same Crystal CS4237B-KQ chip as the Orpheus!

So I imagine that the Orpheus II through the VGA2HDMIPRO is also going to sound perfect!

IBM Aptiva S-16WP1/L + IBM Aptiva S-W1/C Wavetable Card:

Duke Nukem 3D - Stalker on the IBM Aptiva S-W1/C
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hORYcVTtNt4

Hey all, do I want a 16 MB 72 pin EDO or FPM SIMM for the Orpheus II? Or does it not matter?

Thanks!

it does not matter but I prefer to use FPM as it's a safer bet

dj_pirtu wrote on 2022-08-16, 19:17:

Yes, this just plain take-my-money stuff.

I have many GUS cards myself, Classic and MAX. Been looking for Extreme because of just one ISA slot on Abit KT7A, the best all-arounder motherboard. Of course ESS Solo-1 is great SB PRO clone in DOS, then there's Vortex2 for Win98, and Audigy2 for WinXP... I'm running out of slots.😅

And there it is, Orpheus II, and it's better than Extreme. All DOS goodness you'll ever need in one card, eating only one slot. 🤤

...and the dream came true, my card is on the way 🥰

Never had GUS PnP, only Classic and MAX. So there's some learning curve ahead with the Interwave -stuff.

Got my card today very late. Had limited time to test it before sleep.
WSS and OPL3 are working fine. SBPro emulation isn't working.
Having error message in pure dos 7.1 with ORPHINIT v.057b

1Unable to reset Sound Blaster DSP

full orphinit log attached.

Any ideas how to troubleshoot DSP init issue?

dj_pirtu wrote on 2022-08-16, 19:17:

And there it is, Orpheus II, and it's better than Extreme. All DOS goodness you'll ever need in one card, eating only one slot. 🤤

I'm curious if anyone has both cards and has done a side-by-side comparison.

The GUS Extreme is basically my favorite DOS sound card. I've been on the fence in getting an Orpheus II because on the one hand, the included wavetable header would be nice (something the GUS Extreme lacks). On the other hand, having to deal with Interwave GUS compatibility versus the GF1 chip on the Extreme is something I'm a little less enthusiastic about...

vutt wrote on 2023-04-11, 20:13:

[...]
Any ideas how to troubleshoot DSP init issue?

Maybe try to reset ESCD on bios? In case a previous spundcard conf exists
also post logs with /vv switch as it will provide more info and could provide a hin
But most likely it's mobo locking some resource and needs telling to release it

I have a particular motherboard that is absolutely terrible when it comes to ESCD resource management. I have to play musical chairs with the PCI cards sometimes, and even configurations that have worked in the past can stop working randomly.

It's an Intel 440BX motherboard. The BIOS is just trash at managing resources, so I can confirm the validity of keropi's argument.

Fun fact. This is also the board I use on my test bench and will be the one I use for my Orpheus II when I get to it. Thanks for pointing this out as something to look out for myself in the future.

vutt wrote on 2023-04-11, 20:13:

Got my card today very late. Had limited time to test it before sleep. WSS and OPL3 are working fine. SBPro emulation isn't work […]
Show full quote

Got my card today very late. Had limited time to test it before sleep.
WSS and OPL3 are working fine. SBPro emulation isn't working.
Having error message in pure dos 7.1 with ORPHINIT v.057b

Copy code to clipboard

1Unable to reset Sound Blaster DSP

full orphinit log attached.

Any ideas how to troubleshoot DSP init issue?

I got the same message when I installed my Orpheus II, and it was the BIOS PnP config, so after changing values and a ESCD reset I got it working as it should, as keropi suggested.

Marmes actually had a similar problem while testing some time ago. If you're interested in all of the gory details, you can read a section of the ORPHINIT thread, starting here. His particular board (a P2B-L) had an unusual ISA Plug and Play implementation, and was reverting the configurations almost immediately, regardless of which tools were used. In that particular case, by the time the DSP reset was issued, the SB hardware was no longer at 220H, and it would fail. It started to behave when he set Plug and Play OS to Yes (EDIT: I had that backwards previously). Unless your board is even more unusual, then keropi's suggestion, combined with that change, should get things running. If not, please post the complete output of ORPHINIT /vd (which produces even more verbose output), and we'll try to get to the bottom of this.

There were likely also other hardware interactions causing trouble in that situation, which may also be relevant here. For now, the solution should still apply, as they are very likely caused by sub-optimal BIOS resource assignment.

640K!enough wrote on 2023-04-12, 02:11:

...His particular board (a P2B-L) had an unusual ISA Plug and Play implementation, and was reverting the configurations almost immediately, regardless of which tools were used. In that particular case, by the time the DSP reset was issued, the SB hardware was no longer at 220H, and it would fail. It started to behave when he set Plug and Play OS to Yes (EDIT: I had that backwards previously).

I have P3B-F, DOS 7.1 and setting Plug and Play OS to YES in BIOS fixed my DSP issue. Thanks.

Edit: It looks like there is still something fishy going on with my MB PnP handling. IWINIT cant find GUS in PnP mode. I'm however able to initialize it by forcing -legacy switch.
Edit2: Ok got it working in pnp mode with 240, 3,3,11,11 parameters. So all good!

Is this the "plug and pray" that everyone was talking about in the early 90s? I always thought it was just people who didn't know how to use the driver software.

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-04-12, 17:11:

Is this the "plug and pray" that everyone was talking about in the early 90s? I always thought it was just people who didn't know how to use the driver software.

No, it was bad. If devices and software would have worked with any resource it would have been fine.

But you have certain devices using say and IRQ you wanted to assign to something else. You assigned it to a slot in the BIOS, but it got assigned to something else anyways.

I like the BIOS options where you can reserve IRQ and DMA resources. We're early plug and play bioses devoid of this feature?

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-04-13, 00:25:

I like the BIOS options where you can reserve IRQ and DMA resources. We're early plug and play bioses devoid of this feature?

You could assign an IRQ or DMA to a specific slot, but I've seen Windows 9x mess with it and do its own thing and assign things you didn't want. You ended up with things like, oh you want to play DOS games with sound? Sorry, your video card is IRQ 5.

My first experience with PnP with on a 386 that didn't have PnP support in the BIOS and a SB16 with an onboard IDE CD-Rom controller. It worked just fine, but the initialization software used more memory than I would have liked. Unisound would have been a godsend back then.

I have been playing around with my card for few days now and generally I'm happy customer.

However I'm probably one of the few who is using SPDIF output extensively.
First check - Is it so that Orpheus II audio signal routing and thus behavior with orphinit should be identical with Orpheus I. Only addition is that GUS sitting on the same shared input channel with WT and OPL3?
Now about issue - I can hear annoying weak "buzz" signal on SPDIF output with RoutingMode=analogue setting. "buzz" amplitude/level stays always constant and is not affected by mixer levels. No similar "buzz" on analog output. Here I captured audio for entire 10s orphinit startup cycle: https://youtu.be/-Sjq95R5gjM
With RoutingMode=min-digital card is dead silent on idle.

btw in Windows 98 3D SRS toggle enables/disables GUS output. And yes same "buzz" is present in windows as well...

I do not have atm another PC with ISA slots to test if my PC is causing that interference. I have another BX board laying in bin. Perhaps I should build test rig to compare.

Well I can say that seems to be digital noise from ISA bus. I changed my psu long time ago, when I had that noise. It solved my problem. Also check capacitors on motherboard. Now I went extreme and now I use an isolation transformer for my pc and audio rigs.

Actually isolation transformer isn't bad idea at all.

Anyway I made some tests on another PC with Intel SE440BX-2 MB and different PSU - same results unfortunately.
Then tested with Orpheus I - yes some buzz is present but barely. It's acceptable.
Then I run Orpheus II test again, but this time enabled cards one by one - recording: https://youtu.be/cpImNA1yAhE
Clearly most of the noise started after IW init.

For fairness sake in my tests I did crank up my DAC volume (TOPPING DX3 Pro+ max power is 1800mWx2 @32Ω) and I did put external mic inside my Senheiser HD 599 (50Ω) cans. So video above is not your normal use case.
However subjectively with headphones amp on normal amp levels spdif IW output is borderline unusable. On positive note it's fine for my extensive 90-s Hard Core Techno library 😀

Try to go to iw mixer in windows and dos, and silence the inputs.