I'm wondering if it's theoretically possible to reduce the memory consumption of cardsoft drivers by disassembling them and creating an alternative build with reduced functionality?
Doom is what you want (c) MAZter
MAZter wrote on 2024-09-13, 12:24:I'm wondering if it's theoretically possible to reduce the memory consumption of cardsoft drivers by disassembling them and creating an alternative build with reduced functionality?
I can hardly imagine someone doing this.
You could try different drivers to see which consumes less memory.
And is there a particular problem with a game/card that you have?
Hello all,
I have a TDK DMC-9000 Digital Music Card.
It has 4MB ROM + 2MB RAM (!!) with a special EMU8000 chipset.
The 2MB RAM can be used for uploading additional user soundfonts!
Also it's breakout dongle, the Mabox, has MIDI In-Out, Mic In, Analog In-Out and even a Digital out!
It's instruments are similarly sounding to the Roland SCP-55, but even better I think, because they sound more pronounced and cleaner.
If anyone is interested in details, test sounds or anymore testing or ideas, contact me in private!
zsoltse84 wrote on 2024-11-11, 10:57:Hello all, I have a TDK DMC-9000 Digital Music Card. It has 4MB ROM + 2MB RAM (!!) with a special EMU8000 chipset. The 2MB RAM […]
Hello all,
I have a TDK DMC-9000 Digital Music Card.
It has 4MB ROM + 2MB RAM (!!) with a special EMU8000 chipset.
The 2MB RAM can be used for uploading additional user soundfonts!
It's no doubt a great card for music production and Windows 9x games that use midi music.
But contrary to the Roland one, it's useless for Dos.
The previous model, MC-8000, had 2 MB Rom and 512KB Ram for samples. It was also working in Windows 3.x too.
lolo799 wrote on 2024-11-11, 15:08:It's no doubt a great card for music production and Windows 9x games that use midi music. But contrary to the Roland one, it's […]
zsoltse84 wrote on 2024-11-11, 10:57:Hello all, I have a TDK DMC-9000 Digital Music Card. It has 4MB ROM + 2MB RAM (!!) with a special EMU8000 chipset. The 2MB RAM […]
Hello all,
I have a TDK DMC-9000 Digital Music Card.
It has 4MB ROM + 2MB RAM (!!) with a special EMU8000 chipset.
The 2MB RAM can be used for uploading additional user soundfonts!It's no doubt a great card for music production and Windows 9x games that use midi music.
But contrary to the Roland one, it's useless for Dos.The previous model, MC-8000, had 2 MB Rom and 512KB Ram for samples. It was also working in Windows 3.x too.
Well, I don’t think it’s useless for strict DOS games…
Sure it does not work there, but you can send out MIDI on a gameport and use the MIDI in on the card with a GP-MIDI adapter like any synthesizer (eg SC-55 mk1).
zsoltse84 wrote on 2024-11-11, 15:24:Well, I don’t think it’s useless for strict DOS games…
Sure it does not work there, but you can send out MIDI on a gameport and use the MIDI in on the card with a GP-MIDI adapter like any synthesizer (eg SC-55 mk1).
Then you need two computers to play, it's not exactly a simple setup.
Well not easy, but it’s a trade-off for it’s sound.
The sound of it always kept me from selling…
But now I’m gonna part with it as need to downsize a bit due to my family growing.
Just wanted to drop here some testing if someone is curious and want to hear how it sounds, so it won’t be lost forever to only the buyer.
Do you know a place where to sell?
And for how much?
Of course not on eBay, because it became something not so friendly to me.
Thank you!
I must warn against zsoltse84
mt777 wrote on 2024-11-11, 19:19:I must warn against zsoltse84
You warn?? No I’m the one who had to warn against you!!
Just for everyone to know:
We made a trade deal long time ago and the card I’ve sent to him in exchange was lost in the post.
So the post paid the insurance cost which was 350 or 450 USD , can’t remember, and I transferred all the money to him! All!
And what he did? Kept me spamming for years (!) with countless emails, for the lost card, even though I’ve sent him all the insurance money!
Seriously??
This guy is a spammer psychopath!
zsoltse84 wrote on 2024-11-11, 17:07:Well not easy, but it’s a trade-off for it’s sound. The sound of it always kept me from selling… […]
Well not easy, but it’s a trade-off for it’s sound.
The sound of it always kept me from selling…But now I’m gonna part with it as need to downsize a bit due to my family growing.
Just wanted to drop here some testing if someone is curious and want to hear how it sounds, so it won’t be lost forever to only the buyer.
Do you know a place where to sell?
And for how much?Of course not on eBay, because it became something not so friendly to me.
Thank you!
There are recordings of the dmc-9000 on youtube.
You can sell computer stuff on amibay, vcfed, facebook marketplace, reddit, and so on...not here.
lolo799 wrote on 2024-11-11, 19:58:zsoltse84 wrote on 2024-11-11, 17:07:Well not easy, but it’s a trade-off for it’s sound. The sound of it always kept me from selling… […]
Well not easy, but it’s a trade-off for it’s sound.
The sound of it always kept me from selling…But now I’m gonna part with it as need to downsize a bit due to my family growing.
Just wanted to drop here some testing if someone is curious and want to hear how it sounds, so it won’t be lost forever to only the buyer.
Do you know a place where to sell?
And for how much?Of course not on eBay, because it became something not so friendly to me.
Thank you!
There are recordings of the dmc-9000 on youtube.
You can sell computer stuff on amibay, vcfed, facebook marketplace, reddit, and so on...not here.
I have seen only just a few, which are from Japan… but okay, got it, no need.
Thank you, haven’t heard, except for fb market.
MAZter wrote on 2024-09-13, 12:24:I'm wondering if it's theoretically possible to reduce the memory consumption of cardsoft drivers by disassembling them and creating an alternative build with reduced functionality?
I think it is.
I have some ideas for it and I also have a Pcmcia experiment test board which allows to test and analyse the pins individually. That could give some information. Don’t want to take the space here, so send me an email, because pm is not really user friendly.
zsoltse84 wrote on 2024-11-11, 10:57:Hello all, I have a TDK DMC-9000 Digital Music Card. It has 4MB ROM + 2MB RAM (!!) with a special EMU8000 chipset. The 2MB RAM […]
Hello all,
I have a TDK DMC-9000 Digital Music Card.
It has 4MB ROM + 2MB RAM (!!) with a special EMU8000 chipset.
The 2MB RAM can be used for uploading additional user soundfonts!Also it's breakout dongle, the Mabox, has MIDI In-Out, Mic In, Analog In-Out and even a Digital out!
It's instruments are similarly sounding to the Roland SCP-55, but even better I think, because they sound more pronounced and cleaner.If anyone is interested in details, test sounds or anymore testing or ideas, contact me in private!
Hey, zsoltse84 . Now that you suggested, I think a sample of E1M1 on TDK would be nice to have in this thread.
I have this card, but mine isn't functional most of the time due to dead/dying EMU8000 chip, I suspect.
Bondi wrote on 2024-11-14, 07:21:zsoltse84 wrote on 2024-11-11, 10:57:Hello all, I have a TDK DMC-9000 Digital Music Card. It has 4MB ROM + 2MB RAM (!!) with a special EMU8000 chipset. The 2MB RAM […]
Hello all,
I have a TDK DMC-9000 Digital Music Card.
It has 4MB ROM + 2MB RAM (!!) with a special EMU8000 chipset.
The 2MB RAM can be used for uploading additional user soundfonts!Also it's breakout dongle, the Mabox, has MIDI In-Out, Mic In, Analog In-Out and even a Digital out!
It's instruments are similarly sounding to the Roland SCP-55, but even better I think, because they sound more pronounced and cleaner.If anyone is interested in details, test sounds or anymore testing or ideas, contact me in private!
Hey, zsoltse84 . Now that you suggested, I think a sample of E1M1 on TDK would be nice to have in this thread.
I have this card, but mine isn't functional most of the time due to dead/dying EMU8000 chip, I suspect.
Hey Bondi.
Sure and will also add the Suspense, which is one of my favourite.
And by the way I think the problem is not with the EMU8000 ic in your card, it is either the PCMCIA (higher chance) or the cable connector for sure!
I have programmed 1000s of microcontrollers for an electrical company. One-by-one, manually on a small test programmer.
And "most of time" (thus not constantly) only happens if one of the communication line had an interruption during communication.
Even for a really short time which is unmeasurable without oscilloscope, like μs.
The EMU8000 (and of course all other ics) are soldered to the board and it's communication program memory is read-only.
Thus without physical or any other impact on the card it's chances of failure are close to zero.
Not like in the case of the connectors, which are under continous physical usage with each insertion and removal. And it's widely documented that how connectors fail over time.
The explanation for why it could work after a physical reinstallation is obvious.
But not so obvious that it could also work for some time after driver reinstallation.
Because when you reinstall the drivers and start to use the card it uses some of the address and some of the data lines.
And there are 68pins in a PCMCIA card of which are 25 address and 15 data lines or something like that. And not all are used always. Maybe some of them are used just only after some time, as the RAM addresses fill up.
An interruption happens on one of the failing connections, then it causes a bit error which leads to a checksum error and there you go it shuts off with an error message.
It also clearly explains why ISA cards which are fixed in place have nearly zero problems even after decades. Except for the electrolytic and tantalum capacitor problems of course... 😁
Sorry for the long explanation.
Samples will come later today.
Bondi wrote on 2024-11-14, 07:21:zsoltse84 wrote on 2024-11-11, 10:57:Hello all, I have a TDK DMC-9000 Digital Music Card. It has 4MB ROM + 2MB RAM (!!) with a special EMU8000 chipset. The 2MB RAM […]
Hello all,
I have a TDK DMC-9000 Digital Music Card.
It has 4MB ROM + 2MB RAM (!!) with a special EMU8000 chipset.
The 2MB RAM can be used for uploading additional user soundfonts!Also it's breakout dongle, the Mabox, has MIDI In-Out, Mic In, Analog In-Out and even a Digital out!
It's instruments are similarly sounding to the Roland SCP-55, but even better I think, because they sound more pronounced and cleaner.If anyone is interested in details, test sounds or anymore testing or ideas, contact me in private!
Hey, zsoltse84 . Now that you suggested, I think a sample of E1M1 on TDK would be nice to have in this thread.
I have this card, but mine isn't functional most of the time due to dead/dying EMU8000 chip, I suspect.
Oh and forgot, but also 2 other things:
The TDK DMC-9000 and DMC-9000 PLUS are the same. It is only a typo from TDK. DMC stands for the Digital Music Card.
And there is DMC which is the DMC-8000 and DMC PLUS which is the DMC-9000. There is no difference.
All cards have MPU-401 which are equipped with MIDI In, Out or both connections.
Because MPU-401 stands for the MIDI Processing Unit, and it describes that it can translate the MIDI signals into bit data (MIDI In) and vice versa (MIDI Out).
For some information I found some time ago on the web that a japanese (?) guy opened his DMC-9000 due to a breakout-box cable failure or something like that and posted photos of the inside.
And it's very interesting to see that it has a unique EMU8000 ic with an IC411A code number and 144 pins unlike the AWE32s or any other Creative or E-MU devices, which use either IC404, IC405 A or B variants with 128 pins.
It could also explain why the card's instruments sound so good and clearly. 😀
zsoltse84 wrote on 2024-11-14, 10:16:Hey Bondi. Sure and will also add the Suspense, which is one of my favourite. […]
Bondi wrote on 2024-11-14, 07:21:zsoltse84 wrote on 2024-11-11, 10:57:Hello all, I have a TDK DMC-9000 Digital Music Card. It has 4MB ROM + 2MB RAM (!!) with a special EMU8000 chipset. The 2MB RAM […]
Hello all,
I have a TDK DMC-9000 Digital Music Card.
It has 4MB ROM + 2MB RAM (!!) with a special EMU8000 chipset.
The 2MB RAM can be used for uploading additional user soundfonts!Also it's breakout dongle, the Mabox, has MIDI In-Out, Mic In, Analog In-Out and even a Digital out!
It's instruments are similarly sounding to the Roland SCP-55, but even better I think, because they sound more pronounced and cleaner.If anyone is interested in details, test sounds or anymore testing or ideas, contact me in private!
Hey, zsoltse84 . Now that you suggested, I think a sample of E1M1 on TDK would be nice to have in this thread.
I have this card, but mine isn't functional most of the time due to dead/dying EMU8000 chip, I suspect.Hey Bondi.
Sure and will also add the Suspense, which is one of my favourite.And by the way I think the problem is not with the EMU8000 ic in your card, it is either the PCMCIA (higher chance) or the cable connector for sure!
I have programmed 1000s of microcontrollers for an electrical company. One-by-one, manually on a small test programmer.
And "most of time" (thus not constantly) only happens if one of the communication line had an interruption during communication.
Even for a really short time which is unmeasurable without oscilloscope, like μs.
The EMU8000 (and of course all other ics) are soldered to the board and it's communication program memory is read-only.
Thus without physical or any other impact on the card it's chances of failure are close to zero.Not like in the case of the connectors, which are under continous physical usage with each insertion and removal. And it's widely documented that how connectors fail over time.
The explanation for why it could work after a physical reinstallation is obvious.
But not so obvious that it could also work for some time after driver reinstallation.
Because when you reinstall the drivers and start to use the card it uses some of the address and some of the data lines.
And there are 68pins in a PCMCIA card of which are 25 address and 15 data lines or something like that. And not all are used always. Maybe some of them are used just only after some time, as the RAM addresses fill up.
An interruption happens on one of the failing connections, then it causes a bit error which leads to a checksum error and there you go it shuts off with an error message.It also clearly explains why ISA cards which are fixed in place have nearly zero problems even after decades. Except for the electrolytic and tantalum capacitor problems of course... 😁
Sorry for the long explanation.Samples will come later today.
Thanks for sharing your experience, zsoltse84.
As for my card, saying "most of the time" was not quite correct from my side. The card actually worked once. It wasn't working on all(three) different laptops, then one day it worked on all of them, and doesn't work since. It still can the the pcmcia connector on the card, though. Is there a way to cure it? Deoxit? (Which I don't have 😁)
You also mentioned cable connector. Do you mean the breakout box? Is it really needed to initialize the card?
Bondi wrote on 2024-11-14, 12:12:Thanks for sharing your experience, zsoltse84. As for my card, saying "most of the time" was not quite correct from my side. The […]
zsoltse84 wrote on 2024-11-14, 10:16:Hey Bondi. Sure and will also add the Suspense, which is one of my favourite. […]
Bondi wrote on 2024-11-14, 07:21:Hey, zsoltse84 . Now that you suggested, I think a sample of E1M1 on TDK would be nice to have in this thread.
I have this card, but mine isn't functional most of the time due to dead/dying EMU8000 chip, I suspect.Hey Bondi.
Sure and will also add the Suspense, which is one of my favourite.And by the way I think the problem is not with the EMU8000 ic in your card, it is either the PCMCIA (higher chance) or the cable connector for sure!
I have programmed 1000s of microcontrollers for an electrical company. One-by-one, manually on a small test programmer.
And "most of time" (thus not constantly) only happens if one of the communication line had an interruption during communication.
Even for a really short time which is unmeasurable without oscilloscope, like μs.
The EMU8000 (and of course all other ics) are soldered to the board and it's communication program memory is read-only.
Thus without physical or any other impact on the card it's chances of failure are close to zero.Not like in the case of the connectors, which are under continous physical usage with each insertion and removal. And it's widely documented that how connectors fail over time.
The explanation for why it could work after a physical reinstallation is obvious.
But not so obvious that it could also work for some time after driver reinstallation.
Because when you reinstall the drivers and start to use the card it uses some of the address and some of the data lines.
And there are 68pins in a PCMCIA card of which are 25 address and 15 data lines or something like that. And not all are used always. Maybe some of them are used just only after some time, as the RAM addresses fill up.
An interruption happens on one of the failing connections, then it causes a bit error which leads to a checksum error and there you go it shuts off with an error message.It also clearly explains why ISA cards which are fixed in place have nearly zero problems even after decades. Except for the electrolytic and tantalum capacitor problems of course... 😁
Sorry for the long explanation.Samples will come later today.
Thanks for sharing your experience, zsoltse84.
As for my card, saying "most of the time" was not quite correct from my side. The card actually worked once. It wasn't working on all(three) different laptops, then one day it worked on all of them, and doesn't work since. It still can the the pcmcia connector on the card, though. Is there a way to cure it? Deoxit? (Which I don't have 😁)
You also mentioned cable connector. Do you mean the breakout box? Is it really needed to initialize the card?
Ah OK. But if it was working for one time on all three, it's still good news, there is a high chance for that it's serviceable.
As for what I would do with it:
First I would buy a new, soft toothbrush and an ethanol solution in a pharmacy (which has at least 90% ethanol part and distilled water for the remaining). And I would throughly clean the contact holes on the connector with it. Also would look inside the tiny holes with a strong lamp and magnifier if any of the pin receptacles are blocked by tiny plastic debris from the connector (which could come off when the pins touch it during insertion).
Although that Deoxit looks pretty good, but I wouldn't use it in this case. Because I think it can be conductive (unlike the solution above), and if it goes through the connector holes and does a short circuit inside, you can frame your card and hang it on the wall of your living room. 😁
The breakout box has nothing to do with initialization, except if the card connectors has some bent pins or something, but otherwise nothing.
If cleaning surely does not work it's harder and does require some advanced soldering + technician skills and experience. Because it would require opening it up and checking if the connector receptacles are conducting or not and checking for hairline cracks on all the small ceramic resistors and capacitors. It's really not easy.
zsoltse84 wrote on 2024-11-11, 22:43:I have seen only just a few, which are from Japan… but okay, got it, no need.
On the contrary, if you know some tracks that sound great on the card, record them!
I know Descent does, I did some recording of a handful of tracks years ago played with the dmc-9000, when I had one.
If you could record the 3 tracks from Cyber War I posted below, it would be great, thanks.
Re: Feeling about midi music.
Bondi wrote on 2024-11-14, 07:21:zsoltse84 wrote on 2024-11-11, 10:57:Hello all, I have a TDK DMC-9000 Digital Music Card. It has 4MB ROM + 2MB RAM (!!) with a special EMU8000 chipset. The 2MB RAM […]
Hello all,
I have a TDK DMC-9000 Digital Music Card.
It has 4MB ROM + 2MB RAM (!!) with a special EMU8000 chipset.
The 2MB RAM can be used for uploading additional user soundfonts!Also it's breakout dongle, the Mabox, has MIDI In-Out, Mic In, Analog In-Out and even a Digital out!
It's instruments are similarly sounding to the Roland SCP-55, but even better I think, because they sound more pronounced and cleaner.If anyone is interested in details, test sounds or anymore testing or ideas, contact me in private!
Hey, zsoltse84 . Now that you suggested, I think a sample of E1M1 on TDK would be nice to have in this thread.
I have this card, but mine isn't functional most of the time due to dead/dying EMU8000 chip, I suspect.
First batch of orders are being served. Enjoy! 😁
lolo799 wrote on 2024-11-14, 18:00:On the contrary, if you know some tracks that sound great on the card, record them! […]
zsoltse84 wrote on 2024-11-11, 22:43:I have seen only just a few, which are from Japan… but okay, got it, no need.
On the contrary, if you know some tracks that sound great on the card, record them!
I know Descent does, I did some recording of a handful of tracks years ago played with the dmc-9000, when I had one.
If you could record the 3 tracks from Cyber War I posted below, it would be great, thanks.
Re: Feeling about midi music.
Order 002 also ready! 😁
Descent is epic.
