Have you checked the jumper settings?

Have you tried changing the two IO port address jumpers? I run 320 and 608 sometimes if I have another card installed alongside. And yes it has to be set on "internal synth" for its own MIDI hardware to be used.

I don't think you need to have the ESP DB for the MIDI to function but I'm not 100% positive on that. I do think that there was a Soundscape II board that was just an Elite without the ESP DB. I suppose it's possible that they may have installed some jumpers to close the circuit on those cards.... I am looking through Google Groups but I'm not sure I will find anything. There is not a lot of info out there about Soundscape cards.

The SB emulation is nearly worthless and I would not even bother with it. It's troublesome and the OPL3 "emulation" is horrendously bad. For digital audio it only supports SB 2.0 mono. I really suggest a SBPro alongside the card.

Even if MIDI won't work, it's still a high quality 16-bit 48kHz card for digital audio. It blows away a SB16 for sure. Games from 1994 onward frequently supported it directly.

Thanks for your quick answers. I've tried to jumper the card to different MIDI-ports like 320 and 350, but it still doesn't work. The only other thing I can think of is that I've got the wrong drivers for MS-DOS. I will try the card in my Win98 computer tomorrow and see if it works better.

I've noticed that the MPU-401 compatibility of the Soundscape is better than that of the AWE64 Gold I usually have in my DOS-computer, since now I can play Wing Commander and Simon the Sorcerer with MT-32 music. I was thinking of using the card for its gameport, connected to the MT-32, alongside the AWE64, and use the AWE64 for emulated General MIDI. The problem is that most games use port 330 by default for its MIDI music, and both cards can't use the same port. Is there any simple way of somehow switching port 330 between the two cards or re-rout the MIDI data from port 330 to the port used by the second card (320 in my case), without having to edit a lot of config files and restart the computer everytime I wanted to play a GM game instead of a MT-32 game?

If you don't initialize the Soundscape it may be possible to use both cards on 330 and have the AWE64 respond. You could do the reverse and get the Soundscape to work. But I am not sure if this will work.....

BTW you don't need to loadhigh the SSINIT program. It doesn't stay resident. It just uploads firmware and settings to the card and quits. That's a nice aspect to these Soundscape cards. They do everything in hardware. Saves host CPU cycles and memory.

Paddan1000 wrote:

I've noticed that the MPU-401 compatibility of the Soundscape is better than that of the AWE64 Gold I usually have in my DOS-computer, since now I can play Wing Commander and Simon the Sorcerer with MT-32 music.

This little secret seems to get overlooked quite a bit, despite the fact that I've personally mentioned it a number of times. While the Soundscape cards don't actually emulate the intelligent mode of an MPU-401, they do send ACK responses for all MPU commands. So, as you've discovered (and since this is all that most, if not all, "intelligent-MPU" games care about), the Ensoniq cards can be used in place of actual MPU-401 hardware.

I've tried the Soundscape in a computer with Windows 98 and the problem persists; only sound and no MIDI. I'll have to find another card since I'm now sure that this one is broken. Is there any way of fixing it, maybe by baking it in the oven like you can do with broken graphics cards?

The MPU-401 compatibility is very good, but not perfect. I still can't play Eric the Unready which requires a 100% MPU-401 compatible interface. I noticed that the MT-32 music of Simon the Sorcerer sounds weird unless I play another game first to somehow "initiate" the MT-32. I wonder if that would be necessary with a true MPU-401.

i think eric had to be started with some parameters like eric 330 2 or eric 2 330. you should test that in dosbox

If I don't forget, I will try my Elite without the ESP card and see if MIDI still works.

If you are located in the Stockholm area I could do a "house call" and help you out 😀

Paddan1000, you mentioned that you have an "Elite without the daughterboard." Does it still have the pin headers? If so...

"The Soundscape Elite has a small daughterboard or ESP board attached to it. This board is connected by means of 2 - 26 pin connectors. The Soundscape Rev. 2 has no ESP board, so the 26 pin connectors are exposed. These connectors are labeled on the Soundscape board as J12 and J13. J12 is closer to the CD-ROM interface connections, and J13 is closer to the silver edge of the card. If the ESP board is disconnected from the Elite, the first two pairs of pins (1-2, 3-4) on J12 must be connected to bridge signal flow. Two jumpers are needed for this. Pins 1-2 and 3-4 on J12 are the two pairs closest to the "J12" imprint on the board. The Soundscape Rev. 2 should always have the first two pairs of pins on J12 connected.

Tip: If the two pairs of pins on J12 are not connected, MIDI will not work. Although It will appear to be playing on your computer, you will not hear any sound."

Cloudschatze: You're right! I jumpered the pins according to your instructions and now the card works. Thanks for the help!
Does the absence of the ESP-card affect the sound quality negatively if I only use the card for DOS-games and nothing else?

robertmo: Eric the Unready has always worked perfectly for me in DosBox, but in real DOS I get no sound from the MT-32. However, the display of the MT-32 displays the text "Eric the Unready", and I get no error message like I get when I use the MT-32 with a soundblaster gameport. I will do some more experimenting later and see if I can get any sound, perhaps by "initiating" the MT-32 by playing another game first like i did with Simon the Sorcerer.

Amigaz: Jag bor i Lund, tyvärr. Men det är lugnt, för nu funkar kortet!

Oh and I was just going to post that my Elite indeed does not play MIDI without the ESP so some jumpering is needed. 😁 Where did you find that documentation, Cloudschatze? Is that in the Elite manual (which I don't have unfortunately)?

Regarding sound quality, the MIDI will be "drier" because there won't be any of the default reverb/chorus but other than that there will be nothing lost. It will essentially be a Soundscape II instead of an Elite, assuming that the II has the same patch set as the Elite.

Now that my Soundscape Elite works, I thought I should share with you what I've done with it.

I put it in my Retro-PC, which is a Pentium 75 with 80 MB of RAM and MS-DOS 6.22. It's plugged in alongside an AWE64 Gold and a Voodoo 1 (which I haven't made work in DOS yet). An external MT-32 is connected to the Elite's gameport.

I use the Elite for General MIDI and for the games that supports it natively.
The AWE 64 is for Adlib, Soundblaster, SB Pro, SB 16, and AWE 32.
The MT-32 is for MT-32.

I've made some batch files which lets me switch between internal General MIDI and external MT-32 by simply typing "MT32 <Enter>" or "GM <Enter>" at the DOS-prompt. The batch files replace the config file "sndscape.ini" with a differently configured one and reinitializes the Elite by running "ssinit.exe /I". No need to reboot!

The only games I can't play with Wavetable music is Eric the Unready, which requires a 1000% MPU-401 compatible MIDI-interface, and games which only supports the Gravis Ultrasound for wavetable, like Zone66.

A nice setup!