First post, by elianda
- Rank
- l33t
Hello,
I recently aquired a Mozart Wave-Table card.
http://www.dearhoney.idv.tw/MUSEUM/Mozart-WaveTable.jpg
I did some testing with it, how it works and afterall I have to say that it is a very strange card.
Hardware:
OTI 601 , AD SoundPort, YMF278B + 2 MB ROM
Software: A real mess.
There are drivers for a OTI 601A/B and a F revision. The ones for the F version install too but freeze the system on initializaton (DOS).
All you get in DOS is the AD SoundPort features, you have to load a Initialisation driver in the config.sys that stays resident and takes 1.5 kB.
I don't know why this is necessary, what you get is
SB 2.0
WSS
and OPL3 (I guess).
So no OPL4 support here.
Now I stepped up and switched to try Win 3.1
There are several driver versions available, I started with the most current version. The driver is split into a main *.drv file and some additional dlls for mixer, opl4 and midi port. It installs without flaws, but I always got OPL3 sound, nothing from the OPL4. After some fiddling around i found out that it never even loads the dll for opl4. It just ignores it. Well the OPL4 is OPL3 compatible, but still why the drop to OPL3, if there is a real OPL4.
So I tried loading the dll for the opl4 additionally, this worked here and then, but not reliable. Usually the main driver forwards the midi messages to the midi device dll. A not so nice thing was that the opl3 midi library was included in the main driver.
I looked around after different driver versions and found one where the opl3 and opl4 dlls are extra files. Same problem with this driver version, the main driver loads always the opl3 dll. So I tricked it a bit and put the opl4 dll under the name of the opl3 dll in the system dir. And - it worked reliably.
This means: In DOS SB 2.0, WSS, probably the OPL3 part of the OPL4 and Game Port.
In Windows: basically WSS for digital, OPL4 or OPL3 (depending what dll you give), game port and external midi port. OPL4 is not available in a Win 3.1 DOS-window as General Midi device at f.e. 330
The strange thing about the card is that the huge OTI601 chip is only or CD-ROM control and a bit ressource setting.
Second strange thing is, why does the driver comes with a opl4 library, when it isnt used and there is always a dropback to OPL3 ?
open questions:
Is there any other way to persuade the main driver to use OPL4 instead of OPL3 ?
Does the Win9x driver supports GM-Emulation in a DOS-Box that the OPL4 can be used as GM-Wavetable in Games?
I did some recording of the 2 MB Yamaha Wavetable and for the kind of soundcard it is really good.