VOGONS


First post, by elianda

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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.

Reply 1 of 14, by Malik

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Heh... I found this thread while searching Google for OPL4 related stuff. 😁

So guys, any comments? I'm interested in this since I do not know much about opl4. And especially if it's possible to invoke opl4 in dos.

5476332566_7480a12517_t.jpgSB Dos Drivers

Reply 2 of 14, by elianda

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Well I got a Miro PCM 1 Pro recently which has a lot better driver support.
OPL4 is not General Midi compatible from DOS and you need special support. I have not found so far any game that has direct support.
Some tracker players support using OPL4 wavetable as RAM for samples. In this case though a card with RAM is needed, which seem to be quite rare.
The Miro PCM 1 Pro has the usual 2 MB ROM from Yamaha too - no RAM.

Reply 3 of 14, by keropi

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My SW20-PC had an OPL4 for general midi... I used to load a TSR (opl4drv.com IIRC) and it worked perfect under plain DOS with all GM games...

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 4 of 14, by Malik

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Hmmm... this is getting interesting... The ALS4000 card I'm having has OPL4 built-in, according to the manual.

And this is the first PCI based sound card I'm having which has official Windows 3.x drivers along with the Dos and Windows95 drivers.

5476332566_7480a12517_t.jpgSB Dos Drivers

Reply 5 of 14, by elianda

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Well, could be worth a try, if this opl4drv.com also works with the Miro card. Though I have to find a source for download...
If it would be some kind of general dos driver for OPL4 -> GM this would be very good news.

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Reply 6 of 14, by keropi

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here you go, try this

😊

(revised attachment in later post)

Last edited by keropi on 2011-05-04, 06:40. Edited 2 times in total.

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 8 of 14, by Malik

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keropi, I think the opl4drv.com requires opl4drv.sys file loaded in config.sys file for the .com file to work. Do you have it? When I extracted the archive you posted, I got only the .com file. Thanks.

5476332566_7480a12517_t.jpgSB Dos Drivers

Reply 9 of 14, by keropi

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dang, I forgot about that! 😵
luckily opl4tsr.sys is a 1kb file, I bet it's mem requirements are like that: 1kb
here is a revised .zip with both files 😁 , I hope it works !!!

Attachments

  • Filename
    opl4drv.zip
    File size
    22.42 KiB
    Downloads
    641 downloads
    File comment
    Yamaha SW20-PC OPL4 GM TSR
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 11 of 14, by Malik

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Tried the opl4drv with the opl4tsr, but failed - error code is "No OPL4 chip found. OPL4DRV not installed."

The manual for the ALS4000 does say that there is compatibility with "Yamaha OPL4 Wavetable Synthesizer" :

Compatibility […]
Show full quote

Compatibility

• Adlib
• All Sound Blaster Pro applications
• All Sound Blaster 16 applications
• Yamaha OPL3 FM Synthesizer
• Yamaha OPL4 Wavetable Synthesizer
• MPU-401 UART MIDI Applications
• 16-bit stereo sound cards
• PC motherboard based sound systems
• MIDI controller
• Enhanced Game port support

But since it's only mentioned in the "compatibility" section, I think there is no actual opl4 chip on-board - just compatibility perhaps? But then, I don't know what that "compatibility" stands for.

5476332566_7480a12517_t.jpgSB Dos Drivers

Reply 13 of 14, by gerwin

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OPL4 has a Synthesizer component and an FM component. With external 2MB ROM. Later OPL4 chips even had a 1MB General Midi Patch set inside.

Now I don't really believe a fully integrated soundcard chip has a General Midi Patch set inside. A Synthesizer component and an FM component at most. And in that case it would be kinda useless to call it an OPL4, because it is not that sound chips with a Synthesizer component and an FM component should call themselves OPL4 compatible. Because I don't think a real OPL4 is compatible to any software on itself. I never saw it interface directly to the BUS. It needs an MPU-401 compatible host chip to be compatible with software.

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