VOGONS


First post, by bristlehog

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I have looked into a problem with Turtle Beach Multisound Classic DOS support. There are actually two problems: one with PRESETS utility loading drum presets incorrectly, the other with AIL driver (MULTISND.ADV) playing drum presets incorrectly (even if they are correctly loaded).

The first one may be circumvented by loading presets by Windows 3.1 drivers. The other seemingly can't be circumvented. Although Windows Media Player plays MIDI files correctly, anything using multisnd.adv - be that PX player or MIDPAK's setm.exe would play with drum presets partially out of place.

Digging deeper and deeper, I came to conclusion that Proteus 1/XR has several drum sets with different key-to-patch maps, but none of them have GM compatible maps. While Proteus presets 0-127 are modified with SYSEX messages, there is no mechanism to renumber drum keys within the drum preset in Proteus, so this should be tackled on a driver, not hardware level. For some inexplicable reason no version of MULTISND.ADV driver takes this matter into attention. However, Windows 3.1 Multisound MIDI driver seemingly does, judging by correct playback result.

I built an Excel file and crudely remapped GM drums to Proteus 1/XR:

wEDEcRKU.png

And modified the driver:

DRUM_REMAP  db 35 dup (0), 52, 36, 55, 38, 39 
db 53, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 56, 41, 47, 49
db 84, 50, 49, 0, 78, 86, 94, 49, 39, 50
db 65, 64, 65, 64, 62, 96, 95, 82, 58, 104
db 66, 0, 0, 108, 107, 63, 61, 61, 0, 0
db 0, 0, 46 dup (0)
				xor cx, cx
mov cl, DRUM_REMAP[si] ; replace GM key number with corresponding Proteus 1/XR key number
mov si, cx

And bingo - it works. My drum key conversion is far from perfect; however, MIDI songs now sound more or less correctly. Modified AIL driver is attached.

List of DOS games supporting TB Multisound Classic: here.

Problem with loading presets in DOS is yet to be solved, until then Windows drivers should be used to load GM presets to Multisound Classic.

If someone has suggestions about remapping, here's the link to Google Spreadsheets. Modify it and say here about your modifications, so that I review them and rebuild the driver.

Speaking of the playback quality, despite Proteus 1 never supported General MIDI and was just adapted to play General MIDI tracks using Proteus SYSEX controls, it really destroys most of the General MIDI soundcards and daughterboards. Add nearly noiseless DA converters (shame on you AWE32!) and there's Turtle Beach Multisound.

Last edited by bristlehog on 2017-01-04, 10:27. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 1 of 5, by bristlehog

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Should someone want to try different drum mapping, here's how to do it:

wEDEcRNF.png

You have to hex edit this area - this way you don't need me to rebuild the driver every time you want to try something.

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Reply 2 of 5, by keenmaster486

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This is great, on Sunday I'll be home for fall break and I can give this a shot with my Multisound.

I think I posted in your other Multisound thread; maybe you can help me with jumper and DIP switch settings? I have no idea where to start.

World's foremost 486 enjoyer.

Reply 3 of 5, by bristlehog

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keenmaster486 wrote:

maybe you can help me with jumper and DIP switch settings? I have no idea where to start.

There was a DIP scheme on Turtle Beach website, but it is no longer there since legacy product support info was removed. I couldn't find DIP switch info anywhere. But it's not a deal breaker.

Set you DIP switches to ON ON ON OFF - this corresponds to 0x290 port value. Only default port, IRQ and SMA values are currently supported by AIL driver: port 0x290, IRQ 10 (0x0A), SMA 0xD000.

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Reply 4 of 5, by bristlehog

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I've taken next logical step: started adding Turtle Beach Multisound MIDI support to games that never supported it. Task is relatively easy given the versatility of Miles AIL. So far I tested Realms Of Arkania (just added the driver), Dune II (replaced Sound Canvas/MT-32 driver) and Caesar (replaced Adlib driver since Caesar doesn't support any GM devices). Everything works!

Here you can get fantastic wallpapers created by a friend of mine: patreon.com/Unpocodrillo