VOGONS


New DreamBlaster S2 !

Topic actions

Reply 61 of 123, by TimMer1981

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
dr.zeissler wrote:
How could I seperate S2 from SoftMPU ? If I understood it correctly both are at 330, so both will play which means: […]
Show full quote

How could I seperate S2 from SoftMPU ?
If I understood it correctly both are at 330, so both will play which means:

1. Audician32PLS Audio-Out has SB+MIDI
2. Audician32PLS Joystick-SoftMPU-MT32

If a game has SFX and MT32 support, I will get all three things at once... 🙁

Had the same problem here: AWE32 + Dreamblaster X2 + MUNT on MPU-401: the Monkey Island games sounded like a circus gone rogue in Mumbay; the weirdest noises and sitars everywhere. 😜

So far, I've solved it this way: made two batch files in my root folder (which is also included in my PATH variable in AUTOEXEC.BAT, so I can call them from anywhere).

MT32.BAT:

@ECHO OFF
SET MIDI=SYNTH:2 MAP:E MODE:2
C:\SB16\MIXERSET.EXE /MI:0 > NUL

SB32.BAT:

@ECHO OFF
SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E MODE:0
C:\SB16\MIXERSET /MI:255 > NUL

They simply change the MIDI parameters to the needed ones and set the MIDI input channel of the AWE32 fully open or fully closed. 😀

"I will take your bones, still alive and in great pain, and make them into a chair. I will call it "My Screaming Chair". Every morning I will sit in it and listen to you scream. Any questions?"

Reply 62 of 123, by jesolo

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

The above is very useful if you want to switch between the internal EMU8000 synthesis chip and an external MIDI device (including the Wave Blaster connector).
However, in dr.zeissler's case, he's routing all his MIDI output via his sound card's external port.

Reply 63 of 123, by TimMer1981

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
jesolo wrote:

The above is very useful if you want to switch between the internal EMU8000 synthesis chip and an external MIDI device (including the Wave Blaster connector).
However, in dr.zeissler's case, he's routing all his MIDI output via his sound card's external port.

Thanks for your reply! 😀

The only difference between his setup and mine is that he uses the line in to return the MT-32 output back to his soundcard, right? I mix them using an external mixer, to skip the noisy line input of the soundcard.

Still, there are some things unclear to me:

- If a Waveblaster card is connected, this will always automatically be used as MIDI playback device by the SoundBlaster?

- If so: how do you select the SoundBlaster's own synthesis chip in the setup of a game if the Waveblaster card is connected? The I/O port? 220 is the SoundBlaster itself and 330 is the MIDI port, which selects the EMU8000 and the Waveblaster and the UART gameport, right?

- If not: how do you select the Waveblaster or the EMU8000?

And then there's the Advanced WavEffects chip at I/O port 620 (E620 in the SET BLASTER environment variable, specific to the AWE32):

The Sound Blaster AWE32 also has an E-mu Systems EMU8000, a chip new to the Sound Blaster line. Creative Labs owns E-mu, so it's no surprise that Sound Blaster cards are starting to use audio technology from this outstanding keyboard-synthesizer manufacturer. The E-mu chip is yet another DSP that lets you add what Creative Labs calls Advanced WavEffects. With Advanced WavEffects, you can turn your AWE32 into a standard General MIDI card, a Roland Sound Canvas, or a Roland MT-32. You can also add reverb, chorus, and pan to your wave-table MIDI instruments (features that aren't currently offered with the Wave Blaster, Creative Labs' General MIDI daughterboard).

It doesn't seem to me that this can be selected by the end user, it's a assisent chip used by the EMU8000 chip for emulation and effects, correct?

Last edited by TimMer1981 on 2017-11-12, 15:41. Edited 5 times in total.

"I will take your bones, still alive and in great pain, and make them into a chair. I will call it "My Screaming Chair". Every morning I will sit in it and listen to you scream. Any questions?"

Reply 64 of 123, by dr.zeissler

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I put a dreamblaster s2 on the wavetable-header of my audician32plus.
The S2 is adressed by the card automatically at 330. Every dosgame uses it when I configure the music as "midi".
If the game features general-midi then it sounds very pleasant.
Under Win9x I only have to change the config to the S2, normally it ueses the internal midi that sounds not so good, compared to the S2.

I still have to check out the muting via batchfile when using the mt32 or SC55 or CM32L via softmpu over the joystick-connector.

Retro-Gamer 😀 ...on different machines

Reply 65 of 123, by TimMer1981

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
dr.zeissler wrote:
I put a dreamblaster s2 on the wavetable-header of my audician32plus. The S2 is adressed by the card automatically at 330. Every […]
Show full quote

I put a dreamblaster s2 on the wavetable-header of my audician32plus.
The S2 is adressed by the card automatically at 330. Every dosgame uses it when I configure the music as "midi".
If the game features general-midi then it sounds very pleasant.
Under Win9x I only have to change the config to the S2, normally it ueses the internal midi that sounds not so good, compared to the S2.

I still have to check out the muting via batchfile when using the mt32 or SC55 or CM32L via softmpu over the joystick-connector.

If you run SETUPSA(.EXE) /? (the DOS mixer program), does it show any possible parameters? If so, I can write you some batch files, no problem. 😀

"I will take your bones, still alive and in great pain, and make them into a chair. I will call it "My Screaming Chair". Every morning I will sit in it and listen to you scream. Any questions?"

Reply 66 of 123, by jesolo

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
TimMer1981 wrote:

The only difference between his setup and mine is that he uses the line in to return the MT-32 output back to his soundcard, right? I mix them using an external mixer, to skip the noisy line input of the soundcard.

Yes, that would appear to be the case.
However, the biggest difference between your setup and dr.zeissler's is that he is not using the internal EMU8000 synthesis chip at all.
For General MIDI playback he's using the S2 (connected to his Wave Blaster port) and for MT-32 playback, he's using the MIDI/joystick cable connected to his MT-32.
Both are "seen" as an external MIDI device by the sound card.

TimMer1981 wrote:
Still, there are some things unclear to me: […]
Show full quote

Still, there are some things unclear to me:

- If a Waveblaster card is connected, this will always automatically be used as MIDI playback device by the SoundBlaster?

- If so: how do you select the SoundBlaster's own synthesis chip in the setup of a game if the Waveblaster card is connected? The I/O port? 220 is the SoundBlaster itself and 330 is the MIDI port, which selects the EMU8000 and the Waveblaster and the UART gameport, right?

- If not: how do you select the Waveblaster or the EMU8000?

To answer the above (note, this is assuming you are using an AWE based card, not a standard Sound Blaster 16):

  1. No, you have to "tell" the sound card where to route the MIDI data to. The default is the internal EMU8000 synthesis chip.
  2. The way that this is done is via the SET MIDI environment variable in your Autoexec.bat file.
    The important one is the first parameter. "SYNTH:1" routes the MIDI data to the internal synthesizer chip and "SYNTH:2" routes the MIDI data to the external MIDI port (which includes the Wave Blaster port). I've attached a small text file that explains the various parameters.
    Filename
    SET MIDI.txt
    File size
    895 Bytes
    Downloads
    73 downloads
    File comment
    SET MIDI parameters
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
  3. For Real Mode DOS games, you just select "General MIDI" in the game's setup menu, regardless whether you wish to use the internal synthesizer or, have a MIDI device connected to the Wave Blaster port. If you selected "SYNTH:1", then the SET MIDI environment variable, in conjunction with the Aweutil utility, will route the MIDI data to the EMU8000 synthesis chip.
    For Protected Mode DOS games (ones that use a DOS extender like DOS4G/W), you require native support (i.e., the game must have "AWE32" listed in the music section of the game's setup menu.)
TimMer1981 wrote:

And then there's the Advanced WavEffects chip at I/O port 620 (E620 in the SET BLASTER environment variable, specific to the AWE32):

The Sound Blaster AWE32 also has an E-mu Systems EMU8000, a chip new to the Sound Blaster line. Creative Labs owns E-mu, so it's no surprise that Sound Blaster cards are starting to use audio technology from this outstanding keyboard-synthesizer manufacturer. The E-mu chip is yet another DSP that lets you add what Creative Labs calls Advanced WavEffects. With Advanced WavEffects, you can turn your AWE32 into a standard General MIDI card, a Roland Sound Canvas, or a Roland MT-32. You can also add reverb, chorus, and pan to your wave-table MIDI instruments (features that aren't currently offered with the Wave Blaster, Creative Labs' General MIDI daughterboard).

It doesn't seem to me that this can be selected by the end user, it's a assisent chip used by the EMU8000 chip for emulation and effects, correct?

This is the port of the EMU8000 synthesis chip. Games that natively support the AWE32 will usually refer to the setting in your Autoexec.bat to determine where to route the data to.

Last edited by jesolo on 2017-11-12, 16:37. Edited 6 times in total.

Reply 67 of 123, by jesolo

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
TimMer1981 wrote:

If you run SETUPSA(.EXE) /? (the DOS mixer program), does it show any possible parameters? If so, I can write you some batch files, no problem. 😀

You probably mean MIXERSET?
Yes, just run it as follows: MIXERSET /?

Reply 68 of 123, by TimMer1981

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
jesolo wrote:
TimMer1981 wrote:

If you run SETUPSA(.EXE) /? (the DOS mixer program), does it show any possible parameters? If so, I can write you some batch files, no problem. 😀

You probably mean MIXERSET?
Yes, just run it as follows: MIXERSET /?

No, not MIXERSET, that's Creative's DOS mixer.

The Yamaha Audician 32 Plus uses SETUPSA.EXE for DOS mixer.

"I will take your bones, still alive and in great pain, and make them into a chair. I will call it "My Screaming Chair". Every morning I will sit in it and listen to you scream. Any questions?"

Reply 69 of 123, by TimMer1981

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
jesolo wrote:
Yes, that would appear to be the case. However, the biggest difference between your setup and dr.zeissler's is that he is not us […]
Show full quote
TimMer1981 wrote:

The only difference between his setup and mine is that he uses the line in to return the MT-32 output back to his soundcard, right? I mix them using an external mixer, to skip the noisy line input of the soundcard.

Yes, that would appear to be the case.
However, the biggest difference between your setup and dr.zeissler's is that he is not using the internal EMU8000 synthesis chip at all.
For General MIDI playback he's using the S2 (connected to his Wave Blaster port) and for MT-32 playback, he's using the MIDI/joystick cable connected to his MT-32.
Both are "seen" as an external MIDI device by the sound card.

That's exactly the same situation as mine. Only difference is that he uses a Yamaha soundcard (so he doesn't have an EMU8000 chip, which is Creative proprietary) and I use a Creative soundcard. I think the Yamaha uses the main chip for MIDI emulation.

I have the AWE32 with the DreamBlaster X2 connected and the UART gameport hooked up to my other PC running MUNT.

To answer the above (note, this is assuming you are using an AWE based card, not a standard Sound Blaster 16): […]
Show full quote
TimMer1981 wrote:
Still, there are some things unclear to me: […]
Show full quote

Still, there are some things unclear to me:

- If a Waveblaster card is connected, this will always automatically be used as MIDI playback device by the SoundBlaster?

- If so: how do you select the SoundBlaster's own synthesis chip in the setup of a game if the Waveblaster card is connected? The I/O port? 220 is the SoundBlaster itself and 330 is the MIDI port, which selects the EMU8000 and the Waveblaster and the UART gameport, right?

- If not: how do you select the Waveblaster or the EMU8000?

To answer the above (note, this is assuming you are using an AWE based card, not a standard Sound Blaster 16):

  1. No, you have to "tell" the sound card where to route the MIDI data to. The default is the internal EMU8000 synthesis chip.
  2. The way that this is done is via the SET MIDI environment variable in your Autoexec.bat file.
    The important one is the first parameter. "SYNTH:1" routes the MIDI data to the internal synthesizer chip and "SYNTH:2" routes the MIDI data to the external MIDI port (which includes the Wave Blaster port). I've attached a small text file that explains the various parameters.
    SET MIDI.txt
  3. For Real Mode DOS games, you just select "General MIDI" in the game's setup menu, regardless whether you wish to use the internal synthesizer or, have a MIDI device connected to the Wave Blaster port. If you selected "SYNTH:1", then the SET MIDI environment variable, in conjunction with the Aweutil utility, will route the MIDI data to the EMU8000 synthesis chip.
    For Protected Mode DOS games (ones that use a DOS extender like DOS4G/W), you require native support (i.e., the game must have "AWE32" listed in the music section of the game's setup menu.)

Clear. Ah, so just like with the MT-32. Just didn't know the Waveblaster port also was seen as "external". Thanks. 😀

So for using the DreamBlaster, set MIDI environment variable should be "SET MIDI=SYNTH:2 MAP:G MODE:0"? Or "MAP:E", for Extended MIDI file format?

And what's the difference between MAP and MODE? I suppose MAP sets the instrument table and MODE sets the "language" of communication with the device?

TimMer1981 wrote:

And then there's the Advanced WavEffects chip at I/O port 620 (E620 in the SET BLASTER environment variable, specific to the AWE32):

The Sound Blaster AWE32 also has an E-mu Systems EMU8000, a chip new to the Sound Blaster line. Creative Labs owns E-mu, so it's no surprise that Sound Blaster cards are starting to use audio technology from this outstanding keyboard-synthesizer manufacturer. The E-mu chip is yet another DSP that lets you add what Creative Labs calls Advanced WavEffects. With Advanced WavEffects, you can turn your AWE32 into a standard General MIDI card, a Roland Sound Canvas, or a Roland MT-32. You can also add reverb, chorus, and pan to your wave-table MIDI instruments (features that aren't currently offered with the Wave Blaster, Creative Labs' General MIDI daughterboard).

It doesn't seem to me that this can be selected by the end user, it's a assisent chip used by the EMU8000 chip for emulation and effects, correct?

This is the port of the EMU8000 synthesis chip. Games that natively support the AWE32 will usually refer to the setting in your Autoexec.bat to determine where to route the data to.[/quote]
That's what I thought, thanks! 😀

"I will take your bones, still alive and in great pain, and make them into a chair. I will call it "My Screaming Chair". Every morning I will sit in it and listen to you scream. Any questions?"

Reply 70 of 123, by gdjacobs

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
TimMer1981 wrote:

I think the Yamaha uses the main chip for MIDI emulation.

The OPL-SA series chips don't emulate the MIDI UART (that's hardware compatible), nor do they emulate MIDI synthesis (that's provided by an external module, daughterboard, or on board wavetable chipset). The EMU8k on AWE series cards is not connected to a hardware UART, so an emulation TSR is used to intercept and redirect any MIDI calls to the synthesizer.

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 71 of 123, by jesolo

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
TimMer1981 wrote:
jesolo wrote:
TimMer1981 wrote:

If you run SETUPSA(.EXE) /? (the DOS mixer program), does it show any possible parameters? If so, I can write you some batch files, no problem. 😀

You probably mean MIXERSET?
Yes, just run it as follows: MIXERSET /?

No, not MIXERSET, that's Creative's DOS mixer.

The Yamaha Audician 32 Plus uses SETUPSA.EXE for DOS mixer.

Yes, you are correct - I was still in "AWE" mode after my previous post 😀

Reply 72 of 123, by jesolo

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
TimMer1981 wrote:

So for using the DreamBlaster, set MIDI environment variable should be "SET MIDI=SYNTH:2 MAP:G MODE:0"? Or "MAP:E", for Extended MIDI file format?

And what's the difference between MAP and MODE? I suppose MAP sets the instrument table and MODE sets the "language" of communication with the device?

The "MAP" (under Windows) normally determines what channels are used to play the MIDI instruments through- I always just kept it at the default settings but, either choose Extended or General MIDI.
The "MODE" is the format of the MIDI file being played back. Normally, the "G" parameter is what you want to use.

Reply 73 of 123, by TimMer1981

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
gdjacobs wrote:
TimMer1981 wrote:

I think the Yamaha uses the main chip for MIDI emulation.

The OPL-SA series chips don't emulate the MIDI UART (that's hardware compatible), nor do they emulate MIDI synthesis (that's provided by an external module, daughterboard, or on board wavetable chipset). The EMU8k on AWE series cards is not connected to a hardware UART, so an emulation TSR is used to intercept and redirect any MIDI calls to the synthesizer.

Thanks for the info, always good to learn stuff! 😀

"I will take your bones, still alive and in great pain, and make them into a chair. I will call it "My Screaming Chair". Every morning I will sit in it and listen to you scream. Any questions?"

Reply 74 of 123, by TimMer1981

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
jesolo wrote:
TimMer1981 wrote:
jesolo wrote:

You probably mean MIXERSET?
Yes, just run it as follows: MIXERSET /?

No, not MIXERSET, that's Creative's DOS mixer.

The Yamaha Audician 32 Plus uses SETUPSA.EXE for DOS mixer.

Yes, you are correct - I was still in "AWE" mode after my previous post 😀

No problem, I also get tangled up sometimes in all the mumbojumbo and different types of hardware and software. 😉

"I will take your bones, still alive and in great pain, and make them into a chair. I will call it "My Screaming Chair". Every morning I will sit in it and listen to you scream. Any questions?"

Reply 75 of 123, by TimMer1981

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
jesolo wrote:
TimMer1981 wrote:

So for using the DreamBlaster, set MIDI environment variable should be "SET MIDI=SYNTH:2 MAP:G MODE:0"? Or "MAP:E", for Extended MIDI file format?

And what's the difference between MAP and MODE? I suppose MAP sets the instrument table and MODE sets the "language" of communication with the device?

The "MAP" (under Windows) normally determines what channels are used to play the MIDI instruments through- I always just kept it at the default settings but, either choose Extended or General MIDI.
The "MODE" is the format of the MIDI file being played back. Normally, the "G" parameter is what you want to use.

Nice, thanks. 😀

Looked it up:

Extended MIDI = XG (Yamaha eXtended General midi) and GS (Roland General Standard); supports more than 128 instruments (basic MIDI). A GM file will play flawlessly on a XG or GS module. A XG/GS file will also play on a GM module, but there's a risk that some effects and/or extended instruments will not be played correctly.

So it seems extended MIDI mode is the safest way to go, so "MAP:E", "MODE:0" for GM, "MODE:1" for Sound Canvas series and "MODE:2" for MT-32. 😀

"I will take your bones, still alive and in great pain, and make them into a chair. I will call it "My Screaming Chair". Every morning I will sit in it and listen to you scream. Any questions?"

Reply 76 of 123, by dr.zeissler

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

The very old games support only mt32, so no other device "emulates" this 100% correctly.
The problem is, that often custom sounds are uploaded to the mt32.

Retro-Gamer 😀 ...on different machines

Reply 77 of 123, by TimMer1981

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Based on the newly acquired information, the batchfiles:

MT32.BAT:

@ECHO OFF
SET MIDI=SYNTH:2 MAP:E MODE:2
C:\SB16\MIXERSET.EXE /MI:0 > NUL

DRBL.BAT:

@ECHO OFF
SET MIDI=SYNTH:2 MAP:E MODE:0
C:\SB16\MIXERSET /MI:255 > NUL

SB32:

@ECHO OFF
SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E MODE:0
C:\SB16\MIXERSET /MI:255 > NUL

MT32.BAT: for using an MT-32 or MUNT) on the UART gameport on the AWE32 for MIDI synthesis.
DRBL.BAT: for using a DreamBlaster (or any other Wave Blaster) on the Wave Blaster daughterboard connection on the AWE32 for MIDI synthesis.
SB32: for using the EMU8000 chip on the AWE32 for MIDI synthesis.

"I will take your bones, still alive and in great pain, and make them into a chair. I will call it "My Screaming Chair". Every morning I will sit in it and listen to you scream. Any questions?"

Reply 78 of 123, by TimMer1981

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
dr.zeissler wrote:

The very old games support only mt32, so no other device "emulates" this 100% correctly.
The problem is, that often custom sounds are uploaded to the mt32.

Yep, that's why intelligent mode is needed. MUNT in combination with SoftMPU does seem to do the job nicely however. 😀

But even the real MT-32s have compatibility problems amongst themselves: Real difference between MT-32 OLD and NEW MIDIs

"I will take your bones, still alive and in great pain, and make them into a chair. I will call it "My Screaming Chair". Every morning I will sit in it and listen to you scream. Any questions?"

Reply 79 of 123, by TimMer1981

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Are there any updates on the DreamBlaster soundbanks planned? The current highest quality Dream soundbank is a mere 13MB, and the DreamBlaster X2 has 64MB of memory. Seems like it can take a lot higher quality samples then it currently does? 😀

"I will take your bones, still alive and in great pain, and make them into a chair. I will call it "My Screaming Chair". Every morning I will sit in it and listen to you scream. Any questions?"