So basically you want the option to be able to use the emu8k at port 330 and have it work with GM games?
I know almost nothing of AWExx cards , used them in the past but they are too windows-oriented for my taste (not to mention I find their GM support a joke). That's for DOS, windows is another deal for these cards 😉

Well yes....but this is not some kind of hack but just how AWE32/AWE64 works in MIDI emulation mode. It just works under Win98 with soundfonts, under DOS you need to do aweutil /EM:GM to load soundbanks. You can also apply reverb/chorus.

The big advantage of midi emulation mode over native AWE is it can utilize the RAM expansion slots on the AWE32...so you can load up to 24MB soundfonts and then use them for midi synth. It's pretty cool. Under DOS you are basically limited to a standard 2MB soundbank file, which still sounds pretty good.

BUT of course Win98/DOS is not such an either/or proposition...for example under Win98 I can load a niec 8MB SoundFont on the AWE64...but it is still seen by DOS games running in a DOS window at 330. I imagine the PCMIDI would work fine for DOS games under windows as well no?

The option is I can connect a little toggle switch to the address jumper on the PCMIDI then drill it into the case, I just thought it might be a handy little thing to have on the PCMIDI card itself.

I see now - unless I am missing something ofcourse
well you can just connect an on/off switch like this to the P jumper on PCMIDI and just control it from outside the case

I mean the P control can be moved on top in a future revision sure - but you'd still need to open the case to mess with it ...

and yes PCMIDI will work with the included-in-windows Roland MPU401 driver and will support both dos/windows programs no issues

I purchased one of these a while back and just getting around to installing it. Unfortunately, I haven't had any luck with it working.

On the software side, I tried it a bunch of different games and get nothing. No messages, no sound. I tried fresh installs of DOS and exhaustively checked BIOS settings.

On the hardware side, I've tried it with an MT-32 and SC-55 in three different computers and every available slot. I cleaned the socketed chip pins with contact cleaner, used different MIDI cables, and even made a custom cable to verify the correct pinout.

Does anyone have suggestions? I'm hoping I didn't get a bad board.

ok some thing to clarify first, the PCMIDI card is a midi interface and it does not produce any sound on it's own - it needs a wavetable daughterboard or an external midi interface , these produce the sound
Second, when you run the MQDIAG program from the software package what does it report?
Also do you have another soundcard in the system? Have you moved it's internal mpu to port300 or disabled it?
Do you connect the mt-32/sc-55 correctly? The midi-OUT port(s) from PCMIDI goes to the MIDI-IN port of the modules.

If you do have a faulty card just send it back , I'll repair it and return it with no charge.

After so much grief, turns out it was just a bad MIDI cable and my own stupidity making the custom cable. MQDIAG reported "PCMIDI found at IRQ 2, I/O address 0330 EPROM Version: 200-010" so I figured I'd try throwing the multimeter on the cable and discovered a pin not making contact. Highly suspect! A quick trip to a local music store for a new cable, and now it works beautifully! Then after examining my custom cable, I realized the pinout diagram is for female on the MIDI side! Now I'm just laughing at it all and delighted to hear my DOS machine come alive! This is truly a dream come true! Thank you!!!

TD;LR Occam's Razor is alive and well.

Excellent! So glad to read you got it working 😀
So it was the cable... The last thing I would imagine tbh especially if we are talking about a machine made one.
Enjoy the card and thanks for your support! 😀

I am happy to announce the new hardware version of the PCMIDI card , codenamed for obvious reasons the "DreamBlaster Edition" 😎

- still the same PCMIDI chipset - just the glue logic moved to a cpld
- an extra dedicated midi out port (DB9 port still carries 2xOUT and 1xIN signals that can be used at the same time as the new port)
- black matte pcb finish to match the well-known dreamblaster S1/S2/X1/X2 midi daughterboards 😎
- card is sold fully assembled and tested with a trs->female midi cable for the new midi-out port
- on sale at the usual places like amibay/fb/serdashop.com (via the contact form)

Nice!

Looks great !
love the color 🤣

CPLD FTW ~

time to rectify that missing X2 photo and add some more for posterity 🤣

black is hard to get good pics - or I don't know how if there is no sunlight 😕

I feel like someone is showing off their waveblaster collection 😁

kolderman wrote:

I feel like someone is showing off their waveblaster collection 😁

that too you got me 🤣 but mainly there are links pointing to the thread so people from other forums/places check those pics along with the history of the project 😎

Ooooh nice.. Great job keropi, the MIDI port on the card was well needed I think, and costs less than the breakout cable?

Also, here's a video of my Music Quest clone card in action, working with my MUNT-Pi running A-Train: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX3I5QS4s_A

^ nice!
is the munt-pi3 project hosted here?

keropi wrote:

^ nice!
is the munt-pi3 project hosted here?

It's something that has seen a lot of discussion, gdjacobs has his own builds and instructions in this thread, I built my own seperately but it's just a regular raspbian install with autologin, mt32d in rc.local and some udev rules to aconnect the midi interface and mt32d, nothing fancy.. it just works.

appiah4 wrote:

keropi wrote:

^ nice!
is the munt-pi3 project hosted here?

It's something that has seen a lot of discussion, gdjacobs has his own builds and instructions in this thread, I built my own seperately but it's just a regular raspbian install with autologin, mt32d in rc.local and some udev rules to aconnect the midi interface and mt32d, nothing fancy.. it just works.

There are other parts to output SYSEX messages to LCD and switch between Munt and Fluidsynth depending on what technology you want to use at any particular time.

so when can i except to buy it on serdashop ? or did i already miss out 🙁

There is a contact form link on the serdashop pcmidi mpu product page - use this to get in touch, they are still available no worries