FreddyV wrote on 2021-03-26, 13:39:

Nice, I see there are still Mod Master users 😀

Hi Freddy
I just download Mod Master XT 2.2 beta 25 and install on my Amstrad PC 2086S with XT-IDE and a 8.4GB Hard Disk. Unfortunately I don't have a Sound Blaster anymore, but a great PC Speaker
I put some Mod File (one was written by me in 1993!) and it works great... up to 12KHz sampling rate!

Thanks for your great job...
can I convert Adlib files to MOD in some way so I can listen too?

Just waiting for your next releases
Thanks again from Italy

On a side note, can someone tell me what the difference is between modm an modmf ?
I understand modmf is larger and should have more features, am I correct ? If so, what are those features ?

I've read all the documentation that's in the archive for beta 26 but can't find any mention of
the difference between modm and modmf, and they look identical to me during use...

Cheers,
Terrence

FreddyV wrote on 2021-03-26, 13:39:

Nice, I see there are still Mod Master users 😀

Hi FreddyV,

I was wondering if you could add support for a parallel port Adlib sound card to mod master xt,
such as the products from Serdaco: the OPL2LPT (mono) and the OPL3LPT (stereo).
They are both simple DB-25 parallel port audio boards with an OPL3 (YM262+YAC512) chip on them...

https://www.serdashop.com/OPL3LPT

The board comes with a TSR that only works on 386+ machines,
so it's a no-go for all of us 8086 and 80286 CPU machine aficionados...
and a patching tool that can patch *some* games to make them use the parallel port as
the output for the adlib sound data instead of the usual ISA bus cards.
I've tried to patch mod master XT with this patching tool, but it failed...

It shouldn't be a lot of work for you to add support for it,
it's fairly simple as you've already got support for adlib cards,
so you just need to make a few changes to the IO code for it.

The 8-bit guy (The famous YouTuber you probably know),
added specific support for the OPL2LPT to his MS-DOS game called Planet X3,
and he said it only took him a couple of hours to implement and test it...

If you don't own an OPL2LPT or OPL3LPT, I'm happy to ship you mine for a few weeks,
so you can use it, add support for it and do some proper testing,
and when you're done, you can just ship it back to me.
It's a tiny/light-weight thing the same size as a covox speech thing that I can post in a padded envelope,
so shipping costs should be minimal...

Are you Interested?
PM me your shipping address and I'll post it to you 😀

Terrence

radiance32 wrote on 2021-04-03, 20:45:

On a side note, can someone tell me what the difference is between modm an modmf ? I understand modmf is larger and should have […]
Show full quote

On a side note, can someone tell me what the difference is between modm an modmf ?
I understand modmf is larger and should have more features, am I correct ? If so, what are those features ?

I've read all the documentation that's in the archive for beta 26 but can't find any mention of
the difference between modm and modmf, and they look identical to me during use...

Cheers,
Terrence

Hi,

I removed the support for useless file format, like ULT, MTM... to save memory.

radiance32 wrote on 2021-04-03, 20:58:

Hi FreddyV, […]
Show full quote

FreddyV wrote on 2021-03-26, 13:39:

Nice, I see there are still Mod Master users 😀

Hi FreddyV,

I was wondering if you could add support for a parallel port Adlib sound card to mod master xt,
such as the products from Serdaco: the OPL2LPT (mono) and the OPL3LPT (stereo).
They are both simple DB-25 parallel port audio boards with an OPL3 (YM262+YAC512) chip on them...

https://www.serdashop.com/OPL3LPT

The board comes with a TSR that only works on 386+ machines,
so it's a no-go for all of us 8086 and 80286 CPU machine aficionados...
and a patching tool that can patch *some* games to make them use the parallel port as
the output for the adlib sound data instead of the usual ISA bus cards.
I've tried to patch mod master XT with this patching tool, but it failed...

It shouldn't be a lot of work for you to add support for it,
it's fairly simple as you've already got support for adlib cards,
so you just need to make a few changes to the IO code for it.

The 8-bit guy (The famous YouTuber you probably know),
added specific support for the OPL2LPT to his MS-DOS game called Planet X3,
and he said it only took him a couple of hours to implement and test it...

If you don't own an OPL2LPT or OPL3LPT, I'm happy to ship you mine for a few weeks,
so you can use it, add support for it and do some proper testing,
and when you're done, you can just ship it back to me.
It's a tiny/light-weight thing the same size as a covox speech thing that I can post in a padded envelope,
so shipping costs should be minimal...

Are you Interested?
PM me your shipping address and I'll post it to you 😀

Terrence

Hi,

I added the support for OPL2LPT, it was tested as working.
In the output menu, press tab to go to the "Synth" Menu and OPL2LPT can be activated.

OPL3LPT does not work apparently (I don't have them to test.)
I can add TDYLPT as well, as Mod Master play .VGM

It was not a small change to add it, as I needed to build the new interface menu from scratch for it 😀

I was expecting a price reduction or a gift from serdashop, but I am not sure they realized that my software is now one of the best software for 8086/286 machines 😉

davide.guida@gmail.c wrote on 2021-04-03, 06:17:

Hi Freddy I just download Mod Master XT 2.2 beta 25 and install on my Amstrad PC 2086S with XT-IDE and a 8.4GB Hard Disk. Unfort […]
Show full quote

FreddyV wrote on 2021-03-26, 13:39:

Nice, I see there are still Mod Master users 😀

Hi Freddy
I just download Mod Master XT 2.2 beta 25 and install on my Amstrad PC 2086S with XT-IDE and a 8.4GB Hard Disk. Unfortunately I don't have a Sound Blaster anymore, but a great PC Speaker
I put some Mod File (one was written by me in 1993!) and it works great... up to 12KHz sampling rate!

Thanks for your great job...
can I convert Adlib files to MOD in some way so I can listen too?

Just waiting for your next releases
Thanks again from Italy

Nice,

You can buy any Sound blaster card compatible from ebay, even ESS, or Sound Blaster Vibra16, they are cheap.
I recommend you the Vibra16 as you will be able to play in 16Bit and even faster in 8Bit with low noise.
Use UNISOUND to initialize the cards.

There is no way to convert adlib musics to digital, buy a cheap Vibra16 and you will see what we can do with a 8086.
Like in my Youtube Video there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFk9qygPDG0&t=1511s

With a wavetable board, you can even play MIDI...

Hi,

Finalizing something for the BlasterBoard.

I also received a GUS PnP.
I just tested it, it is working. I can now start to debug the Interwave support.

I still can't debug OPL3LPT, I don't have any, somebody can test ?
Same for TDYLPT and so on.

I belive I am close to a release 1.0, so Tell me any bug/Problem you see.
(Enhancement will be for other versions)

FreddyV

I have a TDYLPT and could test, I guess!

FreddyV wrote on 2021-04-28, 10:09:

I belive I am close to a release 1.0, so Tell me any bug/Problem you see.

If it still automatically mutes the line-in in two-card systems, that would be something to 'fix', as I usually chain one card through another and there was no way to do that with modm.

MJay99 wrote on 2021-04-28, 19:46:

If it still automatically mutes the line-in in two-card systems, that would be something to 'fix', as I usually chain one card through another and there was no way to do that with modm.

Hi,

Are you using a GUS input ?
I already removed the input change for Sound Blaster.

GUS Line in is disabled by Mod Master.

FreddyV wrote on 2021-04-29, 06:41:

Are you using a GUS input ?

That's indeed what I am doing, I wouldn't want to pipe a GUS through a noisy SB 😀
Could you maybe make it an option to unmute it? Personally, I'd suggest not touching the muting at all - in my mind, it should be a user's choice (for good or bad) to have line-in enabled or not (or at least an option to re-enable it, e.g. via a menu setting). Otherwise, I'm a very, very happy user of modm on a bunch of machines 😁

MJay99 wrote on 2021-04-30, 09:39:

That's indeed what I am doing, I wouldn't want to pipe a GUS through a noisy SB 😀
Could you maybe make it an option to unmute it? Personally, I'd suggest not touching the muting at all - in my mind, it should be a user's choice (for good or bad) to have line-in enabled or not (or at least an option to re-enable it, e.g. via a menu setting). Otherwise, I'm a very, very happy user of modm on a bunch of machines 😁

Yes exactly,

I already modified the code in a previous version, but I did not see I don't read the previous value 😀
I corrected it and simplified a lot the GUS Code. Also started to work on the Interwave 😀

Good news,

Thanks to @dreamblaster in exchange of the board support, he sent me a TDYLPT, OPL3LPT and CMSLPT.

I will then be able to add/Correct the support of them all.

Does anybody know about a file format, and have files for me for CMS Music ?

FreddyV wrote on 2021-04-30, 12:52:

Does anybody know about a file format, and have files for me for CMS Music ?

There are some CMS files here (in the Downloads section) Creative Music System. I have not (yet) found any information on the file format though.

FreddyV wrote on 2021-04-30, 12:52:

Does anybody know about a file format, and have files for me for CMS Music ?

Not sure anyone ever documented it or reverse engineered it, but the main source would be the CMS Player:

http://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title=CMS
http://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php/Cre ... stem_(DOS)
http://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title=Cre … MS_Music_Player
http://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title=SAA1099

So you might have a bit of a trouble here.

EDIT: Best would be probably to disassemble cmsdrv.com and see what API it exposes so you can use it, too. Or to reverse engineer it's player function and re-implement it yourself.

By the way:
Would you consider adding SoundJr volume control in some future version?
The SoundJr DAC supports eight-level volume control.
You basically just write a value to the parallel port's control port.

See Re: Replicas of Covox Speech Thing, FTL Sound Adapter and SiliconSoft SoundJr for a table of values.

FreddyV wrote on 2021-04-30, 12:49:

I already modified the code in a previous version, but I did not see I don't read the previous value 😀
I corrected it and simplified a lot the GUS Code. Also started to work on the Interwave 😀

The muting value cannot be read on original GUS, the ports where it is done are write only, and reading the port will corrupt the value in it.

Tiido wrote on 2021-05-01, 10:39:

The muting value cannot be read on original GUS, the ports where it is done are write only, and reading the port will corrupt the value in it.

Ok, so that is why it was not done like this.
I will need to add a button in the menu.

It seems that lot of CMS file has been converted to .VGM so it is probably not needed to add this format.

Benedikt wrote on 2021-05-01, 09:09:

By the way: Would you consider adding SoundJr volume control in some future version? The SoundJr DAC supports eight-level volume […]
Show full quote

By the way:
Would you consider adding SoundJr volume control in some future version?
The SoundJr DAC supports eight-level volume control.
You basically just write a value to the parallel port's control port.

See Re: Replicas of Covox Speech Thing, FTL Sound Adapter and SiliconSoft SoundJr for a table of values.

Hi,

Is it mandatory to adjust the volume to have it working ?
I don't understand why it should be supported, as it is a simple volume control.