Nice work as usual OPLx. I took some time to test the player with what I had under my hand tonight. One computer had a sb1.5+cms and the other only have the tndy nano. With the help of -noscan, I could quickly select OPLL and/or PSG music by using the -a and/or -C switch. On the tndy nano (still not sure why matze79 removed the A from tandy) the "-t2C0 -noauto" argument save the day by near instantly skip all unsupported files.

On msdos you don't have much char to name your file and you cannot have FM/PSG subdir since the "for file" batch command don't support subdir. As you know, the best SEGA Master System soundtrack often had PSG and FM version and for those reasons I believe people might store them in the same directory. I believe that It's at this moment then that the -noauto comes in handy.

On the ym2151 topic, the guys at TexElec quickly shipped me the soundcard so I will have some time this spring to familiarize with it and hopefully this summer I will be able to host the final Showdown and know which of the three contender is worthy to yield the Golden Axe of the best soundtrack : Sega Megadrive, PC Adlib, or Arcade YM2151 ?

ElBrunzy wrote on 2021-03-17, 04:16:

Nice work as usual OPLx. I took some time to test the player with what I had under my hand tonight. One computer had a sb1.5+cms and the other only have the tndy nano. With the help of -noscan, I could quickly select OPLL and/or PSG music by using the -a and/or -C switch. On the tndy nano (still not sure why matze79 removed the A from tandy) the "-t2C0 -noauto" argument save the day by near instantly skip all unsupported files.

On msdos you don't have much char to name your file and you cannot have FM/PSG subdir since the "for file" batch command don't support subdir. As you know, the best SEGA Master System soundtrack often had PSG and FM version and for those reasons I believe people might store them in the same directory. I believe that It's at this moment then that the -noauto comes in handy.

Glad the new parameter has helped out. Hopefully others will benefit from it as well.

ElBrunzy wrote on 2021-03-17, 04:16:

On the ym2151 topic, the guys at TexElec quickly shipped me the soundcard so I will have some time this spring to familiarize with it and hopefully this summer I will be able to host the final Showdown and know which of the three contender is worthy to yield the Golden Axe of the best soundtrack : Sega Megadrive, PC Adlib, or Arcade YM2151 ?

Hopefully there will be more software support for TexElec's SAAYM card. SAAYM brings something unique to the PC platform, but the OPL3's 4-operator mode never fully saw much use. Reality ADlib Tracker version 2 and Adlib Tracker II allow use of the OPL3's 4-operator mode. My guess is that the reason why there are so few OPL3 4-operator songs is possibly due to there being more nostalgia with the other platforms and other sound chips.

As far as the Golden Axe soundtrack goes, I'm biased towards the original YM2151 version; it seems to have a more symphonic feel than the other versions. 😀

SBVGM v1.36 is available from: http://www.oplx.com/code/

This update includes:

• Support for YM2203, YM2608, and SB16 on PC-98 (special thanks to @thepirategamerboy12 for testing!).
• Support for YM2203, YM2608, and YM2610(B) support on TexElec SAAYM.
• Support for "OPL4 on OPL3"; OPL4 VGMs that use OPL3 will play on OPL3.
• Fixed bug where specifying -opl3lpt switch would fail.
• Fixed bug where OPLx volume was turned off on VGM initial play.

It's awesome seeing 1.36's public release! It was my pleasure doing the testing on my PC-98 hardware for you, OPLx. 😀

Right, awesome is totally the word here ! I counted that this would add support for 307 new titles just from vgmrips (ym2203 = 218, ym2608 = 56, ym2610b = 35), on top of the 372 new from ym2151. Now I totally am motivated to finish my new setup with the SAAYM and collect all those vgm files, I regret procrastinated it so much.

I think the ym2610b was the arcade big brother to the ym2610 from the neo-geo, is that a right assumption ? Reading the difference I would expect the ym2610 to be automatically supported, have you considered it ?

ElBrunzy wrote on 2021-04-28, 04:46:

Right, awesome is totally the word here ! I counted that this would add support for 307 new titles just from vgmrips (ym2203 = 218, ym2608 = 56, ym2610b = 35), on top of the 372 new from ym2151. Now I totally am motivated to finish my new setup with the SAAYM and collect all those vgm files, I regret procrastinated it so much.

Please don't have any regrets; I just happened to have a sufficient block of time to add in the support.

ElBrunzy wrote on 2021-04-28, 04:46:

I think the ym2610b was the arcade big brother to the ym2610 from the neo-geo, is that a right assumption ? Reading the difference I would expect the ym2610 to be automatically supported, have you considered it ?

Since the YM2610 and YM2610B are part of the OPN family, it has been supported for playback on the SAAYM. Of course there is no digital audio playback which many of those VGMs use. @thepirategamerboy12 is very knowledeable about which OPN family VGMs are good (many of them are!) so may he might chime in with some recommendations.

Ok I understand, you wrote YM2610(B) meaning ym2610 + ym2610b. Probably in an attempt to save everybody's time that I lamentably negate 😳

SBVGM v1.37 is available from: http://www.oplx.com/code/

This update includes:

• Fixed bug that prevented OPL3 VGMs from playing

I tried to use this today and it told me "detected hardware cannot play VGM".

I have an SB16 Vibra S which has an OPL3 chip on board (CT2800). Does anyone know why it says this?

Sly_Botts wrote on 2021-05-05, 19:26:

I tried to use this today and it told me "detected hardware cannot play VGM".

I have an SB16 Vibra S which has an OPL3 chip on board (CT2800). Does anyone know why it says this?

Could you tell me which version are you using and which VGM file you were trying to play? There was a playback issue on OPL3 introduced in v1.36 that should have been resolved on v1.37.

OPLx wrote on 2021-05-05, 23:14:

Sly_Botts wrote on 2021-05-05, 19:26:

I tried to use this today and it told me "detected hardware cannot play VGM".

I have an SB16 Vibra S which has an OPL3 chip on board (CT2800). Does anyone know why it says this?

Could you tell me which version are you using and which VGM file you were trying to play? There was a playback issue on OPL3 introduced in v1.36 that should have been resolved on v1.37.

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I was using version 1.37

I was trying to play an NES VGM file that I downloaded from vgmrips.net.
Game: Mega Man 2
file: 01Opening.vgz

Sly_Botts wrote on 2021-05-05, 23:27:

Hi, thanks for the reply. […]
Show full quote

OPLx wrote on 2021-05-05, 23:14:

Sly_Botts wrote on 2021-05-05, 19:26:

I tried to use this today and it told me "detected hardware cannot play VGM".

I have an SB16 Vibra S which has an OPL3 chip on board (CT2800). Does anyone know why it says this?

Could you tell me which version are you using and which VGM file you were trying to play? There was a playback issue on OPL3 introduced in v1.36 that should have been resolved on v1.37.

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I was using version 1.37

I was trying to play an NES VGM file that I downloaded from vgmrips.net.
Game: Mega Man 2
file: 01Opening.vgz

Thank you for the information. Currently NES VGM playback on OPL3 is not supported. What is actually holding this back is a way (on the OPL3 hardware) to properly emulate the NES' noise channel frequencies. So far in my tests and experiments with the OPL3's internal noise generator, it seems that it is locked at a fixed frequency.

OPLx wrote on 2021-05-06, 00:16:

Sly_Botts wrote on 2021-05-05, 23:27:

Hi, thanks for the reply. […]
Show full quote

OPLx wrote on 2021-05-05, 23:14:

Could you tell me which version are you using and which VGM file you were trying to play? There was a playback issue on OPL3 introduced in v1.36 that should have been resolved on v1.37.

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I was using version 1.37

I was trying to play an NES VGM file that I downloaded from vgmrips.net.
Game: Mega Man 2
file: 01Opening.vgz

Thank you for the information. Currently NES VGM playback on OPL3 is not supported. What is actually holding this back is a way (on the OPL3 hardware) to properly emulate the NES' noise channel frequencies. So far in my tests and experiments with the OPL3's internal noise generator, it seems that it is locked at a fixed frequency.

Thanks I'll try a different file then.

Yeah no dice.

This time I tried a YM2151 vgm file from the arcade game Golden Axe (https://vgmrips.net/packs/pack/golden-axe-sega-system-16b).

I got the same message "detected hardware cannot play VGM".

Sly_Botts wrote on 2021-05-06, 01:30:

Yeah no dice.

This time I tried a YM2151 vgm file from the arcade game Golden Axe (https://vgmrips.net/packs/pack/golden-axe-sega-system-16b).

I got the same message "detected hardware cannot play VGM".

You'll need a sound card that uses the YM2151 to listen to YM2151 VGMs. So far, the only one I am aware of is the TexElec SAAYM. The SBVGM.TXT file that accompanies the ZIP file contains a table that shows which VGMs can be played on which hardware.

OPLx wrote on 2021-05-06, 01:50:

Sly_Botts wrote on 2021-05-06, 01:30:

Yeah no dice.

This time I tried a YM2151 vgm file from the arcade game Golden Axe (https://vgmrips.net/packs/pack/golden-axe-sega-system-16b).

I got the same message "detected hardware cannot play VGM".

You'll need a sound card that uses the YM2151 to listen to YM2151 VGMs. So far, the only one I am aware of is the TexElec SAAYM. The SBVGM.TXT file that accompanies the ZIP file contains a table that shows which VGMs can be played on which hardware.

Ah yes ok I see. That Makes sense. Sorry man I guess I've been trying to play incompatible files this whole time. Sorry about that.

Hi OPLx, I'm preparing my computer to receive the SAAYM. I'm so glad it's happening and soon I'll be able to listen to my favorite arcade music on original hardware thanks to the SAAYM and SBVGM, I can barely believe it! The card has a bit more onboard configuration than I expected, I did some research and found a great documentation TexElec wrote which proved being very helpful but I wanted to have your advice on the card setup since SBVGM will be it's main usage, maybe I'll try to run some CMS game on it.

I'm pretty sure SBVGM dont use YM2151's IRQ, I read that some arcade board might use it for some reason, am I right to assume SBVGM does not ? I'm less certain about IO ChRdy for the SAA1099, but since it seem to be conflict-free I'll leave it on, do you have anything to say about it ? IO port 210h seem like a nice default so I'll leave it here. From the card literature I think it's a no brainer for me to let the SAA1099 clock to it's default 7.16mhz settings, but the text is less clear about the other synth. Since for me the YM2151 is the pièce de résistance of the card and I have everything to learn about it I would highly appreciate to know what you think about that 3.58mhz/4mhz switch.

Sly_Botts wrote on 2021-05-06, 03:02:

Ah yes ok I see. That Makes sense. Sorry man I guess I've been trying to play incompatible files this whole time. Sorry about that.

No problem at all. If you have any questions or run into trouble, please don't hesitate to ask.

ElBrunzy wrote on 2021-05-06, 04:08:

Hi OPLx, I'm preparing my computer to receive the SAAYM. I'm so glad it's happening and soon I'll be able to listen to my favorite arcade music on original hardware thanks to the SAAYM and SBVGM, I can barely believe it! The card has a bit more onboard configuration than I expected, I did some research and found a great documentation TexElec wrote which proved being very helpful but I wanted to have your advice on the card setup since SBVGM will be it's main usage, maybe I'll try to run some CMS game on it.

I'm pretty sure SBVGM dont use YM2151's IRQ, I read that some arcade board might use it for some reason, am I right to assume SBVGM does not ? I'm less certain about IO ChRdy for the SAA1099, but since it seem to be conflict-free I'll leave it on, do you have anything to say about it ? IO port 210h seem like a nice default so I'll leave it here. From the card literature I think it's a no brainer for me to let the SAA1099 clock to it's default 7.16mhz settings, but the text is less clear about the other synth. Since for me the YM2151 is the pièce de résistance of the card and I have everything to learn about it I would highly appreciate to know what you think about that 3.58mhz/4mhz switch.

SBVGM doesn't use any of the YM2151's IRQs. The IRQs were generally used by the arcade machine (or computer) that ran the game. Most cases this IRQ was used for the music playback interrupt. I'm still not sure what IO ChRdy triggers on the PC (I need to find out more one of these days), but SBVGM doesn't use this either.

The reason why there are two clock settings is because the SAAYM was keeping in mind the Commander X16 which originally was going to have one YM2151 (at 4MHz), one SAA1099 (at 8MHz), and a VERA (an FPGA) that handles sound (and other operations). The recent specification for the Commander X16 has removed the SAA1099 since VERA's sound can more or less do what the SAA1099 does.

Depending on what you want to do, you can leave the SAAYM at address 210h. That way any software that uses the Game Blaster or Creative Music System cards will find it. I would also leave the clock setting for the YM2151 at 3.58MHz. SBVGM assumes that this is the clock speed that the YM2151 is running at.

Depending on how your system is set up, you can leave the IRQ at 5 and the IO ChRdy jumpers connected. From my tests the YM2151 on the SAAYM does correctly trigger the IRQ it's been configured for. I hope there will be more software for the SAAYM since the YM2151 is a pretty nice FM chip and having the YM2151's internal timers available for use opens up some interesting things on PC.

Thanks for your precise answer, you clearly understood all of my questions. So I could quickly finish to setup the card. I browsed vgmrips to upgrade my vgm collection. This setup will have an SAAYM on 210h and an AWE32 on 220h (I think it's a CT2760 with the CQM chip).

I found having multiple cards might lead to confusion that are hard to diagnose when it's not obvious where the player is sending instructions. I was thinking maybe on the line "Playing..." there could be some more hint about what's going on.

I tested some 2608(b) stuff but there was nothing knew. For the YM2203 I was really glad to find some stuff like Silpheed and Ys who are both on my top favorite soundtrack! But drum volume sound weird. If you compare this one, the snare are so loud it make the melody barely hearable, while on the vgmrips player the level are more normal. I hope it's a problem that can be fixed because otherwise those ports seem very enjoyable to listen!

Well, I learned the hard way that an YM2151 dont come with an OKIM6258 😁 It's not always clear what's this chip is used for, seems to help some music with drum samples being an adpcm decoder. Also for some reason the lemmings soundtrack seem way too slow to me. It play the same on emulator and youtube video... Apparently the game was a prototype so maybe that's all there is to it.

The last but not the least ... Golden Axe ! I think your player work at perfection here on the SAAYM ! So now I can start to prepare the comparison project. Alternating between the pc game and your player did outlook some subtle but interesting differences I'm eager to find. Time to dust off that adlib card, I'm not going to base my comparison on an CQM 😉