Re: Paypal "Gift" and fee's? Help

Posted on 2015-11-09, 14:15

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by boxpressed

in Milliways

in Milliways

Some sellers want to be paid by the "gift" method. This is because they will not incur a ~3% fee for doing business with Paypal. It also means that the buyer takes all of the risk. If the buyer pays as a gift, a fraudulent seller doesn't have to ship anything. As a buyer, you must be able to trust …

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Re: What is GUS-ACE really worth?

Posted on 2015-11-08, 22:23

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by boxpressed

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

$200 seems reasonable for a CIB Ace. I bet it will sell for that amount and maybe more. I bought my Ace new back in '95 and am glad I kept everything that came with it.

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Re: Changing My Mind on the SB Live!

Posted on 2015-11-08, 18:40

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by boxpressed

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It uses system RAM. Try loading any cache software before the SB emulation and it will complain that it needs the first portion of your EMS (or XMS, don't remember) memory free. If you go to the driver's folder you will see an ECW file it loads when it starts. Thanks. I knew it was using system …

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Re: Changing My Mind on the SB Live!

Posted on 2015-11-08, 17:59

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by boxpressed

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The Live! seems to work in pure DOS with EMM386 too. I just copied the lines added to AUTOEXEC.BAT by the Windows installation to a DOS 7.0 bootdisk. SB16 emulation working fine in Descent, Doom, and Duke 3D. My question is about GM. GM music works great in pure DOS. If there's no wavetable ROM, …

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Changing My Mind on the SB Live!

Posted on 2015-11-08, 16:29

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by boxpressed

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

After repeated bad experiences with all number of SB Live! models on my 98SE machines, I finally had a glitch-free install. As I mentioned in another thread, this was because I unwrapped a sealed SB Live! 5.1 Platinum set and could use the installation CD that matched the model (SB0060). (I believe …

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Re: Using DLS & ARL Sound Banks with Vortex 2

Posted on 2015-11-08, 05:54

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by boxpressed

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I might be using the term "soft synth" incorrectly. I'm talking about the source of the instrument patches for the GM music. The Vortex 2 loads sound banks in DLS or ARL format, kind of like the SF2 format for Creative cards. You could think of them like sound fonts, although the format is different …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2015-11-08, 02:37

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by boxpressed

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Unsealed a NIB SB Live! 5.1 Platinum box. I picked this up not long ago for a reasonable price and was thinking about keeping it for my sealed collection. But I'm so frustrated by not knowing which driver disk goes with which model SB Live! that I thought I would take out the guesswork. If this …

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Using DLS & ARL Sound Banks with Vortex 2

Posted on 2015-11-07, 22:26

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by boxpressed

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've added an AU8830 to yet another system and decided to play around with its soft synth for DOS games. Does anyone use this as their preferred solution for GM and DOS gaming? The Aureal 2041 driver set I have comes with a set called AU30GM.ARL. It sounds okay but also muffled, inferior to some of …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2015-11-07, 22:00

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by boxpressed

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That S3 looks very similar however not exactly like the Turtle Beach Daytona, it has some interesting features. It supports DLS sound fonts and windows 98 comes with a Roland Gmidi -dls sound font so you can upload it and use very good quality sounds, it also has reverb and chorus effects although …

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Re: ISA Sound Cards with Internal Wavetable

Posted on 2015-11-06, 15:33

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by boxpressed

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Right -- how could I forget? I own a GUS Classic and ACE. Somewhere along the way I guess I confused the GUS with the AWE32, which uses RAM but also has a patch set in ROM. However, I didn't know how the GUS maps the instrument patches, so thank you again.

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Re: Purpose of Various IC on ISA Sound Card

Posted on 2015-11-06, 03:14

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by boxpressed

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks, gerwin. I did see your excellent resource, but I didn't put two and two together. Very informative and helpful!

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Re: ISA Sound Cards with Internal Wavetable

Posted on 2015-11-06, 03:11

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by boxpressed

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for the knowledge, elianda and Scali. Interesting about how different processing on the same samples can make a difference. Would the MIDI controller IC determine the level of processing? For example, I have two cards each with the Crystal CS4112-CS IC patch set. But one has a Crystal CS9233- …

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Re: Ensoniq Soundscape resources (manuals, files, links, help)

Posted on 2015-11-06, 01:44

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by boxpressed

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Thanks, Phil. I think I'll start off with the USB solution on my notebook daily driver, then pull out a big Win 7 desktop if the quality isn't there. The Opus has a decent patch set, doesn't require a TSR, and may have a quasi-intelligent MPU-401. Fun to play games with native Soundscape support.

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Re: Ensoniq Soundscape resources (manuals, files, links, help)

Posted on 2015-11-05, 15:55

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by boxpressed

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I just discovered that there is a combination sound/modem card that uses the Soundscape Opus chipset. It is called the NEC Harmony. A seller on eBay has multiples for a reasonable price (as well as the VIVO for a low price as well). If you can find the drivers, the NEC Harmony would be an …

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Re: Purpose of Various IC on ISA Sound Card

Posted on 2015-11-05, 14:56

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by boxpressed

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thank you. I also discovered that the OPTi 82C931 has an integrated codec, so no need for a Crystal IC. I didn't know that the Analog Devices and Crystal both manufactured codecs. I wonder if a discrete codec means higher quality in general.

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Re: Purpose of Various IC on ISA Sound Card

Posted on 2015-11-04, 19:05

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by boxpressed

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thank you very much. It seems like the Opti 924 is the main IC, the "16 Bit Sound Controller." The Crystal IC is a "Parallel Interface, Multimedia Audio Codec." Not sure if it is optional, but I do have an Opti 931 board with no Crystal chip or equivalent. Here are snippets from both datasheets. At …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2015-11-04, 18:37

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by boxpressed

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have an AOpen AW32 Pro, which is identical to the Acer Magic S23A except that it has IDE and the additional ICs to run it. I like its wavetable synth.

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Purpose of Various IC on ISA Sound Card

Posted on 2015-11-04, 17:33

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by boxpressed

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm trying to learn more about the various chipsets and ICs on ISA sound cards and was hoping for help figuring out which functions specific ICs actually perform. I've attached a photo of the Silicom Wavemaster 32FGP Rev 1.2. This card has a number of ICs on it. Crystal CS4231A-KL OPTi 82C924 AdMOS …

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Re: ISA Sound Cards with Internal Wavetable

Posted on 2015-11-04, 16:48

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by boxpressed

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think it would be useful to add what chips use the cards in the first post - would make it easier to compare them. Good idea. In the coming days, I'll add the info that I can confirm visually. Anyone who wants to contribute can just post in the thread, and I'll update the first post. Is possible …

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Re: ISA Sound Cards with Internal Sound Banks

Posted on 2015-11-03, 14:43

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by boxpressed

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Added one more to the collection: the Silicom Wavemaster 64FGP. I bought this one NIB. No TSR required. There are three main differences between this card and the Wavemaster 32FGP Rev 1.2 shown in an earlier post. The wavetable set on this card is the AdMOS QDSP QS1000 (QS700 on the 32FGP 1.2). It …

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