Re: Explain the audible differences between these types of MIDI devices.

Posted on 2019-06-17, 17:45

by

by SirNickity

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

In the last decade or so, a lot of the original hardware synths that became staples in not only the game music industry, but the real music industry as well, have been porting over to software synths with varying degrees of accuracy. Take, for example, the Virtual Sound Canvas plugins and soft- …

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Re: any interest in a neo-retro modern 80s style virtual PC?

Posted on 2019-06-17, 17:20

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by SirNickity

in Milliways

in Milliways

Usually I feel like the last thing the world needs is someone else's pet language. (I still don't see Lua and Python catching on when we already have a perfectly good Perl.) But I have to admit, that does look pretty nice. It could definitely gain a foothold as a beginner's language with competency …

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Re: Nearly Killed My Main PC.

Posted on 2019-06-17, 16:54

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by SirNickity

in Milliways

in Milliways

Seems unlikely to me. I've outright shorted +12v to Gnd before on PSUs. Older ones (before people thought they needed a kilowatt of power in something left on the floor within inches of their feet) would just shut down from over-current protection. Newer ones (with dozens of amps on the 12v rail) …

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Adaptec SCSI and bootable CDs

Posted on 2019-06-14, 18:41

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have used SCSI since the Pentium II days, but this one's a first for me.... I have a Pentium test box, with a hard drive cloned from a Linux install that I built on my PII. It wouldn't boot -- Grub was complaining about the filesystem. No problem, I just need to boot of a live CD and fix the boot …

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Re: creative labs cd and dvd drives dos drivers

Posted on 2019-06-14, 18:20

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Old thread. OP has either figured this out, or torched the entire thing. But, just in case anyone finds this thread in the future and needs to know: The PC-DVD and Hex Speed drives are standard IDE. Mine work with all the IDE CD-ROM drivers I've used so far, typically SBIDE.SYS or OAKCDROM.SYS. The …

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Re: Suggestions for my PC setups

Posted on 2019-06-14, 18:11

by

by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

PII is still old enough to work with DOS, since they usually still have ISA ports. But you might run into some problems with games that depend on CPU speed for timing. That manifests in either the game running too fast, or problems with audio, crashing, etc. IMO, if you want a good span, keep a …

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Re: Sound blaster for 1993 IBM PS/1 ?

Posted on 2019-06-13, 17:34

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I'm with you on era-correct. If you think back to that time and remember computers your friends and family had, or that you saw in use at a business somewhere, they were all over the map. However, when someone asks for something period-correct, I try to think about what might have been sold as an …

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Re: Sound blaster for 1993 IBM PS/1 ?

Posted on 2019-06-12, 22:09

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

No IDE CD-ROM interface on an SBP, just MKE. The CR-562/563 would be a good candidate for a period-correct drive though.

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Re: Hello, World! :D - Robert B's PC builds - oogle away freely :)

Posted on 2019-06-12, 19:10

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Just want to say that I was channeling your hardware-whisperer troubleshooting technique a while back. I got an immaculate Asus P4T-M socket 423 board and it wouldn't power up. Then I noticed I had accidentally plugged in the wrong 12V power connector -- the one meant for PCIe, not ATX-12V. It fit …

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Re: Unisys CWD-4002

Posted on 2019-06-12, 18:22

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Man this sounds like my experience with the Pentium version (CWD-5001) of that machine. It takes some acrobatics to get everything you need shoe-horned into it, then it seems like every time I almost get it running the way I want it, something else is wrong with it. Ugh. Not unlike pets, it's cute …

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Re: Tick tock

Posted on 2019-06-11, 19:36

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Another update in the saga of vintage time-keeping. This time, I'm working on two 486 motherboards that had rechargeable barrel batteries. I wanted to convert these to use CR2032 coin cells as well. This isn't a drop-in replacement -- the coin cells aren't rechargeable and thus need some minor …

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Re: NuXT - MicroATX Turbo XT Motherboard - 9.55MHz, UMBs, XT-CF, SVGA, HD Floppy, Serial

Posted on 2019-06-11, 18:19

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Looks really nice, but you know how it is. I can, so I will. Well, that and I acquired a Tandy 1000 RL -- so I need XT on a PS/2 port. I could use another adapter for that, but I also need to deal with that TTL RGB port. Since I'll have +5V from the PS/2 port anyway, I decided to make a project out …

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Re: The Death of Commander Keen

Posted on 2019-06-11, 17:49

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by SirNickity

in Milliways

in Milliways

A couple months back, I watched my nephew and niece hanging out at a family gathering. They're around 10 years old. They had the TV streaming some video of a girl collecting these Japanese egg-character things, and were playing some game where you ... essentially have like a deck or cards and each …

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Re: KVM Switches

Posted on 2019-06-10, 22:54

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The mouse wouldn't work :( ;i read something about ps/2 and serial not necessarily beeing truly compatible. They're not compatible at all. There are a certain number of PS/2 mice that can auto-detect serial hosts and change modes with a suitable physical adapter, but that's the exception, not the …

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Re: NuXT - MicroATX Turbo XT Motherboard - 9.55MHz, UMBs, XT-CF, SVGA, HD Floppy, Serial

Posted on 2019-06-10, 22:48

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'd love to see you implement a PS/2 to serial mouse converter next. I've heard of some efforts doing that before but I don't know how successful it was. Working on that one myself. I've been writing PS/2 host/device code since Friday. Almost done with the hardware layer, then just need to …

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Re: Screams “AWW” my frustrations with Sound Blaster.

Posted on 2019-06-10, 22:15

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Was it actually the SB installer, or the Windows driver installation dialogs? I've never had any of the Creative installers ask for a Windows CD. Windows' driver installation wizard from early 9x is beyond dumb, though. Like others, I just make a \Windows\Cabs folder, copy \winxx\*.* to that folder, …

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Re: The "12-bit" Sound Blaster 16 Myth

Posted on 2019-06-07, 22:21

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Scali, dude... breathe, man! :-) I'm not attacking you. I have never attacked you. I've never insulted you. I'm telling you, not for my defense, but for your own mental well-being, you're reading into this something that just isn't there . I have never demanded proof of your claims. I might've asked …

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Re: NuXT - MicroATX Turbo XT Motherboard - 9.55MHz, UMBs, XT-CF, SVGA, HD Floppy, Serial

Posted on 2019-06-07, 19:12

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't need one, but it's so pretty that I want one anyway. 🙄

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Re: Your worst "terrible packaging from eBay sellers" experiences

Posted on 2019-06-07, 18:59

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've had a motherboard arrive with similarly bad caps, which the seller suggested could have happened during the flight because of temperature / pressure LOL. :lol: Sure, it was the altitude. That's definitely a thing. I bought my TUSL2-M from a bonehead on Ebay. Couldn't quite tell from the …

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Re: The "12-bit" Sound Blaster 16 Myth

Posted on 2019-06-07, 18:42

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I think you are using the inverse meaning of 'prosumer' that I know. This does actually explain a lot. Believe it or not, I've really tried to see this from your perspective (otherwise, what's the point of engaging in the argument at all?) I just haven't been able to square my experience with the …

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