Doesn't windows include an OPL2 driver?

That was my thought too. I'm fairly certain I saw something with adlib in the Windows for Workgroups driver selection.

I went to the Windows (3.11; wfwg) Control Panel, and ran the Drivers applet. I clicked on Add, to add a driver, and in the drivers selection box, there was an entry called "Ad lib". I selected it, and it asked for the Windows 3 disk #7. (I'm using a Dell OEM diskette set, consisting of about 10 disks!). After a reboot, I went back to the Drivers applet in Control Panel, and the Ad Lib driver was listed. However, if I run the program calleded Media Player (inside Accessories), it complains about:

"There are no MCI device drivers installed on your system. Use the Drivers option in Control Panel to install MCI device drivers."

Am I missing the point here? Should I be running a different music playing program, to experiment with playing .MID MIDI files? I notice inside the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder, there is a file called msadlib.drv. I guess that's a good sign. I also notice inside the file SYSTEM.INI (inside the C:\WINDOWS folder) that there's this line inside the [boot] section:

sound.drv=mmsound.drv

BTW, the Adlib card works fine. I even got it working inside Windows 3.1, by using a 3rd party driver + software. I found it here, on the cd.textfiles website. Using this 3rd party driver + music player, I could listen to .ROL music. Perhaps that's why the Microsoft Media Player didn't work - it won't accept these .ROL files.

I'm sorry to sound like a complete idiot. The reasons for this is because I am one, and also I'm new to Windows 3, and also I'm fairly new to the Adlib card.

As far as I know MCI driver is for PCM wave, which the adlib does not support.

MCI isn't strictly for PCM - MCI generally is the multimedia interface Windows 3.x uses. This is before the whole DirectShow thing.

So, install [MCI] Midi Sequencer

Media Player only accepts AVI, WAV and MID (maybe RMI too)

I double-checked the currently installed Drivers, and there is already an entry called "[MCI] MIDI Sequencer" listed in the Drivers section. I went to the mdgx.com website, and found this -

Microsoft Media Player2 (WMP) v5.2 Beta 16-bit for Windows/WfWG 3.1x [5.42 MB]. --> Plays NetShow (ASF), Video (MPEG, AVI), Audio (WAV), Music (MID, RMI), CD (CDA) etc.

The description may be innacurate ("...plays MID..."), but I decided to install it. This installation has added a lot of additional drivers to the Drivers section -

Some of them look useful. Perhaps some of these will help me run some of old Windows 3.x "multimedia" games? Anyway, after the Microsoft Media Player version 5.2 was installed, I tried running it. Unfortunately, a white error message box popped up saying:

FILE ERROR
Cannot find WINSOCK.DLL

Any ideas please people? Thanks a lot for any help. 😀

Obviously you need a TCP/IP stack for Windows 3.11:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/99891
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/111682

Microsoft still hosts TCP/IP stuff for WFW on its FTP server:

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/Clients/WFW/

You may also need Win32s to run the 32-bit version:

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/softlib/MSLFILES/PW1118.EXE

It does not support dial-up networking, so you will need a NIC with a NDIS 2.x or preferably a NDIS 3.x driver. You can find a setup guide here:

http://www.yale.edu/pclt/WINWORLD/WFWG311.HTM

Thanks a lot for the info! 😀 Unfortunately, I don't have a NIC in my PC , and so I was unable to add a new protocol (tcp/ip). I must add an adapter first, before I can add a new protocol, but I can't because I don't have one. It's a pity that I need to have a NIC, in order to play a MIDI tune. Oh well.

Perhaps there is a simpler Windows 3 based MIDI music player I can try? Failing that, I could abandon the idea of using the AdLib in Windows 3, and use a SoundBlaster instead. The Windows 3 support for the SB seems a lot better.

Adding a NIC just for MIDI isn't worth the hassle, but think that you will also benefit from networking, file sharing and internet browsing on that machine.

I had written something else on my previous post and later I deleted it because I thought it would be unnecesary, but it was useful info after all; old 16-bit versions of Internet Explorer came with a TCP/IP stack and a dialer so they should work without a NIC. Check IE 3.x-5.x for Windows 3.1:

http://www.oldapps.com/internet_explorer.php

Another option, as you said, is using a simpler 16-bit MIDI player. A quick Google search gives me some interesting results. I can't recommend you a specific program because I never used any of them. But I still have the source code of an old 16-bit MIDI player that may work for you. I have attached the binaries. Sorry, it has a spanish-only UI right now, but if you find it useful, I could translate the UI to english.

hi

back in the day we used to use trumpet winsock
on win3.1. it can be for used dialup modem or network lan
and i used it both ways in different circumstances.
this is so long ago i remember little but
trumpet still allow download for it here:

http://www.trumpet.com.au/index.php/downloads.html

this will give you winsock support why you need
it though it unknown to me.

bye

actually you can't d/l it there. i am showing signs
of old age, look for twsk30d.exe it's almost
everywhere.
bye

Thanks a lot for the extra info, people! 😀 I am going to test all of this out. Yesterday, I did manage to find a simple working MIDI player. It's called AJukeBox, and it can be found on the cd.textfiles website here. It works, except for one problem - I cannot hear the music being played. I wonder if the MS AdLib driver (msadlib.drv) is correctly installed? This driver is listed inside the Control Panel -> Drivers applet section, but inside the C:\WINDOWS\ SYSTEM.INI file, in the [boot] section, the sound line reads: sound=mmsound.drv. I wonder if that's correct? I changed it to sound=msadlib.drv, but Windows doesn't like this, and refuses to load.

I am guessing something here. I wonder if the MS Windows AdLib driver (msadlib.drv) was tested with the later 1990 release of the AdLib card, and not the one that I am using, which is the 1987 version. I wonder if there is a very small difference between these two cards? I noticed that the 3rd party Windows AdLib FM driver + music player called AdLib.zip (version 0.9) works OK, but the later updated version 1.0 found here doesn't. This causes a stack fault error, when I attempt to run its test diagnostic function, to test the AdLib port address of 388.

I will get the winsock stuff working on my test machine, and try Media Player. However, I don't think that will allow me to get the AdLib card working in Windows. It's not too important, because I think an old SoundBlaster is better suited for this. I will leave the AdLib card for pure DOS use. Thanks a lot.

Notice that the winsock.dll error you found is related to that version of Media Player and not the AdLib itself. Therefore, without a TCP/IP stack you won't be able to play MIDI in Microsoft Media Player from a Sound Blaster, either. However, Sound Blaster drivers for Windows 3.x came with a complete bunch of software tools, including a Creative Media Player as far as I can remember. Ask here for those drivers if you can't find them.

lo

whilst on the topic of the old adlib i have two manuals
here on my shelf.

one is called the "music synthesizer card juke box
playback program user guide" and the other
"music championship #1 basic concepts user guide" 😀

i can see about scanning them in if anyone is interested.

i lent my adlib to someone in around '92 i don't think
i will getting it back but seemed to have kept the
manuals but no floppies.

cya

Re: SoundBlaster + Windows 3. I was successful with this, and got it working. I talked about this topic here.

Re: AdLib manuals. I spotted some resources online, including some manuals, from Vogons user Cloudschatze. It's here.

😀

lo

thanks for that link i will listen to those melodies later 😀
looks like music championship #1 didn't make his list
the offer to scan that is still open.

cheers