http://www.jstor.org/pss/3680427 X Technology is an LTD, so a private company incorporated in the UK.

Is there a company address of X Technology on the manual?

Nope, no address.

Here is a contact person of X Technology:
"dadai" = Mac Chen
I bet he is from Taiwan.
usenet link

Ah, this thread is awesome. I can't believe I have to bump it, but bump it I shall.

These Crystal Wavetable synths sound interesting. Not as good as the higher end stuff, but kind of campy and very pleasing. Any chance one of you lucky owners might make more recordings some day? Something where there are a ton of recordings to compare it to like the monkey island intro/theme or grabbag. I've got a XR385 in the mail so I can make some DB50XG recordings for comparison purposes if that helps.

And how bad is it to find drivers for this stuff? Are there Win9x and/or DOS drivers readily available, or are they painfully difficult to find?

The Crystal wavetable synths are mostly referred to as Dream (France) synths. Don't know exactly what is the relationship between Crystal semiconductor and Dream regarding these midi chipsets.

There are more recordings here: Midi recordings at Swaaye.com
My favorite is the dream GSWave 4M. I have three cards with this exact same midi sound: The terratec Maestro 32/96 soundcard, then two midi daughterboards: The GSWave and the Terratec Wavesystem Professional.

There are no drivers for midi daughterboards. The host-soundcard MPU-401 drivers take care of everything. Midi daughterboards are like external modules, bit then internal and smaller.
So if the soundcard has a working MPU (usually at 330h) in DOS, then the daughterboard will also work.

The downside: Sometimes the output volume of midi daughterboards does not match the host card's mixer. so you get clipping when playing loud midi files. Also chances are very real that midi output will have reversed stereo. They often use the -12 Volt supply too, which makes them harder to use on homebuild hosts.

gerwin wrote:

The Crystal wavetable synths are mostly referred to as Dream (France) synths. Don't know exactly what is the relationship betwee […]
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The Crystal wavetable synths are mostly referred to as Dream (France) synths. Don't know exactly what is the relationship between Crystal semiconductor and Dream regarding these midi chipsets.

There are more recordings here: Midi recordings at Swaaye.com
My favorite is the dream GSWave 4M. I have three cards with this exact same midi sound: The terratec Maestro 32/96 soundcard, then two midi daughterboards: The GSWave and the Terratec Wavesystem Professional.

There are no drivers for midi daughterboards. The host-soundcard MPU-401 drivers take care of everything. Midi daughterboards are like external modules, bit then internal and smaller.
So if the soundcard has a working MPU (usually at 330h) in DOS, then the daughterboard will also work.

The downside: Sometimes the output volume of midi daughterboards does not match the host card's mixer. so you get clipping when playing loud midi files. Also chances are very real that midi output will have reversed stereo. They often use the -12 Volt supply too, which makes them harder to use on homebuild hosts.

Ah, I see, thanks for that information. No drivers sounds good to me 😀. I hadn't realized I didn't need to track them down for my DB50XG.

As for those recordings, they're pretty cool. I like the 4mb sound as well. It sounds like half soundblaster, half GM 😀.

There is a lot information about the Dream based Wavetables in these Threads:
Re: Testing a Terratec EWS64XL; includes Doom recording
(EWS64, correct setting for effects on Midi - per Track)
SC8500 sound card - what does it do?
(Maxisound Series Cards)
I have also uploaded my recordings to my ftp at ftp://78.47.153.163/wavetable_recordings/
They should be identical to the ones I uploaded for swaayes comparison site.

akula65 wrote:

I scanned the card as you suggested, but the height of the connector and some of the components makes most of the text too fuzzy to read. Still, it gives you a notion of the component layout.

Just realized I have an MV 4000 laying around with this daughterboard attached. Thanks for the pic!

And another thread I want to dig out. I got my fingers onto a MediaVision DB which has the Korg AI2 Engine Synth and comes with 4MB ROM. I did a very short review of this card and also uploaded a 21 track recording from popular game music.

IMO the module has its strenghs when it comes to rock music with electric guitars, fast drums and is also good for orchestral percussion instruments. The distorted guitar in Doom E1M1 is the best I ever heard, much better than their Roland and Yamaha counterparts. What really sucks are wind instruments, they sound very synthetic and are no match for the winds on the Roland moduls. But go and listen yourself: http://www.amoretro.de/2014/01/media-vision-p … rboard-4mb.html

Regards
Fabian

My interest in the "Korg DBs" has picked up again recently. As has already been mentioned (to some extent), they are the DB equivalents of Korg's AG-10, "Audio Gallery" sound module.

While the Korg DBs are very-much General MIDI focused, classifying them as as "GM-only" seems like a bit of a disservice. Not unlike some of the advanced functionality found with Yamaha's XG devices, there are a number of available features and CCs that fall outside of the GM specification, in addition to SysEx programmability that allows a single "Program" to be created using all of the available synth parameters (selectable as Bank 62/00, Program 97).

X Technology included Korg's own AG-10 Sound Editor with the TopWave 32, along with a number of supporting utilities. While simple looking, this editor is remarkably comprehensive, as (hopefully) evidenced by the screenshot below. Additionally, ".AG" configuration files are included for each of the 128 General MIDI instruments (to be used as templates, if desired), and X Technology also helpfully included a program that performs conversion to SysEx, allowing this data to be easily included in MIDI sequences.

Korg's own AI2 demonstration sequences really show-off the potential of the Korg chipset to great effect. Here are recordings of those sequences, as played-back using a Media Vision "Pro Wave" version of the DB, housed in a DoX-BoX enclosure:

WILD CAT (AI_DEMO1.MID)
RED GIANT (AI_DEMO2.MID)
CLASITARIO (AI_DEMO3.MID)

Interestingly enough, there really isn't any advanced functionality being exploited in the demonstration sequences. Rather, they simply exemplify great MIDI programming, tailored to the strengths (and effect capabilities) of the Korg-based devices.

Special thanks to Chiel Kersten ("CHiLL72") for providing the TopWave 32 diskette contents.

Great contribution, thanks! Is there any chance to upload the diskette image? Would love to test it out.

Seconding the request for the disk image, I have an AG-10 and there is no online source for the original software. Also, if anyone has Sealed's old soundiver template, please do share it. His site went down years ago but it can be found archived here and presumably the template should also work with daughterboards since they use the same chips: https://web.archive.org/web/20111227083922/ht … /html/ag10.html

I recently acquired a Korg AG-10 myself, which, as previously described, is the external module counterpart of the Korg DBs. Whether in DB or module form, the Korg General MIDI soundset is fairly exceptional, and provides a great alternative listening experience to the more-common Roland and Yamaha devices.

Here are a few recordings of some Korg-published sequences that do a fair job of showing-off more of the "Audio Gallery" potential:

Chisato Moritaka
♫ "Ame"

Dali (Sailor Moon)
♫ "Midnight Densetsu"

Peach Hips (Sailor Moon S)
♫ "Tuxedo Mirage"

Steppenwolf
♫ "Born To Be Wild"

Vanilla Fudge
♫ "You Keep Me Hangin' On"

I've uploaded the X-Technology TopWave 32 software to my webpage.

CHiLL72 wrote:

I've uploaded the X-Technology TopWave 32 software to my webpage.

Tremendous thanks! I'm installing it now and will report back as to whether it will interact properly with the AG-10.

kira wrote:

<snip> In Japan, Korg KLM-1911 was also sold from I-O DATA. Product name sold from I-O DATA is "I-O DATA MIDI-KG/EX". "I-O DATA […]
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Heh, looks like i have Korg KLM-1911, but not marketed as I-O Data. Same as KLM-1911 from the above link but without I-O Data sticker in top-left. Maybe original Korg product? In box with manuals, all in japan hieroglyphs. Only words in english on the box is "Korg Audio Gallery. Wavetable Board For Windows".

<snip>
In Japan, Korg KLM-1911 was also sold from I-O DATA.
Product name sold from I-O DATA is "I-O DATA MIDI-KG/EX".
"I-O DATA MIDI-KG/EX" was sold not as the optional board of Korg NS5R but as the optional board of the sound cards installing the WaveBLASTER connector.
The sticker of "I-O DATA MIDI-KG/EX" is pasted only to the board sold from I-O DATA.

I-O Data also sold a desktop MIDI module called "MIDI-KG/APW" (for Apples) and "MIDI-KG/WIN" (for PCs). The housing is much smaller than that of the Korg AG-10 and more rectangular instead of squarish, making me suspect it actually contains a "MIDI-KG/EX" daughterboard plus some additional electronics to make it function as a stand-alone module.

There is also Korg-Based daughterboard Miditem DOX-1.
AFAIK it has 32MB!

You can see and listen to it on my website(unfortunately korg label on one chip is very light)
https://collection.batyra.pl/wavetable/dox-1