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Yamaha YMF71x SB Pro Mixer Bug Issue Fix

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First post, by James-F

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News Flash about a bug in the Yamaha YMF71x Mixer

FM = OPL/Wavetable.
WAVE = PCM/Voice.
CD = CD
Line = Line-In
SB = A VERY BUGGY SBPro master volume slider.
Master VOL = Master volume of the card itself (keep at 15).

In the process of digging deeper I discovered that the YMF71x mixer has a bug where if SB setting is other than 1 (out of 7) the mixer is non responsive to games and volume changes.
Setting SB to 1 doesn't actually lower any volume of the emulated SBPro but gives the other sliders more range, if it is set to 7 the other sliders do NOTHING and so are games that use the mixer.
Now that the SB volume is set to 1 the YMF717x works just like a normal SBPro and games like Wolfenstein3D and Duke Nukem 3D can control the volume of the mixer like they should.

Well then, another mystery solved. 😎
Now go set your Yamaha YMF71x mixer setting SB to 1 and keep it that way.

Further down this thread:
Lowpass Filter Fix
Wavetable Reversed Stereo Fix

Last edited by James-F on 2017-04-18, 04:23. Edited 4 times in total.


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Reply 1 of 215, by PhilsComputerLab

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James-F wrote:

Now that the SB volume is set to 1 the YMF717x works just like a normal SBPro and games like Wolfenstein3D and Duke Nukem 3D can control the volume of the mixer like they should.

😲

Another great discovery, awesome 😁

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Reply 2 of 215, by James-F

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Now that this bug is found, if you don't mind the lack of a Lowpass Filter and ADPCM compressed 8 to 3/2 bit audio (only Duke2), this makes the YMF71x cards and excellent SBPro 2.0 clone.
Man the last two weeks have been packed with tons of useful information about DOS sound cards.


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Reply 3 of 215, by PhilsComputerLab

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Yea crazy.

AWE64 Gold + MPU401 has always worked well for me 😀 It's good to see the Yamaha card have one less issue, I really like that card.

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Reply 4 of 215, by clueless1

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What version of SETUPSA are you running? Mine is 179,536 bytes, dated 4/24/97. This might also make a difference.

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Reply 6 of 215, by clueless1

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James-F wrote:

189,660 bytes 7/17/97 the latest from the official Yamaha website.
http://www.yamaha.co.jp/english/product/lsi/download/

Taken from the Win31 installer?

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Reply 7 of 215, by James-F

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Yes

Attachments

  • Filename
    OPL3SAX.zip
    File size
    114.08 KiB
    Downloads
    444 downloads
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
Last edited by James-F on 2016-09-19, 03:49. Edited 3 times in total.


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Reply 8 of 215, by PhilsComputerLab

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So is this a newer mixer, than the one from the DOS driver that comes with the Audician 32 CD?

But should be easy to test right? For example in Doom, the volume sliders shouldn't work well IF the bug is in effect?

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Reply 9 of 215, by James-F

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I don't know if it older or newer but it is definitely the latest on the official Yamaha site.

Duke Nukem 3D, in the options screen (in game) try to change the volumes of Sound and Music, they should not be responsive if SB is set to 7.
But they respond exactly as they should with SB set to 1.

Can you share the OPL3SAX directory that came with the Audician 32 please.
EDIT: Never mind I found it on Vogons Drivers.

Note that I have a 719E card not a 718 as the Audician 32.

Last edited by James-F on 2016-09-18, 16:58. Edited 1 time in total.


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Reply 10 of 215, by clueless1

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Phil, would you be able to post these drivers to your site so that someone without Win31 could extract them for their DOS system? I'm grabbing James-F's copy, but it might be useful for other interneters who don't know about this thread.

James, here is mine:

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  • Filename
    setupsa.zip
    File size
    97.8 KiB
    Downloads
    310 downloads
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

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Reply 11 of 215, by PhilsComputerLab

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The Audician32 iso had been on my site for a while!

Yes it has an installer for pure dow people.

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Reply 12 of 215, by clueless1

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I thought the Win31 version required Win31 to unpack/install. I just tried on my DOS PC and it told me something about requiring Win31.

PS-I'm talking about 31v2329.exe, which has the driver version that James-F is using.

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Reply 13 of 215, by James-F

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There is definitely a bug in the older setupsa.exe.
When I change the MIC setting (bottom left) with the keyboard arrow (hold the key) the program becomes extremely slow; not so with the newer setupsa.exe.
I say again that I have a 719E card not a 718 as the Audician 32, so maybe the SB mixer bug is not there on the 718 chip.

Please confirm in Duke Nukem 3D.

PS-I'm talking about 31v2329.exe, which has the driver version that James-F is using.

I installed it with Windows 3.11 in dosbox.


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Reply 14 of 215, by PhilsComputerLab

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clueless1 wrote:

I thought the Win31 version required Win31 to unpack/install. I just tried on my DOS PC and it told me something about requiring Win31.

PS-I'm talking about 31v2329.exe, which has the driver version that James-F is using.

Yea I never used that. The cd has a pure dos installer. Doesn't need windows.

Sorry in bed on the phone...

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Reply 15 of 215, by James-F

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One last thing, to make this card absolutely silent make sure all sliders are at ZERO in the WSS section except the Master, and anything in the SB section that is not in use like CD, LINE and MIC.
In the 3D section, Ymersion 00, Hi-Fi, Manual, Bass&Treble 00, for pure sound.

Can anyone confirm the SB 7 bug in Duke3D with the audician 32?
You will also not get stereo sound in Wolfenstein 3D with SB set to 7.
Set SB to 1 re-test the games.
Please confirm the results here.


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Reply 17 of 215, by clueless1

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PhilsComputerLab wrote:
clueless1 wrote:

I thought the Win31 version required Win31 to unpack/install. I just tried on my DOS PC and it told me something about requiring Win31.

PS-I'm talking about 31v2329.exe, which has the driver version that James-F is using.

Yea I never used that. The cd has a pure dos installer. Doesn't need windows.

Sorry in bed on the phone...

What I'm trying to say is the CD version has the pure DOS installer, yes. But the version of SETUPSA is newer on the 31v2329.exe file, but cannot be installed on a pure DOS system without first unpacking it on a Win31 system. So if you unpacked the drivers to an installed state from 31v2329.exe, then a DOS user could simply drop the updated files in their AUDICIAN folder in their DOS system without having find a Win31 system to unpack them on.

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Reply 18 of 215, by clueless1

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James-F wrote:
Can anyone confirm the SB 7 bug in Duke3D with the audician 32? You will also not get stereo sound in Wolfenstein 3D with SB set […]
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Can anyone confirm the SB 7 bug in Duke3D with the audician 32?
You will also not get stereo sound in Wolfenstein 3D with SB set to 7.
Set SB to 1 re-test the games.
Please confirm the results here.

Confirmed on my Audician.

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
OPL3 FM vs. Roland MT-32 vs. General MIDI DOS Game Comparison
Let's benchmark our systems with cache disabled
DOS PCI Graphics Card Benchmarks

Reply 19 of 215, by James-F

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Does it have to be duke 3d? I thought all game volume controls are affected?

Only games that use the SBPro mixer to change the volume or panning, similar to what you do in DOS command line with the sbp-set.exe.
Duke3D and Wolf3D are known to use the SBPro mixer for volume (duke) and panning for stereo (wolf).

Confirmed on my Audician.

Thanks, so it is universal to the YMF71x chip.

a DOS user could simply drop the updated files in their AUDICIAN folder in their DOS system without having find a Win31 system to unpack them on.

Indeed.
You don't even have to drop it in the AUDICIAN folder, setupsa.exe takes care of everything automatically including the Path and Blaster in autoexec.bat from anywhere.
You can keep it in the OPL3SAX folder and simply run setupsa.exe.


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