Simple demonstration on my laptop: https://youtu.be/0f8vU1cLbQ4

Wow Scali, thanks this is really great !

Wouldn't it in theory be possible to use wavetable daughterboards and/or MPU-401 devices in a similar fashion?

appiah4 wrote:

Wouldn't it in theory be possible to use wavetable daughterboards and/or MPU-401 devices in a similar fashion?

Not as-is. The Dream chip used on this device has a parallel MIDI interface. Wavetable is serial (basically standard MIDI, with a different connector). So you'd need to add a UART between the LPT and the MIDI device, to clock out the incoming bytes at the correct speed for MIDI (and with the correct start and stop bits).

Scali wrote:

Not as-is. The Dream chip used on this device has a parallel MIDI interface. Wavetable is serial (basically standard MIDI, with a different connector). So you'd need to add a UART between the LPT and the MIDI device, to clock out the incoming bytes at the correct speed for MIDI (and with the correct start and stop bits).

Yeah that could be done, but does it make sense ?

dreamblaster wrote:

Yeah that could be done, but does it make sense ?

I guess you'd basically end up with MPU401-over-LPT.
Which is more or less what the DreamBlaster S2P does, except in this case you would need to add the synth yourself.
Not sure what the target would be exactly. Systems that have parallel ports, but no (free) ISA slots or USB for a regular MIDI interface?
In fact, I'm not sure if USB MIDI can be used from DOS at all?

Yeah, basically MIDI for MS-DOS laptops.

can't you already have that with softMPU's serial function and a module that has serial port like the SC55-mk2 or MU-80 for example?

keropi wrote:

can't you already have that with softMPU's serial function and a module that has serial port like the SC55-mk2 or MU-80 for example?

Yes, but the 'serial port' bit is rather limiting. A standard MIDI output and/or wavetable header would allow you to use any MIDI device.
Even a Yamaha FB-01, for IBM Music Feature Card compatibility! 😀

Also, the serial port competes with many other peripherals that could be useful for gaming whereas the LPT is basically redundant and always available.

appiah4 wrote:

Also, the serial port competes with many other peripherals that could be useful for gaming whereas the LPT is basically redundant and always available.

Also, I previously described a way to connect up to 256 ports to a single LPT.
If you put two 8-bit latches on there, you can use one for address and one for data. A single line on the LPT selects between the two latches you write to.
You now effectively have an 8-bit address bus. With some address decoding logic, you can select between a number of chips/ports on the same device.
This should easily allow to combine an OPL3, CMS, Tandy and MPU401 on the same board.

This is really cool, nice one 😎

Unfortunately, many/most GM-supporting games run in protected mode via DOS4GW or similar, and the port-trapping technique used by SoftMPU won't work with those.
SoftMPU was originally aimed at intelligent-mode MT-32 games which are all real mode.

Virtualising ports transparently in PM is possible, though. More info here: http://www.os2museum.com/wp/any-soundscape-vivo-fans-here/

Plenty there for someone with lots of spare time to get their teeth into!!

This is really cool. It can be used to give old laptops midi capabilities (and good sounding ones!). The sounds can be played through the speaker with the "Wave speaker driver" whereas this device would handle the midi music. Not necessary to have both CVX4 and S2P attached at the same time 😀 Looking forward to using this to play for example SimCity on W3.11 with music 😜

bjt wrote:

Unfortunately, many/most GM-supporting games run in protected mode via DOS4GW or similar, and the port-trapping technique used b […]
Show full quote

Unfortunately, many/most GM-supporting games run in protected mode via DOS4GW or similar, and the port-trapping technique used by SoftMPU won't work with those.
SoftMPU was originally aimed at intelligent-mode MT-32 games which are all real mode.

Virtualising ports transparently in PM is possible, though. More info here: http://www.os2museum.com/wp/any-soundscape-vivo-fans-here/

Plenty there for someone with lots of spare time to get their teeth into!!

Now that you mention it... I believe that the GUS software also does this. I always used to play DOOM with Sound Canvas via MegaEm, so that implies that MegaEm works under DOS Extenders. I'm pretty sure that SBOS does as well.
So it might be worthwhile to check how they handled things. I don't think the GUS has any special hardware for redirecting port writes (it has a MPU-401 UART), and MegaEm requires EMM386 to be loaded if I recall correctly.
In which case, they are probably just doing a way of port virtualizing that works in both real and 386 mode.

appiah4 wrote:

Yeah, basically MIDI for MS-DOS laptops.

you prefer this on lpt port or serial port ?

dreamblaster wrote:

appiah4 wrote:

Yeah, basically MIDI for MS-DOS laptops.

you prefer this on lpt port or serial port ?

The LPT port has the advantage that it can work with games running with serial multiplayer since many laptops only have one serial port on them.

chartreuse wrote:

dreamblaster wrote:

appiah4 wrote:

Yeah, basically MIDI for MS-DOS laptops.

you prefer this on lpt port or serial port ?

The LPT port has the advantage that it can work with games running with serial multiplayer since many laptops only have one serial port on them.

well ok, then how about a MIDILPT project ? this sounds fun to do.
I suppose this should be midi out only,
how do you see it, only 1x MIDI out DIN connector
or 1x MIDI out DIN connector + Waveblaster header
or 2x MIDI out DIN connector ?

dreamblaster wrote:

well ok, then how about a MIDILPT project ? this sounds fun to do. I suppose this should be midi out only, how do you see it, […]
Show full quote

well ok, then how about a MIDILPT project ? this sounds fun to do.
I suppose this should be midi out only,
how do you see it, only 1x MIDI out DIN connector
or 1x MIDI out DIN connector + Waveblaster header
or 2x MIDI out DIN connector ?

1x midi anda 1x waveblaster iş beste imo

ok
will see what I can make

How's the S2P prototype doing / performing so far? This would be a marvelous addition.