I have done 1 minute of Doom, using the Liteon ESS 1688F sound card. The recording was made using the onboard wavetable ROM. It wasn't used with any DB attachment, because it has been physically removed from the sound card. So, no mistake! 😉

http://www.multiupload.com/0J1U199BW7

I set essvol.exe master volume = 10 (ranges from 0 to 15), and synth vol = 10 (same ranges apply). I set Audacity to recording level 0.9. The "squiggly sound data" on the Audacity recording graph was fractionally "maxed out" in a small number of places, but I don't think it matters too much.

Edit 1: Uploaded Doom again, but this time I used the Yamaha DB. The same "high" recording values were used as before, and in a tiny few places at the beginning, it was probably a fraction too high. Not a problem, I think. Link below:

http://www.multiupload.com/141O9IP25C

At this moment in time, I'm not sure if it matters, but I have removed the tiny jumper underneath the wavetable header. It works like that, so perhaps this was the correct thing to do.

Edit 2: I have made a recording of Descent, using the same ESS card, with the Yamaha DB attached. It sounds excellent. A recommended download. The DB on this thing is really clean. Link below. My next "Edit" in this post will be the ESS card, playing Descent, using its onboard wavetable ROM...

http://www.multiupload.com/EG0DGU9LF8

Edit 3: Below is the music for Descent, using the same ESS card, using its onboard wavetable ROM. IMHO, the Yamaha DB is clearly better.

http://www.multiupload.com/128FFSQTB1

retro games 100 wrote:

Yes, quite a few people on Vogons have the NEC Yamaha clone DB. I have one too. Recommended! 😀

Coolies for 20 bucks I might get one just for testing although I doubt it will fit on that ESS card. As mentioned there doesn't seem to be a lot of space 🤣

Nice recordings! Will DL them later though because today I got some of my S-Video capture stuff and I'm mucking around with that...

I have made 4 more recordings. Two use the ESS card, and the other two use the SBPro2 card. All 4 recordings are FM music. Two recordings use OPL2, and the other two recordings use OPL3. All four music tracks use the game Descent.

http://www.multiupload.com/C40HBUIUU6 (ESS, OPL2)
http://www.multiupload.com/RBX21873V0 (ESS, OPL3)
http://www.multiupload.com/V3ME5ZBCJP (SBPro2, OPL2)
http://www.multiupload.com/O5QSX4C3M0 (SBPro2, OPL3)

For the OPL3 tracks, the music sounds strangely "slowed down" in places. Perhaps there is a mobo resource timing problem? I am only using a Pentium 90. Perhaps I need more CPU power? Also, the SBPro2 OPL3 doesn't sound as good as the ESS OPL3. The ESS has a better "stereo sound". In fact, looking at the "recording wave graph" in Audacity, the SBPro2 OPL3 recording has identical left and right data, whereas the ESS OPL3 left and right data looks different.

I hope the SBPro2 was set to Stereo when I recorded those tracks. I double-checked this, and the stereo.exe util prog said "Stereo", so this mono output may be a limitation of the Descent sound/music setup program.

Ok I just listened to the Doom recordings and the second recording (Yamaha seems to have the Stereo reversed).

On this soundtrack the guitar starts off on the right, and then a second guitar joins in on the left. But on your recording it's the other way round...

Well spotted! I wonder why that happened? I wonder if that jumper near the wavetable reverses the stereo? (Although that's an unlikely idea.) Hmmm...not sure about that one! 😕

Maybe you swapped the tracks in Audacity by accident?

DB's are hardwired so I would be very surprised if your Yamaha has Stereo reversed.

That jumper though... Hmmm worth checking. Have you figured out what it does?

I had a look in Audacity, and I can't see a way of switching the L and R channels. Perhaps it's there, but I haven't seen it yet. Unfortunately, I do not know what that jumper does. I have tried using the card with it on, and with it removed, and I haven't detected any difference yet.

retro games 100 wrote:

Well spotted! I wonder why that happened? I wonder if that jumper near the wavetable reverses the stereo? (Although that's an unlikely idea.) Hmmm...not sure about that one! 😕

It is a well known issue at least for me. It is not just the Yamaha DB50XG, many daughterboards and soundcards have it reversed on their waveblaster header. In fact I found so many being reversed, that I don't know anymore what is reversed and what is proper. Of course, I have a list somewhere... 🤣

gerwin wrote:

Of course, I have a list somewhere... 🤣

🤣 ! I really like your lists. They are brilliant. 😀

Wow first time for me 🤣

I have 2 games which I know how they sound. For General Midi I use Doom, first level. Guitar needs to come from the right.

For MT-32 I use Wing Commander. That water dripping into the bucket is on the right on the screen, but sound comes from the left. Also the space sound effects are in Stereo. Communication on the right screen will come through the right speaker, weapon changes on the left screen will come through on the left speaker.

As long as the digital speech is reversed as well it's all good, but I doubt that this is the case...

It is purely an issue with midi daughterboard music: The connector on the DB side or on the soundcard side switches the stereo.
On the bottom of this topic you can find one solution:
Midi daughterboard trouble

Fascinating 🤣

If there is any chance, I would be very interested to buy some of your DB stereo reversers, please. 😁

retro games 100 wrote:

I had a look in Audacity, and I can't see a way of switching the L and R channels. Perhaps it's there, but I haven't seen it yet. Unfortunately, I do not know what that jumper does. I have tried using the card with it on, and with it removed, and I haven't detected any difference yet.

You can do it manually by choosing split stereo track. Then move either track up or down and make a stereo track again.
http://imgur.com/Fvj2K.jpg

retro games 100 wrote:

For the OPL3 tracks, the music sounds strangely "slowed down" in places. Perhaps there is a mobo resource timing problem? I am only using a Pentium 90. Perhaps I need more CPU power?

I got the same problem when I recorded music from Descent II. See if you get the same amount of slowdown there.

Re: AdLib music slowdowns

My system is a 486 dx 4 100mhz 8MB ram. A Pentium 90 should be a bit faster.

Just tried my SB16 card in a 433mhz celeron. Descent II gives the exact same amount of slowdown.

This slowdown problem is interesting. It seems to affect different soundcards, on different systems. Perhaps the problem is due to the sound card software setup.exe routine these 2 Descent games use?

I got another ESS AudioDrive card, but it sucks. The card has a poor onboard wavetable ROM. The sound effects and FM music were good however.

I have made 2 more recordings from the DOS game "Descent". They were both made using a Roland MPU-401AT ISA daughterboard host card. The first recording used a Roland SCB-7 daughterboard, and the second recording used a Yamaha DB50XG. The Yamaha's output was "loud and dynamic". I had to reduce the line in volume on the recording PC a bit, and also reduce Audacity's recording level to 0.5, in order to avoid the music becoming too loud and distorted. I did not have this problem when using the SCB-7 DB.

http://www.multiupload.com/ZEKEU5ANC0 (Roland SCB-7)
http://www.multiupload.com/ET0N573VWZ (Yamaha DB50XG)

It still amazes me just how different these General Midi devices sound. I mean the whole point was to create a standard but it really boils down to what midi device you use when you compose the music...

The bass drum on the Roland is subtle and on the Yamaha quite techno style 🤣

The Yamaha has Stereo swapped (which we established now), though I believe Descent does have an option to swap channels 😀 I guess they also discovered this "glitch" with many midi modules...

^ Yes that's right! I remember now, when you actually play the game (hehe, I don't play games much these days, just mess about with old hardware) you can choose to reverse the stereo in the options.