I came across a few collaboration tools, but they seem a pain to setup.
PM sent with the merged project, it should have everything this time along with what you've done so far.

I'll resume translating the file into C manually. My digression into a general 16-bit IDA ASM to C util won't be seeing the light of day any time soon. So it's probably faster to just buckle down and do it 😉

ZanQuance wrote:

I'll resume translating the file into C manually. My digression into a general 16-bit IDA ASM to C util won't be seeing the light of day any time soon. So it's probably faster to just buckle down and do it 😉

The whole code, or the OPL core? Because I can just as well write C or C-like comments instead of just "oh here we are calculating this".

Aureal archeology 😉 I am reversing the entire program for future posterity reasons.

I setup a github for this Project at [github project deleted]
For now I'm just doing some quick and dirty translations to organize everything the routines do, I'll work on cleaning the code up as it goes along.

[edit2]
I've decided to remove the old github codebase.
Project is on hold until further notice.

You guys seem like the ones to ask - is there a better DOS mixer for the Vortex 2 than 'vortmix'? (vortmix is kinda buggy in my experience)

Sorry for the off topic!

Not that I know of, it's just realllllllly buggy.
It's on the TODO: list of things that need updated for the Vortex2 cards.

[double post]

I really, really hope this project gets somewhere! Good luck! I can not wait to try the results.

squareguy wrote:

I really, really hope this project gets somewhere! Good luck! I can not wait to try the results.

Thanks, it will be awesome once complete 😀

[double post]

Hey there!
Cool project with already great results as they seem!
Just a couple of questions from my side. Is there any possibility for the new driver to support S/PDIF-out (or even S/PDIF-in)? Maybe even in DOS?..
As far as S/PDIF-in is considered, IIRC there is only one board that has made it to the market - Turtle Beach Montego II Home Studio. It has some special drivers for both S/PDIF input and output ports, as I'm not a software developer, I just can't judge if it can be passed over to the new cool stuff being designed here. If you need the TB M2 HS board for tests, I can provide you with such (but as it is a very rare piece of hardware, I'll have to ask you to return it once all necessary tests are finished - but with no hurry as I don't use it currently - willing to resume doing it after your driver is released - and don't have any intention to sell it).

Thanks for the offer, however I believe my cousin still has his Montego II with the extra SPDIF board. Though it might not be the same version, I'll check this out later.
The registers are known for SPDIF IN/OUT, so it shouldn't be an issue to implement. I'll check those special drivers and see if there are any major changes in how it communicates with the daughter card.

I'm sure you know it, but still would like to clarify so that it would be present in the topic - there were two versions of SPDIF boards by Turtle Beach:
1. SPDIF-out only - shipped with Montego II Quadzilla (rare):

2. SPDIF-IO - shipped with Montego II Home Studio (almost unobtainium):

I'm speaking about the second 😀

And many thanks for accepting my suggestion!

Yes that's the one (second one) I was thinking of. I'll ask him about it tomorrow and double check. I can most likely get all the information I need for it out of the driver, but in the case it needs tested out I can always ask you guys 😀

And no problems! all suggestions are very welcome. I am VERY ambitious about getting everything Aureal 3D back into existence again.
Rather than talking about how nice A3D once was, I'm resurrecting these awesome cards one way or another! It'll get done, and the more people involved the quicker 😁

Btw, here in Russia we have quite a big stock of brand new Aureal-based cards available for sale for insanely cheap price tags:
- SQ2500 with optical S/PDIF out - $4
- SQ2500 with coaxial S/PDIF out - $2
- SQ2200 (rebranded MX300) with MX25 coaxial S/PDIF out daughterboard - $3
- SoundCom AU8810-based card with onboard modem - $3
Surely you see almost all of them available for sale through evil bay listed by some scalper (hate that, actually!).
If you (or any other contributors of this project) want to obtain any of the mentioned cards, I could assist with shipping.
DISCLAIMER:
Don't consider it as a commercial offering as it is not - the prices are real, just what the shop asks for them. And the offer is not available for people "just passing by" - only supporters/contributors are welcome. Note that all the cards are really never used brand new OEM, most of them even have the sealed antistatic bags intact.

hard1k wrote:

- SQ2500 with optical S/PDIF out - $4 [This is an OEM SuperQuad 2500 with rev A2 chip] - SQ2500 with coaxial S/PDIF out - $2 [ […]
Show full quote

- SQ2500 with optical S/PDIF out - $4 [This is an OEM SuperQuad 2500 with rev A2 chip]
- SQ2500 with coaxial S/PDIF out - $2 [This is the retail SuperQuad 2500 with newer rev B0 chip] preferred choice if it's the original and not a clone.
- SQ2200 (rebranded MX300) with MX25 coaxial S/PDIF out daughterboard - $3 [This might be an awesome card! not sure on the specs, buyers should check on the build quality]
- SoundCom AU8810-based card with onboard modem - $3 [Meh, the AU8810 is just a crippled Vortex2 AU8830. But the modem might be fun to play with]

I got in touch with my cousin and he confirmed that it was the OEM TB Montego II with the basic Coax/Modem daughtercard. No worries though as I've located the relevant information inside the 2046 drivers themselves.
It appears that the INF is custom and there are a couple routines in the AU30Core.vxd which handles the daughtercards I/O. It shouldn't be any trouble to extract what is needed once the time comes to support this board.

Here are the pictures of two cards that I have:
1. SuperQuad 2500:

2. Rebranded MX300 (see that "Monster Sound" print?):

You should take the MX300 out of the bag and see if they used the B0 chip instead of A2 😀 That would be really neat.
Also does anyone recall what the stated clock freq of the AU8830 is? I vaguely recall it being mentioned its running at 50mhz...I have no idea how to check.

I've found the other card at my place as well, check the pictures:

Regarding the chip revisions:
SQ2500 w/ coaxial SPDIF - rev. B0
SQ2500 w/ optical SPDIF - rev. A2
SQ2200 (MX300) w/ coaxial MX25 SPDIF - rev. A2

I guess, that Diamond Multimedia merged with S3 in 1999 right at the moment when Aureal released the newer B0 revision of AU8830, so finally Aureal just acquired all stock of MX300, put a nice "Aureal A3D" sticker on the place where Diamond Multimedia logo was printed on the silkscreen, as launched sales of "SQ2200" along with its newer B0-based SQ2500.

Regarding the AU8830 clock freq, I've checked all AU8830 cards I have, all of them have a crystal oscillator of 49.152 MHz near the Vortex chip.

Regarding the use of A3D logo - IIRC, all rights for all IP of Aureal belong to Creative. I guess, they will never ever authorise anybody to use it due to the fear of resurrection of the main rival technology. Sad but true, I believe... 🙁

hard1k wrote:

Regarding the use of A3D logo - IIRC, all rights for all IP of Aureal belong to Creative. I guess, they will never ever authorize anybody to use it due to the fear of resurrection of the main rival technology. Sad but true, I believe... 🙁

Good news everyone! I recalled I had a copy of the signed legal doc of what Creative acquired, the trademarks have been dead for years (search for A3D, Aureal, WaveTracing) and thus Creative no longer owns them. They should be freely usable. 😁 It would appear Creative has long forgotten Aureal.

[edit]
It's possible the AU8830 have an internal multiplier and run at 100mhz. This is what I'm not certain how to determine, I'm much more of a software guy than hardware.