are you using EWS promix? it's a bit easier to use since it combines the stock panels into one. i guess you have already tried lowering the MIDI/synth volume levels there? the dream synth does tend to be very loud by default from what i remember and this output just sounds clipped to me more than anything. have you tried digital output from the front panel? by the way doom sends a GM reset and i recall that can interfere in some ways so try some other games if you haven't.

if it's a hardware issue it's strange to me that all the other things work. if the card has not been used at all for 15 or 20 years the capacitors might have taken damage and probably the dream chip would be most sensitive to that. i would also do the usual check for bad traces/shorted pins etc.

This card is notorious for the capacitors needing to be replaced. You might want to try going that route. And there are around 60 of them on the PCB. IIRC they are almost all 10uF.

thank you for answers guys !
yes, sounds like very loud and clipping, but not. First what i try - change volume levels for synth and effects off.

I think about capasitors, but i check it all for short circuit (negative all) and all looks good - no leaks and plump up.
ok, i try to change it all on holidays and return with news.

Ar2r4eg wrote on 2021-01-22, 08:05:

thank you for answers guys ! yes, sounds like very loud and clipping, but not. First what i try - change volume levels for synth […]
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thank you for answers guys !
yes, sounds like very loud and clipping, but not. First what i try - change volume levels for synth and effects off.

I think about capasitors, but i check it all for short circuit (negative all) and all looks good - no leaks and plump up.
ok, i try to change it all on holidays and return with news.

There are several things that you need to check with capacitors... Capacitance, ESR and leakage are just a few. The first two are the easiest and can be done with something like a GM328.

Hi guys
I did full re-cup and... nothing changes 🙁 as before i hear overloaded midi sound.
I try Promix - its fantastic utiluty for EWS - all settins in one place ! ...and what I noticed - i can't control midi volume. I thik its am maximum all time and sound is overloaded. When i push different effect buttons in promix, like equaliser or enable/disable chorus/reverb, for a very short period of time, in a split second, i hear clear quiet midi sound. What responsible for midi level ? Maybe firmware broken or part of hardware mixer ? i continue try different settings...

all what i have now - is beautiful blue capasitors )))

Also i try out music over OUT2 which direct connected to SYNTH - no sound, no volume change - nothig.
On diagramm i find between synth and codec places 18bit DAC. I think thats is my problem.
DAC is TDA1314T and its directly connected to DREAM SAM9407

Hi,

Ar2r4eg gave this EWS64 board to me for diagnostics.

So, what i tried to do:
- found out that the signal when playing wavetable MIDI originates from the SAM9407 chip in the form of a digital line I2S (Philips serial protocol for audio), specifically from pin 48 - DABD1 (data). Also, with SAM9407, a clock and a WS signal (word select) for switching the right / left channel are output. And all these three digital signals go straight to the DAC TDA1314T. The DAC output is connected through 10μF electrolytes to the eighth pins of the TEA6320, one channel to one, the second channel to the other. I didn't track it further, because the oscilloscope at the DAC output shows a signal with an overload, the same as heard in the speakers.

- connected a Saleae logic analyzer to the I2S bus and captured ~ 30 seconds of playing the DOOM E1M1 MIDI file, which is output from the SAM9407 chip to the DAC. Here is it: https://yadi.sk/d/qiCdU6369Ox56g (Saleae logic analyzer format *.logicdata). It seems that it was approximately possible to convert the data captured by the logic analyzer from the i2s bus into a regular .WAV file, here it is:

- checked the clocks - the MK1413S synthesizer-generator is correctly controlled from the mixer, when you switch between 32KHz, 44.1, 48KHz - it gives out the necessary frequencies according to the datasheet, depending on the states of the S0 and S1 inputs.

- Memory .. Soldered another DRAM KM416C1200AJ-7 chip removed from one of my SIMMs. The behavior has not changed - the midi hiss in the same way. Soldered back KM416C1200BJ-5 as it was. That is, it's not about memory...

- Sketched connection GAL or PAL, which with a sticker 172 000 832. It turned out something like this:

From this it follows that it is mainly needed to service the SIMM slot, in much the same way as the GAL in the SIMMConn adapter for AWE64, a similar principle of forming the necessary / RAS2, / RAS3, / CAS0, / CAS1 for the SIMM slot. It does not participate in the life of onboard memory, except for the / CAS signal passing through it into the combined / UCAS + / LCAS signals on the DRAM chip itself. I looked with an oscilloscope, this signal corresponds to the input to the GAL and the output, that is, it simply buffers it, as it should be judging by the scheme for connecting a simple DRAM to the SAM9704. It turns out that suspicions are also removed from this PLD.

- Some addresses are buffered through the two 74ALS244, I checked them too - they work as expected.

- Found a short description of the 'Programming Manual' on SAM9407, tried to write a simple Pascal program that would read the contents of AWS64 memory into a file. I thought everything seemed to be fine, at least at the beginning the firmware is located, then the name of the bank file and the samples went ... I tried to write my data after the firmware, well, just the constant 0x5a5a at all addresses and then read it back to the file - everything is fine exactly until 1MB (offset 0x100000), and then there is some garbage in the read file. I guess I made some mistake in the program. If someone has a similar EWS64 XL soundcard, please try running my program and send me the dump file it creates, please.

put my 1.2 card in, ran ewsinit -f in DOS and then your tool, but i only get some "ERROR get ack!" messages. there is a dump file but i guess its useless then, does your tool expect the card at a certain address or something?

and btw, since you mention it writing data i hope there is no chance of bricking the card...

auron wrote on 2021-02-09, 04:50:

put my 1.2 card in, ran ewsinit -f in DOS and then your tool, but i only get some "ERROR get ack!" messages. there is a dump file but i guess its useless then, does your tool expect the card at a certain address or something?

and btw, since you mention it writing data i hope there is no chance of bricking the card...

Thank you for your answer!

Yes, "ewsinit -f" should be enought for init EWS card. My program used 330h MIDI port. Maybe your MIDI port is different? I can change the port in the program to the desired one.
And pls don't worry, data is written only to dynamic memory (DRAM or SIMM), after a reboot or power-down cycle everything will be as before.

UPD: Ooops, you right, "ewsinit -f" don't allow to get any commands to MIDI 330 port, so my program is not working as expected. Can you try "ewsinit -f -v -b 94sbk080.94b", please?

ok, reconfigured the card to 330 (was on pnp before and ewsinit always assigned it to 300 then) and it actually worked with just -f, but i still did the init as you said. i'll send you the dump file, looks like there is still mostly garbage from 0x100000 on though...

auron wrote on 2021-02-09, 22:06:

ok, reconfigured the card to 330 (was on pnp before and ewsinit always assigned it to 300 then) and it actually worked with just -f, but i still did the init as you said. i'll send you the dump file, looks like there is still mostly garbage from 0x100000 on though...

Thank you very much. Unfortunately, much remains unclear, and your dump confused me more than clarified something. Did you test your card with or without SIMM?
Thanks for the help anyway.

tested with SIMM - 16 MB FPM with parity i believe.

pyrogx wrote on 2018-11-17, 10:05:

There's an archive with (almost) all known 94B banks on Vogonsdrivers, GS_8MB.94B for example works fine for me.

Anyone know where to find this soundfont, or which 'archive' on Vogonsdriver contains it ?

i think here: https://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=144

Thankyou !

(I find searching on that site really hard, at least when you get a long list with no? way of seeing past the first 20 hits)