VOGONS


First post, by DaCiRO

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Is there anyway in Windows 98 to MUTE only the MIDI of Wavetable Daughter Board without affecting the MIDI sound from the Joystick port?

I have a Aureal Vortex2 with a DB50XG Daughter Board, the card is also connected to a Roland Sound Canvas SC-55mkII. I also have a Roland MX-5 mixer with 4 channels IN and 1 channel OUT to the speakers.
- The sound output (3.5mm jack) of the Aureal Vortex2 card is connected to a Roland MX-5 mixer to one of the sound input channels (i.e: Channel 1)
- The Roland Sound Canvas , is connected to the soundcard through the joystick gameport and outputs sound to another channel (i.e: Channel 2)
- Both Channels are connected to the same speaker set.

sample; when playing DOOM;
I can hear the MIDI music from both the DB50XG Daughter Board and the Roland Sound Canvas. I hear them paying simultaneously
- To hear only the music from the DB50XG Daughter Board I bring down to zero the volume of the Roland Sound Canvas channel (Channel 2 - no volume).
- However to hear only the MIDI from the Roland Sound Canvas channel , I can't just bring down to zero the volume of the DB50XG Daughter Board (Channel 1), because that channel also carries the Sound effects.

In Windows 98, I can mute the MPU-401 option but that mutes both the music from both DB50XG Daughter Board and the Roland Sound Canvas, since they use the same MPU-401 port.
Is there anyway in Windows 98 to MUTE only the MIDI of the DB50XG Daughter Board without affecting the MIDI sound from the Joystick port (Roland Sound Canvas)? Ideally I would like to alternate between hearring only either the MIDI music from the DB50XG Daughter Board or the Roland Sound Canvas without loosing the Sound effects (like shooting)

Reply 1 of 8, by Tiido

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To mute the WB card you have to mute the input on sound card mixer where the WB card output goes to. I'm not sure what it is called in the Vortex2 volume controls (MIDI, Aux, Music etc.) but it shouldn't be difficult to figure out.

T-04YBSC, a new YMF71x based sound card & Official VOGONS thread about it
Newly made 4MB 60ns 30pin SIMMs ~
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Reply 2 of 8, by DaCiRO

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In Windows 98 I can't find the soundcard mixer for the Aureal Vortex2 card to where explicitly separate options to mute the MPU-401 outputs of the Joystick port (Roland Sound Canvas) and the Wavetable DB (DB50XG Daughter Board). The only mixer I see is the standard one in Windows 98 volume control (the volume control panel) and in the there is only one option, MPU-401, which will mute/unmute both the Roland Sound Canvas and the DB50XG Daughter Board since it looks that both use this port to send MIDI.
So from a HW standpoint both are routed through the MPU-401 port,....the only option should be though SW,...but where? how?,...possible at all?.

Reply 3 of 8, by Tiido

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As far as hardware goes, MPU401 only carries the MIDI data signal, which goes to both gameport and waveblaster connector. The WB connector has analog audio return that is routed through the sound card's mixer to final audio out and that is what you'll need to toy with tho mute the WB connector audio. Gameport audio you mute on the MIDI device itself or on the device where its output is routed to, i.e line-in of the host sound card.
That MPU401 mute you mention seems to work on the actual MIDI data signal, and not the analog audio part... I would be quite surprised if there is no other slider that affects the WB card volume (though you may need to go to Properties menu in the volume control and enable any hidden things there may be, with luck there's one that does something useful which wasn't enabled by default.

T-04YBSC, a new YMF71x based sound card & Official VOGONS thread about it
Newly made 4MB 60ns 30pin SIMMs ~
mida sa loed ? nagunii aru ei saa 😜

Reply 4 of 8, by DaCiRO

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OK Thanks, this is what see after testing this for a while. Options in Volume Control panel.

WAVETABLE = mutes the card's Internal Synth MIDI
WAVE OUT = mutes the Sound FXs (No MIDI)
MPU-401 = mutes the card's Wavetable DB. Does not mute the External Sound Canvas module.

So to hear the MIDI form the Sound Canvas only I just need to mute the the Wavetable DB by muting the MPU-401 port.

Reply 5 of 8, by carlostex

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Sharing an MPU with external units is fine since you can always only turn the other units off. This complicates when using DB's. You can always mute that part of the sound card but usually when you mute the DB it can also mute FM on some cards. And its bloody annoying to do that. However seems like this is not your case.

I simply reserve port 330h for external units only. Then i have DB's set to other ports. But i can do this because i have enough cards and ISA slots.

Reply 6 of 8, by DaCiRO

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carlostex wrote on 2021-10-12, 20:14:

Sharing an MPU with external units is fine since you can always only turn the other units off. This complicates when using DB's. You can always mute that part of the sound card but usually when you mute the DB it can also mute FM on some cards. And its bloody annoying to do that. However seems like this is not your case.

I simply reserve port 330h for external units only. Then i have DB's set to other ports. But i can do this because i have enough cards and ISA slots.

Interesting, …How do you assign a different ports to the external devices and the DB? I only see an MPU-401 device in the device manager.

Reply 8 of 8, by carlostex

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DaCiRO wrote on 2021-10-13, 12:57:

Interesting, …How do you assign a different ports to the external devices and the DB? I only see an MPU-401 device in the device manager.

Like i said: i have plenty of cards and ISA slots to spare. Don't know how it would be in Windows though, my experience is strictly DOS.