MIDI host for OPL2/3 sound cards? \ VOGONS

MIDI host for OPL2/3 sound cards?

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First post, by commodorejohn

Posted on 2013-09-21, 19:42

commodorejohn Offline

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One of the members over on the Vintage Computer Forum had this question, and I was kind of wondering about it as well: does anybody know of a good program for using an external MIDI controller to drive the OPL2/3 chip on Adlib/SB-compatible sound cards? There's a program like this that comes on the Gravis Ultrasound utilities disk, but of course that only drives the GUS...it'd be fun to be able to play FM live. He's looking for something that will run on a vanilla 8086, while I'd be interested in 386-compatible software as well. Something that can load custom IBK banks would be optimal...

Reply 1 of 4, by Cloudschatze

Posted on 2013-09-21, 20:48

Cloudschatze Offline

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A number of MIDI sequencer packages have support for the OPL2/3 chips. These will generally have/use a pre-defined instrument bank though, whereas it sounds like the interest is more in something like a voice editor? If this is the case, Ad Lib's "Instrument Maker" supports MPU-401-compatible interfaces for MIDI input (make sure to load the MPU401.COM driver). It's a bit basic, but should work just dandy on an 8086.

Reply 2 of 4, by commodorejohn

Posted on 2013-09-21, 21:07

commodorejohn Offline

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Sequencers would probably work, as long as they have a MIDI echo function to route incoming information directly "out" to the FM chip. (I know WinJammer has this functionality, but of course that's for Windows.) If Instrument Maker can do this, it might be the ticket...

Reply 3 of 4, by MaliceX

Posted on 2013-09-22, 17:15

MaliceX Offline

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http://fm801.kewl.org/app/about/

This is one of the closest things to what you're looking for, I believe.

EDIT; oh right, that won't work on an 8086. 🙁 Sorry.
But do have a look at some of these editors if any of the DOS-based ones will work.
http://www.astercity.net/~malf/editors.html

Reply 4 of 4, by commodorejohn

Posted on 2013-09-22, 21:39

commodorejohn Offline

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That does look nice for me; and while it doesn't fit the 8086 requirement for the other guy, SBTimbre on that page fortunately does, and supports his SB gameport MIDI directly 😀

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