S_crumb wrote on 2021-09-01, 21:35:

The easiest solution for me would just be to solder in brand new connectors but I can't find a source for new ISA edge connectors.

If anyone knows where I can buy some, let me know!

These should be close enough for most purposes. It should be relatively easy to find the local country-specific version of the site for your location. Depending upon your location, shipping and import fees may be prohibitive, however.

I would feel safer if the card was tested on some random other system that is not branded... then go on to replace isa slots etc
it seems that almost all serious issues we faced are because of OEMs and their early adoptions of PnP standard... dell, olivetti, gateway (perhaps)
the fact that CS4237 is a 1997+ chip does not do them any favors - it was not available back in 1994/5/6 that these systems were made so noone could have tested anything related to it

just chiming in to say agree with keropi but would say it may not only be OEM's but just compatibility issues with earlier motheboards' PnP implementation? I'm no expert but my experience has been my Orpheus was not detected on my Soyo SY-025K that is a very good mobo and never had any issue with anything else I've thrown at it, including many different soundcards, but it would just not detect the Orpheus. Keropi helped and JazeFox (from UNISOUND) a whole lot as well, and we ended up discovering it was related to ISA timings as the card started being detected as soon as I set ISA timing to CLKIN/5 or smaller, but that created other issues with garbled sound and stuff.

I've tested the Orpheus on 5 other motherboards and all of them detected it flawlessly. So I've since then swapped my SY-025K (which was a bit of a bummer, such a hassle-free and overall great mobo, that problem aside) to another (luckily, also very good) QDI V4P895P3 and I've been enjoying the Orpheus very much since then. It's a wonderful card!

Unfortunately I don't have another machine with ISA slots to test it. The new riser card cost me $4 so it's worth trying when it gets here.

Otherwise...I dunno.

maybe worth trying to play with ISA bus timings as well to see if there's any improvement in detection and/or audio problems?

Hi,
Any setting for SB-Input-select in orpheus.ini to simultaneously enable both line-in and mic? I have no idea what to do for getting both inputs, but either of them.

copymaker wrote on 2021-10-14, 23:17:

Hi,
Any setting for SB-Input-select in orpheus.ini to simultaneously enable both line-in and mic? I have no idea what to do for getting both inputs, but either of them.

That isn't something the Sound Blaster Pro compatibility allows. However, that is really only meant for selecting the input for recording. Even if you leave it set to Microphone, you should still be able to hear both, assuming you have set the microphone volume to something other than 0 (mute). Most people don't bother trying to use a microphone, and I don't own one, so I haven't tested this functionality. Are you trying to use an actual microphone, or something else?

640K!enough wrote on 2021-10-17, 20:12:

copymaker wrote on 2021-10-14, 23:17:

Hi,
Any setting for SB-Input-select in orpheus.ini to simultaneously enable both line-in and mic? I have no idea what to do for getting both inputs, but either of them.

That isn't something the Sound Blaster Pro compatibility allows. However, that is really only meant for selecting the input for recording. Even if you leave it set to Microphone, you should still be able to hear both, assuming you have set the microphone volume to something other than 0 (mute). Most people don't bother trying to use a microphone, and I don't own one, so I haven't tested this functionality. Are you trying to use an actual microphone, or something else?

Many thanks for your answer involved in this matter.
You're right. I've tested again on the scratch editing with a default orpheus.ini file and I've found both line-in & mic work well whatever chosen one in SB-Input-select as you mentioned. I think I probably made some mistake in writing orpheous.ini file.
And I don't use mic at all, it was just a simple experiment to check a possiblity if a Orpheus card can simultaneoulsy receive & mix two sound sources coming from lines-in and mic, considering put two other additional sound cards output to Orpheus input respectively. I found it's surly possible to get both, however there's some difference in noise perspective. I tested with PCMIDI card as an external sound source of the test. While sound from the Orpheus' line-in was so clean and therefore excellent to use, other sound from the Orheus' mic port included noise. The noise was apparent like grinding noise, not acceptable for me to use it. Lowering Mic-volumn in SB-mode from 3 to 1 did not prevent to produce such a noise. I feel now mic port should be dedicated to mic gear and not suitable to use with other kinds of sound sources. I wouldn't use mic port for sake of normal line-in purpose anyway.

copymaker wrote on 2021-10-18, 08:31:

I feel now mic port should be dedicated to mic gear and not suitable to use with other kinds of sound sources. I wouldn't use mic port for sake of normal line-in purpose anyway.

I'm not sure about the nature of the noise, but trying that always entails some risk. The microphone input has additional amplification in-line on most sound cards, and is not intended for line-level signals. The fact that the Sound Blaster Pro mixer is rather primitive doesn't help, but isn't the main issue.

640K!enough wrote on 2021-10-19, 02:06:

copymaker wrote on 2021-10-18, 08:31:

I feel now mic port should be dedicated to mic gear and not suitable to use with other kinds of sound sources. I wouldn't use mic port for sake of normal line-in purpose anyway.

I'm not sure about the nature of the noise, but trying that always entails some risk. The microphone input has additional amplification in-line on most sound cards, and is not intended for line-level signals. The fact that the Sound Blaster Pro mixer is rather primitive doesn't help, but isn't the main issue.

The electret microphones need bias current. That is the source of the noise mentioned because the power supply for that bias current is insufficiently filtered if filtered at all. This is the card's design flaw.

640K!enough wrote on 2021-10-19, 02:06:

copymaker wrote on 2021-10-18, 08:31:

I feel now mic port should be dedicated to mic gear and not suitable to use with other kinds of sound sources. I wouldn't use mic port for sake of normal line-in purpose anyway.

I'm not sure about the nature of the noise, but trying that always entails some risk. The microphone input has additional amplification in-line on most sound cards, and is not intended for line-level signals. The fact that the Sound Blaster Pro mixer is rather primitive doesn't help, but isn't the main issue.

No, it's not an main issue and I am happy with Orpheus, I've also tested with SB16 (CT2940) instead of Orpheus. Used external sound source was same as a PCMIDI Card + McCake combination. The CT2940 showed same behavior like Orpheus did. McCake sound coming from line-in was so clean and the other from mic was noisy, too. So line-in should be only a channel for line-in but mic was not.

georgel wrote on 2021-10-19, 03:55:

640K!enough wrote on 2021-10-19, 02:06:

copymaker wrote on 2021-10-18, 08:31:

I feel now mic port should be dedicated to mic gear and not suitable to use with other kinds of sound sources. I wouldn't use mic port for sake of normal line-in purpose anyway.

I'm not sure about the nature of the noise, but trying that always entails some risk. The microphone input has additional amplification in-line on most sound cards, and is not intended for line-level signals. The fact that the Sound Blaster Pro mixer is rather primitive doesn't help, but isn't the main issue.

The electret microphones need bias current. That is the source of the noise mentioned because the power supply for that bias current is insufficiently filtered if filtered at all. This is the card's design flaw.

Thanks for information, I understood that mic port is one of input channel though but different from line-in as you explaned above.

MIC IN is a dedicated microphone input with all parts present on the path as per Crystal design documents.
It cannot be used for any other input or switched to something else (to be used as an extra line-in for example, this will not work as copymaker found out)

keropi wrote on 2021-10-19, 06:47:

MIC IN is a dedicated microphone input with all parts present on the path as per Crystal design documents.
It cannot be used for any other input or switched to something else (to be used as an extra line-in for example, this will not work as copymaker found out)

Stop copying others' designs and start thinking. There is nothing extra terrestrial about this LF audio input. And the noise mentioned if not filtered will be present had it been used with a microphone too! The MIC input can be used as line input with just one mere coupling capacitor in series.

http://www.learningaboutelectronics.com/Artic … pling-capacitor

georgel wrote on 2021-10-19, 08:49:

Stop copying others' designs and start thinking. There is nothing extra terrestrial about this LF audio input. And the noise mentioned if not filtered will be present had it been used with a microphone too! The MIC input can be used as line input with just one mere coupling capacitor in series.

http://www.learningaboutelectronics.com/Artic … pling-capacitor

The MIC port on the card is configured according to the manufacturer's guidelines - and it's a mic input and nothing else.
I will not even comment about ignoring Crystal's design guidelines when it comes to their chip, it's just ridiculous.
I have better things to do than getting notifications on the thread and instead of some meaningful post I read your assumption/guess posts and how we don't live up to your standards. 🤣
I really hope this brings an end to this unnecessary and surreal discussion.... but somehow I doubt it seeing your behavior in other threads... 😐

Since early feedback seemed to indicate that some of the recent additions were helpful to some Orpheus owners, and they don't seem to have introduced any new problems, it's time for a new release: version 0.54ß.

Sincere thanks are due to Arvid and ElBrunzy for their problem reports and tolerating my requests for debugging information and logs. As always, keropi was a great help in this too. Thanks to all of you; the feedback really helps.

Changelog

• Added preliminary support for the non-Plug-and-Play mode of the CS4237 (SLAM/hostload init). This solves some of the boot delays with certain machines, among other things. Contact keropi or ask for details if you are experiencing delays or other oddities at boot when Orpheus is installed.
• Improved portability and safety of some Plug and Play routines.
• Corrected a bug that caused the PnP RDP to be changed unnecessarily under certain conditions. This could lead to problems with other software.
• Implemented improved error-checking of BIOS Plug and Play structures.

I was watching one of those many soundcard comparison on video game where I noticed about Gabriel Knight 1. I never played that game and decided to try it's original version. The ambience is fulfilling with pleasing graphics and gorgeous music. As I wanted to experience it to the fullest it was obviously a perfect job for the Orpheus and it's pcmidi attached SC-88.

As I did put aside the computer with the Orpheus card for the summer, just yesterday I started the Sierra adventure. What a strange coincidence that I came here to see if I was lagging behind some development to see the 0.54b was released the same day. So I'm very glad to be able to report now that so far the 0.54b work very well. The message about "WARNING : Plug and Play read data port changed from 3E3 to 3E7." disappeared. With the form I had to fill to report the issue in hand, it was easy to verify that I could adjust the SB-PCMVol volume of the card to mix the SoundBlaster sound effect level with the Roland tone generator music as expected. Thanks to this, I wont be responsible of increase in stock value of Keropi's shares on external mixer anytime soon now.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you're having good results with the new version so far, but feel free to report any new problems.

The next version should have a few new tricks up its sleeve, but I'm not sure how soon it will be ready.

how did I miss this new version post! thanks again 640k!enough for this new version and your ongoing support!!!
damnit I've been so busy soldering stuff , I wonder what else I missed now...!

ElBrunzy wrote on 2021-12-30, 05:32:

[...] Thanks to this, I wont be responsible of increase in stock value of Keropi's shares on external mixer anytime soon now.

what is this? I need my Hawaii vacation already go get 2 mixers (1 spare) !!!! 🤣 🤣 🤣

On asus P2B-L With 128mb ram , Via C3 nehemiah at 1.2Ghz, Asus V7700 Orpheus and Argus I get Unable to reset Sound Blaster DSP.
Older versions don't work either.

Edit: If I remove Argus all works fine.