It is a very special card indeed.
According to the compatibility matrix in the thread "Pure DOS gaming system with 100% digital audio output" it seems to be on par with the Yamaha YMF724/744 with having the best-working digital output in DOS also.

You know its good when someone names their synthesizer software after the chipset http://fm801.kewl.org

Yeah, I've known about Frequency Monster for a while now. I was so pleasantly surprised by FM801 really, great compatibility, decent FM, optical out. I wish it supported A3D or EAX of some kind, but what was deal breaker for me was that it had no hardware or software MIDI Synth that worked in a DOS Window..

Regardless, if all you want it FM Synthesis on the PCI bus it's light years better than Vortex 2 if not as good as Solo-1 (but hey, it works on ICH chipsets so take that Solo-1!)

OK, I am necroing this thread to let everyone know that I just realized something about this card that catapulted it to my favorite DOS PCI Sound Card status.

I was trying different PCI sound cards on a K7VM2 motherboard, and I ran into a big issue: A terrible BIOS. There is no option to turning on/off the Plug n Play OS setting and it is defaulted to Off, so depending on the PCI slot the sound card goes in it gets IRQ 10 or 11. Pretty shitty right? Especially if you are expecting some kind of Sound Blaster compatibility out of it.

In come FM801 DOS drivers. A tiny DOS TSR that I have not found to cause problems with any game I tried so far does an AMAZING job of IRQ emulation. You run the config utility, do the initialization and run the TSR and magically every game detects and uses the card on IRQ 5 in DOS. After trying a YMF7x4, an ESS Solo-1 and an Aureal 2 I settled on this card for this troublesome system and I feel incredibly happy about it. I actually found a second (albeit cheaper looking) card with FM801 chipset and immediately bought it today.

Anyone who is considering a PCI card for DOS, don't overlook this chipset. The FM Synth is not OPL3 but it's also one of the better implementations as far as I am concerned. SB Pro compatibility is near flawless (near because of stereo reversal issues - but you can thank Creative for that mess..)

appiah4 wrote on 2021-11-26, 09:54:

Anyone who is considering a PCI card for DOS, don't overlook this chipset. The FM Synth is not OPL3 but it's also one of the better implementations as far as I am concerned. SB Pro compatibility is near flawless (near because of stereo reversal issues - but you can thank Creative for that mess..)

Are you using the Terratec 512i card with Fortemedia FM801-AU chip? There are also cards with FM801-AS chip and I was wondering if the chip version makes any difference in dos compatibility.

Seems that Socket 775 and newer platforms may have more dos compatibility problems: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cvhr6 … K4l0/edit#gid=0

janih wrote on 2021-11-26, 11:38:

appiah4 wrote on 2021-11-26, 09:54:

Anyone who is considering a PCI card for DOS, don't overlook this chipset. The FM Synth is not OPL3 but it's also one of the better implementations as far as I am concerned. SB Pro compatibility is near flawless (near because of stereo reversal issues - but you can thank Creative for that mess..)

Are you using the Terratec 512i card with Fortemedia FM801-AU chip? There are also cards with FM801-AS chip and I was wondering if the chip version makes any difference in dos compatibility.

Seems that Socket 775 and newer platforms may have more dos compatibility problems: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cvhr6 … K4l0/edit#gid=0

Yeah it's the 512i with the FM801-AU chip. The new card I ordered is a Genius Sound Maker Live (the 4.1 half card version) - those can come with AS or AU chips but I don't think there are any functional differences between the two. I'll confirm when I receive, and test it in DOS.

As for LGA775 - that depends on the chipset you are using. I didn't go for one of those shitty Intel chipsets that don't support any DMA modes. My LGA775 Win98SE system has a Biostar P4M890-M7 SE motherboard with VIA P4M890 / VT8237A North/sbouthbridges that have support for DDMA so I had absolutely zero issues with a YMF744.

Actually, find the datasheets attached. The only difference I can see is that the AS version does not support SPDIF Input.

The one and only issue I have with this card in DOS is that it does not seem to have a mixer and the Line In is muted by default, so using it with an external Synth and mixing that to the audio out is impossible to do on the card itself. If anyone knows how to change mixer settings for FM801 in DOS please let me know 😀

appiah4 wrote on 2021-11-26, 14:41:

The one and only issue I have with this card in DOS is that it does not seem to have a mixer and the Line In is muted by default, so using it with an external Synth and mixing that to the audio out is impossible to do on the card itself. If anyone knows how to change mixer settings for FM801 in DOS please let me know 😀

Did you find a solution for this?

In case you haven't yet, I did a little investigation. From the diagram on page 1 of FM801-AU-ForteMedia.pdf which you attached, I understand that line in is routed to the AC'97 codec chip rather than the FM801 itself, so I think what is required is a tool which can talk to an AC'97 chip via the FM801. That datasheet explains how to use the FM801's registers to talk to the AC'97 codec, and I hope the mixer registers are standard across AC'97 codec chips. I found https://github.com/volkertb/JUDAS/tree/master/ICHINIT, see https://github.com/volkertb/JUDAS/blob/master … NIT/ICHINIT.TXT for some more information but I gather it initialises an AC'97 codec attached directly to a south bridge, including setting mixer levels. Perhaps it can be updated to also support talking to a codec via the FM801.

I also note that CFG801.EXE already has some support for adjusting some mixer levels (based on values in C:\VOLUME.CFG), but only for these channels: MASVOL, PCMVOL, FMVOL and SURVOL. I'm not sure if they're adjusted at a digital level within the FM801 though. Presumably it has to set up the AC'97 codec to some extent just like ICHINIT does though, so maybe it does perform some mixer settings there, and can be reverse-engineered and updated to adjust other mixer settings.

doshea wrote on 2022-01-10, 05:57:

Did you find a solution for this? […]
Show full quote

appiah4 wrote on 2021-11-26, 14:41:

The one and only issue I have with this card in DOS is that it does not seem to have a mixer and the Line In is muted by default, so using it with an external Synth and mixing that to the audio out is impossible to do on the card itself. If anyone knows how to change mixer settings for FM801 in DOS please let me know 😀

Did you find a solution for this?

In case you haven't yet, I did a little investigation. From the diagram on page 1 of FM801-AU-ForteMedia.pdf which you attached, I understand that line in is routed to the AC'97 codec chip rather than the FM801 itself, so I think what is required is a tool which can talk to an AC'97 chip via the FM801. That datasheet explains how to use the FM801's registers to talk to the AC'97 codec, and I hope the mixer registers are standard across AC'97 codec chips. I found https://github.com/volkertb/JUDAS/tree/master/ICHINIT, see https://github.com/volkertb/JUDAS/blob/master … NIT/ICHINIT.TXT for some more information but I gather it initialises an AC'97 codec attached directly to a south bridge, including setting mixer levels. Perhaps it can be updated to also support talking to a codec via the FM801.

I also note that CFG801.EXE already has some support for adjusting some mixer levels (based on values in C:\VOLUME.CFG), but only for these channels: MASVOL, PCMVOL, FMVOL and SURVOL. I'm not sure if they're adjusted at a digital level within the FM801 though. Presumably it has to set up the AC'97 codec to some extent just like ICHINIT does though, so maybe it does perform some mixer settings there, and can be reverse-engineered and updated to adjust other mixer settings.

Nope, still need a workaround for this myself. Unfortunatley I don't have the skills to write the required software to do the mixer initialization 🙁 Maybe someone who can do it and is interested will pick up on it.

appiah4 wrote on 2022-01-10, 13:10:

Maybe someone who can do it and is interested will pick up on it.

I'll see what I can do. Are you able to let me know what PCI device ID is reported for your card, and also what AC'97 codec chip is on it (which you probably need to determine by visual inspection)? I'm interested in the PCI ID because I think that CFG801.EXE does unmute line in, at least in some cases (which I haven't quite figured out), and I'm interested in the codec so I can figure out whether the same commands would work for yours vs. mine and so I can try to figure out what CFG801.EXE is doing.

The revision number of the chip would be interesting too, as CFG801.EXE uses this in some cases, specifically it seems to have some special cases for device ID 0x0801 revision 0xA0. I haven't checked mine yet. Under Linux, lspci -nn will show both the device ID and revision. I think there are DOS commands for this I've seen referenced elsewhere on these forums.

I just added my own complete lspci -nn output in my thread here, but here is the interesting part:

00:07.0 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: Fortemedia, Inc Xwave QS3000A [FM801] [1319:0801] (rev a0)
00:07.1 Input device controller [0980]: Fortemedia, Inc Xwave QS3000A [FM801] [1319:0801] (rev a0)

Also I tried plugging the headphone jack from my phone into the line in of my card and I could hear the audio in DOS after booting with CFG801.EXE run. I didn't run anything else like any games before testing, but I could still hear line in while playing Prince of Persia. My understanding from looking at CFG801.EXE is that it unmutes and sets the volume for line in unconditionally, so it should do this for you too. I'm using CFG801.EXE "v2.03" from the "VXD Q3D v2.05f" directory in fm801-nov2000.rar from http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=1147&menustate=0 I don't know if the 2.02 version also sets up line in.

For what it's worth it doesn't set the line in volume to maximum, so we could probably boost that with a trivial patch to the .EXE file.

My FM801 is currently in my Socket A system, I'm pretty sure I can boot some kind of Linux and let you know - but not until the weekend.

My CFG801.EXE does not enable Line In as far as I can remember. I will check the version and let you know about that as well.