MJay99 wrote on 2022-03-28, 00:36:

@JazeFox: Is, or would it be possible, to use the Orpheus' /XOFi & /XOFe option with any CS423x card?

Depending on how you've connected the OPL3, it is likely possible. Whether JazeFox would want to allow those options for other designs is another matter, as it may cause confusion.

Currently, UNISOUND checks the on-card EEPROM to determine whether it is configuring an Orpheus, then acts accordingly. Assuming you've connected the external synth via the CS4237's SCS# pin, you still have a few options:

1. Download the Orpheus EEPROM updater from the official Orpheus page, and flash that to your card. This should convince the current version of UNISOUND to process those options. See additional details below
2. If your card's EISA ID is of the form CSC??37, as shown by UNISOUND, you can also download and try ORPHINIT from the Orpheus page. It only checks for a CS4237-based card, not specifically for an Orpheus.

Important Details

• These suggestions apply to the CS4237 only; other chips in the series may have different behaviours/requirements not accounted for in current software.
• Enabling an external FM synth connected via SCS# triggers a chip bug that results in the loss of PCM volume control in Sound Blaster compatibility mode.
• If flashing the EEPROM: Depending on the capacity of the EEPROM on your card, you may need to comment the line that includes the firmware patch file, as some designs didn't have enough space for updated firmware.

I found out today that if I use UNISOUND to init an SB16 then the Win 3.x software (ie Wave Player, etc.) crash and lock up the PC; sometimes immediately sometimes when trying to play a sound.

I dont know what the official drivers do different but they do something different. Worth checking out?

PS. Could it be due to not having SET SOUND=C:\SB16 or something?

640K!enough wrote on 2022-03-28, 04:51:

Depending on how you've connected the OPL3, it is likely possible. Whether JazeFox would want to allow those options for other designs is another matter, as it may cause confusion.

Thank you VERY much for the Orpheus hints and all the added information! I had actually thought about faking the name for a second, but didn't try that way yesterday (most of the evening was spent on finding an issue with the way the Wavetable and OPL mixing was implemented). The card had a 24LC04 at first, which I had swapped to a 24LC16 already to allow including the added firmware payload.

As much as I didn't have much time, I couldnt' stop myself from trying to simply change the device name in my pnp.ini right away to 'Orpheus' and as you suggested, unisound accepts it as an Orpheus now and is reportedly switching from the internal to the external FM. The internal one is working, but switching to the Yamaha OPL results in either silence or garbled output at the moment. Flashing the card back to my generic INI brings the external OPL back (albeit without an option to switch to the internal FM, unless I reflash it with the IFM flag). So, I guess, I'll have something to investigate tonight 😉 Chances are that some of my ini-settings are colliding with what unisound is expecting from an Orpheus, so I'll try flashing the orpheus-ini later this evening, too.

If @JazeFox could implement the /XOFi & /XOFe flags for the CS4237b cards (or some special generic Device Name, like e.g. CS4237B-OPL), it would still be my preferred choice to faking this card's name to something it shouldn't be allowed to carry 😉 I'm thinking there wouldn't be much harm.. unless reading up in unisound.txt, ususally noone would even see these options and per default, the card would come up with what's set in the eeprom. But, of course, I do know... this is probably a very rarely seen edge case (a CS4237B bundled with a true OPL), though it is a valid config, at least according to the datasheet.

And, who knows, maybe adding just these options to the generic CS4237B might also fix the issue I'm seeing - but that's something I'll try to figure out with some more poking tonight.

appiah4 wrote on 2022-03-28, 10:48:

I found out today that if I use UNISOUND to init an SB16 then the Win 3.x software (ie Wave Player, etc.) crash and lock up the PC; sometimes immediately sometimes when trying to play a sound.

I dont know what the official drivers do different but they do something different. Worth checking out?

PS. Could it be due to not having SET SOUND=C:\SB16 or something?

I'm using the WSS SB driver for my ESS card that's been initialized by Unisound -- maybe you could use the WSS SB16 driver instead of the creative one?

MJay99 wrote on 2022-03-28, 11:49:

The internal one is working, but switching to the Yamaha OPL results in either silence or garbled output at the moment. Flashing the card back to my generic INI brings the external OPL back (albeit without an option to switch to the internal FM, unless I reflash it with the IFM flag).

Aside from your request to JazeFox, the remainder is rather unrelated to UNISOUND, so if you'd like to continue discussing the issue, I can try to provide a few more hints if you start a dedicated thread, which would make it easier for others who may want to follow in your footsteps to find. Alternatively, feel free to contact me privately. I have had enough exposure to the CS4237 at this point that I might be able to help you get it working as you'd like.

My final few hints in this thread:

• The integrated Crystal FM implementation is "faster" (can tolerate shorter delays) than a real OPL3 (both '262 and '289), so this may be a source of problems. Try setting the 8-bit I/O recovery time to the maximum possible for testing, then back it off as possible/necessary.
• Make sure you have the WTEN and SDD bits set in the hardware configuration section of the EEPROM. Do this carefully if your card has an on-board CD-ROM controller, as there could be problems.
• Test with the SPS bit also set. Note that noise may be introduced via the digital input, depending on the design of the card, and what UNISOUND does with the mixer registers.

640K!enough wrote on 2022-03-28, 19:36:

I really want to thank you again for all the detailed hints - with that, I might even have isolated the issue in making unisound think it's configuring my non-orpheus CS4237B with an added YMF289 in unisound's Orpheus mode: If I am not totally wrong in my guess, it's setting exactly the opposite of the flags needed in my configuration (no SPS, WTEN, SDD). As for the reasoning behind this theory, we really better take this someplace else: Adding an external YMF289 to the CS4237B.

Ultrasound support - I've got a "STB Ultrasound" board. Could the PNP ids be added for that one as well? 😀
It uses the InterWave AM78C201KC chip.

The id is "ADV550a".

For more IDs, see
https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v5.17.4/sour … nterwave.c#L121

JazeFox wrote:

<ping>

I didn't manage myself to patch the unisound binary to use this id instead of 'GRV0001', for test purposes.
I'm available for testing a beta-version 😀

how do i install this its a com file ? i have a awe32 ct3900 286

you just have to copy it somewhere and run it

scroeffie wrote on 2022-05-15, 18:01:

how do i install this its a com file ? i have a awe32 ct3900 286

Reading the included README.TXT may be a good idea before asking this question.

sprcorreia wrote on 2021-09-21, 23:55:

@JazeFox

Great tool, thanks! Any chance of future support for Opti 924 soundcards?

+1 for this one. Aside from dozens of budget cards, there are at least 2 decent cards using it: the miro miroSOUND PCM12 and PCM20, both integrating the Yamaha OPL4. I'm especially interested in the latter, since I own it.

I discovered mixer support for the ALS007 seems to be only partially implemented. Master volume works but nothing else. Here's a link to mixer register descriptions for the card if you'd care to implement it in a future version. Thanks

https://www.just42.net/jwoithe/als007-notes.html

Hi all!

Here is a new release with bugfixes and features already reported by users and some new additions!

Tool updated to v0.78b

Changelog:

• Fixed ALS007 mixer, as it's only SBPro compatible, unlike other ALS cards.
• Fixed CMI card mixer to disable 3D spatial effect by default. (see below).
• Added support for Rockwell RWA Wavetable header. Now volume is working.
• Added STB Ultrasound card support as GUS PnP compatible (untested).
• Added (limited) support for Ensoniq Soundscape VIVO card. Only WSS digital
  sound, line-in control, CD-in control and joyport are working. Any other
  function will require the original TSR and drivers.
• Added (limited) support for Turtle Beach Multisound Pinnacle card (PnP mode)
  Only joyport and MPU (onboard Kurzweil wavetable) are available. There are
  several board revisions of this card, with slightly different behaviours.
  If your card is not recognized, please add the option /FS and try again.
  Also note that it's possible that your card revision doesn't work at all.
• Added feature to switch between internal and external FM/OPL on generic
  Crystal CS4237 cards. Options are the same used for Orpheus: /XOFi and /XOFe
  (untested). If no command line option is set, default is Internal FM.
• Added support for 3D sound on some cards that support it. Option: /X3Dn
  Usage depends on the supported card (value of 'n'):
  * CMI8330A: Sensaura HRTF 3D Positional audio ON (n = 1) or OFF (n = 0)
  * ALS100+/ALS120: 3D Sound Effect Proccessor ON (n = 1) or OFF (n = 0)
  * ES1869: (n = 0 to 9) 0 = disabled, 1-9 Spatializer 3D VBX effect amount.
  * YMF71x: (n = 0 to 7) 0 = disabled, 1-7 3D Enhanced (Wide) effect amount.
  * AD18xx: (n = 0 to 9) 0 = disabled, 1-9 Phat 3D effect amount.
  * CS4237: (n = 0 to 9) 0 = disabled, 1-9 SRS 3D effect amount (center+space)
  * Creative: 3D ON (n = 1) or OFF (n = 0). Only for Creative cards with 3D
  capabilities (like AWE64, some AWE32 like CT3980 or some SB16 like CT2950)
• Added bass and treble control for Yamaha cards.
• Added eXtended option to control Output Gain / Loudness on some
  compatible cards. Option is /XXGn ('n' value depends on the supported card):
  * CMI8330: Loudness ON (n = 1) or OFF (n = 0)
  * Creative: n = 1,2,4 (Gain x1, x2, x4 respectively). Some models don't have
  gain control, on those, the setting won't have effect.e.g.: Vibra16C/S/XV
  or some AWE64s like CT4520. Others like CT4500 do have it). Default: x2
  
  This version has a lot of internal changes (some untested as you can read in the changelog), so even I tested it with a lot of cards and use cases, it may have bugs i didn't see. Please report if something that worked in previous versions is broken now. Thanks.

The download link is updated at the end of the first post as usual:
UNISOUND - Universal ISA PnP Sound Card Driver for DOS v0.81b

oh! seems that now Unisound can replace the CMI stock driver!
The only thing I see that is not implemented is the SB MIXER option , is there plans to add this as well?
thanks for the update JazeFox!

keropi wrote on 2022-07-09, 19:49:

The only thing I see that is not implemented is the SB MIXER option , is there plans to add this as well?

😁
Well, after some tests I believe that option is not needed. Anyway it's "implemented". I used it to do some tests. There is an undocumented option: /XXG9 to disable SB MIXER (it enables Loudness as well). Just in case you need it to do some tests or someting.

JazeFox wrote on 2022-07-09, 20:02:

😁
Well, after some tests I believe that option is not needed. Anyway it's "implemented". I used it to do some tests. There is an undocumented option: /XXG9 to disable SB MIXER (it enables Loudness as well). Just in case you need it to do some tests or someting.

heheh
thanks! 😀

JazeFox wrote on 2022-07-09, 19:26:

[*] Added feature to switch between internal and external FM/OPL on generic
Crystal CS4237 cards. Options are the same used for Orpheus: /XOFi and /XOFe
(untested). If no command line option is set, default is Internal FM.

That's a really great addition for my card, thank you so much! I just tried it and it also does work perfectly!

JazeFox wrote on 2022-07-09, 19:26:

[*] Fixed ALS007 mixer, as it's only SBPro compatible, unlike other ALS cards.

Thanks! Does it also handle the muting registers (index 3Ch and 4Ch)?

EDIT: just tried it, seems it just unmutes all inputs regardless of volume level, which is OK

JazeFox wrote on 2022-07-09, 19:26:

[*] Added support for 3D sound on some cards that support it. Option: /X3Dn Usage depends on the supported card (value of 'n') […]
Show full quote

[*] Added support for 3D sound on some cards that support it. Option: /X3Dn
Usage depends on the supported card (value of 'n'):
* ALS100+/ALS120: 3D Sound Effect Proccessor ON (n = 1) or OFF (n = 0)
* ES1869: (n = 0 to 9) 0 = disabled, 1-9 Spatializer 3D VBX effect amount.

Just awesome, exactly what I needed! Thank you again for all your amazing work.

I've been tinkering with ALS120 card, trying to reduce it's infamous noise.
While the noise reduction results are somewhat promising, the mixer settings keep getting reset by different games.
Somewhere I read that enabling 3D at minimum level prevents mixer reset, but could not get it working with stock drivers.
Time for some testing )

JazeFox wrote on 2022-07-09, 19:26:

* Creative: 3D ON (n = 1) or OFF (n = 0). Only for Creative cards with 3D
capabilities (like AWE64, some AWE32 like CT3980 or some SB16 like CT2950)

How do I know my card support 3D?