Thanks for the warm words sanedu.

OK I have my X2GS and since I don't know what I'm doing, I flashed it to both 0x5000 and 0x7000. Hopefully that doesn't "hurt" anything. I don't really need the original ROM's since the APPIAH 4.5 sounds so good in the samples above.

Is that all that is needed to activate it from now on? Or do I need to run a .MID file before I use it for games?

Ys (Master System Version) on the X2 Buran bank....HOLY SHIT!
https://youtu.be/fK3noCA1jcU?t=262

valnar wrote on 2022-08-09, 14:38:

OK I have my X2GS and since I don't know what I'm doing, I flashed it to both 0x5000 and 0x7000. Hopefully that doesn't "hurt" […]
Show full quote

OK I have my X2GS and since I don't know what I'm doing, I flashed it to both 0x5000 and 0x7000. Hopefully that doesn't "hurt" anything. I don't really need the original ROM's since the APPIAH 4.5 sounds so good in the samples above.

Is that all that is needed to activate it from now on? Or do I need to run a .MID file before I use it for games?
Flashed2.jpg
Flashed1.jpg

for using the GS bank, that's all there is to do, the x2gs boots by default into the GS bank, reading the preset your flashed.
if you want to use the user bank instead, you can play a USERBANK.MID midi file from https://serdaco.com/downloads/X2/X2GS_Documen … on/BANKMIDI.zip
to switch to this bank

Thread needs more pirates, so here's Captain Silver on the X2 (Buran Bank)
https://youtu.be/oHG9YX3LRt4

Just like to stop by and say I received my dreamblaster x2gs a few weeks ago, and it's probably one the single best purchases of my life time, haha. Cheers to the creators of such a great little gadget, I never got to hear DOS game music like this before and even my friends that think my retro PC hobby is insane are forced to admit it's pretty dang cool.

DeathRabbit679 wrote on 2022-11-16, 06:15:

Just like to stop by and say I received my dreamblaster x2gs a few weeks ago, and it's probably one the single best purchases of my life time, haha. Cheers to the creators of such a great little gadget, I never got to hear DOS game music like this before and even my friends that think my retro PC hobby is insane are forced to admit it's pretty dang cool.

Oh hoho so nice to hear, thanks!!

Received my X2GS today (superfast!) and it's awesome. Default preset is great and doesn't suffer from the boomy-ness that the Yucatan FX has. Samples are in some cases clearly better as well, like the effects in Lost Vikings.

Two questions though:
- Can I hook it up to USB while it's connected to the Chill & Phil 12v adapter? I want to tweak the presets while it's hooked up to my retro pc.
- Is there an MT-32 option with the GS bank? I've used mt32emul.mid with the Yucatan FX succesfully but it has no effect on the default X2GS bank. Otherwise I'll load the CleanWave bank as the user bank.

Rawit wrote on 2023-01-07, 19:48:

Received my X2GS today (superfast!) and it's awesome. Default preset is great and doesn't suffer from the boomy-ness that the Yu […]
Show full quote

Received my X2GS today (superfast!) and it's awesome. Default preset is great and doesn't suffer from the boomy-ness that the Yucatan FX has. Samples are in some cases clearly better as well, like the effects in Lost Vikings.

Two questions though:
- Can I hook it up to USB while it's connected to the Chill & Phil 12v adapter? I want to tweak the presets while it's hooked up to my retro pc.
- Is there an MT-32 option with the GS bank? I've used mt32emul.mid with the Yucatan FX succesfully but it has no effect on the default X2GS bank. Otherwise I'll load the CleanWave bank as the user bank.

1. Yes, I have done this. You have to reset the device from the software after loading the preset, though.
2. This is possible for the CleanWave soundbank as well as the Buran soundbank. Find a recording of Buran I did here: Re: X2GU : New GM bank for DreamBlaster X2 It sounds pretty pleasing if I may say so myself.

Great to know! Just loaded the CleanWave bank after testing the Buran bank yesterday. I'm having a blast re-listening to games and MIDs

Got my X2GS yesterday. Thanks for that. Very quick delivery btw!

Unfortunately got a problem with the volume output. Installed it on a ES1868 and even with the waveoutput on maximum (with unisound or essvol) it is barely audible. Already tried to disable the amplifier on the ES1868 with jumpers but that makes the problem even worse. Anybody knows what else I can try or what I am doing wrong? First wavetable device so I may overlook something.

Yoghoo wrote on 2023-01-21, 19:16:

Got my X2GS yesterday. Thanks for that. Very quick delivery btw!

Unfortunately got a problem with the volume output. Installed it on a ES1868 and even with the waveoutput on maximum (with unisound or essvol) it is barely audible. Already tried to disable the amplifier on the ES1868 with jumpers but that makes the problem even worse. Anybody knows what else I can try or what I am doing wrong? First wavetable device so I may overlook something.

Raise the AuxB volume slider?

Not sure how Unisound handles that, but ESSVOL.EXE from the original drivers does it using the /A parameter.

Yoghoo wrote on 2023-01-21, 19:16:

Got my X2GS yesterday. Thanks for that. Very quick delivery btw!

Unfortunately got a problem with the volume output. Installed it on a ES1868 and even with the waveoutput on maximum (with unisound or essvol) it is barely audible. Already tried to disable the amplifier on the ES1868 with jumpers but that makes the problem even worse. Anybody knows what else I can try or what I am doing wrong? First wavetable device so I may overlook something.

I only have the X2, but I presume the preset files are setup the same so you could edit the overall output gain in the preset and upload it to the X2GS. I'm not really sure how dicey it is going really high with that gain setting though.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-01-21, 19:24:

Raise the AuxB volume slider?

Not sure how Unisound handles that, but ESSVOL.EXE from the original drivers does it using the /A parameter.

Thanks. Now using: essvol.exe /v:7 /l:0 /w:1 /m:0 /c:1 /s:1 /a:15. This makes it somewhat workable. But as you can see I need to put everything down to 1 and /a to 15 to get it almost to the same level. Something is not right.

teiresias wrote on 2023-01-21, 20:06:

I only have the X2, but I presume the preset files are setup the same so you could edit the overall output gain in the preset and upload it to the X2GS. I'm not really sure how dicey it is going really high with that gain setting though.

Will probably need to look into that. Not something I've done before. Hoped this was a plug and play thing.

teiresias wrote on 2023-01-21, 20:06:

I only have the X2, but I presume the preset files are setup the same so you could edit the overall output gain in the preset and upload it to the X2GS. I'm not really sure how dicey it is going really high with that gain setting though.

I took the GS_EFFECTS_APPIAH4_v4_5.DXP preset and enabled General Output Amp and put it to the max (+5,9 dB). It hardly made a difference. Output is still much too low. 🙁

Anyone has some other ideas what is going on?

Do you have another waveblaster compatible sound card to try ?

Alternatively, you could try using the 3.5mm TRS line output on the X2GS and routing it to your sound card's line input or to an external mixer.

darry wrote on 2023-01-22, 03:07:

Do you have another waveblaster compatible sound card to try ?

Alternatively, you could try using the 3.5mm TRS line output on the X2GS and routing it to your sound card's line input or to an external mixer.

I have a couple of ISA sound card's in storage but none of them have a waveblaster connection unfortunately.

I did connect the waveblaster output directly to my speakers and also then the output is incredibly low. Even with the General Output Amp set to the max (+5,9 dB). Don't know what else I can try to be honest.

@dreamblaster do you know what else I can try?

Hi Yoghoo,
the X2GS output volume should be fine out of the box, so i have no idea what is going wrong in your setup
I have sentyou a pm to ask your address, i will send you a new X2GS.

Sounds like something's wrong with your card, can you try it on another sound card?

Hooked x2gs up to my main pc and used an X68000 emulator to capture this track from Castlevania X68000.

https://youtu.be/Zorreq9Xk-0