On my Orpheus I have been experiencing a popping sound at the start of every sound. It was most noticeable when playing a Sierra game like KQ6CD where the dialog is broken up into several sound files. I finally figured out that this only happens when the spdif digital output is enabled. This click happens on both the spdif signal, but also on the main analog output as well. This happens with both the unisound drivers with /XOS1 flag enabled, as well as the orpheus drivers. When spdif is not enabled this click sound goes away.

Anyone else experiencing this?

Hello !

I've just bought a Orpheus 1 card off eBay.

It works nicely with standard SB16 stuff but my MIDI WaveTable seems to have some issues with the setup.

When trying to run MIDI using the MT32 support I get sound but then the music slows down and it even seems to loose some instruments at some point.

Can this be due to some kind of IRQ conflict or something ? It seems to get slower and slower the longer I try to play audio using the MT32 type of sound.

Otherwise great product 😀 Im looking forward for the Orpheus 2 card I've bought to another retro-pc build 😀

Regards.

UPDATE: I've solved the issue, it was a conflict with the card itself 😀 disabled the Crystal MPU using the flasher tool and switched firmware 😀

I installed the Orpheus 2 LT a few days ago. Have been using it DOS without any noticable issues. White noise is completely gone.

In windows however, I just tested Hexen 2, which previously on my Soundblaster Live sounded perfectly fine. On the Orpheus however it sounds like it had heavy clipping. Like if you do a far too loud recording, and then lower the volume of that recording. Sounds very unpleasant. Checked Unreal as well. Far less obvious there, but also happens.
In Half Life on the other hand, I only had sound the very first time I started the game. Since then its broken with absolutely no sound, even after reboot (other games still work).

Anyone experienced something similar?

Is it possible that SRS effects are on and affect output? You should have the srs icon in your system tray.
Also give driver v272 a go, might work better for you, it is located on the orpheus1 page: https://pcmidi.eu/orpheus.html

keropi wrote on 2024-09-12, 04:52:

Is it possible that SRS effects are on and affect output? You should have the srs icon in your system tray.
Also give driver v272 a go, might work better for you, it is located on the orpheus1 page: https://pcmidi.eu/orpheus.html

Just tested, but unfortunately it doesnt change.
It seems like the maximum volume the card can handle here without clipping is quite low.

You can see the volume levels here. Obviously the volume in the recording doesnt reflect the actual volume you hear on youtube.
You can clearly hear the clipping on the first few hits with the sword against the wall. Then I reduce the volume in game by one bit, and then it's gone. But as soon as I get into combat, it sounds like a clipping mess.

https://youtu.be/vmwnPgo6Py4

What I can try is to balance it out, increase the volume "outside" beyond what I used before with my ESS/SB Live card, to keep the volume within the system fairly low.
Edit: No, thats not working either. Even if I set the input on my recording PC to 100% of what is output by the RetroPc, and lower the volumes in hexen2/windows accordingly it will still sound terrible, just not as bad as before.

I have no idea why this happens
is it possible to select something other that 11khz output? is it possible to disable directsound acceleration? or enable some "compatibility" option?
maybe even in the games themselves? some option to disable "acceleration" ?
it is an ISA chip after all - no fancy directsound acceleration stuff happening in it

keropi wrote on 2024-09-12, 11:32:

I have no idea why this happens is it possible to select something other that 11khz output? is it possible to disable directsoun […]
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I have no idea why this happens
is it possible to select something other that 11khz output? is it possible to disable directsound acceleration? or enable some "compatibility" option?
maybe even in the games themselves? some option to disable "acceleration" ?
it is an ISA chip after all - no fancy directsound acceleration stuff happening in it

You mean this menu?

I changed Hardware acceleration to None, tested, but no change.
Also changed Sample rate conversion quality to best, but no change.

I also noticed something else. It's not just about volume (as shown in the previous video where lowering the volume fixed the clipping when hitting the wall but then appeared again during the battle)
It's also about different sounds coming together. So on opening the menu it makes this "clang" sound. And that sounds fine if nothing else is happening.
But as soon as I am at the windmill and you have other sounds, its clearly clipping.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIUDVUmua5k

Not sure if the stuff can be changed for the individial game, but even if that's possible, that would probably also mean that there are several games where this is not possible, so it wouldn't be a great fix.

I was thinking this setting in DXDIAG:

but if none of these settings work then I have no idea...
you are not using any extra IDE/SCSI/USB controllers on that system by any chance, correct?
One user some years ago reported that sound was almost "metallic" and it was because there was an address conflict with a Promise IDE PCI controller.

keropi wrote on 2024-09-12, 13:49:

I was thinking this setting in DXDIAG: […]
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I was thinking this setting in DXDIAG:

but if none of these settings work then I have no idea...
you are not using any extra IDE/SCSI/USB controllers on that system by any chance, correct?
One user some years ago reported that sound was almost "metallic" and it was because there was an address conflict with a Promise IDE PCI controller.

Yeah, thats the same slider (changing it in one menu, will also change it in the other)
I am not using any special controllers. As board I am using a Super Socket 7 ACORP 5ali61
Regarding IRQs: IRQ 5 and 7 are set to ISA Legacy in the BIOS (I am using IRQ 7 in DOS)

I also tried to adjust the IRQ in Windows by modifying the "Crystal PvP Audio System Codec", setting it to manual , basic configuration 0001 and then changing IRQ from 5 to 7, rebooting the system, but it didnt improve the situation either.

Try disabling the PCMIDI component to rule that out. I found that resource conflicts were part of my problem, and the PCMIDI part is an invisible conflict. Also, set your BIOS to "PNP OS Installed" to "No". I found this setting to help with resource conflicts as well.

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-09-12, 14:24:

Try disabling the PCMIDI component to rule that out. I found that resource conflicts were part of my problem, and the PCMIDI part is an invisible conflict. Also, set your BIOS to "PNP OS Installed" to "No". I found this setting to help with resource conflicts as well.

Thanks, disabled the PNP OS thing and also disabled all the audio stuff, which shouldnt be required for this.

But unfortunately, again, no change.

You have to disable PCMIDI using jumpers on the card, not from device manager.

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-09-12, 14:50:

You have to disable PCMIDI using jumpers on the card, not from device manager.

I am not very familiar with that part, but what would this effectively disable? As I plan to use a MP32L in the future (would be DOS only though) to finally get proper sounds in MM3.
It's just switching pins J3,J4,J5 from Pins 1+2 to pins 2+3?

PCMIDI is not even installed in this picture - remember it is a legacy non-PnP device and you need to do a manual detection to make it show up (or windows detect it on installation)
Also it got me thinking, is this a fresh windows installation or you had the Live!/other cards installed, removed and then installed the LT? It could be that some remnants and software conflicts/issues remained in the system as win9x are not known for their ability to add/remove drivers easily and safely.

also, J12 is the *only* way to select PCMIDI resources (not a PnP device) , J3-4-5 are used to assign MPU to physical midi-out ports (meaning wt header, gameport and dedicated midi jack)

keropi wrote on 2024-09-12, 17:33:

PCMIDI is not even installed in this picture - remember it is a legacy non-PnP device and you need to do a manual detection to make it show up (or windows detect it on installation)
Also it got me thinking, is this a fresh windows installation or you had the Live!/other cards installed, removed and then installed the LT? It could be that some remnants and software conflicts/issues remained in the system as win9x are not known for their ability to add/remove drivers easily and safely.

also, J12 is the *only* way to select PCMIDI resources (not a PnP device) , J3-4-5 are used to assign MPU to physical midi-out ports (meaning wt header, gameport and dedicated midi jack)

This isn't a fresh installation, but one where the SB Live was installed before. I tried my best to fully uninstall it. Can try to do a completely fresh installation next week.

Kordanor wrote on 2024-09-12, 17:41:

This isn't a fresh installation, but one where the SB Live was installed before. I tried my best to fully uninstall it. Can try to do a completely fresh installation next week.

I believe if you do that then the issue will go away , please update us of how things go afterwards

Kordanor wrote on 2024-09-12, 17:41:

keropi wrote on 2024-09-12, 17:33:

PCMIDI is not even installed in this picture - remember it is a legacy non-PnP device and you need to do a manual detection to make it show up (or windows detect it on installation)
Also it got me thinking, is this a fresh windows installation or you had the Live!/other cards installed, removed and then installed the LT? It could be that some remnants and software conflicts/issues remained in the system as win9x are not known for their ability to add/remove drivers easily and safely.

also, J12 is the *only* way to select PCMIDI resources (not a PnP device) , J3-4-5 are used to assign MPU to physical midi-out ports (meaning wt header, gameport and dedicated midi jack)

This isn't a fresh installation, but one where the SB Live was installed before. I tried my best to fully uninstall it. Can try to do a completely fresh installation next week.

I am 100% sure there is a utility that can do clean swep of a LOT of different kinds of drivers, including nVidia, ATI, 3dfx, Creative, Aureal etc. I am inclined to say it is DDU but I am not 100% sure if that was the one I used for audio drivers, but I used SOME tool to successfully remove all Live drivers from a system at some point.. Hold on I'll try finding it.

EDIT: It is Driver Cleaner Pro 1.5

I somehow nuked the ability to pay digital sound files from within media player while trying to get my Orpheus II setup. There was nothing wrong with the card and I had to reinstall Windows 98 to fix it. I think it was triggered by a bad install of Creative drivers for my Audigy ZX, but I'm not certain.

It's very possible that some driver or installer broke an important operating system file that is causing this problem of yours, similar to my situation.

I just set up the system again, but unfortunately it didnt change anything. Even with a completely fresh system it still sounds extremely clipped.

Talked to a guy on discord who uses an Orpheus 2 who ran into the same issue and he recommeded to keep all volumes at or below 50% in Windows to avoid clipping.
So for Windows I might just go back to my old setup, disable the card and use the SB Live instead, keeping the Orpheus for DOS exclusively.