I want to get back to this, I discovered I was still using an older version. And I discovered why:
This version (12) has the channels swap about every second.

I am using the utility to experiment with solving an issue with Might & Magic III. The game install allows you to select Roland+Blaster or some such. I select this and start the game. I cannot hear music, but the external devices indicate that they are receiving midi data. There is a digitized speech in the intro, and it plays, but quietly. I check my SB AWE32 mixer after exiting the game and see that MM3 lowered FM volume and reduced Line-In volume to zero, which is why I couldn't hear Roiland music (as I go from an audio switch with an MT-32 and an SC-55, to the Line-In on my AWE32.) I tried using this utility with the /lock switch and started MM3. The music was playing, but then the digitized speech could only barely be heard if I turned the volume up all of the way. It seems that this utility gives hope for getting around this bug, but I don't know what MM3 is doing to the mixer when the game starts. I'll keep playing around with it.

I have a small system with no sound card installed, just an original MPU-401 card. Hanging off the MPU are both an MT-32, and a Yamaha FB-01 (FM synth). I had this wild idea of using MIDIto to redirect FM to the MIDI port and see what happened. I know not to expect correct FM results even if this worked, but even disasters are fun to try. I tried:

1midito -fm=a330

I get "Cannot init FM redirection since SB Pro compatible mixer was not found."

I thought setting up the BLASTER variable might fool it, but no 😁 Is there a way to make this work?

[edit] You can fool it actually, by setting BLASTER then adding "x" for no mixer support:

1midito -fm=a330x

But no sound output. I'm sure it's not technically viable because MIDI=/=FM instructions.

Pierre32 wrote on 2022-10-30, 03:48:

But no sound output. I'm sure it's not technically viable because MIDI=/=FM instructions.

It's absolutely not technically viable by just redirecting data. FM instructions are on a lower level than MIDI instructions. Many MIDI synthesizers don't do FM synthesis (which is absolutely great for synth-pop style music, but quite mediocre at emulating physical music instruments), but play back recorded samples of physical music instruments. Your normal MIDI synthesizer thus is technically unable to generate the sound as it is described to a FM-Synthesizer. It looks approxmately like this for 2-OP FM:

FM instructions wrote:

The current instrument is to be generated by taking a sine wave, ramping up the volume to -10dB full scale within 10 milliseconds, ramping it down to -20dB full scale within 100 milliseconds, keeping the sound at that level until the tone is declared to be over, then ramp it down to zero withing 150 milliseconds. Also, the phase of the first sine wave is to be modulated by a second sine wave at twice the frequency of the first one. This sine wave ramps up to full modulation depth within 40 milliseconds, ramps down to 8% modulation depth within 400 milliseconds and then ramps down to zero within 2 seconds, no matter how long the sound is intended to play.

Now, play a note of that instrument at 440Hz. 5 seconds later: stop that note.

Compared to General MIDI data:

General MIDI instructions wrote:

Please emulate a church organ.

Now, play an "A" at "forte" intensity. 5 seconds later: stop that note

Actually, the MIDI protocol doesn't say "church organ", but "instrument #20". That's what the General MIDI standard is about: They defined a mapping for 128 numbers to instrument names. instrument 20 is defined to be the church organ. Most MIDI-Synthesizers today support the General MIDI instrument numbers by default, but e.g. the MT32 is older than the General MIDI standard and uses different numbers as well as not having all of the 128 "General MIDI" instruments at all, using its default configuration.

Appreciate the detail. I'm reasonably well acquainted with GM, but had never given any real thought to how FM did its thing. In hindsight it was a silly thought. But fun for a minute.

Question: do the DSP fixes fix the hanging note bug for affected Sound Blaster models?

If not, would it be possible to implement the fix from FixMPU? I know this may sound rather redundant, but I think implementing it as a TSR would be far more convenient than how FixMPU does it (it has to be loaded every time with the desired program).

OpenRift wrote on 2024-12-15, 22:44:

but I think implementing it as a TSR would be far more convenient than how FixMPU does it (it has to be loaded every time with the desired program).

Can't you just write a BAT file to run the relevant game? e.g. DOOM.BAT, which would just be a one-liner "FixMPU DOOM". Pretty simple.

badmojo wrote on 2024-12-17, 11:12:

OpenRift wrote on 2024-12-15, 22:44:

but I think implementing it as a TSR would be far more convenient than how FixMPU does it (it has to be loaded every time with the desired program).

Can't you just write a BAT file to run the relevant game? e.g. DOOM.BAT, which would just be a one-liner "FixMPU DOOM". Pretty simple.

Problem is I already use a launcher for launching Doom with custom mods and stuff, so using FixMPU wouldn't really work in that regard. It really limits the different methods that you can use the program compared to a TSR. In DOS, you can load a TSR at boot via autoexec, or on Win9x, load it via the batch file section of the DOS shortcut properties window, which in both scenarios would work even with the aforementioned launcher. You can't really do that with FixMPU in its current form.

Newer versions of Jemm now come with a loadable module called QPIEMU.DLL, which, as the name implies, adds emulation for QEMM's I/O port trapping API when the DLL is loaded with JLOAD.

Does anybody know if MIDIto can be made to work with Jemm this way, as opposed to EMM396 or QEMM? Has anybody tried this, by any chance?

If not, I might eventually get around to trying this, but my list of projects is already plenty long, and I don't have an existing setup to easily try this with.

I stumbled over an issue with the MIDITO locking. Maybe someone can help me here, or maybe its an issue with the software.

Might and Magic 3 uses Roland Sound and Soundblaster sound together. I am using a CM-32L and an Orpheus 2.
If you use the option in the setup to use both (and not just roland), then Line-In will be muted.
Now I used Midito to try to avoid that. I locked MA,VO,MI,FM,CD,LI,MIC which I guess is...everything?

Well, the good thing is, that you can now hear the MIDI sound from the Line-In...the bad thing...its now only stereo. So apparently it only locks like "half" of the Line in?
You can hear the voice acting via SB that normal SB sounds are still stereo. Also with Normal Roland Setup (where the game doesnt mute anything), it also sounds fine. So it's an issue in combination with the game trying to mute it.