matze79 wrote:

As far as i know the BIOS cares about LPT, so it can be possible it asks system bios for lpt1 adress ?

That's the question.
The BIOS indeed has a table of printer ports, and will scan ports at 0x3BC, 0x378 and 0x278, in that order, to determine the first, second and third printer ports.
In practice, that means that on PCs with MDA cards, LPT1 is at 0x3BC, and at most others, it is at 0x378.
However, since 0x378 is so common, I wouldn't be surprised if many games and other software just hardcode that value.

Good luck with your project. It's definitely something i'll buy, especially if you add digital output from the OPL2/3 parts 😀

DjLc wrote:

especially if you add digital output from the OPL2/3 parts 😀

What kind of digital output do you expect from OPL2 and OPL3 blocks? As far as I can tell, those don't have any S/PDIF or I2S output, those use some internal FP-DACs. 😕

Fagear wrote:

DjLc wrote:

especially if you add digital output from the OPL2/3 parts 😀

What kind of digital output do you expect from OPL2 and OPL3 blocks? As far as I can tell, those don't have any S/PDIF or I2S output, those use some internal FP-DACs. 😕

The OPL2 and OPL3 use external DACs actually, the YM3014 and YAC-512 respectively.
So you can 'tap' the digital output from these chips, and convert them to regular SPDIF-compatible output.

See here for more info:
http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2015/02/d … -recording.html

Scali wrote:

The OPL2 and OPL3 use external DACs actually, the YAC-3014 and YAC-512 respectively.
So you can 'tap' the digital output from these chips, and convert them to regular SPDIF-compatible output.

Yes, I know about external DACs, I meant to say that interfaces between OPL chips and their DACs are not some standard I2S or S/PDIF. You need to do some sort of conversion. I guess, putting some S/PDIF DAC to main analog output will not be sufficient. 🤣

Fagear wrote:

Yes, I know about external DACs, I meant to say that interfaces between OPL chips and their DACs are not some standard I2S or S/PDIF. You need to do some sort of conversion. I guess, putting some S/PDIF DAC to main analog output will not be sufficient. 🤣

Yea, basically you'd need some kind of microcontroller/DSP that performs two basic tasks:
1) Convert the proprietary Yamaha floating-point format to a standardized linear integer format as supported by SPDIF (eg 16-bit or 24-bit).
2) Convert the proprietary Yamaha samplerate of 49716 Hz to a standardized samplerate as supported by SPDIF (eg 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 96 kHz etc).

Possible, but not easy or cheap.
Attaching a SPDIF-compatible ADC to the output of the Yamaha DAC is probably cheaper, easier, and works about as well in practice.

One option is to use OPL3L, which has 44.1KHz output with standard I2S interface that majority of DAC and SPDIF chips can use.

Something showed up... 😏

But two of those are already obsolete. 🤣

Very naiss ~

I am interested in this one for my D1026 FSC-D6. When do You think will it be available?

Is it also possible to get single Blocks ? 😁

i would like to get CMS only 😀 and still the SSI Kits..

Fagear wrote:

All those optimizations gave me about 49 mm free length at the right side for something else. Or just for shrinking the whole board and get cost reduced.

Dual opl2 for sbpro/pas support. Probably a write up about it on Nerdly Pleasures but I seem to recall the original dual opl sbpro was the one with proper stereo panning while it doesn't quite work right /w opl3.

Games with dual OPL2 support for stereo FM?

matze79 wrote:

Is it also possible to get single Blocks ? 😁

i would like to get CMS only 😀 and still the SSI Kits..

It would be nice to get at least a SID + CMS + Tandy. Saving 2 slots with just one card. Too bad the Covox Sound Master won't be ready anytime soon.

awgamer wrote:

Dual opl2 for sbpro/pas support. Probably a write up about it on Nerdly Pleasures but I seem to recall the original dual opl sbpro was the one with proper stereo panning while it doesn't quite work right /w opl3.

What ports Dual OPL2 used for each chip?

matze79 wrote:

Is it also possible to get single Blocks ? 😁 i would like to get CMS only 😀

Well, it depends. If there will be leftovers after debug process - probably yes. But keep in mind that these debug boards:
1) Have no way to be secured in a case (boards are short and have no mounting brackets).
2) Don't have chamfers on edge connector.
3) Have solder-covered contacts on the edge connector. This will cause degradation of contacts in the slot on the motherboard in the long run as was discussed here.
4) Probably will not work due to some errors (not known yet).

carlostex wrote:

Too bad the Covox Sound Master won't be ready anytime soon.

Who knows?.. 😕
The original board is already on the way to me. At least we will know full PCB layout soon.

>What ports Dual OPL2 used for each chip?

Found it: Re: Games with dual OPL2 support for stereo FM?
Check out Jepael's post.
"..

Dual OPL2 Sound Blaster has left OPL2 at 0x220/0x221 and right OPL2 at 0x222/0x223. Writing to 0x228/0x229 or 0x388/0x389 will write to both chips simultaneously, for single OPL2 compatibility with Adlib and older SBs.

..

Dual OPL2 PAS seems to have left OPL2 at 0x388/0x389 and right OPL2 at 0x38A/0x38B. For Adlib and single OPL2 compatibility, the left OPL2 chip output is configured in the mixer to go to both left and right outputs. To use dual OPl2 on PAS, mixer has to be configured to output left OPL2 on left output only.

.."

There was apparently a really good write up on dual opls on questdstudios that's now dead that was often referenced for how great they were with examples that makes me really want to see it: "dual OPL2 supremacy" but so far no luck digging it up. A gem lost forever or did someone save it? http://queststudios.com/smf/index.php?topic=3341.0

https://www.facebook.com/RSD.Game.Maker/posts … 47534595274080/

awgamer wrote:

There was apparently a really good write up on dual opls on questdstudios that's now dead that was often referenced for how great they were with examples that makes me really want to see it: "dual OPL2 supremacy" but so far no luck digging it up. A gem lost forever or did someone save it? http://queststudios.com/smf/index.php?topic=3341.0

https://www.facebook.com/RSD.Game.Maker/posts … 47534595274080/

Did you try archive.org?

https://web.archive.org/web/20140904224828/ht … hp?topic=3341.0

Yeah I did, curious, I wonder why it worked with the link you've given here and not when I tried it earlier. No matter. Not so much a great write up on dual opl2s, more about the examples, even two of them work, title and the mountains one, and can get to the other ones by grabbing the original links and going there directly:) More examples further down the thread as well. Cloudschatze is right, the dual opl2s sound better, rich, while opl3 sounds flat. Dual OPL2s, putting the monster in monster sound:) If you do decide to add dual opl2 and have to choose between sbpro and pas for technical reasons, sbpro would probably be the better bet.

awgamer wrote:

Found it: Re: Games with dual OPL2 support for stereo FM?
Check out Jepael's post.

I'll look into that.
As I understand it for the moment, Dual OPL2 need those ports:

1OPL2-L: 0x220/0x228/0x388
2OPL2-R: 0x222/0x228/0x388/0x38A

As I can see it, there is no way to get those addresses from just two 74HC138 that are used now. Now even if address decoders will be different for left and right channels. Just not enough appropriate inputs on those.

1OPL2-L:
2E987654321 0
30100010000 0 - 220
40100010100 0 - 228
50111000100 0 - 388
6==++=+=+==
7
8OPL2-R:
9E987654321 0
100100010001 0 - 222
110100010100 0 - 228
120111000100 0 - 388
130111000101 0 - 38A
14==++=+=+=+

Probably I have to go to "DuoSID" approach and extract combined address decoder for both OPL2 ICs into separate block and re-compound remaining parts of OPL2 blocks, while making two of those on the board.

I think I've made it. 🙄
First of all, three 74HC138 gave me ability to implement all of the required addresses:

1OPL2
2E987654321 0
30100010000 0 - 220
40100010001 0 - 222
50100010100 0 - 228
60111000100 0 - 388
70111000101 0 - 38A
8==++=+=+=+
9b1  a C A  01234567
10
11E987654321 0
120100010000 0 - 220
130100010001 0 - 222
140100010100 0 - 228
15==  = = =
16  bC 1 B A   a
17
18E987654321 0
190111000100 0 - 388
200111000101 0 - 38A
21==  = = =
22  1C b B A   a

Next, I fully re-routed OPL2 board.
It was mono @37 mm.

Now it is stereo @61.5 mm that is less than 74 mm (37x2).

I'll assemble "old" OPL2 mono board first to check if it works at all and to measure consumption before opting to make a new Dual OPL2 one.

I was thinking, while a number of games with tandy support expect tandy video and memory map, so rounding out tandy sound isn't a priority, on the other hand since most everything on the monster card are the monster(tm) versions, dual sids, dual opl2s, cms(dual saa1099s), could stick to the theme as it were with the monster version of tandy, aka topping it off with the tandy dac. Of the simple dacs to add with any remainder space that'd be the one I'd choose if they all couldn't be included since most everyone will have an unused lpt port for covox and disney, there are already projects done for those: Reversing the Disney Sound Source and the only way to get tandy dac otherwise is through a real tandy or dosbox/other. Just a thought when you get to the tail end of the project. Also, have you seen LABS blasterboard project? Blasterboard : A SB 2.0-compatible ISA sound card Very low noise and has speaker and cd in.

edit: Last time I tried figuring it out, I can't recall any games that supported tandy dac, covox or disney that didn't support sound blaster on mobygames, so all three wouldn't be a priority to me. Something to flesh out I suppose.