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Reply 320 of 419, by NORTHERN WALLY

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I've recently bought a MT-32, connected it to AWE64 and tried using Softmpu. I don't get any contact with the mt-32. Anyone else have this issue?

Connected gameport to mt-32 the to in port. Connected mt-32 to input on awe64.

Reply 321 of 419, by bjwil1991

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What are your sound card settings (IRQ, DMA, MIDI, IO address)? Check for conflicts as some cards use the same addresses that a sound card uses.

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Reply 322 of 419, by darry

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NORTHERN WALLY wrote:

Connected gameport to mt-32 the to in port. Connected mt-32 to input on awe64.

You should connect the output of the midi cable to the input on the MT-32 .

Reply 325 of 419, by appiah4

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I was about to use SoftMPU for a 386 PC I had running MS-DOS 5.0 but then I saw this on the page:

REQUIREMENTS[/ EMM386 4.46+ (MS-DOS 6.2) or QEMM 7.03+ Sound Blaster (or compatible) sound card (MPU-401 & SB-MIDI mode) Serial […]
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REQUIREMENTS[/

EMM386 4.46+ (MS-DOS 6.2) or QEMM 7.03+
Sound Blaster (or compatible) sound card (MPU-401 & SB-MIDI mode)
Serial port (Serial MIDI mode)



Is there any particular reason why it won't work with MS-DOS 5.0 and its EMM386? 😐

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Reply 327 of 419, by jesolo

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kolderman wrote:

Can SoftMPU trap one port and redirect to another? I have a Aztech card that has a waveblaster at 530h but I would like to use port 330h.

530h is your Windows Sound System port, not your MIDI port.
On all the Aztech cards that I have, nowhere does it allow me to select port 530h as my MIDI (MPU-401) port.

Which Aztech card do you have (model number should be starting with I38-MMSN)?

Reply 328 of 419, by kolderman

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jesolo wrote:
530h is your Windows Sound System port, not your MIDI port. On all the Aztech cards that I have, nowhere does it allow me to se […]
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kolderman wrote:

Can SoftMPU trap one port and redirect to another? I have a Aztech card that has a waveblaster at 530h but I would like to use port 330h.

530h is your Windows Sound System port, not your MIDI port.
On all the Aztech cards that I have, nowhere does it allow me to select port 530h as my MIDI (MPU-401) port.

Which Aztech card do you have (model number should be starting with I38-MMSN)?

Hmm I must have got my wires crossed 😒 The jumper guide I was following was not clear which device this port applied to. This card was a MMSN803. I also have 822, 824, 846 and 811. I am looking for a low-resource-conflict ISA to sit alongside a YMF724/sblink card as as the latter lacks a waveblaster. The ISA must have great Midi/Waveblaster support so am looking at Aztech, Audriodrive, certain SB16s.

Reply 329 of 419, by jesolo

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kolderman wrote:
jesolo wrote:
530h is your Windows Sound System port, not your MIDI port. On all the Aztech cards that I have, nowhere does it allow me to se […]
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kolderman wrote:

Can SoftMPU trap one port and redirect to another? I have a Aztech card that has a waveblaster at 530h but I would like to use port 330h.

530h is your Windows Sound System port, not your MIDI port.
On all the Aztech cards that I have, nowhere does it allow me to select port 530h as my MIDI (MPU-401) port.

Which Aztech card do you have (model number should be starting with I38-MMSN)?

Hmm I must have got my wires crossed 😒 The jumper guide I was following was not clear which device this port applied to. This card was a MMSN803. I also have 822, 824, 846 and 811. I am looking for a low-resource-conflict ISA to sit alongside a YMF724/sblink card as as the latter lacks a waveblaster. The ISA must have great Midi/Waveblaster support so am looking at Aztech, Audriodrive, certain SB16s.

I38-MMSN803 is one off the first generation Sound Galaxy cards (the NX Pro 16). This particular model does not have an UART MPU-401 MIDI interface but, only a MIDI out port that functions like the one on the Sound Blaster 2.0 and Sound Blaster Pro. You can only use SoftMPU with this card using the SB-MIDI mode.
The other models you mentioned does have an MPU-401 MIDI interface but, they do not have onboard MIDI synthesis
You need to either attach a Waveblaster compatible MIDI daughterboard to the WaveBlaster port (like your DreamBlaster) or connect an external MIDI module to the joystick/MIDI port.

Reply 330 of 419, by kolderman

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Ok. So do waveblasters have their own mpu401 then? I thought they used the one on the card. I just had a terratec waveblaster blow up in my face when one of those teardrop capacitors lit up and almost burned a hole through the pcb.

Reply 331 of 419, by jesolo

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kolderman wrote:

Ok. So do waveblasters have their own mpu401 then? I thought they used the one on the card. I just had a terratec waveblaster blow up in my face when one of those teardrop capacitors lit up and almost burned a hole through the pcb.

No, in simplest terms, a Waveblaster (or compatible) MIDI daughterboard just contains the MIDI samples (instruments) allowing you to enjoy a better sound playback over your standard FM synthesis.
The MPU-401 MIDI interface is the way in which the computer "communicate" with the MIDI device.
In earlier years, the MPU-401 (developed by Roland) was a separate card and interface that plugged into the computer. Later on, sound card manufacturers integrated that interface (a simple form of it) into the sound card.
When the first games started to support MIDI, that was the most common interface available and they just continued with that.

Reply 332 of 419, by kolderman

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jesolo wrote:
No, in simplest terms, a Waveblaster (or compatible) MIDI daughterboard just contains the MIDI samples (instruments) allowing yo […]
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kolderman wrote:

Ok. So do waveblasters have their own mpu401 then? I thought they used the one on the card. I just had a terratec waveblaster blow up in my face when one of those teardrop capacitors lit up and almost burned a hole through the pcb.

No, in simplest terms, a Waveblaster (or compatible) MIDI daughterboard just contains the MIDI samples (instruments) allowing you to enjoy a better sound playback over your standard FM synthesis.
The MPU-401 MIDI interface is the way in which the computer "communicate" with the MIDI device.
In earlier years, the MPU-401 (developed by Roland) was a separate card and interface that plugged into the computer. Later on, sound card manufacturers integrated that interface (a simple form of it) into the sound card.
When the first games started to support MIDI, that was the most common interface available and they just continued with that.

I meant you said the I38-MMSN803 doesn't have a mpu401 but it does have a waveblaster header....how does that work? I thought the waveblaster was just a midi device the mpu401 could drive.

Reply 333 of 419, by jesolo

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It does have the header and you can actually connect a Waveblaster or compatible MIDI daughterboard to it but, games will not be able to "communicate" with it, since it doesn't have an MPU-401 MIDI interface. And, all MIDI supported games, so far that I'm aware, requires an MPU-401 MIDI Interface.

This is probably the only manufacturer, that I'm aware of, that initially brought out a PC sound card with a Waveblaster header but without the UART MPU-401 MIDI interface.
I think that, initially, they were targeting a different market and you could, via MIDI software, then play back the MIDI instruments via a connected MIDI daughterboard.

I think there were professionally based audio cards with WaveBlaster headers as well but, this is not what were discussing here.

I would recommend you rather go for the I38-MMSN824 or I38-MMSN846. They are both 3rd generation Aztech cards, have excellent Sound Blsster Pro compatibility and have an onboard UART MPU-401 MIDI interface.
If you need drivers for either one, let me know.

Reply 334 of 419, by kolderman

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OK that sounds interesting. I tried the MMSN803 for the Disney and Covox comparability, which was nice, but I am really looking for a board to provide a wavetable header alongside the YMF724. However, currently I am having major headaches getting any card to work alongside the YMF, lots of DMA conflicts even though I have set them differently. I have tried multiple ESS Audiodrives. I might give these other Aztechs a try or a Crystal or Opti card as well.

Reply 335 of 419, by jesolo

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kolderman wrote:

OK that sounds interesting. I tried the MMSN803 for the Disney and Covox comparability, which was nice, but I am really looking for a board to provide a wavetable header alongside the YMF724. However, currently I am having major headaches getting any card to work alongside the YMF, lots of DMA conflicts even though I have set them differently. I have tried multiple ESS Audiodrives. I might give these other Aztechs a try or a Crystal or Opti card as well.

I would just disable the onboard YMF724 and use one of the aforementioned cards. Both have a Yamaha OPL3 FM synthesis chip on board as well.
If you go this route, then you also don't require SoftMPU, since all General MIDI based games does not require a real (intelligent) mode MPU-401 MIDI interface.

Reply 336 of 419, by kolderman

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Oh it's a PCI YMF724 not onboard. I am mainly paying with it to get experience with SBLink and also take advantage of crisp digital sound and true OPL over SPDIF (something no ISA sound-card can do). The only thing it is missing is the waveblaster (and perfect compatibility) hence the ISA card. But yeah the only reason I thought of SoftMPU was redirecting the Midi port which was a red herring anyway, or if I decided to output midi to a mt32.

Reply 337 of 419, by appiah4

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Dumb question of the day: Does SoftMPU work in a Dos window under Win9x? Hypothetical setup: AWE64 with Windows 98 VxD drivers, can I use SoftMPU in a Dos window and use it to drive an MT-32 or SC-55?

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Reply 338 of 419, by bjwil1991

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Unfortunately, no. I asked this question myself and it looks like VxD drivers will need to be built for Windows 9x. I am planning on doing that myself, however, I'm not good at building drivers.

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Reply 339 of 419, by sergm

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@appiah4:
I've been playing a little with VDMSound for Win9x and seemed to provide an emulation of the Intelligent mode. What this thing does is routing the game's output to the default Windows MIDI port, which can happily be your UART.

@bjwil1991
I'm not 100% sure how solid the implementation is, but at least we've got sources, so no need to write everything from scratch 😀