VOGONS


Reply 341 of 929, by alvaro84

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Rodrik wrote on 2020-02-01, 17:07:

I revised the IBM 5150 vs Amiga 500 battle, the winner is .. 😀 Go watch:
https://youtu.be/cCLsvhZiuGo
This video is English sub-titled.

What the 8088-4.77 can pull off (with the right code, of course!) is really impressive. It clearly struggles to deal with it, though. If it can't play all the notes the comparison is not entirely fair 😉
It's a plus that you mention that in the case of the Amiga it's not even the CPU's job, though. Yes, it can even multitask where the PC can't even update the screen anymore. But again, it's not the 68000's benefit - even though even that CPU (and especially the memory subsystem) is immensely more powerful than the 8088 with its crippled 8-bit wide 4-cycle-per-access bus. I'd be curious to see multichannel MODs that even the Amiga has to mix in software. Unfortunately I don't have a working A500 setup so I can't comment on the sound quality either. I hear aliasing in both cases but I find the filtered Amiga sound unpleasantly dull. Even though I know the high frequencies are just artifacts they make the sound "open"or "free" instead of the claustrophobia inducing dullness of the filtered one. Sometimes even sophisticated interpolation can make things worse for these old MODs...
I'm not familiar with the analog audio circuitry of the A500 nor the SBPro, either...

I've downloaded the new ModMaster version, btw. I've been testing the new versions in the last weeks/months and saw how the XM loader matured. The lack of envelopes and other instrument features clearly show but at least it got much more stable, it's not a game of Russian roulette to load an XM anymore.

I still don't use it on a proper XT, though. It's a little more difficult to get stuff onto them, a (modern-ish/non-branded) 286 build can easily use CF cards via a standard 16-bit IDE controller and hard disk type 47. And a 286 is immensely faster than a 8088 - it's pretty slow for other MOD players, though. Mod Master shines here, too. It should have some on-screen feedback when it has to omit notes to keep mixing, though. Sometimes things are just strange and I don't know if it's the speed or something else (a bug, perhaps) is going on behind the scenes.

The ability to use EMS is a huge extra on 286s, and for ones with 1MB or less, the ability to utilize only GUS memory is just as big of a benefit.

Shame on us, doomed from the start
May God have mercy on our dirty little hearts

Reply 342 of 929, by Rodrik

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Thanks for this long comment.
Yes I know the 68000 processor of the Amiga 500 is not in the loop when playing ProTracker modules. The goal of this confrontation was to put the 1st PC against the computer used to create and play all those modules to show how this player is strong on the slowest configuration. The goal was not to see the 5150 win which did happen due to the Amiga filter in the 1st video, this is why I did make a second one.

For the load problem, you have the F6 key. It will display the under run buffers. There is 3 buffers, you will see the 1st counter update a lot, this is normal, the 2nd one is updated less often when it runs out of data, normal too. The 3rd displayed in red is the last buffer, if the number climb fast this means the player has not enough buffers left to continue like this and it begins to increase the volume at which it stops decoding the channels, then it also stops playing the last one if this gets worst.

I have a 286 IBM 5162 too, I will put a SB16 in it one day to show the PC beat the Amiga on audio playing, forgetting one more time Amiga is a multi-processor machine and is able to do something else in the same time.

But after, what about a A1200 with a prelude sound card? It may be better than the 286/12 with GUS card. By the way the GUS makes the PC more like an Amiga since it then outsource the sound mixing work to the card.

PS: In case you want to ear how the module used in my last video sounds on a modern PC, I made a small 3:00 non public video on my actual PC with direct sound capture: https://youtu.be/vi_TeVr92tY

Reply 343 of 929, by FreddyV

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Hi Alvaro, thanks for the comment.

alvaro84 wrote on 2020-02-01, 19:23:

I've downloaded the new ModMaster version, btw. I've been testing the new versions in the last weeks/months and saw how the XM loader matured. The lack of envelopes and other instrument features clearly show but at least it got much more stable, it's not a game of Russian roulette to load an XM anymore.

When I released the first XM version I did use it with a few files. Then, I discovered it crashed with plenty of files.
I tried to remove most of the problem that make it crash. It was a problem with multiple samples instruments and 16 bit samples.
with a GUS, the 16Bit samples are played in 16Bit.

My next update will be volume envelope and volume column effects. Lots of .XM files I like fail due to the volume envelope.

alvaro84 wrote on 2020-02-01, 19:23:

It should have some on-screen feedback when it has to omit notes to keep mixing, though. Sometimes things are just strange and I don't know if it's the speed or something else (a bug, perhaps) is going on behind the scenes.

As Rodrik said, you can use F6. If the red counter (Count3) start to increment, some portion of samples are skipped.
This is better than having a "Click" and allow to push the Mixing to the max.

As I wrote often in this thread, I believe that Mod Master XT is for 8086 and 286. On 386 it also allow to play music difficult wityh other players.
My Goal for the 286 is to play DOPE.MOD correctly.
I don't have a 286 to play with so I don't know how this module play.

For 386 and More, I wrote another sound system (Without interface)

alvaro84 wrote on 2020-02-01, 19:23:

The ability to use EMS is a huge extra on 286s, and for ones with 1MB or less, the ability to utilize only GUS memory is just as big of a benefit.

EMS is also nice for 8086, Like I have in my Amstrad PC1640

Reply 347 of 929, by FreddyV

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Hi,

I tried to record directly the GravisUltraSound, and the result is really not good....

I go through high quality speakers to record the headset output, because my Laptop micro input does not like at all the Direct Line Out connection.

I know there are issue with impedance, but anyone tried to record a GUS ?

The result is "nice" on the sound blaster doing the same thing.

Reply 348 of 929, by root42

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FreddyV wrote on 2020-02-16, 16:07:

I go through high quality speakers to record the headset output, because my Laptop micro input does not like at all the Direct Line Out connection.

I know there are issue with impedance, but anyone tried to record a GUS ?

The result is "nice" on the sound blaster doing the same thing.

Mic level is MUCH lower than line level. Your laptop doesn't have a line level input then? Do you have any other means of recording? Otherwise there are pretty cheap USB sound cards with line level input. If you are doing more recording this might be a good investment. For example there are cheap multi channel USB mixers that you could use to even capture multiple sound sources at the same time.

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Reply 350 of 929, by DevanWolf

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FreddyV wrote on 2020-01-31, 22:21:

I did correct various things in the files you sent me, but I did not chech these 2 music.

Is there something special in them still not supported ?

No, I'm trying to let you upload those 2 S3Ms playing to YouTube for fun

Reply 351 of 929, by FreddyV

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DevanWolf wrote on 2020-02-17, 23:44:
FreddyV wrote on 2020-01-31, 22:21:

Is there something special in them still not supported ?

No, I'm trying to let you upload those 2 S3Ms playing to YouTube for fun

You can do it if you want 😀

Reply 353 of 929, by FreddyV

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Hi,

Here is the Release 16, I would like to release the Mod Master XT 1.0 before Mid April, then, I need your bug report and improvement requests.

09/03/2020 Beta 16
- If you copy the SBVGM.EXE Player by OPLx in the same folder as MODM.EXE, you can play VGM and VGZ Files
- MODML.EXE is the "Light" version of the player, removing these format: 669, FAR, DTM, MTM, ULT and MON
- Change the modules memory structure to support XM Instruments.
- XM: Added Volume column effects: Volume Slide, Fine Volume Slide and Set Panning.
- XM: Added support for multiple samples instruments.
- XM: Panning corrected.
- XM: Set BPM Corrected.
- XM: Lot of Effects bug corrected (Wrong effect or no effect selected)
- Put back the GUS Volume table adjust (Main Volume)
- Help page corrected.
- Various interface correction
- Big changes in the mixing adjustment code (When the mixing is too slow)

Filename
MODMXT16.zip
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140.53 KiB
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97 downloads
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 354 of 929, by matze79

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Is Mono Mode now fixed ?
then i would retry it on my XT 😀

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Reply 355 of 929, by root42

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Here are my preliminary tests with the SnarkBarker:

https://youtu.be/vUpIiWRckEE

Didn't find any bugs. The Deadlock.XM is too complex for my puny 386... 😉

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Reply 358 of 929, by root42

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FreddyV wrote on 2020-03-11, 09:32:
root42 wrote on 2020-03-10, 20:54:

Didn't find any bugs. The Deadlock.XM is too complex for my puny 386... 😉

Thanks for the test, you can try it <44KHz, did you enable the 16Bit mixing ?

No, I remembered afterwards, but was busy with the new video. I will test later with 16bit mixing.

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Reply 359 of 929, by root42

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When doing a playlist there is a glitch. I guess there should be the track numbers in the black boxes.

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Also, 16 bit gives me clipping in 2nd_pm.s3m on 50% volume. Not on 8bit mixing. Video coming later.

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