I just wanted to thank everybody for their support and confidence, I must admit we underestimated the demand and the whole 30pcs 1st batch was sold overnight!
Already working to create more cards , atm interested people are entered in a queue. We really dropped the ball on this ...

Moogle! wrote on 2020-09-13, 16:19:

Have you sent one of these to Phil (or anyone else) for review? I had no idea this thing even existed until I was accidentally sent an email when inquiring about a PC MIDI card.

Well atm only prototype cards are in the hands of a handful of people... We received feedback and design suggestions that got implemented in this final revision. You can hear some recordings posted in this thread, things only got better from that time 😀
I contacted Phil about it but it was a too complex product to test/review for him atm - maybe in the future he will be able to do it.
For now the only "news" source is VOGONS/Facebook PCMIDI group and retrorgb.com that will feature Orpheus as a news item.

Wow. Will the next batch be a v2 design or will there be another batch of v1?

And sounds weird of Phil to turn down a review of such a unique item - surely he is sick of reviewing pointless late-2010 builds with parts from Alibaba 🤣

kolderman wrote on 2020-09-13, 19:31:

Wow. Will the next batch be a v2 design or will there be another batch of v1?

And sounds weird of Phil to turn down a review of such a unique item - surely he is sick of reviewing pointless late-2010 builds with parts from Alibaba 🤣

This was the last revision, no more changes in design. 😀

kolderman wrote on 2020-09-13, 19:31:

Wow. Will the next batch be a v2 design or will there be another batch of v1?
[...]

Well the design is final now, expect the next batches to be exactly the same.
If something was wrong this would be another prototype 😉
It took 4 prototypes to get here - 1.0 was early internal one and 3 are shown here: 1.0f (f stands for fixed 🤣), 1.0g and 1.0g. Final is 1.0i

keropi wrote on 2020-09-13, 18:17:

I just wanted to thank everybody for their support and confidence, I must admit we underestimated the demand and the whole 30pcs 1st batch was sold overnight!
Already working to create more cards , atm interested people are entered in a queue. We really dropped the ball on this ...

Better to start small and scale up than to overshoot and be stuck with inventory and debts . Though I am extremely happy (and lucky) to have been able to get in on the first batch, I am certain that people will be understanding regarding the need to wait for more batches in order to get a unit .

It is marvelous that projects such as this one, the AWE Legacy, everything on Serdashop, Resound OPL3, Argus, T-04YBSC-x, etc exist . We must not forget how much motivation, time, effort, money (possibly financial risk) was involved to even get things underway . I wish all such labours of love to come to come to fruition and be rewarded .

Thanks for keeping the dream alive !

keropi wrote on 2020-09-13, 18:17:

I just wanted to thank everybody for their support and confidence, I must admit we underestimated the demand and the whole 30pcs 1st batch was sold overnight!
Already working to create more cards , atm interested people are entered in a queue. We really dropped the ball on this ...

You have that support and confidence because you design and release a quality product. I own two PC-MIDI cards and they have worked flawlessly. Just got my email for this first batch and I'm very happy to get one of the initial runs. Will finish placing my order tonight!

I am surprised Phil declined to review the product. Have you considered 8bitguy or LGR?

thanks for the supporting and kind words!

Please let's not linger more about Phil, I am sure he has his valid reasons. We did not argue or anything - ever!
If you see the views on his channel then retro-stuff are not doing that great compared to newer things, assuming yt videos play a big role in his income it would not be unrealistic to turn down things that require quite some time to make a video about. I am sure this is where the complex part comes in. A mpu is another deal it works or not, Phil does not have to measure for example how good the mt-32 is coupled with a pcmidi - but for a soundcard he needs to invest quite some time to produce recordings or try to find shortcomings. So we have to respect his decision, I only stated the reason so people don't think something else is going on.
Other than retrorgb.com I have not contacted anyone else about this.

A quick question .

Without using the PCMIDI option, is MIDI output directed to both waveblaster header and the external MIDI port ?
In other words, can you still use the external MIDI port if the waveblaster header is populated (muting the waveblaster card in sound card mixer, as needed) ?

darry wrote on 2020-09-13, 21:49:

A quick question .

Without using the PCMIDI option, is MIDI output directed to both waveblaster header and the external MIDI port ?
In other words, can you still use the external MIDI port if the waveblaster header is populated (muting the waveblaster card in sound card mixer, as needed) ?

You can use WT connector, DB15/Joystick and Midi output jack all at the same time. You can even have 2 midi addresses at the same time if you want.

Marmes wrote on 2020-09-13, 21:55:

darry wrote on 2020-09-13, 21:49:

A quick question .

Without using the PCMIDI option, is MIDI output directed to both waveblaster header and the external MIDI port ?
In other words, can you still use the external MIDI port if the waveblaster header is populated (muting the waveblaster card in sound card mixer, as needed) ?

You can use WT connector, DB15/Joystick and Midi output jack all at the same time. You can even have 2 midi addresses at the same time if you want.

Wow! I can even have 2 MIDI addresses even without the PCMIDI add-on ? If so, I am both impressed and overjoyed .

Thank you .

darry wrote on 2020-09-13, 21:58:

Marmes wrote on 2020-09-13, 21:55:

darry wrote on 2020-09-13, 21:49:

A quick question .

Without using the PCMIDI option, is MIDI output directed to both waveblaster header and the external MIDI port ?
In other words, can you still use the external MIDI port if the waveblaster header is populated (muting the waveblaster card in sound card mixer, as needed) ?

You can use WT connector, DB15/Joystick and Midi output jack all at the same time. You can even have 2 midi addresses at the same time if you want.

Wow! I can even have 2 MIDI addresses even without the PCMIDI add-on ? If so, I am both impressed and overjoyed .

Thank you .

2 addresses only with PCMIDI Addon. For example you can have 330 on PC midi and 300 on Crystal MPU. For midi IN there is only 1 input, so both addresses will receive the same. For Midi out, you can route PCMIDI (330) to WT and Jack connector and for DB15 connector you can use Crystal MPU (300). It's selectable by jumper.

Marmes wrote on 2020-09-13, 22:08:

darry wrote on 2020-09-13, 21:58:

Marmes wrote on 2020-09-13, 21:55:

You can use WT connector, DB15/Joystick and Midi output jack all at the same time. You can even have 2 midi addresses at the same time if you want.

Wow! I can even have 2 MIDI addresses even without the PCMIDI add-on ? If so, I am both impressed and overjoyed .

Thank you .

2 addresses only with PCMIDI Addon. For example you can have 330 on PC midi and 300 on Crystal MPU. For midi IN there is only 1 input, so both addresses will receive the same. For Midi out, you can route PCMIDI (330) to WT and Jack connector and for DB15 connector you can use Crystal MPU (300). It's selectable by jumper.

Thank you again for clarifying that . For my use case, I will be fine with 2 MIDI devices on the same address (will only mute the WT on the sound card when needed). I may consider upgrading to PCMIDI at a later date .

darry wrote on 2020-09-13, 22:17:

Marmes wrote on 2020-09-13, 22:08:

darry wrote on 2020-09-13, 21:58:

Wow! I can even have 2 MIDI addresses even without the PCMIDI add-on ? If so, I am both impressed and overjoyed .

Thank you .

2 addresses only with PCMIDI Addon. For example you can have 330 on PC midi and 300 on Crystal MPU. For midi IN there is only 1 input, so both addresses will receive the same. For Midi out, you can route PCMIDI (330) to WT and Jack connector and for DB15 connector you can use Crystal MPU (300). It's selectable by jumper.

Thank you again for clarifying that . For my use case, I will be fine with 2 MIDI devices on the same address (will only mute the WT on the sound card when needed). I may consider upgrading to PCMIDI at a later date .

For that you need to send the card back to us.

Marmes wrote on 2020-09-13, 22:20:

darry wrote on 2020-09-13, 22:17:

Marmes wrote on 2020-09-13, 22:08:

2 addresses only with PCMIDI Addon. For example you can have 330 on PC midi and 300 on Crystal MPU. For midi IN there is only 1 input, so both addresses will receive the same. For Midi out, you can route PCMIDI (330) to WT and Jack connector and for DB15 connector you can use Crystal MPU (300). It's selectable by jumper.

Thank you again for clarifying that . For my use case, I will be fine with 2 MIDI devices on the same address (will only mute the WT on the sound card when needed). I may consider upgrading to PCMIDI at a later date .

For that you need to send the card back to us.

Thank you, I have no problem sending it back-in for a factory upgrade at a later date (and shipping both ways), if needed. I am content to use SoftMPU for now . That and there is only so much retro stuff that I can afford at one time .

This is such awesome news! This is going to be a dumb question though, but there are a _lot_ of you here who know a lot more about this than me. I've seen lots of sound cards over the years that support daughterboards, and have been poking at the Waveblaster stuff on Serdashop for a little while. But I am wondering: is Waveblaster essentially wavetable MIDI 'n stuff? I'm just curious what it is used for. Sorry about the dumb question, but part of me is thinking if I order this, I kinda wanna go with all the options, but should scope things out first. I have a Roland MT-32 (and actually bought the MPU-401 from keropi a year or two ago for it) and I know for sure I can pull that card, and connect to the MT-32 to Orpheus. But the Waveblaster... would that be for games that support MIDI (where the MT-32 can sometimes sound a bit off, doing MIDI emulation) or are things like the Waveblaster specifically supported in some games?

Sorry about the stupid question. I used to be more on top of this 25 years ago. 😀

Waveblasters/daughterboards support GM, which the mt32 does not, which is why it sounds off.

Thallanor wrote on 2020-09-14, 03:30:

This is such awesome news! This is going to be a dumb question though, but there are a _lot_ of you here who know a lot more about this than me. I've seen lots of sound cards over the years that support daughterboards, and have been poking at the Waveblaster stuff on Serdashop for a little while. But I am wondering: is Waveblaster essentially wavetable MIDI 'n stuff? I'm just curious what it is used for. Sorry about the dumb question, but part of me is thinking if I order this, I kinda wanna go with all the options, but should scope things out first. I have a Roland MT-32 (and actually bought the MPU-401 from keropi a year or two ago for it) and I know for sure I can pull that card, and connect to the MT-32 to Orpheus. But the Waveblaster... would that be for games that support MIDI (where the MT-32 can sometimes sound a bit off, doing MIDI emulation) or are things like the Waveblaster specifically supported in some games?

Sorry about the stupid question. I used to be more on top of this 25 years ago. 😀

The Wave Blaster header owes its name to being initially meant to connect a Creative Labs Wave Blaster branded daughter cards to a Sound Blaster 16 card . This 26-pin Wave Blaster header became a standard and was implemented on the Creative Labs AWE32 and many third party cards . Compatible daughter cards from many manufacturers weer available . Essentially, the header allows DC power and MIDI data from the host card to be routed to the daughter card and also allows analogue audio (direct digital audio was possible on at least one Turtle Beach sound card and daughter board combination) to be routed back to the sound card mixer . On nearly every Wave Blaster capable sound card, the MIDI data that gets sent to the Wave Blaster header is the same as that which is sent through the DB15 MIDI port.

In other words, the Wave Blaster header allows the equivalent of a MIDI capable synthesizer module to be mounted internally on a sound card . There exist adapter adapter boards to connect a Wave Blaster compatible daughter board to a standard DIN (round plug) MIDI port, essentially converting a Wave Blaster compatible daughter board to a standalone external MIDI module. Like any external MIDI module, DC power must be provided and the makeshift module's audio must be fed somewhere in order for sound to be heard .

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Wave_Blaster

EDIT: In theory a Wave Blaster fully MT-32 compatible daughter board could have been made, none exist . This is largely due to General MIDI becoming popular by the time Wave Blaster headers became available. Consequently most, possibly all, Wave Blaster daughter cards are General MIDI compatible and some are additionally Yamaha XG or Roland GS compatible . MT-32 compatibility, if present on a daughter card, is limited to the default MT-32 instruments and must be explicitly enabled through a SYSEX message (similarly to the MT-32 "compatibility" of a Sound Canvas) .

keropi, well done my friend. I was going to buy one but I didn't realise it would cost so dearly; as is I find it hard to justify the investment considering my income currency is currently in a meltdown (LOL) but I can reassure anyone who earns in a hard currency like USD or EUR it is worth every single dime/penny.

keropi wrote on 2020-09-13, 18:17:

I just wanted to thank everybody for their support and confidence, I must admit we underestimated the demand and the whole 30pcs 1st batch was sold overnight!
Already working to create more cards , atm interested people are entered in a queue. We really dropped the ball on this ...

Well, great work on a very popular launch! I know it may be difficult to talk exact numbers, but how much production do you think is possible for future batches? Are there any concerns about component availability?

hmmm I have no idea really
for now it will be by 30x batches
as-is there is no issue for old chip availability , the plan as always is to secure a good amount of them before hand - just need to invest some $$$ to do that but this will pay up in the future in terms of convenience