Marmes wrote on 2020-09-19, 11:58:

matze79 wrote on 2020-09-16, 11:15:

It looks nice, congratulation on finishing it.

i would not go to buy one because of the pricing, as cards with opl3 could be found easily still 😀
But for anyone else maybe its good choice, specially if you limited on isa slot, don`t have acpi and want intelligent mode mpu too!

Matze79 and other users, the purpose of this card is not to compete with actual cards with OPL3, for example, I don't really give much importance to genuine Yamaha OPL3, but I know it's important to many people. So this card was made with the intention to fulfill most of the demands (not all) of what we (me and keropi) wanted in one card. Not one card to rule them all, but a card that can do almost all 😉 So, we decided to make something with quality components, with the attention to design, ground and power separation and some features like spdif , selectable 2 opl3 engines, CrystalFM and Yamaha OPL3 and Intelligent midi. Of course this in terms of electronic parts and board cannot be cheap. So this board cannot be compared to a cheap opl3 card that was made 20 to 25 years ago.
This board, supports a standard that's no longer used by masses and is being made in 2020 in low quantities. So I think, the price is fair for both who buys and us. We also have partnered with Serdaco on combining our card with X2, because it offers many features and quality at a nice price. If you get both and do the math you see that prices are not bad at all. Hope you understand my point of view.

I, for one, completely understand the price, and I personally decided to limit myself to the non PCMIDI version . A card that was designed with quality as a prime design consideration and made in small quantities will have a component, construction and labor cost to it . Audio quality being high on my list of priorities, this card is something that I can appreciate .

I actually have the opposite concern and hope that you at have a reasonable profit margin on these, not that this is anyone's business. People tend to forget that components and assembly are only part of the equation. The development and testing time did not come out of thin air and I am practically convinced that, with such small production runs to amortize this R&D, if the costs related to these were fully factored in, the card would be practically unbuyable .

In other words, I feel we are getting a bargain, considering all the work put in .

Thanks again for making this a reality .

Cheers again!

Do we have MDFourier analyses comparing with other cards? To show the real world (not theoretical) differences.

Shreddoc wrote on 2020-09-19, 22:45:

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Do we have MDFourier analyses comparing with other cards? To show the real world (not theoretical) differences.

No MATLAB or Mathematica installed, maybe next time.
You can always send me an adlib gold, for me to compare with orpheus.

Cheers!

Marmes wrote on 2020-09-19, 22:54:

No MATLAB or Mathematica installed, maybe next time. You can always send me an adlib gold, for me to compare with orpheus. […]
Show full quote

Shreddoc wrote on 2020-09-19, 22:45:

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Do we have MDFourier analyses comparing with other cards? To show the real world (not theoretical) differences.

No MATLAB or Mathematica installed, maybe next time.
You can always send me an adlib gold, for me to compare with orpheus.

Cheers!

MDFourier is an open source project, specifically for the purpose of empirically analysing and comparing sound hardware. No MATLAB or Mathematica is required.

http://junkerhq.net/MDFourier/

Shreddoc wrote on 2020-09-19, 23:30:

Marmes wrote on 2020-09-19, 22:54:

No MATLAB or Mathematica installed, maybe next time. You can always send me an adlib gold, for me to compare with orpheus. […]
Show full quote

Shreddoc wrote on 2020-09-19, 22:45:

---

Do we have MDFourier analyses comparing with other cards? To show the real world (not theoretical) differences.

No MATLAB or Mathematica installed, maybe next time.
You can always send me an adlib gold, for me to compare with orpheus.

Cheers!

MDFourier is an open source project, specifically for the purpose of empirically analysing and comparing sound hardware. No MATLAB or Mathematica is required.

http://junkerhq.net/MDFourier/

Thanks for the info, if I have some time I will make some comparisons.

Cheers!

I'm a bit late to the party as I only recently became aware of this great project. I just want to thank Keropi, Marmes, Serdashop and all the others involved for dedicating their time, efforts and resources to this endeavour - it's fantastic to have a community coming up with new products like this so that we can continue to upgrade our beloved machines 😄

This surely is a great achievement! Nice work!

Was there any progress on testing this and getting it working on an XT? I read earlier on that someone may look into it - driver issues, emu386 etc.

Tandy1000TL wrote on 2020-10-04, 15:55:

Was there any progress on testing this and getting it working on an XT? I read earlier on that someone may look into it - driver issues, emu386 etc.

UNISOUND will work on XT and will initialize the card AFAIK

Incredible project!!!! Seriously incredible... thanks to those involved. I've ordered mine 😀 Can't wait to play with it!

New card for dos environment always welcome 😀
I think this is great job for enthusiasts including me hehe

You did it! Unbelievable!! Congratulations!

j^aws wrote on 2019-12-07, 17:32:

Duke Nukem 2 is a common test game. There maybe other Apogee Software games from the same era that might have the same compatibi […]
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keropi wrote:

... but remember, not all sfx are playing... door destruction ones are mute so not all ADPCM formats are supported
What other game(s) use this format so we can test also?

thanks for the kind words guys!

Duke Nukem 2 is a common test game. There maybe other Apogee Software games from the same era that might have the same compatibility issue, but I haven't tested those. Here are a few non-exhaustive games:

Monster Bash
Scuba Venture
Major Stryker
Bio Menace
Alien Carnage
Blake Stone

Remember, if you are testing, avoid using any Adlib options to provide sound effects from FM. This masks what is being heard and can be mistaken for 2/3 bit ADPCM.

keropi wrote on 2019-12-07, 17:55:

I will check the rest but I can tell from now that at least Bio Menace is OK with SB sounds , love that game and played it too much in testing 😁
I really think it's DN2 that is the "weird" one mixing at least 2 adpcm formats in it's playback routines.

Great to see the project near the finishing line! Great work from all involved.
BTW, did you manage to test the above games from our earlier discussion? Any updates would be great. Many thanks.

j^aws wrote on 2020-10-10, 18:26:

Great to see the project near the finishing line! Great work from all involved.
BTW, did you manage to test the above games from our earlier discussion? Any updates would be great. Many thanks.

thanks for the kind words!
everything EXCEPT Duke Nukem 2 is OK:
nukem2 only works with adlib sfx , ADPCM modes are not fully supported on Crystal 423x chips , so nothing can be done for it...

keropi wrote on 2020-10-10, 18:32:

thanks for the kind words! everything EXCEPT Duke Nukem 2 is OK: nukem2 only works with adlib sfx , ADPCM modes are not fully su […]
Show full quote

j^aws wrote on 2020-10-10, 18:26:

Great to see the project near the finishing line! Great work from all involved.
BTW, did you manage to test the above games from our earlier discussion? Any updates would be great. Many thanks.

thanks for the kind words!
everything EXCEPT Duke Nukem 2 is OK:
nukem2 only works with adlib sfx , ADPCM modes are not fully supported on Crystal 423x chips , so nothing can be done for it...

So, just this isolated case, which is great to hear. I was expecting the others to behave similarly.

I suspect this also applies to the Yamaha YMF cards as well.

indeed, YMF cards also don't play ADPCM compressed sounds
Crystal cards do play *some* but it's unreliable so it's not even worth saying there is support for them 🤣

This is a non-issue IMO, this ADPCM stuff, as for Duke Nukem 2 the compressed samples have been brought back to 8bit, so this game can be played just fine with any clone card. If it was 100 games, sure that would be annoying, but maybe a handful of games is nothing to worry about.

Duke Nukem 2 ADPCM fix?

Received my Orpheus today, it's a beautifully crafted card, amazing stuff!
Congratz again keropi and Marmes 😀

EDIT: fixed my issue which was some ISA timing shenanigans, I'll now take more time to properly test the card in the upcoming days!

here is a simple compiled batch file that will re-write the card's eeprom config in case someone wants to restore it or manipulate the CS4237 MPU device to suit their system better

edit:
v2 uploaded, only change is the power-cycle message that is needed for new eeprom to take effect - fw is the same

When using Orpheus card with unisound, please use Set blaster settings like this if you have PCMIDI option.
SET BLASTER = A2xx Ix Dx P300 T4

This is what I have in my PC's autoxec.bat

SET BLASTER = A220 I5 D1 P300 T4
C:\UNISOUND\unisound.com

You can see more options on unisound.txt

It's very important to set MIDI port in crystal chip or it will conflict with PCMIDI, and none will work as they should.

You can also use our eeprom script provided by keropi. Remember to do a power cycle in the end!