VOGONS


First post, by 640K!enough

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In extensive testing and experimentation with keropi and Marmes, one thing became clear: CWDINIT and CWDMIX leave a great deal to be desired. So, I propose a new solution: ORPHINIT. This software was written from the ground up specifically for the feature set of the Orpheus sound card. It was designed to be far more consistent and predictable than the Crystal package, while supporting all of the Orpheus features as well as possible. Clearly, as a beta release, it is sure to have some as-yet-undiscovered annoyances, so any constructive problem reports, complaints or other discussion would be greatly appreciated.

Like the Crystal package, this software uses a configuration file, ORPHEUS.INI. I think all of the options are clearly described within that file, and I encourage anyone who is interested in trying the software to have a thorough look through that file, as well as the output of "ORPHINIT /?". If there is anything that is at all unclear, this is the place to say so.

The other included file is ORPHEUS.BAT. This is a bit of a (possibly temporary) kludge, that first invokes ORPHINIT, then another auto-generated batch file to set appropriate environment variables. This is a bit ugly, but avoids using other undocumented ways of doing the job from within the software itself.

Known Issues

  • Volume variations when some software manipulates mixer values upon start-up sometimes cause sources to be silenced. Still looking into these; please report any you find.
  • On some systems, bus timing/configuration problems seem to cause trouble, resulting in init failing. If it takes more than a couple of seconds, something is wrong.
  • This software does not upload any firmware to the board.
  • Only Plug and Play mode is supported. Initialisation when Plug and Play support is disabled in the CS4237B (no EEPROM or jumpered off) will not work.
  • Support for systems without a Plug and Play BIOS is implemented, but may not be 100% reliable. Any problem reports appreciated.
  • Error handling isn't particularly thorough yet. Garbage values in the configuration file may yield garbage results.

I can't end this post without publicly thanking keropi and Marmes. They have been extremely patient in their testing efforts, from the very first trial versions to now. If not for the travel restrictions, they would probably have shot me by now. 🤣

EDIT: I should have mentioned this before: please try with the default configuration first, as long as it won't cause any conflicts. This will give a better idea about potential noise levels, before any extensive tinkering with the mixer values.

EDIT 2: One warning: the way ORPHINIT manages the registers gives UNISOUND indigestion; using UNISOUND after ORPHINIT without first re-booting is very likely to produce some rather awful noises. If you want to do comparative testing to investigate a problem, please re-boot beforehand. If you end up in that situation, running ORPHINIT again or re-booting should silence the noise.

Older versions removed. The most recent release is available here.

Last edited by 640K!enough on 2023-01-19, 08:31. Edited 7 times in total.

Reply 2 of 165, by keropi

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I only have this reaction image to add:

UlJctiz.gif

thank you 640k!enough for all your hard work and time spent on this!!!!
with more user reports and testing we will achieve perfection in the end 😀

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 4 of 165, by darry

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I ran some quick tests using only serial digital (S/PDIF) output and my preferred external (Yamaha) OPL3 .

In either the default "analogue" or "min-digital" mode , PCM and FM volume control do not seem to work, or maybe the mixer values are reset by the games that I have tried (Duke Nukem 3D and Doom) . I tried enabling the kludges, but volume is always the same, even with PCMVol=mute and FMVol=191 , which should, respectively, mute wave audio and attenuate FM volume , AFAICT, I still get full volume sound . In Duke Nukem 3D setup.exe, set to sound blaster pro and with proper env variables set by orphinit, I have noticed that if I immediately test music after running orphinit, mute seems to work, but music gets unmuted as soon as I run the wave test once .

This is essentially the same behavior that I observed with UniSound . So, at this point my guess is that both the games that I tested mess with mixer settings . I will need to re-install some other games to do more testing .

Reply 5 of 165, by darry

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Some more tests.

EDIT: my control register base is 120h

min-digital seems to achieve the same result as completely shutting down the ADC in terms of noise, which is perfect for my needs . Thank you very much for that !

I do have a question and a combination issue/question/suggestion .

Question :
a) How did you achieve the min-digital settings, if it is possible your you to briefly describe it ?

Issue/question/suggestion :
b) When enabling external (Yamaha) FM/OPL3, Orphinit sets register 122h to 1, which disables internal FM . This is not a problem in DOS, as external FM works. But if you launch Windows after running Orphinit set to external FM, the Windows driver does not reset the register to 0, even though it enables internal FM and thus no FM is heard in Windows applications and in DOS applications running under Windows . Setting the register to 0 either before launching Windows or from within Windows fixes that . This is not a major thing as there are workarounds (resetting the register, a custom orpheus.ini with internal FM before launching Windows), but if leaving the internal FM block causes no apparent harm, why not just leave it enabled ? If it is harmful to leave it on while using external FM, what issue does it cause ?

Thank you again for this great utility.

Cheers!

Reply 6 of 165, by 640K!enough

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darry wrote on 2020-11-06, 02:06:

In either the default "analogue" or "min-digital" mode , PCM and FM volume control do not seem to work, or maybe the mixer values are reset by the games that I have tried (Duke Nukem 3D and Doom) .

This is one of those problems that currently has no elegant solution, and is a result of Crystal's design decisions or firmware bugs. These values are assigned when the card is initialised, and you can convince yourself that they work by testing with Ad Lib's old TEST.EXE (available on the MSC diskette at VOGONS drivers) or Adlib Tracker II. Proving the same for PCM is a little more difficult, as I don't know of any player that doesn't also change the volume before doing its job; maybe some old SB 1.0 VOC player?

Also, the mixer settings made in WSS mode do not carry over when switching to SB mode, and switching from SB mode back to WSS mode provides only crude approximations of the former SB volume levels. The old WSS mixer register values are simply discarded for any source that is supported in SB mode! Whether a newer (or older) firmware version might fix this is still something that needs to be investigated.

DOOM and company are definitely titles that needlessly tinker with the mixer registers, and it's a problem that still needs work.

darry wrote on 2020-11-06, 03:15:

a) How did you achieve the min-digital settings, if it is possible your you to briefly describe it ?

This is closely related to what we discussed recently. The min-digital setting is basically just leaving the job half done; you enable the consumer serial port ("S/PDIF"), then set 3DSO in C3. That's all there is to it. Since 3DSO is basically a multiplexer control, it chooses whatever is coming out of the SRS DSP, and ignores the ADC. With no other register magic to get the ADC output into the digital mixer, they are not part of the signal. For ORPHINIT specifically, the SRS setting is checked later, and 3DEN and 3DM (also in C3) are set as configured. Of course, if you want to be able to hear the YMF289, you must enable SRS. One of the crowning achievements of the analogue routing is that it offers YMF289 via digital output without SRS.

You should be able to convince yourself of this with UNISOUND. Use it as usual to enable digital output and YMF289. Then clear I13 (write 00) and make sure 3DSO is 1. Again, if you're going to try this, keep your volume levels modest, in case something goes wrong.

darry wrote on 2020-11-06, 03:15:

This is not a major thing as there are workarounds (resetting the register, a custom orpheus.ini with internal FM before launching Windows), but if leaving the internal FM block causes no apparent harm, why not just leave it enabled ? If it is harmful to leave it on while using external FM, what issue does it cause ?

There is no real issue; it was just me being a little forceful when testing my early code to switch back and forth. For one thing, I wanted to be sure what I wrote was working, so I forcibly disabled it in a few ways to be sure that if I didn't hear YMF289, then I would hear nothing. Also, during testing there were a few register combinations that made some ear-splitting noises, and that was part of making sure they didn't happen again. That same code was brought in as multiple separate tools merged to become ORPHINIT, and it just seemed reasonable to leave something that we weren't planning to use powered down. Other than the remote possibility of it introducing a tiny bit of noise, leaving it powered wouldn't likely be a problem, but I saw no advantage to it.

There are likely a few ways to get around that behaviour in Windows. If I can find a spare storage device for a few additional partitions, I might have a look.

darry wrote on 2020-11-06, 02:06:

I tried enabling the kludges, but volume is always the same, even with PCMVol=mute and FMVol=191 , which should, respectively, mute wave audio and attenuate FM volume , AFAICT, I still get full volume sound .

The WTKludge and LineKludge settings are specifically for the wavetable header and line in signal routing for a daughterboard or external device. They won't help what you're testing at the moment.

Reply 7 of 165, by darry

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640K!enough wrote on 2020-11-06, 05:49:
This is one of those problems that currently has no elegant solution, and is a result of Crystal's design decisions or firmware […]
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darry wrote on 2020-11-06, 02:06:

In either the default "analogue" or "min-digital" mode , PCM and FM volume control do not seem to work, or maybe the mixer values are reset by the games that I have tried (Duke Nukem 3D and Doom) .

This is one of those problems that currently has no elegant solution, and is a result of Crystal's design decisions or firmware bugs. These values are assigned when the card is initialised, and you can convince yourself that they work by testing with Ad Lib's old TEST.EXE (available on the MSC diskette at VOGONS drivers) or Adlib Tracker II. Proving the same for PCM is a little more difficult, as I don't know of any player that doesn't also change the volume before doing its job; maybe some old SB 1.0 VOC player?

Also, the mixer settings made in WSS mode do not carry over when switching to SB mode, and switching from SB mode back to WSS mode provides only crude approximations of the former SB volume levels. The old WSS mixer register values are simply discarded for any source that is supported in SB mode! Whether a newer (or older) firmware version might fix this is still something that needs to be investigated.

DOOM and company are definitely titles that needlessly tinker with the mixer registers, and it's a problem that still needs work.

darry wrote on 2020-11-06, 03:15:

a) How did you achieve the min-digital settings, if it is possible your you to briefly describe it ?

This is closely related to what we discussed recently. The min-digital setting is basically just leaving the job half done; you enable the consumer serial port ("S/PDIF"), then set 3DSO in C3. That's all there is to it. Since 3DSO is basically a multiplexer control, it chooses whatever is coming out of the SRS DSP, and ignores the ADC. With no other register magic to get the ADC output into the digital mixer, they are not part of the signal. For ORPHINIT specifically, the SRS setting is checked later, and 3DEN and 3DM (also in C3) are set as configured. Of course, if you want to be able to hear the YMF289, you must enable SRS. One of the crowning achievements of the analogue routing is that it offers YMF289 via digital output without SRS.

You should be able to convince yourself of this with UNISOUND. Use it as usual to enable digital output and YMF289. Then clear I13 (write 00) and make sure 3DSO is 1. Again, if you're going to try this, keep your volume levels modest, in case something goes wrong.

darry wrote on 2020-11-06, 03:15:

This is not a major thing as there are workarounds (resetting the register, a custom orpheus.ini with internal FM before launching Windows), but if leaving the internal FM block causes no apparent harm, why not just leave it enabled ? If it is harmful to leave it on while using external FM, what issue does it cause ?

There is no real issue; it was just me being a little forceful when testing my early code to switch back and forth. For one thing, I wanted to be sure what I wrote was working, so I forcibly disabled it in a few ways to be sure that if I didn't hear YMF289, then I would hear nothing. Also, during testing there were a few register combinations that made some ear-splitting noises, and that was part of making sure they didn't happen again. That same code was brought in as multiple separate tools merged to become ORPHINIT, and it just seemed reasonable to leave something that we weren't planning to use powered down. Other than the remote possibility of it introducing a tiny bit of noise, leaving it powered wouldn't likely be a problem, but I saw no advantage to it.

There are likely a few ways to get around that behaviour in Windows. If I can find a spare storage device for a few additional partitions, I might have a look.

darry wrote on 2020-11-06, 02:06:

I tried enabling the kludges, but volume is always the same, even with PCMVol=mute and FMVol=191 , which should, respectively, mute wave audio and attenuate FM volume , AFAICT, I still get full volume sound .

The WTKludge and LineKludge settings are specifically for the wavetable header and line in signal routing for a daughterboard or external device. They won't help what you're testing at the moment.

Thank you once again for fantastic work and patience explaining this to the newb that I am . I will definitely experiment more later .

You always hear me mentioning noise and I think I may have overstated its impact .

I made some comparison between analogue with every analogue input at 31 and min-digital with the same settings with nothing playing (background noise) .
Full disclosure :
- I am currently running the Orpheus digital out through an SB Live! (and it 48KHz resampling) into the VS-880EX digital in and recoding it's optical out , so these measurements are relative and don't say anything about the Orpheus' absolute performance .
- Volume levels are almost certainly not optimal .
- I likely don't fully know what I'm doing (but I'm learning).

min-digital :

min-digital.png
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min-digital.png
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analogue :

analogue.png
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analogue.png
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The only reason I can hear the difference between the two is because the VS-880EX headphone out allows an EXTREME amount of analogue gain while being EXTREMELY quiet . If I were to try to get close to actually listening to anything other than background noise at those gain levels, it would be ear-drum splitting and totally pointless .

The VS-880EX is so clean in it's DA + headphone amplification that I can actually hear the difference in noise character, at or below -90dB, when I'm typing, but only when the CS4237B's ADC signal is routed to its digital out (EDIT : when Orphinit inits in analogue mode, with all analgue inputs muted) . My previous Akai DPS12 did not allow for so much clean gain and as I was used to using it and not the VS-880Ex, I do not realize what an idiot I was being .

Moral of the story: let a newb have too much fancy equipment and he will find the best way to make himself look dumb .

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Reply 8 of 165, by darry

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I made a comparison between the Orpheus' digital S/PDIF out with Orphinit being set to "analogue" mode with every analogue input at mute AND MIC input at either 31 or mute with nothing playing (background noise) . Setting MIC to 31 is quieter than setting it to mute . I have included my ini files .

Again, full disclosure :
- I am currently running the Orpheus digital out through an SB Live! (and it 48KHz resampling) into the VS-880EX digital in and recoding it's optical out , so these measurements are relative and don't say anything about the Orpheus' absolute performance .
- Volume levels are almost certainly not optimal .
- I likely don't fully know what I'm doing (but I'm learning).

MIC mute

ORPHEUS_analogue_mic_mute.png
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ORPHEUS_analogue_mic_mute.png
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MIC 31

ORPHEUS_analogue_mic_31.png
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ORPHEUS_analogue_mic_31.png
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Filename
ORPHEUS_analogue_mic_mute.INI
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2.7 KiB
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Filename
ORPHEUS_analogue_mic_31.INI
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2.7 KiB
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115 downloads
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Filename
analogue_mic.zip
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810.23 KiB
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101 downloads
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Reply 9 of 165, by darry

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I now know with I initially thought that the wavetable input was noisy. It is because it is, BUT only under Windows with the PV2860 driver and digital output enabled . Under DOS, using Orphinit, it is fine .

I made a comparison between the Orpheus' digital S/PDIF out with Orphinit being set to "analogue" mode with every analogue input at mute except MIC input at 31 and WTHeaderVol at 8 . Nothing was playing (background noise) . No wavetable card was installed . SRS had to be enabled under Windows or analogue input would not work in Windows. The Synth slider in Windows had no effect on background noise .

Again, full disclosure :
- I am currently running the Orpheus digital out through an SB Live! (and it 48KHz resampling) into the VS-880EX digital in and recoding it's optical out , so these measurements are relative and don't say anything about the Orpheus' absolute performance .
- Volume levels are almost certainly not optimal .
- I likely don't fully know what I'm doing (but I'm learning).

Orpheus digital out in DOS with WT enabled :

ORPHEUS_dos_analogue_mic_31_wt_enabled.png
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ORPHEUS_dos_analogue_mic_31_wt_enabled.png
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Orpheus digital out in Windows with WT enabled :

windows_srs_unmuted.png
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windows_srs_unmuted.png
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Orpheus Windows mixer settings (the Synth slider in Windows had no effect on background noise ):

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windows_srs_unmuted_mixer.png
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INI file used :

Filename
ORPHEUS_analogue_mic_31_wt_enabled.INI
File size
2.7 KiB
Downloads
129 downloads
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wav files :

Filename
wavs.zip
File size
993.41 KiB
Downloads
99 downloads
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TLDR : When using S/PDIF output (I did not test analogue output)
- Using Orphinit, Orpheus is fantastic with analogue input enabled (wavetable) or without under DOS (slightly quieter with analogue input disabled)
- The PV2860 Windows 9x driver sucks is sub-optimal if analogue input is enabled (at least when using digital output).

Last edited by darry on 2020-11-07, 04:32. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 10 of 165, by darry

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Following up on the previous post.

Here is a 1KHz tone, generated with a peak of -3dB being played on the Orpheus through its digital out (routed through an SB Live!) under DOS in Open Cubic Player 2.51 (2.6 has issues for me) . The init settings are the same as in the previous post . Wavetable input is enabled in DOS . SRS is enabled but zeroed in Windows (as in previous post) .

DOS

ORPHEUS_1khz_dos_analogue_mic_31_wt_enabled.png
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Windows

ORPHEUS_1khz_windows_wt_enabled.png
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EDIT : And the actual wav samples from this post and the previous one .

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more_wavs.zip
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100 downloads
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EDIT 2: Maybe I should post average amplitude statistics . Though with the provided wav files, anyone can do it .
EDIT 3 : Please disregard the 1KHz tone results . There was an issue with Open Cubic Player 2.51 as well as I was using DOS4GW.EXE ver 1.94 . Using ver 1.97 fixes it . As I now have a setup that will allow direct digital recording at 44.1KHz from the Orpheus, I will likely not be re-doing this specific test through the SB Live! passthrough setup .

Last edited by darry on 2020-11-08, 16:23. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 11 of 165, by 640K!enough

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All of this tinkering and analysis is interesting, but as you have mentioned, it is only a relative comparison on your particular installation. I still have some nagging concerns about what effect the Live!'s sample rate conversion may have on the signal.

Anyhow, I made a few small corrections last night, and will experiment with a few new ideas, so should have a new release some time next week.

Last edited by 640K!enough on 2020-11-08, 05:30. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 12 of 165, by darry

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640K!enough wrote on 2020-11-07, 19:50:

All of this tinkering and analysis is interesting, but as you have mentioned, it is only a relative comparison on your particular installation. I still have some nagging concerns about what effect the Live!'s sample rate conversion my have on the signal.

Anyhow, I made a few small corrections last night, and will experiment with a few new ideas, so should have a new release some time next week.

I know that the setup through the Live! is not ideal . I should be able to make more measurements by capturing 44.1KHz directly through S/PDIF using either my CMI USB sound card or an X-FI (in bit-matched mode) . I just need to get either a coaxial S/PDIF splitter or an S/PDIF coaxial to toslink converter with coaxial passthrough .

Even considering the limitations of my current setup through the Live! , I believe that the Windows driver is definitely sub-optimal as far as analogue input goes .

Looking forward to your next software release.

Reply 13 of 165, by darry

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I now have a direct 44.1KHz (no resampling) recording setup using a CM108 CM6206 USB interface with optical input. While setting it up, I found a strange issue and its strange workaround that may or may not be unique to my setup .
The issue in question is distortion while playing back a wave file using the WSS mode in DOS after a cold boot .
It is easily reproduced by playing a 1KHz sine wave file (16-bit 44.1KHz stereo) in Open Cubic Player 2.51 and more difficult to notice but still present when playing the same file in MPX Play 1.65G .
In Open Cubic Player, the issue is also noticeable when playing modules .
It affects both analogue output and S/PDIF (in both min-digital and analogue modes, with S/PDIF set to on EDIT : also with S/PDIF set to off) .
It is also present when initializing with UniSound .

BUT, booting into Windows with the PV2860 driver installed and then rebooting resolves the issue completely in DOS for as long as only soft boots are done . Re-initializing the card does not bring back the issue. Only a cold boot will bring back the issue . I already went through both all indirect control and WSS registers before and after running Windows to try to find a significant difference, but even manually setting all those registers to their post Windows values after a cold boot does not seem to changer anything (I may have missed something, so I will likely try again) .

The system that I am running this on is 815 based and uses an IT8888 ISA bridge, which may be a contributing factor . An AWE64 in the same system does not display the issue .
I have a strong feeling that this issue is system specific, so I will likely try the Orpheus in an Asus P3B-F to compare .

Any suggestions appreciated .

Here are the WAVE files I recorded during my comparisons.

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Last edited by darry on 2020-11-09, 17:59. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 14 of 165, by darry

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darry wrote on 2020-11-09, 03:38:
I now have a direct 44.1KHz (no resampling) recording setup using a CM108 USB interface with optical input. While setting it up, […]
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I now have a direct 44.1KHz (no resampling) recording setup using a CM108 USB interface with optical input. While setting it up, I found a strange issue and its strange workaround that may or may not be unique to my setup .
The issue in question is distortion while playing back a wave file using the WSS mode in DOS after a cold boot .
It is easily reproduced by playing a 1KHz sine wave file (16-bit 44.1KHz stereo) in Open Cubic Player 2.51 and more difficult to notice but still present when playing the same file in MPX Play 1.65G .
In Open Cubic Player, the issue is also noticeable when playing modules .
It affects both analogue output and S/PDIF (in both min-digital and analogue modes, with S/PDIF set to on EDIT : also with S/PDIF set to off) .
It is also present when initializing with UniSound .

BUT, booting into Windows with the PV2860 driver installed and then rebooting resolves the issue completely in DOS for as long as only soft boots are done . Re-initializing the card does not bring back the issue. Only a cold boot will bring back the issue . I already went through both all indirect control and WSS registers before and after running Windows to try to find a significant difference, but even manually setting all those registers to their post Windows values after a cold boot does not seem to changer anything (I may have missed something, so I will likely try again) .

The system that I am running this on is 815 based and uses an IT8888 ISA bridge, which may be a contributing factor . An AWE64 in the same system does not display the issue .
I have a strong feeling that this issue is system specific, so I will likely try the Orpheus in an Asus P3B-F to compare .

Any suggestions appreciated .

Here are the WAVE files I recorded during my comparisons.
1khz_issue.zip

I have narrowed it down a bit . It's my Voodoo 3's fault ! I have an AGP Geforce FX 5900 and a PCI Voodoo 3 3000 in that system . If I set the FX 5900 as primary VGA in BIOS, the issue is not present (from a cold boot or otherwise) .
If I set the Voodoo 3 as primary VGA, the issue is present from a cold boot, but running Windows fixes it temporarily (until the next cold boot). I have compared the Voodoo 3's PCI registers before and after running Windows and found no differences .

I find this very strange .

EDIT : I tried flashing a random assortment of SDRAM Voodoo 3 PCI and AGP (they seem to work on a PCI card) BIOSes to no avail . I also tried changing some Voodoo 3 PCI initialization registers using TDFX BIOS editor.
I would really like to know what Windows and/or the 3DFX drivers does that mitigates this issue .

EDIT2: Same symptom with a PCI Voodoo 3 2000 .

EDIT3 : I tried a PCI Voodoo 3 2000 in an Asus P3B-F along with Orpheus . I get even worse weird distortion when playing the 1KHz test tone file in Open Cubic Player under DOS, but if I open the help menu by pressing F1 , all on-screen movement stops which also stops the distortion . Running Open Cubic Player under Windows does not cause the issue . Soft booting from Windows does not mitigate the issue, which differs from the behavior observed on my 815 board . Finally, when using an FX 5900 XT AGP as a primary VGA , the issue does not occur . This is definitely a strange Voodoo 3 issue, IMHO .

EDIT4 : I tried with a YMF715 based Audiotrix 3D/XG and an Opti 929 based Turtle Beach Monte Carlo, and the same issue is present in WSS mode . This has nothing to do with Orpheus. It seems to be a strange incompatibility between WSS mode on any ISA card and Voodoo 3 cards .

EDIT5 : I found a usable workaround . Initiating a short playback session using LMP 0.9 (by Lada Kopecky) on the SB Live! that is also in the system, but whose ins and outs are disconnected from everything, mitigates the issue (Initializing the card using EKM049 is not enough) until a cold boot. I should probably test with the Live! removed from the system, but I just can't be bothered . Case closed as far as I am concerned .

Last edited by darry on 2020-11-10, 06:03. Edited 3 times in total.

Reply 15 of 165, by Marmes

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@darry
I really appreciate your tests, they are really helpful. But for now, it would be nice, to concentrate ourselves, in software functionally and control. Then, we can make tests with different hardware configurations.
Thanks once again for all😉👍

Reply 16 of 165, by darry

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Marmes wrote on 2020-11-09, 22:20:

@darry
I really appreciate your tests, they are really helpful. But for now, it would be nice, to concentrate ourselves, in software functionally and control. Then, we can make tests with different hardware configurations.
Thanks once again for all😉👍

No problem, I understand. Also, my hardware config(s) are likely not very representative of that of the typical Orpheus user (815 platform and Voodoo 3) and would probably fall under the "corner cases" category, so my experiences probably do not help as much as those of users with setups that cover up to the late DOS era . My "jack of all trades" approach is great when it works, but it sometimes exposes me to strange compatibility issues . If I experience issues that are unlikely to affect others, I will only post them if I have useful workarounds to go along with them . I also realize that this thread (Orphinit) is likely not the best avenue for my experiences and I apologize for having hijacked it after getting a bit carried away. Maybe a mod could split my non Orphinit related posts into a separate thread .

I was about to take a break from testing in multiple configurations anyway (it is a bit exhausting). I will wait for new software (Orphinit) and will concentrate on reporting issues I may have with it but, to be honest, the software (Orphinit) is pretty much fully functional as far as my use cases go .

Please let me know if this is OK with you or if I have misunderstood in any way .

Cheers!

Reply 17 of 165, by 640K!enough

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As promised, it is time for another release. Version 0.52ß includes some significant changes that should improve the Orpheus experience:

Changelog

  • Slight revisions to ORPHEUS.BAT to ensure that temporary file and environment variable clean-up are completed.
  • Added support for the Crystal MPU-401 UART. MPUBase and MPUIRQ settings are now checked, and the settings correctly applied. Using only MPUBase without an IRQ ("MPUIRQ=disabled") is a valid configuration, for those IRQ-constrained systems.
  • Added the Mode setting. This can be sb or wss. The wss setting causes ORPHINIT to proceed with initialisation as before, leaving the chip in MODE 3, with all digital and analogue sources available (as configured) and volume levels set. This is not ideal for all software relying on Sound Blaster support. The sb mode solves this problem by following that basic initialisation with a switch to Sound Blaster context and initialisation of the Sound Blaster Pro mixer. In SB mode, the chip is left in Sound Blaster context, eliminating the mixer difficulties of the previous version when running software supporting only Sound Blaster standards. Switching from Sound Blaster context to WSS context to run supporting software will result in a slight loss of mixer precision compared to using "Mode=wss", but software will still work as intended. This probably sounds more complicated than it is, and simply leaving "Mode=sb" is probably a safe bet, unless you run mostly WSS-compatible software.
  • Dedicated Sound Blaster-mode mixer settings can be specified in the sb-mode section.

As always, any problem reports, discussion, questions or constructive criticism are appreciated. Also, reports of successful usage, and a brief description of your configuration, could be very useful.

EDIT: Since it has come up, I should mention that ORPHINIT was built for 80186 and later. This likely means that the V30 or 80286 is the practical minimum, since there were very few complete PCs based on the 80186. I don't expect too many will want to pair a card in this price range with an XT, so am unlikely to put the effort into building for 8086/8088.

Last edited by 640K!enough on 2020-11-22, 21:53. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 19 of 165, by keropi

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I have been using this for a couple of days , this is a fully functional software and will make the card work as expected in all scenarios - no more input/volume issues 😀
thanks again 640K!enough for making this!!!!

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