Thanks for the suggestion and information Tiido. Only, this update bios upgrade is a single exe with the bios data imbedded in it. Of course I expect it would not be too hard to extract it from the binary and use another tool to try and flash it, but since that bios seem smd soldered I do not want to take the risk to remove it if problems arises. It's an unintrusive error message that dont add boot delay or require keypress.

The bios upgrade procedure inform that it's erasing the flash at some point (but maybe not the escd area?). Testing many configuration in bios and different video card dont take rid of the message. Anyway maybe I'll start a thread about it, now I feel I digress the topic too much

I was curious to know where the boot screen of mbliss11 more precisely hang and what's showing up. Also let them know that the orpheus init alright using both orphinit et unisound on dos with this optiplex gxpro 200. I timed the initial detection more precisely around 90 and 120 seconds, depending on where you start to count.

aitotat wrote on 2021-06-08, 18:08:

I found what caused Cycles to freeze. It was caused by FreeDOS.

All games that use that same engine will not work on FreeDOS. I personally reported that Alone in the Dark (Floppy version) does not work on the Facebook group, some other user reported Grand Prix Circuit, and despite the FreeDOS creator Jim Hall replying i honestly don't think anything will be ever done to solve these issues. So, i'm done with FreeDOS.

If my main goal is to play Sierra and Lucasarts adventure games and be able to utilize the Roland MT-32 and SC-55 external units with my DOS/windows 95 PC, would it be overkill to purchase an Orpheus sound card with PCMIDI or can I get away with just purchasing a PCMIDI sound card? Is it difficult to install and configure a sound card if I've never done it before?

slai50 wrote on 2021-06-14, 02:08:

If my main goal is to play Sierra and Lucasarts adventure games and be able to utilize the Roland MT-32 and SC-55 external units with my DOS/windows 95 PC, would it be overkill to purchase an Orpheus sound card with PCMIDI or can I get away with just purchasing a PCMIDI sound card? Is it difficult to install and configure a sound card if I've never done it before?

The advantage of PCMIDI is you can then switch other the other sound card to suit your taste. On the other hand, if you just want an all in one solution, and maybe have only one ISA slot, orpheas is a great choice.

Forgive me for a possibly stupid question, but can you upload an MT-32 soundbank to the user bank of the Orpheus/Dreamblaster X2GS?

I'm not looking for an instrument map (ie. mapping MT32 to a SC55?) but as close to accurate MT-32 sounds as possible?

Basically I'm wondering if the Orpheus+Dreamblaster X2GS can accurately perform as a Soundblaster+OPL3+SC55+MT32 device. 😀

if there was a thing like a MT-32 bank for the X2(GS) one could upload it via usb and then use it
but there is no such bank - and quite frankly there won't be any that is any different that a stock mt-32 mapping
your best bet outside using a real mt-32 is to use a MT32-PI device - which will sound just like the original and support all it's features

there are several pi hats for this reason listed on the mt32-pi homepage and there are also devices from serdashop like the McCake and MP32-L

sofakng wrote on 2021-06-21, 13:15:

Forgive me for a possibly stupid question, but can you upload an MT-32 soundbank to the user bank of the Orpheus/Dreamblaster X2GS?

I'm not looking for an instrument map (ie. mapping MT32 to a SC55?) but as close to accurate MT-32 sounds as possible?

Basically I'm wondering if the Orpheus+Dreamblaster X2GS can accurately perform as a Soundblaster+OPL3+SC55+MT32 device. 😀

I use the UM One USB midi interface with MUNT on another PC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRyPjvbDkvg

sofakng wrote on 2021-06-21, 13:15:

Forgive me for a possibly stupid question, but can you upload an MT-32 soundbank to the user bank of the Orpheus/Dreamblaster X2GS?

I'm not looking for an instrument map (ie. mapping MT32 to a SC55?) but as close to accurate MT-32 sounds as possible?

Basically I'm wondering if the Orpheus+Dreamblaster X2GS can accurately perform as a Soundblaster+OPL3+SC55+MT32 device. 😀

Definitely not.

The first 3, yes.

But proper MT-32 sound can only be done either with real hardware (MT-32, RA-50, etc), or with the software project "Munt" (running on another PC, or an mt32-pi-setup Raspberry Pi, or in software as part of the DOSBox project).

Thanks so much for the information everybody!

I'm having problem with line-in volume. I'm trying to connect GUS ACE to Orpheus line-in and the volume is too low. I'm trying to set volume so that I wouldn't have to adjust speakers every time when switching between games supporting Sound Blaster and GUS.

I'm using latest Orphinit and Mode=sb. SB-LineVol is set to 7 and so line-in volume should now be maximum, if I've understood everything correctly. But it is too low compared to Orpheus (Sound Blaster) volume. Volume is a lot louder if I set speakers directly to GUS line out.

I also tried to set Mode=wss. Orphinit did not accept WSSBase=534 and I changed it to 530 (I think that is correct behavior but it should be commented in the ini file). If I'm correct, now in wss mode I should modify LineInVol. But line-in was mute with default value 12. I tried at least 8 and 0 but the line-in was always muted in wss mode. I left SB-LineVol to 7 when I switched to wss mode.

So I either get too low line-in volume or nothing at all. Did I do everything correctly?

Does the same thing happen with UNISOUND , have you tried?

What if you do like what the ACE manual describes: connect your main soundcard to the ACE's input and then the speakers directly to ACE , do you get proper levels then?
If you do then leave it like that since most likely the issue is games messing with the mixer registers (which you completely bypass since ACE will do mixing) plus the ACE has nice mixing capabilities so quality loss will not exist.

It is true that the Sound Blaster or compatible should be connected to GUS line in and not the other way. I remember connecting GUS ACE to a Sound Blaster 16 line in (likely one of the CT17xx models) and it made the GUS sound like a Sound Blaster! Ever since I've always connected Sound Blaster to GUS line in (no matter what GUS and what Sound Blaster).

But I have GUS ACE 1.0 and it has a bug: GUS stereo channels are swapped but line in is not. Since Orpheus is very high quality card I made my own short cable from GUS to Orpheus that swaps stereo channels to the way they should be. GUS sounds like a GUS when connected to Orpheus line in so no problem there and the stereo channels are now correct.

But I could not get the volume correct. I just tested with Unisound and the problem is the same. I set the line in to maximum (99) but no difference from Orphinit. Then I tried testing with Orpheus wave and FM volumes but I could not get wave volume nowhere low enough. But it is possible to connect Orpheus to GUS line in and adjust master volume to get the levels about the same.

Maybe I'll just have to connect Orpheus to GUS ACE with the reversed stereo cable I made and then I can make another to connect GUS ACE to speakers. Or I could try GUS Classic (it has speaker out) and connect it to Orpheus Line in.

I did some testing with GUS Classic and results were unexpected. GUS Classic seems to output much more volume than ACE even from line out. And speaker out outputs even more as expected. So with GUS classic all I need to do is set SB-LineVol=7 and connect GUS Classic line out to Orpheus line in. All other orphinit volumes can be left at default and the volume levels are quite correct. I retested with GUS ACE and it was way too quiet with same orphinit settings.

thanks for sharing this info aitotat!

as a sidenote I have a GUS Classic 3.73 that I connect to an external active mixer - in my case the line-out is not usable with the mixer (not enough volume so not enough range to adjust) and I have to use the speaker-out to have a usable mixing setup for my main soundcard/gus/midi devices...
maybe it needs a recap or something, I always thought that's the way line-out was on GUS classics ...

I have GUS Classic 3.4. If I remember correctly 3.73 has a mixer just like GUS MAX (and that makes it more noisier so Classic 3.4 and older are maybe better cards). Have you tried to adjust volume with ultramix? With my 3.4 it only allows to enable/disable mic, line-in and output so no volume adjustments.

Hi all

I'm having reversed stereo issues with ufo enemy unknown (XCOM) - the setup exe will ask for card type (SB Pro) then address/irq, if the stereo should be flipped, choosing either yes or no will result in flipped stereo. i ran the setup about 10 times to be sure that i'm choosing the correct option but yeah, still swapped channels no matter which option. I'm using version 1.4 of the original xcom i think (it's a CDrom release)

Any ideas? Other games seem to NOT need a stereo flip and others work fine (Doom/doom 2)

I had a look around the orphinit files and couldn't see any driver option for reverse stereo.

Thanks

we'll have to wait for 640k!enough to tell us if a "flip stereo" option can be implemented but generally speaking CS4237 does not suffer from flipped stereo channels to my knowledge... some games do assume you are having this (for whatever weird reason) and you get flipped stereo but the CS4237 implements SBPRO stereo correctly.
Not sure what can be done if the game is in the latest version though and no chance some update patch fixes this behavior...

Is there a way to adjust wavetable header volume with Orphinit when Mode=sb? Volume is too low.

aitotat wrote on 2021-06-29, 17:34:

Is there a way to adjust wavetable header volume with Orphinit when Mode=sb? Volume is too low.

In Sound Blaster mode, it is coupled with SB-FMVol. It's somewhat sub-optimal, but there is nothing that we can do about it.

keropi wrote on 2021-06-29, 06:31:

we'll have to wait for 640k!enough to tell us if a "flip stereo" option can be implemented but generally speaking CS4237 does not suffer from flipped stereo channels to my knowledge...

Nothing I've seen so far suggests that this is possible. I suspect it was a design choice (worked correctly on cards they tested with, or nobody tested/noticed) or in-game driver bug, but can't say for sure.