thanks for the support!!!!
enjoy! 😀

Does the Orpheus require -5v or -12v from the power supply?

Kahenraz wrote on 2021-08-20, 03:19:

Does the Orpheus require -5v or -12v from the power supply?

Orpheus requires +5v , +12v and -12v
so even ATX PSUs with no -5v line will work just fine with it

mbliss11 wrote on 2021-05-31, 12:50:

No luck unfortunately [...]

Anyone that wants to test a BETA firmware+orphinit version with a troublesome DELL system please contact me.
You need to flash the card with a special firmware (on another system) and use a special ORPHINIT (thanks to 640k!enough)to initialize the card after the system boots to DOS.
Procedure is reversible - the flasher on orpheus website will revert the card to it's original state.
Hopefully this will bypass any DELL PnP BIOS shenanigans.

thanks! 😀

So would this basically be a full-on replacement for something like the Audician32? I have a clone of that in my system currently - one of the Labway A151 cards with a YMF719.

Since I'm looking to get a Pi MT32 solution and already use an X2 waveblaster board, I'd been toying with getting a PCMIDI, but am wondering if just getting an Orpheus with the PCMIDI built-in would be a bit more streamlined in terms of the number of cards I have in my rig (since I only have 2 ISA slots) without giving up any other functionality.

Hey keropi!

Thanks for reaching out I just messaged you!

Looking forward to trying this out on the Dell and making it the best DOS rig 😀

Mike

Looking forward for this card. I'm collecting freshly made retro components. Out of curiosity, having these Orpheus features, what would be the best CPU to use it on and get the widest support of games for Orpheus? 386DX40, 486DX2, 486DX4, Am5x86 133Mhz, Pentium 200MMX? CPU faster than 200 Mhz requires a lot of patching like TP-Patch and HEX edits for Lotus. So the focus is probably Win98+DOS system.

cyberluke wrote on 2021-08-22, 09:40:

Looking forward for this card. I'm collecting freshly made retro components. Out of curiosity, having these Orpheus features, what would be the best CPU to use it on and get the widest support of games for Orpheus? 386DX40, 486DX2, 486DX4, Am5x86 133Mhz, Pentium 200MMX? CPU faster than 200 Mhz requires a lot of patching like TP-Patch and HEX edits for Lotus. So the focus is probably Win98+DOS system.

anything from 386->p1 will be great to use
since it will be a 98SE system too then a 200mmx system will work fine when you also use ICACHE.EXE to enable/disable L1 cache on the fly and bring the speed down to 386DX levels

Hi keropi,

I have placed an order for this card on 23 July after receiving an email from Mr. Edro on 22 July, but up to now I didn't get any shipment details. I sent another email to him on 29 Aug with no response, could you check this matter for me?

Could you please send me a PM with your details? I got no email.
Let me sort this out

Hi Edro,

I got a message from Mr. Leo and I have sent the details to both of you via email, thank you.

Hi Orpheus Team.

I´ve got my Card here:

Re: Orpheus Soundcard: a new DOS soundcard with SPDIF/OPL3/MPU support

but now, i´ve a little Question. On my Orpheus Card (Midi-Rom 010) is an "ST 27C256B" Eprom with 32kB Memory.
I´ve also an PC Midi Card with a (MIDI-Rom 010) on an "Winbond W27C512" EEprom with double of size.

I read both out and it seems, that on the Orpheus is the exact, but only the half of Data.
Is that a Mistake or whats the Matter?
i haven't the Card tested yet.

best regards
Paddy

Ulfenknulfen wrote on 2021-09-09, 07:20:

Hi Orpheus Team. […]
Show full quote

Hi Orpheus Team.

I´ve got my Card here:

Re: Orpheus Soundcard: a new DOS soundcard with SPDIF/OPL3/MPU support

but now, i´ve a little Question. On my Orpheus Card (Midi-Rom 010) is an "ST 27C256B" Eprom with 32kB Memory.
I´ve also an PC Midi Card with a (MIDI-Rom 010) on an "Winbond W27C512" EEprom with double of size.

I read both out and it seems, that on the Orpheus is the exact, but only the half of Data.
Is that a Mistake or whats the Matter?
i haven't the Card tested yet.

best regards
Paddy

PCMICI firmware is 8kb - so a 27C64 is enough to store the data
depending on what we find though we might use anything from 27C64 to 27C512 - all will work the same and obviously data is multiplied in higher capacities
makes no difference whatsoever what the eprom holding the firmware is - as long as the original 8kb image fits

Hi keropi!

Thanks for the detailed answer. Now I'm a little smarter again 😉

best regards
Paddy

Got the card a couple of days ago. Arrived nicely packed and working great so far. Thanks!

Got a midi issue with UNISOUND btw but it works correctly with ORPHINIT. Will put that issue in the UNISOUND forum.

Hi Edro and Orpheus Team,

I got an email last week and sent payment for 2 cards. Looking forward to them.

Thank you.

Small question: is the Orpheus also compatible with the SB Pro 2 or only SB Pro 1? Simcity 2000 has both options and I picked SB Pro 1 which worked fine but was curious if SB Pro 2 is also supported.

Yoghoo wrote on 2021-09-30, 10:49:

Small question: is the Orpheus also compatible with the SB Pro 2 or only SB Pro 1? Simcity 2000 has both options and I picked SB Pro 1 which worked fine but was curious if SB Pro 2 is also supported.

For what I know, the SBPro uses two OPL2 (YM3812) chips for 9 channels each and the SBPro2 uses one OPL3 (YMF262) chip with 18 channels (that's twice the size). Then the OPL3 is almost 100% percent compatible with OPL2.
The Orpheus uses an OPL3 if configured to.
So that depends if the game uses sound files created for OPL2 or OPL3 (using the full 18 channels). If a game supports explicitly SBPro and SBPro2, that would mean it can use it at full potential. So my guess is, in the case of SimCity 2000, that it will not sound different at all because the musics will play on the same number of channel (meaning with all the instrument instead of the half if set as Sound Blaster / Adlib by example).

Datadrainer wrote on 2021-09-30, 12:07:

For what I know, the SBPro uses two OPL2 (YM3812) chips for 9 channels each and the SBPro2 uses one OPL3 (YMF262) chip with 18 c […]
Show full quote

Yoghoo wrote on 2021-09-30, 10:49:

Small question: is the Orpheus also compatible with the SB Pro 2 or only SB Pro 1? Simcity 2000 has both options and I picked SB Pro 1 which worked fine but was curious if SB Pro 2 is also supported.

For what I know, the SBPro uses two OPL2 (YM3812) chips for 9 channels each and the SBPro2 uses one OPL3 (YMF262) chip with 18 channels (that's twice the size). Then the OPL3 is almost 100% percent compatible with OPL2.
The Orpheus uses an OPL3 if configured to.
So that depends if the game uses sound files created for OPL2 or OPL3 (using the full 18 channels). If a game supports explicitly SBPro and SBPro2, that would mean it can use it at full potential. So my guess is, in the case of SimCity 2000, that it will not sound different at all because the musics will play on the same number of channel (meaning with all the instrument instead of the half if set as Sound Blaster / Adlib by example).

OPL3 programming for stereo is different (especially panning and initialization) compared to a dual OPL2 chip setup, you won't get stereo panning on OPL3 if you choose a setup meant for the original SB Pro instead of SB Pro 2.

The Orpheus sound card is only compatible with SB Pro 2 in this case due to the presence of the OPL3 chip.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-09-30, 19:18:

The Orpheus sound card is only compatible with SB Pro 2 in this case due to the presence of the YMF-262 OPL3 chip.

That is mostly correct, except that Orpheus uses the YMF289.