As a quick aside, its hard to imagine one won't be able to boot DOS on new systems in the not too distant future.

Would it be possible to add a "mirror" switch to adlipt.exe that specifies whether or not the data is still send to 0x388 after intercepting? I'd like to use OPL2LPT and an OPL3 on a sound card at the same time, for testing.

x32 support will be omitted in future for sure.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/dos64

No Files ? 😁

matze79 wrote:

x32 support will be omitted in future for sure.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/dos64

No Files ? 😁

I should have known people were already preparing for the inevitable. A world without DOS... hard to imagine.

I have the 3d printed enclosures now available in my webshop : http://www.serdashop.com/OPL2LPTENCLOSURE
I have 10 pcs in stock, first come first served.
Also if you like some 'vogons members' reduction on this, just pm me.

Would it be possible to send note and sound bank data to lpt1 without having any knowledge of dos or adlib?

I'd like to write an app to take midi input from a keyboard and translate that into a data stream this device could understand, to use it as a synth that sounds like dos games 😀 similar to the "soundblaster keyboard" videos by the 8bit sound guy.

Would this be possible?

An OPL2 doesn't have any concept of 'sound banks' or anything. It also doesn't 'speak' MIDI.
So what you'd need to do to play MIDI on such a device is:
1) Create a method for managing instruments for the OPL2 and sending the raw parameters to the OPL2 chip whenever a new instrument is selected for a MIDI channel.
2) Create an interpreter for MIDI data, which translates the MIDI commands to OPL2 commands, and allocates/deallocates voices dynamically to support polyphony and multi-timbre.

All that is quite complicated (we're working on an emulator for the Yamaha FB-01 MIDI module, which is effectively the same thing: a Z80 microprocessor running a MIDI interpreter to drive an FM chip, which is closely related to the OPL series... In this case, the YM2164 aka OPM).

Aren't there Adlib Trackers that do exactly that? Not sure if any of these support a real MIDI keyboard, but who cares since OPL2/3 is no MIDI device anyway.

I actually asked a while ago DOS FM Synth Application for SoundBlaster Pro / OPL about doing this in DOS with my original ISA soundcards, and trackers were a common theme of what people recommended. it really would be cool to have a standalone application to do this, what would be the sickest is if a VST like Dexed could just output to the OPL2LPT, and I could configure all the parameters from right inside that app.
One of the things that the 8 bit guy mentions in one of the "soundblaster keyboards" video is how there are sliders to change some of the parameters of the fm synthesis in real-time. Idunno if anybody here has tried FM programming in the dx7; I've watched video after video on how to do this and have done some (relatively) cool stuff with the dx7 but it's just not my style. I really want to do real-time tweaking like you could do with an analog synth, but have some of the rad ass stuff you can do with FM. (And I also don't wanna drop 2k on the new korg prologue 🤣)

I'll keep holding my breath until this is possible 😀

derSammler wrote:

Aren't there Adlib Trackers that do exactly that? Not sure if any of these support a real MIDI keyboard, but who cares since OPL2/3 is no MIDI device anyway.

Yes, but he was talking about writing an app like that.

beastlike wrote:

I actually asked a while ago DOS FM Synth Application for SoundBlaster Pro / OPL about doing this in DOS with my original ISA soundcards, and trackers were a common theme of what people recommended. it really would be cool to have a standalone application to do this, what would be the sickest is if a VST like Dexed could just output to the OPL2LPT, and I could configure all the parameters from right inside that app.
One of the things that the 8 bit guy mentions in one of the "soundblaster keyboards" video is how there are sliders to change some of the parameters of the fm synthesis in real-time. Idunno if anybody here has tried FM programming in the dx7; I've watched video after video on how to do this and have done some (relatively) cool stuff with the dx7 but it's just not my style. I really want to do real-time tweaking like you could do with an analog synth, but have some of the rad ass stuff you can do with FM. (And I also don't wanna drop 2k on the new korg prologue 🤣)

I'll keep holding my breath until this is possible 😀

You can try AdLib Tracker II: http://adlibtracker.net/
It allows you to tweak OPL2 and OPL3 instruments in lots of detail.
You can also send parameter updates at runtime with tracker effect commands, so you can do all sorts of synthy things.
I believe it also supports MIDI input (MPU-401?).

Scali wrote:

Yes, but he was talking about writing an app like that.

Given that he wrote: "without having any knowledge of dos or adlib?", it makes more sense to use what already exist, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. 😉

derSammler wrote:

Given that he wrote: "without having any knowledge of dos or adlib?", it makes more sense to use what already exist, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. 😉

That's up to him to decide. I didn't tell him what to do, merely explained what it takes to do what he is asking.

@derSammler Such a "mirror" feature seems quite doable. I'll implement that. Please file a Github issue if I forget 😀

pdw wrote:

@derSammler Such a "mirror" feature seems quite doable. I'll implement that. Please file a Github issue if I forget 😀

Nice, thanks. 😀

I've decided to release my 'SDK' for Serdaco's LPT-connected devices. It's some C headers and functions for DOS, to use the OPL2LPT and DreamBlaster S2P natively: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cikzxtk7z2uprzz/Ser … acoSDK.zip?dl=0

I managed to get the OPL2LPT working on my PCjr as well: https://youtu.be/ZquURfqkysE
This might lead to a small bugfix in my SDK... apparently the code I had, worked on my 286, 486 and my Commodore PC20-III clone, but not on my real IBM 5160 and the PCjr with IBM printer port sidecar.

I've verified that the code for the OPL2LPT and DBS2P now works on a real IBM 5160 and PCjr as well, here is the updated SDK:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cikzxtk7z2uprzz/Ser … acoSDK.zip?dl=0

I have also included some ASM macros now (MASM/TASM syntax).

Some photos of the cases.

Scali wrote:

I've verified that the code for the OPL2LPT and DBS2P now works on a real IBM 5160 and PCjr as well, here is the updated SDK:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cikzxtk7z2uprzz/Ser … acoSDK.zip?dl=0

I have also included some ASM macros now (MASM/TASM syntax).

Sorry if I'm being dense but is there any benefit to non coders? Is this just for new games?