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DOS audio card to use for midi out on a old laptop

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First post, by theshinyknight

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Is there a dos supported audio card that can go in the PCMCIA port and work as midi out? I have an old laptop, and it is running DOS 6.22.
I would like to have a card that can redirect midi audio so I can play at the same time midi music and the standard output coming from the OPL3 chip.

Can't use anything via USB obviously, as there was no DOS support for it, so I have as options either a MPU-232 on serial (which I was told it is a pain due to the software required for it rely on EMM386) or to get an audio card from PCMCIA, although I am not sure they even exist with support for DOS, and at that point I am not sure how to make work both the OPL3 audio and the midi card for games that support midi audio.

Any suggestion is welcome, I am just starting with midi on such old machines so I don't know much.

Reply 1 of 8, by theelf

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If you have a serial port and a 386+ CPU use a raspberry pi and softmpu, is the easiest way

Reply 2 of 8, by lolo799

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There are plenty of pcmcia sound cards, and out of those some are better than others for midi support in DOS, the Roland SCP-55 being the best.

PCMCIA Sound, Storage & Graphics

Reply 3 of 8, by theelf

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lolo799 wrote on 2025-06-11, 09:51:

There are plenty of pcmcia sound cards, and out of those some are better than others for midi support in DOS, the Roland SCP-55 being the best.

WTF? im collecting cards for more than 20 years and I only get 4 pcmcia sound cards in all.my life

they are so difficult to find!

Reply 4 of 8, by lolo799

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theelf wrote on 2025-06-11, 10:15:

WTF? im collecting cards for more than 20 years and I only get 4 pcmcia sound cards in all.my life

they are so difficult to find!

What models do you have?
And yes, they are very difficult to find and/or very expensive.

PCMCIA Sound, Storage & Graphics

Reply 5 of 8, by theshinyknight

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Thanks; so they are scarce and expensive when you find them... This is unfortunate. I would not say I must have one but if it is more than 50-60 dollars I can wait for the random find in some real estate sale or things like this 😁 I saw the SCP55 for like 500 dollars!

The other cards I found that are somehow compatible use the OPL3 which is what I already have in the computer. Although they throw at you the 32 bit PCMCIA cards for cheap T_T

Reply 6 of 8, by lolo799

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For the record, here's what I'm seeing for sale now online:
-Roland scp-55 for 225€ with only the audio jack out
-Panasonic cf-vew212 without the breakout board for 650€
-Argosy card for 75€

If you're going the serial-to-midi route, you can also use a roland pma-5 or a yamaha mu-5/mu-10/mu-15.

Does your laptop have a parallel port you're not using for anything?

PCMCIA Sound, Storage & Graphics

Reply 7 of 8, by theshinyknight

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How bad is the argosy? 75 may be the most reasonable among these prices 🤣

I can use the serial to midi route potentially would that be through the MPU232 plus software routing under dos?

My parallel port is also available, but I didn't find any device that would have midi IO on it

Reply 8 of 8, by lolo799

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You can check the link in my signature (if it shows).
It uses an ess chip so you get opl compatible fm music in Dos and that's all!

With the roland or yamaha device you'll only need the softmpu software to reroute midi to the serial port.

Right, I thought there were parallel to midi devices, my bad.

PCMCIA Sound, Storage & Graphics

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