Put my name in the hat for 2nd batch today, looking forward to untangling it all and getting it to work! (No really)

I'm confused though about earlier comments regarding winXP and the Orpheus/Orpheus ii. Is it just that these cards aren't the best oit there or is it that it doesn't work at all? Reason I ask is that this should slot very well into a larger frankenstein-ish PC I have built which has hard drives for pure DOS/Win3.1, Win98, and XP. The card in there right now is an AWE64 Value, which sucks for XP but still works. I also have successfully run XP w/sound on an Optiplex GX 110 which has a Crystal.

I'm still in regardless, just curious why this and other isa cards get poopooed for basic XP gaming, if it doesnt work or is just "not the best"

Anyway, you all rule, thanks for the Orpheus I too

dumpsterac1d wrote on 2023-03-21, 20:46:

I'm still in regardless, just curious why this and other isa cards get poopooed for basic XP gaming, if it doesnt work or is just "not the best"

Might have something to do with XP era games using more sound channels than these older cards can support, causing dropouts/missed sfx etc. I've run into this with an AOpen Cobra PCI sound card which I has a newer Yamaha (YMF477B Feb 1999) chip than the Crystal CS4237 (1997).

I *guess* for basic sound maybe CS4237 will work as it has XP drivers. I am almost certain Interwave does not have XP drivers so gravis portion is not possible. I have read that you can use the win2k
MPU-401 driver for pcmidi part but never tested any of the above.
In all honesty using an ISA soundcard for xp is not a good idea if you need more than system sounds.

dumpsterac1d wrote on 2023-03-21, 20:46:

Put my name in the hat for 2nd batch today, looking forward to untangling it all and getting it to work! (No really) […]
Show full quote

Put my name in the hat for 2nd batch today, looking forward to untangling it all and getting it to work! (No really)

I'm confused though about earlier comments regarding winXP and the Orpheus/Orpheus ii. Is it just that these cards aren't the best oit there or is it that it doesn't work at all? Reason I ask is that this should slot very well into a larger frankenstein-ish PC I have built which has hard drives for pure DOS/Win3.1, Win98, and XP. The card in there right now is an AWE64 Value, which sucks for XP but still works. I also have successfully run XP w/sound on an Optiplex GX 110 which has a Crystal.

I'm still in regardless, just curious why this and other isa cards get poopooed for basic XP gaming, if it doesnt work or is just "not the best"

Anyway, you all rule, thanks for the Orpheus I too

On XP I haven't had a lot of luck with ISA cards. Like IcySon55 and keropi said, ISA cards probably aren't really the best choice for XP.
By the XP era I don't think lot of people were using ISA sound cards for general use. In XP the most basic card I remember using was an Ensoniq AudioPCI card (Yes I know it was kind of crappy but that's what my family computer had. Family friend helped advise or build it for my parents in 1998 and I guess that was the cheapest card available).

keropi wrote on 2023-03-21, 21:21:

I *guess* for basic sound maybe CS4237 will work as it has XP drivers. I am almost certain Interwave does not have XP drivers so gravis portion is not possible. I have read that you can use the win2k
MPU-401 driver for pcmidi part but never tested any of the above.
In all honesty using an ISA soundcard for xp is not a good idea if you need more than system sounds.

I've never had issues, doesn't sound great but I'm running things like Doom3 through the AWE 64 value (wicked low onboard ram obviously) and it works, in fact I have less compatibility and setup issues with XP than 98 and DOS. Gravis not being available on an OS where I'm not trying to run Gravis sound is totally fine. The PC is designed to cover as wide an era as possible while focusing on later DOS and 98, XP is essentially a bonus of the build.

I don't quite remember if I had to install drivers, but I'm guessing running Crystal XP/2k drivers would initialize the Orpheus 2 enough where I'd get PCM playback through it? That's basically all I'd need on that hard drive, not even midi.

Unless I am mistaken XP have and embedded CS4237 driver - meaning there is no driver do download and install
Assuming the driver works then you will get PCM and internal CSFM opl synth working. Orpheus cards are not different than a random CS4237 card when it comes to windows drivers

keropi wrote on 2023-03-21, 21:46:

Unless I am mistaken XP have and embedded CS4237 driver - meaning there is no driver do download and install
Assuming the driver works then you will get PCM and internal CSFM opl synth working. Orpheus cards are not different than a random CS4237 card when it comes to windows drivers

Beautiful, thank you. Like I said I'm in already but I might as well clear the slot for it now 😂

I’m going through the setup for my awesome new Orpheus II and I wanted to make sure that I was configuring the hardware properly.

Default SB16 settings are:

1 SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5

Default GUS settings are:

1SET ULTRASND=240,7,7,7,7

And default MPU-401 settings are:

1I/O 330-331, IRQ 2

Am I getting those all correct? This PC is running Win98SE and DOS, for use with games, demos and mod music.

ChrisTOTG wrote on 2023-03-23, 02:40:

I’m going through the setup for my awesome new Orpheus II and I wanted to make sure that I was configuring the hardware properly […]
Show full quote

I’m going through the setup for my awesome new Orpheus II and I wanted to make sure that I was configuring the hardware properly.

Default SB16 settings are:

Copy code to clipboard

1 SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5

Default GUS settings are:

Copy code to clipboard

1SET ULTRASND=240,7,7,7,7

And default MPU-401 settings are:

Copy code to clipboard

1I/O 330-331, IRQ 2

Am I getting those all correct? This PC is running Win98SE and DOS, for use with games, demos and mod music.

Those look like mine except this isn’t SB16 compatible it’s SB Pro, just incase you try to select that in a game.

Also my MPU401 is IRQ3 but that’s unique to my setup as 2 is used by something else on the mobo.

But those settings should work assuming the IRQs and DMAs are available.

ChrisTOTG wrote on 2023-03-23, 02:40:

I’m going through the setup for my awesome new Orpheus II and I wanted to make sure that I was configuring the hardware properly […]
Show full quote

I’m going through the setup for my awesome new Orpheus II and I wanted to make sure that I was configuring the hardware properly.

Default SB16 settings are:

Copy code to clipboard

1 SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5

There is an important distinction to be made here. This is not a Sound Blaster 16, and the Crystal CODEC cannot make use of a 16-bit DMA channel. In fact, the chip will not even record that part of the configuration; the only DMA channels available for use with the Crystal part of the card are 0, 1 and 3. Furthermore, the only use for the second DMA channel is recording; that is to say, it is virtually useless in a DOS gaming environment. You can safely omit the "H" part altogether.

Also, if you intended to use UNISOUND to initialise the card, you will have to wait for a future update. With the current release, you won't be able to leverage all of the features of the card, and you will only get Crystal FM, if anything at all.

I got my Orpheus II! It arrived packaged perfectly in an anti-static bag with thick foam and a sturdy box. There were also some surprise stickers!

Can any kind soul post a video or some recording of this marvel that is the Orpheus II in action?

Thank you very much 😁

"02-APR-23: Batch #2 of Orpheus II has been received and cards are being made , so we are contacting interested
people according to the queue - please be patient as the queue is considerable... thanks!"

Yes!! I'm waiting for the email!!

dj_pirtu wrote on 2023-04-05, 13:12:

"02-APR-23: Batch #2 of Orpheus II has been received and cards are being made , so we are contacting interested
people according to the queue - please be patient as the queue is considerable... thanks!"

Yes!! I'm waiting for the email!!

Great. Now I'll be hitting that 'refresh' button non stop until I get (good?) news. There goes that work schedule.

Does the Orpheus ll produce better sound Quality than the Orpheus l ?

Hi. The Orpheus II LT order link is not working. I would like to enter the waiting list. Regards.

there is no LT order link yet because there is no LT page up yet... only the "black edition supporters" page is up and there won't be anymore black LTs
when we order more LT boards (in green) there will be another page but for now orpheus2 keeps us busy

sound quality ia great like the OG orpheus, maybe a bit better but can't say it is noticeable because the baseline is already good

The quality has been turned up to II.

Great quality. The real selling point (at least for me) is all sources output via SPDIF.

doogie wrote on 2023-04-08, 23:12:

Great quality. The real selling point (at least for me) is all sources output via SPDIF.

That is quite interesting because I recently received my VGA2HDMIPRO (StarTech.com/ConvergeAV) which has an optical input for audio. Should be able to grab even clearer audio than it currently does~