Baslinux mailing list

["David Moberg" <davidjmoberg AT lycos.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "sindi keesan" <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
 
> The card I was trying to use is Vibra16 AWE32 but I also have three 
> SB16 AWE cards.

I assumed that AWE32 was its own card, and the Vibra16 was a completely
separate card. I have a Vibra16 which does _not_ have any AWE32 support,
merely sb PCM and gameport support, opl3 FM support.

> Which option is not available with Vibra16 -

I believe you're asking about MIDI options. The option which is not
available with a non-AWE Vibra16 is AWE32 MIDI support. Otherwise,
they should be close to the same card.

> Are you saying that awe32 requires 
> both opl and awe_wave modules (that it is based on FM synthesis) or 
> is it an entirely different way of playing midi sounds that does 
> not need opl?

The latter. The opl3 module is used to drive the Yamaha OPL3 chip
on the card. The OPL3 chip is an FM synthesizer. The awe32 module
drives the AWE32 synthesizer, a separate system which accepts
similar input but works differently. (It plays PCM samples like
Timidity or a GUS would, whereas an opl3 just combines several
sine and square wave generating circuits to produce "music")

> I don't have a MIDI keyboard and I don't want to use 
> Timidity because it is so large.

Very understandable. Timidity's main size comes from the samples,
though, which are also needed for the AWE32, so how much size
can you save? Perhaps by using lower-quality samples, and/or an
older Timidity, one can make Timidity as small as AWE32 samples.
Most people's objection to Timidity is in its demand upon your
main CPU.

> Do I really need isapnp if I can figure out the proper settings for 
> the sound card when inserting opl.o?

ISA Pnp (or DOS tools) set up opl3. You probably won't be able to
insert opl3.o without this first step.

> I found the settings for my 
> opti 931 card online (in Bulgarian) and they included mpu_io and 
> mpu_irq, and it worked (played a wav file).  I don't want to change 
> the settings, I can use whatever it is set to.
> 
> I was able to actually change pnp settings on one AWE64 card using 
> Win98, on a computer where DMA 0 and 1 and IRQ 5 are taken (not by 
> the MGA card, I don't know what has taken them).  But on two 
> Vibra16 cards, changing them in Win98 did not affect the settings 
> needed for DOS or linux.  Why?

The former settings are capable of surviving a cold restart (stored
on the card somewhere) but the latter are stored in the operating
system?

David

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