Baslinux mailing list

["Samual Acorn" <sam.acorn AT gmail.com>]

On 10/04/06, sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org> wrote:
> I had FM synthesis and AWE working with my ISA SB sound cards but one of
> my motherboards finished dying (the IDE controller card I used to replace
> the bad onboard controller stopped working in there, though it works
> elsewhere) and I had to replace it with something with one fewer ISA slot.

try a different psu..

>
>
> I have some PCI sound cards: two SB Live and two ESS esssolo1.  The former
> two won't work in DOS (address 220 failed, DOS 'diagnose' does not offer
> any choice of io addresses, CTCU does not find the plugplay cards) or
> linux (sb won't insmod - 'dsp reset failed' though I specified io=0x200
> through 280, with standard irq=5 dma=1 dma16=5.)  I think I had the SB
> live working in another computer under linux, without midi which works
> with emuk101 under alsa but not oss.  I think it does not do OPL3 FM
> synthesis because they expect you to use the onboard AWE capabilities for
> playing midi.

SBLive doesnt have OPL synth or onboard ram for soundfonts... they
only work with ALSA if you want midi (system ram is used to hold the
soundfont)...

the 'sb' module is for ISA sb cards... not pci ones... the sblive only
has the emu10k1 chip (an upgraded version of the emu 8000 wavetable
chip found on AWE cards.. it is however -not- backward compatible)...
in other words the sblive uses its 'midi' chip for both midi and
wav... its not two seperate chips like the AWE...

>
> The ESS, if I set vol to the maximum with aumix, and turn the speakers up
> too, plays wav files.  It does not do AWE.  I cannot insmod opl3, 'opl3
> not detected'.  I read something online about it having FM synthesis built
> into the card, and also something about port conflicts that prevent OPL3
> from working, and someone provided a kernel patch written in .c which I am
> not going to tackle.  Is there some simple way to play midi with esssolo1
> cards and OSS?

havent messed with any PCI ESS chips... have no info for you on that one...
however it wont do AWE because the only card that can -is- the AWE...
no clones/compatibles were ever made... (as far as the emu 8000 chip
is concerned anyway.. there are many cards that.. through their
drivers.. support the sf2 soundfont format)

shouldnt need to set the volume all the way to max just to hear
anything... check your speakers... make sure nothing is being shorted
out...

this should sound the same with -any- card tho i havent tried it;

http://timidity.sourceforge.net/

>
> I also have one each es1370 and es1371 cards which I have not tried yet.
>
> If I were lazy, I would replace the internal ISA modem with an external
> one and put back the ISA sound card.

thats the route i would take...

>
> What I really want is to play midi files to the electronic piano through
> the gameport.  I tried this on my slower test computer but even with two
> ISA SB16 cards, one pnp and one jumpered (not using CTCU/CTCM or isapnp,
> which I have only needed before for AWE cards) I cannot get linux to play
> any sort of midi.  playmidi -r gives a segmentation fault.  playmidi -4 or
> -f gives me back the prompt. (On a computer at another location all three
> of these work properly, without CTCU).

playmidi -r is for realtime note display... playmidi -4 is for 'four
operator' fm synthesis patches (OPL3 chips only) playmidi -f is the
default 'two operator' fm synth patches (OPL2 chips)... playmidi -e
should send note data out of a SB16s midi/joystick port tho i dont
give any guarantees on that... (make sure the MPU-401 is set-up...
thats the external port)

>
> DOS programs play FM synthesized midi.  In DOS or linux if I try to play
> midi on an external device it looks like something is happening but I hear
> nothing.

make sure that in whatever midi program you are using that the data is
being sent to the 'MPU-401'

> I have no way to test the cable, which has an optical isolator

got a voltmeter? IIRC midi is serial data sent at 38.4kbit (note: it
is -not- compatible with rs232[pc serial port])

http://pinouts.ru/data/MidiIn_pinout.shtml
http://pinouts.ru/data/GameportPCMidi_pinout.shtml

or if you want to make your own converter/cable;

http://pinouts.ru/data/pc2midicable_pinout.shtml

the above has an opti-isolator too... i dont know what the signalling
voltages are on either side so youll have to do some guesswork on that
one...


> in the circuit, or the 'MIDI in' on the piano (where the line out works,

do you have a simple din patch cable? turn off 'local echo' on the
keyboard and press a few keys to make sure the keyboard is quiet...
then connect the midi out to the midi in and press a few keys ... see
if you get some sound then... if so.. midi in on the keyboard works...

> and the line in works but sounds bad), but I should at least be able to
> get FM synthesis to work right first, so I switched to this other computer
> where I can't get any cards to play any midi in any OS.

id call it quits on that mobo... (does 'any os' include windows?)

>
> To get the DOS programs to stop crashing, I had to set bus speed back from
> 75 to 66Mhz x 3.  We replaced the 133MHz with a 233MHz AMD cpu, which
> apparently does not work properly at 225MHz.  Memtest test 5 gives pages
> of errors.  Putting in slower DIMMs did not help.

cant help you there.. other than to say 'use only chip-specified
speeds/voltages especially bus speeds...'

>
> My partner wants people to know that you can fix clogged nozzles in Epson
> Stylus and C80 printers by forcing air through with a syringe.  These are
> built into the printer, not the cartridge, so there are lots of free
> printers around.  Ghostscript supports the former, as does netpbm in mono.

wiping the print head with a cottonball dipped in alcohol works too...

>
> Did Creative make any PCI SB16 cards?

yes but they used ESS chips... so technically they werent SB16
cards... they were only sb16 compatible and that was only if the
creative dos drivers were installed...

>
> keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
> SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org
> _______________________________________________
> BasLinux mailing list
> BasLinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/baslinux
>


--
--sam
http://mephitus.renamon.org/
"When you've done something right, no one will be sure you've done
anything at all." -- Futurama
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