Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Thu, 13 Apr 2006, Samual Acorn wrote:

> 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 may have to anyway, since the IDE controller in this computer appears to 
have mostly failed now.  I had to disable UDMA in BIOS to get linux to 
work at all.  I have one PCI IDE controller to try in place of the PCI 
sound card (since the other slots are full of two video cards, modem, 
ethernet and SCSI).

I may give up on this computer and wait for the return of our spare 
working 450MHz computer - an architect friends needed something to run XP 
on - she has to use a data acquisition board for which only XP software 
was written, to analyze various test walls with air conditioning (in a 
heated garage).  In exchange we were given two ISA data acquisition boards 
to play with later.  They work in DOS and there is a linux site on data 
acquisition boards.

> 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...

Very interesting.  I will save these cards for if I ever have to 
use ALSA.  Has anyone got ALSA working with BL2?

> > 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)

At this point I am only trying to play midi files with FM synthesis and to 
an external device, because the older computer hooked up to the electronic 
piano won't play midis in linux, even with an SB16 ISA card (we tried 
two).  It does FM synthesis in DOS but not linux.  I have it jumpered to 
enable joystick, and my kernel supports gameport.

I will take my main computer that is working with the AWE32 card to the 
piano and try that first.  playmidi -e or -a both play to AWE (with 
speakers plugged into line out) on that computer.  Maybe it will also play 
through the gameport.


> 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...

The speakers worked fine with SB16 card.  Maybe the ESS card has a bad 
onboard amp.  I have a twin to it but the line in is physically broken.

> this should sound the same with -any- card tho i havent tried it;
>
> http://timidity.sourceforge.net/

That won't get me external midi playing, and I don't need it if I have 
AWE.


> > 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...

I may just recycle that computer.  But I need to learn to use PCI sound 
cards since computers are coming with fewer and fewer ISA slots.
Will try ES1370 and ES1371 some day.

> > 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...

I know.  Why would it segfault?  That leads me to believe there is some 
motherboard incompatibility with linux and sound.

 playmidi -4 is for 'four
> operator' fm synthesis patches (OPL3 chips only) playmidi -f is the
> default 'two operator' fm synth patches (OPL2 chips)...

Thanks, they both sound like a kazoo to me.  Should the first sound 
better?

 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)

How would I 'set it up'?
Do I need to specify io - 
insmod sb ..... mpu_io=330?

> > 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'

How would I do that in DOS?  I think I should start with a computer that 
does not segfault with playmidi -r.  I have four DOS programs that should 
play to external midi device now.  That is the only sort of midi they 
play, and there is no sound.

> > 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

Thanks, will try that (on the computer that plays linux FM synthesized 
sound and has a working IDE controller and ISA sound card).


> or if you want to make your own converter/cable;
>
> http://pinouts.ru/data/pc2midicable_pinout.shtml

We have another diagram for a MIDI cable and the two ICS are locally 
available for only a few dollars total, and we have the plug ends off 
other cables, but someone gave us a midi cable.  I will download this 
diagram too.

> 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...

We don't but could maybe improvise something.  I put three other cables 
together to make a midi extension cable (one or more were for apple 
monitors).  That might work.  The piano is elsehwere, can't look now. 
However there is no waht to turn off 'local echo'.  This is an electronic 
piano from 1986, an early Yamaha Clavinova.  If I plug in the headphones 
no sound comes out the large speakers - would that help?


> > 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?)

Actually DOS FM synthesis works, linux FM synthesis does not, playmidi -r 
segfaults, and DOS and linux playmidi -e play silently.  Someone returned 
our other spare 200MHz computer because serial and PS/2 ports don't work - 
irrelevant to this purpose.

We have Windows 98 on a computer - I could try playing external midi with 
it.

> > 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...'

The 233MHz cpu probably does not like 75MHz bus speeds, but memtest is now 
happy with 3x66MHz.  It was designed for 3.5x.


> > 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...

Internal printhead?  Some of the nozzles have clogged again now.  I will 
suggest he use alcohol.  We are still printing with Win98 and I hate it - 
every photo I have to uncheck 'fill page' in two boxes, then change 94% to 
100%, standard to maximum, change all the margins, speed to quality, and 
it keeps reverting to defaults between photos.

> > 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...

Do you mean first install the DOS drivers before you use them in linux?  I 
have to do this anyway to play AWE (ctcu/ctcm).

Many thanks, Sam.