Anyone with a SB 1 or 1.5 or 2...

[apeman]

...willing to do me a small favour?

It involves playing a 1-minute CMF file via PLAYCMF and recording the output. I'm trying to track down a bug in emulated OPL playback. I'd do it myself, but my old 486 is currently at my parents' house, several continents away!

I'd provide all the necessary files of course. Let me know if you are able to help.

Thanks!
Mike

[apeman]

Hey, don't all shout at once

You can find a ZIP of all the files you need here. Load SBFMDRV from the command line, and then PLAYCMF <filename>. I've included all the CMFs that originally came with my SB 1.5. I'd be particularly interested in a recording of KENTUCKY.CMF.

Thanks

Mike

[jharris01]

I would love to help, but the oldest card I got is a Sound Blaster Pro 2.0. Would that work for you?

[Cloudschatze]

Hey, don't all shout at once

AAAAAAAH!

http://www.symphoniae.com/misc/KENTUCKY.mp3

[apeman]

OMG Cloud! You really are some sort of benevolent Queststudios deity... thank you, thank you and thank you once more. 

Hopefully this will help fix DOSBox's OPL emulation...

Have a great weekend,
Mike

[NewRisingSUn]

What's wrong with DosBox' FM emulation? I think the new OPL3 emulation is sensationally accurate, enough for me to consider migrating completely to a current system and not keep an old ISA-based system for DOS games anymore at all.

Also keep in mind that Creative's PlayCMF utility that comes with early Sound Blasters will make the exact same .CMF file sound a little different than that shipped with later Creative cards, because it interprets velocities differently.

[apeman]

Hey Cloud, what model SB was that recorded from?

Thanks again -Mike

[apeman]

What's wrong with DosBox' FM emulation? I think the new OPL3 emulation is sensationally accurate, enough for me to consider migrating completely to a current system and not keep an old ISA-based system for DOS games anymore at all.

I agree, it is very good. But I still heard some differences compared to the real thing, and for me PLAYCMF is some kind of acid test. So I wanted to make sure those differences weren't just in my head!

Also keep in mind that Creative's PlayCMF utility that comes with early Sound Blasters will make the exact same .CMF file sound a little different than that shipped with later Creative cards, because it interprets velocities differently.

Really? Do you have any more information on that?
I'm assuming you mean SB 1/2 versus SB Pro/16?

[Cloudschatze]

What's wrong with DosBox' FM emulation?

Nice! I wasn't aware that a new version of DOSBox had been released. Sadly, the rhythm sounds are still wrong... 

Hey Cloud, what model SB was that recorded from?

CT1350B, SB2.0
SBFMDRV ver. 1.30B
PLAYCMF ver. 1.03
Originally recorded at 44.1KHz (recorder limitation).

[Great Hierophant]

Very interesting input on DOSBox's OPL emulation.  I recall not so long ago NWS did not think nearly as highly of it.

As I recall, few games use the rhythm modes. 

[apeman]

Can anyone give a few examples of games using rhythm mode?

[Cloudschatze]

Can anyone give a few examples of games using rhythm mode?

Zeliard...

http://queststudios.com/smf/index.php/topic,2650.msg27428.html#msg27428

[dvwjr]

Very interesting input on DOSBox's OPL emulation.  I recall not so long ago NWS did not think nearly as highly of it.

Unfortunately, the DOSBox v0.73 release still has the emulated SB16 stereo right and left channels reversed.  This has been in the DOSBox code since the first releases and is still present.  Someone got it in their head that the silicon problem in the Sound Blaster Pro 1&2 adapters, which 'ate' the first byte after a reset, would also be the same for the Sound Blaster 16/32/64 follow-on products.  So the attention to detail on the SBpro emulation has negatively impacted the SB16 DOSBox emulation.   Even the emulated SBpro in DOSBox has a few problems to be fixed.

But hey, it's been that way for over six years... Now that the hard OPL3 emulation upgrade has been implemented, maybe the easy Stereo L/R problem can finally be fixed? 


dvwjr

[apeman]

PLAYCMF ver. 1.03

Where did you get PLAYCMF version 1.03 from? All I can find on my SB1.5 and SB2.0 disks is v1.01.

Thanks... Mike

[Cloudschatze]

Where did you get PLAYCMF version 1.03 from? All I can find on my SB1.5 and SB2.0 disks is v1.01.

I don't recall. I just checked my SB2.0 disk images, and they have 1.01 as well.

In any event: PLAYCMF.EXE v1.03

[apeman]

Thanks once again, Cloud. FWIW I didn't detect any differences between the way v1.01 and v1.03 played the CMFs (not that I was expecting any).

[NewRisingSUn]

The difference is not in PlayCMF.exe, but in SBFMDRV.COM.

[apeman]

The difference is not in PlayCMF.exe, but in SBFMDRV.COM.

Could you be a little more precise?

[NewRisingSUn]

PlayCMF doesn't do any playing itself. It loads the .CMF file into memory, then tells the previously-loaded SBFMDRV.COM to play that file. Any differences will therefore be due to the version of SBFMDRV.COM used.

Consider the following examples. The same two .CMF files are played on the same card (AdLib Gold, with original YMF262 OPL3).
SBFMDRV 1.11 (SB 2.0, I think), PlayCMF 1.01
SBFMDRV 1.33 (SB 16/SB Pro 2/MCV Pro 2), PlayCMF 1.05

Notice the difference in balance between the instruments. The first is FUNKY.CMF from Jill of the Jungle, the second tune is TheCloud.CMF in SB16's MMPLAY subdirectory.

Because of these inconsistencies and other annoyances, I wouldn't use Creative's utilities as an "acid" test. I've found that the games that expose best any emulation imperfections are:
- Ultima VI, in particular the BootUp and Lord British tunes
- The beeps in Commander Keen VI's level 6 tune (F10+W to warp to level 6)
- Almost any tune from Elysium. They also play in Adlib's Visual Composer, albeit at the wrong speed.

[apeman]

Cloud, I'm really sorry to be a pain, but....
Do you happen to have a non-MP3 version of the capture? Something uncompressed, ie. FLAC, APE, WAV etc.

Would greatly help as frequency analysis is hampered by MP3's lossiness to some degree...

Thanks once again, and no rush