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Welcome to the Orpheus Sound Card homepage.
Currently this page serves as a quick setup guide , it will eventually be updated and become fully functional.
Orpheus is a PC ISA 16bit soundcard , aimed for DOS usage.

Features:

• based on the Crystal CS4237B controller which offers SB/SB-PRO/WSS compatibility
• discrete YMF289B OPL3 chip
• 44.100hz 16bit S/PDIF output of all internal and external audio sources
• 4-layer PCB design with attention to analog output part and usage of audio-grade capacitors
• 2 MPU-401 options: internal CS-4237 UART interface or PCMIDI intelligent mode MPU
• Gameport, Line IN, Line OUT, MIC and Coax S/PDIF ports
• Wavetable daughterboard and AC'97 headers
• dedicated midi-OUT port with the ability to also use at the same time a common gameport->midi or DB15MIDI adapter for an extra OUT and IN ports
• using as driver UniSound by JazeFox: it initializes the card , enables/disables s/pdif, switches between OPL3 and CrystalFM , enables/disables CrystalMPU device
  

Please keep in mind that this is still and ISA soundcard based around a 1997 audio controller working inside systems up to 30 years old and playing DOS games that
have low bitrate and compressed samples to accomodate the hardware limitations of the time.
More info and development log can be found HERE

Jumper Settings:

PCMIDI Resources Control (only installed when PCMIDI is onboard) P - jumper closed = port 330 , open = port 300 3,5,7,2 = select *one* IRQ for use defaults shown: port 330 and IRQ2 selected

MIDI Signals Control to allow a dual-mpu setup If PCMIDI is installed and you also activate CS4237 MPU device you can select which MPU device controls each port. Move jumper to I (for PCMIDI) or CS (for CS4237) for each jumper WTC= Wavetable Connector JYC = Joystick Connector MOC = MIDI Out Connector defaults shown: all ports controlled by PCMIDI MPU , if there is no PCMIDI installed on board the jumper block has no use

PCMIDI MPU interface info:

If you want to find out more about the PCMIDI part then please visit the PCMIDI Homepage

ORPHINIT driver:



This is a driver software developed specifically for the Orpheus Sound Card by VOGONS user 640K!enough
It is INI driven like the official Crystal driver , so you have to edit said INI file to change resource and mixer settings.
Usage is pretty straight forward: edit ORPHEUS.INI if needed and lauch ORPHEUS.BAT , that's it!
You can have multiple INI files and use them with the /F: switch , for example: ORPHINIT /F:DMA0.INI

Grab the latest version HERE.
For more information and bug reports please visit the offficial VOGONS release thread HERE.



UNISOUND driver:

• First of all download it from the official release thread HERE - keep in mind developement is ongoing!
• Set the BLASTER variable in your system, example: SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T4
• Run UniSound like the following example, it will obey the BLASTER variable settings and initialize the card
  (SET BLASTER and UniSound commands can be added to AUTOEXEC.BAT)
  C:\ORPHEUS\UNISOUND /VC80 /VL80 /VF60
  this will activate the card and set volumes for AUX/CD and Line-IN inputs as well set the OPL3/Wavetable volume
• Resources can be easily adjusted on the fly (provided they are free to use) , just set the BLASTER varialble with the new settings and run UniSound again.
• There are some special Orpheus options:
  /XOFi to switch to internal CrystalFM
  /XOFe to switch to external Yamaha OPL3 (default option)
  /XOS1 to enable S/PDIF output
  /XOS0 to disable S/PDIF output (default option)
  /XOM1 to enable internal Crystal MPU if it is disabled because PCMIDI option is installed but you want to use both MPUs
• If you want to use seperate record/playback DMAs for WSS mode then use the H parameter in the BLASTER variable - just like a SB16
  example: SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 H3 T4 -> this will make unisound configure the card to use DMAs 1 and 3
• Important: if you are using the CS4237 MPU device alongside PCMIDI you must put the P300 option in the BLASTER variable , for example:
  SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 P300 T4 and then run UniSound - else PCMIDI and CS4237 will share the same port330 and it will create a conflict.
• More info on UniSound usage and how to set the mixer volumes if needed can be found in UniSound's README file.

Configuration examples:

a. for an Orpheus soundcard with PCMIDI installed add these lines to AUTOEXEC.BAT (assuming UNISOUND is located in C:\UNISOUND directory)
SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T4
C:\UNISOUND\UNISOUND.COM /VC80 /VL80 /VF60
with these settings SoundBlaster is configured at port 220 , IRQ 7 , DMA 1

b. for an Orpheus soundcard with CS4237 MPU add these lines to AUTOEXEC.BAT
SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 H3 P330 T4
C:\UNISOUND\UNISOUND.COM /XOM1 /VC80 /VL80 /VF60
with these settings SoundBlaster is configured at port 220 , IRQ 7 , DMA 1 , HIGH DMA 3 and CS4237 MPU is using port 330

Official Crystal DOS drivers:

Important notice: these drivers are completely unoptimized for Orpheus, they are
only useful in case something does not work with current DOS init programs so
you can at least use the card in some problematic scenario.
Specific Orpheus support , coding and testing based on feedback are still undergoing.

HERE you can download a copy of the official Crystal DOS drivers.
There is an ORPHEUS.TXT with installation info inside the archive - basically all you have to
do is extract the files to a directory, edit CWDAUDIO.INI in case you want to use different
resources and chose if you want to have the CS4237 MPU device enabled or disabled.
Then add the lines described in ORPHEUS.TXT in your config/autoexec and reboot!

Those drivers DO NOT offer a way to activate s/pdif output under DOS.

Windows drivers:



Although Orpheus is designed as a DOS sound card windows drivers do exist - but sadly due to it's closed-source nature some limitations are in effect...

• win3x driver is under testing , unfortunatelly the win3x driver disables s/pdif output as it configures the chip for it's own usage,
  when you exit windows you need to run unisound again to re-enable it. The driver is old and cumbersome (like almost all old win3x drivers...) with hard-coded values that
  cannot be changed. Therefore 2 driver packs exist: one if you configure your card to use IRQ5 and another if you use IRQ7.
  If you need to make a change after the win3x driver is installed you'll have to manually edit SYSTEM.INI in your WINDOWS directory.
• win9x driver only has this limitation: crystalFM is used instead of discrete OPL3 under win9x - windows driver does not obey the card's eeprom configuration and just configures the chip to it's own hardcoded values for now until someone makes a hack/patch... download HERE
• if PCMIDI is installed under all windows versions it works with the embedded Roland MPU-401 driver, as PCMIDI is not a PnP card the driver needs to be manually installed.
  
  

EEPROM restore/config tool:



Use FLASH.COM to restore the card's eeprom settings and disable or enable CSMPU device at ports 300 or 330.
Download HERE.

Known issues:

Duke Nukem II : CS4237 chip does not support all ADPCM sample compression modes the game uses. Please use
AdLib sound effects for the game.

Tyrian and Tyrian 2000 : On most systems the game only works with WSS and DMA0 selected. You can easily change
resources on the fly by modifying the BLASTER variable and running UniSound to re-init the card or use ORPHINIT with an
INI file that specifies DMA0 to be used. This just seems to be the game's sound driver incompatibility with the CS4237.

How to order it:

There are 3 flavors of the card - prices listed include registered airmail shipping:
Orheus soundcard : 130eur
Orpheus soundcard with PCMIDI installed: 180eur
Orpheus soundcard with PCMIDI installed and Dreamblaster X2 daughterboard: 230eur

You can fill the order form on the PCMIDI homepage HERE - treat it as a pre-order , once a card is ready for you we will contact you about payment info.

Problems?

Just contact us! We'll be happy to help and resolve any issue you might have!


Thanks for looking!