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Order info at bottom of page!

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 on the official VOGONS thread HERE


Videos about the Oprheus Soundcard

RMC - The Cave : Orpheus I + Dreamblaster X2 - A new ISA Sound Card for Retro PC Gamers
LGR : Testing the New Orpheus Sound Blaster-compatible ISA Card
pc-sound-legacy : The Orpheus 1 SoundCard playing Descent Track 18 FM music (Yamaha OPL3) , "1869 - Hart am Wind" FM music

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 0.53ß final version HERE.

Changelog

• Generally re-worked Plug and Play detection and initialisation code to improve predictability and reliability on most systems.
• Changed the INI default for digital output to disabled, so that the majority who are not using it can avoid its occasional side-effects.
• Changed the Sound Blaster mixer setting names in the INI file (in the sb-mode section). They are now prepended with "SB-", such as "SB-FMVol", etc., to make them easier to search for, and easier to distinguish from their WSS-mode counterparts. If you're keeping an existing INI file, you will have to change these to reflect the new names; otherwise default values will be used.
• Removed the WTKludge and LineKludge options, as they should no longer be useful. These settings are no longer read or processed.
  
  older versions:
  BETA 0.53b version HERE
  0.52b 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...

• Windows 3.x 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
  orphinit/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 - these are drivers for PnP BIOS systems
  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.
  
  update 09-02-2021
  There are now IRQ5 and IRQ7 drivers for non-PnP BIOS systems that solve win3x not loading after driver installation , you will now get this "Configuration" window on setup
  
  
  
  Do not bother changing any values other than the (CS) MPU 401 enable/disable box - they change the values for the DOS part of the driver and not the win3x one - even
  with the original driver one would still need to edit SYSTEM.INI to pass any different values...
  The MPU 401 enable/disable checkbox is for the Crystal MPU device - PCMIDI will still work with it but if you need to install the Roland driver then it is easier to just not
  install the CS MPU driver at all so you avoid system.ini editing....
  A line in config.sys will be added "DEVICE=C:\CRYSTAL\CS4232C.EXE /O" that will do nothin and can be ignored or edited out - the target file will not be installed as
  it is the stock Crystal DOS driver that we do not use - instead we use ORPHINIT or UNISOUND to configure the card prior to loading Windows 3.x
  
  download Windows 3.x Orpheus IRQ5 driver for non-PnP systems
  download Windows 3.x Orpheus IRQ7 driver for non-PnP systems
  
  TIP:
  Did you install the previous driver and win3x does not load? Edit SYSTEM.INI file inside your win3x directory:
  - find the line " UsePnP=1" and change it to "UsePnP=0" , save the change and load windows again :)
  
  
• Windows 9x 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 latest version PV2860 HERE (or previous version 272 HERE , it can help if the target system is a 486)
  
  
• 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.
Remember to power cycle the system once you write new eeprom data to the card.
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 OR the ADPCM FIX from K1n9_Duk3 posted on VOGONS forum HERE.

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.

Sierra games with 32bit engines like Police Quest IV, Quest for Glory IV, Gabriel Knight, etc that have WSS as an option
in their setup will have to be played with Sound Blaster option since the Sierra WSS driver is incompatible with the CS-4237 chip.
There are WSS driver updates for 16bit game engine HERE and 32bit game engine HERE but they are hardcoded to IRQ7/DMA1
and have the potential/ability to mess with mixer settings and s/pdif output registers.
There are now some fixed 16bit and 32bit Sierra WSS drivers HERE and HERE thanks to 640k!enough , this is still a WIP
but they have the advantage of adding WSS support in Sierra games that never supported tha standard initially. Please refer to the
discussion in the thread for further info. These drivers will help all 423x cards not just Orpheus.

DELL Optiplex socket5 4xxx / 5xxx systems: using Orpheus with those systems cause them to freeze on boot.
There is a chance if left in this state for several minutes the system will record the Orpheus PnP data and subsequent boots will
be fine and normal. But there is a chance the system will never recover and will stay in this halted state.
It is not known at the moment what causes this, the prevailing theory is that the PnP portion of these specific era Optiplex systems
have issues with the CS4237 chip's PnP initiliazation. A BIOS update *might* help but not quaranteed:
go to DELL Support Page
click "Browse All Products"
select "Desktops & All-in-ones"
select "Retired Models"
select "Older Models"
and if you are lucky you might see your system listed and gain access to downloads.
Again, no guarantees this will help... if we find such a system we will investigate further.

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 X2GS latest daughterboard: 240eur (X2 option available on request at the old 230eur price)

Please fill this order form HERE - treat it as a non-paying pre-order , once a card is ready for you we will contact you about payment info.
Be careful to enter your email correctly so we can contact you back!

Be advised that these are the only email addresses that will contact you about a purchase (either Edro or Leo depending on availability) :



Important: please know we do the best we can to ship cards as soon as possible - covid restrictions though really make it hard to do that in
a timely manner. Post offices close earlier, parts are super delayed and everything just moves slower - on top of that each card requires a
good chunk of time to build and test.
The receipt of the Orpheus card is overwhelming and we thank everyone for it! It looks like we are heading for 3rd and 4th batches which
sadly means there will be long waiting times in the range of 1~2 months :(
Rest assured we are doing our best with the means we have !

Problems?

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


Thanks for looking!