OPL3 tracker suitable for a turbo XT?

[tetsujin]

Can anybody recommend software for composing and playing OPL3 music that will run well on a turbo XT-class machine?

Most Adlib tracker-type software I've found seems to require a 386 or better - which is pretty understandable given when soundcards (and the OPL3) became common in PCs.

My machine is a Toshiba T1100+ laptop: 7MHz V30, 640K RAM, monochrome CGA display. In the long term I'd like to write something like this myself - but that will take time of course and I have a lot of projects in the queue. If there's an OPL tracker (even an OPL2 tracker) that would work well on this machine I'd love to do some stuff with this soundcard.

 

[Zare]

There is Adlib composer, it's kind of rudimentary but it does the trick. It will work on CGA.

As far as I know, no tracker-type software works on turbo XTs. I've tried on several occasions to dig for ancient versions of first PC trackers. However there might be a chance there is something left over which will run on 286 real mode, meaning NEC chips will run it. Even then, there is too slim of a chance it will have CGA gui.

Cakewalk does have a OPL2 module but as far as I know you can't change the patches. Cakewalk runs fine, takes a bit to load on ~8 MHz machine. Percussion/kits of GM tend to be totally shafted so I don't think percussive patches are being used for that OPL2 module.

 

[tetsujin]

Thanks, I'll take a look. Sorta sounds like I might be back in roll-my-own territory, but we'll see.

 

[Zare]

Have you tried this :

Madbit's FM Tracker

Download Madbit's FM Tracker for free. Music tracker for DOSBox or MS-DOS using AdLib compatible cards. . This is a tracker (http://tinyurl.com/ye3ypcy) for MS-DOS that uses the OPL-2 chips present in AdLib compatible cards to generate sound using FM synthesis. It was mainly developed using...

sourceforge.net

It might work on an XT but it doesn't look like it is performance-savvy.

 

[Plasma]

Digital-FM will run on an XT with CGA, but will probably be too slow since it updates the entire screen during playback. However, the source is included so you could change that.

 

[tetsujin]

Thanks, Digital-FM might work. I don't know my way around it yet but it seems like I can edit params, make patterns, etc. as well as play sample songs - though it's definitely running slow, it can't play the songs at full speed apparently. I tried Madbit's FM Tracker but I couldn't get it to do anything on the Toshiba. (I was able to do a bit more with it on DOSbox)

 

[Zare]

Just like MIDI it goes over port IO and just like MIDI it doesn't have a fixed performance per CPU speed but depends on musical density, e.g. number of port writes per second.

The UI optimization might yield some additional improvement, but best improvement is just using "slow" music.
The games that run on turbo XT and have impressive graphics and music, such as Dune or Commander Keen, use very low musical density, a note here and there. The arrangement and patches matter.

Try changing the tempo of the demo songs to see where it gets you.

I will try out both software mentioned on my XT, and just to note, I may've found an ancient MOD tracker operable on XT that seems to use high speed DMA for SB Pro, which means it could perform reasonably well for 4 tracks - called "Dr. Track".

 

[bakemono]

Based on a quick reading of the Digital FM page and source, it's made for OPL2 so the I/O routines contain wait loops to accomodate the slow OPL2 I/O. OPL3 doesn't need these, so performance could be improved by commenting out said loops.

Plenty of Japanese systems played FM from a 3~4MHz Z80, so a 7MHz V30 should be great in theory.

Also, if you have a MIDI authoring program then you can use MIDI-to-VGM translator on a V30 with OPL3. http://www.hyakushiki.net/misc/mid2vgm-beta5.zip

 

[tetsujin]

Yeah I have a few games that make good use of the OPL3 (though probably just assuming an OPL2) - I don't doubt that the machine is adequate for composition and playback, I'm just not sure how much software written for that purpose would be designed to work properly on a slower machine. But there's a few possibilities at least.

A MOD player sounds cool but my soundcard doesn't implement the digital audio portion of the Soundblaster, only the OPL3. It'd be interesting to mess around with the techniques for playing digital audio over the OPL3, though!

 

[keenmaster486]

Ah, I have an opportunity to shill my OPLPLAY program. It's only a player, not a tracker, but it is fun to use as it is very fast.

It plays OPL2 and OPL3 files at full speed even on a 4.77 MHz XT-class system, although you will want a turbo XT to guarantee no dips in speed with busy portions of certain OPL3 songs.

Release thread here:

keenmaster486's OPLPLAY for XT class systems \ VOGONS

www.vogons.org

Use KM* files (KMF for OPL2, KM3 for OPL3) for best performance, and set oplOptimize=true in the config file.

 

[tetsujin]

Ah, I have an opportunity to shill my OPLPLAY program. It's only a player, not a tracker, but it is fun to use as it is very fast.

It plays OPL2 and OPL3 files at full speed even on a 4.77 MHz XT-class system, although you will want a turbo XT to guarantee no dips in speed with busy portions of certain OPL3 songs.

Release thread here:

keenmaster486's OPLPLAY for XT class systems \ VOGONS

www.vogons.org

Use KM* files (KMF for OPL2, KM3 for OPL3) for best performance, and set oplOptimize=true in the config file.

Thanks! I have a player already (may even be this one) but I'll take a look! I'm hoping to learn to actually make music but broadly speaking other ways of using my OPL3 card are definitely of interest to me!

 

[Zare]

I've tried Dr.Track and Digital FM; 7.15 MHz V20 with SB Pro 2

Digital FM definitely needs work with the display. The display kills the playing, the music is on 10% tempo.
Dr.Track is unable to play patterns without hanging the machine and the playing is choppy.
I think the problem is the bounce frequency. User can pick three values (8/16/44 kHz) I believe, and on 8 kHz it is choppy, but I can also hear it is not 8 kHz but near full quality.

Via Mod Master XT I can establish some limits, little bit over 19 kHz for 4 track stereo and the UI is still responsive, even on onboard CGA card which is slow in memory ops.
If I crank it up to 35+ kHz the UI is in essence dead, doesn't even draw the initial screen. This choppy but high-fidelity (opposed to ~20khz) is the same sound I get from 8 kHz setup Dr. Track.

I think both need some smaller changes in order to be fully functional on Turbo XT.
Digital FM possibly uses BIOS routines to draw display and it is a TUI with a lot of cursor movement and attribute assignment and stuff...that's probably why it is so slow.
Dr.Track doesn't ask for SB DMA in setup. As far as I know you cannot query SB DSP for that information. It might be that program is not using high speed DMA mode but IO.