The Orpheus II LT - A Brand New ISA Sound Card That Ticks The Right Boxes!

Рет қаралды 12,150

Күн бұрын

Join me today as I take an in-depth look at Edro and Leo's (aka Keropi and Marmes) new Orpheus II LT ISA sound card! The Orpheus II LT is the next-generation update of the original Orpheus with numerous enhancements including even better audio quality. It also includes their fantastic PC-MIDI implementation, which I'll be putting through its paces with some intelligent-mode games as well as Serdashop's new Dreamblaster X2GS MIDI daughterboard.
I hope to do some more sound card reviews and retrospectives in the coming months and would welcome any feedback.
The Orpheus II LT Homepage:
pcmidi.eu/orpheus2LT.html
Edro and Leo's website and projects:
pcmidi.eu/
The PC-MIDI card:
pcmidi.eu/pcmidi.html
Serdashop's X2GS MIDI board:
www.serdashop.com/X2GS
**
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**
00:00 Introduction
01:58 A Look at the Orpheus II LT
04:25 Genuine Yamaha OPL3 FM
04:58 Improvements Over the Original Orpheus
06:30 The PC-MIDI MPU-401
10:29 Digital Audio Out and AC97
11:20 Testing Setup
12:23 The Serdashop X2GS
13:22 Software and Drivers
17:15 Testing Some Classic DOS Games
22:48 Testing the X2GS
26:55 Testing MPU-401 Intelligent Mode
28:21 Pricing and Conclusion

Пікірлер: 76

@DOSStorm 10 ай бұрын

Your videos just keep getting better. Nice overview of this interesting card! I'm also glad you said what you did at 29:30 . I don't think people always think about the cost involving prototyping, finding old parts, testing and sometimes failing in the development process.

@Vanessaira-Retro 10 ай бұрын

Indeed. It is super appreciative when insight and perspective are giving. Also hooray DOS Storm!

@vswitchzero 10 ай бұрын

Thanks very much, it means a lot! :-)

@johnpeterson9416 10 ай бұрын

Yes! Tyrian has (one of) the best midi soundtracks and is still one of my favorite games ever.

@vswitchzero 10 ай бұрын

Totally agree! :-)

@bartceleron4092 10 ай бұрын

Great to see all these old cards alive. Nice musics from Space Quest III.

@PKmuffdiver 10 ай бұрын

A new card for an ISA slot. How cool is that? Loads of features. What a fantastic hobby for those guys. Way to share it!

@MatthewHolevinski 10 ай бұрын

That Descent music gets me hype, I wish I had one of those like million dollar simulator chairs to spin me around and upside down while I blast stuff. God that would be a dream come true.

@Vanessaira-Retro 10 ай бұрын

Awesome video. Thank you for doing this and showcasing Keropi/Marmes' excellent products.

@vswitchzero 10 ай бұрын

Thanks so much! :-)

@DisplacedGamers 10 ай бұрын

So much time put into this one! Thanks for your hard work.

@Vanessaira-Retro 10 ай бұрын

Hooray DisplacedGamers!

@vswitchzero 10 ай бұрын

Thanks so much, really appreciate it! :-)

@nonsuch 10 ай бұрын

Cool man! I still have a Turtle Beach Multisound (Tahiti) ISA card that I bought in 1994. I paid over $500 for that card and it came with a 4-track recording program called Quad Studio. It was a pretty high quality 16 bit / 44.100 kHz card for the time geared towards studio recording and MIDI sequencing. It didn't have an onboard GM synth set of any kind which was fine because I was using outboard synths. However, there was the Rio Wavetable GM daughterboard available which I did eventually get later just to have it when it was cheaper. The sounds were great compared to the OPL FM soundset you would normally get on a PC soundcard of the day but, none of them were as good as my Ensoniq, Roland, etc.

@vswitchzero 10 ай бұрын

Very cool! Turtle Beach made some really awesome cards back in the day.

@PatricksRetro 10 ай бұрын

Awesome video, as always! And I am happy that you still prefer building systems rather than playing with them :) The Orpheus cards are really great. I have the Orpheus I and also got myself an Orpheus II a couple of weeks back. The price tag, as you said, is not cheap but original GUS cards also sell for at least 3 digits around here if they are available at all. So, I considered it an early christmas gift. But the sound is truly amazing and clear without any background noise as you said. So, IMO worth the invest if you are serious about this hobby. And I do envy you for that DB50XG card. Those are insanely rare nowadays! Happy you were able to find one!

@vswitchzero 10 ай бұрын

Thanks very much! Totally agree - the GUS cards are getting super expensive and some models have spotty reliability too. I was very fortunate to get that DB50XG. A colleague of mine who is from the Netherlands was the original owner and kept it for many years. He actually used it for music composition primarily and was kind enough to send it to me when he found out I was into retro sound hardware. I hope to feature it in a video at some point. Cheers!

@PatricksRetro 10 ай бұрын

@@vswitchzero I would definitely be interested in a video where you present the DB50XG, knowing that you put in the extra effort to provide some background information. You would have at least one confirmed viewer already 🙂

@heckintech 10 ай бұрын

Extremely cool! I REALLY want to get one! Unpopular opinion: I prefer that stanky OPL3 vibe over the higher end sounds! Maybe it's cause I never had high end soundcards growing up, but hearing Descent through that clunky old synth sound just really butters my eggroll, y'know? 😄 Excellent video! Fun and super informative! I'm definitely gonna buy one someday. 😃

@vswitchzero 10 ай бұрын

Thanks so much! I totally get it. As awesome as some of these MIDI modules sound, I didn't have anything like that back in the day (and didn't know anyone who did either) - OPL3 definitely feels more nostalgic to me, that's for sure! I only really discovered MIDI like this in modern times and it's proven to be a real rabbit hole haha :)

@AladimBR 10 ай бұрын

I fully agree. I got the midi stuff recently (could not afford when it was relevant) and it didn't even exist here... a Sound Blaster was a dream coming through. When I hear the old stuff with midi, it doesn't feel retro. However, there are games that really benefit, like a night and day difference. Those are the ones I will use the midi stuff.

@heckintech 10 ай бұрын

@@lurch789 hahahaha, it's an old Vine meme 😁

@66mhzbrain 10 ай бұрын

Great vid. I never know what to make of modern recreations like this though I admire the craft in producing them. I'm tempted but if I had the money I probabaly still wouldn't be able to stop myself buying a gus or something and still fighting with the old stuff.

@vswitchzero 10 ай бұрын

Thanks! Agreed. As cool as these modern cards are, there will always something very special about the old stuff :)

@MotownBatman 10 ай бұрын

This is Killer! I Loved My SoundBlaster-16 Giant Card with Volume Spinner built-in lol I kept that thing for years before someone cleaned out "Phils Trash"

@ahabwolf7580 10 ай бұрын

Dude... absolutely phenomenal video! I'm blown away.

@vswitchzero 10 ай бұрын

Wow, thanks so much, it means a lot! :-)

@Chris-yc3mm 10 ай бұрын

Love to get one of these at some point

@io4439 10 ай бұрын

this was awesome thanks for the video

@vswitchzero 10 ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks! :-)

@LeeMc007 10 ай бұрын

Fantastic review, you covered everything really well and your pace and tone is great to listen to, the card looks and sounds awesome and although I understand why the price is high I honestly don't think I could justify it, perhaps a bare board version would be a good idea considering many of us retro hardware nuts already have the tools and ability to build and repair and I think that would cater to more people overall. The descent music was superb, man I loved that game back in the day even if it was at about 20fps on my potato pc, as for Tyrian I played the hell out of that too and I thought the explosions were just like that in the game until many years later when I built a decent retro PC and it sounded so much better, yes I had a potato isa compatible back then too, haha. Keep it up mate, awesome work. 👍

@vswitchzero 10 ай бұрын

Thanks very much! I really appreciate it 🙂👍 .. I believe Edro and Leo had a couple of past projects that they offered as bare board options, but it doesn't look like they are doing this for any of the newer products, unfortunately.

@Rettke 19 күн бұрын

Nice!! I got the Orpheus II (not LT) I'm just trying to configure all the stuff, this video helps 😊

@JimLeonard 10 ай бұрын

I came away from this video with no questions at all. Excellent work.

@vswitchzero 10 ай бұрын

Thanks very much! 🙂👍

@infi84 10 ай бұрын

funnily enough one of my favorite sounding soundcards is everything but crystal clean, that being the SB16 CT1740 which is quite known for being noisy, so at least for me "clean" sound is not always one of the main criteria ^^, that said, I do love all the projects that are coming out of the retro community to make playing on real hardware more accessible.

@Ale.K7 10 ай бұрын

Nice!

@PJBonoVox 10 ай бұрын

Great review dude. Like many people here I'd love to own one, but the price just isn't justifiable (to me!). Always the same with these projects sadly, the cost of it being an indie project. More power to them though, it's a hell of an achievement.

@techdistractions 10 ай бұрын

The cost is unfortunate but the cost of bill of materials plus labour would make margins fairly small. Distribution is difficult too - for example in australia this card costs almost $400 before shipping.. sigh!

@ruxandy 10 ай бұрын

Great card and kudos to Edro and Leo for a wonderful design. Unfortunately, as you pointed out at the beginning of the video, for many of us it's not just about the games and how they sound/look. It's also (mostly) about tinkering with the actual old hardware, discover its limitations, seeing what works and what doesn't, and enjoying each vintage card for what it is. That's why, personally, I am not at all interested in modern sound card / video card clones.

@Dan-TechAndMusic 10 ай бұрын

Agreed on the fun of collecting various cards! As hyped as Creative cards are for instance, some chips can outdo them, if put on a decent PCB. And the cards from Ferreira and Dallas definitely have that!

@Zerbey 8 ай бұрын

Flaky in game audio drivers happened on genuine SB hardware too, I remember some games insisted on the "standard" 220/7/1 settings and would either be flaky or just not work at all. Very annoying, but such was life in the DOS era.

@tristankordek 10 ай бұрын

THX :D 👍

@JustForFun-dn1gi 10 ай бұрын

Excellent review . Thank you .

@vswitchzero 10 ай бұрын

Thanks very much! :-)

@techdistractions 10 ай бұрын

It looks awesome :-) great video! The ac97 header is probably the feature I am most excited about 😂

@vswitchzero 10 ай бұрын

Thanks very much! Yes, the AC97 connector is a really awesome and unique feature for an ISA card, that's for sure.

@jamesfmackenzie 10 ай бұрын

GREAT video! 😎

@vswitchzero 10 ай бұрын

Thanks so much! :-)

@boardernut 10 ай бұрын

3:10 Turtle Beach used this chipse for their Tropez+, TBS 2000 and Malibu sound cards which any of them ran circles around any Creative product at the time in terms of Crosstalk, Signal/Noise ratio, frequecy response and sampling rate, not to mention hardware enhaced full duplex . You can be sure if Turtle Beach used something it was near the top end rather than bottom.

@vswitchzero 10 ай бұрын

Thanks for the comment! Agreed! I didn't realize Turtle Beach used the CS4237 (don't have much experience with turtle beach cards, unfortunately).

@AladimBR 10 ай бұрын

I got an Orpheus LT II and a X2GS as well. As to your point, why bother using the Crystal MPU? Well, I want to have the option to use the X2GS and the midi out to connect to a SC-55, picking which one to use depending on the game, without opening the case and removing the X2GS, or putting it back. So I kept the standard 330 port for the midi out, and the Crystal MPU on 300 port for the X2GS wavetable card. You can edit the orpheus.ini in the proper section to enable that. Just change from: MPUBase=disabled MPUIRQ=disabled To: MPUBase=300 MPUIRQ=9 Just posting here, because it took me a while to learn how to do it. It is easy, when you know what to do.

@vswitchzero 10 ай бұрын

Thanks very much for posting this! With the standalone PCMIDI card, I was able to switch between WT and SC-55 easily with a mixer since there is a dedicated audio-out jack for the WT. Since the Orpheus II doesn't have this same dedicated WT output, this will be very useful. Cheers!

@wckhor 5 ай бұрын

@@vswitchzero Excellent video, thanks a lot! For the problem with WT and SC-55 playing simultaneously through port 330, is it possible to just mute the WT through the Orpehus.ini? I saw WTHeaderVol being listed there: ; Line in, CD audio, wavetable header and microphone minimum volume is 31. MicVol=mute;31 LineInVol=12 CDVol=9 WTHeaderVol=8

@Constantin314 10 ай бұрын

awesome video and review! miss the Sherlock Holmes repairs, though :)

@vswitchzero 10 ай бұрын

Thanks! I have a couple of repairs in the works. More to come soon :-)

@AlejandroRodolfoMendez 10 ай бұрын

I really need some of this but the price doesn't help. But I hope it get enough support so it can be affordable for everyone.

@djpirtu2 10 ай бұрын

Because Gravis Ultrasound is the best I bought Orpheus II some time ago ❤

@joaoc_PT 10 ай бұрын

instant-like!

@euclideszoto997 9 ай бұрын

Those crystal chips are built into the motherboard of some Dual Pentium Pros!

@BrassicGamer 10 ай бұрын

A very thorough review, which I very much enjoyed despite the fact I'll probably never buy one. I've enjoyed following the conversations on Vogons over the years discussing this kind of project though, so it's great to see them come to life. Great to see Blackthorne included - I did play it back in the day, then rediscovered it a few years ago. Love that soundtrack (also sounds excellent with the GUS). I can't listen to Descent with anything other than the SC-55 but it seems everyone has their preferences with that soundtrack!

@vswitchzero 10 ай бұрын

Thanks very much, Andrew! 🙂👍

@Miasmark 10 ай бұрын

Related news on the opheus site.Looks like a new batch of action rewind is finally coming out. Hopefully not sold out before I can afford one again.😢

@retro-futuristicengineer 10 ай бұрын

Sounds very good. I already have an Orpheus 1, so I assume the II LT is better, but not worth the upgrade. I am still thinking about the full Orpheus II. However, for anybody now jumping in this topic, it is a great card and improves some issues of the Orpheus 1, where among others the Wavetable Header is not placed properly and does not give enough support for large wavetables like the Yamaha DB50XG you have shown (I have also one, and it does not line up with the Orpheus 1, and the form factor is typical for wavetables from back then) It is increadible what we get from the retro community and the Orpheus Series is a one of the masterpieces.

@vswitchzero 10 ай бұрын

Thanks for your comment! That's very interesting, I didn't realize the WT location and mounting was different on the original Orpheus. Good to know, thanks!

@rodhester2166 10 ай бұрын

Curious as to what everyones favorite sound cards are.. My favorite is the awe64 gold. Second is audigy 2 zs platinum.

@buggerlugz6753 10 ай бұрын

What was the name of that awesome midi player/sequencer software back in 1995 days? The one with the vertical colour spectrum analyzer for each channel that you could turn on and off during playback. (think it was freeware). Ahh! those days eh!! who else would have them all over again? (btw, i thought decent was 3D accelerated? certainly was with my ATI 3d-rage-pro)

@vswitchzero 10 ай бұрын

Thanks for your comment! Good question, there were a few popular MIDI players/mod trackers back in the day. The one that comes to mind is "RAD Tracker", which was an adlib based one with colorful spectrum analyzer. From what I recall, the original Descent wasn't natively 3D accelerated, but there may have been 3D patches for various cards perhaps. Pretty sure Descent 2 had 3D acceleration out of the box though. Those were definitely the good old days, that's for sure! :-)

@95Comics Ай бұрын

Is there a soundcard for retro machines that works like modern pc’s? What was the big change or development that allowed newer machines to just play whatever sound is in the game or video?

@awilliams1701 10 ай бұрын

are you saying that when a game crashes and the note is stuck that's a bug? I always thought it was just the last note played wasn't told to stop playing. I thought it was normal.

@jamesfmackenzie 10 ай бұрын

The hanging note is usually high pitched and happens during gameplay. Super annoying :-(

@awilliams1701 10 ай бұрын

@@jamesfmackenzie Oh I don't recall that. I only recall games that crashed leaving the last note on.