Orpheus II - Configuration Notes

The Orpheus II sound card is a delight. That said, setting this up for the optimum experience is not really all that clear. I'm going to collect my notes in one place.

Autoexec Order

The order in which the devices on the Orpheus II can make a difference. On my system, unisound must initialize the Gravis UltraSound component before orphinit can initialize the rest properly.

Unisound Command Line

The command line I use to configure the Gravis UltraSound component looks like this:

unisound /c1 /v99 /vf40

/c1
- This tells Unisound to initialize card #1, as the Gravis UltraSound is the first configurable device in my system. This may be different for your system; use unisound /cl to get a list of eligible devices.
/v99
- This sets the master mix volume to maximum. This determines the post-mix gain from the Gravis UltraSound component. Setting this to maximum will allow it to match the output from the Yamaha OPL synthesizer, which is combined in the mixer.
/vf40
- This sets the PCM pre-mix volume to 40%. The output from the Gravis UltraSound component is very easily saturated; this allows for the most headroom. Note that this is /vf and not /vw.

OrphInit Command Line

The command line I use to configure the non-UltraSound components looks like this:

orpheus.bat

It is also possible to run orphinit directly, but this batch file runs some other setup operations that (I think) are necessary. When calling from a batch file (such as inside autoexec.bat) it is necessary to prefix the "call" command so that control returns to the caller, like so: call orpheus.bat

Orpheus.ini Settings

One major component to setting up this sound card in MS-DOS is the orpheus.ini file, which has setup parameters for the main card that don't have to do with the Gravis UltraSound component.

[config]
- cardType
  - Values: OrpheusI, OrpheusII, none
- WSSBase
  - Determines the base I/O address for the Windows Sound System component.
  - Default value: 534
- WSSIRQ
  - Determines the interrupt number used by the Windows Sound System and Sound Blaster components.
  - Default value: 5
- CtrlBase
  - Determines the base I/O address for configuring the Crystal sound subsystem.
  - Default value: 538
- CtrlIRQ
  - Determines the interrupt number used for configuring the Crystal sound subsystem. Generally not needed.
  - Default value: disabled
- WSSPlaybackDMA
  - Determines the DMA channel used by the Windows Sound System and Sound Blaster components for sound playback. This can differ from the DMA channel used by the Windows Sound System component for recording.
  - Default value: 1
- WSSCaptureDMA
  - Determines the DMA channel used by the Windows Sound System component for sound recording. This can differ from the DMA channel used for playback.
  - Default value is unspecified; the line is commented out in the provided configuration.
- SBBase
  - Determines the base I/O address used by the Sound Blaster component. 16 consecutive addresses are used.
  - Default value: 220
- OPLBase
  - Determines the base I/O address used by the Yamaha OPL FM synth. Two consecutive addresses are used.
  - Default value: 388
- OPLIRQ
  - Determines the interrupt number used by the Yamaha OPL FM synth. This is optional.
  - Default value: disabled
- FMMode
  - Determines which FM synthesizer should be used: Yamaha OPL3 or Crystal FM. A layered option exists which will play them simultaneously, or it can be disabled entirely.
  - Values: opl3, CrystalFM, layered, off
  - Default value: opl3
- GameBase
  - Determines the base I/O address used by the game port.
  - Default value: 200
- MPUBase
  - Determines the base I/O address used by the Crystal MPU-401 compatible device. This does not impact the PCMIDI device.
- MPUIRQ
  - Determines the interrupt number used by the Crystal MPU-401 compatible device. This does not impact the PCMIDI device.
- Mode
  - From the comment in the default configuration file: "determines the mode in which the card will be configured when initialization is complete." This is used to switch between Sound Blaster and WSS mixer modes.
  - "Selecting SB mode will cause the SB mixer to be configured, which will overwrite some of the mixer registers of WSS mode, and WSS mode volume levels will be an approximation of the SB mode volume levels thereafter."
  - Values: sb, wss
  - Default value: sb
[mixer]
- SRSMode
  - Determines whether the SRS effects component is enabled, and which mode it operates in.

Values: enabled, mono, off
Default value: off

SRSSpace
- Configures the "side" effect intensity (that is, sounds on the far ends of the stereo sound stage.)
- Default value: 3
SRSCentre
- Configures the "mid" effect intensity (that is, sounds close to the center of the stereo sound stage.)
- Default value: 8
PCMVol
- Determines the attenuation of PCM sounds in the mixer. Higher values are quieter.
- This source can be completely muted by putting mute; before the value.
- Values: 0-63
- Default value: 14
MicVol
- Determines the attenuation of the microphone input in the mixer. Higher values are quieter.
- This source can be completely muted by putting mute; before the value.

Values: 0-31
Default value: mute;31

LineInVol
- Determines the attenuation of the line input source in the mixer. Higher values are quieter.
- This source can be completely muted by putting mute; before the value.

Values: 0-31
Default value: 12

CDVol
- Determines the attenuation of the CD audio source in the mixer. Higher values are quieter.
- This source can be completely muted by putting mute; before the value.

Values: 0-31
Default value: 9

WTHeaderVol
- Determines the attenuation of the WaveBlaster output in the mixer. Higher values are quieter.
- This source can be completely muted by putting mute; before the value.

Values: 0-31
Default value: 8

FMVol
- Determines the attenuation of the FM synth output in the mixer. Higher values are quieter.
- This source cannot be muted, but a value of 191 can maximally attenuate it.
- Values: 0-191
- Default value: 12
PCSpeakerVol
- Determines the attenuation of the PC speaker output in the mixer. Higher values are quieter.
- This source can be muted.
- Values: there is no indication what this range should be in the included default configuration file.
- Default value: mute
DigitalOutput
- Determines whether digital output (S/PDIF) is enabled.
- Values: enabled, disabled
- Default value: disabled
RoutingMode
- When digital output is enabled, determines whether analog sources are also mixed into the digital output. analogue will include analog sources, while min-digital will exclude them.
- Due to a "chip design bug", SRS is required to be enabled in order for the digital output of the Yamaha OPL FM synthesizer to be included in the digital mix when analog sources are excluded.
- Values: analogue, min-digital
- Default value: analogue

[sb-mode]
- SB-Input-select
  - This determines the signal to send to the Sound Blaster input component, but does not impact playback volume.
  - Values: mic, CD, line-in.
- SB-PCMVol
  - This determines the pre-mix gain of the Sound Blaster component only.
  - Range: 0-7
- SB-MicLevel
  - This determines the pre-mix gain of the external microphone input.
  - Range: 0-3
- SB-MasterVol
  - This determines the gain on the Sound Blaster component output mix.
  - Range: 0-7
- SB-FMVol
  - This determines the pre-mix gain of both the Yamaha OPL FM synth and the Gravis UltraSound component.
  - Range: 0-7
- SB-CDVol
  - This determines the pre-mix gain of the CD audio input.
  - Range: 0-7
- SB-LineVol
  - This determines the pre-mix gain of the external line input.
  - Range: 0-7