Big respect for earning money with stone old copyrights? Unless they gave Serdashop the licence for free or very cheap of course then you're right. Do you know what kind of deal was made?
@@armorgeddon I'm sure it was reasonable, since this is kind of a niche product and somehow it was feasible to come to an agreement. IMO, that's a model for how intellectual property rights should be. Roland did the work, and their sample libraries have always been remarkable. They deserve to reap the financial benefits of that. It's also incredibly cool of them to not be too good to show some love to an eccentric community trying to do things above board. Like I said, everybody wins here.
Or if you had a Socket 7 daughterboard inside an IBM Power System AC922, it could also be "Socket7 of Power9"... OK, I know that's really, REALLY pushing it for a joke.
@@bdwilcox Technically correct (like how I like to point out that "Paprika" predates "Inception", or that "Lion King" was stolen from "Kimba the White Lion") but just doesn't roll of the tongue so readily.
CRTs will always be superior to LCDs, even if the former are much heavier. Once widescreen CRTs become a thing again, you can be sure there'll be a sizeable market.
My original CRT is still boxed up after it died 10 year ago and I still haven't got my Dad to get around fixing it as he was a TV repair engineer when 21 inch TV's weighed as much as a heavy kid.. Dem gud oald dayz
Some of the new viewers are twice LGR's age and were involved in computers since the 70's and went thru all of this equipment and software when it was new.
@@GEORGE-jf2vz and? I've been using computers since the late 70's too. Doesn't stop it being amusing when people demonstrate ignorance to a younger person's experiences.
@@tmbrwn What does age have to do with someone saying some of those people lived through the 70's? Seriously? Thats a real question? My response was to some saying this as though it meant something. I simply said I *did* and still found it amusing that people would get preachy about them to someone younger.
That Doom clip was awesome to hear, that was the sound of my youth. The music, the pickup sounds, the screams of pain... that shotgun. That pleased me.
Yeah indeed, the Sound Canvas sample set the X2GS is based on is excellent, and Lee Jackson actually composed the Duke3D theme using a Roland Sound Canvas so it's a solid pairing. More on the topic here! czcams.com/video/CVq4rSEjgnA/video.html
You never "get" these things until you hear them side by side. Like the quality of various video cards. You gotta do the comparison like this! Thanks for a great video.
*jaw drop* WOW!! I've been wavering on whether or not to get a DreamBlaster for my own K6-2 retro machine but was hesitating because I just wasn't entirely sure if it was worth the price. I'm stunned.... Thanks Clint! I have a new goal!
When I was a very poor college student about 18 years ago, I put the 233 MHz K6 on an ATX Socket 7 motherboard and overclocked it to 400 MHz with a decently sized CPU heatsink and fan. It thing ran for years like that. Though it wasn't the fastest machine, it helped me get through school and it worked like a champ on a decent amount of games, including the Sims.
I'm definitely considering buying one of these, not to plug into an old sound card, but because it also has USB control and 3.5mm line out. That means I *should* be able to pass it through to DOSBox and get passable Sound Canvas sound...
If you just want something akin to a MT-32 there's Doxbox-ECE which will emulate that. You still need the original rom images but those aren't hard to find.
@@flow221 Roland SC VA works decently as well. I use both an X2 via USB (not GS, haven't saved up enough to buy one of those yet) and the SC VA Software, depending on what I'm running. SC VA can be a bit tricky for the first set up, but I'm quite happy with a combination of SAVIhost to host the VST plugin, loopMIDI as a virtual MIDI interface and MIDI mapper. Once you get the setup working it's really not difficult. But still, using actual hardware will always feel better to me, so I will probably buy an X2 SG at some point as well :'D
@Channel Zero Kinda depends on how satisfied you are with "passable". Munt is good and some of the sound fonts available for Fluidsynth or VMS are decent recreations of an SC-55, but not as good as SC VA. Or original hardware, obviously.
With soundcard daughterboards it can prevent noise from component interference. Not just from the soundcard but also other cards. It's usually easy to find a hole along the top of the back of the case to attach it.. Improved my SB-Live + Yamaha XG DB setup back in the day.
I never got into playing computer games much, too busy at work supporting minicomputers evolving into mainframes. But I did enjoy getting the most out of the PC hardware, including sound cards. That's why I enjoy LGR videos, they cover the nuts & bolts and that almost intangible coolness factor, regardless of what era they're from.
@@jbfarley Wow, he used a CRT? He must be some kind of level 33 tech wizard that can't be questioned. Next thing you know, you're going to tell me this techromancer once used a "mo-dem" where he spoke in "baud-rates". All genuflect!!!
@@MOS6582 very likely! And Adrian still gets the occasional corrections and tips from people in the comment section, so yeah, we all still have stuff to learn. Until some real expert comes along who has actually designed CRT technology back in the day, we can all just be labeled as 'enthusiasts'. No need to compare 'tube sizes'.
Seeming these on Vogons and Philslab I picked one up. So cool to see a community project provide a modern solution, allowing people to experience what it would be like to have a sound canvas. Worth every dollar in my book. Just wished I bought another 2x for my other computers haha
I've got the previous model DreamBlaster X2 (non GS) with the fantastic Buran sound bank, love it. I would have ordered this if I had the choice, but I was a few weeks too early, oh well, no complaints.
Could always order this one as well, it's worth it and the cool people over at Serdaco deserve all of our support for doing God's own work with these projects 🙂
If you have the Buran bank version 1.1 you can set it to MT-32 Compatible mode through variation 127. Which can be activated with some handy batch files which you can find on vogons (GMGSMT32.ZIP) www.vogons.org/download/file.php?id=59349
I remember buying a Yamaha XG50 expansion card back in the day and wiring it straight to the serial port on my Amiga. I still love the sounds on that card.
"How ridiculous this is"? We've seen your MIDI stack and you've never been shy about hanging a CF Card adapter inside your case. :) Dongles on dongles wasn't a foreign idea back in the day. Love your stuff.
A cable extension is very sensible compared to some of the other crazy stuff he's done in the past, I'm surprised that LGR considers it anything but normal lol
The riser cable is a no-go, because the daughterboard would flop around,eh? We've all had that issue, mate, but thankfully the FloppyCardSyndrome is easily remedied by using some velcro/hook and loop pads and just doing the two cards back to back (after confirming there's no risk of a short,ofc) . Seriously, I've lost track how often those little buggers have saved our bacon when dealing with "not entirely authorized/sane" modifications of gear at work, lol
I think there may have also been at least two holes that align in both boards, for fixing them together with nylon screws, nuts, and standoffs. Four isn't going to happen because of the height difference, but at least the lower edges could be matched up.
@@explorer9049 I agree wholeheartedly on that front, but just as Clint said - the new card isn't quite a 1 for 1 replacement for the original. Unfortunately this means that you have to make the difficult decision to either go for the tidy and "almost as good" or a slightly janky install of the original card. I'd personally go for the latter, but I've never really cared about the looks of a build (outside of stuff that's affecting actual performance), but I 'get' that most people aren't as aesthethically criplled (or utilitarian) as me :D
Never played around with sound cards back in the day, always wondered what sort of difference they made … blown away. Would have added a lot to my time in those games back in the day.
Dude, I loved your previous midi mountain video! In particular I really liked the sound of the Kawai GMega, so much so that I immediately created an eBay saved search for one. I'd like to say my patience paid off and I got one for a great deal, but as soon as my overtime came through I jumped right on the next one that appeared. I may have paid more for it than either my SC-55 Mk2 or MT32 (although I did get a genuine deal for the MT32, so that's not a fair comparison). It's currently on the way for Japan as we speak! Anyway, I think the X2GS is a really cool option. It might seem like a lot of money for such a small thing, but it's still cheap compared to an old school Sound Canvas! And looking at the specs you can load a second soundbank, which I don't think you can do on a regular Sound Canvas?
I have one of those DB15MIDI from Serdashop. Extremely simple and extremely useful. They are 2 MIDI outs though, there's no midi in. I needed joystick so I bought a splitter cable from aliexpress, noticed it did not AT ALL have enough wires in it to deal with a joystick so I resoldered it to me needs, and that DB15MIDI plays nicely into that solution thanks to its buffering components.
Eh, I thought the misspelling was going to be a trademarked branding thing, but now it feels like he just did not know how to spell it and ran with it?
OK, I have to finish my Canyon.mid Remix one of these days and print it on vinyl for ya Clint! ;) Just have to get the Petscii Robots bonus soundtrack done first. 🤪🤷🏼♂️
I wish I had something as ridiculous as learning you about the wonderous wonders that ye olde CRT holds. Since I don't, I'm just gonna say I love the build: how it looks, how it looks and how it sounds. It's awesome, just like you!
I actually got a breakout cable for going from the gameport socket to MIDI in/out. The nice thing about it is it also has a passthrough for connecting an actual joystick if you wanted to. I used it to hook up the SoundBlaster AWE64 sound card I've got in one of my retro PCs to this old Yamaha keyboard my sister got from her ex-boyfriend many a year ago lol.
I don't understand why the DIY community is so fascinated with dongle adapters, like the D-Sub to MIDI at 14:00. Why would you want a chain of things, including bare PCBs with all their pointy bits, hanging off (and sticking out) of the back of a computer, applying leverage on the pins and connectors of a sound card? Wouldn't it be better in every way to have a 1 ft adapter cable with a DA-15 Male on one side, and 2x DIN-5 Female (and maybe DA-15 Female) on the other? I keep seeing the RGB crowd with SCART-to-whatever plugs, adding 3" of hanging dead weight to a connector that was never meant to bear anything more than insertion force... yikes. I don't even like using DVI-I to VGA adapter dongles. Thick cables are heavy enough. Nice to have an option, sure. But I just can't help but see this accidentally getting crammed into a wall and breaking the PCB (if you're lucky) or a 30 year old sound card (if you're not.) :-(
I have just built almost exactly same computer like a week before your original video. And since then all I wanted to add to my SB16 is exactly same thing! I've been wanting this DreamBlaster. Socket 7 was my first computer ever so this project was and is very close to my heart. Back then I had Gravis Ultrasound so a good Wavetable is only thing that I miss to complete this experience.
Oh, the '90s nostalgia is even stronger with this video than the last one. :-) This reminds me of all the MIDI stuff I was messing with back in the day -- I had a Roland D-10 keyboard attached to my PC via a MIDI cable, and I also had a Turtle Beach Maui wavetable card into which I had installed some very Roland-esque wavetables (probably copied illegally, honestly). I used to spend hours messing with sounds and MIDI back then. The sound that daughter-card was producing reminds me so much of that. :-)
@Common Raccoon The PCIe implementations were a bit faster a) because they were native and b) because PCIe is a more robust platform. The bridge chip added latency and introduced some bugs that they were never able or willing to work out with either a firmware update or a driver workaround.
@Common Raccoon I know those fake ones for comedy videos, but that guy "zx-C64" already created at least two Voodoo Graphics SLI setups, one two card setup called Stoned Shaman 20 Mb 3dfx Voodoo Graphics SLI Setup (www.voodooalert.de/board/forum/index.php?thread/24336-stoned-shaman-20mb-voodoo-graphics-sli-review/) and one dual plane model. I think his next project was already the recent V5 6K Remastered, which was PCI, which was covered all over the IT media. Link to the official forum thread: www.modlabs.net/forum/topic/60674/ AFAIK he's now developing an AGP model V5 6000. I can't find the link now, but it's very early in development.
I have the same sound card (4 of them actually) and a dreamblaster -- if you want to independently control the volume for the wavetable header audio, use "Wave Balance" in the volume control box.
Got mine in the package deal with the Orpheus I. Nice 25€ rebate off the 85€ price tag. Quite happy with my sound setup now. GM via Dreamblaster; MT32, CM32L and so on via Falcosoft's Soundfont Midi Player with different fonts and stuff like munt; Tandy Nano sound card; CD Audio and PC Speaker custom build cables hooked up directly to my little external mixer together with the Orpheus, Tandy Nano and my laptop's output (for the emulation via Midi Player and for other uses). My Audician 32 went back into it's box for now. Still happy to have gotten it as I've never seen one again when looking for it on the Bay once in a while.
I think the variation between different approaches to rendering music is something we've kind of lost with modern sound cards and the emphasis on just playing prerecorded sampled stuff. OPL3 FM synth and a good wavetable both sound great in their own ways.
Enjoying watching these videos about the days when being a 'user' of all the computer hardware was almost as complicated as actually designing and creating it 😅
I just need to keep telling myself, "I don't need one of these to go in my retro PC. I have a SB Live Value and an Aureal Vortex2 that have perfectly fine wavetable synthesis. I bought the SB16 for its OPL3 chip, not for wavetable MIDI."
well... "supposed" is a bit much. It's how it could theoretically have sounded if you'd had access to something resembling a pro musicians setup. For most people it probably would have been silence, or FM synth.
i mean extension cable was also my idea, and i ended up designing extension but using PCB which is well usable and both cards hold together pretty much fine.
For a name of the PC, I'm thinking it could have like some sort of name that relates to "middle child" or "in-betweener," since that's why you built the PC in the first place: have something faster than Woodgrain, but not as fast as Megaluminium.
Excellent. I've just received my E-Wave daughterboard from Serdaco, built on the ES692S MIDI chip. I love it. I'm plugged into an ES1868 card, and in Win95 I can control the daughterboard volume with the Aux B level in the stock Windows mixer. Not sure if there's an equivalent for the Yamaha card.
Aw Clint, you disappoint me. You're not the butcher I hoped you were! :-D As you really like this build how about calling it "The Super Socket 7 Computer"? ;-)
what an absolute unit that pc is someone is getting an itch only a socket 7 pc can fill..... lmao great content as always and yeah that doom music sounded magnificent
I think that last retro build you made inspired me to pull an old AMD Athlon 500 MHz board out of retirement. I'm doing an experiment where I'm building a retro PC in a modern case with a modern power supply. I had to buy a bunch of adapters to convert SATA to Molex, and a SATA to fan splitter for the modern case fans. For my sound I pulled out an old Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS from one of my first PCs, and I've got a few GeForce 2 cards although I know a few of them are failing in one way or another. I'm also using a compact flash to IDE card, but we'll see how reliable it is (I've had bad luck with long term reliability and IDE CF card adapters). I may end up just using a conventional hard drive since they seem have the best compatibility.
I love how people assume you haven't considered a breakout cable, or heard of CRT's, clearly these people have no 3d thought process. By that, I mean they have no internal spacial awareness to think "Gee, where is this dangly card going to go now?" and "Gee, have I ever seen a CRT recorded on a camera?"
Usually it's the kind of thing I wing on the day. Because clearly it's one of those problems that depends on many factors, including how long an extension cable you get. I mean, the Power Supply my PC is running off currently isn't actually inside my case.
@@TheTurnipKing Ah, haha, yeah... When I had a Silverstone Milo ITX slim tower case the SFX PSU's fan died screaming (Literally, I was playing Metro: Last Light and it scared the HELL out of me)... So for a while I just had an EVGA ATX PSU with a really long set of cables growing out of that PC like a tumor. Gotta do what you gotta do, but on builds like these, you (usually) get things right so you don't forget, not use the system, and then break something.
I personally think he dismissed it too quickly. The mounting holes on that daughter board card would probably match up with a PCI bracket from an old modem or NIC. Just mount it in an empty PCI slot next to the sound card.
I think the most knowledgeable person on CZcams about recording Crts perfectly is Joe from the Gamesack channel on CZcams. I'm not aware of the techniques or what he uses to get perfect recordings of crt footage but it's nothing short of amazing.
@@jbfarley Joe records crt screens all the time in Gamesack videos. Sure it's not full videos of a camera recording a crt Gameplay but they do it all the time.
I'm currently using a Serdaco DreamBlaster S1 (Final Edition) on an Audician 32 Plus in my Celeron 400(A) 98se/2000 build. Sure, it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the X2GS you've got, yet for me it's synthetic wavetable sound, that's somewhere between a Roland MT-32 and a Roland SC-55, is still really punchy with the likes of Duke Nukem 3D and Doom.
I remember playing MIDI tracks on my decked out AWE32+Wave Blaster 2 daughterboard. With the weird echoey reverb it sounded so creepy. Like computer geek vampires would listen to it in a really echoey bar or dance club. At least that's what it reminded me of. 😉
I have a set similar to you, just instead of a Yamaha sound card I have an ESS 1868 + DreamBlaster X2GS. DreamBlaster X2GS is a great Wawetable Card, I would like to compare the sound quality directly with Gravis UltraSound max for example, I would definitely like such a comparison and I think that the community that is watching you for sure too
hi i have the same card, the only difference is that my card has an IDE connector. I bought a dreamblaster S2 and the sound is magical, it has improved infinitely
The "extension cable" thing was something I was yelling at the screen when I first saw the problem... and now seeing you address it, yelling at the screen again. Oi. Just shorten the cable! Those ribbon cables are meant to be re-configurable. You can detach the sound-card-side connector, enter it from the opposite side (so the terminated end is on the side that the cable exits from now), shorten it to about 1-inch, and voila! You'll have a cable that neatly lays the card directly atop the sound card just as originally intended. A bit of foam padding to stick the wavetable card to the sound card...done and done, neat as can be! But I guess I still like the new solution, though it kills me inside that the cable solutions were so rashly thrown aside...
I am so used to hearing the Duke3D and Doom themes in SoundBlaster-style FM synth. They almost sound _too_ good in those Roland wavetables! 😎 Another fine blerb! 😀
That X2GS is is neat and all but the dB midi caught my attention more. I was just looking for something like that because I want to connect my windows 98 machine to ableton live (just for fun) but I didn't want to deal with having extra cables strung around or worry about getting midi couplers for my usb interface.
Tip of my hat to that Socket 7 CPU for pulling off software wavetable with real-time reverb. As someone who spent hours staring at Cool Edit Pro progress bars when applying effects to audio files, that's not a trivial accomplishment.
I too have a soft spot for midi music from my teenage years when I played old games on our PC, like Sierra games or I prefer the midi version of the music in Virtuoso over the CD audio. But as someone who just jumped from the Amiga 500 to a Pentium 1 system, having midi music in games instead of the superior MOD files felt like a downgrade. I know midi is more capable if you have the right setup and much better for writing music but MODs always had more character to them :)
indeed, I remember the good old days of Mod files and how we were all blown away by how good they sounded, the Power by Snap or children, I forgot who the artist was. EDITL Robert Miles it would have drove me nits not remembering that
Big respect to Roland for agreeing the licence!
Roland has always had a knack for getting the most bang for the buck with their sample libraries. :-) Good for them. And us.
Big respect for earning money with stone old copyrights? Unless they gave Serdashop the licence for free or very cheap of course then you're right. Do you know what kind of deal was made?
@@armorgeddon I'm sure it was reasonable, since this is kind of a niche product and somehow it was feasible to come to an agreement. IMO, that's a model for how intellectual property rights should be. Roland did the work, and their sample libraries have always been remarkable. They deserve to reap the financial benefits of that. It's also incredibly cool of them to not be too good to show some love to an eccentric community trying to do things above board. Like I said, everybody wins here.
Could have got a Yamaha XG daughterboard with many more sounds and capabilities.
6:16 Blerbs is perfect for when Clint is not in the mood to deal with that
If you have 8 other ancient PCs and laptops, you could call this build "Socket Seven of Nine"
Or if you had a Socket 7 daughterboard inside an IBM Power System AC922, it could also be "Socket7 of Power9"...
OK, I know that's really, REALLY pushing it for a joke.
You know what I would like to see? LGR actually playing a bunch of Doom levels with 100% everything
A resurrection of LGR Plays? LET'S DO IT!!!
@@deanfranz why did he quit doing those? I would think it would be cool if posted some again on this channel once a month or something.
Name idea for socket 7 build: "The Magnificent Seven"
Or its inspiration "Seven Samurai".
Socket 7o Me
@@bdwilcox Technically correct (like how I like to point out that "Paprika" predates "Inception", or that "Lion King" was stolen from "Kimba the White Lion") but just doesn't roll of the tongue so readily.
3:40 The dangling daughter board rant gives me some fun flashbacks to Spinal Tap's "sandwich scene"/"the mini-bread disaster" :)
"Have you heard about CRT's?"
"..."
Oh, bless those newcomers, for they've no idea to whom they're speaking. 😂
Bless their little hearts 😂 I suppose they mean well after all 👀
CRTs will always be superior to LCDs, even if the former are much heavier. Once widescreen CRTs become a thing again, you can be sure there'll be a sizeable market.
@@Chaos89P CRTs certainly have their virtues, but this seems like a bit of an extreme prediction.
My original CRT is still boxed up after it died 10 year ago and I still haven't got my Dad to get around fixing it as he was a TV repair engineer when 21 inch TV's weighed as much as a heavy kid.. Dem gud oald dayz
@@xmrun I'll admit it's some heavy wishful thinking, but I have heard that even HDMI-compatible CRTs have far less latency.
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies was supremely timed! Well done sir!
I'm kind of amused at the idea of new viewers lecturing LGR about CRTs.
Some of the new viewers are twice LGR's age and were involved in computers since the 70's and went thru all of this equipment and software when it was new.
@@GEORGE-jf2vz and?
I've been using computers since the late 70's too.
Doesn't stop it being amusing when people demonstrate ignorance to a younger person's experiences.
@@tmbrwn doesn't matter, lecturing him about CRTs is still ridiculous
@@tmbrwn What does age have to do with someone saying some of those people lived through the 70's?
Seriously? Thats a real question?
My response was to some saying this as though it meant something.
I simply said I *did* and still found it amusing that people would get preachy about them to someone younger.
I got a chuckle as a guy who's been repairing TVs/Monitors and terminals for almost 50 years. Damn kids lol
That Doom clip was awesome to hear, that was the sound of my youth. The music, the pickup sounds, the screams of pain... that shotgun. That pleased me.
The sound of Duke Nukem 3D is just too damn good with that card. I don't recall it sounding this good when I played it in my teens.
Yeah indeed, the Sound Canvas sample set the X2GS is based on is excellent, and Lee Jackson actually composed the Duke3D theme using a Roland Sound Canvas so it's a solid pairing.
More on the topic here! czcams.com/video/CVq4rSEjgnA/video.html
"It's just flopping around awkwardly..."
That's what she said!
You never "get" these things until you hear them side by side. Like the quality of various video cards. You gotta do the comparison like this! Thanks for a great video.
*jaw drop*
WOW!! I've been wavering on whether or not to get a DreamBlaster for my own K6-2 retro machine but was hesitating because I just wasn't entirely sure if it was worth the price. I'm stunned.... Thanks Clint! I have a new goal!
When I was a very poor college student about 18 years ago, I put the 233 MHz K6 on an ATX Socket 7 motherboard and overclocked it to 400 MHz with a decently sized CPU heatsink and fan. It thing ran for years like that. Though it wasn't the fastest machine, it helped me get through school and it worked like a champ on a decent amount of games, including the Sims.
dance of the sugar plum fairies playing while he tore into the midi out converter was a wonderful touch
I'm definitely considering buying one of these, not to plug into an old sound card, but because it also has USB control and 3.5mm line out. That means I *should* be able to pass it through to DOSBox and get passable Sound Canvas sound...
If you just want something akin to a MT-32 there's Doxbox-ECE which will emulate that. You still need the original rom images but those aren't hard to find.
Yes that works.
The official Sound Canvas VA software would be cheaper on a modern PC. Though possibly not as straightforward to integrate with DOSBox.
@@flow221 Roland SC VA works decently as well. I use both an X2 via USB (not GS, haven't saved up enough to buy one of those yet) and the SC VA Software, depending on what I'm running. SC VA can be a bit tricky for the first set up, but I'm quite happy with a combination of SAVIhost to host the VST plugin, loopMIDI as a virtual MIDI interface and MIDI mapper. Once you get the setup working it's really not difficult.
But still, using actual hardware will always feel better to me, so I will probably buy an X2 SG at some point as well :'D
@Channel Zero Kinda depends on how satisfied you are with "passable". Munt is good and some of the sound fonts available for Fluidsynth or VMS are decent recreations of an SC-55, but not as good as SC VA. Or original hardware, obviously.
I never knew what those connections on sound cards were for. And yeah the soft synth sound good but the Roland sounds even better.
This reminds me of when I got my first sound card installed in my first pc.. it was so epic. Kids these days don’t know how good they have it lmao
Was great improving your rig and seeing huge improvements. Happy days
Thumbs up for extension cables, because lots of things wouldn't been possible without them. 👍
With soundcard daughterboards it can prevent noise from component interference. Not just from the soundcard but also other cards. It's usually easy to find a hole along the top of the back of the case to attach it.. Improved my SB-Live + Yamaha XG DB setup back in the day.
You should call the socket 7 machine "seven of mine"
I like that one.
If and when LGR blerbs does a video on 1990s vr headsets can he call himself "Hugh"
For a name, what immediately comes to mind for me is Rock-It Socket 7.
Rocket Socket 7
intel pentium comes to mind when i hear socket 7 lol
No. Just no.
I just added one of these to a Crystal 4239-KQ ISA sound card that is installed into my 486 build. Super awesome!
I never got into playing computer games much, too busy at work supporting minicomputers evolving into mainframes. But I did enjoy getting the most out of the PC hardware, including sound cards. That's why I enjoy LGR videos, they cover the nuts & bolts and that almost intangible coolness factor, regardless of what era they're from.
Imagine techsplaining CRT monitors to Clint
Because he uses them? Please. Try "techsplaining" CRT's to Adrian Black is more like it.
@@bdwilcox what an ignorant reply, kid. He's been using and recording on CRTS for a living for over 11 years. Nobody knows who Adrian black is
@@jbfarley Wow, he used a CRT? He must be some kind of level 33 tech wizard that can't be questioned. Next thing you know, you're going to tell me this techromancer once used a "mo-dem" where he spoke in "baud-rates". All genuflect!!!
Clint knows who Adrian Black is and would probably agree with bdwilcox.
@@MOS6582 very likely! And Adrian still gets the occasional corrections and tips from people in the comment section, so yeah, we all still have stuff to learn. Until some real expert comes along who has actually designed CRT technology back in the day, we can all just be labeled as 'enthusiasts'. No need to compare 'tube sizes'.
Newcomer to LGR: "Have you heard of computer CRTs"
I nearly spat out my doughnut laughing at that.
Seeming these on Vogons and Philslab I picked one up. So cool to see a community project provide a modern solution, allowing people to experience what it would be like to have a sound canvas. Worth every dollar in my book. Just wished I bought another 2x for my other computers haha
I've got the previous model DreamBlaster X2 (non GS) with the fantastic Buran sound bank, love it. I would have ordered this if I had the choice, but I was a few weeks too early, oh well, no complaints.
Could always order this one as well, it's worth it and the cool people over at Serdaco deserve all of our support for doing God's own work with these projects 🙂
If you have the Buran bank version 1.1 you can set it to MT-32 Compatible mode through variation 127. Which can be activated with some handy batch files which you can find on vogons (GMGSMT32.ZIP) www.vogons.org/download/file.php?id=59349
@@BeastOfSoda they really are! I have an Orpheus too.
I remember buying a Yamaha XG50 expansion card back in the day and wiring it straight to the serial port on my Amiga. I still love the sounds on that card.
God damn, the moment E1M1 started, I realized just how good this thing is. It sounds perfect for Doom.
"How ridiculous this is"? We've seen your MIDI stack and you've never been shy about hanging a CF Card adapter inside your case. :) Dongles on dongles wasn't a foreign idea back in the day. Love your stuff.
A cable extension is very sensible compared to some of the other crazy stuff he's done in the past, I'm surprised that LGR considers it anything but normal lol
The riser cable is a no-go, because the daughterboard would flop around,eh? We've all had that issue, mate, but thankfully the FloppyCardSyndrome is easily remedied by using some velcro/hook and loop pads and just doing the two cards back to back (after confirming there's no risk of a short,ofc) . Seriously, I've lost track how often those little buggers have saved our bacon when dealing with "not entirely authorized/sane" modifications of gear at work, lol
I think there may have also been at least two holes that align in both boards, for fixing them together with nylon screws, nuts, and standoffs. Four isn't going to happen because of the height difference, but at least the lower edges could be matched up.
it's still sounds not ideal with it being adding on to more cables plus needing more space for the wavetable card.
@@explorer9049 I agree wholeheartedly on that front, but just as Clint said - the new card isn't quite a 1 for 1 replacement for the original. Unfortunately this means that you have to make the difficult decision to either go for the tidy and "almost as good" or a slightly janky install of the original card. I'd personally go for the latter, but I've never really cared about the looks of a build (outside of stuff that's affecting actual performance), but I 'get' that most people aren't as aesthethically criplled (or utilitarian) as me :D
Never played around with sound cards back in the day, always wondered what sort of difference they made … blown away. Would have added a lot to my time in those games back in the day.
Belgium represents ! Really cool to see SerdaShop in an LGR video !
Dude, I loved your previous midi mountain video! In particular I really liked the sound of the Kawai GMega, so much so that I immediately created an eBay saved search for one. I'd like to say my patience paid off and I got one for a great deal, but as soon as my overtime came through I jumped right on the next one that appeared. I may have paid more for it than either my SC-55 Mk2 or MT32 (although I did get a genuine deal for the MT32, so that's not a fair comparison). It's currently on the way for Japan as we speak!
Anyway, I think the X2GS is a really cool option. It might seem like a lot of money for such a small thing, but it's still cheap compared to an old school Sound Canvas! And looking at the specs you can load a second soundbank, which I don't think you can do on a regular Sound Canvas?
I have one of those DB15MIDI from Serdashop. Extremely simple and extremely useful. They are 2 MIDI outs though, there's no midi in. I needed joystick so I bought a splitter cable from aliexpress, noticed it did not AT ALL have enough wires in it to deal with a joystick so I resoldered it to me needs, and that DB15MIDI plays nicely into that solution thanks to its buffering components.
I love the track you used as an outro to the video
Would love to hear Rise of the Triad music with this; fantastic MIDI music in this game :)
main problem with the softsynth is that it only works in windows, so the additional board is pretty useful
Blerb - one of my fave words. 😉
Agreed.
Eh, I thought the misspelling was going to be a trademarked branding thing, but now it feels like he just did not know how to spell it and ran with it?
OK, I have to finish my Canyon.mid Remix one of these days and print it on vinyl for ya Clint! ;)
Just have to get the Petscii Robots bonus soundtrack done first. 🤪🤷🏼♂️
This reminds me of the MT-32 video the 8-bit guy did. Pure Ear sweetness!
I wish I had something as ridiculous as learning you about the wonderous wonders that ye olde CRT holds. Since I don't, I'm just gonna say I love the build: how it looks, how it looks and how it sounds. It's awesome, just like you!
I actually got a breakout cable for going from the gameport socket to MIDI in/out. The nice thing about it is it also has a passthrough for connecting an actual joystick if you wanted to. I used it to hook up the SoundBlaster AWE64 sound card I've got in one of my retro PCs to this old Yamaha keyboard my sister got from her ex-boyfriend many a year ago lol.
I don't understand why the DIY community is so fascinated with dongle adapters, like the D-Sub to MIDI at 14:00. Why would you want a chain of things, including bare PCBs with all their pointy bits, hanging off (and sticking out) of the back of a computer, applying leverage on the pins and connectors of a sound card? Wouldn't it be better in every way to have a 1 ft adapter cable with a DA-15 Male on one side, and 2x DIN-5 Female (and maybe DA-15 Female) on the other?
I keep seeing the RGB crowd with SCART-to-whatever plugs, adding 3" of hanging dead weight to a connector that was never meant to bear anything more than insertion force... yikes. I don't even like using DVI-I to VGA adapter dongles. Thick cables are heavy enough.
Nice to have an option, sure. But I just can't help but see this accidentally getting crammed into a wall and breaking the PCB (if you're lucky) or a 30 year old sound card (if you're not.) :-(
Bought one of these due to the video. Holy drums! It's awesome and fast shipping to USA.
I have just built almost exactly same computer like a week before your original video. And since then all I wanted to add to my SB16 is exactly same thing! I've been wanting this DreamBlaster. Socket 7 was my first computer ever so this project was and is very close to my heart. Back then I had Gravis Ultrasound so a good Wavetable is only thing that I miss to complete this experience.
love the blerbs
Blerb Time!
Oh, the '90s nostalgia is even stronger with this video than the last one. :-) This reminds me of all the MIDI stuff I was messing with back in the day -- I had a Roland D-10 keyboard attached to my PC via a MIDI cable, and I also had a Turtle Beach Maui wavetable card into which I had installed some very Roland-esque wavetables (probably copied illegally, honestly). I used to spend hours messing with sounds and MIDI back then. The sound that daughter-card was producing reminds me so much of that. :-)
The FM Synthesis bring me back memories of playing Theme Hospital on my first computer.
I can't wait till AGP cards start getting new projects
@Common Raccoon PCIe* to AGP
@Common Raccoon They were called bridge chips and they had issues of their own.
@Common Raccoon The PCIe implementations were a bit faster a) because they were native and b) because PCIe is a more robust platform. The bridge chip added latency and introduced some bugs that they were never able or willing to work out with either a firmware update or a driver workaround.
Already happening with the next 3dfx V5 6000 creation by that Russian engineer.
@Common Raccoon I know those fake ones for comedy videos, but that guy "zx-C64" already created at least two Voodoo Graphics SLI setups, one two card setup called Stoned Shaman 20 Mb 3dfx Voodoo Graphics SLI Setup (www.voodooalert.de/board/forum/index.php?thread/24336-stoned-shaman-20mb-voodoo-graphics-sli-review/) and one dual plane model. I think his next project was already the recent V5 6K Remastered, which was PCI, which was covered all over the IT media. Link to the official forum thread: www.modlabs.net/forum/topic/60674/
AFAIK he's now developing an AGP model V5 6000. I can't find the link now, but it's very early in development.
Dance of the sugar plum fairy instantly made everything feel like christmas time. Amazing
Here We go, sounding like a Dream now!
I have the same sound card (4 of them actually) and a dreamblaster -- if you want to independently control the volume for the wavetable header audio, use "Wave Balance" in the volume control box.
Got mine in the package deal with the Orpheus I. Nice 25€ rebate off the 85€ price tag.
Quite happy with my sound setup now. GM via Dreamblaster; MT32, CM32L and so on via Falcosoft's Soundfont Midi Player with different fonts and stuff like munt; Tandy Nano sound card; CD Audio and PC Speaker custom build cables hooked up directly to my little external mixer together with the Orpheus, Tandy Nano and my laptop's output (for the emulation via Midi Player and for other uses).
My Audician 32 went back into it's box for now. Still happy to have gotten it as I've never seen one again when looking for it on the Bay once in a while.
How about calling the Socket 7 machine “The Magnificent (Socket) 7”?
I think the variation between different approaches to rendering music is something we've kind of lost with modern sound cards and the emphasis on just playing prerecorded sampled stuff. OPL3 FM synth and a good wavetable both sound great in their own ways.
Enjoying watching these videos about the days when being a 'user' of all the computer hardware was almost as complicated as actually designing and creating it 😅
I just need to keep telling myself, "I don't need one of these to go in my retro PC. I have a SB Live Value and an Aureal Vortex2 that have perfectly fine wavetable synthesis. I bought the SB16 for its OPL3 chip, not for wavetable MIDI."
Damn it, I just ordered one. My wallet is aching from the cost, but it's cheaper than buying an original Waveblaster or a SC-55 these days!
12:20 holy crap is that what Doom is supposed to sound like?
well... "supposed" is a bit much. It's how it could theoretically have sounded if you'd had access to something resembling a pro musicians setup.
For most people it probably would have been silence, or FM synth.
@@TheTurnipKing Wouldn't say pro, per-se... I had a ~$300 Yamaha keyboard hooked up over MPU 401 out for my DOS gaming pleasure.
i mean extension cable was also my idea, and i ended up designing extension but using PCB which is well usable and both cards hold together pretty much fine.
Sweet. I really like the DreamBlaster stuff.
A lot brighter sound now with that daughter card. Great choice man.
Gotta love the background music. XP
For a name of the PC, I'm thinking it could have like some sort of name that relates to "middle child" or "in-betweener," since that's why you built the PC in the first place: have something faster than Woodgrain, but not as fast as Megaluminium.
How about "Malcolm"?🤣
@@CheapBastard1988 That's actually genius lmao
Megawood?
Excellent. I've just received my E-Wave daughterboard from Serdaco, built on the ES692S MIDI chip. I love it. I'm plugged into an ES1868 card, and in Win95 I can control the daughterboard volume with the Aux B level in the stock Windows mixer. Not sure if there's an equivalent for the Yamaha card.
These cards all look so clean and fresh! :)
Wow what a difference with the sound!
Personally I really like that NEC lcd its very clean design and the picture is very clean too.
Aw Clint, you disappoint me. You're not the butcher I hoped you were! :-D
As you really like this build how about calling it "The Super Socket 7 Computer"? ;-)
Problem there is that "Super Socket 7" is a legit, separate type of CPU socket :)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Socket_7
I can't but love these videos!
MORE!
Thanks so much!
what an absolute unit that pc is someone is getting an itch only a socket 7 pc can fill..... lmao great content as always and yeah that doom music sounded magnificent
beautiful daughterboard setup. it just works!
That was one heck of an informative blerb. love it!
I think that last retro build you made inspired me to pull an old AMD Athlon 500 MHz board out of retirement. I'm doing an experiment where I'm building a retro PC in a modern case with a modern power supply. I had to buy a bunch of adapters to convert SATA to Molex, and a SATA to fan splitter for the modern case fans. For my sound I pulled out an old Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS from one of my first PCs, and I've got a few GeForce 2 cards although I know a few of them are failing in one way or another. I'm also using a compact flash to IDE card, but we'll see how reliable it is (I've had bad luck with long term reliability and IDE CF card adapters). I may end up just using a conventional hard drive since they seem have the best compatibility.
Clicked for the DreamBlaster stayed for the canyon.mid.
You should consider changing the channel name to Duke Nukem 3D test channel..
We would all be just as excited to watch you play it a million times
Finally caught an episode within an hour of it going live
LGR on a roll with videos love it
I love how people assume you haven't considered a breakout cable, or heard of CRT's, clearly these people have no 3d thought process. By that, I mean they have no internal spacial awareness to think "Gee, where is this dangly card going to go now?" and "Gee, have I ever seen a CRT recorded on a camera?"
Usually it's the kind of thing I wing on the day. Because clearly it's one of those problems that depends on many factors, including how long an extension cable you get.
I mean, the Power Supply my PC is running off currently isn't actually inside my case.
@@TheTurnipKing Ah, haha, yeah... When I had a Silverstone Milo ITX slim tower case the SFX PSU's fan died screaming (Literally, I was playing Metro: Last Light and it scared the HELL out of me)... So for a while I just had an EVGA ATX PSU with a really long set of cables growing out of that PC like a tumor.
Gotta do what you gotta do, but on builds like these, you (usually) get things right so you don't forget, not use the system, and then break something.
I personally think he dismissed it too quickly. The mounting holes on that daughter board card would probably match up with a PCI bracket from an old modem or NIC. Just mount it in an empty PCI slot next to the sound card.
@@ImGigantor That goes back to what he was saying though, not a lot of room in that case to begin with.
I think the most knowledgeable person on CZcams about recording Crts perfectly is Joe from the Gamesack channel on CZcams. I'm not aware of the techniques or what he uses to get perfect recordings of crt footage but it's nothing short of amazing.
He rarely ever records the CRTs, he certainly doesn't do it for the actual game reviews. 99% of the time he's just using a standard capture card
@@jbfarley Joe records crt screens all the time in Gamesack videos. Sure it's not full videos of a camera recording a crt Gameplay but they do it all the time.
@@jbfarley Also, Joe uses anything but a standard capture card system. The man is a video editor engineer and a wizard of one at that.
I'm currently using a Serdaco DreamBlaster S1 (Final Edition) on an Audician 32 Plus in my Celeron 400(A) 98se/2000 build. Sure, it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the X2GS you've got, yet for me it's synthetic wavetable sound, that's somewhere between a Roland MT-32 and a Roland SC-55, is still really punchy with the likes of Duke Nukem 3D and Doom.
13:52 - it's like Christmas in July... in June!
I remember playing MIDI tracks on my decked out AWE32+Wave Blaster 2 daughterboard. With the weird echoey reverb it sounded so creepy. Like computer geek vampires would listen to it in a really echoey bar or dance club. At least that's what it reminded me of. 😉
I don't know about y'all but I'm just excited that the Socket 7 means we can see a lot more Windows 95 stuff.
What an upgrade! Also, have you heard of ISA slots? They came before PCI. Hahaha
Have you tried making your own sample bank, using your synths? That would be pretty wild :)
This reminds me of the difference buying the Utopia soundfont and loading it on my SBLive for dosbox or VDMsound use.
I have a set similar to you, just instead of a Yamaha sound card I have an ESS 1868 + DreamBlaster X2GS. DreamBlaster X2GS is a great Wawetable Card, I would like to compare the sound quality directly with Gravis UltraSound max for example, I would definitely like such a comparison and I think that the community that is watching you for sure too
oh, that sounds delightful!
hi i have the same card, the only difference is that my card has an IDE connector. I bought a dreamblaster S2 and the sound is magical, it has improved infinitely
Canyon.mid perfectly captures the weird awkwardness and excitement of my childhood.
The "extension cable" thing was something I was yelling at the screen when I first saw the problem... and now seeing you address it, yelling at the screen again. Oi. Just shorten the cable! Those ribbon cables are meant to be re-configurable. You can detach the sound-card-side connector, enter it from the opposite side (so the terminated end is on the side that the cable exits from now), shorten it to about 1-inch, and voila! You'll have a cable that neatly lays the card directly atop the sound card just as originally intended. A bit of foam padding to stick the wavetable card to the sound card...done and done, neat as can be!
But I guess I still like the new solution, though it kills me inside that the cable solutions were so rashly thrown aside...
Same. I don't think he's into crafting a custom solution and that's okay, too.
Ohh...the very rare ViewSonic Optiquest Q71 3-Sparrow monitor!!!
I am so used to hearing the Duke3D and Doom themes in SoundBlaster-style FM synth. They almost sound _too_ good in those Roland wavetables! 😎
Another fine blerb! 😀
Niiice , the crt is getting used :)
That X2GS is is neat and all but the dB midi caught my attention more. I was just looking for something like that because I want to connect my windows 98 machine to ableton live (just for fun) but I didn't want to deal with having extra cables strung around or worry about getting midi couplers for my usb interface.
Tip of my hat to that Socket 7 CPU for pulling off software wavetable with real-time reverb. As someone who spent hours staring at Cool Edit Pro progress bars when applying effects to audio files, that's not a trivial accomplishment.
I too have a soft spot for midi music from my teenage years when I played old games on our PC, like Sierra games or I prefer the midi version of the music in Virtuoso over the CD audio. But as someone who just jumped from the Amiga 500 to a Pentium 1 system, having midi music in games instead of the superior MOD files felt like a downgrade. I know midi is more capable if you have the right setup and much better for writing music but MODs always had more character to them :)
indeed, I remember the good old days of Mod files and how we were all blown away by how good they sounded, the Power by Snap or children, I forgot who the artist was. EDITL Robert Miles it would have drove me nits not remembering that