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Order info at bottom of page!

IMPORTANT INFO: The OrpheusI soundcard is now a retired product - it's direct replacement is the OrpheusII LT (or the more advanced OrpheusII which adds Gravis UltraSound capabilities to the mix). This does not mean that supports ends for the OrpheusI boards, driver updates will still work on it and cards will still be serviced it the super rare occasion this is needed. Thank you for your support in all these years of Orpheus development!

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!

Important notes:

	If you want to use it through AUTOEXEC.BAT remember to use the CALL command to run ORPHEUS.BAT , for example if you have OPRHINIT inistalled in C:\ORPHEUS then use this command in AUTOEXEC.BAT : CALL C:\OPRHEUS\ORPHEUS.BAT
	You can have multiple INI files and use them with the /F: switch , for example: ORPHINIT /F:DMA0.INI
	Remember to edit your ORPHEUS.INI if you want to enable CS-MPU device. Default is CS-MPU disabled since the vast majority of sold cards have PCMIDI MPU onboard. Without CS-MPU device enabled then the wavetable header and MIDI OUT jacks won't function. The lines that need chaging are these: MPUBase=disabled (change to 330 for example) MPUIRQ=disabled (change to 9 for example)

19-JAN-2023 Grab the latest 0.57ß final version HERE .

Changelog
Several bug fixes and improvements
Added support for the OrpheusII LT boards


older versions:
FINAL 0.54ß version HERE
FINAL 0.53ß version HERE
BETA 0.53ß version HERE
0.52ß 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
  /XOM0 to force-disable MPU if it's enabled in EEPROM (option for latest 0.77a version)
• 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...
Keep in mind that the win3x drivers are poorly optimized and/or bugged and with many systems they cause delays in audio playback.
There is no workaround for that and there is no other win3x driver version available.

• 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.

WARNING The following EEPROM tools and firmwares are ONLY usable on the Orpheus I boards. Using them with OprheusII or OrpheusII LT boards will result in loss of functionality.

Download HERE.



Special firmware for systems with early PnP BIOSes and boot issues

This is a special Orpheus firmware for systems with early BIOS PnP implementations that take a long time
to boot or don't boot at all when the Orpheus soundcard is installed in the system. This firmware should be
used with Orphinit 0.54ß and newer versions. Once the card is flashed with this firmware then please edit
ORPHEUS.INI to enable/disable devices and allocate resources according to your setup needs.
The end result is the same as with the "normal" firmware, the only difference is the intiliazation process.
You can revert the card back to stock using the normal flasher above.

WARNING The following EEPROM tools and firmwares are ONLY usable on the Orpheus I boards. Using them with OprheusII or OrpheusII LT boards will result in loss of functionality.

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:
update August 2021: a new version of Orphinit with a special firmware will be released to address these problematic systems, stay tuned!

Old issue:
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:

IMPORTANT INFO: The OrpheusI soundcard is now a retired product - it's direct replacement is the OrpheusII LT (or the more advanced OrpheusII which adds Gravis UltraSound capabilities to the mix). This does not mean that supports ends for the OrpheusI boards, driver updates will still work on it and cards will still be serviced it the super rare occasion this is needed. Thank you for your support in all these years of Orpheus development!

10 Feb 2023:
OrpheusI soundcard is now a retired project, superseeded by the OrpheusII.

Contact information

Need to contact us? Need help to setup/troubleshoot things or extra info?
Please use our contact form!

Contact Form

Or you can join our Facebook group MPU-401 PC-MIDI Card Group
and make a post, we will answer ASAP!

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Please check out our other retropc projects: PCMIDI , MegaCard and Action Rewind

Thanks for looking!