Vogons AWE64 Legacy Ultimate, Manual

Page 1: ...Revision 1 2 1 Released in September 2021 Advanced Wave Effects ISA 16 bit Sound Card Ultimate Retro Gaming Experience Plug and Play ...

Page 2: ...via UNISOUND Utility 18 8 Understanding the Software Configurable Settings 20 Input Output I O Addresses 20 Interrupt Request IRQ Lines 21 Direct Memory Access DMA Channels 21 9 Understanding the Environment Variables 22 SOUND Environment Variable 22 BLASTER Environment Variable 22 MIDI Environment Variable 23 10 Understanding the Installation Program in Windows 3 1x 24 The AUTOEXEC BAT File Setti...

Page 3: ...2 Synthesizer 29 13 Using the S PDIF Output 30 14 Using MIDI Daughterboards 32 15 Resolving Conflicts 33 Resolving Conflicts in Windows 95 98 33 Resolving Conflicts in MS DOS Windows 3 1x 33 How to test DRAM in DOS 33 ...

Page 4: ...offers you intelligent mode support for handling external MIDI devices such as Roland MT 32 or various daughterboards Yamaha YMF262 also known as OPL3 gives you an alternative solution for FM synthesis addition th the built in Creative CQM synthesizer Both of these components can be enabled of disabled manually using a set of DIP switches on the back side of the card This gives you complete contro...

Page 5: ...d wavetable synthesis WaveSynth and physical model based waveguide WG synthesis The sample based wavetable synthesizer allows you to play high quality music and sound effects via software instead of hardware FM synthesis in any Windows based multimedia application or game that supports synthesized music It also has a physical model based waveguide synthesizer which uses Sondius Sound Synthesis tec...

Page 6: ...er chips DIP Switch for routing CQM OPL3 Stereo Digitized Voice Channel Full duplex 16 bit and 8 bit digitizing in stereo and mono modes Programmable sampling rates from 5 kHz to 44 1 kHz in linear steps High and Low DMA channels using a single interrupt for audio playback and recording Dynamic filtering for digital audio recording and playback Built in Digital Analog Mixer Mixes sources from digi...

Page 7: ...dent of speaker quality Independent of setup configuration for example placement and alignment of speakers with the listener MIDI Interface Built in MIDI interface for connection to external MIDI devices Discrete HardMPU MIDI host controller with intelligent mode support Wave Blaster connector for attaching various MIDI daughterboards DIP Switches for routing MIDI host controllers and selecting IR...

Page 8: ...rder to properly work with AWE64 Legacy sound card Intel Pentium 90 MHz CPU of better VGA or SVGA video card Minimum of 8 MB RAM 20 MB of free hard disk space 4x speed CD ROM drive for installing drivers from CD Windows 95 or Windows 3 1x with MS DOS 5 0 and a Plug and Play PnP configuration manager ...

Page 9: ...n Audio connector Connect a CD ROM drive using a CD audio cable 3 S PDIF Out connector Sony Philips Digital Interface format connector Use it to output digital signal from EMU8000 to external receiver or other digital device 4 PC Speaker connector Connects your motherboard s speaker connector 5 AC 97 Audio connector Allows you to route Line Out and Mic In interfaces to the front panel of your PC s...

Page 10: ...chip mixed with digital voice playback if the playback is in 16 bit stereo mode 44 1 kHz CD quality If you want to listen to WaveSynth WG through the S PDIF Out jack you must enable the Enable WaveSynth to play at CD quality feature To do so 1 Start Creative WaveSynth Waveguide The WaveSynth WG properties sheet appears displaying the Profile tab 2 Click the Performance Settings button 3 In the Set...

Page 11: ...st be disabled in order for the AWE64 built in MPU 401 host controller to function 13 Discrete OPL3 FM Synth switch Sets Yamaha OPL3 synthesizer ON or OFF Please note that ON position disables OPL3 while OFF 1 position routes OPL3 to the port 388h 14 HardMPU IRQ Select switch Use it to set the IRQ for HardMPU MIDI host controller default is 2 9 15 HardMPU Port Select Use it to set the port for Har...

Page 12: ...otherboard Remove the corresponding metal plate from the back side of your PC case 5 Align your card with the ISA expansion slot and gently lower the card into the free slot as shown Figure 3 ISA card installation 6 Secure the card to the expansion slot with the screw 7 Connect powered speakers headphones or an external amplifier to the 2 RCA Line Outs Use 2 RCA to 3 5mm jack adapter if needed 8 P...

Page 13: ...booted into your system Windows 95 98 automatically detects the components and either installs the drivers or asks you to specify the path to the drivers Figure 4 Detection of the New Hardware The system will also ask you to insert Windows installation disk to copy drivers from it Figure 5 Insert Disk to Copy Drivers Installing Audio Software from CD Insert your AWE64 Value drivers and software di...

Page 14: ... any previous versions of AWE64 drivers and software installed the Setup program will ask your permission to automatically remove them Figure 7 Uninstall Sound Blaster AWE64 Then specify the path for Creative CTSND directory which contains all the audio software for AWE64 and press Next ...

Page 15: ...ase note that MPU 401 is non Plug and Play component and must be installed manually via Windows 95 98 Add New Hardware wizard To do that Open the Control Panel and launch the Add New Hardware wizard The wizard typically displays a screen explaining what it is used for Click Next to continue You will be told that the wizard will scan for new Plug and Play devices Click Next to continue You will be ...

Page 16: ...PU 401 and insert you Windows CD when prompted Specify the path to the driver16 cab e g E win98 on your Windows CD Figure 10 Specify the path to MPU 401 drivers on Windows CD Upon successful installation of all components you will see the following devices in Windows Device Manager ...

Page 17: ...Windows 3 At the DOS prompt change to the drive containing your CD ROM For example type D 4 Type INSTALL and press Enter 5 Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation The Installer will copy all the initialization files to your hard disk AWEUTIL MIXERSET and DIAGNOSE and add links to them to AUTOEXEC BAT file After you have completed the installation and rebooted your system...

Page 18: ...and unzip UNISOUND EXE to your hard disk e g C UNISOUND UNISOUND COM The most common usage to install and initialize your AWE64 Legacy card is setting a BLASTER variable in AUTOEXEC BAT file first Here is the default configuration example SET BLASTER A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6 J200 UNISOUND COM V70 When you run UNISOUND EXE without any options it initializes first PnP card found in the system with...

Page 19: ...PL FM BAT unisound d SET BLASTER A220 I5 D1 H5 F0 P300 E620 T6 unisound v90 vw70 vf99 vc70 vl80 vm00 vp45 vb65 vt85 echo echo Please note that OPL3 is usable as default Adlib setting 0x388h echo But in some games you can still take advantage of the CQM as it is also available on Sound Blaster base IO address 0x220h echo pause You can download these BAT files here https vccollection ru wp content u...

Page 20: ...lowing software configurable resources of your audio card Input Output I O Addresses Interrupt Request IRQ Lines Direct Memory Access DMA Channels Input Output I O Addresses I O addresses are communication areas used by your computer s central processor to distinguish among various peripheral devices connected to your system when sending or receiving data Table 1 lists the default I O address rang...

Page 21: ... Audio interface Table 2 Possible default IRQ line assignments Direct Memory Access DMA Channels A DMA channel is a data channel a device uses to transfer data directly to and from the system memory Your card s audio interface transfers data through the Low and High DMA channels Table 3 shows a possible combination of DMA channels that may be assigned to the audio interface DMA Channel Usage 1 Aud...

Page 22: ...o space is allowed before and after the equal sign BLASTER Environment Variable The BLASTER environment variable specifies the base I O address IRQ line and DMA channels of the audio interface Its syntax is BLASTER A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6 ATTENTION The values shown earlier may be different for your system No space is allowed before and after the equal sign However there must be at least one spa...

Page 23: ...be sent to the internal stereo music synthesizer or MIDI port Generally there are three MIDI file formats General MIDI Extended MIDI and Basic MIDI The syntax for this variable is as follows MIDI SYNTH xMAP xMODE x The parameters in the command are described below Parameter Description SYNTH x x can be 1 or 2 1 default setting specifies the stereo music synthesizer 2 specifies the MIDI port MAP x ...

Page 24: ...t variables for your audio card The last 3 statements run the DIAGNOSE MIXERSET and AWEUTIL utilities The BLASTER statement is added by the DIAGNOSE utility and the values shown above may differ from those in your system Running DIAGNOSE with the S parameter updates the BLASTER environment with the resource settings from the PnP configuration manager Running DIAGNOSE with the W C WINDOWS parameter...

Page 25: ...CE C SB16 DRV CTMMSYS SYS CTSB16 SYS and CTMMSYS SYS are low level device drivers that provide wave playback and recording for DOS applications These applications include third party DOS applications developed with Creative Labs Sound Blaster Developer Kit The applications work with the drivers such as CTWDSK DRV CTWMEM DRV CTVDSK DRV and CT VOICE DRV that require the low level drivers The drivers...

Page 26: ...o another port and activate OPL3 on the port 388 make the following steps 1 Find the Discrete OPL3 FM Synth switch on the back side of the sound card and set it to OFF 1 position This will enable the OPL3 FM Synth at port 0x388h 2 Open ctpnp cfg file located in CTCM directory for example C CTCM ctpnp cfg Go to section SB16 By default you ll see the following lines SB16 Disable 0 Csn 1 CardId your_...

Page 27: ...lication C CTCM CTCM EXE to reconfigure audio settings 6 In your game s Setup choose Adlib as Music Card to use OPL3 chip for playing music Fig 13 Figure 13 Select Adlib Music Card in Doom II Setup Now you can hear OPL3 on 388h Adlib music port and CQM on 220h Sound Blaster music port ...

Page 28: ... header make the following steps 1 Set the MIDI Host Routing switch on the back of the card to OFF 1 position This will route HardMPU intelligent mode host controller to Wave Blaster header Note CD In must be enabled in the mixer in order to activate the Wave Blaster header audio 2 Select default IRQ_2 9 using the HardMPU IRQ Select switch 3 Select default 330h port using the HardMPU Port Select s...

Page 29: ...U 401 host controller to Wave Blaster header 3 Move HardMPU from default IRQ_2 9 to any free IRQ for example IRQ_7 using the HardMPU IRQ Select switch 4 Move HardMPU from default port 330h to any free port for example 300h using the HardMPU Port Select switch Now AWE64 MPU 401 host controller will be handling your MIDI daughterboard connected to Wave Blaster header Note MFBEN switch must be disabl...

Page 30: ...put It is build on transistor transistor logic TTL and intended to route EMU8000 CQM digital signal to another sound card in your PC ATTENTION Common signal amplitude of internal 2 pin S PDIF Out interface is 2 2 5V and up to 4 5 5V Use it only to connect AWE64 Legacy to another sound card Do not connect it directly to your external audio receiver or you may cause an electrical damage to it The se...

Page 31: ... receiver and turn on PC If your receiver has a display it would show an active connection Output digital signal is always translated in PCM 44 kHz 16 bit stereo mode CD Audio Note You can t mute CQM on digital output by any means other than redirecting it to 398h port But CQM still play if the game uses default port 220h Note Digital signal has no volume control option ...

Page 32: ... secure your daughterboard with a mounting screw Figure 15 Connector for MIDI daughterboard Select either HardMPU or Creative MPU 401 mode for handling your daughterboard see Section 11 There are no differences in installation process for LA32 based MIDI daughterboards Note LA32 based MIDI daughterboards combined with early DOS games with MT32 support will require SA3 switch to be disabled for Int...

Page 33: ...ers 5 Select your audio card and click the Properties button 6 In the properties sheet click the Resources tab 7 Select the Use Automatic Settings check box If this check box is already selected open the properties sheet of the conflicting device and select the same check box there 8 Reboot your system to allow Windows 95 to reassign resources to your audio card and or the conflicting device Note ...

Page 34: ...se I O address and then asks you Do you want to test the DRAM Answer Yes and test will begin This will take some time Figure 14 Onboard RAM Testing in DOS If you encounter any failures during the testing process try to run the test again If DRAM error persists please contact the developers on Vogons https www vogons org viewtopic php f 62 t 68555 ...