Specifications

converter 1.5



2000 - 2005 urr Sound Technologies Inc.

dual cards for simultaneous audio and midi input

Since many consumer soundcards (notably the SoundBlaster 16 and Awe-32s) have difficulties

handling dense midi input streams in combination with ‘high speed’ audio input or output, support for

dual soundcards has been implemented in converter in order to provide trustworthy and reliable

performance.

When using one of the dual card modes of converter, audio input is handled by one soundcard, and

midi input and output is handled by a separate card with an MPU-401 UART interface. The hardware

settings for this secondary MPU-401 card for midi I/O are determined using the last 2 parameters in the

hardware.cfg

file (described in the next few pages of this manual).

This dual card support is very flexible, in that a variety of combinations of soundcards could be used to

achieve solid performance. Two SoundBlaster 16s, an Awe-32 and an ESS1688, a SoundBlaster Pro

and a Roland SCC-1, the options are numerous.

For optimal results, it is recommended that the MPU-401 interface used for midi input and output has a

lower interrupt setting than the card used for audio input. For example, if using a Roland MPU-IPC-T,

the card’s default setting of IRQ 2/9 would be optimal when used in combination with a SoundBlaster

16 set to it’s default IRQ of 5 for audio input.

Also, it is recommended (in general) to use a quality MPU-401 interface for midi input and output, if

possible. As an example, while the MPU-401 ports on most SoundBlaster cards work fine, there are

issues with certain older revision Awe-32 and some other cards which occasionally lose midi data

during dense incoming streams. If you have an alternate card with a better MPU-401 interface, such as

a Roland card, Ensoniq Soundscape, Turtle Beach etc., use the Awe-32 for audio input and the other

card for solid midi input and output functionality.

Configuring two Plug & Play SoundBlaster cards in the same machine may be challenging in some

computers; these cards may require that the “Plug & Play OS” parameter in your computer’s BIOS be

set to “OFF” in order to make use of the soundcard’s hardware configuration software. Usually it is

easiest if Plug & Play cards have their settings assigned from within Windows, and other times it is

easier when one card’s hardware settings can be set via jumpers found on the soundcard itself.

The SoundBlaster AWE-64 is able to handle both input streams on one card, so if you are using this

particular card, you can use input mode 5. However, keep in mind that the AWE-64 single card mode is

potentially less reliable than using two independent cards for audio and midi input – make sure to test it

on your particular computer. Other better quality soundcards, such as the Turtle Beach Tropez or

Terratec EWS-64 may (very likely) be able to perform a dual card mode using just the single card –

however we are unable to test this as we do not have these particular cards.

If your soundcard has an MPU-401 port as well as SoundBlaster Pro or 16 audio compatibility, and

uses two IRQs (one for audio I/O and one for the MPU port), it may be possible to use one of

converter’s dual card modes on the single card. This will depend largely on the reliability of the card

itself (again, older Terratec or Turtle Beach cards may work well in this situation, but again we have no

way to confirm this directly).