OPL2 (3 ?) sound for your QL through parallel port

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Peter
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Re: OPL2 (3 ?) sound for your QL through parallel port

Post by Peter »

Zarchos wrote:I feel very lonely when I read that, as though instead of trying to give something new and cheap a chance, it is better to stay with actual :
- no hardware for a stock QL
But this is no hardware for a stock QL! It does not solve any problem for stock QL, unless an extra board is designed.
Zarchos wrote:- there is some hardware, having more and / or better is sthing to absolutely reject and trash.
Nobody said that. But this provides no hardware for the QL! It would have to be designed in the future. That's absolutely fine, if it is fun for someone! However it is not negative to also be aware of the extreme shortage of software developers, and trying to use existing standards, which helps a wider range of platforms.
Zarchos wrote:Converting it to 68000 is not what I would describe as a rocket science job demanding a huge amount of efforts.
This is also true for many, many other pieces of software we would like to have. We don't have them. Why? Extreme lack of developers. I'm not sure you are fully aware of the poor situation for the QL.
Zarchos wrote:As I said, the kits to have serial to parallel conversion exist, they are also extremely cheap.
From my experience, chances that those would easily turn a QL into a machine where that OPL chip works, are close to zero. About every project which was dependant on the QL SER ports and needed reliabilty and relatively high throughput, was very work intensive and eventually more or less unsuccessful.
Zarchos wrote:In short, this board has so many advantages that I do not understand how a warm welcome can be avoided.
It's simple: The only machines with (maybe) suitable parallelport already have relatively decent sound, named QLSSS. If better/more software for QLSSS is made, that helps far more users than further dividing the already tiny developer resources.
Zarchos wrote:35 euros, that's peanuts for what it offers.
No, you have to add the price of the non-existing, future interface board! BTW how would these two boards fit the QL mechanically?

Summed up, if a new hardware must be designed anyway, a QLSSS board for the black box is likely to be cheaper, the drivers would already exist, well debugged. Plus it would be compatible to most other QL style hardware and emulators.


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Peter
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Re: OPL2 (3 ?) sound for your QL through parallel port

Post by Peter »

To avoid misunderstanding: If you find it fun to tinker with this board, absolutely fine! After all, it is a hobby. Even if I'm right, and QLSSS is more realistic / useful for the community, you should still do what fun for you. :D


Derek_Stewart
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Re: OPL2 (3 ?) sound for your QL through parallel port

Post by Derek_Stewart »

Peter wrote:To avoid misunderstanding: If you find it fun to tinker with this board, absolutely fine! After all, it is a hobby. Even if I'm right, and QLSSS is more realistic / useful for the community, you should still do what fun for you. :D
I like soldering and this seems to be a easy one to do and I am only doing this for my own interest.


Regards,

Derek
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Zarchos
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Re: OPL2 (3 ?) sound for your QL through parallel port

Post by Zarchos »

Simple googling shows QL parallel port exists as a DIY project.
I haven't checked if it uses one serial port or both, but mechanically, it means a tiny interface plugging at the back of the QL, and at the back of it, this OPL2 device.

Again, the issue of converting serial ro parallel signals is one of the dumbest and most solved for decades.
Now the issue can be if the OPL2 device isn't a 'receive only' device.

Now a remark : do not complain there are so few QL developpers, if for forthcoming projects your initial approach is repelling them (with exclamation marks, and underlining. That is disturbing).
Incentive is what helps retro development, not negativity and pessimism.

Final note : I have googled about QLSSS but couldn't find much about it.
Please provide some links, thanks.


Owner of various QLs including accelerated beasts, and also a happy Q68 owner ;)
Now porting SOTB to the Archies, to then port it to the Q68.
https://www.youtube.com/user/Archimedes ... +%28100%25
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Peter
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Re: OPL2 (3 ?) sound for your QL through parallel port

Post by Peter »

As for exclmation mark and underlining: The context was ascribing to me that I would find it better to stay with no hardware for a stock QL. I found this far aside from what I was actually saying. A little realism and technical checks is not necessarily negative. Sometimes it helps to spend time for other, more fruitful work.

A few QL Sampled sound system links:
http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/sound/index.html
http://simon.mooli.org.uk/AF/article/

SMSQ/E Manual (search for 'SSS'):
http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/docs/ebooks/index.html


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