DosBox + Munt hangs Toshiba Satelitte L670 (AMD HDMI?) audio driver.

[munt]

DosBox + Munt hangs Toshiba Satelitte L670 (AMD HDMI?) audio driver.

[sergm]

I could only think of some latency settings that are unfortunate for the poor driver. It could be that increasing latency will make it happy, or maybe switching the audio backend.

[SkybuckFlying]

I am not yet sure if dosbox itself is the problem or munt... but is there any setting in munt which I can change ? I already tried a different rom set. I will have to do more testing with dosbox to see if it is the culprit. I tried disabling aero theme in windows has no effect. I did change output=ddraw in dosbox conf to solve color issues when alt-tabbing/full screen... hmmm tried dosbox 0.65 and dosbox 0.74-3 both have same problem with audio driver hanging after usage. Not sure if I can disable munt such that dosbox stops using it to detect if it truely is a problem with munt... but seems somewhat likely.

I could also try and run everything in windows 11 inside a virtual box/vm to see if that performs any different lol :) could be a bit risky if it takes down the whole machine but probably no risk to vm/save files etc. Would be strange if windows 11 does work well and windows 7 not, could be a windows 7 vs windows 11 driver thing.

What OS do you test munt on ?
Driver I am using is: non-whql-win8.1-win7-radeon-software-crimson-relive-16.2.1-sep20.exe

It's the only one were HDMI works properly, the official:

whql-win8.1-win7-catalyst-15.7.1-oct30.exe

^ HDMI does not work haha.

[SkybuckFlying]

I will give DosBosX a try it claims to have build-in MT32 support.

The MT-32 emulation that is integrated into DOSBox-X is based on the Munt project.

I am not sure if it's save to install munt seperately and dosbox-x as well, but I will give it a shot ! ;)

Hmm there are also some options to play with, documented here:

https://dosbox-x.com/wiki/Guide%3ASetting-up-MIDI-in-DOSBox%E2%80%90X

Will copy paste here just in case it disappears:

MT-32 config options

At a minimum you need to have the following set in your DOSBox-X config file:

[midi]
mididevice=mt32
mt32.romdir="C:\Users\My User\emu\cm32l"

Adjust the path as needed. In the example above, it points to the CM-32L ROMs, which will cause DOSBox-X to automatically emulate a CM-32L, which will work fine for the majority of games.

You can check the MT-32 compatible games list on Wikipedia for known compatibility issues for games requiring the MT-32 Old ROMs, or games that are better played with General MIDI.

If a PC game asks for the base IO address and IRQ, you should be able to use the default IO 330 and IRQ 9 (or IRQ2 will also work).
mt32.romdir

Default:

This should point to the directory with MT-32 or CM-32L Control and PCM ROM files. Emulation will not work without them.

If no path is specified, DOSBox-X will check the directory from which it was started.

Accepted file names are as follows:

CM32L_CONTROL.ROM and CM32L_PCM.ROM

or

MT32_CONTROL.ROM and MT32_PCM.ROM

If the directory contains both CM-32L and MT-32 ROMs, DOSBox-X will use the CM-32L ROMs and emulate a Roland CM-32L.
mt32.reverse.stereo

Default: false

Possible values: true, false

Reverse stereo channels for MT-32 output
mt32.verbose

Default: false

Possible values: true, false

MT-32 debug logging
mt32.thread

Default: false

Possible values: true, false

MT-32 rendering in separate thread
mt32.chunk

Default: 16

Valid range: 2-100

Minimum milliseconds of data to render at once (min 2, max 100)

Increasing this value reduces rendering overhead which may improve performance but also increases audio lag.

Valid for rendering in separate thread only.
mt32.prebuffer

Default: 32

Valid options: 3, 4, 32, 199, 200

How many milliseconds of data to render ahead. Increasing this value may help to avoid underruns but also increases audio lag. Cannot be set less than or equal to mt32.chunk value.

Valid for rendering in separate thread only.
mt32.partials

Default: 32

Valid options: 8, 9, 32, 255, 256

The maximum number of partials playing simultaneously.
mt32.dac

Default: auto

Possible values: 0, 1, 2, 3, auto

MT-32 DAC input emulation mode. 'auto' equates to '0'.

Nice = 0 - default

    Produces samples at double the volume, without tricks. Higher quality than the real devices

Pure = 1

    Produces samples that exactly match the bits output from the emulated LA32. Nicer overdrive characteristics than the DAC hacks (it simply clips samples within range) Much less likely to overdrive than any other mode. Half the volume of any of the other modes, meaning its volume relative to the reverb output when mixed together directly will sound wrong. So, reverb level must be lowered. Perfect for developers while debugging :)

GENERATION1 = 2

    Re-orders the LA32 output bits as in early generation MT-32s (according to Wikipedia). Bit order at DAC (where each number represents the original LA32 output bit number, and XX means the bit is always low): 15 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 XX

GENERATION2 = 3

    Re-orders the LA32 output bits as in later generations (personally confirmed on my CM-32L - KG). Bit order at DAC (where each number represents the original LA32 output bit number): 15 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 14

mt32.analog

Default: 2

Valid range: 0-3

MT-32 analogue output emulation mode

Digital = 0

    Only the digital path is emulated. The output samples correspond to the digital output signal appeared at the DAC entrance. Fastest mode.

Coarse = 1

    Coarse emulation of LPF circuit. High frequencies are boosted, sample rate remains unchanged. A bit better sounding but also a bit slower.

Accurate = 2 (default)

    Finer emulation of LPF circuit. Output signal is upsampled to 48 kHz to allow emulation of audible mirror spectra above 16 kHz, which is passed through the LPF circuit without significant attenuation. Sounding is closer to the analog output from real hardware but also slower than the modes 0 and 1.

Oversampled = 3

    Same as the default mode 2 but the output signal is 2x oversampled, i.e. the output sample rate is 96 kHz. Even slower than all the other modes but better retains highest frequencies while further resampled in DOSBox-X mixer.

mt32.output gain

Default: 100

Possible range: 0-1000

Output gain of MT-32 emulation in percentage.
mt32.reverb.mode

Default: auto

Possible values: 0, 1, 2, 3, auto

MT-32 reverb mode
mt32.reverb.time

Default: 5

Possible range: 0-7

MT-32 reverb decaying time
mt32.reverb.level

Default: 3

Possible range: 0-7

MT-32 reverb level
mt32.rate

Default: 44100

Possible values: 44100, 48000, 32000, 22050, 16000, 11025, 8000, 49716

Sample rate of MT-32 emulation.
mt32.src.quality

Default: 2

Possible range: 0-3

MT-32 sample rate conversion quality

'0' is for the fastest conversion

'3' provides for the best conversion quality.

mt32.niceampramp

Default: true

Possible values: true, false

Toggles "Nice Amp Ramp" mode that improves amplitude ramp for sustaining instruments. Quick changes of volume or expression on a MIDI channel may result in amp jumps on real hardware. When "Nice Amp Ramp" mode is enabled, amp changes gradually instead. Otherwise, the emulation accuracy is preserved.

[SkybuckFlying]

OK So far DosBoxX seems to work, I went with Roland SC-55 sound font for now because that is what this game Master Of Orion uses:

https://github.com/trevor0402/SC55Soundfont/releases

So far music and sound is working well, maybe later I try MT-32 again :)

(In DosBoxX and also DosBox 0.74 it is necessary to set keyboardlayout to us otherwise keyboard keys are weird which is kinda strange)

WOW. I just had my first taste of this Roland SC-55 it sounds fantastic ! =D Probably best case scenerio for this game, the drums are a bit overwelming though but ok ! ;) =D

Hmm after having listened to Roland SC-55 for a while, I am starting to think MT-32 will still sound better, so still worth it to persuit this ! =D

[sergm]

Sorry, I have no clue what your setup is, but the rant above suggests you were trying a vanilla DOSBox with maybe mt32emu driver for Windows multimedia. If that's the case, I would also consider a possibility that the audio device simply works in the exclusive mode, so only one application may play audio at a time. If you're still interested, please provide more details on what exactly setup you want to make working.

[sergm]

Timed out.