A new ESS ISA Soundcard is coming from the PC MIDI team (Keropi & Marmes) who brought you the successful Orpheus, PC MIDI MPU, MK8330, Goldlib and other computer sound and utility cards. This new card is called the MK1869. Is fresh off the heels of the popular Orpheus II soundcard and yet again offers a new and unique way to enjoy classic PC gaming sound and music. The MK1869 name comes from the use of the ESS 1869 sound chip. Which serves as the main sound driver for this card.
ESS short for (Electronic Speech Sound) was a company known for its quality sound chips during the early and mid 90s. Largely seen as an alternative to Yamaha’s YMF262 OPL3 sound chip. The ESS’s OPL3 compatible chips were noted as a worthy competitor and great alternative option. In fact many of these sound chips were integrated into computer makes like Compaq’s Presario line of which this author’s ’94 CDTV 520 had and can attest to how well they sound.
For additional context and an example for those more familiar with the console or arcade space. Yamaha’s YMF262 aka OPL3 is a cousin to the Yamaha’s YM2612 aka OPN2 (SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive) and YM2610 aka OPNB (Neo Geo Arcade) sound chips. These all use Frequency Modulation (FM) to produce their music, and for PC users using an OPL3 compatible chip. The music data is received via MIDI and translated by the program or game to be outputted via FM from these chips.
ESS offered an alternative sound that many accept as a replacement to Yamaha’s, and ESS chips produced after the ES688 line allowed for two modes. These modes were known as Legacy and Native. Where Legacy is fully backwards compatible with Yamaha’s OPL3. Native mode or “ESFM” allows for more FM mapping and a higher degree of complexity in the games that supported this. However this is not the only music mode that is coming with the MK1869. A second ESS audio chip is also being bundled on this card. A wavetable based chip known as the ES690 will also be paired to allow for greater music capabilities.
For even greater context for our console familiar readers. The ES690 is similar to the Super Nintendo where it is a wavetable sample based music playback system. This means digital samples are loaded from a set memory amount and oscillated to create sounds and music. The size of the ES690 memory is set to 1MB in this project. It will not compare well to an external MIDI module like the Roland SC-55 or Yamaha MU80, but it still provides a decent step up for those wanting a General MIDI option above FM output.
This card is planned to have some further options and capabilities with an overall cheaper price tag than previous projects.
Here is an excerpt from Keropi on VOGONS Forums about their new card:
MK 1869 is a full ESS soundcard – both soundchip and onboard GM wavetable
– ES1869 offers SB/SBPRO compatibility under DOS and up to 48khz under windows , SB-ADPCM support, ESFM integrated OPL3-compatible
– E690 is a wavetable GM chip with 1mb of rom (chorus/reverb fx, 44.1khz/16bit output, 32 polyphony)
– ISA 16bit passthrough for expansion boards with midi/audio/usb i/o connector for integration
– and as always all on a 4-layer PCB for the best possible result
The MK1869 is meant to be an affordable newly made card with great feature set and most importantly great results.
The ESS sound chips need no introduction IMHO, they offer great SB PRO compatibility, ESFM is one of the best OPL3 replacements and the ES690 wavetable chip offers great results with every GM game out there.
The ISA expansion and I/O header is meant to be for things like the PCMIDI addon – only this time we will also provide specs and files so anyone willing will be able to design an addon for this card and integrate it on the carrier board as both midi and audio i/o are now present.
There is a jumper to disable the onboard ES690 wavetable and as always a jumper block for midi routing so you get to chose which MPU controls each individual port (wavetable, gameport, midi out jack and midi-in on gameport).
notes:
- The USB connector on the board is meant to be activated with an expansion board, as-is it only provides power.
- The unpopulated U5 space is meant for the ES692 chip – same as the one used on the serdashop e-wave wt board.
- We know that there is a 2MB rom bank for the ES690 and it is possible to use it on the MK1869 but after testing we found that it does not sound as good as the 1MB bank – weird but true. No idea why this (mainly suffers from balancing issues) but perhaps it’s use-case scenario was different than gaming.
The PC MIDI team has this card currently as a Work in Progress and what is being shown is the second prototype. They hope to begin producing limited numbers of these cards after they wrap of the last of the red Orpheus II cards. Though it should be stated that with many of these projects. Availability and pricing often come down to quantity of parts that are available for sourcing to make these projects a reality. More links below.
LINKS:
PC MIDI Site | https://pcmidi.eu/mk1869.html
VOGONS Post | https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=102417