Orchestra90 now for the Dragon

[pser1]

Hello,
back again with some news ...

After some brainstorming with Stewart Orchard, we have got to reduce the 'needed areas' by the modified Orchestra90
so that now it can run without problems as a ROM, even in the Dragon 32 (no more need to switch to MAP1)

- You can burn the ROMs on a bank of a CoCo-SDC (from Ed Snider), see:
https://sites.google.com/site/thezippst ... s/coco-sdc

- If you have a Tandy MPI or a Y-Cable, you can also burn the ROMs into any of the banks of Roland Schweiger's (rolo) Multicartridge modules, see:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5366

- In case you don't have floppies and want to use tape to load/save scores, you can use Rolo's modules without the MPI / Y-cable too.

- If you dare soldering a bit (one or two wires), you could modify any floppy controller so that it can address 16k range and burn a 16k ROM.
The floppies will work nicely despite there is no DOS installed, of course only for the Orchestra program that contains its own mini-DOS.
You could say you have built your own Orchestra cartridge

If your machine has 64k and don't want to bother flashing or burning ROMs you can use the VDK that installs the ROMs into MAP1 without any further
requirements. Simply use this VDK file: "OR90V3R5 - Dragon - ROM with installer into MAP1.VDK"
Use program ORCDDAC.BAS to play via internal Dragon DAC
Use program ORCCART.BAS to play via the Orchestra Cartridge (MPI or Y-cable)

The ones that prefer to install it in the CoCo-SDC may use this file: "OR90V3R5 - D32 - ROMs - SDC-Updater (Both versions).VDK"
To install the version for the real Orchestra CARTRIDGE, you need to use the basic program: "INSCART.BAS"
If you want to install the version that uses the Dragon Internal DAC instead, then use the basic program: "INSOR90.BAS"

have a nice listening!
cheers
pere

EDIT: The attached file has been deleted due to errors. You will find a corrected version (ORC90V3R6) at the end of this thread

Ps Further info on that project could be found here:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5509

[sorchard]

I just want to say that Pere has done an amazing job converting the Orchestra cart for the Dragon. He's done 99.99% of the work including the tough task of writing new DOS routines, integrating them with the existing code plus testing & debugging. It's impressive stuff!

[pser1]

Hi Stew,
thanks for your kind words.
But you cannot forget the beginning of the project when only you and Tony were working on it
on different subjects and then we began to talk about the possibility to re-code all the DOS accesses
at low level using the Dragon DOS data structures.
Without your unvaluable pointers I wouldn't have been able to do those first steps.
Your ideas on every hardware related part of the project have been vital!
Say interrupts (FIRQ, NMI), printer control ...
It's been a pleasure to collaborate with you and with Tony.

And there is still a small project as a side-product of Orchestra that we have talked about
a lot of times ... maybe we should give it a try

cheers
pere

[Bosco]

Great job, everyone involved!

Always nice to see new projects like this.

[tjewell]

I'll second Stew's comments - well done Pere, you've done the lion's share here, and it's been a pleasure working with both of you. I'll take the blame for first bringing up the subject last year! So now I'm looking at an old article about Dragon IO, and the blank lab board I bought off Rolo a while back, and wondering if I can build a new, Orch-90 compatible sound card from scratch ...

All I need to do now is work out how I can retire early and possibly create 30 hour days too ...

Tony

[Rolo]

Yeah, a new rom for the cartridge Great work! Thanks a lot! You are putting so much effort into this platform.
Indeed, I've been thinking quite some time, whether I should make a small batch of reproduction boards of the Orchestra 90CC.
Why didn't I do it?
1. No time.
2. Unresolved copyright situation, even if the circuitry is quite obvious.
3. There are some schematics out there for a couple of enhanced Orchestra 90 cartridges, which should be evaluated before making pcbs. Brings me back to point #1.

I've never checked, if that cart is simply obtainable on ebay, which would even be easier.
And how many of those cartridges really would be needed?
I need this 30 hour day, too, please. If somebody discovers the secret...

[tjewell]

30 hour day? I reckon that if we could get everyone in the world to run on the spot in the opposite direction to the world's spin, we might just be able to slow down its rotation. Not only could be get a 30 hour day, I'd be 17% lighter, so win-win!

Slightly more seriously, I don't think we'd need an exact clone of the Orchestra cart - 'just' a DAC and a bit of audio circuitry, and perhaps a ROM slot. Given how much Pere and Stew know about that code now, I suspect there would be no problem building a compatible version of the software - but equally, I think there would be uses for a board like this beyond just emulating the Orch-90. Give us two channels of DAC, and the second could be used to drive a voltage controlled filter - and then we're close to making a single channel Fairlight sampler (which, if I remember rightly, is 6809 based and runs OS/9). But I'm off into the land of fantasy here! Right now, I'm running on the spot, trying to slow the world down, come join me!

Cheers, Tony

[pser1]

Hello,
I have deleted previously posted version as I have found some flaws when using the Write
Command on big disks heavily loaded (160 scores in each one), that's to say the maximum
accepted by Dragon Data DOS system.

I post here the new version ORCv3r7 ... it is still a beta version, needs a lot of extra testing.
You will find two VDK files:
- one to be used on any 64k machine that installs the program in ROM but in MAP1.
- the other will help you to flash a bank on the CoCo-SDC

cheers
pere

EDIT: As I have pushed a new version, that one is deleted to avoid confusion

[pser1]

Hello,
after some more testing I found that commands like 'G' and 'M' in the Dragon version have a different behaviour than the
same ones on the CoCo.
I had modified the 'G' command so that it could play all the files in a disk, but only once, without rewinding to the beginning.
Somehow this affected the 'M' command too till the extent that it didn't repeat by going back to the beginning ...
Besides, due to my mods, the command 'G' did not support lists.

I have been working on a new version that fully behaves like the original CoCo version, so now you can write:
G song1 song2 song3
And you will listen these three scores once
G * will load the next song, score it and after playing it, will stop
M * will play all of the songs and cycle back forever.

As I want to listen to all of the songs but only once, I have added a new command: 'Y' that just accepts a parameter: '*', so issuing
Y *
It will play all the songs of the disk one time.

The zip I am including here contains two VDK files, one to install it on a Dragon64 and the other to flash a CoCo-SDC bank
In both VDKs you will find the internal DAC version as well as the real cartridge version

cheers
pere

ZOrchestra90-Dragon v3s6.zip

(56.68 KiB) Downloaded 367 times

[pser1]

Hello,
at the end of this post you will find a zip containing the CoCo Orchestra manual so that you could read and learn more about that program.
Just to remember to the new users, there are some differences and a few commands added to the Dragon version that didn't exist on the CoCo one.

The differences are
- The program starts in Disc mode, instead of Cassette mode
- If you press Shift+Enter on the Credits screen, a flag is set to allow the user play the scores at double speed with the 'F' key
- The 'D' (dir) command has changed to show the extension and protected flag.
It accepts wildcards and will show only the files that meet the entered conditions: D MU*.M* would be a valid command
The directory will page the found results. Any key you press will show next page of scores. Pressing BREAK will quit 'D' command but without
erasing the last page, to help entering the right filename.
- The file system behaves like the Dragon Data system, I mean it keeps a backup copy of any file if you save something with a name that already
exists in the disk.
W SONG1 will create a SONG1.BAK if a previous SONG1.ORC existed

The different or new commands are
1) F (fast) plays the score at double speed (losing video, of course)
2) H will show a screen with the accepted commands
3) K will kill any NAME.EXT you enter as parameter
4) X OLDNAME NEWNAME --- will rename the file OLDNAME.ORC to NEWNAME.ORC
Remember that the Dragon version accepts any extension, so you could use different termination at will.
X SONG1 SONG1.RCK --- will rename SONG1.ORC to SONG1.RCK
5) Y * will play all the scores on a disk one time
6) > SONGNAME equals the PROTECT ON on the Dragon Data DOS. The protected files show an inverted 'P' in the 'D' command
7) < SONGNAME --- equals the PROTECT OFF on the Dragon Data DOS

cheers
pere

Orchestra-90 CC (26-3143) Stereo Music Synthesizer (1983)(Software Affair).zip

(5.15 MiB) Downloaded 368 times