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So, i speak in this post about moving to a Pentium processor for Voyetra Sequencer Plus http://www.mrspring.info/vbulletin/s...ull=1#post3731 LONG TIME ago huh? like 10 years?! Well, i'm still on the same PC, a DELL GX-1, taken from a skip outside a bank. I have 2 others hidden away for a rainy day, a desktop low-profile, and a full tower, both branded GX-1. I also now have some other Voyetra Interfaces in the stash - 2 V22s, and the box from a V24s, and as of last month, a VP-11, which is the Single IN/OUT Parallel (printer) port interface.
Ages ago i picked up a lovely IBM Thinkpad T42, a very well made mini laptop, USB 1.0, no Floppy, but DVD Rom, and a celeron. It's been fine on XP for a log recorder, but now i have the VP11, it's time to make it into a portable Voyetra machine.
First, i used this .iso to nuke the harddrive: http://vetusware.com/download/DOS%20...06.22/?id=9573 - it's a bootable CD-rom for installing Dos 6.22. Boot from it, F3 to quit out, then use FDISK - remove all the partitions, Non-Dos and so on, then create a nice small one, let's say 850MB, make it active and reboot again into the installer from the CD. IF You create FAT16 partition(s) with Linux or a Win98se boot .iso, you will loop forever. You MUST clean off all partitions with the FDISK that you can get to in ramdisk from the .iso above.
OK, install 6.22, then run MEMMAKER to tidy up, then get a DVD .iso of a linux distro - my one of chocie is MAGEIA - i used 2 revs back, #3 http://www.mageia.org/en/3/ and burned off a i586 (not 64 bit) dvd, booted it, installed it in some of the empty space on the harddrive, and let it settle. from there i can use the USB, LAN WiFi blah blah on the laptop, and move over all the files i needed to set up Voyetra. They were my 4.11 installation and driver intaller, which i have on Floppy still, and a copy of DOOM 2 which i have a big-box copy of since day zero
I powered the VP11 from a cheapo switchmode 12v PSU. Yes, i know the stock PSU is 9v, but it's unregulated, and can show 11-15v, so the very steady Switcher at 12.3v was good enough. Powering up the VP11 makes the LED slowly flash. When it connects to the software, it speeds up.
Then a boot to dos again, and run the VINSTALL, set her up for the VP11, and run the SEQ.bat in the \voyetra folder, and wait. I mean WAIT. much longer then on the GX-1 - like 3 minutes you are sitting there like a sploom hoping it will boot, and THEN IT DOES The thing not only works, but it's BLISTERING fast. even faster then the GX-1. I can transform 256bars of 16 channels using COMPRESS/EXPAND to 1/16th of it's time, with 16 random notes in each bar in about .3 of a second. Holy sh!t. OK, this is with SMARTDRV enabled to help with the overlay swapping, but still, the actual grunt is fuc*ing serious.
SO, it appears to work, and work well. This now means we can take Voyetra on the road properly, for the first time ever. Nice timing, as 2017 will be the 25th anniversary of the RED RECORDS/SOUND CROWD era. heh.
NOW, while i was digging out floppies, i found an interesting disk. the VAPI installer was part of the VINSTALL in Seq+ 4.11, but i found a STAND ALONE Vapi disk - version 1.53, which is good for all voyetra interfaces, including with the WINDOWS of the day. I'll quote the README here below, and attach the .zip of the package. Why am i doing this, when places like www.oldschooldaw.com can hook you up with disks and drivers? Because i have never seen a standalone rev of drivers this advanced for voyetra hardware anywhere else. Fairly sure this was the disk shipped with one of the very last V22 we bought - we had 4 of them in the 90's - so enjoy that, and roll-on getting your Voyetra Sequencer to work with IRL Voyetra hardware.
Ages ago i picked up a lovely IBM Thinkpad T42, a very well made mini laptop, USB 1.0, no Floppy, but DVD Rom, and a celeron. It's been fine on XP for a log recorder, but now i have the VP11, it's time to make it into a portable Voyetra machine.
First, i used this .iso to nuke the harddrive: http://vetusware.com/download/DOS%20...06.22/?id=9573 - it's a bootable CD-rom for installing Dos 6.22. Boot from it, F3 to quit out, then use FDISK - remove all the partitions, Non-Dos and so on, then create a nice small one, let's say 850MB, make it active and reboot again into the installer from the CD. IF You create FAT16 partition(s) with Linux or a Win98se boot .iso, you will loop forever. You MUST clean off all partitions with the FDISK that you can get to in ramdisk from the .iso above.
OK, install 6.22, then run MEMMAKER to tidy up, then get a DVD .iso of a linux distro - my one of chocie is MAGEIA - i used 2 revs back, #3 http://www.mageia.org/en/3/ and burned off a i586 (not 64 bit) dvd, booted it, installed it in some of the empty space on the harddrive, and let it settle. from there i can use the USB, LAN WiFi blah blah on the laptop, and move over all the files i needed to set up Voyetra. They were my 4.11 installation and driver intaller, which i have on Floppy still, and a copy of DOOM 2 which i have a big-box copy of since day zero
I powered the VP11 from a cheapo switchmode 12v PSU. Yes, i know the stock PSU is 9v, but it's unregulated, and can show 11-15v, so the very steady Switcher at 12.3v was good enough. Powering up the VP11 makes the LED slowly flash. When it connects to the software, it speeds up.
Then a boot to dos again, and run the VINSTALL, set her up for the VP11, and run the SEQ.bat in the \voyetra folder, and wait. I mean WAIT. much longer then on the GX-1 - like 3 minutes you are sitting there like a sploom hoping it will boot, and THEN IT DOES
The thing not only works, but it's BLISTERING fast. even faster then the GX-1. I can transform 256bars of 16 channels using COMPRESS/EXPAND to 1/16th of it's time, with 16 random notes in each bar in about .3 of a second. Holy sh!t. OK, this is with SMARTDRV enabled to help with the overlay swapping, but still, the actual grunt is fuc*ing serious. SO, it appears to work, and work well. This now means we can take Voyetra on the road properly, for the first time ever. Nice timing, as 2017 will be the 25th anniversary of the RED RECORDS/SOUND CROWD era. heh.
NOW, while i was digging out floppies, i found an interesting disk. the VAPI installer was part of the VINSTALL in Seq+ 4.11, but i found a STAND ALONE Vapi disk - version 1.53, which is good for all voyetra interfaces, including with the WINDOWS of the day. I'll quote the README here below, and attach the .zip of the package. Why am i doing this, when places like www.oldschooldaw.com can hook you up with disks and drivers? Because i have never seen a standalone rev of drivers this advanced for voyetra hardware anywhere else. Fairly sure this was the disk shipped with one of the very last V22 we bought - we had 4 of them in the 90's - so enjoy that, and roll-on getting your Voyetra Sequencer to work with IRL Voyetra hardware.
Code:
README file for Voyetra V-Series driver disk: ******** Notes for DOS users ******** 1) You can now use the additional MIDI output ports on your V-22 or V-24s as a secondary MIDI interface along with any other VAPI-supported MIDI interface. For example, you could use 2 V-24s cards to get 8 outs, or a V-22 with a Sound Blaster to get three outs. To get this to work with Sequencer Plus, you must obtain SP version 4.11 or higher, which will have an install explicitly for this. 2) If you are using the VP-11 on a Tandy 1800 HD, you must edit your DRIVER.BAT file to pass the /tn option to VAPIVP11. Load DRIVER.BAT into your editor, and change the line that says something like "vapivp11 /lpt:n %1 %2" to "vapivp11 /tn /lpt:n %1 %2". For any laptop where VAPIVP11 loads but you have trouble getting MIDI input, this /tn option may be worth trying. So far, the Tandy 1800 is the only computer we have found that requires this. 3) DOSDRIV.EXE. Run this file if you wish to install the DOS drivers (vapi). This should only be run if your DOS software didn't come with a driver for your MIDI interface, or if you are having problems with the driver that came with your software and want to try a more recent one. In most cases your DOS software will have come with the correct driver. Your interface manual may have more on this subject. ******** Notes for Windows users ******** 1) Some of the Setup dialog boxes have been changed slightly, so they won't match the illustrations in the documentation exactly. For the V-22 and V-24s, the main Setup box has a new field added: "Rx Buffer". The VP-11's Custom Config dialog box has a new field: "Persist". These will be explained below. 2) "Rx Buffer" setting for the V-22 and V-24s. This edit control lets you adjust the size of the MIDI Input buffer for best performance. Previously this could only be changed by editing the SYSTEM.INI file. If you are having difficulty uploading large system exclusive blocks, you may want to try increasing this value, up to 30K or so. 3) "Persist" setting for the VP-11. If you are having trouble uploading sysex information in 386 Enhanced mode, try increasing this value to 200 or so. If you are running on a fast computer in Standard mode, you can get slightly better performance by DECREASING the Persist setting a smaller number (i.e.: 1). 4) For the V-24s and V-22, you may now use more than one interface in your computer. Here is how to install Windows drivers for two V-24s cards: a) Install one V-24s or V-22 card and get it working properly with Windows. Follow the directions that came with the interface. If you already have one working, go to the next step. b) Install the second card in your computer. It must be set to different interrupts and I/O addresses than the first one. Refer to the V-24s/V-22 manual for instructions on how to do this. Note: it may be difficult to find two interrupts to install two V-24s/V-22 cards such that they don't conflict with some other peripheral in your system. As far as i/o addresses are concerned, we suggest you first try putting the secondary V-24s at $310. If you have an Ethernet card at $310, try $230. c) Make sure that the first interface is still working correctly. If not, the second one may not be set to a different irq or i/o address. Also at this point you might want to make sure that other peripherals in your system are still working. In particular, you might want to test any FAX/modems, modems, serial ports and mice that you have. d) Now install the driver for the second V-24s. This will be similar to the way you installed the driver for the first one, with the following important exception: when Windows displays the "Install Driver" dialog box, instead of entering "A:\" or "B:\", you must enter "A:\multi" or "B:\multi". If you followed the above procedure correctly, you will be presented with a list box containing a number of drivers. Choose "Voyetra V-22 Midi card #2" or "Voyetra V-24s MIDI Card #2" as necessary. When you are presented with the Setup box, select the address and interrupt of the secondary card. Now everything should be running smoothly. You will now have to configure your MIDI software to access the new MIDI Output ports you have just installed. For example, if you installed a second V-24s, when you open the MIDI driver configuration window in your Windows sequencer, you will now be presented with 8 output ports, four inputs and two SMPTE readers from your two V-24s cards, plus whatever other drivers you may have installed! At this point, the Media Player and other multimedia applications that use the MIDI Mapper won't send data to the second V-24s. This is probably how you will want to leave it, since there aren't many uses for multiple ports with the MIDI Mapper. If you feel like experimenting, go ahead! Just fire-up the MIDI Mapper applet from the Control Panel.
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