What is it?

The world's first publicly available modular MSX sound card, fully supporting Y8950, YM3526, YM3812, YMF262, YMF289
It can run correctly under MSXVGMPlay.

Why did you make it?

I have thousands of Yamaha sound chips of various models, so I want to make them sound. Many retro computer enthusiasts have a preference for real sound chips, so many people will like these.
The existing OPL4 and Y8950 sound cards are too rare and expensive, but I can provide a stable supply. I made an OPL4 sound card a long time ago, but I had difficulty finding reliable chips, so the project could not move forward. Until I plucked up the courage to implement the OPL3 sound card schematic design from msxpro.com, I succeeded. In fact, MSX--Audio sound cards are also difficult to buy, but if you only use it to play music, then you don’t need a complex hardware structure like Audio Wave or FS-CA1. I happen to have a dozen Y8950 chips and suitable 256kb DRAM, so let’s make music.
This project must rely on my open source modular sound card project: Project RE:Birth 2nd. All sound card designs are open source, which also shows that the circuit of MSX sound card is not as complicated as imagined.

What makes it special?

It uses only a single 5V power supply, no ±12V, so it is suitable for all MSX, including various clones and single-chip MSX. In order to run VGMPlay to play VGM or VGZ, you need MSX-DOS2 or above, and as much extended memory as possible.
This sound card consists of two parts, first is the MSX to RE2 conversion cartridge, which contains the MSX-Audio and Moonsound compatible circuit designed by Leo, which guarantees the compatibility of the entire OPL series of music chips.
Secondly, the RE:Birth sound card, currently it is compatible with RE2-Y8950 (MSX-Audio), RE2-YM3526/3812 (OPL1/2), RE2--YMF262 (OPL3), RE2-YMF289 (OPL3-L), when you use VGMPlay, Y8950 will be recognized as MSX-Audio and can play ADPCM normally. But when you use YM3812/3526, it will be recognized as OPL3, so you can use two OPL2 to get the same number of channels as OPL3.
If you use 1ChipMSX clone, then I recommend you to use VGMPlay 1.2 version, because 1.3 and 1.4 versions are very slow when playing OPL2/3 tracks, it is a timer problem, I have reported this bug to laurence.
When using VGMPLAY, Note that this cartridge is probably not compatible with MSX TurboR, which is Panasonic A1-ST and A1-GT. It is compatible with MSX1/2/2+/1ChipMSX/SM-X, and I have tested it.
When using mami-vsif you can choose the MSX-Audio or OPL3 option, this supports the full range of MSX including TurboR, but you need to reduce the ftdi clock to 25% and use the shortest possible usb cable.