pc-sound-legacy
PC-VGA-LEGACY: PCI-VGA Benchmark with Doom
updated
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
Hello Friends, today we listen to the mk2 release of the Beepblaster, now featuring two ATMEGA ICs for Stereo-sound! And -of course- I choose its characteristic Beep-Mode for this demonstration.
The Beepblaster is not a wavetable-module in a traditional way- because it has no stored wave samples. As far as I have understood the firmware translate GM-signals to the PWM-outputs in a clever way to create the sound instead. Please visit the Vogons thread for more informations here:
vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=89000
Playlist:
00:00 Doom II Map 25 (Adrian's Asleep)
01:56 Duke Nukem 3D Intro (Grabbag)
04:00 Duke Nukem II Level 1
06:03 Warcraft II - Orc II
10:40 Wolfenstein 3D - E1M1
11:56 System Shock - Energy Systems
15:11 R.O.T.T. - Evyn Rude
Listen - enjoy - like - subscribe
Ernie
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
The card is Adlib / OPL2 compatible, not OPL3. But the sound-quality is just great, isn`t it?
For the demonstration I chose two tracks from Rise of the Triad, one from Pushover and one from Whale's Voyage. You can find more informations to the Games and the music / composers on mobygames.
Playlist:
00:00 R.O.T.T. - Watz Next
01:42 R.O.T.T. - Cccool
03:38 Pushover
06:28 Whales Voyage
Listen - enjoy - like - subscribe
Ernie
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
This video is about the Terratec Profimedia soundcard that was send to me for a review by Paddy. So special thanks go out and of course you'll get the card right back after this review. Thanks!
Paddy also replaced a few bad capacitors
and I must say the the output quality of this card is just awesome. Theres absolutely no noticeable noise even at higher volume and the signal to noise ratio
is just great. Midia made a great card here with obviously well chosen components and well designed PCB.
The card is Adlib compatible and sounds like orgiginal Yamaha OPL2 to me but I can't spot the FM IC. Maybe its the MPower 202 containing a copy of the Yamaha.
I`ll demonstrate the FM capability in the next video. For now, we focus on this proprietary wavetable module made by dream.
Here is the Playlist if you want to jump to your track of choice:
00:00 Talk about the card
03:15 Duke Nukem 3D - Grabbag
04:19 Warcraft II - Ork II
06:38 Doom 2 - Running from Evil
10:26 Doom 2 - Into Sandy's City
15:04 Theme Hospital - Six's and Seven`s
18:41 TSOMI - Intro
20:18 Amberstar - High Seas
22:18 Ultima VI - Stone
24:50 Descent Track 40
Let me know in the comments what you think about this card and if you like the Wavetable or not.
Ernie
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
Doom II was developed by id Software and released for MS-DOS in 1994 by GT Interactive. The Music is composed by Robert Prince.
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Ernie - PC-SOUND-LEGACY
Playlist:
00:00 Intro
00:17 Running From Evil
04:07 Intermission Music
06:58 The Healer Stalks
11:47 Countdown To Death
15:37 Between Levels
18:12 Doom
22:28 In The Dark
29:22 Shawn's Got The Shotgun
33:39 The Dave D. Taylor Blues
38:36 Into Sandy's City
43:15 The Deamon's Dead
47:35 Waiting For Romero To Play
52:40 Message For The Archvile
57:17 Bye Bye American Pie
58:57 Adrian's Asleep
01:00:53 Getting Too Tense
01:05:31 Opening To Hell
01:10:08 Evil Incarnate
01:11:21 The Ultimate Challenge
01:12:40 Endgame Music
It's been a while that I purchased the unit 2nd hand. It gains my attention because it was offered as original packed. I planned to make an unboxing but then put it away for two years or so. Until today :-)
For demonstration I choose a catchy tune from de DOS-Version of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo - Vega's Theme.
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
Listen - Enjoy - Like - Subscribe
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
00:00 Ben - Far Home
02:02 Dalezy - Am Cmtec
04:34 Encore - Ab Julia
06:29 Kkomaa - Dwrrcslo
08:47 Kkomaa - East Desert
10:34 Hannes Seifert - The Whales Voyage - Whales Scream
(All tunes can be found on the Adlib Tracker 2 directories)
Tracklist:
00:00 Doom II Entryway (Composed By Robert Prince)
03:52 Sniplet of: Descent - Menu Music
04:50 Adlib Tracker 2 - Diode Milliampere - Samsara
08:10 The Clou! Track 1 (Composed by Hannes Seifert)
10:46 The Clou! Track2 (Composed by Hannes Seifert)
13:06 The Whales Voyage (Composed by Hannes Seifert)
Listen - Enjoy - Like - Subscribe
Ernie
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
The Music is composed by Robert Prince
00:00 On The Range
01:10 He's Back
03:12 I Wish This Game Would Never End
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Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
Music is from the MS-DOS Game "Rise Of The Triad".
Music is composed by Lee Jackson and Robert Prince
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Ernie
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
You can join the challenge as well - More Informations can be found here:
youtube.com/@TechAmbr
youtu.be/kQiSehbTZYo?si=_18tc40e4siFdk2i
Please note:
At 02:35 I wrote the release date of the Xeon by mistake - of course it is not 2023 but 2013!
As the RAM-Modules were different and I didn`t like that, I exchanged them to two identical modules later on - but for the Benchmark I used the RAM as shown in the beginning.
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
06:07 Church Preset
10:55 Disco Preset
15:44 Hall-1 Preset
20:32 Hall-2 Preset
25:17 Max Bass (Ymmersion 0 Bass 6 Treble 3)
30:09 Medium everything (Y3 B3 T3)
34:57 Comparison: Reference Recording (Orpheus 1 YMF289 OPL3-FM vs. OPL3SAx Max Ymmersion (Y7 B0 T0)
The music for this demonstration is from the PC-Game "Doom II - Hell on Earth" ; developed by ID-Software and published by GT Interactive in 1994. Music is composed by Robert (Bobby) Prince.
00:00 Encore - fm_house
03:53 Nula - Onward
Ernie
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
For this demonstration I choose the "Readme"-track and "Into Sandy's City" from Doom II as I do in many other videos for comparison.
Listen - enjoy - like - subscribe
Ernie
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
You can build your own hat if you like it - all the informations needed are available at the github project page:
github.com/chrisdeadman/usb-to-ps2-gameport-hat
You like to join the discussion at Vogons?
vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=99325&p=1241937&hilit=gameport%20hat#p1241937
Cheers,
Ernie
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
today I showcase the Terratec TT801 playing some great chiptunes from Maktone. The mod-files were played thru Winamp on my Windows 98SE machine. I made the recordings last year and can't say for sure if I recorded via line-out or if I was using the Winamp diskwriter, but I realy love these tunes and want to share them with you, even if this time it is neither FM nor Midi. But for me, Tracker-Music deserves a place in the history of PC music as well.
What do you think, and do you like Maktone or Chiptunes in general?
Then let me know in the comments.
You'll find (Maktone) mod-files on the modarchive or other scene related pages.
Playlist:
00:00 Class04
02:38 Origin Cracktro
05:16 2KAD
07:54 Be Steel My Heart
10:07 Class Forever!
13:39 Die Trachtenpuppe
16:46 S.A.E. Broken Links
19:45 Sunset in the Wilds
22:13 Template of Death
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Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
(To playback the music I use SBVGM 1.42 for DOS)
"Pumpkin Adventure 3: The Hunt for the Unknown" was developed by Umax and released in 1995 by Sunrise Foundation for the MSX2.
Music is composed by Hans Cnossen.
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Ernie
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
The synth is made by Dream (located in France) for Doepher as we can see on the ICs and PCB-marking. Dream made wavetable synths for soundcards and wavetable boards, and is one of the few companys from that era that are still in business They even produce wavetable-ICs today - for Serdaco's Dreamblaster series as an example. For demonstration I chose the title theme from the PC-Game "Jagged Alliance". I made some more records from Tyrian and Doom II to upload next time.
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Ernie
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
Playlist:
00:00 Opening
02:08 Security
05:25 Elevator
06:22 Game Options
06:54 Medical Suites
08:55 Executive Quarters
11:24 Living Quarters
13:54 Flight Groves
16:51 Science and Research
19:48 Energy Systems
22:39 Flight Groves (Beta)
24:12 Cyberspace Sequences
27:36 Closing
28:46 Dead
29:07 Maintanence
30:18 Bridge
33:31 Closing (Remix)
System Shock is a PC first person scifi-shooter,
released in1994 (DOS) and published by Electronic Arts, Inc. & Dong Seo Interactive. It was developed by Looking Glass Technologies, Inc.
The Soundtrack is composed by Greg LoPiccolo & Tim Ries
LISTEN - ENJOY - LIKE - SUBSCRIBE
Ernie
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
Of couse, a hardware module has one big advantage - you can feed it with any midi data without the need of a PC running the softsynth, and you can connect it via midi-cable to enjoy midi-music in your favourite DOS-games. But in windows?
I choose a XG-midi file from the Yamaha XG midi collection for this comparison - Matrix YRE97. It is complex and therefore a great demonstration of Yamahas EXtended General Midi (XG).
MY conclusion - I'm quite impressed by the SYXG - you could get it basically for free and it sucan compete with its hardware-counterpart, the MU50 module. Do you agree with that?
Listen - enjoy - like - subscribe
Ernie
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
Unreal was released in 1998 by GT Interactive and developed by Epic Megagames for Windows and Macintosh. Paired with a Pentium 2 and a Voodoo graphics accellerator it was just awesome!
In-Game-Music was composed by: Alexander Brandon ; Andrew G. Sega : Michiel van den Bos
Listen - Enjoy - like - subscribe
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
when I made some comparison recordings with the different OPL3-clones, I noticed that some of them have problems with this particular track. If you can confirm this or if the surround.fmk plays fine with your clone on adlib tracker 2, please let me know in the comments. surround.fmk is located in the mod-folder in the AT2 installation file package.
00:00 is Analog Devices FM
00:55 is Opti FM
01:49 is Crystal F;
02:44 is the original, Yamaha YMF262 OPL3 FM
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
this is the Orpheus II playing some of my favourite Adlib Tracker II music.
If you want to learn more about the Orpheus II please see thr vog8ns thread:
vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=88957&hilit=orpheus+ii+thread
And of course the developer's homepage with further informations:
http://pcmidi.eu/orpheus2.html
Special thanks to Leo aka. Keropi who kindly provides the card and answers all my questions.
Playlist:
00:00 High-Fly
02:44 Mouse
05:54 Surround
10:04 Alloyrun
These and many more music files are included in the Adlib Tracker II MOD directory. I highly reccomend to check them out, there are many great tunes to push your OPL3-FM to its limits.
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
here are two more classic FM tunes from Dune & Descent, played by the Orpheus II soundcard (Yamaha YMF262 OPL3 FM)
If you want to learn more about the Orpheus II I highly reccomend the Vogons-thread:
vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=88957&hilit=orpheus+ii+thread
And of course the developer's page with more informations:
http://pcmidi.eu/orpheus2.html
Special thanks to Leo aka. Keropi who kindly provides the card and answers all my questions.
Playlist:
00:00 Dune - Wake Up
03:35 Descent - Level 1
(Further informations regarding developers, release dates and composers of this games-music can be found on mobygames and other sources)
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
as announced here's part #2 of the Alloyrun FM-comparison, playing each card for 3 seconds.
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
this is my contribution to @TechAmbr #CheapPCChallenge2023
In this video i demonstrate the parts that I got within this price-range, running the benchmarks Amber called for, presenting the results, and of course: answering thee question, if it an run Dolphin to emulate GameCube.
As it is winter time, I chose a snowoarding game, 1080 Avalanche for that purpose.
With the benchmarks I chose Stéphane Picq's Dune soundtrack as music, played by the Orpheus II soundcard featuring a genuine Yamaha YMF262 OPL3 FM.
I hope you like it and I can encourage you to build your own cheap PC - because even with a 10 yrs. old CPU and a cheap GPU you can do whatever you want very well - office, light gaming, retro-gaming, emulation ... Its just great, isn't it?
And now, have a great christmals-hollidays with your beloved ones.
Thanks for supporting my channel.
All the best wishes to you.
Ernie
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
To skip to the FM of choice please use the Playlist:
00:38 Yamaha YMF262-M OPL3-FM (The Original)
02:32 Avance Logic ALS-FM
04:14 Analog Devices AD-FM
05:42 CMI FM
07:19 Creatvice Labs Quadratic Modulation (CQM-FM)
08:52 Cirrus Logic Crystal-FM
10:23 Dream S.A.S Dream-FM
12:01 Electronic Speech Systems ESS-FM
13:38 OPTi Technologies OPTi-FM
All cards were set to line-out if possible to prevent noise from amplifier circuit and optimized mixer-settings (mute unused inputs). There's no post-processing expect normalization to -0.5db to level the volumes.
Alloyrun.rad by Void is available in the Adlib Tracker II (module folder)
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Ernie, PC-SOUND-LEGACY
Let me know in the comments if you can accept CQM as a legit competitor or not. I reccomend using headphones to hear the slight differences. (At the Tyrian music, the hi-hats as an exmple)
Listen - enjoy - like - subscribe
Ernie
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
the Vibra 16 is the low-budget variant of the famous Soundblaster 16. It features an internal OPL3 FM synthesizer clone called CQM which I demonstrate with the following games music:
00:00 Gabriel Knight
02:45 Tyrian
04:13 The Secret of Monkey Island
05:47 Amberstar
The card has a low noise floor and a good sound quality in my opinion. Sadly creative does not add a wavetable-header so for General Midi music you need an external module. The Vibra was very common and therefore is available and cheap on the 2nd hand marked.
Regarding the OPL3-clone, please let me know in the comments if you like it or not. For me it is a good alternative to the original - not as good as ESS FM but better than Crystal-FM.
Cheers
Ernie
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
I choose the Master Boomer Soundblaster-clone for this record because it has nice and clear sound, and it is period-correct. The game don't like fast CPU and struggles even on a 486 machine - so you need to push the turbo-button or to disable cpu cache in order to get it running. Then, it is a lot of fun! (After the footage of the soundcard there's also some gameplay-caputring)
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
in this video I'll showcase the Orpheus II, a brandnew ISA-soundcard made of new-old-stock-parts. (PCB-design, development and build is made by Leo and Edro in 2023).
The card features a genuine Yamaha YMF-262 OPL3 FM-synthesizer IC, a high quality 4-layer PCB as well as a high quality analog audio section with hifi-grade Nichicon-capacitors. The Orpheus II also provides PC-MIDI interface for Intelligent MPU-401 support and a wavetable-header. The card is fully compatible to Adlib (OPL2), Soundblaster Pro (OPL3), Windows Sound System - and in this case - which is worth a seperate video - Gravis Ultrasound via AMD Interwave IC. (For the Ultrasound functionallity there's a 72Pin memory slot, best with single-sided modules up to 16 MB). The developers recently also released a LT-version without the interwave-part.
If you want to learn more about the Orpheus II I highly reccomend the Vogons-thread:
vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=88957
And of course the developer's homepage with all the specs, drivers, FAQs and possibility to place your order:
http://pcmidi.eu/orpheus2.html
Special thanks to Leo aka. Keropi who kindly provides the card and answers all my questions.
Playlist:
00:00 Tyrian
02:06 Alone In the Dark
04:31 Monkey Island
06:57 Lemmings
08:44 Doom
10:22 Rise of the triad
12:13 Duke Nukem II
13:19 Dune
19:11 Commander Keen 4
20:06 Descent (OPL3)
Listen - enjoy - like - subscribe
(Further informations regarding developers, release dates and composers of this games-music can be found on mobygames and other sources)
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
Review of the Mozart-Card from Phil:
youtu.be/JDBtInsJCOc?si=7Xw14h42bFErDUWO
00:00 Track 1 is from Doom
01:41 is from Theme Hospital, its called "On the mend"
Ernie, PC-SOUND-LEGACY
====
Refering the Samsung Datasheet:
The ks0174-1M is a 1M-byte sample ROM for the KS0164 QmniWave. The ROM utilies a word mode 524, 288x16 bit organization (8M-bit). .
It support General MIDI(GM). MT-32, and a large portion of General Sound (GS) sample sets. The ROMs are fabricated using a fully static silicon gate CMOS process technology.
The ROM contains various data for the KS0164 waverable synthesizer. All of the samples were custom created by recording instruments and sounds using a digital audio tape (DAT) recorder. After a ratheer elaborate process of editing, tuning and looping the DAT recordings, A 16 bit uncompressed sample set, specific to the architecture of the KS0164, was created. This set contains 16bit linear (no compression) words sampled at 44.1 Khz, and is slightly larger than the ROM based 2M set that Samsung offers. This set includes the MMA definde General MIDI sample et and a large portion of the General Sound (GS) extensions. Eigh of the nine GS drum sets are included. The excluded ninth drum set is the SFX (sound effects) map. The 2M byte and 1M byte sample sets are derived from the master 16 bit linear set. The 2M set contains mostly 16 bit linear samples, yet some are compressed so that all the samples fit in a single 2M ROM. The 1M set contains u-law compressed samples of the 16 bit linear set. All of the samples in the 1M set are compressed.
The KS0164 Omniwave is a 32 voice, 16-part multi-timbral synthesizer. Compared to the Sound Canvas, the KS0164 increases the number of voices from 24 to 32. The present KS0164 requires external components for reverb and chorus. The KS0174 sample ROM includes all of the 128 General MIDI sounds, the 128 MT-32 sounds, and 8 of the 9 drum maps. A trade off was made to exclede the unpopular SFX (sound effects, such as laughing, thunder, horse-gallop, etc.) drum set in favor of superior sample resolutions of the more popular GM, MT-32, and GS sounds. The GS extensions generally are not used in computer games, but GS is occasionally found in MIDI musical sequences. GM has been the standard for PC based games.
In addition to the wave samples, the ROM contains the patch set requirde for implementing GM, GS, and MT-32. A separate ROM is not require for the patches. Other code is included in the sample ROM for the embedded CPU of the KS0164. No additional memory is required for the processor code.
=====
On screen I put some informations about the module (Source: SC-55 manual) and the Soft-Synth (Source: blackmidi.fandom.com).
Please let me know in the comments, if you prefere the SC55 over the Softsynth, or vice versa. If you like this comparison, please also leave a like and subscribe to support my channel.
The midi-music in this comparison is - as you might have already identified - from the PC-game "Age of Empires".
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
Test Drive III was developed in 1990 by Accolade , Inc., and released by Ocean Software. Music is composed by Russell Shiffer.
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
For my actual Windows 98 retro-built I chose my Vortex 2 card, and I want to demonstrate how it handles FM-music. The card has no hardware-fm as far as I know but features a Soundblaster Pro emulation that can handle FM acceptable. Of course it can't compete with hardware-fm, but if you don't have a direct comparison, it is good enough for some Dos-gaming here and there, isn't it? Let me know your opinion in the comments.
"Cybersphere" was released in 1996 by Psycon Software. Music is composed by Clay Hellman.
Grtz
Ernie
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
Theme Hospital is a great game, and it is one of the few games supporting ESFM, providing a slighty improved music compared to the generic opl3 version.
00:00 Atlantis
03:28 6s and 7s
07:02 Fortune
09:27 Candy Floss
10:58 On the mend
13:32 Dr. Frog
15:11 Night Shift
18:26 Steady Pulse
Listen & enjoy
Ernie
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
today I demonstrate the Serdaco McCake wavetable module that utilizes a raspberry pi compute module 4 to emulate the Roland MT32.
But this module also can act as a General Midi module using any .SF2 soundfont that you load on the micro-sd card.
An external display/controll unit let you switch between MT32 or GM mode and different soundfonts.
The McCake and various other wavetables can be ordered at the developer's shop:
serdashop.com/WP32-McCake
serdashop.com
00:00 Intro & unboxing
02:58 CM4-cooler
Hear the module playing:
06:22 Doom II readme track with the JNS-GM 2.0 soundfont
12:54 Warcraft 2 Orc music with the 8MBGM ENHANCED v1.8 soundfont
18:14 Ultima VI with the McCake MT32 emulation
24:59 Outro
Music in this video is part of the following pc-games:
Doom II: Developed and released by ID Software in 1994. Music by Robert Prince
Warcraft II: Developed and released by Blizzard Entertainment in 1995. Music by Glenn Stafford
Ultima VI: The False Prophet - Developed and released by Origin Systems in 1990. Music by Kenneth W. Arnold, Herman Miller, Todd Mitchell, Porter David, R. Watson
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
today I showcase another cheap soundcard that I recently bought for just 5€. It has the same suspiciously triangular-shaped Design like other budget-cards from the same era in the mid-to late "90s. Sound-controller is the single-chip ES1868F from ESS. It's compatible with Adlib and Soundblaster Pro. The integrated FM-circuity is developed by ESS, named ESFM. It's full compatible to OPL2 and OPL3 but has some advancements that can be discovered in supporting titles or in windows. In this demonstration I chose the same tunes as in the other cheap-soundcards videos for best comparison. These are OPL2 and OPL3 tunes. The ESFM-advancements are not shown here.
My conclusion: You can't to wrong with any ES1868F soundcards. Sound-quality is great, compatibility also is. The card is easily configured by unisound.
Recording Setup:
QDI Legend (Intel BX) with Pentium II 400 Mhz. Soundcard installed on the outer ISA-Slot. Initialized with unisound 0.81. Default unisound mixer-settings.
Analogue-record with Terratec DMX 6fire USB Audio interface unsing Audacity, 48khz 32 bit float. Comressed to 256kbit MP3 using lame-enc.
The music in this video is generated by the cards FM-Synthesizer.
It is played for demonstration purposes only.
Playlist:
00:00 Doom II Track No 3
01:57 Doom II Track 33 (readme)
06:46 The Whale's Voyage - Music from the Planet Nedax
09:59 Descent II Setup / Credits Music
12:21 Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo - Chun-Li's Theme
Please share your thoughts In the comment section down below, like/dislike to support my channel.
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
The card features a copy of the Yamaha YM3812 OPL2.
For the demonstration I select th soundtrack from the game "KGB" by Ocean Software, 1992. The soundtrack was made by Stéphane Picq, the same compose that made the great Dune soundtrack.
Here is the Playlist:
00:00 Burokrat
4:40 Kursk
09:12 Gorbi
12:56 Gulag
17:17 Paradise
21:17 Machine
See the Vogons-Thread for this card here:
vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=90801
See more informations about KGB at Mobygames:
mobygames.com/game/2894/kgb
Please give al like / dislike and subscibe to my channel if you like to support me. Share your thoughts in the comment-section down below.
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
in the 90s, creative labs used to bundle their soundcards with various software applications to demonstrate the latest multimedia features, for example voice synthesis and speech recognition.
in this video I like to demonstrate the singing text software Texteo'LE that was bundled with the Soundblaster 16 and AWE32 for Windows 3.1. (This record was made with the CT3900 AWE32) The texteo software can read any text, but it can sing! The result is quite strange but somehow funny, isn't it? System requirements are surprisingly low, it runs fine on my Acermate 386.
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
Further informations on QSound:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QSound
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
Just a short clip today, presenting the ICS Wavefont playing Warcraft II Orc music.
Cheers,
Ernie
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
Today I showcase a cheap soundcard that features the Aztech AZT2320 sound controller. Due to a license agreement with
yamaha, this IC has an built in orginal yamaha fm synth - and that of course is great for DOS-gaming!
Sound quality is very good as well, no noise issues. Bt the card has a major drawback: I recognized that its Soundblaster Pro
compatibility isn't 100%. In some games I had to select Soundblaster (non-pro) instead.
But, if you can get one for small money, take it! Some OEM-cards come in this triangular shape, but there are classic rectangle
cards out there as well. If you lucky, you may even find one with a populated and quite rare samsung wavetable.
Recording Setup:
QDI Legend (Intel BX) with Pentium II 400 Mhz. Soundcard installed on the outer ISA-Slot. Initialized with unisound 0.81. Default unisound mixer-settings.
Analogue-record with Terratec DMX 6fire USB Audio interface unsing Audacity, 48khz 32 bit float. Comressed to 256kbit MP3 using lame-enc.
The music in this video is generated by the cards FM-Synthesizer.
It is played for demonstration purposes only.
Playlist:
00:00 Doom II Track No 3
01:57 Doom II Track 33 (readme)
06:46 The Whale's Voyage - Music from the Planet Nedax
09:59 Descent II Setup / Credits Music
12:21 Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo - Chun-Li's Theme
Please share your thoughts In the comment section down below, like/dislike to support my channel.
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
Today I showcase another budget soundcard that you can grab for small money on the 2nd hand market. But is it worth a try?
This card has pros and cons:
We have genuine OPL3 clone hide in the LS245 IC (LS262 isn't populated, but follow the traces to the LS245) and
compatibility is very good.
On the other hand, line volume is very low, and to get a usable volume you have to raise volume level in unisound to 95 out of 100 using the unisound /V95 /VF95 command. But with volume noise gets amplified and noticeable, and it's still not loud enough so I normalize volume in Audacity to -0,5. Especially in Doom2 M3 you can hear it . In other titles it is much less noticeable.
Conclusion: Acceptable result for a low-cost card, but if you can, grab the ALS007 or ALS100 non-plus. Both offering better signal-to noise-ratio in my experience.
Recording Setup:
QDI Legend (Intel BX) with Pentium II 400 Mhz. Soundcard installed on the outer ISA-Slot. Initialized with unisound 0.81. Default unisound mixer-settings.
Analogue-record with Terratec DMX 6fire USB Audio interface unsing Audacity, 48khz 32 bit float. Comressed to 256kbit MP3 using lame-enc.
The music in this video is generated by the cards FM-Synthesizer.
It is played for demonstration purposes only.
Playlist:
00:00 Doom II Track No 3
01:57 Doom II Track 33 (readme)
06:46 The Whale's Voyage - Music from the Planet Nedax
09:59 Descent II Setup / Credits Music
12:21 Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo - Chun-Li's Theme
Please share your thoughts In the comment section down below, like/dislike to support my channel.
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY
Today I will start a new video series about low-cost soundcards no one cares about. Generic no-name cards that might be better than their reputation or maybe just about fulfill the low expectations?
We start with this OPTi soundcard that looks suspiciously low-cost and cheap! And this time I was very surprised at what I could get out of this card!
There's absolutely no noise, the sound quality is just great.
I recorded some tracks to showcase the card and its FM capabilities, and I chose some tracks with silent parts to demonstrate the noise floor (if there's any)
Recording Setup:
QDI Legend (Intel BX) with Pentium II 400 Mhz. Soundcard installed on the outer ISA-Slot. Initialized with unisound 0.81. Default unisound mixer-settings.
Analogue-record with Terratec DMX 6fire USB Audio interface unsing Audacity, 48khz 32 bit float. Comressed to 256kbit MP3 using lame-enc.
Here are the 82C931 sound controllers specs copied from the Datasheed:
Features
• Integrated sound controller compatible with:
- Sound Blaster Pro™
- Ad Lib™
- Microsoft® Windows™ Sound System™
• Microsoft® PC-97 compliant
• Built-in high-quality 22 voice, 52 operator, OPTiFM™
music synthesizer with enhanced bass
• Built-in 7-channel mixer: five stereo, two mono
• Built-in 16-bit sigma-delta stereo codec
• ISA Plug and Play Specification 1.0a compatible, supports
a maximum of six logical devices:
- Sound Blaster Pro, Windows Sound System,
FM synthesis
- MPU-401 MIDI interface
- CD-ROM interface
- Joystick/game port
- Modem interface
- 82C931 control
• Supports external serial EEPROM (optional)
• External modem chipset interface
• Full duplex operation: record and playback simultaneously
using two 8- or 16-bit DMA channels
• Supports IMA ADPCM, µ-law, A-law decompression
• 8- or 16-bit stereo sound data up to 48KHz stereo
• Supports 16-bit Type F DMA playback, accelerates telephony-audio applications
• Digital joystick interface support, improves responsiveness
(Microsoft SideWinder™)
• I2S serial interface supports Zoom Video Port, wavetable
controller and modem chipset
• DirectSound™ interface support
• Power-down modes
• Silence mode to turn-off all audio functions
• Hardware and software volume control via push-button
interface
• 100-pin PQFP (Plastic Quad Flat Pack)
• 100-pin TQFP (Thin Quad Flat Pack)
The music in this video is generated by the cards FM-Synthesizer.
It is played for demonstration purposes only.
Playlist:
00:00 Doom II Track No 3
01:57 Doom II Track 33 (readme)
06:46 The Whale's Voyage - Music from the Planet Nedax
09:59 Descent II Setup / Credits Music
12:21 Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo - Chun-Li's Theme
Please share your thoughts In the comment section down below, like/dislike to support my channel.
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACY


