pc-sound-legacyHello friends, 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.
#CheapPCChallenge2023 My $100 cheapo-PC - Can it emulate GameCube?pc-sound-legacy2023-12-24 | Hello friends, 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-LEGACYAnother Box of old PC-Hardware arrived! (Let us see whats inside)pc-sound-legacy2024-10-12 | Hello friends, I often take a look on marketplaces for old soundcards and old PC-hardware in general. And these boxes of random hardware for a fair price is what I like the most. Pictures are often not great and so you see there is something of interest, but you don't know exactly what you get untill you unbox it. I'll take you on the tour to see what I got for 30 EUR (incl. shipping) this time.
Ernie, PC-SOUND-LEGACYMore Beeps! The Atmel-based Beeplaster 2.0 playing various DOS-Games-Musicpc-sound-legacy2024-09-10 | - Special Thanks to Paddy - the developer of the Beepblaster -
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:
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
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Ernie PC-SOUND-LEGACYMidia Sound 2000 SB (Terratec Profimedia) playing DOS-Games-Music (OPL2 FM)pc-sound-legacy2024-09-01 | Hello friends, today we listen to some FM-tunes on the Midia Soundcard. 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.
Ernie PC-SOUND-LEGACYRare Terreatec Profimedia Wavetable-Soundcard (Midia Sound 2000SB)pc-sound-legacy2024-08-25 | Hello friends 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-LEGACYKorg Audio Gallery AG-10 playing Doom II Music (complete soundtrack)pc-sound-legacy2024-08-09 | Hello Friends, in my previous video I unboxed the Korg AG-10 with you. And today I want to showcase it playing my favourite games soundtrack: Doom II.
Doom II was developed by id Software and released for MS-DOS in 1994 by GT Interactive. The Music is composed by Robert Prince.
Listen - enjoy - like - subscribe 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 MusicIn memory of the 90s when we used to ask: Can it run Doom?pc-sound-legacy2024-08-09 | For Windows 3.1 and DOS-Gaming, a 33 Mhz CPU was fine. (For Doom you better went with DX2 (66) or even DX4 (99 MHz). The UMC did not even have a floating-point unit but we don't really need one back then. The 486 introduced level-1 cache on die and therefore outperforms 386 CPUs at the same frequency.Unboxing: Korg Audio Gallery AG10 General Midi Sound Module from 1993pc-sound-legacy2024-07-30 | Hello friends, today I unbox a sound-module with you - the Korg Audio Gallery AG10.
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 :-)Diamond Technologies PnP ISA-Soundcard playing Vegas Theme (SSF2T)pc-sound-legacy2024-07-24 | Hello Friends, here comes another cheap ISA-Soundcard, playing Vega's Theme in FM-Mode. This card is a rebranded Avance Logic Soundcard. The RTA1000 IC is - according to a vogons thread I once read, the OPL3 clone which should be a 1-1 copy of the original Yamaha YMF-262.
For demonstration I choose a catchy tune from de DOS-Version of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo - Vega's Theme.
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACYThis is why we like Dream-FM! CrystalWave32 ISA-Soundcard playing melodic Adlib-Tracker 2 tunespc-sound-legacy2024-07-17 | Hello friends, in my previous video I demonstrate the card playing some AT2-tunes that sounds weired on the dream-fm. To make it fair I now select some tunes that sounds great on the Dream-FM, at least in my opinion. What do you think, do you like it or not? Comments welcome :-)
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)This is why we dont like Dream-FM: The ChrystalWave32 playing various FM trackspc-sound-legacy2024-06-25 | Hello friends, I'd demonstrated Dream-FM before in my comparison videos, but just a few tracks. This is why I want to present you a row of various tracks here. Dream does great wavetables, but their attempt on OPL2/OPL3 emulation failed. Or did you like it? I chose some of the worse tracks I could find - to be fair, there are other tracks where it doesn't sound that bad. But overall, you better choose the original Yamaha OPL3 or some of the other good clones.
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-LEGACYAKAI SG01k General Midi Sound Module playing Duke Nukem II Musicpc-sound-legacy2024-06-15 | Hello Friends, the Akai has a quite different sound from the well known Roland SC series. I like it in some titles but not in others. It suits the DN2 music quite good in my opinion, so I choose this for another demonstration.
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
Listen - enjoy - like - subscribe
Ernie, PC-SOUND-LEGACYAKAI SG01k playing R.O.T.T. Music (General Midi)pc-sound-legacy2024-06-10 | Hello Friends, no footage today but real video - hope you like it!
Music is from the MS-DOS Game "Rise Of The Triad". Music is composed by Lee Jackson and Robert Prince
Listen - enjoy - like - subscribe
Ernie PC-SOUND-LEGACY#cheappcchallenge2024 - My 100$ Gaming-PC is made of 8+ years old hardwarepc-sound-legacy2024-06-08 | Hello Friends, in this Video I show you my contribution to the #cheappcchallenge2024, announced by TechAmbr.
You can join the challenge as well - More Informations can be found here:
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-LEGACYYamaha OPL3-SAx playing Doom II Readme with different 3D/EQ settingspc-sound-legacy2024-05-01 | 01:18 No effects 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.Miro PCM12 playing Adlib Tracker II Music (Yamaha OPL3-FM)pc-sound-legacy2024-04-09 | Hello Friends, I recently demonstrated this card playing Moonsound Music (OPL4). The Yamaha YMF278 OPL4 is backwards compatible to OPL3. In this video I play two of my favourite Adlib Tracker II tracks on this card.
00:00 Encore - fm_house 03:53 Nula - Onward
Ernie
PC-SOUND-LEGACYConexant Riptide Sound/Modem playing Doom II music (General Midi Wavetable)pc-sound-legacy2024-03-25 | Hello friends, the riptide is one of this sound-modem-combo cards like the Mwave, that offers OPL3 and wavetable sound. Unfortunately i didn't get it to run it in DOS (albeit it claim to have legacy support) so for now I just can demonstrate the wavetable here. I'll try another test system for the FM part soon.
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-LEGACYThe USB to PS/2 & Gameport HAT let you use modern input devices on your Retro-PCpc-sound-legacy2024-03-20 | Hello friends, the Usb to PS/2 & Gameport HAT is developed by cdeadman and paddy aka. Ulfenknulfen. They kindly provide me with this device to review it. Thank you guys!
You can build your own hat if you like it - all the informations needed are available at the github project page:
PC-SOUND-LEGACYTerratec TT801 PCI-Soundcard playing Maktone Chiptunespc-sound-legacy2024-03-02 | Hello Friends,
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
Listen - enjoy - like - subscribe
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACYMiro PCM12 (YMF278 OPL4) playing Pumpkin Adventure 3 music (MSX2, Moonsound)pc-sound-legacy2024-02-26 | Hello friends, Yamaha's OPL4 was - in contrast to its precedessor - the OPL3, no success in the PC gaming industry. But in Japan with the MSX2 PC, there were some game-releases supporting the Moonsound cartridge that featured the YMF278 OPL4. One of them is Pumkin Adventure 3, and I decide to demonstrate it to you even if it is not a MS-DOS PC game. So you can listen to a soundtrack that was composed with the OPL4 in mind.
(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.
Listen - enjoy - like - subscribe
Ernie
PC-SOUND-LEGACYRare 1992 General Midi Module Doepfer GMX-1 playing Jagged Alliance Title hemepc-sound-legacy2024-02-13 | Hello friends, the Doepfer GMX-1 is a curiousity amongst other GM-modules. Its quite unknown and rare. It looks cheap but I really like its sound! 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.
Listen - enjoy - like - subscribe
Ernie
PC-SOUND-LEGACYYamaha TG300 General Midi Soundmodule playing System Shock Soundtrackpc-sound-legacy2024-02-07 | Hello friends, the TG300 is one of my favourite GM-modules. I once made a video of it playing Descent Soundtrack, but I recorded it in mono by mistake. So here is another recording in stereo as I don't want to record the same soundtrack again, and system shock music is great, isn't it :-)
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-LEGACYYamaha MU-50 vs. Yamaha SYXG-50pc-sound-legacy2024-01-30 | Hello friends, when I first saw the Yamaha SYXG50 softsynth I wonder how it would compare agains a real hardware XG synth like the Yamaha MU50. Are sound- and sample-quality equal or can an expensive hardware module outperform the cheap softsyth that was bundled with many soundcards? 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-LEGACYEnsoniq AudioPCI playing Unreal musicpc-sound-legacy2024-01-25 | Hello friends, the AudioPCI aka. Soundblaster PCI is well known for its horrible OPL2 emulation. But this '97 card was released when AAA-games were released for windows, such great masterpieces like Unreal. And for these windows-games - and also for the last DOS-games supporting General-Midi- it really was a good choice! In this video I demonstrate one of my favourite Unreal-track that I recorded directly out of the game.
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-LEGACYOPL3-Clones struggle on Adlib Tracker II - Surround.fmk (ADFM/OPTIFM/CrystalFM vs. Yamaha)pc-sound-legacy2024-01-20 | Hello friends, 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-LEGACYOrpheus II playing Adlib Tracker II music (Yamaha YMF262 OPL3 FM)pc-sound-legacy2023-12-28 | Hello Friends, 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:
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-LEGACYOrpheus II Soundcard (Yamaha OPL3): Dune & Descentpc-sound-legacy2023-12-28 | Hello Friends, 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:
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-LEGACYAlloyrun FM Comparison, 3 Sec. each (Yamaha, ALS, AD, CMI, CQM, Crystal, Dream, ESS, Opti)pc-sound-legacy2023-12-26 | Hello Friends,
as announced here's part #2 of the Alloyrun FM-comparison, playing each card for 3 seconds.
Ernie, PC-SOUND-LEGACYThe Alloyrun FM-comparison (Yamaha, AD, ALS, CMI, CQM, Crystal, ESS, Dream and Opti)pc-sound-legacy2023-12-19 | Hello Friends, in this video I demonstrate Alloyrun.rad from Adlib Tracker II in diferent OPL3 FM Synths.
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)
Listen - enjoy - like - subscribe
Ernie, PC-SOUND-LEGACYComparison: Creative CQM vs. Yamaha OPL3pc-sound-legacy2023-12-01 | Hello Friends, recently I recorded some games music with a Creatie Labs Soundblaster Vibra that features Creative's own OPL3-clone called CQM. I recorded the same tunes with a Yamaha OPL3SAx soundcard as well, and this one features an integrated Yamaha YMF289 OPL3. So lets compare the tunes!
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-LEGACYCreative Labs Vibra 16 playing DOS-Games Music (CQM-FM)pc-sound-legacy2023-11-23 | Hello Friends, 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-LEGACYMaster Boomer Soudblaster-Clone playing Bubble-Bobble (OPL2-FM)pc-sound-legacy2023-10-19 | Hello friends, 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-LEGACYThe Orpheus II - (Yamaha YMF-262 OPL3) playing classic DOS-Games musicpc-sound-legacy2023-09-20 | Hello Friends, 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:
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-LEGACYThe speaking Soundblaster (OPL2-FM !)pc-sound-legacy2023-09-13 | FM-Music composed by Stephan Picq for the PC game "KGB", developed by Cryo and published by Virgin Games in 1992.Trash or treasure? I bought a box of old PC-Cards for just 10 EURpc-sound-legacy2023-09-03 | Hello friends, I recently bought a box of vintage PC-Cards for just 10 EUR. Lets see what i got!
Ernie, PC-SOUND-LEGACY
Review of the Mozart-Card from Phil: youtu.be/JDBtInsJCOc?si=7Xw14h42bFErDUWOSamsung Omniwave KS0164/KS0174 GM Wavetable on Aztech MMSN852 Waverider Pro 32-3Dpc-sound-legacy2023-08-30 | Hello friends, the Samsung Omniwave is very rare on PC-Soundcards and Wavetable-daughterboards. Thats why I was looking for one for a long time, and I'm quite happy I finally get one for a fair price. Soundwise its quite Interesting, but I guess it is more a collectors Item than a daily driver. There are better alternatives for sure. But I chose this two tracks that sounds quite good for demonstrating purposes.
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. =====Comparison: Roland SC-55 MK1 VS. Microsoft GS Software Synthesizerpc-sound-legacy2023-08-24 | Hello friends, in this video I compare the external Roland Sound-Canvas (SC55) Mk1 with the Microsoft GS Software Wavetable Synthesizer that comes with Windows 98SE onwards. 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-LEGACYTurtle Beach Aureal Vortex 2 (AU8830) playing Test Drive III FM-musicpc-sound-legacy2023-07-16 | Hello friends, just another short release today, demonstrating the Vortex 2 playing OPL2-FM music from the PC-Game TEST DRIVE III.
Test Drive III was developed in 1990 by Accolade , Inc., and released by Ocean Software. Music is composed by Russell Shiffer.
Ernie,
PC-SOUND-LEGACYTurtle Beach Aureal Vortex 2 (AU8830) playing CYBERSPHERE FM-musicpc-sound-legacy2023-07-06 | Hello friends, I'm quite busy at the moment so I apologize for uplaoding no video for a long time. 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-LEGACYTheme Hospital Soundtrack (ESFM)pc-sound-legacy2023-06-09 | Hello Friends, 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-LEGACYThe Serdaco WP32 McCakepc-sound-legacy2023-05-29 | Hello friends, 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:
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-LEGACYTuTSOUND POP! ESS ES1868F-based triangular-shaped no-name Soundcardpc-sound-legacy2023-05-19 | Hello friends, 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-LEGACYThe Kalashnikow Motherboard?pc-sound-legacy2023-05-18 | Music: Bigblunts by MaktoneMaster Boomer Soundblaster-clone playing KGB music (Stéphane Picq) OPL2-FMpc-sound-legacy2023-04-28 | Hello friends, this Soundblaster 1.5 clone is made by Anchor Electronics and was sold as Media Concept 2.0 or Master Boomer. This card was send to me by a friend and he did a great job cleaning and recapping it! 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.
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-LEGACYSinging Text - Creative Labs Soundblaster AWE32pc-sound-legacy2023-04-23 | Hello friends, 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-LEGACYQSound Demo - Creative Labs Soundblaster AWE32pc-sound-legacy2023-04-14 | Hello Friends, I recently tested one of my AWE32 cards, and I want to share with you this Qsound demo that was installed with the drivers.
Ernie, PC-SOUND-LEGACYSoundforte SF32 WAV (ICS Wavefont) playing Warcraft II Orc Musicpc-sound-legacy2023-04-09 | Happy Easter my friends!
Just a short clip today, presenting the ICS Wavefont playing Warcraft II Orc music.
Cheers,
Ernie
PC-SOUND-LEGACYAnother budget soundcard: The Aztech AZT2320 has an original Yamaha OPL3 FM inside!pc-sound-legacy2023-04-05 | Hello friends, 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-LEGACYAnother cheap ISA Soundcard: The Asound Gold AS004 featuring the Avance Logic ALS100 Pluspc-sound-legacy2023-04-01 | Hello friends, 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-LEGACYLow-cost soundcard worth a try? This no-name OPTi 82C931 based card is a surprisepc-sound-legacy2023-03-25 | Hello friends, 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.