Re: Sound Blaster: From best to worst

Posted on 2023-05-11, 14:13

by

by Eep386

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Thanks for the sound clip, I'll use that for the next comparison. Though for the next comparison I'll leave the stock op-amps on there, to eliminate the rolling amps as a cause of additional noise. I'll just need to secure another SB16 (shouldn't be too difficult, almost every single one has …

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Re: Sound Blaster: From best to worst

Posted on 2023-05-10, 22:42

by

by Eep386

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

It's entirely possible too that my other modifications are getting in the way of the results, too. I did replace a bunch of MC3403s with TL074/TL084 and some MC33079. The MC33079s actually made things slightly worse in terms of >1kHz noise - which was a result I wasn't expecting. (I do recall that …

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Re: Most disappointing games?

Posted on 2023-05-08, 22:19

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by Eep386

in Milliways

in Milliways

Hgrunt AI still does stupid stuff in the PS2 version including grenade seppuku. Note that Half-Life's hype was HIGH at the time of release that some called the AI 'indistinguishable from human deathmatch opponents' One thing I liked to do when three were shooting at me, was try to line them up so …

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Re: Most disappointing games?

Posted on 2023-05-07, 20:41

by

by Eep386

in Milliways

in Milliways

For me, it's the plethora of hilarious, immersion-breaking bugs and glitches. :laughing: maybe i got lucky with the slightly later half life generation release, don't remember anything too bad in terms of bugs etc My favorites were the chainsaw crowbar glitch, and how unbelievably stupid and poorly …

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Re: Most disappointing games?

Posted on 2023-05-07, 16:08

by

by Eep386

in Milliways

in Milliways

I got bored watching the long-winded intro scene to HL1, so I shut the game down and never went back to it. I had played the demo, and even then wondered why it was so popular. This was my first experience as well. Why was the intro so long. Why was this thing so popular? Contemporary me never …

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Re: Sound Blaster: From best to worst

Posted on 2023-05-06, 23:09

by

by Eep386

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

On a separate note, I am really seeing (and hearing) the effect of the dynamic brickwall filter. This is what I am getting for a spectral graph on Jazz Jackrabbit, SB16 setting. Filename jazz-log.png File size 35.65 KiB Views 138 views

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Re: Sound Blaster: From best to worst

Posted on 2023-05-06, 19:46

by

by Eep386

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Fixed amps, take 2! Alright, this time around I cleaned up my mod wiring a bit, using shorter wires and not tapping grounds from where I ought not (read: from oscillators :upside_down: ...) Linear Spectrum: silence-fixed-spectrum-linear.png Log Spectrum: silence-fixed-spectrum-log.png Recording: …

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Re: Sound Blaster: From best to worst

Posted on 2023-05-06, 17:53

by

by Eep386

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

With floating amps fixed: This is how the card performs after the floating amps were fixed. Notice that the highest peak went from around -69dB to -75dB after the fix, and the overall noise spectrum got much less spiky as well (for a lack of better term). 1000Hz looks like it went up a bit though - …

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Re: Sound Blaster: From best to worst

Posted on 2023-05-06, 17:47

by

by Eep386

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

With floating amps: This is (hopefully!) representative of how the card would sound before the floating amps were fixed. Log Spectrum: Filename silence-spectrum-log.png File size 32.47 KiB Views 186 views Linear Spectrum: Filename silence-spectrum-linear.png File size 31.33 KiB Views 186 views …

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Re: Sound Blaster: From best to worst

Posted on 2023-05-06, 17:46

by

by Eep386

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Mother of derp! I mixed up the original and control samples... ARRRGH! Fixed :sweat_smile: OK, first results are in!! :D There may be more results to follow as I do more recordings. For starters, though, we'll go with a recording of the card playing no sound. Methodology: - Audio directly recorded …

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Re: Sound Blaster: From best to worst

Posted on 2023-05-06, 14:08

by

by Eep386

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

A proper recording setup (one that isn't excessively noisy by itself) continues to elude me. I am envious of those who are able to do these professional-grade MDFourier charts and graphs. :( All I have (functionally) remaining of my SB16 cards is my CT2760 AWE32, which has had two floating amps …

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Re: Sound Blaster: From best to worst

Posted on 2023-05-05, 17:45

by

by Eep386

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Request: Add column for Floating Op-Amps too. I know the CT1600 SB Pro 2.0, CT2230, CT3900, first revision of the CT2760, most of the CT174x series and almost every ViBRA 16 card has at least one floating section of a quad amp. Somewhere I posted some examples of cards with floating amps. As a …

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Re: How about a MR-BIOS ROM file repository?

Posted on 2023-05-05, 16:44

by

by Eep386

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Just a Tekram P5V30-B4 version 2.1 The Super I/O is the Winbond variety (hence the 2A59GTG9 BIOS); the other BIOS version is for an SMC super I/O. Am fairly sure that the super I/O won't have much impact on the BIOS not assigning PCI devices interrupts, in any case.

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Re: How about a MR-BIOS ROM file repository?

Posted on 2023-05-05, 16:13

by

by Eep386

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

A bit of a heads-up for the person maintaining the Unicore BIOS repository, and anyone with a Tekram P5V30-B4 motherboard. The Unicore 2A59GTG9 BIOS is actually broken: it doesn't correctly assign PCI IRQs beyond the first detected PCI device, so everything past the first PCI device gets 'NA' IRQ. …

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Re: UNISOUND - Universal ISA PnP Sound Card Driver for DOS v0.78b

Posted on 2022-07-16, 16:49

by

by Eep386

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Not sure if this has been shared yet, but here's the databook for the OPTi 82C930. I hope it helps with adding '930 support.

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Re: Has anyone else tested hardware that seems defective but comes back to life on it's own?

Posted on 2022-06-25, 20:02

by

by Eep386

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Every time i turn this on it explodes, and after the smoke goes away, it works fine… Should I keep going ? It's those popcorn kernel (tantalum) capacitors. A little bit of heat, a little bit of moisture, some internal cracking and a sudden inrush of current... *BAM!* Too bad the results are nowhere …

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Re: Any ideas how to troubleshoot Tandy 1000SL, no sound?

Posted on 2022-06-16, 14:26

by

by Eep386

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Any news on your Tandy? Speaking of volume knobs, I wish someone'd make an STL for the SL/TL volume knob as mine broke a long time ago 🙁

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Re: How to identify this 486 motherboard techmedia UMC um8498F

Posted on 2022-06-09, 03:08

by

by Eep386

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Have you tried invoking Speedsys with the /DSPDR switch? eg. Speedsys /dspdr

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2022-06-06, 18:16

by

by Eep386

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I used to favor (and still do) the Voodoo3 1000's over the rest of the line as they ran a good deal cooler (I'd still put a heatsink on 'em) and also usually came with SGRAM memory, whereas the higher-ranked cards usually came with SDRAM. 'Course now, the only 3dfx hardware I have left after a few …

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Re: How to identify this 486 motherboard techmedia UMC um8498F

Posted on 2022-06-05, 17:02

by

by Eep386

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The 5429 is fully pin-compatible with the 5428. I think the same video BIOS will work too, but I don't know how it will affect the performance. As a precaution, if you're new to chip swapping then it's probably a good idea to practice on a scrap board first, or have someone else do it for you.

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