bushwack wrote:

386DX40 wrote:

I have also replaced the AWE64 with an original Sound Blaster 16 that isn't even PNP capable, MIDI is much better now!!!!!!!!

Is that possible? Do i need to swap my 64 out for a 16? I'm gonna have to do some sound tests.

Must be listening listening to FM synthesis. That's the only way your going to get any MIDI music out of the SB16, unless you have a daughterboard or external synth. AWE 64 uses an emulated OPL3, whereas the SB16 likey has the real thing. So correct me if I'm wrong, if your using the EMU part of the AWE and think the patchset sounds worse, or whatever the case.

I just ran 2 machines, one with a awe64 gold and the other a sb16 pnp. I ran the setup for warcraft 2, its what im playing right now and it's easy to choose card selection.

I can tell a good bit of difference between the cards running warcraft 2, and it becomes obvious when I run the AWE64. I put a Adwave32 DPH rev2.3 daughter board on the SB16, made a big improvement but still not as nice sounding as the AWE64 to me.

I'm not a big midi phreak though, I don't own any Roland or Yamaha stuff.

Can you tell me a little bit more about AdMOS AdWave32? What games did you try with it?

Menkau_ra wrote:

Can you tell me a little bit more about AdMOS AdWave32? What games did you try with it?

I only tried Warcraft 2 with it just to see how it compared to the AWE64 and SB16. I actually just found it a few days ago on a Aureal branded Vortex card (not a monster) while I was rummaging around the ruins. I also have a .5mb Adwave on a Monster MX300 in my 98 rig. Think I'll swap em out, this one is 2mb.

Still, I don't have "real" midi board/unit to compare too...

hehe, didn't realize it was even dirty

I found that the midi on the SB16 with the Yamaha chip sounds more like what I 'remember' the old DOS games sounding like, lets put it that way. The AWE64 midi didn't sound as 'nostalgic' as the midi from the SB16. I'm glad the AWE64's have come out of both my 386 and 486 systems and replaced with more era-correct hardware. I do need to update the posts for the changes made! Compared to many others here, I wouldn't know what 'good' midi sounds like either 🤣!