realnc wrote:

doaks80 wrote:

realnc wrote:

In my opinion the Terratec Maestro 32/96 is one the absolute best ones, but good luck finding one 😒

I didn't even know I had one and just "found" it in my "long card" soundcard box. I must have bought it years ago and I am sure I never tried it!

Wow, OK. That's like finding a gold bar in the mud 😀 This card is nowhere to be found online, and I'm sure it's not exactly cheap. It wasn't cheap back in the day either, IIRC it was very expensive for a sound card.

According to my purchase history it seems I bought it from a well known purveyor of vintage parts in Germany in 2016 for about 80EUR. Don't remember why or why I never used it.

doaks80 wrote:

According to my purchase history it seems I bought it from a well known purveyor of vintage parts in Germany in 2016 for about 80EUR. Don't remember why or why I never used it.

That's a great deal for a 32/96!

For the unbelievers, here's a Roland SC-55:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf33IOzWclQ&f … re=youtu.be&t=8

And here's the Maestro 32/96:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lFm1PDCR_g&f … =youtu.be&t=400

You don't actually need a Sound Canvas if you have a 32/96 😎

Is the default Dream soundfont on the 32/96 one of the releases that Roland got mad about?

Wooo this is my favourite topic! Unfortunately I can hardly ever come to a lasting conclusion.

Some great suggestions here already, both the AudioDrive and the later Crystal based ISA cards can be great, but I'd also consider a decent SB16 because they sound great and are super compatible / easy to use. That "but they're not SB Pro compatible" thing is bollocks - ask whoever states that to name a game that does stereo and doesn't support SB16.

A CT2230 or a CT2290 will do the trick, I don't mind those Vibra16S cards with a real OPL3 either if you're not interesting in GM.

gdjacobs wrote:

Is the default Dream soundfont on the 32/96 one of the releases that Roland got mad about?

It doesn't support soundfonts. It's a 4MB ROM containing what seems to be a clone of the SC-55 wavetable. Out of all the cards that use the infringing Dream wavetables, the 32/96 sounds the closest to the SC-55 (it's almost identical.)

appiah4 wrote:

OPTi 928/929/930 are also valid options as they are usually found alongside genuine or cloned opl chips but they do have compatibility issues with games when running as sb pro in my experience; we can discuss esfm vs opl3 all day but the ess audiodrives are generally more problem free and have simple dos drivers with little overhead. ES688 is also a great option as a non-pnp card with genuine opl3 and simple drivers.

And what about a YMF744?

jdbd1994 wrote:

appiah4 wrote:

OPTi 928/929/930 are also valid options as they are usually found alongside genuine or cloned opl chips but they do have compatibility issues with games when running as sb pro in my experience; we can discuss esfm vs opl3 all day but the ess audiodrives are generally more problem free and have simple dos drivers with little overhead. ES688 is also a great option as a non-pnp card with genuine opl3 and simple drivers.

And what about a YMF744?

That is a good PCI option but being PCI automatically maked şt less compatible and more quirky than ISA for dos on many motherboard chipsets.

badmojo wrote:

That "but they're not SB Pro compatible" thing is bollocks - ask whoever states that to name a game that does stereo and doesn't support SB16.

It's been a while, but IIRC, I'm sure I've come across at least 1 game. I seem to recall Super Tetris by Spectrum Holobyte circa 1991. If you are looking for similar SB Pro compatibility, games released around 1991 would be a good bet.

@OP: Yamaha YMF7x4 is recommended with SB-LINK, and since you are considering a Socket 7 build, I've never come across a board with this connector. A TX chipset board may exist though.

If you're looking for the most compatibility, you can't go wrong with a CT1600 SB Pro 2, SB 16 (CT2230, CT2290) or AWE32 (CT3900, CT3980). And use another card for Intelligent Mode MPU, or SoftMPU with an ISA or PCI card.

EDIT: If it isn't Super Tetris, then its sequel Tetris Classic by Spectrum Holobyte is what I remember.

realnc wrote:

It doesn't support soundfonts. It's a 4MB ROM containing what seems to be a clone of the SC-55 wavetable. Out of all the cards that use the infringing Dream wavetables, the 32/96 sounds the closest to the SC-55 (it's almost identical.)

I wasn't clear on whether that card had SIMMs as well as a mask ROM. It's probably a nice upgrade over my cs9233 based wb card (also with an illegal clone instrument set).