Let me know if there's a sound bank that sounds exactly(or almost) like the DB50XG and DB60XG. I'm looking to get one of those, but I'd like to use the on-board XG synth of the YMF724 until I end up getting a real DB50XG, DB60XG or the NEC XR385.

Ace wrote:

Although I do need to replace the Game port as the one on the card is fake and has no pins on the port.

I've never heard of any manufacturer putting a 'dummy' gameport on a sound card 😳

Well, now you have, and tomorrow, I'll take pictures of the dummy Game port on my YMF724 to prove the Game port is indeed fake.

well that's interesting.
I had an ESS sound card that have a fake wavetable header (the pins were there but the traces didn't go anywhere). There was even a WAVE_EN solder pad on the board without a jumper. I soldered it closed but it didn't make any difference.

Didn't know PC Chips were into sound cards! 😉

SquallStrife wrote:

Didn't know PC Chips were into sound cards! 😉

🤣

You never know. Either that or some Chinese sound card manufacturer took notes on PC Chips' cheating from the 486 days and made use of it on this YMF724 sound card, although their cards based off C-Media chipsets(which suck compared to Yamaha chipsets) just omit the Game port entirely. But the thing with the YMF724 is that the fake Game port is more obvious to spot than the fake cache used by PC Chips was back in the day(I wouldn't even know for sure as I was a really young child in the 486 days and when the 486 was introduced, I wasn't even born). You can tell the pins are missing simply because the solder is flat on the solder spots where the Game port would be soldered and if you were to look at the Game port itself, you'll see the pins are completely missing.

Now, I'll go get some batteries for my camera and show you this fake Game port.

ratfink wrote:

I bought a couple of NOS yamaha sp724s a few months ago, they were green rectangular pcb's. Didn't have any trouble with them. Here's the link to the auction [looks like he has a load of them] if you're interested:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sound-Card-SP-724-Y … =item2c5efbce09

That's the same Yamaha card i'm using in my PIII rig... The SB-link (or PC/PCI) cable connects to a header on my Intel SE440BX-2 motherboard which enables 'hardware' SB Pro 2.0 compatibility. Not had a single problem with mine and it was also purchased off ebay quite some time ago now (think i only paid a total of £5 including shipping 😀).

That red sound card in the first post looks real cheap and nasty! You can see they've kept the cost down as it's lacking in components... Not sure how it will effect the overall sound quality 😖

My replacement card is one exactly like it, but with a YMF724F-V chip instead of a YMF724E-V, and the sound output is perfectly clean. It even works better than my YMF744 under Windows 98, which is what I got the YMF724 for as the YMF744 I have outputs an obnoxious ringing noise in the right audio channel under Windows, but the YMF724 doesn't do this. And the sound output is VERY clear with no hissing noises, excess filtering, degraded quality or anything like that. The only problem I have with the card is the lack of an SBLink plug, but I'm using the card on a computer with no SBLink port and it seems to work very well with Distributed DMA as the YMF724 works with everything I tested it with except for Doom v1.1. Not that I really care as I play The Ultimate Doom more than Doom v1.1. I'm in the process of encoding the first of my The Many Sounds of: The Ultimate Doom videos for my "The Many Sounds of:" series of videos on YouTube, so once I upload it to YouTube, you'll be able to have a listen to this generic YMF724's sound using both its SoundBlaster Pro support and XG synth.

I did not even test my yamaha cards yet, have to many projects going on at the same time...

PowerPie5000 wrote:

That red sound card in the first post looks real cheap and nasty! You can see they've kept the cost down as it's lacking in components... Not sure how it will effect the overall sound quality 😖

Have a listen to the card using XG synth in The Ultimate Doom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4GKyUiynaE

Sounds just as good as my obviously better-built Yamaha YMF744.

You should mention what card this is from in the video description, for records 😉

I would be curious to make a side by side comparison with a DB50XG/DB60XG daughterboard.

The other video of the E1M1 with DB50XG has sound level peaking, which changes dynamics and make for a poor comparison. And its youtube...

Don't have annotations enabled? I mention all the hardware used in every clip I upload in the annotations. I even specifically say in the video description, "Hardware shown in the video via annotations."

I pretty much never read annotations but always check description.
But you are right, you did put the info in there 😜

MaxWar wrote:

You should mention what card this is from in the video description, for records 😉

I would be curious to make a side by side comparison with a DB50XG/DB60XG daughterboard.

The other video of the E1M1 with DB50XG has sound level peaking, which changes dynamics and make for a poor comparison. And its youtube...

the midi sound sample library of ymf724/744 is a downsampled 2mb stored in driver files, thereby inferior to the db50/60xg's 4mb, for a similar list of instruments.
but the 724/744 can handle up to 64 voices simultaneously, while the db50/60xg can only handle 32.
you can try the third party utility powerymf, it provides a sample library of 4mb, probably sampled from the yamaha sound modules. it does sound a bit better than the original driver, but can cause noises in some cases. i think i encountered that in playing one of the simcity2000 midi files.

Yeah, I just downloaded Power YMF and will give it a go on the YMF724 later today.

Ace wrote:

Yeah, I just downloaded Power YMF and will give it a go on the YMF724 later today.

Did you have the oppotunity to try Power YMF yet ?

I just finally installed my ymf724 on a win98 box, i used VxD drivers that i found on the net. Works pretty well, i tested both GM and OPL3 compatibility and all looks good however i feel like the output level is somewhat low but ill do more testing.

I still have to make it work under dos and its a bit annoying to work on this rig atm as it does not have the net, could not get a Nic driver to work on it...
Will try to grab a bunch of NICs at my E-recycle guy this week end, i can only do so much with floppies and cds...

MaxWar wrote:

Did you have the oppotunity to try Power YMF yet ? […]
Show full quote

Ace wrote:

Yeah, I just downloaded Power YMF and will give it a go on the YMF724 later today.

Did you have the oppotunity to try Power YMF yet ?

I just finally installed my ymf724 on a win98 box, i used VxD drivers that i found on the net. Works pretty well, i tested both GM and OPL3 compatibility and all looks good however i feel like the output level is somewhat low but ill do more testing.

I still have to make it work under dos and its a bit annoying to work on this rig atm as it does not have the net, could not get a Nic driver to work on it...
Will try to grab a bunch of NICs at my E-recycle guy this week end, i can only do so much with floppies and cds...

which model is it?
output level is somewhat low depends on whether it has an onboard amplifier ic. if it doesn't, you would need an external amplifier.

noshutdown wrote:

MaxWar wrote:

Did you have the oppotunity to try Power YMF yet ? […]
Show full quote

Ace wrote:

Yeah, I just downloaded Power YMF and will give it a go on the YMF724 later today.

Did you have the oppotunity to try Power YMF yet ?

I just finally installed my ymf724 on a win98 box, i used VxD drivers that i found on the net. Works pretty well, i tested both GM and OPL3 compatibility and all looks good however i feel like the output level is somewhat low but ill do more testing.

I still have to make it work under dos and its a bit annoying to work on this rig atm as it does not have the net, could not get a Nic driver to work on it...
Will try to grab a bunch of NICs at my E-recycle guy this week end, i can only do so much with floppies and cds...

which model is it?
output level is somewhat low depends on whether it has an onboard amplifier ic. if it doesn't, you would need an external amplifier.

Heres my card :

Ive been messing around with it for a while here and the output for regular sound and GM is perhaps a little low, but its not too bad. ITs the OPL3 music that seems low.

To give you an idea, i am outputting into a mixer that goes into my sound system. I use some VxD drivers in win98, i set master output and midi out in Windows to Max. I set music volume in a given game to Max. I set Trim on my mixer input to 90%, track volume to 100% then i set Master at about 90% and my level is just ok, as in just below peaking.

I do not know if using another driver or editing some hidden file would give me access to OPl3 sound volume or something. It works all right, but consequence of having to boost everything like that is the Signal to noise ratio is not at its best. I still got to say its surprisingly not too bad considering all the boosting im doing on it LoL.

i know this model, from addonics, appears to have started making isa soundcards since the ess688 era.
how do you play opl3 music in win98? i don't rember ymf724's vxd driver providing opl3 in midi devices, except in the "legacy sound system" for a msdos console window. i can run doom and duke3d with either GM or adlib mode in that.

noshutdown wrote:

except in the "legacy sound system" for a msdos console window. i can run doom and duke3d with either GM or adlib mode in that.

That is what i meant. It will run as Sound blaster or sound blaster pro compatible in dos games "under win98" . Although some games would not work in SB pro mode ( xwing ).