Crystal. ViBRA gave me freezes in some old pre-94 games and there are polyphony issues

Also crystal, it lacks SB16 compatibility but is otherwise a more solid chipset.
Vibra does not do SBPro in stereo and many examples have a buggy midi interface.

For me, a Non-PnP AWE32. It's difficult to collaborate a GM/GS/MT-32 audio with any voice capable soundcard, in terms of the title "Perfect ISA Sound Card" (- an additional or external Roland device, either a ISA card or a module is a must). But it's still the best all-rounder, in terms of games compatibility. Love it or hate it, Creative is a part of Classic Dos Machines.

swaaye wrote:

AWE64 Gold is actually decent quality, but the card has so little RAM and it only has the dumb proprietary expansion method.

http://simmconn.tripod.com/ - adapter for Awe64 to use it with SIMM modules.

Can someone please sticky this thread? There's some good information here but it's hard to find after a few days of no new posts.

are the simmconns still available? that page hasn't been updated in ages!
I want to buy one now if they're still available, before it's too late (and I don't even have an AWE64 yet)!

I have this SR440BX board with a single ISA slot. So I wanted to add an ISA soundcard that has most functionality by itself.
None of the SB16's were suitable, the CT2290 came close but the 'bug free' MPU-401 interface is not that 'bug free' really. because it gives slowdowns in TIE fighter and Duke nukem 3D for example. I cannot pair it with another ISA card to take care of the midi music.

Other contestors are the Yamaha OPL-3SAX YMF-719 card and the CMI8330 Audio Excel and the Acer Magic S23. The latter being the subject of this topic.
Now the Acer Magic S23 has the most potential but is not always easy to configure. (I possess five S23's now.) One problem I encountered is that MPXplay MP3 player for DOS does not want to use it as a WSS device and instead outputs in 8-bit SB-Pro mode. This problem is present with the CS4232 and CS4235 based cards, however a CX4236B card does work as WSS right away. The advised initialization settings which are told to fix this did not make a difference.

Recently I did find a way to make all mentioned Crystal cards play as 16-bit WSS in MPXplay, In this order:
1) initialize the card (cs4232c.exe)
2) run the mixer to set the volumes (cs32mix.exe)
3) play a sample with a miles sound system game in WSS mode:
Which can be kept brief with 'digplay.exe test.wav' using the sndsys.dig driver.
4) set ULTRA16=530,1,7,0 (I/O, DMA, IRQ, Type)
5) start MPXplay, and it will play MP3's in 16-bit WSS mode!
6) if you exit MPXplay, run CS32wss.exe before starting MPXplay again, to put it back from SB-Pro mode to WSS mode.

Maybe in the future MPXplay can be updated to do the magic of part 3 and 6 automatically?

Crystal sound cards were always in the same category as ESS onboard sound for me. I avoid them like the plague.

Maybe on paper they seem brilliant but I always had issues with old sierra titles...picky games like Ultima. etc.

I look for compatibility in an ISA card and that means Creative 😜

Sierra games are picky even with real creative cards. I recall at least half the time I couldn't get SFX working on my SB 2.0 or SB16. I think patching the games takes care of most of these problems. I have been using YMF 719 with sierra games and find it works quite well.

gerwin wrote:

3) play a sample with a miles sound system game in WSS mode:
Which can be kept brief with 'digplay.exe test.wav' using the sndsys.dig driver.

Narrowed it down to outputs LDAC/RDAC which remain muted in MPXplay v1.59 and v1.60a4. I made a small program to unmute them (set 0x048), This replaces step 3.
MPXplay v1.44 and earlier do not require this manual tweak.

Edit: the MPXplay auther told me to use this parameter: -scv 100 , which also unmutes the WSS outputs.

For me, you need two card for the perfect ISA card setup.

I really like the combination of Sound Blaster Pro 2 and MPU401AT. I have used this combination for quite a while and in my view is as compatible and authentic as it gets 😀

It's not a bad combination, but it is missing 16-bit playback in Windows. That's the main reason I switched to the Yamaha.

True...

Interesting that you had issues with Sierra games. Was that maybe on a fast PC? Because I have not run into a single game from Sierra that doesn't run on any of my Creative cards.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

True...

Interesting that you had issues with Sierra games. Was that maybe on a fast PC? Because I have not run into a single game from Sierra that doesn't run on any of my Creative cards.

Using a crystal sound card for retro gaming is a constant battle.

I only had issues with sierra games when I am using 2 x creative cards in the same system.

Oh, yes same. Two cards and things fall apart.

It was the speech that wouldn't work anymore with two Creative cards installed.

Hi Gerwin,

What is the sound quality like on the Acer Magic S23 card? I've got the Turtle Beach Tropez 32 which has the same Crystal CS4232 chipset and Yamaha YMF-262 OPL chip. It's by far the quietest and clearest sounding soundcard in my collection, so I was just wandering if the Acer Magic S23 sounded really good as well?

It should sound about the same as your Tropez 32. As the Crystal chipset is the same, it is only the analog path to the output jack connector that can be a bit better or worse.

Just tested it a little with headphones and a Class D Amplifier, and my humble hearing: I do hear a little background noise when playing an MP3 over WSS and setting volume to zero. Also I can hear a little background noise on the synth channel when it is not muted, but that is dependant on an external factor: The OPL3 and the Midi daughterboard. It is minimal. When the card is idle and the synth channel muted it seems totally silent. Playing MP3s is just like using a modern device, near CD quality. Fine by me.
In comparison a genuine Sound Blaster Pro is a little noisy for me, but I can forgive it. The relatively quiet CT2940 SB16 is fine in that regard, but only when the the mixer settings are put properly.

Now with SoftMPU working so well I can also highly recommend the AWE64 Gold in combination with external Roland modules. Great all round card and bug free MPU interface. Weaknesses are lock of OPL3 and SB Pro but not a bid deal when you have Roland MIDI gear.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Now with SoftMPU working so well I can also highly recommend the AWE64 Gold in combination with external Roland modules. Great all round card and bug free MPU interface. Weaknesses are lock of OPL3 and SB Pro but not a bid deal when you have Roland MIDI gear.

Except, when you really like the FM stuff.

I really can not follow this FM-Synthesis vs. MIDI Wavetable war.

It always looks as a PC can have only one solution and having wavetable MIDI excludes having a real OPL3. A PC can be expanded, so you can have both at the same time. Even if you have just one ISA slot, you can plug some AudioPCI to get ESFM. Or plug any other ISA soundcard with a real OPL3...
ISA is a bus, so even with a single slot you can use an ISA expander, even flexible with a cable.