I'm quite sure the SCSI/host adapter chip would go there.

Good to hear that 😀
nothing to miss then.

..well, the driver is still missing though, i'll try googling again. The thing is that Aztech Labs has no strong user base/presence on the net, i'm afraid.

I remember having one for a similar card, maybe I'll find it some time...

I found this retro soundcards roundup on atarimagazines.com

Sadly, the OPL3 chip found in the NX Pro 16 is missing from this version 🙁

AZTECH LABS SOUND GALAXY NX PRO […]
Show full quote

AZTECH LABS SOUND GALAXY NX PRO

...
One of the interesting things about this board is that only Aztech proprietary chips are used for sound generation; the familiar Yamaha OPL2 or OPL3 chips are nowhere to be found on this board. A connector provided on the board routes CD-ROM audio through it, and another connector permits channeling the sound that would ordinarily go to the PC's speaker through the board as well.

...

The NX PRO boasts two CD-ROM interfaces, both 40-pin, which can accommodate a Panasonic CR-521 or CR-522 or a Mitsumi LU005S CD-ROM drive. An optional Future Domain SCSI upgrade kit (a Future Domain SCSI controller chip and device driver software) costs $30 and adds SCSI capability to the sound board.

And that SCSI option confirms what space odyssey-- 😦 i mean h-a-l-9000 😀 said. And the conclusion is pretty warm on this card:

Of all the sound cards covered in this issue, the NX PRO undoubtedly offers the widest spectrum of compatibility. This stereo board supports four sound standards: Ad Lib, Sound Blaster Pro 2.0, Covox Speech Thing, and even the Disney Sound Source. During the review I ran several software titles which use sound, including Dune, King's Quest VI, Operation Neptune, Zoo Keeper, and Out of This World. I encountered no compatibility or audio playback problems.

The Sound Galaxy NX PRO provides good stereo sound quality, exceptional compatibility, a nice selection of features, and good upgrade and expansion potential.

Now it seems that the only drawbacks to the "NX Pro 16" version is the lack of an OPL3 chip. Bearable if you're only looking for the DSS/Covox part.

I remember having one for a similar card, maybe I'll find it some time...

That would be very kind of you 😀

The screenshot above has an OPL3 chip (the one with Yamaha on it).

All of my three Aztech cards also have one.
Install this card on the "far side" of the bus, its sound is disturbed easily by neighbouring cards.

Hmm, yes, the YMF262-M is there (also on the card i'm thinking to buy), so this is not the NX Pro? Then what is it? The NX Pro 16 layout (at least as seen on stason.org) is different to this one. Or maybe the reviewer just had an early, different sample of the NX Pro? Well, i guess it doesn't really matter anyway.

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

All of my three Aztech cards also have one.
Install this card on the "far side" of the bus, its sound is disturbed easily by neighbouring cards.

Wow, you have three Aztech cards 😁 You da man!

About installing the card, i might just, er... actually i'm going to install it with five other ISA cards, as i mentioned on this thread. Up to this point i haven't considered the possibility of the cards interfering with each other physically. 🤐 Am i going to be screwed up on this? Can i 'shield' the sensitive card with a sheet of something?

I'd guess the reviewer was either blind or looking for a different chip package.

> Wow, you have three Aztech cards Very Happy You da man!

Ya I have almost only junk when it comes to sound cards.

> Up to this point i haven't considered the possibility of the cards interfering with each other physically.

Blame it on the high quality of this Aztech product.

You can try isolated metal sheet. Best thing would be iron and grounded to the PC's case but others might do, too.

Bad news: I must have thrown away my driver floppies years ago.
Good news: It (and many other variants) is availible for download there:

http://www.bandi.co.kr/board/view.php?&bbs_id … e=44&doc_num=88

The nxpro.exe is a korean chicken-egg Windows self extractor.

One of my Aztech cards is identical to your picture, except for missing SCSI chip socket and connector. I've tried the driver with this card:

It installs from three floppy disks. The autoexec.bat created by the installer may be incomplete.

It can set base address (220/240), IRQ (2,5,7,10), DMA (0,1,3), Game Port (Enable/Disable), CDROM address (300/320), Covox/Sound Source (on/off). It has a mixer TSR with quite a few options.

With volume turned up to max, the headphones emit a decent hissing. A metal plate very close to the solder side of the card reduces it to about 1/2.

Disney works, Covox (mono only) works.

Nice catch, you got the "extra" version 2.41 one, while the best one i could find was the version 2.11 from here
http://www.givemefile.net/drivers/sound_cards … file/11301.html
(these floppy disk installers are getting fussy. I don't think i still have one 3.5" disk working, let alone three)

And the worst was the site who give--under the original filenames (NXPRO-1.ZIP etc)--totally irrelevant drivers. 😠

Also found live links on http://www.mpoli.fi/files/hardware/SOUND/AZTECH/index.html
They've got the NX Pro 16 plus other series but no NX Pro files.
Looks like there is no Win95 driver for this model but there is one for the NXPro 16 (see http://www.aztech.com/support_download_soundcard01.html for list of original drivers--files seem offline).

-- FOR WIN9X -- READ NEXT POST --

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

With volume turned up to max, the headphones emit a decent hissing. A metal plate very close to the solder side of the card reduces it to about 1/2.

Solder side--I thought it'd be on the other side (i must've imagined a Xonar or X-Fi Ti!). Glad that it works--can't wait to experiment with it. Thank you for the inputs!

The card is just a SBpro clone so you can use the DOS driver to set the ressources and the built-in Win95 Creative SBpro driver for Windows sound.

A problem you will face is that the card can't be deactivated, it always uses the ressources.

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

The card is just a SBpro clone so you can use the DOS driver to set the ressources and the built-in Win95 Creative SBpro driver for Windows sound.

Corrected.

A problem you will face is that the card can't be deactivated, it always uses the ressources.

Is that in Windows (9x) only or including DOS?
EDIT: I take it that you meant it in Windows since we're talking Win9x driver, right?
btw, i've bought the card so hopefully i can test it myself soon.

Not Win95 related - as soon as you switch your computer on, the card uses the configured resources.

Hmm, it's going to be a little trouble...

That's the way ISA cards work. The resources are grabbed by the hardware, and it didn't matter if another card was already trying to use them. This often meant hours of fund trying to work out which IRQ, DMA and port numbers were free, then trying them only to find out it didn't work or you'd set one wrongly and had to set it up again. Then just to make life interesting, for some unknown reasons some cards would refuse to work in certain slots in some PCs, so not only did you have to juggle settings, sometimes it was necessary to swap slots too! I remember one system I built had a VLB (Vesa Local Bus) graphics card and SCSI card and had two VLB slots, and the machine would only boot with them one way round! This is why PnP was invented.

That picture took me back to my first card, a Sound Galaxy Basic 16. Unfortunately I don't have the manuals any more, but if I remember correctly that chip was for the CDRom controller and the chip fitted depended on which drive was connected. In my case it was a Sony CDU33A double speed unit (cutting edge at the time), but there were alternatives supported. That is why there are two pin headers, each supporting a different type of drive interface.

Phew... more than one week without posting to Vogons at all.. i'm not getting addicted after all!

"This is why PnP was invented."

And i thought this card (NX Pro/16) is supposed to be PnP. And then i thought it can be not initialized, like an ISA SB, so as to free up the resource. I'm still waiting for the card to come, maybe next week, but i'm not expecting too much, as i have lots of things to do atm!

Hi,

If interested, I still have one of them including software (v1.4) on 2 floppies and the 2 manuals.
Unfortunately, the manuals are only in french with no other language.
But they show lots of technical information as well as card layout and jumper usage.
My own experience with it is that the card behaved fairly like a real SBPro 2.
For the Disney/Covox emulations, the few games that supported it at that time it worked when I tested them but sound was worse than SB.

I confirm that the socket is only for SCSI upgrade and that the card is configured by software only.
One exception is for Disney Sound source emulation in case your computer does not have a parallel port.
The card can emulate one (278H) by shortening jumpers J1 & J2.
Jumper J4 is to be connected to internal speaker for sound redirection through the card.
Jumper J5 is for inertnal speaker sound amplification (short=high open=low)

I have one of these as well. Thank you for the 2.41 driver. Helped out quiet a bit. Also, the Sierra sndblast.drv patch helped with the timing.

These two things have allowed me to enjoy this system again.