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Creative Sound Blaster Pro II (ISA) - Quiet Sound?

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First post, by WolfpupNX

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Hey all,

So I've been working with sound cards trying to get the best DOS card I can. Used a Yamaha for a while (dodgy joystick port that caused drift), then switched to an original Sound Blaster (good, but has a lot of background noise), and finally just got my hands on a CT-1600 Sound Blaster Pro II.

Great joystick port, somewhat less noisy (it's there but at least the noise isn't as grating), and overall seems to work great, BUT, even with both my speakers turned up and the built in amplifier in the back turned all the way up, sound in some games (Wing Commander I, for example) is just a tad lower than I'd like.

It works great without any drivers at all, but I tried installing the drivers, and the Diagnose utility actually has volume controls and can be made quite loud, but sadly the game itself doesn't have this function.

Are there any software options to increase volume output overall?

What about hardware inline amplifiers as I'm not sure what to buy?

I think this card's a winner if I can just solve this issue.

Thanks much!

Reply 1 of 3, by WolfpupNX

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Figured it out!

I had just installed the Driver *update* via Creative - not the full driver disks. Once those were in, I have a mixer and have gotten things much better. Still a little tiny bit of noise, but much better than the original Sound Blaster and as good as the Yamaha, so this is definitely my best card yet and I'm thinking as good as it'll get.

Reply 2 of 3, by Mau1wurf1977

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I also really like the Sound Blaster Pro 2 😀

My audio mixer allows boosting the volume beyond 0dB.

The volume settings should stick in the game, but some games manually set the mixer again. Wing Commander 2 might be such a game.

Generally though I don't change the default settings.

Another quiet card is the AWE64 Gold, but it doesn't have an OPL3. This card is well suited in combination with SoftMPU and external MIDI modules like a MT-32 or SC-55.

My website with reviews, demos, drivers, tutorials and more...
My YouTube channel

Reply 3 of 3, by WolfpupNX

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Thanks for the info, Mau1wurf1977!

Yes, once I got the mixer working, sounds great. A little bit of noise, but better than the original Sound Blaster, and I think that's just a fact of life with these cards - at any rate it's loads better than most other cards I've tried so far. I don't have WC2 installed yet but will have to see how things work with that once I do. =)

I really wanted the OPL3, so I didn't go the AWE64 route, but maybe for some games in the future. I had a PCI Sound Blaster initially, but it was impossible to get WC1 to work with them as the driver they needed prevented it from running.

Thanks again!

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