That is true, but in my experience, an AWE32 is an SB16 with a somewhat decent MIDI option. The real way to do DOS MIDI is to use the MIDI output into something like a Sound Canvas, which are incredibly expensive if you can even locate one.

gdjacobs wrote:

Some titles natively support the EMU chipset and upload custom waveforms for music and sound effects. There is no MPU-401 interface for the EMU chip implemented in hardware, however, so you must load a somewhat large sized TSR in order to have wavetable GM support in raw DOS. Furthermore, you're limited to using SBK (version 1) soundfonts, not the more common SF2 (version 2) format.

Most of these limitations are lifted when executing DOS programs from within Windows which is really where AWE cards are strongest.

Thanks for this good summary. It emphasized for me some things I remember and brought back some points I forgot.

One question - I understand that under Windows you can take advantage of the sound fonts when playing music via general MIDI. Does it also apply to the native EMU800 option or the FM option?

Yes, you can load SF2 soundfonts to the EMU's RAM in Windows and use it for MIDI synthesis.

Interesting that nobody talked about ESS Audiodrive cards so far.. I'd say an ES1868 or later chip ISA sound card would both be pretty cheap to get and pretty good for all DOS needs. It just works in my 486 system.. I happened to come across one with an OPL clone, but even without true OPL on board it's pretty close..

Third of fourth generation Aztech cards will also be pretty good for both compatibility and sound fidelity.

I will look into them ^^ so far I have ordered the Audician 32 plus and think about getting a Midi S2 daughter board from that website in belgium. That kinda seems the way to go. Also the Auducian 32 plus is new and comes with the package 😳

interesting, I have looked into ESS audiodrives on eBay and there seem to be a lot of them out there but very afforable, which raises the confusion a little bit as to what ESS soundcard to get ? 😒 same as with Aztech cards are there any standouts ? My dream would be running the Audician 32 plus alongside the Aureal Vortex 2 but that card seems kinda rare and hard to come by.

I'm also considering buying the Audician even though I have a couple of ESS sound cards, just because they are mint new in box and I can hoard them..

With ESS, you can go for anything with an ES1868 chip and onwards IMO, the rest depends on what you need (i.e. wavetable header port, IDE controller, seperate line out/speaker ports for amped output, jumpered vs jumperless pnp.. etc.)

appiah4 wrote:

I'm also considering buying the Audician even though I have a couple of ESS sound cards, just because they are mint new in box and I can hoard them..

I found that appealing also. Something nice about getting the box, disc and manual 😀

The real OPL3 (audician32) sounds better to me than the ess-clone, BUT the ess-clone is not bad!

btw. I have an ess-card in my a2000, because the bridgeboard (pc-side) has only limited ISA-slots.
The formosa-sc1630 has a primary ide-interface which can be used to boot from a cf-card as
harddisk. very cool, but not very fast.
http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/sound-cards-multi … ard-CINAAC.html

I guess this question can go here.. Can anyone do a verbal comparison of Yamaha Audician 32 and Terratec Gold 16/96? These are what I've come to believe are the two best non-AWE series ISA cards out there, one is true OPL3 the other is ESS and mostly on par.. I want to buy one or the other, I have the same deals on both, but can't decide which to get.

appiah4 wrote:

I guess this question can go here.. Can anyone do a verbal comparison of Yamaha Audician 32 and Terratec Gold 16/96? These are what I've come to believe are the two best non-AWE series ISA cards out there, one is true OPL3 the other is ESS and mostly on par.. I want to buy one or the other, I have the same deals on both, but can't decide which to get.

having in mind that you can get the Audician 32 Plus still new and boxed for a cheap price its a no brainer. But if you are a true collector you will get both, I cant comment much on the audician 32 plus because its still on its way but I only heard good things about it left and right and if you apply a dreamblaster S2 midi daughterboard to it you can even get epic synth sound out of it, check out Phils videos on Youtube about it.

I have the Audician 32 plus and it's a nice card, clean sounding OPL3. The ESS1869F sounds slightly different but it's quite good too. I'd pick the Yamaha but the ESS is probably easier to configure. The Yamaha drivers you can grab from Phil's site here http://www.philscomputerlab.com/audician-32-plus.html

Since they're both cheap, why not buy both an Audician and an ESS card?

That's my advice too. Take both and choose for yourself.

gdjacobs wrote:

Since they're both cheap, why not buy both an Audician and an ESS card?

Not a bad call, really. I already have two ESS cards, one with illegal copies of OPL chips.. I'll also get the Audician in the coming months.. I am already over this month's vintage budget by ordering a CT2290 today for $15. The Audician will be for next month, methinks..

Then I'm considering doing recordings of Paula (Amiga 500),ESFM, ESS+OPL, Pure OPL and SB 16 OPL (CT1747) and SB AWE64 for game musicand mixing them together to highlight the differences. Might start a YT channel, who knows..

Vintage sound hardware is fascinating.

Fascinating and never ending.

Vintage hardware is fascinating in general.

Well then vintage audio hardware is fascinating ^ 2.

Vintage audio hardware is fascinating in general MIDI.