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First post, by Intel486dx33

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I am think about building a Media Vision Pro Audio computer solely to house my collection of Media Vision cards.

I have these Media Vision cards.

Jazz 16 ( ISA )
Pro Spectrum 16 PAR ( ISA )
Pro Audio 16 LMSI ( ISA )
Pro Audio 16 PAS ( ISA )

They all have a Yamaha 2xx OPL chip too for MIDI play back.

I want to put them in a 486dx motherboard build.

What do you think?
Will it work?
Will I have enough resources to run these cards in one computer ( IRQ's and DMA's )
I guess, I can enable and disable cards in the autoexec.bat and config.sys
I can create .bat files to do this.

What other files are recommended to have to run the Media Vision cards with out problems ?
What Operating system do you recommend ? DOS/Win95/Win98se ?
Does anyone have a Nice menu I can use to switch between cards ?

Want CPU should I use ?
Intel 486dx2 33
Intel 486dx2 50
Intel 486dx2 66

and what order should I arrange to he cards in starting from the top down ?
By manufacture date or model ?

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Last edited by Intel486dx33 on 2018-09-03, 21:11. Edited 6 times in total.

Reply 1 of 53, by Intel486dx33

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One more card ( 4 total ).

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Reply 3 of 53, by GabrielKnight123

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I built a 486DX2 66 using Dos 6.21 just weeks ago with a PAS16 and it runs very smooth with the 66 MHz but I dont know about the others (33/50 MHz) so maybe go with a 66 for best speeds for games that need it and I have a turbo button on the front of the case that works well too for anything that needs to be at crawling speed.

Reply 5 of 53, by gdjacobs

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I'd be tempted to put a PAS (if I had one) in my 386. The PAS16 is interesting from a historical perspective, but I'm not sure that I would be able to use it much.

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 6 of 53, by Intel486dx33

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Should I use a Socket 7 Pentium 233mhz. CPU with 64mb+ of ram ?
I have some Socket 7 motherboards that I purchased for cheap and they came with CPU and ram.
Also should I use Win98se with built-in driver support for these Media Vision cards ?

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Reply 7 of 53, by gdjacobs

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Can you tell us what exactly your objective is for this build? Do you want "period correct"? Any particular software you want to run? Aside from featuring a Mediavision card, are you thinking of a theme?

There's probably 1000 directions to go so you need to tell us a little more.

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 8 of 53, by Intel486dx33

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Just want to have all 4 cards working in one computer.
Best setup for audio playback.
Not necessarily period correct.
Win98se has native driver support for these cards.
Will the games designed for these cards work in Win98se ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Vision_Pro_AudioSpectrum

What other programs should I install to best support these cards ?
I can setup dual boot dos/Win98se.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Vision#Software

Last edited by Intel486dx33 on 2018-07-13, 15:08. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 10 of 53, by GabrielKnight123

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My PAS16 works great in Dos 6.21 all I used was the PAS16 driver from Vogons Driver Library I havnt used windows 98se with it though and I imagine 98se would be just as good as Dos, the sound quality in Gabriel Knight 1 is the best I have gotten using my PAS16 as all the other cards ive tried had bad popping sounds from the characters voice it has something to do with the PAS16 being shielded, what games do you want to play on your build if you play lots of adventure games with voice you might only need one card have you tested all 4 of your cards and noted which sounds best?

Reply 11 of 53, by JidaiGeki

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Intel486dx33 wrote:

Just want to have all 4 cards working in one computer.
Best setup for audio playback.

Curious why you consider 4 similar or identical cards to give you the best setup for audio playback?

It's bound to get messy having 4x PAS16 cards in one system.
Firstly, make sure your power supply can deliver -5V, as they all require it (ISA Cards & Devices Requiring -5V).
Secondly, running audio from a single CD drive to multiple cards is also going to require a bespoke cable, it wasn't usual for home computers to have multiple multimedia cards in the 90s.
Thirdly, as PAS16s need a driver in DOS, it will be a tangle of addresses and driver names to run even 2 of the cards, let alone 4, as well as memory requirements for the 4x drivers. Win98 might help somewhat, perhaps even Win2K? but it will likely be a fragile setup.
Fourthly, if you're running 4x cards, and only intend to use one speaker setup, you'll need an external mixer, or something to switch sources e.g. a receiver.

It would be enchanting to see such a system built, but it's unlikely to be usable in the way you envisage. Why not mix it up with different sound card types?

On a side note, that Pro Audio Wavetable is so cool, why not focus on getting that up and running? (Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum and Pro Audio Spectrum 16?)

Reply 13 of 53, by Intel486dx33

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JidaiGeki wrote:

Thirdly, as PAS16s need a driver in DOS, it will be a tangle of addresses and driver names to run even 2 of the cards, let alone 4, as well as memory requirements for the 4x drivers. Win98 might help somewhat, perhaps even Win2K? but it will likely be a fragile setup.

Yes, I think I will use a dual boot DOS/Win98se setup.
In DOS I can load the DOS drivers and setup a menu or batch ( .bat ) files to enable/disable certain cards.
( autoexec.bat / config.sys / system.ini / Win.ini )
Windows 98 should pick it up with no problems.

Last edited by Intel486dx33 on 2018-07-13, 15:11. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 14 of 53, by carlostex

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There's no point in having 2 PAS16 + 2 Jazz cards in one system. I mean i have nothing against multi sound card builds, i have one myself, but this makes no sense at all. At least 2 of those cards use the same driver.

An actual original Media Vision Build, if you wanted to do something unique could be:

Thunder and Lightning
Pro Audio Spectrum (dual OPL2)
Pro Audio Spectrum/Studio 16
Pro 3D (with KORG DB)
Pro Movie Spectrum/Studio

Reply 15 of 53, by gdjacobs

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The other issue is that many Mediavision cards (including the PAS16) are resource hogs.

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 17 of 53, by Intel486dx33

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I am going to work on this build this weekend.
I think I will use a Socket 7 motherboard with 233mhz Pentium CPU and Win98se with build in drivers for Media Vision cards.
And a Silver Aluminum Lian Li case with Sony slot loading CDROM.

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Last edited by Intel486dx33 on 2018-08-04, 13:03. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 18 of 53, by brostenen

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Intel486dx33 wrote:

What computer case do you suggest I use ?
Black or Beige or Aluminum ?

Use whatever you personally find the most attractive.

Don't eat stuff off a 15 year old never cleaned cpu cooler.
Those cakes make you sick....

My blog: http://to9xct.blogspot.dk
My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/brostenen

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