appiah4 wrote on 2020-06-01, 12:57:

Falcosoft wrote on 2020-05-31, 02:09:

appiah4 wrote on 2020-05-30, 21:52:

Falcosoft, does it also work for ES1688 cards?

Unfortunately I have no 1688 to test with. But if you have one please try it. There is a chance that Mixer registers are the same in ESS Audiodrive series.

OK, Out of curiosity I replaced the ES1868 in my 1997 build with an ES1688 (for good) and I will try this out tonight 😀

EDIT: I couldn't wait for the night. I can confirm it works 100% with ES1688, so you can change the tool's name to ES1688/1868/1869 Recording Selection 😉

OK, thanks for your test! 😀

I like this card because it works perfectly with my SC-88, unlike the Vibra 16c I was using when the Sound Canvas arrived 😁

That said, my Audiodrive seems to have a few issues. Some games keep changing the volume levels so sound effects were way louder than my SC-88 at max volume until I started changing sound effects volume levels in each game. Apparently this is a common issue though. The other problem is that the audio doesn't seem to have the right stereo balance. Sounds that are supposed to be centered seem to be a bit louder coming from the right channel.....or maybe it's the left one? I can't remember at the moment because I'm so used to this by now that I stopped noticing it as much 😂. Also, the left and right channels are reversed on mine so I had to reverse the RCA cables to fix that. I am probably going to try another ESS Audiodrive in the near future and hopefully the audio output will be much better. I might just go for one of those MPU-401 compatible ISA cards so I can use whatever sound card I want without worrying about the hanging MIDI note bug on several Sound Blaster 16 era Creative cards. I actually really like the CQM chip on my two Vibra 16c cards so I'd definitely use one in my main DOS PC again once I have another way to connect the SC-88.

Channel level issue sounds like a capacitor problem on the card. Also, for the volume levels issue, make a batch file that runs ESSVOL with your initial mixer settings (Say RESETSND.BAT) and run it after every game and you will be fine.

appiah4 wrote on 2020-06-01, 20:11:

Channel level issue sounds like a capacitor problem on the card. Also, for the volume levels issue, make a batch file that runs ESSVOL with your initial mixer settings (Say RESETSND.BAT) and run it after every game and you will be fine.

The only issue with that method is that it doesn't fix the loud volume in-game. I've adapted the sound levels for each game to fit with the typical volume levels that most games it to. Thanks for the tip though 🙂

As for the capacitor issue, you're probably right and now I'm having flashbacks to the many Sega Game Gears I've owned 😂 😭. I only paid $5 for the Audiodrive and for now, I'll keep using it until I can find a replacement. Repairing something that involves capacitor replacements is a little too technical for me.

I found the Terratec Gold-16/96 (ES1868F) to have very reasonable output levels and almost non existent noise. It's slightly more expensive than a basic 1868F though.

appiah4 wrote on 2020-06-01, 20:11:

for the volume levels issue, make a batch file that runs ESSVOL with your initial mixer settings (Say RESETSND.BAT) and run it after every game and you will be fine.

Some games (Lands of Lore, ...) reset the mixer settings almost constantly, so even using a TSR doesn't help. In my setup the output is connected to powered spekers, this allows adjusting the sound separately, and also to connect headphones.

cde wrote on 2020-06-02, 20:01:

I found the Terratec Gold-16/96 (ES1868F) to have very reasonable output levels and almost non existent noise. It's slightly more expensive than a basic 1868F though.

appiah4 wrote on 2020-06-01, 20:11:

for the volume levels issue, make a batch file that runs ESSVOL with your initial mixer settings (Say RESETSND.BAT) and run it after every game and you will be fine.

Some games (Lands of Lore, ...) reset the mixer settings almost constantly, so even using a TSR doesn't help. In my setup the output is connected to powered spekers, this allows adjusting the sound separately, and also to connect headphones.

Terratec Gold and Maestro are my favorite ISA sound cards. I no longer have a Maestro though, I used to have one in the nineties and sold it off to buy a *gasp* Live! in early 2000.

I was a total idiot.

Having some issues with my ES1868. How hot is it supposed to get? Mine is getting pretty toasty within 10-15 seconds and unisound doesn't seem to be detecting any cards in the system. I've had to replace the crystal on it with another 14.31818MHz as the original got knocked off. I'm thinking this card may be toast from neglect 🙁

DMKitsch wrote on 2020-06-02, 22:45:

Having some issues with my ES1868. How hot is it supposed to get? Mine is getting pretty toasty within 10-15 seconds and unisound doesn't seem to be detecting any cards in the system. I've had to replace the crystal on it with another 14.31818MHz as the original got knocked off. I'm thinking this card may be toast from neglect 🙁

That sounds abnormal, there must be a short somewhere on the card, I would think.

Photos?

Getting hot and not detected -> pretty much the ESS chip is dead.

I recently got one of these triangular ESS AudioDrive ES1868F cards, so I thought I'd drop by this thread and share my experiences in a mini-review.

Drivers

In pure DOS, I'm using the 1868 drivers from this pack. Under Windows 98SE, I'm using the VxD drivers (185xw95.zip) from Phil's website. The stock WDM drivers which 98SE installs by default didn't give me good compatibility when running DOS games from within the Win98 DOS prompt, but the VxD ones work perfectly in that regard. I also love how simple it is to configure everything in DOS using ESSCFG.EXE and ESSVOL.EXE. No messing around with PnP utilities like Creative's CTCU/CTCM and Intel's ICU. I've configured the card to use IRQ 7 in both Windows and DOS and muted the mic, aux and line in since I don't use them at the moment. Everything else, I left as is.

ESFM

The FM synthesis on this card sounds excellent and gets very close to a genuine OPL3, at least to my ears. I'd even say that ESFM sounds a bit less "buzzy" and more melodic than true OPL3 which, while different, can produce a more pleasing result on some tracks. Personally, I'd rate it higher than Creative's CQM any day of the week. And for people who are more into General MIDI, the wavetable header on this triangular 1868F that I'm using is rotated by 45 degrees, meaning that it can easily host even the largest wavetable daughterboards.

SBPro mode in DOS

I'm very impressed by how clean and vibrant digital audio sounds in SBPro mode. It also seems to have very good compatibility even with older DOS games. The ES1868F supports ADPCM so Duke Nukem 2 sounds as it should. I've also noticed that older DOS games which use 11 KHz audio samples sound nicer on this card than on some others which run at 48 KHz natively (e.g. SBLive). I'm guessing that since the ES1868F is a native 44.1 KHz card, it handles resampling much better. It's also worth pointing out that this card is completely noise-free with the jumper set to Line Out position.

AudioDrive mode in DOS

In theory, this mode is supposed to bring 16-bit audio quality to DOS games which support it. In practice, the situation isn't so great. From my experience, games which use the HMI sound system (e.g. Tomb Raider, Descent, Daggerfall, Red Alert...) produce muffled sound when the AudioDrive option is selected in setup. Phil demonstrates this behavior in his review video around the 7:08 mark.

For other games that use the Miles sound system, I found that selecting the "ES688 Digital Audio" option (using ADRV688.DIG) wouldn't work on my 1868F card. It simply fails to detect the chip. However, in a few late-era games like Heroes of Might and Magic 2, there's an updated driver called just "ESS AudioDrive" (using AUDIODRV.DIG) which does work on the 1868F and produces nice, clean sound. This AUDIODRV.DIG file can be copied over to older games and using that driver usually enables them to recognize the card giving improved sound clarity. However, in certain cases (e.g. WarCraft 2) it can instead produce inferior, muffled sound which sounds far worse than the SBPro mode.

I'm kinda curious if the AudioDrive mode works better on older ESS cards such as the 688F or the 1688F. Can anyone who has one of those try it and see if it produces muffled sound? Good games to test are Tomb Raider, Descent, Mortal Kombat 3 and WarCraft 2.

Also, UNISOUND should work fine for configuring your ESS 1868 card in DOS.

Although I agree with your other notes. ESS cards are quite excellent once you disable the cheap and nasty onboard amps.

Great review, Joseph_Joestar. The ES1868 is probably my favorite DOS sound card --> Everything. Just. Works. 😀 At least in my case, I can't remember ever encountering a DOS game that didn't work with it. Also, yeah, ESFM is extremely good, very similar to OPL3, at least to my ears (and I have quite a bit of musical talent, I've been playing the violin and piano for 20 years).
And I say "probably my favorite", because I also LOVE the PCI Yamaha YMF7x4 cards (well, more specifically some 724E-V and 724F-V cards, those that have SB Link headers and good circuitry, which, unfortunately, many don't have). Granted, the YMF7x4 cards are not as compatible as the ES1868, but those that have good components sound absolutely stunning in both DOS and Windows, and you can use them to build some ultimate time machines based on Athlon XP / Athlon 64 platforms. I also tested some YMF744 and 754 cards, but I wasn't that impressed by the quality (and you could tell by looking at the cards that they were... cheaply manufactured).

canthearu wrote on 2020-08-14, 08:33:

Also, UNISOUND should work fine for configuring your ESS 1868 card in DOS.

I see the merit of using Unisound with other cards that have messy/unreliable DOS drivers, but with the ESS 1868F, there's no point since configuration is already as simple as it gets.

bloodem wrote on 2020-08-14, 08:53:

The ES1868 is probably my favorite DOS sound card --> Everything. Just. Works. 😀

Heh, this is an underrated feature of the card. Compatible with everything I threw at it in SBPro mode, all games sound phenomenal and DOS drivers are super easy to set up.

And yeah, I love my YMF724F-V as well, but I have to say, digital audio in SBPro mode sounds just a tad nicer on the ESS 1868F. I don't know how to describe it, but it feels ever so slightly clearer. Maybe it's the 48 KHz vs. 44.1 KHz resampling thing, not sure.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2020-08-14, 09:48:

I see the merit of using Unisound with other cards that have messy/unreliable DOS drivers, but with the ESS 1868F, there's no point since configuration is already as simple as it gets.

If you want to use it on an 8088 processor system, Unisound is the way. But yes, ESSCFG/ESSVOL is pretty clean/compatible as far as vendor drivers go!

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2020-08-14, 09:48:

Heh, this is an underrated feature of the card. Compatible with everything I threw at it in SBPro mode, all games sound phenomenal and DOS drivers are super easy to set up.

And yeah, I love my YMF724F-V as well, but I have to say, digital audio in SBPro mode sounds just a tad nicer on the ESS 1868F. I don't know how to describe it, but it feels ever so slightly clearer. Maybe it's the 48 KHz vs. 44.1 KHz resampling thing, not sure.

Bubble bobble doesn't work on the ESS186x cards.

My favorite cards are actually the yamaha ymf718/9 ISA cards. A little more compatible, perfect OPL3. Also excellent sound quality.

Erm Bubble Bobble works in my ESS1869 so, maybe something wrong with machine setup.
Yamaha-OplSAx cards are not more compatible, ok they have genuine OPL3 core, but ESFM is totally fine, but the resampling and ADPCM, there ESS wins.

canthearu wrote on 2020-08-14, 10:17:

Bubble bobble doesn't work on the ESS186x cards.

My favorite cards are actually the yamaha ymf718/9 ISA cards. A little more compatible, perfect OPL3. Also excellent sound quality.

Cyberdyne wrote on 2020-08-14, 10:41:

Erm Bubble Bobble works in my ESS1869 so, maybe something wrong with machine setup.
Yamaha-OplSAx cards are not more compatible, ok they have genuine OPL3 core, but ESFM is totally fine, but the resampling and ADPCM, there ESS wins.

Strange, I couldn't get Sound working in Bubble Bobble on my ESS cards. As I posted earlier in this thread Re: ESS AudioDrive (ES1868) - a surprisingly good ISA sound card

Not saying you are wrong, but my experience was that a few games didn't work with the ESS cards. Of course, this is an edge case, as well as ADPCM is another edge case that is in the favour of ESS cards. Both are still fine cards.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2020-08-14, 09:48:

And yeah, I love my YMF724F-V as well, but I have to say, digital audio in SBPro mode sounds just a tad nicer on the ESS 1868F
... Maybe it's the 48 KHz vs. 44.1 KHz resampling thing, not sure.

It has more to do with non functional SB Pro like low-pass filter ( known problem with these cards). But James-F found a hardware mod solution earlier:
Re: Yamaha YMF71x SB Pro Mixer Bug Issue Fix
These Yamaha cards also has strange SB Pro mixer behavior but it can be also fixed:
Yamaha YMF71x SB Pro Mixer Bug Issue Fix

I also think that out of box SB Pro compatibility is better with the ESS cards.

canthearu wrote on 2020-08-14, 10:17:

My favorite cards are actually the yamaha ymf718/9 ISA cards. A little more compatible, perfect OPL3. Also excellent sound quality.

I like the YMF718/719 cards, but they are far from being as compatible as the ES1868/1869. Heck, they are even less compatible than the PCI YMF7x4 cards!
For example, try to play Prehistorik with Sound Blaster sound on the 71x cards. You will notice that the game has a 0.5 / 1 second freeze before each digital sound is played back. This does not happen with YMF7x4 cards and it certainly does not happen with ES1868 cards.

Just ordered another ESS card off ebay (an ES1868, since all mine are ES1869 cards)

So, just to showcase how it sounds when AudioDrive mode actually does work on the 1868F. I will be using Mortal Kombat 3 for this example, but any game which uses the Miles Sound System should theoretically work too (except WarCraft 2 for some weird reason).

As mentioned before, running SETSOUND.EXE and selecting the "ES688 Digital Audio" option did not detect the 1868F. To circumvent this, I copied over the newer AUDIODRV.DIG from Heroes of Might and Magic 2 to the DRIVERS subfolder of MK3 (where the rest of the .DIG files reside). After that, I re-ran SETSOUND.EXE and selected AUDIODRV.DIG then manual configuration and finally address 220. Here are the results:

The first sample was recorded with SBPro selected in setup, and the second one was recorded using the newly copied AUDIODRV.DIG. Notice the difference in clarity? I've zipped up and attached AUDIODRV.DIG in case someone else wants to test it out too.