The Washington 16 has an AZT2316 controller chip which provides SB, SB Pro, and WSS support. It doesn't clone the SB16. The Pro 2 is an excellent card which provides the gold standard in sound and compatibility (but not necessarily sound quality) for software of it's generation, but the Aztech card does provide all the functionality of the SB Pro plus WSS compatibility, excellent FM sound with a genuine OPL3 chip, and unglitched MIDI output. Some behaviors like output filtering might be handled differently than the SB Pro card resulting in a slightly different sound. In short, the SB Pro card might be redundant in this build and best used elsewhere.

If you ever do want to run two cards at once, the key is to use resources (IO address, IRQ, DMA) that don't conflict.

Thank you for the reply gdjacobs. I do have a Sound Blaster 16 CT 2290 coming in the mail which I intended to use instead of the Aztech card. I'm not 100% sure I have a Washington 16 here, it's a packard bell branded card I haven't seen before, I'll attach a pic.

Edit: http://imgur.com/a/H8mbd Original photo if you want to see it closer

Resized image:

Was I correct that this is a washington 16? I see the YMF232 on it as well. So this is not a sound blaster 16 compatible card but will have wave support for windows?

The Aztech part number, I38-MMSN824 in this case, identifies everything about the card in question. This one is a Washington 16 with features pretty much as I indicated. The YMF262 and YAC512 chips are genuine Yamaha chips and provide FM music support for this card, The controller chip (under the sticker) provides all the PCM (WAV output) modes that I listed. The most advanced Creative Labs card it can emulate is the SB Pro 2.0, which it successfully does except for the output filter SB Pro 2 which is not implemented here. For that reason, the output is able to produce higher pitched tones (whether desired or undesired) than the SB Pro 2.0. Bottom line, this is a difference. It can also output 16 bit PCM audio using WSS protocols.

This card will provide excellent sound support for both DOS and Windows, although I invite you to test and experiment. Especially in PC audio, there generally is no perfect solution, so what works for your applications and your ear might not work for another person. Some cards are definitely weak, but even very good cards (yours is one) have strengths and weaknesses which may come into play with your particular situation.

Thanks again, btw nice avatar "eh"!

So in terms of my project I can expect this card to work as a SB Pro II but not 16, so I was right to buy the SB16 at least. By the way I'm not exactly interested in windows sound, I'm just using win 98 for an easier programming environment and intend to run it on a 486 DX4 if that makes sense.

My memory is too hazy with this stuff.. Are Sound Blaster 16 cards backwards compatible and if so how far back? How about Awe32? Let's pretend its ~1993 and you were writing a game engine (with sound), what card would you be using on your development machine? I'm not understanding yet how the physical hardware varies from card to card, and from a programming standpoint I'm not sure what changes will be needed from one driver to another.

I'm trying to figure out which specific card I want to target for my project and if there is a one size fits all test card I should use for development, though I realize the sounds will vary as usual between cards, that's fine as long as the sound works in the short term. CPU requirement will likely be 486DX - DX2 which makes me think I should target a SB 2.0 or Pro 2.0, I've decided against Adlib/CMS chips. I'll eventually be wanting to verify through testing that the software does in fact work on different models from the 2.0 up to at least the 16 hence why I wanted to run multiple cards for testing.

I've written a sound library into my project that will open ctvoice.drv and play .voc files using the driver from a CT1350 disk,which I haven't been able to test on real hardware yet. According to the book I'm using as a reference this code should work on Sound Blaster V2.0 , Sound Blaster Pro v2.0, SB16, and SB16 "ASP" as long as the user provides the ctvoice.drv for their specific model (the book predates the Awe32, so I'm not sure about that). I have not gotten to the music driver yet for CMF files.

So I'm not sure the Aztech card will be a one size fits all for me if it stops at Pro 2 since I notice many modern DOS users here run SB16 - Awe64.. But I'm also not sure if a SB16 or even an Awe32 would either.

Sorry for the long post, programming these cards is fairly complex and I've barely scratched the surface. Short of it is, I don't know if there is a single card I should pick for development or just get every last card from a 2.0 to an awe64 and try them out one at a time.. Thoughts?? 😊

Loop from SBPro2 Speaker-out to SB16 Line-In and SB16 line-out to your speakers.

For a dual SB16 & SBPro2 configuration with the SBPro2 as the main card I set as following:

The SB16 is at A240 I5 D0, and the SBPro2 is at A220 I7 D1.
If the SB16 is of PnP kind it should be loaded first in autoexec.bat, then the SBpro2.

1SET BLASTER=A240 I5 D0 H5 P330 T6
2C:\SB_16\DIGNOSE.EXE /S
3C:\SB_16\MIXER /P /Q
4
5SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T4
6C:\SB_PRO\SBP-SET.EXE /Q /DNFI:ON /M:15 /VOC:15 /FM:15 /X:0 /LINE:0 /CD:0

To set the SB16 mixer you first have to run the SET BLASTER=A240 I5 D0 command before executing the mixer program, because the last one was for the SBPro2.
The mixer program reads the BLASTER environment variable.

SB16 mixer settings as following:

Voice is at max.
MIDI is default at zero because both the SBPro2 and SB16 will play Adlib/FM from port A388 at the same time.
I only Turn MIDI to max when I want to hear the Waveblaster daughterboard and only with specific games.
Line is max to receive the SBPro2 signal.
Master is one click below max to prevent distortion.
Output gain at x4 and only for Line.
Disable everything in the Input tab including AGC.

SAVE this mixer configuration because this will be your main preset the will be run from autoexec.bat.
If you want to change the mixer to something else, just do it without clicking Save.
*note the BLASTER variable before running the mixer.
When done with the SB16 mixer return to SBPro2 BLASTER (220 7 1) variable.
I keep a few batch files with the BLASTER commands if a want to adjust the SB16 mixer and back to SBPro2.

When I want to hear the SB16 MIDI/OPL/FM I just pull the loop cable out from the SBPro2.

To adjust the SBPro2 volume to exactly match the SB16 volume I use DOS MPXPlay and a 440Hz sine wave test tone and adjust the SBpro wheel, while looking an a recording meter in my recording PC to witch I send the SB16 line-out.
Yes, here too you need to set the BLASTER variable first before running MPXPlay for the same reason as the SB16 Mixer.
But, you can do the balance between SBPro2 and SB16 by ear with your favorite game, make sure not to clip the line-in of the SB16 with too high output from the SBPro2.

There you go, hope you have a strong heart and huge patience. 😎

Thank you James F! Great guide, I really appreciate it.

I think I'll be going with this for my work machine once my sb16 arrives and I'll drop the Aztech card in a separate machine on it's own per gdjacobs recommendation. I'll let you know how it works out, I have plenty of patience 🤣 .. I did just get the Packard Bell/Aztech card going on it's own and it sure does sound close to the SB pro2 and has no problem with windows audio either, what a nice card it is.

I'm still curious though if the drivers I mentioned in my above post such as ctvoice.drv for a SB pro 2 are compatible with the Aztech card or if I'll need to find a programming manual for these. That opens up another can of worms for me 😎

BeginnerGuy wrote:

Thanks again, btw nice avatar "eh"! […]
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Thanks again, btw nice avatar "eh"!

So in terms of my project I can expect this card to work as a SB Pro II but not 16, so I was right to buy the SB16 at least. By the way I'm not exactly interested in windows sound, I'm just using win 98 for an easier programming environment and intend to run it on a 486 DX4 if that makes sense.

My memory is too hazy with this stuff.. Are Sound Blaster 16 cards backwards compatible and if so how far back? How about Awe32? Let's pretend its ~1993 and you were writing a game engine (with sound), what card would you be using on your development machine? I'm not understanding yet how the physical hardware varies from card to card, and from a programming standpoint I'm not sure what changes will be needed from one driver to another.

I'm trying to figure out which specific card I want to target for my project and if there is a one size fits all test card I should use for development, though I realize the sounds will vary as usual between cards, that's fine as long as the sound works in the short term. CPU requirement will likely be 486DX - DX2 which makes me think I should target a SB 2.0 or Pro 2.0, I've decided against Adlib/CMS chips. I'll eventually be wanting to verify through testing that the software does in fact work on different models from the 2.0 up to at least the 16 hence why I wanted to run multiple cards for testing.

I've written a sound library into my project that will open ctvoice.drv and play .voc files using the driver from a CT1350 disk,which I haven't been able to test on real hardware yet. According to the book I'm using as a reference this code should work on Sound Blaster V2.0 , Sound Blaster Pro v2.0, SB16, and SB16 "ASP" as long as the user provides the ctvoice.drv for their specific model (the book predates the Awe32, so I'm not sure about that). I have not gotten to the music driver yet for CMF files.

So I'm not sure the Aztech card will be a one size fits all for me if it stops at Pro 2 since I notice many modern DOS users here run SB16 - Awe64.. But I'm also not sure if a SB16 or even an Awe32 would either.

Sorry for the long post, programming these cards is fairly complex and I've barely scratched the surface. Short of it is, I don't know if there is a single card I should pick for development or just get every last card from a 2.0 to an awe64 and try them out one at a time.. Thoughts?? 😊

Hey, right on, eh! Windows is for hosers. It's like people who drink beer from cans. We drink 'em from bottles, eh!

Anyway, I don't believe any card is a one size fits all option. Although WSS (Windows Sound System) does support DOS command line - despite the name - and does allow 16 bit support for the Aztech card, there are some games that don't support it and do support SB 16 and AWE cards. Crusader: No Regret and No Remorse, for instance.

The SB16 cards are somewhat strange as they aren't backwards compatible with SB Pro cards, but they are backwards compatible with SB 1 and 2 (non stereo). They also have some other quirks. For further comparison of the Pro 2 and SB16 cards, I encourage you to read James-F's definitive threads on the subject.

Hahaha Yeah. OK, well, uh, we found, uh, this mouse in your power supply, eh. Like, we was at a party and, uh, a friend of ours - a COP - saw it, and HE PUKED. And he said, uh, come here and get free hardware or, uh, he'll press charges.

SB 16 backwards compatible with SB 1 and 2 but not pro.. SIGH. I think I'm going to have to continue as I was doing with the SB pro 2 and then learn the later cards as I go or I'll go into a tailspin on this. Hard enough building a graphics engine X_X.

I'll look for his thread on the subject, thanks again!

edit: I hate to be annoying but I'm not much of a forum guy, how can I find his threads on the subject? Best I can find is to click view posts under his account

He has three really informative ones listed in his sig.

So, like, take off! Yeah, take off to his threads, eh!, it's a beauty way to go!