Start by downloading the following driver pack, courtesy of Gerwin:
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?file … 616&menustate=0

Copy the ES1868 directory into your favourite drivers location on your HDD. The two setup utilities are ESSCFG.EXE and ESSVOL.EXE. If you look at GO.BAT, you can decipher what each flag does. For instance, /I:5 on ESSCFG.EXE would specify IRQ 5. ESSCFG ! will provide a menu to generate the flags and input them into your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

Also, related - the ESS1868 is compatible with a Sound Blaster Pro. It does support 16-bit sound, but its 16-bit mode is not quite SB16-compatible. That's not a major issue - most DOS games really only use the full capabilities of an SB Pro anyway. A few games do have native ESS Audiodrive support, though - if you see that, use it.

Incidentally, between the Audiodrive (1868/1869) and the SB16 Vibra, the Audiodrive is pretty much better in every case but one. That one case is where you need 16-bit sound output and only SB16 is supported, which is very rare under DOS. Under Windows, OS/2 and Unix, it doesn't matter - those have a sound API, and one 16-bit card is as good as any other (mostly).

Thanks to both of you , this was a huge help my ESS 1868F is working like a charm now 😊

jade_angel wrote:

Also, related - the ESS1868 is compatible with a Sound Blaster Pro. It does support 16-bit sound, but its 16-bit mode is not quite SB16-compatible. That's not a major issue - most DOS games really only use the full capabilities of an SB Pro anyway. A few games do have native ESS Audiodrive support, though - if you see that, use it.

Sorry to hijack another man's thread, but I'm kind of curious. I often see people here on Vogons mentioning that SB Pro compatibility is actually more important than SB16 for 386 to 486 period. And since SB16 is not backwards compatible, an SB16 clone (with SB Pro compatibility) is actually more preferable than, say, CT2230 or a Vibra with true OPL3. Is any of that true?

There's a few things at work here - one, is that most DOS games, except for the late Pentium era maybe, don't really support SB16 as such. Instead, SB Pro is what they target, along with other options like PAS and GUS MAX, and a few target the ESS Audiodrive too. To boot, many games that do explicitly support SB16 don't really sound any better than they do on an SB Pro (or compatible) The SB16s, to include the AWE32 and AWE64, were backward compatible with the SB Pro - the compatibility issue is that most of the clones, ESS, Yamaha, etc, are SB Pro compatible, but are not themselves SB16-compatible, even if they support the same capabilities.

The trouble is that there were many, many versions of the SB16, and they're not all equal. Some have CQM instead of OPL3 (big, notable difference in sound quality). Some are noisy. Some have hanging note bugs. A good SB16 is a great, period-correct card, that will work for almost everything. A dubious one, not so much. Since the good ones are expensive, hard to find and hard to identify (and the folks selling them may have misidentified what they're selling), you're generally better off with an Audician32 (which does have a real OPL3) or an Audiodrive (which doesn't, but has a very good workalike) than with an SB16 that might be one of the cruddy ones. And, since you don't get much out of the 16-bit sound capability in DOS games, that's often a better deal. And, under Windows or OS/2, you get 16-bit sound anyway.

Thanks a lot, that really cleared things up for me.

jade_angel wrote:

Instead, SB Pro is what they target, along with other options like PAS and GUS MAX, and a few target the ESS Audiodrive too.

Some also target WSS and a few target Ensoniq.

jade_angel wrote:

The SB16s, to include the AWE32 and AWE64, were backward compatible with the SB Pro - the compatibility issue is that most of the clones, ESS, Yamaha, etc, are SB Pro compatible, but are not themselves SB16-compatible, even if they support the same capabilities.

SB16 cards were not SB Pro compatible. They were SB 2.0 compatible with stereo OPL3 support via SB16 methods and direct programming.

gdjacobs wrote:

jade_angel wrote:

Instead, SB Pro is what they target, along with other options like PAS and GUS MAX, and a few target the ESS Audiodrive too.

Some also target WSS and a few target Ensoniq.

Good point, forgot about those.

gdjacobs wrote:

jade_angel wrote:

The SB16s, to include the AWE32 and AWE64, were backward compatible with the SB Pro - the compatibility issue is that most of the clones, ESS, Yamaha, etc, are SB Pro compatible, but are not themselves SB16-compatible, even if they support the same capabilities.

SB16 cards were not SB Pro compatible. They were SB 2.0 compatible with stereo OPL3 support via SB16 methods and direct programming.

Did not know that! I never had an SB16, though I did have an AWE64. I seem to remember being able to tell games that the AWE64 was an SB Pro and have things work - am I smoking keys here or is this one of those cases where most games would have done the right thing anyway, but with subtle differences?

I believe SB16 cards ARE SB Pro compatible but only in Mono.

In a stereo digitized sound test; SB16/AWE card is indeed mono when using a SBPro driver. So the SB16 is in a weird grey area between compatible and incompatible. To my ears; a sound intended for full Left/Right pan sounds a bit weaker then the same sound with no pan.
There was an argument that pretty much all games that do stereo support SB16 interfacing anyways. What may complicate that argument is that SSI games for example mention SB16 in setup, while internally using a SBPro driver anyways.

I wonder what is the technical reason for this mono output on real SB16 cards. There are a few clone cards that managed to combine the SBpro interface with the SB16 interface just fine. No problem in DosBox either.

gerwin wrote:

I wonder what is the technical reason for this mono output on real SB16 and AWE cards.

Not sure, but I guess it's again related to the mixer(s).
The SB16 perhaps can't reparate the Left/Right channels inside of the combined PCM stream.
I believe that's not to be confused with the stereo mode of Wolf3D. That uses a single PCM mono stream and panning.

jade_angel wrote:

Since the good ones are expensive, hard to find and hard to identify (and the folks selling them may have misidentified what they're selling....

eBay was awash with cheap CT2230s and CT2290s last time I looked, and QCM is fine.

Jo22 wrote:

Not sure, but I guess it's again related to the mixer(s).
The SB16 perhaps can't reparate the Left/Right channels inside of the combined PCM stream.
I believe that's not to be confused with the stereo mode of Wolf3D. That uses a single PCM mono stream and panning.

Maybe, like this - Quote from James-F:

Also, SB16 hardware does NOT have interweaved stereo like the SBPro, so is will play in mono with interweaved SBPro stereo games.

But then again, SB16 16-bit audio audio is also interweaved. Like this:
left low-byte - left high-byte - right low-byte - right high-byte
According the Creative programming guide (pdf) the SB16 does not support the 8-bit mono/stereo 'High-Speed' modes of the previous cards. That includes the 44kHz mono mode introduced with SB2.0 and the stereo mode of the SBPro.

Also noticed this - Quote from Harekiet (page 4):

But on the sb16 the whole stereo output was moved into the dsp so there it doesn't care about the mixer settings anymore

badmojo wrote:

jade_angel wrote:

Since the good ones are expensive, hard to find and hard to identify (and the folks selling them may have misidentified what they're selling....

eBay was awash with cheap CT2230s and CT2290s last time I looked, and QCM is fine.

I've had to look pretty hard to find a CT2290 for a decent price and IME CQM is pretty bad. ESFM and Crystal FM are a million times better if you'll go for an OPL3 clone, and they won't have MIDI headaches..

appiah4 wrote:

badmojo wrote:

eBay was awash with cheap CT2230s and CT2290s last time I looked, and QCM is fine.

I've had to look pretty hard to find a CT2290 for a decent price and IME CQM is pretty bad. ESFM and Crystal FM are a million times better if you'll go for an OPL3 clone, and they won't have MIDI headaches..

Yep I'm a big fan of Audiodrives and some Crystal based clones too but I've also had some pretty damn good times with various SB16s, so wanted to come to their defense a little. Software is a factor also and that's something that Creative did well, where the DOS software for the OPLSAx cards for example is a cluster fudge.

For those new to the hobby, the SB16 is a great option I think.

badmojo wrote:

appiah4 wrote:

badmojo wrote:

eBay was awash with cheap CT2230s and CT2290s last time I looked, and QCM is fine.

I've had to look pretty hard to find a CT2290 for a decent price and IME CQM is pretty bad. ESFM and Crystal FM are a million times better if you'll go for an OPL3 clone, and they won't have MIDI headaches..

Yep I'm a big fan of Audiodrives and some Crystal based clones too but I've also had some pretty damn good times with various SB16s, so wanted to come to their defense a little. Software is a factor also and that's something that Creative did well, where the DOS software for the OPLSAx cards for example is a cluster fudge.

For those new to the hobby, the SB16 is a great option I think.

Can i have a question ? I did find one SB16 it's ct2950 from 1995 one capacitor needed to be replaced, hovewer iam really interested in Lucas Art games like DOTT so it won't produce any sound i guess ? because it's not backwards compatible , which card should i get ? I hope it's not AWE because with shipping from america it's about 400 usd which i can't curently afford , can you please recommend some cards i might look for ?

Thank you,

Aglenoth

I dont see any reason why the SB16 would not produce sound with DOTT, I played DOTT with an SB16 in the day and şt had digital sound and FM music.

Are you refereüng to General MIDI music? That would require either a MIDI device (daughterboard or external) or a card with a wavetable onboard such as the AWE cards. An AWE64 value costs much less than $400 shipped unless you live in Mars? Cheaper alternatives exist such as in the form of Dreambkaster S2 daughterboards.

I'm looking at AWE64s on eBay US right now, and they're coming in between $50 and $150 before shipping depending on version. That's a little much, but a far cry from $400. If they really run that high where you are, I'd strongly consider ordering one from the US and paying the international shipping. Or, equivalently (or better, for General MIDI) a $20 Audiodrive and a Dreamblaster S2. (Or if your SB16 has a wavetable header - most of them did, but I think there were some that didn't - just use that with the Dreamblaster.)