VOGONS


First post, by James-F

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Sounds good but has some flaws.

It is an ISA sound card that supports 16bit and SBPro stereo mode.
In DOS it has fixed filter that cannot be disabled unlike the variable filter the real SB16 has of switchable the SBPro has, no HDMA 5 only 0,1,3 so most 16bit games will not work and use the 8bit DMA 1.
Its SBPro mode does support stereo but it is reversed to the real CT1600 card.
Has an authentic OPL3 but it is quieter in comparison to the original SBPro/SB16 so games will sound out of balance, and it is reversed.
Supports Wavetable header and sounds great with just the right balance to the SB output, but it's also reversed to correct Midi playback.
Supports Duke2 sounds.

It is a okay card but falls short if you are spoiled by the real SBPro and SB16 cards and how DOS games meant to be heard.


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Reply 1 of 7, by jesolo

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I also have a similar card but, mine only has the "standard" ALS100 chipset (without the + sign - not sure what the difference is).
I wasn't very overwhelmed by this card. I recall that the sound output of the card was either very low or too high.
The one thing that I found that was nice, was that it did support Sound Blaster 16 as well - I will definitely have to check my card again for high DMA channels. According to the ALS.INI file of my card's installation disk, there is supposed to be a high DMA channel available (which is also specified in this configuration file).

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Reply 2 of 7, by derSammler

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I have an ALS100+ card in my 200 MMX and I'm quite pleased with it. Yes, stereo is reversed, just like with many clone cards. That's why almost all games that support true stereo have a "reverse stereo" option.

I don't see how OPL3 can be "quieter in comparison to the original SBPro/SB16" when you have a mixer to adjust Wave, FM, etc. separately. You can also change fx and music volume in most games separately, too. This is a non-issue.

ps: I tested many ES1868 based cards lately and even with those, wave/fm balance is different for every card. This is not sound chip related but depends on the actual sound card. I found that the balance even changes when switching from speaker out to line out.

Reply 3 of 7, by badmojo

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I've long been interested in these because of the SB16 compatibility - I'm surprised to hear yours didn't allow that James-F.

I tried one once but couldn't get past a horrible hiss; maybe I just had a bad example but I also recall that someone had a theory about an incorrectly configured mixer. I had the original install disks though so can't imagine that I was missing a driver, etc.

Most of the examples of this chipset I see are implemented on cheap looking cards so it might just be a case of finding a good one.

Life? Don't talk to me about life.

Reply 4 of 7, by James-F

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The hiss and volume problem is because of wrong mixer settings when initializing the card in DOS, my card has very low noise floor and proper line-out signal strength so everything is okay related to that.
The wrong balance between SB and FM can be tweaked in the mixer, but some games reset the mixer when entering or exiting the game, yet some other games completely take control over the mixer.

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16bit games in DOS will not use 16bit because the High DMA is not defaulted to 5 which most if not all games use.
I could not set Duke3D or any other 16bit game to use 16bit sound because of that.
Maybe I have DMA 5 taken by other hardware and ALS100+ setup will not show DMA that is already in use but I doubt that it's that smart.

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Quake and Doom use auto select drivers at boot and use the SB16 mode of the ALS100+ in 8bit, which has correct stereo channels, but reversed OPL to the SB16 mode.
The SBPro (interleaved stereo) mode of the ALS100+ is reversed to the real card, but the OPL is also reversed so just switch the plugs, if indeed you use the SBPro mode.
Note that most old games that don't have specific audio setup to select SBPro (interleaved stereo) mode will just use Low DMA 1 which will play using the 8bit SB16 mode of the ALSO100+.
If the game specifically supports the SBPro interleaved stereo mode then the ALS100+ will use its SBPro interleaved stereo mode but it will be reversed.
Moreover, SBCHECK detects the card as SB16 with DSP v4.02,,, so it is a SB16 with interleaved stereo (sbpro) backwards compatibility.


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Reply 5 of 7, by dieymir

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jesolo wrote:

I also have a similar card but, mine only has the "standard" ALS100 chipset (without the + sign - not sure what the

You can get ALS 100 and 100+ datasheets easily on the net There are links on this forum. Main differences are:
- ALS100 does not have a builtin FM synth and needs an external OPL3 or clone.
- ALS100 does support high DMA channels. It's afunctional SB16 clone.

So 100+ is hardly an improvement unless you are an el cheapo sound card manufacturer eager to save some bucks

Reply 6 of 7, by derSammler

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There's actually no relation between 16-bit sample playback and the ability to choose a high DMA channel. It's like saying that an 8-bit VGA card can not display a 16-bit screen mode or a 386sx can not run 32-bit software...

The difference between low and high DMA channels is just bandwidth. A low DMA channel can only transfer a single byte per cycle, a high DMA channel can transfer 2 bytes per cycle (by using both DMA controllers, afaik). Whether the data is 8 bit, 16 bit, or 32 bit doesn't matter. So why decided Creative to use one low and one high DMA channel with the SB16? Simply because on a PC, you only have two low DMA channels free at all, so it would leave you with no options.

Anyway, the ALS100+ plays 16-bit samples just fine using a low DMA channel, as long as the software allows choosing a low DMA channel for 16-bit. Most games adhere to Creative's way to use low DMA for 8-bit and high DMA for 16-bit, but not all do. In BUILD games, you can also overwrite the setting by editing the .cfg file.

ps: the later ViBRA cards default to a low-DMA for 16 bit as well.

Last edited by derSammler on 2018-03-01, 11:45. Edited 3 times in total.

Reply 7 of 7, by orcish75

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I have an ALS120 that I got with a lot purchase of soundcards. It was better than what I expected, I thought it was gonna be really crap, the board certainly doesn't adhere to any quality analogue design principles. It's just a generic board that was produced by the millions I suspect. I couldn't find any difference between it's OPL clone and a real OPL3. The SB wave output has a decent anti-aliasing filter and compatibility was very good.

The hiss drove me mad though and adjusting the mixer after every game got a bit tedious. Once the mixer was adjusted, the output was quiet enough not be irritating and didn't pick up "computer thinking noises". I didn't test the SB16 part, I'll revisit it and report back here.