I've read that the CT3900 is a flagship model. Is it correct to say that it's a good, or perhaps the best AWE32? If so, why? I've read that its mixer chip is good. On the card, whereabouts is it? Finally, I see it has a chip labelled OPL3 CT1747, but it doesn't mention YMF262 or Yamaha. Why is this please? Is it a "real" OPL3? Thanks a lot in advance for any comments!
Best one, yes. CT1747 bus controller, so no hanging notes bug, real OPL3 (integrated, not external - Creative still had a licence to use the OPL3 at that time), ASP chip, wavetable header, SIMM slots for sample RAM upgrade, and jumpers, so no PnP required. Also, noise isn't that bad either.
It will still have some hanging note bugs:
Now for some blitting from the back buffer.
Type 2: Legitimate hanging notes
This type of the bug has been witnessed in many games, but occurs very rarely. In this case, the hanging notes are part of the soundtrack, but for some reason the "Note off" command is missed.
I don't count that one, because it doesn't happen very often. I never had it myself with any Sound Blaster card so far. Type 1 is the really bad one and you don't want a card with that bug (unless you don't use MIDI, then it doesn't matter anyway). But yes, the type 2 bug can happen with the CT3900 as well, admitted.
CT1745A is the mixer chip. There's a 1994 and a 1995 (minor) revision of the CT3900 board, and they come with different mixer revisions: either the plain CT1745A or CT1745A-TBP on the first rev, CT1745A-S on the second. The latter two also showed up on AWE64's. I don't think anyone knows if there's an actual measurable quality difference.
Thanks a lot for everyone's replies.
What's the difference between CT3900 and CT3890?
Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.
Never heard of a CT3890, but certainly Plug&Play, which the CT3900 does not have.
I had meant to ask about the CT3980.. and yes, it's a PnP card. I guess that's the only (arguably) inferior aspect of it?
Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.
Regarding the CT3980, which is mentioned above, does anyone know its DSP version please? Thanks.
wrote:Regarding the CT3980, which is mentioned above, does anyone know its DSP version please? Thanks.
I don't know if there are several revisions of the board but mine is certainly 4.13. I use a Dreamblaster S2 regardless, and it seems to work fine for Doom. I stick to the AWE32 synth for Tie Fighter, X-Wing etc. to avoid the nastier bugs, though.
Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.
Some reading material: http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2012/07/s … ptions.html?m=1
The CT3900 & CT3980 are basically identical (feature wise) with both having the CT-1747 bus interface chip.
The main difference between the two is that the CT3900 is a non PnP card whereas the CT3980 is PnP (I have the CT3980 and it has DSP version 4.13).
What I've discovered on my CT3980 is a "crackling" sound when digital voices are being played back. By disabling the high DMA channel seems to solve the problem. Not sure if the CT3900 exhibits the same behaviour.
There was some extensive testing done on various models a while back by user James-F.
