cvgl wrote on 2020-04-21, 10:26:

I have AWE64 CT4520, also "not gold" but already with colorful sockets: […]
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I have AWE64 CT4520, also "not gold" but already with colorful sockets:

To compare the sound from the game "DOOM" I would need to have files for this game. However, as for the noise, the sound is noisy not during silence but during music / sound. And as I wrote in some games, the sound is noisy and quiet but in others it is good.

I connect the amplifier cable to the green output on the card.

I recorded an part from the game Pinball Fantasies from the Beat Box table (I kept the original volume):

If you have jumper caps on the internal pin header like in this photo (blue and black one just behind the green line output jack), try taking them out. They don't belong there. You're shorting the line-out.

Not sure if its only a 8bit question... indeed, 8 bit sound is quite hissy and not so "loud". But that's all we had at some point...

If you are in a Pure DOS. There should be some DOS software with the card. Like CTMIXER. You can disable ALL not needed inputs on the card and crank the volume up (if already not). Then use the line-out and amplify it outside of the card.

I got GUS PnP, SB16, Audio PCI (from Creative), Live!, Live! 24 bit. Had CS8738 at some point, friend had ESS18xx. Among the ISA cards I had, GUS is the quietest and way above everything else (interpolation rocks). It is also better then CSxxx and internal sound cards of 2004s. "Live!" is quite noisy too - but does not pick up the interference.

Among ALL the cards I got, Live! 24 is the quietest. I never had AWE cards so cannot compare.

firage wrote on 2020-04-21, 16:24:

If you have jumper caps on the internal pin header like in this photo (blue and black one just behind the green line output jack), try taking them out. They don't belong there. You're shorting the line-out.

You're right. Earlier I suggested the instructions according to which jumpers should be installed:

However, I just checked the path transitions with a multimeter and it turned out that after pulling out the jack the circuit is getting short. I confirmed this with information found on another forum:

https://www.giraffeboards.com/showthread.php?t=1403

Apparently the manual is not from this card but from different Sound Blaster cards. I took off these jumpers. This place is used to connect the audio cable directly from the MB card (from an internal amplifier or from line out), not from jack sockets. Maybe it was provided for some additional sockets in the computer case. However, removing the jumpers did not improve the sound.

ershn8d wrote on 2020-04-21, 16:30:

If you are in a Pure DOS. There should be some DOS software with the card. Like CTMIXER. You can disable ALL not needed inputs on the card and crank the volume up (if already not). Then use the line-out and amplify it outside of the card.

Yes, it's pure DOS. I launched the MIXERSET.EXE configuration program:

I switched off unnecessary sources, slider turned the volume down. During the setup, I noticed that when I set the volume of the external amplifier to a higher volume, the card was noisy, even when no sound was played. These noises gradually increase and when a sound appears it decreases. I don't know why this happens. It looks like the card is automatically adjusting its volume. Weird. When I set the MASTER slider to maximum volume, the noise increased even more.

I launched the second configuration program DIAGNOSE.EXE:

Test of sounds and music OK, only at point 1 "8 bit digitized sound" I can hear slight background noise. During the other tests the sound is very good, loud and clear.

Then the program asked for the folders C:\SB16\DRV and C:\VIBRA\DRV.

I don't have these folders so an error occurred:

I do not know, however, why these folders are needed, since this is not a Sound Blaster 16 card but a Sound Blaster AWE64 card.

Then I started running games:

In Pinball Dreams the sound is still noisy but a bit better. This is probably the result of reducing the volume settings on the sources in the mixer. IMHO sound in this game sounds like it was in 8 bits instead of 16.

In Pinball Fantasies I have set SoundBlaster 16 in sound settings:

With this setting, the sound is very good and clear, without noise. Sounds like 16 bit. I know that Pinball Fantasies plays music from .mod files and as you can see there are no problems playing these files well.

In PSYCHO Pinball, the sound sounds like it is monophonic and too loud, it is slightly noisy. In addition, sometimes there are very large clicks that I can hardly hear the sound of the game. These clicks also change their intensity when the image appears and/or disappears. I had those crackles in this game before but I don't know why they occur and how to fix them. Maybe this card is damaged?

There is an MPU401 emulation jumper on the card. What is MPU401 emulation? When the jumper is on, MPU401 emulation is enabled.

Oh, ok. I'm used to the newer cards and motherboard using green for speaker output.

You're right. Earlier I suggested the instructions according to which jumpers should be installed: […]
Show full quote

You're right. Earlier I suggested the instructions according to which jumpers should be installed:

However, I just checked the path transitions with a multimeter and it turned out that after pulling out the jack the circuit is getting short. I confirmed this with information found on another forum:

https://www.giraffeboards.com/showthread.php?t=1403

Apparently the manual is not from this card but from different Sound Blaster cards. I took off these jumpers. This place is used to connect the audio cable directly from the MB card (from an internal amplifier or from line out), not from jack sockets. Maybe it was provided for some additional sockets in the computer case. However, removing the jumpers did not improve the sound.

There are no jumpers on the card, that would turn internal amp on and off. There are two separate outputs for that reason, installing jumpers to turn amplifier off doesn't make any sense.

I switched off unnecessary sources, slider turned the volume down. During the setup, I noticed that when I set the volume of the external amplifier to a higher volume, the card was noisy, even when no sound was played. These noises gradually increase and when a sound appears it decreases. I don't know why this happens. It looks like the card is automatically adjusting its volume. Weird. When I set the MASTER slider to maximum volume, the noise increased even more.

That's why I attached the "silence" track, for you to compare, if your card sounds the same. But apparently it doesn't.

There is an MPU401 emulation jumper on the card. What is MPU401 emulation? When the jumper is on, MPU401 emulation is enabled.

This is what manual says:

Enabling/Disabling MPU-401 MIDI Emulation
The MPU-401 MIDI Emulation feature allows most real mode games,which do not support wavetable synthesis, to play wavetable musicfrom the audio card. The MIDI output from the games is directed tothe wavetable synthesizer rather than the MPU-401 interface. Gamesthat have not been designed to use the wavetable synthesis features onyour card can now use them

daikatana_ wrote on 2020-04-22, 07:52:

Enabling/Disabling MPU-401 MIDI EmulationThe MPU-401 MIDI Emulation feature allows most real mode games,which do not support wavetable synthesis, to play wavetable musicfrom the audio card. The MIDI output from the games is directed tothe wavetable synthesizer rather than the MPU-401 interface. Gamesthat have not been designed to use the wavetable synthesis features onyour card can now use them

I guess the game has to be set to General Midi music output for this. Then the soundcard is expected to play its MIDI patches from the ROM, until there is some utility to run before the game, that loads patches into the RAM...

That's probably what the ULTRAMID was made for...

derSammler wrote on 2020-04-21, 07:16:

Mixing is defined by frequency, not resolution. No matter how many 8-bit samples you mix, the resulting values are still 8-bit only. To improve mixing quality, you need to use a higher frequency, like 44 KHz instead of 22 KHz. I know some games (again BUILD engine ones, no idea why they are so odd) have such a "16-bit mixing" option, but that refers to the samples used for mixing and is actually just a dumb way asking whether you have an SB16 or not, so it can use 16-bit samples if you do.

Also, it doesn't change my statement that you can only make use of it when the game has support for the SB16.

Only a few, very late DOS games use 16-bit samples at all. Not a single one that came on floppy, as saving space to reduce the number of floppy disks was the most important thing back then. And Stereo in games supporting the SB Pro is rare? Seriously? The SB Pro 2.0 was the first sound card I ever bought and I used it until about 1997. Almost every game I played had Stereo sound. The original release of X-Wing for example has no SB16 support and gives you Stereo SFX only with an SB Pro. The Mono-only bug in SB Pro-mode of the SB16 is the worst and most-often mentioned disadvantage of it.

Both higher sampling frequency (to a point) and higher bit rate is useful. Higher bit rates allow you to preserve detail when the mixed track is attenuated. It won't necessarily get swamped out by other tracks that need more head room. Higher sampling frequencies are useful if an instrument is pitch shifting something sampled at a lower frequency. This can happen with tracker music and also with effects processing. Higher sampling rates are not handy if there's no information in the frequencies above 1/2 the original sampling rate going into the final mix.

Audio engineers usually run with floating point sample formats, but often use just 48khz. Once you're above the Nyquist limit, you're either wasting bits or catering to the mice.

OK, this card annoyed me and I bought Sound Blaster 16 this time. The sound is a bit better on this card, moreover, in PSYCHO Pinball there is no more crackling about which I wrote earlier (on Sound Blaster AWE64 after some time "crackling" which almost completely drowned out the sound of the game). I suspect that AWE64 is damaged. I don't know what it can be, whether capacitors or preamplifier or the main chip is falling. I do not have time and I do not want to look for it because it may turn out that I will sit on repair for 3 days and it will not do anything.