First post, by rpocc
UPD: Issue resolved, it was a bad or wrongly configured drivers
UPD2: Mysteriously, a new issue appeared, see post 7
Maybe this question was asked many times before, but to my surprise I haven't found any discussion about sound differences between CQM sound specifically of AWE64 comparably to other newer cards like Vibra16 or AWE32, SB32, etc.
Recently I got in my hands a bunch of various SB cards to test with the standard utility, DIAGNOSE.EXE.
Apart from PCM and wavetable/sampling synth, I was noticing that FM sound can be divided into 3 primary categories: OPL, CQM, AWE64 CQM. What I have found:
All cards with OPL/Yamaha chips were sounding as expected: an accurately filtered, mild FM synthesis, a bit noisy but pleasant to my ears.
More recent cards, such as CT3630 and generally cards with 3xxx index sound similarly, but with additional high-frequency content, which can be considered either as brighter sound or non-demanded high harmonics dependent on the listener's personal taste.
But what had surprised me, AWE64 Value, CT4500 and CT4520 has the worst CQM sound I heard, having sort of parasite clicking during playback of that Bach piece on all 4 cards I have. And similar artefacts were on the typical game I picked for testing: Supaplex, which sound I know well.
Is this a normal property of AWE64 or am I missing something about it? When I had only one, I was thinking it's a malfunction of my unit and even tried to replace LS245, capacitors, etc, but no, other units sound the same.
Is there other models that have the same property of FM synth to avoid? This is weird because normally AWE64 is fairly valued, obviously for its built-in wavetable bank and easy S/PDIF mod. What about AWE64 Gold?
