Vibra16 (except vibra16X) are sb16 with a simplified mixer, they don't have bass, treble, gain control

I don't know what is the difference between Vibra16C and Vibra16S

Vibra16X (found on CT4170) is not trully compatible with SB16, it doesn't have 16bit DMA (the connectors for 16bit transfert are missing on the pcb)

I used a CT2890 with Vibra16S and opl3 for a while and I didn't get compatibility problems

You should check if the card has a real opl3

I tried CT2910 and CT2960 with my SCB-55, both of them have the "hanging notes" MIDI bug. See this thread for more info.
The Vibra cards (except the ultra-cheap Vibra X[V]) generally sound cleaner than SoundBlasters with the 'classic' chipset, but they are missing some mixer features, like StickbyDos already mentioned.

I have a Vibra 16. IIRC it is an ISA Plug and Play card, so it needs a TSR driver to run in DOS (the driver is not for the sound card, but for DMA setting, IRQ setting, etc). I don't know whether I happen to own the model, or all Vibra 16 cards need such driver to run in DOS, though.

Do you mean CTCM, It's for all SB PnP and it doesn't eat memory. It just sets it up.

StickByDos wrote:

Do you mean CTCM, It's for all SB PnP and it doesn't eat memory. It just sets it up.

No, it is not CTCM for sure. I think it's "pre-CTCM" of some sort. I don't kinda remember, but IIRC the name of the file is something like DWCFGMG.SYS or such (sorry, I don't remember the exact wording, I left that one legacy system in my hometown 🙁 ). However, it seems that it reads the ESCD file on my hard drive.

It needs to be loaded to the memory, and even with EMM386, it still eats up a lot of conventional RAM --let alone without EMM386. Thus, to play Ultima VII with sound, I always disable my CD ROM drive (not loading the CD ROM driver) in order to free up sufficient RAM.

I get the impression that it is not made by Creative at all, since during the first time installation, the name displayed is 'ISA Configuration Utility' or such. However, when it's not being loaded to the memory, no sound can be heard.

EDIT: Confirmed. The name is indeed DWCFGMG.SYS. I googled a little, and found the reference here. Yes, it is not CTCM. In fact, I ain't using CTCM at all; only DWCFGMG, and boy, it eats a lot of RAM.

EDIT (again): I googled again out of curiousity. See, this thread makes me wonder why my particular Vibra16 uses DWCFGMG instead of CTCM, and found something interesting here

The normal Creative installation process should have provided a DOS Configuration Manager called CTCM.EXE, which will have been inserted into your CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT file. (DWCFGMG.SYS is an alternate PnP manager that may be used in CONFIG.SYS, but it uses 1700 bytes of low DOS memory whereas CTCM does not, and doesn't set the BLASTER string in the DOS environment.)

If you have a Windows 9x system, it should be in your C:\WINDOWS\DOSSTART.BAT file. This is the file that is supposed to perform tasks similar to AUTOEXEC.BAT when you select 'Start ... Shut Down ... Restart in MS-DOS Mode'.

I hope this will be (somewhat) useful for anyone considering Vibra16 as their legacy sound card.

Well the good news is that DWCFGMG doesn't need EMM386. Nope. It can be perfectly loaded to conventional RAM (DEVICE=C:\DWCFGMG.SYS), so it can run Ultima VII perfectly (unlike, for instance, Sound Blaster Live! driver that needs EMM386). However, do mind that it devours conventional RAM, so you may need to disable your CD ROM drive or other devices.

1700 bytes is not that bad compared to the totally useless CTMMSYS.SYS and CTSB16.SYS drivers Creative's DOS installer is so happy to include in the CONFIG.SYS. They easily take 10 KB 😳, but are not needed for anything important, so you can REM them out...

well, thanks to everyall.
i use the vibra 16 card, the other card are too long (touch some component in the mother board).
the problem of the hanging notes is very extended?

It depends on the game, if you want to check your setup, run DOOM (the shareware version will do) with Gerneral MIDI (Sound Canvas, Wave Blaster) music. The bug cannot be missed in the music of the first level, single instruments will 'get stuck' after a short time, it sounds very annoying. If it plays fine on your card, don't bother 😉

As I recall, there were two main compatibility issues with the Vibras. First, the mixers did not have separate treble/bass controls. Second, the Vibras used two 8-bit DMA channels to simulate one 16-bit DMA channel, which didn't always work properly.

I always recommend for a Sound Blaster 16 the original model, the CT-1740, preferably with a v4.05 DSP and an ASP chip if one can be found.

another little problem...
in dos this card works ok (no drivers or setting need).
but with windows 98, there are some software or driver to install?
i have thy yesterday, but i think, windows 98 can't see the roland card....
where i can find the drivers?
or the settings?

Roland card and midi devices needn't drivers. They are detected as a MPU401 interface.
You just have to set up the driver for an MPU401 which matches io ports and irq of your roland card.

you are right!
the sound of the soundcanvas is great!
now in windows 98 i have very nice midi sound!
thanks!