Adlib Gold seems to be more sensitive to bus speed than CPU speed. I've been running it on my Pentium MMX just fine. The system is downclocked to 50MHz FSB + 2x multi, but i only get problems if i bump the FSB to 66MHz. The more control you have over the ISA BUS speed the better.

On a 386 you might have the option to play with the ISA CLK divider but set it too low and you'll downgrade your VGA performance. On a 486 VLB or PCI you might get better results, since i don't think no one wants to use an ISA VGA with those systems.

The Gold has a lot of game support through sound API's. Most notably is AIL2 (games like Dune 2, Kyrandia 1 and 2, or anything that uses ADV drivers), also AIL/32 (protected mode drivers DLL extension, ex: SimCity 2000, Inherit the Earth). HMI SOS also supports the Adlib Gold (ex: Little Big Adventure, Command & Conquer). Unfortunately there is no digital support for AIL3 (DIG driver), there is a music driver (MDI) for the Gold, but John Miles never bothered to make a digital one. I started to make one myself (ADLGOLD.DIG), but only got far as having the detection of the card working. I stopped that work simply because i wasn't able to progress further.

Dune is the game that has specialized support for the Gold. Neither the floppy or the CD version have digital support for the card. In the CD version you can always select a Sound Blaster for digital sound. Weirdly enough, the CD version does something to the Gold where it sets the FM synth volume insanely low. When i check the mixer settings for the card after i run the game the FM volume is set to the mid 20's (scale goes from 0 to 100) even though the true range through the registers is 0 to FFh.

The card works fine otherwise, and in Dune with the surround module the soundtrack sounds absolutely fantastic, with well pronounced mids and really bass heavy. If you have a good speaker system with a subwoofer, the intro tune can make your house shake.

vetz wrote on 2025-11-20, 16:26:

Thanks for your input. I am aware of Dune, but Adlib Gold is also supported (not fully like in Dune) in Simcity 2000 and some later games, which will not run that well on a 386.

True, it depends on what games you are looking at using it with. It would certainly fine in the 486 system as well.

In my experience, other than Dune, the rest of the Adlib Gold supported games is just OPL3 FM playback (plus some with digital support). The real advantage of the Gold there is using the 'surround' model for added FX.

Boohyaka wrote on 2025-11-20, 16:33:

, but for what it's worth I'm running Goldlib in a Pentium 75 (as I also wanted to use it with Adlib Tracker II that has higher requirements) and I'm yet to encounter any issue.

I can confirm that. The Pentium 75 was the maximum CPU in my builds that the Gold was working without any issues, 90 MHz would fail in some of the tests that came with the vard. The Pentium also helps if you would like to play with Windows and some vintage audio tools.

GL1zdA wrote on Today, 07:42:

I can confirm that. The Pentium 75 was the maximum CPU in my builds that the Gold was working without any issues, 90 MHz would fail in some of the tests that came with the vard. The Pentium also helps if you would like to play with Windows and some vintage audio tools.

Probably related to the FSB speed vs ISA bus speed, by setting the 50MHz FSB the ISA BUS speed will be lower, which helps out the Goldlib / Adlib Gold cards. 60 MHz FSB of the Pentium makes the ISA bus speed higher and probably already marginal making some tests fail. I know because i tested it too. Also if you get any option in BIOS to increase any wait states or something in the ISA bus you can play with that too. I can set my Pentium MMX to 175MHz and the Gold card will work just fine on 50MHz * 3.5 multiplier.

Results may vary on different mobos probably because of different ISA bus clock dividers. If there's an option to control the ISA bus divider that's even better.

Thanks for the good info, you must be right and it makes a lot of sense. In my case I'm happy with it in the P75 build that does all I want it to do 😀

carlostex wrote on 2025-11-21, 01:46:

The card works fine otherwise, and in Dune with the surround module the soundtrack sounds absolutely fantastic, with well pronounced mids and really bass heavy. If you have a good speaker system with a subwoofer, the intro tune can make your house shake.

I can confirm that latter part, I only have recordings of the Adlib Gold + Surround running Dune, and even with those, I have to open all the shelf doors because the bass makes them resonate extremely heavily. And I don't even have a subwoofer. Just some average speakers with 160 mm drivers.
That song is really really great for showing off what your set can do, or to just benchmark it. I love it so much, easily my all time favourite DOS soundtrack.

Speaking of which, did anyone make a FLAC recording of the games soundtrack with the Adlib Gold + Surround module? I'd do one myself, but I missed out on the chance to buy these cards!