I didn't use any special soundset when playing the descent intro. Just for the UW sample, to demonstrate its MT32 mode.
Perhaps the differences to your card's sound result from the recording?
I allways liked this card. Its disadvantage lies in the fact that the SBPro mode does not seem to be 100% compatible (as the manual says.) But the card is very, very quiet (in my ears) not distortions, no background noise as there used to be with the creative cards. That's what they mean with "Turtle Beach Quality". And yes, the ICS synth and the 2MB sample ROM doesn't sound like a SC-55, but I liked playing WC Privateer with it.
I wonder if Descent is the right game to compare.

Silent Loon wrote:

I always liked this card [Tropez].

Perhaps it's just me - maybe I need my ears syringing! 😉 🤣

Why don't you try the card with Tyrian, then we'll see about compatibility... Honking might be the only thing that comes out of the card then. ;)

Thx gerwin for the KORG sample, i almost forgot you have it!

Locutus, is that site www.dosforum.de yours? Nice comparison and helpful samples! After a peek on the forum, i'm *almost* tempted to start learning German, er.. Deutsch. (i know there's google translator, but it's not that fun 😀 )

I wonder if Descent is the right game to compare.

Not right nor wrong... just a must one. 😉

Every wavetable card has its strengths and its weaknesses, that's what I mean. The Descent intro is very "electronic", so with the lack of natural instruments, even the AWE32 doesn't sound so bad. I like the GUS very much in this case.

to locutus: Tyrian works with SBpro and midi 330 settings. But I doubt that the game uses 8bit stereo sound effects. To me it sounds all like 8bit (or 16bit?) mono. But I can change to WSS to hear if there is a difference.
If you choose SBpro in the descent setup menu you get sound, but it's not stereo, if you shift the card to WSS it is.

Edit:

If I change to WSS in Tyrian, sound still doesn't seem to be stereo. But works, sounds good.

archsan wrote:

valnar wrote:

... Once the Roland SCD-15 daughterboard came out, there was no reason to look elsewhere!

After only just listening to a few samples, i have to disagree 😀 ... From a few sources, I compared Descent intro samples from SCC-1, Yamaha DB50XG and Dream SA9407, and i like the SCC-1 the least.

Descent is probably the worst example to use though. It's very electronic and doesn't show off the instrument patches very well.

Well, up to you guys... as i said before, it's a must one to me because i play Descent. And if there's something else better for that single title, why not use that instead--again just for that single title? Don't we have choice now?

Silent Loon wrote:

Every wavetable card has its strengths and its weaknesses, that's what I mean.

And for that exact reason we should not pull Descent tunes out from the comparison. Call it a representation for the techno/electronic-tuned titles/genre. There are still a lot of differences to hear in the tune, and i personally think both the AWE and GUS version are far less preferrable to me than the Yamaha or Dream version, so we're different here (well, of course all of them are much more listenable than the Adlib/FM version 🤣 )

But see it this way: That Tyrian's CiQ you uploaded before, it sounded better on that card than on the Dream (thin and a bit too bright on the Dream sample).

valnar wrote:

It's very electronic and doesn't show off the instrument patches very well.

It does, in a different way to other titles, because it used different instruments.
I only used that as one example. Not right, not wrong, not best, and definitely not worst. One example.

Please don't disregard a title (especially one so popular as Descent 😁), just as you should not disregard a wavetable device because it sounded bad on something.

OK, enough Descent. Here is two other 'must ones' (again... IMHO...): Kyrandia and Monkey Island. OK, they're not the best--so what? 😀

I think what Valnar meant was not that Descent is a bad game but a not so good example to estimate the qualities of a wavetable synth.
As the music is "electronic" it is more a question of taste if you like the sound or not than with gamemusic that imitates natural instruments.
Tyrian's "Composition in Q" is a good example (you'll find it on the site you allready mentioned: http://sound.dosforum.de/ ). It starts with a piano solo. GUS is lousy, AWE32 mediocre, SC-55 gives the most natural sound, DB50XG the most powerfull.

Also there were many games where the composers used a Roland Sound Canvas device (this was the standard, they had the money in those days) but didn't care much about how other GM devices would sound (which is okay, as this would have been very difficult indeed). So those games could sound a little bit weird sometimes, when played with a different device. I would say Decent is not of that kind.

Concerning Monkey Island: its made for the MT-32 I would say.

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..

To All: I never said I wasn't interested in a Maui - I certainly am. But back in the 90's the collection mentality wasn't there like today, and once I could afford the SCD-15 daughterboard, that was all I needed. Money was spent elsewhere. Of course, being a retrogamer now and having more disposable income, things are different. 😀

gerwin wrote:

Any chance you could record a mp3?

I've just received the necessary cable from the "Bargin superstore", and I hope to get the Descent mp3 recording done today. 😀

For temporary testing purposes, I am using a 486 PC with a Soundblaster 16. An audio lead goes in to the SB16 "Line out" port, and the other end of this lead goes in to a "line in" port on a Creative X-Fi card, on an XP-based PC. I run Soundblaster mixerset.exe on the 486 PC, to check that the settings are correct - and I think they are - I have the "Line volume" setting set OK, and I have the two "Output - Line" checkboxes ticked.

On the 486 PC, I run a "sound setup" utility, which plays a simple MIDI tune. Then on the XP box, I run Creative MediaSource, and click on its "record button". (I check that the recording input source is set to "line in".) However, when I play back the recording, I just hear silence. Also, the "recording volume status" appears to be "dead" - with no apparent sign of any music coming through to the X-Fi card to be recorded.

retro games 100 wrote:

On the 486 PC, I run a "sound setup" utility, which plays a simple MIDI tune. Then on the XP box, I run Creative MediaSource, and click on its "record button". (I check that the recording input source is set to "line in".) However, when I play back the recording, I just hear silence. Also, the "recording volume status" appears to be "dead" - with no apparent sign of any music coming through to the X-Fi card to be recorded.

Can you try with another easier source, e.g., from a portable CD player? Max out the volume settings (is Line-in volume on the X-Fi not muted? Maxed out?), and don't record just yet, first get to hear sound--through the X-Fi--while the material is being played back.

Re: CD player - that's a good idea. (Also, I did those checks you mentioned.) I just tried to get a music CD to play - from a portable CD player to the X-Fi card via the cable, but I still can't hear anything. I tried both available ports on the back of the X-Fi card. I wonder if the cable is either defective or 'incompatible' in some way? Visibly, it looks OK.

That was meant to test the cable as well. Sorry i can't help, as i don't have an X-Fi--but now at least you have to prove the cable is working (or not) before getting to the X-Fi part, don't you? (If you have a 'Y-splitter' minijack to stereo RCA converter, you may try running the CD player from a stereo amp)