Reply 40 of 178, by MaxWar
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- Oldbie
wrote:"A lot of Stuff"
Nice posting going on here. As kool kitty pointed, a lot of factors can be considered when comparing the cards as a whole. About modding the cards, it sure is an interesting topic.
If someone happens to have a modded sound card, recordings of it would be welcome, as long as the nature of the mod be specified.
@Kool Kitty: I also like the fact that you mentioned the Sega Genesis. Doing the crystal clear audio mod for the Genesis 2 is one of my longer term project and maybe it could be adapted to some sound cards?
About the genesis revisions, I did not know about " very late genesis models having a good analog circuitry ". To the best of my knowledge the late genesis all have a crap analog stage. The earliest model 1 remains the best sounding "stock" Genny i have heard. Can you provide more details about those "very late consoles" with good analog circuitry ?
Going back to the Grand opl3 comparison run, I think that ultimately a full fledged point by point comparison of each cards would be very nice. I privilege the large scale, high quality, standardized FM recording part because it is the part that has never really been done before.
If you search on the subject of fm sound cards on this forum or other places on the net, you will find some very good and detailed reviews and analysis of many cards but it all comes down to a lot of text, and very little audio.
This is how i had the idea of starting this project, the audio part.
This being said, even though standardized recording is the starting point here, ALL relevant DATA is welcome in this project.
If we could end up with a central place that combines both relevant information and actual standardized recordings of the cards, it could become a very nice resource for old FM compatible sound cards.
At this point, when i get a new card in my hand i try to consider all the following aspects.
- Output quality ( Richness and clarity of the signal )
- Noise level ( High or low and what kind of noise )
-Authenticity ( Maybe the game works, but does it sounds different than it should because the chip is a clone or the controller induces a bug? If it sounds different, is it in a bad way? )
- Compatibility ( As in the number of games that actually work with the card. While an important matter, can be hard to address without trying a very large amount of games. )
-Features: What are the other desirable features of the card? ( Mpu-401 compatible? Wavetable header ? WSS compatible ? Pc speaker header? Bypassable amp? Digital output? Ease of setting up? Plug and play? Good Joystick support? Does it have the midi hanging notes bug ? Does it have other bugs or liabilities ? etc... )
Basically ANYTHING relevant is welcome with this project.
FM sound card comparison on a Grand Scale!!
The Grand OPL3 Comparison Run.