VOGONS


Reply 40 of 50, by boxpressed

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It turns out that the motherboard I was testing on was not the most compatible with the VIVO. I was using an SE440BX-2, and the simple BIOS settings did not allow you to turn off USB. I suspect there may have been a resource conflict between the MIDI IRQ and the USB IRQ.

The VIVO works better in pure DOS on my 486 board. I copied the SNDSCAPE directory from the Windows computer. I have attached it to this message for others to use. I edited the INITSS.BAT to point to the SNDSCAPE directory (rather than C:\WINDOWS).

The VIVO works great with Descent and even Gods (which uses MT-32 MIDI). Descent recognizes the Soundscape for digital effects also, and the sound is far superior to that of an SB Pro. I did not get any music from Tyrian 2K, however (which worked fine with the Opus).

The VIVO is an interesting card for DOS. It supports GM music with a 1MB patch set of middling quality. It has superior sound quality to SB Pro & SB 16 for games that support it. It requires EMM386, but the TSR is very small. Its MPU-401 port may support intelligent mode (I haven't tested). It's less than $20.

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  • Filename
    SNDSCAPE.7z
    File size
    275.12 KiB
    Downloads
    222 downloads
    File comment
    DOS directory for Soundscape VIVO
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 41 of 50, by swaaye

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Did you notice any significant quality differences between Opus and Vivo? Is the patch set the same? I have not used Vivo much.

Vivo might have better GM compatibility, but EMM386 is a new concern. I also wonder if the Mark5 chip has some new processing to replace the lost 68EC000 or if there is more CPU load now. Maybe it's inconsequential.

Reply 42 of 50, by boxpressed

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I made some recordings of Doom using the Opus and Vivo. You can check them out and let me know if you can tell a difference. The VIVO sounds a little more vibrant to me. Sorry that they are in WMA format; I did a quick and dirty capture with Sound Recorder.

Soundscape Opus
http://www.mediafire.com/listen/8n9mkk698v3mc … u/doom-opus.wma

Soundscape VIVO
http://www.mediafire.com/listen/hzsxdbn9ld3cd … a/doom-vivo.wma

Reply 44 of 50, by boxpressed

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I made a few more recordings. I think that Doom showed off the VIVO the best because there's lot of distortion with some of the other samples. EDIT: The distortion comes from the mic input into my computer (no line in). I turned off all the boost, but still got distortion. Will need to re-record at another point.

Soundscape Opus
Descent http://www.mediafire.com/listen/t7vttppmwaxbd … escent-opus.wma
Duke 3D http://www.mediafire.com/listen/n3dcr7jat8ywh … duke3d-opus.wma
Doom 2 http://www.mediafire.com/listen/y5ypbpjd7bc9p … /doom2-opus.wma

Soundscape VIVO
Descent http://www.mediafire.com/listen/a5nzvnn6wat93 … escent-vivo.wma
Duke 3D http://www.mediafire.com/listen/l4a5xa48n4rzi … duke3d-vivo.wma
Doom 2 http://www.mediafire.com/listen/b56o10rl7cqmk … /doom2-vivo.wma

Reply 45 of 50, by boxpressed

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I just discovered that there is a combination sound/modem card that uses the Soundscape Opus chipset. It is called the NEC Harmony. A seller on eBay has multiples for a reasonable price (as well as the VIVO for a low price as well). If you can find the drivers, the NEC Harmony would be an inexpensive way to experiment with the Opus chipset.

Reply 46 of 50, by PhilsComputerLab

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Great research.

For recording audio, you could get a basic USB sound card that has line-in. Of a basic PCI / PCIe sound card if it's a desktop. Older cards like Audigy 2, X-Fi still work under Windows 10 for line-in recording 😀

YouTube, Facebook, Website

Reply 47 of 50, by boxpressed

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Thanks, Phil. I think I'll start off with the USB solution on my notebook daily driver, then pull out a big Win 7 desktop if the quality isn't there.

The Opus has a decent patch set, doesn't require a TSR, and may have a quasi-intelligent MPU-401. Fun to play games with native Soundscape support.

Reply 48 of 50, by moturimi1

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Besides having a Soundscape Elite I also own 2 different sounscape ISA sound cards.

The original one with 2 MB ROM and the successor with 1 MB ROM. You can definately hear the difference:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bi0ainjddgs4dqo/doo … pe_2MB.mp3?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qh8jw1a3uwnlvb5/doo … pe_1MB.mp3?dl=0

The 1 MB version does not seem to share the same ROM as the OPUS and VIVO.
Compare the DOOM Soundtrack at 43:12 min: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXFYWJ7dbz0#

Reply 49 of 50, by Tenorman

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I know that this thread is 2.5 years old, but it has been a big help to me, so I'm bumping it anyway. In particular the manual scans and the discussion on Page 2 about configuring an Opus vs. a regular Soundscape.

I swapped out my Opus for an S-2000 a few weeks ago and made some recordings. My card has some sort of balance issue (right channel is too quiet), but I recorded it anyway just to show the difference in the patch set.

http://tenorman.info/pc/soundscapes2000

[Compaq Presario 633 | DOS 6.22 / Win 3.1 | DX4 100 Overdrive | 28M RAM | SB16 CT2770A | SPEA Media FX (Soundscape S2000) ]
[GA-6BXC R2.0 | Win98SE | Via C3 Ezra 866 | 384M RAM | TNT2 32M | Voodoo2 8M | SB32 CT3670 | Ensoniq Soundscape Opus]

Reply 50 of 50, by BootyNugget

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Tenorman wrote:

I know that this thread is 2.5 years old, but it has been a big help to me, so I'm bumping it anyway. In particular the manual scans and the discussion on Page 2 about configuring an Opus vs. a regular Soundscape.

I swapped out my Opus for an S-2000 a few weeks ago and made some recordings. My card has some sort of balance issue (right channel is too quiet), but I recorded it anyway just to show the difference in the patch set.

http://tenorman.info/pc/soundscapes2000

And I'll bump it again (Sorry guys). Just wanted to give this gentleman some advice. If you have one channel that's quieter than the other, I can with almost 100% confidence tell you that it's bad capacitors. I had an S-2000 that I just got on eBay and one channel was barely audible and the other was distorted and a bit louder. Upon inspecting the card, I found that two capacitors were leaking. I ordered the correct caps from Digikey and replaced all of the caps on the board. It sounds like brand new now!