The YMF262, which is also integrated in the YMF7xx series and a custom chip made by Yamaha for Creative (It carries the OPL label), is the real McCoy. The other cards you mentioned, excluding some AWE32 models, carry a clone of this chip, and their accuracy can be quite hit and miss at times. Even if the card carries a real OPL, the sound may vary due to minor differences between cards, even if they are of the same series.

Here's a video that shows some differences, including three cards with clone chips (the Crystal, the Vibra 16, and the ESS): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qp7WnTWZw4

I think he's referring to why people prefer FM synthesis over wavetable synthesis. There are multiple answers, but essentially it comes down to: nostalgia.

I wrote this and then someone pointed out that the discussion is probably about "why FM rather than wavetable" but I'll post it anyway 😵

AWE64 and some SB16s and AWE32s use the Creative clone chip called "CQM". It definitely sounds a lot different from OPL3. Basically you either:

1. Don't like it and prefer real Yamaha
2. Can tell the difference but don't care
3. Can't tell the difference and remain in blissful ignorance
4. Hate the sound and want to burn every Vibra 16 in the fires of hell as a result
--or--
5. Actually prefer it to real Yamaha.

All of these are legitimate; I fall into category 1 (see, this is why VOGONS needs polls!).

A lot of people really like the sound of an actual OPL3; it has a richer, warmer, deeper quality to it. But it's always completely subjective.

Then, of course, like you mentioned, there are a lot of PCI cards that don't have any sort of FM chip at all and try to emulate it using the wavetable, which usually ends up sounding like a bad nightclub band playing music in a fishbowl.

That's exactly what I meant. I was wondering why people choose it or not.I didn't hit the "PC Scene" until 1994 when I was 11, so I was accustomed to bleeps and blips at school on the old IBM PS2's and my old Tandy CoCo3. My first "real" pc was a Packard Bell 33mhz which I know the soundcard had a true YMF262 chip on it and I always enjoyed it until I heard my friends soundscape and lost it. I have an older Aztech card with the YMF262 on it and comparing it to my AWE64 and Soundscape it's like night and day. Though, some of the audio on both are kind of trash - I may end up ditching the AWE64 in my current setup and move the Aztech into it and go true mode. I will say the Aztech card sounds the most clear out of all of the cards which I'm surprised.

Yeah, and speaking about clones, keenmaster486, I finally got the sound chip (ESS Allegro ES1988) of my Compaq laptop working under DOS.

It sounds quite funny. On this link, I have direct recordings of "Zeppelin" from Jill of the Jungle, "Shadows Don't Scare Me" from Keen 4, and "Sign of the Worm" from Dune, recorded onto FLAC files, in a ZIP archive: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9Pl837hIU- … Z2psWEI3SnBlOE0

Oh, that's hilarious. It doesn't even play in the right key!

To me, it is to have is sound as I remember it 26 years ago.

But what if all you had back then was AudioPCI and it sounded like a bad band in a fishbowl?

I started with computers in 1984, using a Commodore 64 that was owned by my cosin. And before PCI slots, I was gaming on PC's with SB-pro cards. Allways used ISA cards for Dos gaming. When I had a SB-Pci 128, I was all into Win98 gaming.

I was about to say...when the AudioPCI came along it was firmly in the Windows 95 era. So it's unlikely an AudioPCI would have been used mostly for DOS games back in the day - besides, the primary use of an AudioPCI for DOS games are its wavetable MIDI abilities.