VOGONS


Creative ES1371 or ES1373 sound card.

Topic actions

First post, by Baoran

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I got my hands on this sound card recently.

The attachment 20171210_005503.jpg is no longer available
The attachment 20171210_005533.jpg is no longer available

Sticker says ES1371 but there is ES1373 written to the chip itself, so either there was a mistake or they are the same chip. Anyone knows?

Would it be possible to make this card work in dos and where I could get drivers for it?
I remember hearing some of the ES chips had some kind of dos compatibility.

Reply 1 of 20, by leileilol

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

You've got yourself a common AudioPCI. It does have DOS drivers and they're all easily available. Enjoy the bad "FM"!

apsosig.png
long live PCem

Reply 2 of 20, by Baoran

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Hopefully it is better than just pc speaker. I do also have sound blaster live that I could try to see how well sound blaster emulation works. Any idea which one is better option? Or would it be better to buy one of those aureal vortex 2 cards for dos?

Reply 3 of 20, by Kamerat

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

The Sound Blaster Live! DOS emualtion are based around the Ensoniq AudioPCI (ES1370, ES1371 and ES1373) DOS emulation so it will sound similar and have the same game support. Sound Blaster PCI are actually just rebranded Ensoniq AudioPCI and share the same drivers.

DOS Sound Blaster compatibility: PCI sound cards vs. PCI chipsets
YouTube channel

Reply 4 of 20, by Jo22

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
Baoran wrote:

I got my hands on this sound card recently.

Hey, that card looks like an AudioPCI 3000, which I used months ago to make a SoundScape recording of Crusader: No Remorse! ^^

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 5 of 20, by chinny22

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
Baoran wrote:

Hopefully it is better than just pc speaker. I do also have sound blaster live that I could try to see how well sound blaster emulation works. Any idea which one is better option? Or would it be better to buy one of those aureal vortex 2 cards for dos?

This was a real messy time for creative, as they also call it a Sound Blaster 64 PCI, You can read more about it here, but basically they just wanted the dos emulation drivers and didn't know what to do with the soundcard itself. Make sure you get the 8MB ecm file.
Ensoniq / Creative AudioPCI

So the SoundBlaster Live is the better card as amongst other things supports EAX and soundfonts but only marginally IMHO, being from the same era I would say it is a model up.
Your much better off getting an Audigy 1 2 or ZS, they still use the same Dos legacy files but the windows side of things are much more improved and support later EAX versions.

Vortex 2 is completely different (like Intel to AMD or Nvida to ATI)
You will loose EAX, soundfonts, but gain A3D 2.0
Really which is better is down to personal preference, I like the stable (if bloated) drivers of Creative, EAX is more widely supported and Creative cards are much more common and affordable. I wold love a Vortex 2 to play round with though

Reply 6 of 20, by Jo22

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
leileilol wrote:

You've got yourself a common AudioPCI. It does have DOS drivers and they're all easily available. Enjoy the bad "FM"!

Right, though its FM implementation is technically interesting, it really is a torture to the ears. 😵
This is about what someone can expect when playing FM via SoundScape/AudioPCI:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzoloT5eRtY

Anyway, the Audio PCI is quite nice for MIDI, at least. ^^
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Zz-OFYTQLE

chinny22 wrote:
Baoran wrote:

Hopefully it is better than just pc speaker. I do also have sound blaster live that I could try to see how well sound blaster emulation works. Any idea which one is better option? Or would it be better to buy one of those aureal vortex 2 cards for dos?

This was a real messy time for creative, as they also call it a Sound Blaster 64 PCI, You can read more about it here, but basically they just wanted the dos emulation drivers and didn't know what to do with the soundcard itself. Make sure you get the 8MB ecm file.
Ensoniq / Creative AudioPCI

Thanks for sharing that link with us - I never got that thing to work in early Win95.. 😉
Good ol' Win 3.1 was bit more cooperative, however. After a little bit of trial and error, it worked fine.
Windows 98SE is perhaps fine, too. Unfortunately, my GA586 mainboard still refuses to run Win98.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 7 of 20, by Phreeze

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

wow that ensoniq is the worst i've heard in my life....horriblllleee

ArGUS Parts list: http://bit.ly/2Ddf89V

Reply 8 of 20, by Srandista

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Elite FM is the best, you'll never hear this anywhere else 😁
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXFYWJ7dbz0&t=2400s

Socket 775 - ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA, Pentium E6500K, 4GB RAM, Radeon 9800XT, ESS Solo-1, Win 98/XP
Socket A - Chaintech CT-7AIA, AMD Athlon XP 2400+, 1GB RAM, Radeon 9600XT, ESS ES1869F, Win 98

Reply 9 of 20, by zecahue

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I have got a MB with a onboard 1373 chip on it, so my guess is that it should perform, if not identical, at least very close to the card from this topic. My question for you guys is: is it worthy to get a Live card only to play late 90s and very early 2000s titles? I do have other machines with sbpro2 and awe64, so back compatibility and FM synth are out of questions here. I know the Live is an improvement, but is it a lot (really noticeable)?

Reply 10 of 20, by chinny22

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Gateway PC by chance?
It's what I used back in the late 90's and for about 3 weeks when I went back to Australia this year.
I doubt I'll ever upgrade them but then I have other PC's that do have EAX capable sound cards.

Some games are better then others but not having EAX doesn't make any game less enjoyable.
I'd say its more a case of with Live! cards being so cheap now most people get one to cover all their bases.

Reply 12 of 20, by Boohyaka

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Jo22 wrote on 2017-12-15, 05:25:

This is about what someone can expect when playing FM via SoundScape/AudioPCI:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzoloT5eRtY

Damn, that SCUMM bar theme immediately rose to 1st place of the most sad & pathetic thing I've heard in 2022, only to be relegated to 2nd place by that poor Doom E1M1 on the Elite 1 minute after .__.

Reply 13 of 20, by swaaye

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

They are like the cheapest sound card 1997 could make which is what those big computer companies want. Along with some brand recognition in Ensoniq. Just an early AC97 codec on a PCI card with host-based MIDI, FM, effects, EAX and A3D processing that is designed with the limitations of a Pentium MMX in mind. They do sound pretty good for just playing back PCM though.

Reply 14 of 20, by dr.zeissler

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Is there a "bigger" difference between ES1371 and ES1373 ? The OS/2 driver for the ES1371 does not seem to work with the ES1373.

Retro-Gamer 😀 ...on different machines

Reply 15 of 20, by chinny22

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
dr.zeissler wrote on 2023-02-17, 19:47:

Is there a "bigger" difference between ES1371 and ES1373 ? The OS/2 driver for the ES1371 does not seem to work with the ES1373.

Yes, few different drivers exist
Different Versions of Ensoniq AudioPCI

Reply 16 of 20, by dr.zeissler

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

thank you, too bad the never made a winos/2 friendly driver.

Retro-Gamer 😀 ...on different machines

Reply 17 of 20, by Kamerat

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
dr.zeissler wrote on 2024-01-13, 19:48:

thank you, too bad the never made a winos/2 friendly driver.

You can try modifying the ES1371 driver with the vendor and device ID of your ES1373 with a hex editor.

Device ID (71 13) is located at D397h and vendor ID (74 12) is located at D39Ah in the "ES1371.SYS" file

DOS Sound Blaster compatibility: PCI sound cards vs. PCI chipsets
YouTube channel

Reply 18 of 20, by dr.zeissler

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

ah sorry, I meant the WInOS/2 driver for the ES1371...I own ES1371 and 1373 cards.

after the excellent fixing for SBEMU there is only WinOS/2 left...otherwise everything works.

Retro-Gamer 😀 ...on different machines

Reply 19 of 20, by qdsong88@

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Although I don't know the performance of ES1370/ES1371 under DOS, its analog output quality under win98 is better than the SB LIVE I have heard,Much better

C300A / E2140 / E3-1230 V2
K6-2 / Athlon X2 5000 / Ryzen 7 1700