Intel486dx33 wrote:

Is the Sound blaster Vibra 16s ISA with onboard Yamaha OPL 262 good enough for playing DOS games or do I need a Sound Blaster Pr […]
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Is the Sound blaster Vibra 16s ISA with onboard Yamaha OPL 262 good enough for playing DOS games or do I need a Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 ?

How does it compare to the following ?

1) Vibra 16s
2) AWE 64
3 ) Sound blaster Pro 2.0

Of course it's good enough for DOS games. In fact, the 16S is one of my favorite creative cards out there. Also when considering the price differences, Vibras can be had for almost nothing due to overwhelming cargo cult against them 😜

1) I would say a Vibra16S is the same as a Vibra16S
2) Assuming we're talking about the Awe64s OPL3, refer to the ancient CQM vs Genuine Yamaha debate. I would go with the Awe64 for the additional midi capabilities of course, due to not being overwhelmingly concerned with clinical accuracy. If you want all sounds to be perfectly genuine, then get the 16S or Pro 2.0
3) I prefer vibra16S over the pro 2.0 (sacrilege, I know) due to having much much less line noise, and me not particularly caring for any issues with stereo. I've yet to run into any compatibility issues that have actually been noticeably annoying to me, even though I'm told regularly how much better the Pro II is.

The point of my response is to just try the card and if you like it, great. Otherwise, you'll get overwhelmed with opinions.

BeginnerGuy wrote:

The point of my response is to just try the card and if you like it, great.

Hear, hear!

I've messed with a lot of sound cards and I've only come across a couple that I thought were horrible enough that they weren't at least workable.

Think about what capabilities you want for the computer you are working on, pick something out that looks like it might work, and try it.

Three pet peeves:
-Sound Blaster Pro: Yawn. There are a ton of cards that do an acceptable job at SB Pro compatibility. Almost of all of them are way cheaper than a real one.
-OPL vs. ESFM vs. CQM: People act like your ears will explode if you listen to anything other than a real Yamaha chip. I've only come across a couple things that I thought were really terrible: Analog Devices and the emulation on Soundscape and GUS cards.
-Hanging Note Bug: Are you going to actually drive anything with the MPU-401 interface? A lot of beginners aren't, but still get hung up on this.

I'm done now 😀.

Vibra 16 is as good as a SB16, does anyone really use the Bass/Treble settings on their SB16's? (as thats the only real difference)
AWE is a SB16 with the EMU chip, so really this is the better choice if you already have it. but if your games don't support the AWE as a music device it'll be no different.

Am I remembering wrong but I thought the Vibra's didn't suffer from the hanging not bug (also agree over hyped and not a problem for majority of people) but that could be +1 for the Vibra

The Vibras do suffer from the hanging note bug, both types, but yeah as mentioned if you’re not using the MPU401 then who cares? I think they’re a great option, super simple setup and sound nice.

Vibras can be had for almost nothing due to overwhelming cargo cult against them

Actually some Vibras like the one from ASUS or with FM tuner are valued somewhat high. Not like AWE32/AWE64 of course.

It's a good OPL3 card in my book.

badmojo wrote:

The Vibras do suffer from the hanging note bug, both types, but yeah as mentioned if you’re not using the MPU401 then who cares? I think they’re a great option, super simple setup and sound nice.

Wrong.
There are at least three types of Vibra Chips: C,S and XV and as far as I know all XV's are DSP rev. 4.16 and therefore bug free.
Problem anyway: I don't know any Vibra XVs with a wavetable header. I added one to my Soundblaster 16 WavEffects making that card to a pretty decent one for casual DOS gaming
Grtz,
Thomas

Edit: I have to appologize. I did not see that this thread is about Vibra S.

does it give off good vibes?

I bought a Vibra 16S by mistake a few years ago and cursed my error when it arrived. However, after installing and running it, it sounded just fine. I don't understand the hate against them.

Some Vibra16 cards are PnP and some are not.
There are models with OPL3 and models with CQM.
Models with or without high-DMA support.
Models with the hanging-note bug or without it.
And some Vibra16 cards support bass/treble regulation.

I personally like PnP as it allows me to reconfigure cards on the fly and I also prefer OPL3 to CQM.

BeginnerGuy wrote:

3) I prefer vibra16S over the pro 2.0 (sacrilege, I know) due to having much much less line noise, and me not particularly caring for any issues with stereo. I've yet to run into any compatibility issues that have actually been noticeably annoying to me, even though I'm told regularly how much better the Pro II is.

This has been my experience as well, it baffles me how so many people call the Pro 2 a "silent" card. I had one for several years during the 90s (it was my first sound card) so it's really nostalgic to me, and currently I own two, but each time I use them I cannot stand the line noise compared to a SB16.

TheMobRules wrote:

BeginnerGuy wrote:

3) I prefer vibra16S over the pro 2.0 (sacrilege, I know) due to having much much less line noise, and me not particularly caring for any issues with stereo. I've yet to run into any compatibility issues that have actually been noticeably annoying to me, even though I'm told regularly how much better the Pro II is.

This has been my experience as well, it baffles me how so many people call the Pro 2 a "silent" card. I had one for several years during the 90s (it was my first sound card) so it's really nostalgic to me, and currently I own two, but each time I use them I cannot stand the line noise compared to a SB16.

Pros are quiet on older motherboard made by solid brands, cheap clones from late nineties have shit supply rails filtering and you will hear it on Pro (interrupts when moving a mouse, hard drive, etc).
SB16 = clicks and pops in games without direct SB16 support.

"hearing the computer think" someone here called it.