First post, by Great Hierophant
- Rank
- l33t
I have come to the conclusion that there are only a very few essential sound cards or devices that anyone needs to get the most out of their games. I will list them in order of their introduction:
Roland LAPC-I + Roland MT-32
While both devices cover mostly the same sound territory, some people prefer the noisier sound and LCD display of the MT-32 (old revision only) and others like the crisper sound of the LAPC/CM modules and the extra sound effects used by some games. Functionally the two are the same and ideally you should use an LAPC and an old-revision MT-32 (via the LAPC-I's MCB-1 breakout box's midi-out) for the ultimate in LA Synthesis. If this is overkill and all you have is an MT-32, then find a Roland MPU-IPC-T (preferable, you can change the settings) or MPU-IPC for the midi interface.
Sound Blaster Pro 1.0
This card eliminates any need for an Adlib Sound Card. It is unique in that it has two OPL2 FM chips. These could be programmed to output stereo sound, and some games did just that. Later Sound Blasters use an OPL3 chip, which can also do stereo but in somewhat different way. Also, the DSP and mixer chips changed enough that certain features that games may use on the early Sound Blasters aren't included on the later Sound Blasters. There have been issues with the CMS chips on the early Sound Blasters and some games not supporting them because they detect an Adlib, so a separate CMS card is a better choice. You can use it with 8-bit slots with only the loss of the 16-bit IRQ selections.
Sound Blaster AWE32
For a new style Sound Blaster, use a long, non Plug'n'Play version. This card covers the basic Sound Blaster and full Sound Blaster 16 features, and adds the EMU8000 effects chipset. It also can use regular 30-pin SIMMs for upgrading the Sound Font RAM, compared to the proprietary boards that the AWE64 requires. But most important is its waveblaster connector, something the AWE64 lacks. You could probably make it behave even better than an AWE64 by adding a Yamaha DB-50XG or a Waveblaster II (which also comes with an EMU8000 processor) because then it would have 62 hardware voices (OPL3 uses 2) dedicated to midi rather than the 32 hardware/32 software voices of the AWE64.
Roland SCB-55 + MPU-401AT
The SCB-55 undoubtedly the most important waveblaster-compatible daughterboard ever made, at least for gaming purposes. A SC-55mkII on a 3-by-2 inch board, no less. Any game that used General Midi should sound at its best on this card, unless it provides its own samples, upon which you should use the AWE32. The MPU-401AT provides a basic 100% MPU-401 compatible interface and has a daughterboard connector as well. As this combination is essentially a better version of the Roland SCC-1 (and fully compatible with it), so you can use that option if provided in the game's setup. As some games that use Roland GS assume that they will communicate through an intelligent midi processor, I have included the midi card as well.
There are other important or useful sound cards, like the Gravis Ultrasound, the Game Blaster, the Pro Audio Spectrums, the Covox Speech Thing/Disney Sound Source, the IBM Music Feature Card, but these are by far and away the best that games can use.