I have a similar case but mine doesn't have that fancy removable top cover 😁

badmojo wrote:

Hee hee, I'd love to RTFM but I don't have one! I searched for an online scan of it but no luck, any idea where I could find one?

Unfortunately, no, and for this, I'll give you a pass. 😀 I do have a v1.1 manual that I'm preparing to scan...

Save files were generated, but trying to recall the settings failed, and just either max-ed or min-ed all of the setting sliders. Perhaps I was using the wrong version?

I don't think this is necessarily the problem, but you might check to make sure that the PAS software directory is included in your PATH statement. From recollection, I think I'm using the v3.26 MVSOUND.SYS driver, and the v2.02 mixer.

I did look into the "cross-channel" mixer option to reverse the stereo but from the 'readme' provided with the drivers it sounded like all I could achieve would be to merge the left and right channels into a mono feed.

Merging the channels is one of the options, but you can also swap channels. I'll see if I can get a screenshot of what it should look like in the GUI...

A scan of the manual would be very much appreciated, thanks in advance for taking the time to do it.

I had another frustrated attempt at getting PAS.EXE to work as described but no matter what I tried the result was the same - if I changed the level of one slider (MIC for example), then the rest of the sliders were set to the same level. So, as I reported above, I was setting the MIC levels to 0, thus ALL the levels were set to 0. I tried this every which way - F5 to F8, editing the resulting settings file manually, etc. I tried a clean boot into DOS, moving ISA slots, nothing helped. The version of MVSOUND.SYS I was using - downloaded from VogonDrivers - was 3.24.

Just for something to try I located version 3.23, and suddenly it's working perfectly 😕 Now PAS.EXE works as expected and yes, as you said, the hiss can be dramatically improved by playing with the settings. The improvement can be heard distinctly during system boot, when MVSOUND.SYS is loaded the hiss kicks in, and then Autoexec.bat calls PAS F5 and cuts it back to barely audible again. It's a big improvement. Version 3.23 also takes up ~1K less memory, another (small) improvement!

I also managed to get my FM levels to where I expect them, so I'm much happier with it now. I'll have a play with the cross-channel option, and if I can get the channels reversed then my estimation of the PAS16 will be upgraded to "troublesome, but worth the effort" 😀

Half-Saint wrote:

I have a similar case but mine doesn't have that fancy removable top cover 😁

Do you have a pic of it? Case styles have only ever gone down hill since the reign of these beige beauties.

badmojo wrote:

Just for something to try I located version 3.23, and suddenly it's working perfectly 😕

Hrm. Sounds like your mixer version might be something earlier than 2.02. There's definitely an incompatibility between the 2.02 mixer and MVSOUND.SYS drivers earlier than 3.24, so the reverse may hold true for the earlier mixer software.

Not sure if you need/want them now, but here are the 2.02 mixer and 3.26 driver files:

http://www.symphoniae.com/soundcard/MediaVisi … WARE/pas202.arj
http://www.symphoniae.com/soundcard/MediaVisi … RE/Mvsnd326.exe

Welcome to the world of the Pro AudioSpectrum... 😀

Cloudschatze wrote:

Not sure if you need/want them now, but here are the 2.02 mixer and 3.26 driver files

Thanks for those, I've tried them (love this 'working from home' thing) and although they work better than Version 2.24 in that the PAS.EXE settings are actually stored, your version was behaving strangely. First difference was that the 'cross-channel' option was no longer available in the GUI, pressing F2 brought up a 'pro studio settings' dialog instead. And then any change to the settings muted FM and who knows what else. I guess my mixer is just not compatible with these later versions as you say.

Using the version that does work, V3.23, I tried changing the cross-channel settings to swap the stereo. My change to the settings is stored, but as soon as I load a game (DOOM or ROTT for example), cross-channel reverts to it's default settings. Very strange, but I can live with reversed stereo if need be.

Cloudschatze wrote:

Welcome to the world of the Pro AudioSpectrum... 😀

Thanks 😒 I think I've worked out why I didn't think much of the PAS as a kid - before the internet, no-one could hear you scream.

Sure, here it is:

It's a little bit beaten up but not too badly 😁

-

Half-Saint wrote:

Sure, here it is

Cool! Thanks for sharing. The 486SX33 I had as a kid came in a case like this one - it was a flip top like mine, but didn't have the MHz display and the power switch was a rocker switch on the back right-hand side. It seems that there were several variations of it. I can't remember what I did with my original one, but I vaguely recall giving it to my stepbrother who "modded" it. The horror.

I found the one I have now sitting on top of a skip full of discarded PC's at my local wreckers yard a couple of years ago, and I'm thrilled to have one again!

I have a couple of questions about the PAS:

- What are the differences b/w the Pro Audio Spectrum, and the Pro Audio Studio? From what I've read the studio - which I'm using here - came with more stuff, like a microphone, etc. But are there differences in the actual cards?
- Depending on the answer to the above question, should I be using different drivers for the Pro Audio Studio? Currently I'm using Pro Audio Spectrum drivers. The driver that Cloudschatze linked seemed to be "studio" specific because it displayed different options, which is why I ask this question.
- What's the difference b/w specifying the PAS16 for music in a game's setup, over simply selecting the "Sound Blaster" option? I'm assuming nothing, in that they'd both just route to the OPL3?

Thanks for any help!

There aren't any functional differences between the later Pro AudioSpectrum 16 cards and the and the Pro AudioStudio 16. The latter features better shielding and additional filtration components, in addition to the line-out, but the chipsets are exactly the same. Media Vision obviously had some sort of plan to utilize the additional pin-headers/pads on the Studio boards, but I have no idea for what purpose.

I need to check out that original software package that you'd tried to use. As far as the "Studio" setting goes, I looked into this a few years back, and after not finding ANY information, determined through trial-and-error that it simply disables all mixer I/O except for the microphone input and (PAS) digital-audio output, which would make it helpful in obtaining a clear recording, but pretty useless otherwise.

As for the driver selection question, it really depends on the game. Specifying "Sound Blaster" will likely result in monophonic FM output, whereas specifying "PAS16" will likely provide stereo FM output. If you're referring to Sierra games, try a SCI1.1 title, like Quest for Glory III, etc., and you'll see what I mean.

Fantastic, thanks again for the help. It's an interesting card and certainly has its positive points. I'm surprised at how many of the games I have here sitting on the shelf support the PAS, now that I look - it really was a genuine contender in its day, before the company went belly up.

A small addendum to my PAS16 adventures. I wasn’t satisfied with using the Spectrum version of the drivers with my Studio model card, so I ran the gauntlet of ‘Driver Guide’ websites and came out the other side with a complete set of the Pro Audio Studio 16 driver and utility disks – and hopefully nothing else. Here they are if anyone’s interested:

http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=506

This set contains v3.23 of MVSOUND.SYS, which is not the latest version but which works with my card, model number 650-0060 02-A. The later versions of the driver did not work. The card is now working in Windows 3.11, where previously it wasn’t recognised, and the DOS mixer software (PAS.EXE) also works as expected, and displays the ‘Studio’ mixer settings too which the Spectrum version did not. Also, where previously I had trouble with the default mixer levels, the levels are now correct by default, although I did of course still need to mute inputs and set all channels to ‘play only’ to get the hiss down to an acceptable level. The settings were correctly saved with shift+F5 and automatically loaded by calling ‘PAS.EXE F5’ via Autoexec.bat.

Stereo is still reversed, but overall I’m very happy with the PAS16 now that I have it up and running. The example tracks provided with the ‘Track Blaster Pro’ software (included in the above package) really show off what this card can do - I cranked it up and my kids came bursting into the room, launching into an impromptu dance session.

That’s always a good sign.

I recently discovered that I have a working Chaintech 486SPM, and I’ve been interested in trying out a PCI 486 board for a while now, so it’s upgrade time for this 486. I was given the 486SPM a couple of years ago but it had acid damage and wouldn’t boot, so without any effort to trouble shoot it I simply hung it on my wall of deceased hardware. But after putting in several bids on PCI 486 boards on eBay and missing them all, I remembered the 486SPM and thought it was probably worth taking a closer look at. The damage wasn’t actually too bad, with no traces cut, and after a good cleanup it POSTed first try.

It’s a solid board and stable so far, running the Am5x86 P75 and 16MB RAM it came with (actually it came with 32MB but I don’t need that much in a 486). It fought me every step of the way of course like any good 486 should, but for the most part I’m happy with it. The outstanding issues I have are:

- Pinout for the COM / Parallel ports is not standard (at the motherboard end), so I’m going to have to make cables to fit. I’m currently using an ISA serial card to allow me to use a mouse and it works fine, but that’s a waste of a slot.
- Something to do with the PCI resource handling is conflicting with IRQ 2/9, so an intelligent MPU-401 isn’t so intelligent. It works for the most part, but Gateway can’t detect an MT-32 – this issue is documented around here somewhere. I don’t really need this anyway.
- I’m using the external battery header and the BIOS settings are remembered fine – HDD details, date, etc. But the clock loses time. Very mysterious, but not actually a big deal.

Here’s the board:

For VGA I went with this mean looking Diamond Stealth 64 with 2MB (I think) of VRAM. It’s not the fastest card I have but it’s fast enough for a 486, and the image it produces is superb in both DOS and Windows 3.11. I’ve always been a bit dubious of the S3 chipset’s image quality compared to a Matrox card for example, but I guess it depends on the implementation.

I changed the CD-ROM drive from the Mitsumi to this 24 spin because a) this one can read burnt discs and b) it has funky purple buttons.

In the audio department I’ve thrown in a recently repaired Ensoniq Soundscape S-2000 to complement the existing Pro Audio Studio 16, and they go very nicely together. SB emulation and OPL3 FM are handled by the PAS, and the Soundscape is there simply for its MIDI ability. Both are easy to configure and keep out of each others way nicely, and the sound they produce together is very freaking easy on the ears.

Great stuff!

I had a 486SPM once as well, too bad it came to me DOA... The board is great, with features like manual PCI bus speed selection and DIP-32 cache sockets. I can see that yours has a burnt trace near the battery socket, is that all right? It seems like some other versions of the board had PS/2 port, I wonder if it is functional.

The Stealth64 has a professional IBM DAC, must have excellent picture quality!

Hello my friend! Shame your 486SPM was DOA because yes, it seems to be a good board. Yes there were a couple of traces that were slightly burnt under / around the battery but mostly the acid simply stripped off the green protective layer on the PCB. I cleaned it like mad with a toothbrush and alcohol and then applied a layer of clear nail polish, and it came up quite well.

Re the PS/2 port, my board didn't have the header - I could solder one in but there are no options for it in the BIOS, so I presume it isn't implemented.

And yes that Stealth64 produces a beautiful, lush image. I'd go so far as to say it rivals Matrox - not quite as fast though.

My only complaint with this machine is the CD-ROM. The drive itself is noisy but it also causes the case to buzz and rattle, and it's really annoying. I've tried CDBQ and the Teac driver which allows you to specify the drive speed, but neither work. I'm going to have to find a slower drive for this case.

badmojo wrote:

My only complaint with this machine is the CD-ROM. The drive itself is noisy but it also causes the case to buzz and rattle, and it's really annoying. I've tried CDBQ and the Teac driver which allows you to specify the drive speed, but neither work. I'm going to have to find a slower drive for this case.

I hate this.

The noise is bad enough, but what's worse is that sometimes it can take a second or two for the disk to spin up, and some games hate that. (Sam and Max springs to mind)

I've just reverted back to a 4X Mitsumi. It struggles with some burnt CD's but it's quiet and functional.