megatron-uk wrote:

Mine was folded in newspaper and then in a padded envelope.

Sounds like some damn awful packaging. Who did you buy this from?

retro games 100 wrote:

To the people who bought these daughterboards, can you remember what the packaging was like? Was the DB not wrapped in anything, but simply placed in a small box, with "broken up chunks" of polystyrene as padding? (Can polystyrene cause ESD damage BTW?)

While on the subject of shipping from China, has anyone noticed this curiosity - the shipping envelope is marked "signature required", but the postman doesn't ask for one. I've got an idea why this happens, but I'll leave it up to your imagination to figure out why.

i guess you already know too much. 😁

Ace wrote:

megatron-uk wrote:

Mine was folded in newspaper and then in a padded envelope.

Sounds like some damn awful packaging. Who did you buy this from?

The Ebay seller doublefish1981, one of the two Chinese sellers who usually have the DB60XG clones available.

megatron-uk wrote:

The Ebay seller doublefish1981, one of the two Chinese sellers who usually have the DB60XG clones available.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu... I bought my XR385 off him. 😵 Well, I'm just hoping I don't end up with a broken board. The thing has been in customs since yesterday morning, so it's bound to arrive at any moment(Canada Post is VERY slow updating their tracking as just before I received a package contain 3 Yamaha YM2413s, I checked on the Canada Post website to see if that package cleared customs, and it said it didn't. The package then showed up at my door a few minutes later 😒 ).

Mine came in a plastic bag (no ESD bag) and with newspaper wrapped around it.

Anyway, he refunded it directly, no problem. Then I ordered another one from him actually, so fingers crossed...

Well, my XR385 came in today and, sure enough, the packaging was a little questionable, but it works. It's a bit of a pain to fit onto narrow sound cards(I want to fit this on a Labway card based off the YMF719, but it's a very narrow card and the XR385 goes over the pins on the card). I honestly thought the board was smaller than that, but hey, it works and it sounds nice(but works like shit on my SoundBlaster Vibra16 CT2260 I used to test the board out - not surprised).

Thought I would bump this topic with an update. I got my XR385 today (from double-fish1981) and took some pictures of the packaging so that others know what they're getting into. I've put them into an album here: http://imgur.com/a/tQh0B

Luckily, I didn't get a DOA one! Board is working well and sounds GREAT. Only two problems:

-Because I'm at college right now, my hands are kinda tied with regards to a host for the daughterboard since I only have a single retro tower with me. So I had to stick it on the CT2960 that's in there (wanted an SB16-type card and it was the only one I had). It has DSP 4.13, and, obviously, has the hanging note problem. However, playback in most games is fine and MIDI playback in Windows is great.

-I'm noticing some momentary lockups when using the card. For example, I tested Duke3D and sometimes when a new instrument would come in the game (and music) would freeze for about half a second and then resume. It's also noticeable when seeking a MIDI file in Windows. I'm guessing that it has to do with loading MIDI patches, but I've never heard of this being a problem. Is it CPU related, by chance? I have a P133, so I didn't expect any problems, but you never know.

MrKsoft wrote:

-I'm noticing some momentary lockups when using the card. For example, I tested Duke3D and sometimes when a new instrument would come in the game (and music) would freeze for about half a second and then resume. It's also noticeable when seeking a MIDI file in Windows. I'm guessing that it has to do with loading MIDI patches, but I've never heard of this being a problem. Is it CPU related, by chance? I have a P133, so I didn't expect any problems, but you never know.

I think it's due to the fact you're using a SoundBlaster 16 that's HIGHLY prone to the hanging notes bug. I had the same thing happen to me with Duke Nukem 3D on a SoundBlaster 32 PnP CT3600 using a Roland CM-300. Try using another sound card along with that SoundBlaster Vibra16C Prelude CT2960(you should have already been doing that before as the Vibra16C does not have true OPL3).

Alright. As long as it's not a problem with the DB. I'm not really in a position to pick up anything else right now (as I said, college student, yadda yadda-- only stretched out my money and bought the XR385 when I did because I had a weird gut feeling that they'd be gone soon) but as soon as I can I'm going to pick up an ESS card or something for the DB.

(I want to fit this on a Labway card based off the YMF719, but it's a very narrow card and the XR385 goes over the pins on the card).

I made up a ribbon cable with an IDC header on each end to allow me to fit the XR385 on my YMF719. I belive I've posted a picture of this on these forums but I can't find it at the moment.

I got my XR385 today (from double-fish1981) and took some pictures of the packaging so that others know what they're getting into. I've put them into an album here: http://imgur.com/a/tQh0B

I'm led to believe that paper isn't all that bad to wrap electronic components in- its better than a standard plastic bag. Although obviously not as good as proper anti-ESD bags.

Got the new one now and it's working perfectly! Daggerfall music is wonderful! 😁

First and foremost, I wanna say that AWE64 Gold and it's AWEUTIL [GM emulation] nor it's built in 4mb ROM sountfont absolutely does NOT and CAN NOT compare to a real GM card.

I just received my NEC XR385 today from eBay seller double-fish1981, and OH-EM-GEE i've never experienced real hardware GM or XG MIDI before but it is absolutely FANTASTIC!

For instance, the Star Wars theme actually sounds like the real thing with it! 😳

Well that board you bought was one of THE General MIDI boards 😀 The other one being the Sound Canvas.

Creative tried (for whatever reason) a native interface rather than going through MPU401 like everyone else. Still many games support the AWE directly like Descent or Doom and sound fairly good.

You also need to consider price. The AWE was everything, the card, Sound Blaster and wavetable. Whereas the Sound Canvas and Yamaha were a dedicated add-on with a very specific task.

I love the sound of AWE cards. Sure, it's sounds very artificial, but some games actually benefit from this (System Shock for example!).
I totally dig it, it's a great alternative to Sound Canvas and Yamaha XG. It sounds different enough!

The AWE can support custom sounds right? IMO that's the part were it had huge potential. But most games simply ended up being General MIDI and you can't blame them, why would you put in extra efforts just for the AWE.

It could have gone the other way though, but General MIDI took off too much IMO with every company jumping on it and embracing the MPU401 standard.

Well, guess I'm jumping on this bandwagon too haha:) Read how many of you were using the clone daughter card with a CT2800 [use one on my W95/Dos box] I couldn't resist. never went the multi-card route before, and $24 isn't a bad little deal..

PhaytalError wrote:

First and foremost, I wanna say that AWE64 Gold and it's AWEUTIL [GM emulation] nor it's built in 4mb ROM sountfont absolutely does NOT and CAN NOT compare to a real GM card.

The ROM soundfont is 1MB on all AWE cards, the soundfont RAM is 4MB on the Gold. Unfortunately, you cannot expect to load a good-sounding soundfont , fire up your favorite DOS game and expect to hear it.

tincup wrote:

Well, guess I'm jumping on this bandwagon too haha:) Read how many of you were using the clone daughter card with a CT2800 [use one on my W95/Dos box] I couldn't resist. never went the multi-card route before, and $24 isn't a bad little deal..

You'll be amazed at the quality of the MIDI that the daughterboard makes.

It also emulates [in hardware] Roland LAPC-I, MT32, Sound Canvas, etc... so it allows games that don't have a "General MIDI" option but that have Roland support to still use the card for Roland based support in games! 😁

Great Hierophant wrote:

PhaytalError wrote:

First and foremost, I wanna say that AWE64 Gold and it's AWEUTIL [GM emulation] nor it's built in 4mb ROM sountfont absolutely does NOT and CAN NOT compare to a real GM card.

The ROM soundfont is 1MB on all AWE cards, the soundfont RAM is 4MB on the Gold. Unfortunately, you cannot expect to load a good-sounding soundfont , fire up your favorite DOS game and expect to hear it.

You can always load it in Windows and then play your DOS game.
I still prefer the 1MB ROM for most games though. X-Com also sounds amazing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq31i1qjLpo&li … ture=plpp_video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bub5wdTiFiI

PhaytalError wrote:

You'll be amazed at the quality of the MIDI that the daughterboard makes.

Really looking forward to it - hope i's not DOA... I listened to Swaaye's recordings and was impressed how the original Yamaha sounded, so I'm psyched about the clone.

Vogons is definitely an "audio freindly" site and I've learned much about a facet of gaming that was, until now, really not that high on my list of priorities. But the enthusiasm and dedication to gaming audio is infectious and over the last few months I have done quite a bit of testing and fiddling with my retro boxes in this area.

And btw, I have found the CT2800 16-S to be a reasonable one-card isa solution for late dos/early windows. The midi, as primative as it sounds [as I'm now discovering], comes across better to my ear than half-dozen other cards I tried and is easy to setup.