These cards are a bit rare to find.
I have one boxed card but it has a problem: midi works fine but voice volume in one of the channels is too low compared to the other channel. Can you please try your card and give feedback on that? You can use the tools that came in those disks.

sprcorreia wrote:

These cards are a bit rare to find.
I have one boxed card but it has a problem: midi works fine but voice volume in one of the channels is too low compared to the other channel. Can you please try your card and give feedback on that? You can use the tools that came in those disks.

I dont think i had issues with channel balance but i tested on some crappy speakers, will check again and come back on it.

However i did experience other issues.
I tried it first on a 500mhz celeron wit 440BX chipset system and wav sounds were always cutting too fast, after a split second the sound would just choke. I tried with all settings possibility, even tried with windows drivers, always the same thing. Midi was fine though.

I then tried the card in a 386 and the sound was not cutting, ( maybe was a glitch from too fast processor ? )

One funny thing about this card is that it apparently stores its settings in a EEPROM, you can change those settings with the utilities and the card will remember them. Maybe there is an utility to adjust sound balance? I will check for that too.

Had the same problem. Sound problems in my P3 machine but in my Philips 486 sound was normal (apart from channel balance in voice).

*More info and testing on the card*

I verified and i do not have balance issue between Left and Right. It is perfectly even here. Also, there do not seem to be an utility for balance with the disks, there is one for volume only.

I also tried the card in a pentium 120 and the sound cuts. Its actually worse than on my celeron 500.

I then tried on my overdriven 486 and it works perfectly (evergreen 5x86 133 ) There definitely seems to be a glitch when this card runs on something more recent than a 486. The card was made in 1991 so that could make sense...

Also, this card can use Gameblaster CMS (SAA1099P) chips (not sure if usually included ) but i have them on my card. I tried Monkey island with these things and it seems to work all right! I do not have an actual gameblaster to compare but my guess is its pretty close.

Compatibility wise, this card so far is sort of average. here are the games i tried and the results.

Duke nukem 2 : FM music + digital sound is Good
Wolf3d: FM and digital sound is Good but adlib effects seem distorted because too loud ( it seems )
DooM: FM music is good, no audio.
Comanche Maximum overkill: nothing works
Descent : All good
OMF2097: All good
Dune: FM music is good, forgot to check audio
Monkey island : Adlib FM music is glitched, really not pleasant, its plain wrong. Howerver CMS was fine.

All this being said, there is something great about this card. The FM quality (when it works) is GREAT! Really its excellent. It has a real OPL2 and the amplification circuit must be pretty good because this thing has sound i tell you. Its clear and meaty at the same time.

I also tried to use the gameport for general midi output, during the installation you have the possibility to test midi out but that did not seem to work with my sound canvas module. Apparently , you cannot configure port settings anywhere for the midi out which is a bit strange. When tried in a game it says <mpu-401 port 330 not found > I did not bother trying other ports.

sprcorreia, do you happen to have the Manual for this thing? It could tell us how the midi out is supposed to work, that would be nice of you to check.

Sound Blaster 2.0 clone?

The Creative Sound Blaster 2.0 needs -5V and I ran into the same issue on a BX440 machine. But on my 486 it ran fine! You could swap the PSUs if you really want to know 😀

I don't think the Sound Blaster had a MPU401 MIDI interface. Maybe it had a proprietary but MPU401 support only came with the Sound Blaster 16.

Yes, the Sound Blasters prior to the SB16 had a MIDI interface but its not MPU401 compliant. I think there's a few apps on the Creative driver disks that will use the Creative MIDI interface but I'm not aware of any games that used it. If there is I'd like to know! 😀

Also, MaxWar, I am a little confused, I think you are using MIDI and FM interchangeably. As DN2 and Wolf3d didn't have a MIDI soundtrack, only FM. FM and MIDI are not the same.

MaxWar wrote:

Ok guys i have some goodies for your rare retro soundcard love. […]
Show full quote

Ok guys i have some goodies for your rare retro soundcard love.

I bought recently the ATI STEREO F/X card, NOT the VGA STEREO F/X.
It is sound blaster clone with some twists.

Now what is interesting is the seller actually had copies of the 4 original 340k 5.25 floppies with it.

I was afraid those old 5.25 disks would be damaged but i could read them fine!!

I could not find these drivers anywhere on the internet, not even on driverguide.

So here they are, this is my gift to the internet. I will also try to upload it to Driverguide later.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/43851675/StereoFX/ATISFX.zip

*Note that all of the content of the 4 floppies can be copied on the root of a single 1.44 floppy. It works perfectly, i installed it this way.

Pfft Driverguide.

VogonsDrivers is where it's at! (see my sig)

I'll set up an account for you. PM with details is incoming.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Sound Blaster 2.0 clone?

The Creative Sound Blaster 2.0 needs -5V and I ran into the same issue on a BX440 machine. But on my 486 it ran fine! You could swap the PSUs if you really want to know 😀

I don't think the Sound Blaster had a MPU401 MIDI interface. Maybe it had a proprietary but MPU401 support only came with the Sound Blaster 16.

Ah i did not know about mpu401 and older cards. I do have a SB 2.0 but never tried outputing midi with it. About PSU and sound issues, this is interesting, i may have some more testing to do involving this 😜 My SB 2.0 does work fine on my 440bx though.

DonutKing wrote:

Yes, the Sound Blasters prior to the SB16 had a MIDI interface but its not MPU401 compliant. I think there's a few apps on the Creative driver disks that will use the Creative MIDI interface but I'm not aware of any games that used it. If there is I'd like to know! Happy

Also, MaxWar, I am a little confused, I think you are using MIDI and FM interchangeably. As DN2 and Wolf3d didn't have a MIDI soundtrack, only FM. FM and MIDI are not the same.

You are right, i have a tendency to use the term MIDI in a broad manner but it should not be used when referring to this kind of FM music.

@SquallStrife : It shall be done!

Hi all, OP,

I have found the disks 2, 3 and 4 but I am missing Disk 1.
Obviously the link is dead, anyone knows if this has been uploaded on VogonsDrivers?

StEeLz wrote on 2020-11-29, 05:25:

Hi all, OP,

I have found the disks 2, 3 and 4 but I am missing Disk 1.
Obviously the link is dead, anyone knows if this has been uploaded on VogonsDrivers?

there are two uploads to Vogons Driver Library: look down the list and you will see ATI Stereo F/X listed two times (diff uploads)
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/index.php?catid= … &menustate=37,0