What games are you going to play?

I'd go with the AWE64 GOLD unless you want to play really old, FM only, games.

But you might want to get an external Sound Canvas as well.

I want an opportunity to run most of the games that have MIDI for music (including early titles which provide interesting music options like FB-01).

I've noticed that you're an AWE64 Gold fan. However, I don't like CQM much. Neither do I like issues with muted/garbled OPL part after EMU8000 usage; however, AWE32 cards suffer of that no less than AWE64.

Well for MIDI you will need:

- MT-32 (Old)
- SC-55

You can use the LAPC-I to drive it all.

Or did you mean FM?

What I found about GUS, CMS, PAS is you spend time and money to source the cards, then listen to a few games but in the end you go back to Sound Blaster and Roland 😀

I have a collection of XMIDI files (currently something about 2.5 thousands). Lots of them are meant to be played with OPL2/3, some are for GM, some for MT-32, and small number is designed particularly for GUS or AWE32. It would be great to play any of them without having to change hardware.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

I'd go with the AWE64 GOLD unless you want to play really old, FM only, games.

Ha, that's your answer to everything Mau1wurf! The AWE64 might be a good card but it's so boring 🤣

I'd say the CT1600 & the LAPC-I - a nice simple setup that will rock everthing this side of general midi. If GM is required then an external SC55 is the way to go, driven from your LAPC-I if you have that breakout box thing, and if not then just wait for Bjt to upgrade softMPU to allow the CT1600 to drive it.

How's that little upgrade coming along over there Bjt? 😊

Yea I love that card. As a speech / digital card next to MIDI it's perfect 😀

Sound Blaster Pro 2 is also nice. But the swapped L and R annoys me. Yamaha chip cards are also good. I have this Audician card, but the driver annoys me. Can't disable the WSS and so it takes up lots of resources. But maybe there are better drivers?

ESS Audio drives are also nice. But after all is said and done I usually go back to my AWE64 GOLD 😁

I have a Roland MCB-1 and can thus hook anything to my LAPC-I, be it external MIDI devices, or, vice-versa, something that sends in MIDI data so that the LAPC-I PC becomes sort-of CM-32L.

What's the point in using CT1600 instead of CT2760? I don't intend playing games much on that PC, so an issue of some older games being compatible with SB Pro but glitchy with SB16 doesn't bother me.

To turn this PC in a convinient-to-use DOS XMIDI jukebox I am currently developing a XMIDI player. After I fix few remaining bugs, I will probably release it to the public. However, I am quite unsure if XMIDI bothers anyone except myself.

Whenever you have two cards, one that does MIDI, another that does speech / digital, you will have no issues with hanging notes and so on. Many do this to avoid hanging notes on Creative cards.

Roland LAPC-I + SB16 CT1730 (rev 4.03) should be all you need. Then just hook up a Yamaha and SC-55 for the tunes which sound best on them.

That's kind of what I'm doing but I've got a Roland SCC-1 + SB16 with a MT32, CM32L, and Yamaha synth.

CT2760
LAPC-I
GUS MAX

XMIDI player as in MSS/AIL files?

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

I have this Audician card, but the driver annoys me. Can't disable the WSS and so it takes up lots of resources. But maybe there are better drivers?

Ummm... I disagree that it takes a lot of resources. In fact it takes up so little resources. You didn't play with the card long enough.

I do agree SETUPSA is annoying. But whatever you select for Sound Blaster you can select for WSS. WSS is not going to work properly, but you won't need it either. FM output is good as digital is too. These chipsets can do Sound Blaster Pro Stereo and mix @44KHz. In fact, when running a tracker program i found it to be very close quality wise to my Gravis Ultrasounds. It has only slightly less lower SNR compared to the GUS.

The advantages of the OPL3-SAx cards eclipse the disadvantages. And some disadvantages are just nitpicking really.

Currently on my SS7 system i have:
- SBPro 2 CT1600;
- Yamaha YMF719 (just for MPU-401 using IRQ9);
- GUS MAX;

I gave this setup a try, but to be honest the compatibility advantage of the SBPro 2 over the Yamaha card is something that in my case is just non-existant. I might actually ditch the CT1600 in the end.

My vote goes for Yamaha chipset and GUS MAX.

If you won't use external synths i would go with CT1600 and LAPC-I.

carlostex wrote:

I gave this setup a try, but to be honest the compatibility advantage of the SBPro 2 over the Yamaha card is something that in my case is just non-existant. I might actually ditch the CT1600 in the end.

Really? I'm no audiophile but the the SB Pro 2 just sounds so much nicer to my humble ears. SNR, etc aside, for actual gaming purposes with SB Pro era games (~92), the SB Pro just sounds nicer. Those Yamaha cards (I've tried 3) are all kinda crisp, thin, and lifeless in my experience.

Plus, Creative just ruuull11zzz

5u3 wrote:

XMIDI player as in MSS/AIL files?

Right, actually it is based on AIL 2 player.

badmojo wrote:

If GM is required then an external SC55 is the way to go, driven from your LAPC-I if you have that breakout box thing, and if not then just wait for Bjt to upgrade softMPU to allow the CT1600 to drive it.

I bought an SB Pro 2 recently so can do some proper testing, now all I need is some time to do it 😀 Maybe over the holidays. In any case it won't be a magic bullet cause it will only work with real-mode games (no DOS extenders).

The SB16 will be your safest best. Probably the de facto in any retro PC.

If you want something interesting, go for the GUS. With some sound patches, it's a stunning card.

AWE64 is great, but I currently use mine for a Windows 98 machine 🤣
Has solid SB16 emulation too.

Oh, and yeah. MT-32 or SC-55 is a great addition too 😜

I'm having

LAPC-I with MCB-1 to SC-55 MKII, and,
AWE32 CT-2760

in my 486 DX2-66 system.

In a 486 / Pentium systems I usually install GM devices. I also like SB16s in 486 / Pentium systems. 😊

I keep the LAPC-I(s) for 8086/286/386. With SBPRO or SB1.5/2. 😊

The FB-01 is kind of fun with old Sierra games. But I sold mine 2 weeks ago. I may buy one (without box, cheap) again at some point. I just dislike modules. I am always short on desk space and all the cables annoy me. 🤣

PeterLI wrote:

The FB-01 is kind of fun with old Sierra games. But I sold mine 2 weeks ago.

YOU! Thelyron Hashnitor!!

I nearly had a heart attack when my IBM Music Feature auto-search returned non-zero results. However, that was you offering a FB-01 bundle for sale and using 'IBM Music Feature card' string in lot description!

badmojo wrote:

Really? I'm no audiophile but the the SB Pro 2 just sounds so much nicer to my humble ears. SNR, etc aside, for actual gaming purposes with SB Pro era games (~92), the SB Pro just sounds nicer. Those Yamaha cards (I've tried 3) are all kinda crisp, thin, and lifeless in my experience.

Plus, Creative just ruuull11zzz

Yes.

Of course, it depends on actual taste. I actually love the Sound Blaster Pro, it's one of my favorite Creative cards. Tell you something, i don't like the fact that the Yamaha cards are budget. In my opinion the YMF chipsets are excellent, and sometimes i wonder abiut this chipset built into a better design card with better filtering and components. I think it's a chipset that would deserved higher quality board design.

As far as sound goes yes there are differences, but having tried loads of OPL3 cards, Creative and others , the cards with the YMF chipset are the ones that sound best to me. Compared to the CT1600, it sounds a little thinner because it probably cuts a bit on low frequencies, but with my mixer i can make it sound very very close to the Pro 2. Granted the software is not user friendly and a bit weird with virtually no documentation, but it's a problem out of my way because i've dealt with it enough. Oh and BTW, the card sounds great when mixing stereo at 44KHz, something a real Pro 2 cannot do. I dare to say it then sounds pretty close to a GUS quality wise. This is a card that just works for me, and gives me absolutely 0 problems.

Creatived tottaly ruled the market, but often competitors had technically better products.