digitaldoofus wrote:

This has probably been answered, but I'd like to hear some fresh responses from people who own (or have heard) an "original" AdLib card used with a certain game, then compared the sound with, for example, a Soundblaster Pro's AdLib emulation.

Can anyone explain the sound differences, advantages/disadvantages between the two? Did the "original" sound better, and how?

The Sound Blaster Pro does not "emulate" the Adlib, it contains the hardware of two Adlib cards and much more. Only the preamp and amp may be different.

Yeah, when I was posting I actually thought "emulate" probably wasn't the technically correct word due to same chips being used...but the essence of my question remains: was the sound noticeably different, and if so, in what way(s)?

digitaldoofus wrote:

was the sound noticeably different, and if so, in what way(s)?

Back in 1993, I remember a friend of mine still had an Adlib card in his computer (not Adlib Gold). Basically, there is no difference at all between its FM sound and that of my SBPro --none that I can discern, though.

like Great Hierophant said before, because the preamp and amp may be different, it will have some slight difference in sound, but nothing special

Cool. I just thought that some of the "noise" or "crackling" (or whatever) may have been filtered out better in either the original AdLib, or perhaps in the SBPro. Or, perhaps some other discernable nuance might have been present that made them sound a bit different. But "no discernable difference" is a good thing, in my opinion.

Anyway, thanks for the responses, and I'm happy to hear that our SBPros are providing "true" AdLib tunes and effects!

So,....ermmm...should I remove my AWE32 and stick in a SBPro or 2 for the Adlib-quality sounds?

Nah...AWE32 gives great AdLib sounds as well.

I think most of the 16-bit ISA Creative cards have OPL3 chips instead of the Adlib's OPL2, but I believe it's backwards-compatible in most cases.

I've read two different opinions on OPL3 versus OPL2: some say OPL3 is an "improved" chip, while others say OPL2 gives truest game music as the composers intended.

A few games have native support for OPL3, as well as the dual-OPL2 setup used in the SB Pro. Interplay's Lord of the Rings vol 2: The Two Towers is one game I remember having some nice stereo OPL music.

The Ad Lib MSC is a rather noisy card, having a constant background hiss, irrespective of any positioning of the volume knob.