James, this is such good stuff. This and some of your past, similar posts, should be part of the historical record here. At the very least, you should link those threads to your signature. Or someone should make them stickies.

Quite surprised how good the SB1.5 sounds, personally. SBPro2.0 sounds like someone turned the treble to zero, but the stereo separation is nice. SB16 is the best of both worlds (in this comparison), and SB2.0 sounds the worst. Just my opinion, of course. Of course, I've always been the guy who turns both treble and bass knobs all the way up on anything that has such knobs. So that is my bias.

Cloudschatze wrote:

James-F wrote:

The SB16 is still not a good card for DOS gaming when used solely, but it is a good companion to the SBPro to complete the SBPro where it lacks, mainly as a Wavetable host and MPU-401.

I'm actually very fond of this idea. Not so much the pairing of the SBPro2 with an SB16 proper, but rather, with an AWE32 or AWE64, where a wider breadth of compatibility is achieved by the duo (concerning the EMU8000).

This is why I really like the GUS Extreme. It basically serves the same purpose: An SB Pro 2.0 (clone) and a wavetable synth/Roland MT-32/Sound Canvas together.
Before I had a GUS Extreme, I used to have a real SB Pro 2.0 and a GUS MAX in one machine.
I found that DOOM sounded best for me when I used SB Pro 2.0 for sound effects and MegaEm in Sound Canvas mode for music.

Thanks for the kind words clueless1, I have so many threads I want to link that the 255 letter limitation in the signature is not enough, I tried. 😁

I have tested again lowering the clock to 60MHz from the standard 66MHz on my Pentium, and indeed both the SB1.5 and SB2.0 DSP will break and stop producing sound after several seconds in Duke Nukem 3D and Doom, both use auto-initialize DMA which was added in DSP 2.0 for the SB1.5 as an update.
I initially thought the SB1.5 is more sensitive than the SB2.0 but I am assured that they are both equally bad in handling different FSB, at least on a Pentium as far as I can test.
This is not the case with SBPro 2, SB16, or YMF719, everything is fine at any FSB.

I am not sure if it is Motherboard/CPU related or actually SB related, can anyone confirm?
These tests draw a picture that the SB.15 and SB2.0 are super sensitive to the machine they are in, that includes both the fussy OPL2 and DSP.

James-F - why don't you pick your top-3 posts (this one should be up there) for your signature. Then you can switch it up if you come up with a new one that you like. It's easy to lose golden posts like these in the noise, especially when a SB2.0 is involved. At the very least, they should be linked in the "Sound cards" section of this page: http://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/Interesti … _Vogons_Threads

Interesting about potential speed sensitivity. Wish I could help confirm, but I just don't have enough HW. Reminds me a little of when I was seeing sound issues that were resolving when I'd disable cache(s). Have you tried that, just to see if/how well it helps?

clueless1 wrote:

It's easy to lose golden posts like these in the noise, especially when a SB2.0 is involved.

😮 🤣

I actually bookmark all my important posts, so they are not lost per se.
I removed my retro system specs, and linked the top 3 posts that I think are useful.

A Wiki would be a good place for that kind of information.

With forums, you will see the same questions getting asked over and over, something that might feel a bit frustrating, but everyone is on their own retro journey at different times, so don't hold it against anyone 😀

But know that a LOT of people will find your stuff through Google, you might never hear from them, but it does make a difference.

By the way, perhaps pushing my luck here... but does someone have a real AdLib, and if so, could they record the same game music from an AdLib? I think it would be interesting to hear how an SB compares to an AdLib for OPL2 sounds.

for my opinion the difference came from the southbridge of mobo. Unlike most card can have trouble with mobo's chipset not very compatible on dos specific tollerance.

Anyone have the datasheet for the mixer chip on Sound Blaster Pro 2 (CT1345), or know which pins are responsible for the analog main audio output L/R ?
I'm trying to see if it would be possible to convert the card to have a line-out rather than amplified out, and check if there is any difference in S/N ratio and frequency response in doing so.

Thanks

^ It shouldn't be that difficult even without the datasheet.

suntac wrote:

^ It shouldn't be that difficult even without the datasheet.

I agree, but trying to trace back from the amplifier to the mixer chip is (at least for me) nearly impossible as there is no direct line, not even close.