VOGONS


First post, by c0keb0ttle

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Can someone help me identify exactly which model of card this is?

vibra.jpg
Filename
vibra.jpg
File size
545.3 KiB
Views
2861 views
File comment
Vibra 16
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

Does it have OPL3 or some other chip?

I need to find the jumper settings for it, because I don't think it's a PnP card?

Reply 1 of 13, by brostenen

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Soundforte!!! Hmmm.... I think this is a Creative clone of some sort.

Don't eat stuff off a 15 year old never cleaned cpu cooler.
Those cakes make you sick....

My blog: http://to9xct.blogspot.dk
My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/brostenen

001100 010010 011110 100001 101101 110011

Reply 2 of 13, by c0keb0ttle

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Yeah, so what I find is that it's a MediaForte Vibra-16-02. Unfortunately it seems impossible to find any kind of jumper settings guide.

I tried fiddling with it in the Sam & Max SetMuse application, and it works without any kind of drivers loaded. Currently it seems to be set to port 220, IRQ 5, DMA 1, and, more importantly, MPU 330 - which blocks my midi card from communicating with the MT-32. I want to change that port to 300, so it no longer conflicts. I guess I can just move the jumpers around randomly and see what happens...

Reply 3 of 13, by brostenen

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Been digging around, though Soundforte does not sound right, when thinking about the brand Creative.
I have an idea that normal creative drivers will work.
Another thing from my snooping around, is this russian site, that mentions the card as a "CT-2501".

http://www.phantom.sannata.ru/forum/index.php … 4990&a=do_print

So it might be a rebranded version of a true Creative card or something like that.
Then again.... I am not even shure, if Creative has released any ISA soundcard with CT-25xx numbers.

Don't eat stuff off a 15 year old never cleaned cpu cooler.
Those cakes make you sick....

My blog: http://to9xct.blogspot.dk
My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/brostenen

001100 010010 011110 100001 101101 110011

Reply 4 of 13, by c0keb0ttle

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Thanks for looking. 😀

CT2501 is the version of the Vibra chipset on it, not the model of the card itself. It's apparently a "Vibra 16S", as mentioned on the Sound Blaster Wikipedia page. Unfortunately this does not bring me any closer to figuring out the jumpers. 🙁

Reply 5 of 13, by clueless1

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I can't tell for sure from the photo, but it doesn't look like there's any Yamaha chips, so I'm guessing it's using CQM?

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
OPL3 FM vs. Roland MT-32 vs. General MIDI DOS Game Comparison
Let's benchmark our systems with cache disabled
DOS PCI Graphics Card Benchmarks

Reply 6 of 13, by gerwin

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
clueless1 wrote:

I can't tell for sure from the photo, but it doesn't look like there's any Yamaha chips, so I'm guessing it's using CQM?

The chip with 'QC Passed' is likely an OPL3 clone. An obscure one.

--> ISA Soundcard Overview // Doom MBF 2.04 // SetMul

Reply 8 of 13, by peklop

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

no...
SF16 MCD02 looks older:
download/file.php?id=9289
Re: SF16SB-MCD-02 creative sound blaster

Here is (incomplete?) list of MediaForte products:
http://www.yjfy.com/hardware/video/MEDIAFORTE.htm

Vibra is listed as SF16-VIP
(SF32-WAV is Vibra with WaveFront wavetable)
And i know two or more different SoundForte/RadioForte combo sound/radio cards using much smaller Vibra16S chip.
Here is same card as Your and one SF16 radio with Vibra16S:
https://www.sbazar.cz/HanzB2/detail/20486034- … -ct2501-tdq-isa
different combo with vibra:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Media … s_SF16-FMP2.jpg

Isn´t any paper label or name on the back side of card?

Reply 9 of 13, by Tetrium

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
peklop wrote:

Isn´t any paper label or name on the back side of card?

Perhaps inserting the sound card into a Win9x rig will auti-detect it?
Some drivers came with the OS so this might help to find a way to find out what it is exactly.

Whats missing in your collections?
My retro rigs (old topic)
Interesting Vogons threads (links to Vogonswiki)
Report spammers here!

Reply 10 of 13, by stamasd

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Yup the "QC passed" sticker chip is an OPL3 or a clone of it... the DAC is the chip directly to the right of it. CT2501 don't have OPL3 or CQM inside, any FM synthesis needs to be done by external chips.

I/O, I/O,
It's off to disk I go,
With a bit and a byte
And a read and a write,
I/O, I/O

Reply 11 of 13, by peklop

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Different and newer Media Forte card with different Vibra16 chip but you can try it:
The DXP44Q synth, What is it? OPL3 clone or bootleg OPL3?

Skyscraper wrote:

Update.

I installed the card in the IBM Aptiva 2144-900 "TYPE C-1" 486 DX2-50 desktop carcass I recently bought for 10 euro and wired up a test drive.

The Soundforte 16 FMP-03 dosnt need any special drivers loaded in DOS, it works fine using only a SET BLASTER line and diagnose.exe /S. As far as I can tell the DXP44Q is a "real bootleg" OPL3 but I have only listened to the music in Tyrian so far and I use crappy speakers. The cards general sound output quality seems very good with very little noise, I disabled the onboard amp though.

Reply 12 of 13, by Joseph_Joestar

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Looks like I got my hands on one of these SoundForte Vibra cards. Mine is very similar to the one from the initial post here, but its Vibra chip bears the CT2501-TCQ designation. Also, the OPL3 chip is not covered by a sticker and seems to be of the YMF262-M variety paired with the standard YAC512-M converter.

During my tests, I've installed the SBBASIC.EXE drivers from Creative's website and they appear to be working fine under DOS 6.22. That said, I have no idea what the jumper settings for this card are, since they don't follow the standard Creative designation. But the way they are currently set up gives me the default A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 according to DIAGNOSE.EXE and all the games that I've tried.

DSP is detected as v4.13 and consequently, I have encountered both Type 1 and Type 2 hanging note bugs. As expected, it also suffers from the Vibra distortion bug. The card seems to be fairly noisy, but that can be brought down do semi-tolerable levels by rotating the volume wheel to about 75% and setting the volume levels in MIXERSET.EXE to 50% while disabling Automatic Gain Control and muting any unused inputs. All in all, not a great card, but still somewhat useful depending on one's use case.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 13 of 13, by Joseph_Joestar

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I think I've discovered what some of the jumpers on this card do. After reading this post by Cloudschatze, I noticed that my SoundForte Vibra card also has a pair of jumpers placed near the volume wheel. So I tried moving them to a different position and voila:

SoundForte_Amp.jpg
Filename
SoundForte_Amp.jpg
File size
143.1 KiB
Views
1239 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

Turns out that this pair of jumpers enables/disables the on-board amplifier. As expected, bypassing the amplifier eliminates most of the noise that this card suffers from. You'll know that it is working if turning the wheel no longer affects the output volume of the card, as Cloudschatze already mentioned in his post.

EDIT - I've uploaded some music samples which were recorded with the amplifier disabled, in case people want to check the noise levels. And lastly, here's a full size picture of my card, for reference purposes.

SoundForte.jpg
Filename
SoundForte.jpg
File size
561.78 KiB
Views
887 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi