I saw that listed for sale yesterday. I thought it was just an Opus as well, but it definitely has some differences.

This one still has the COW Chip, which was an indicator of the Gateway OEM use for the card, however it has an OTTO chip, which is more like the VIVO. It doesn't help that the FCC ID of every Soundscape card is apparently LF7SS2016... 🤣

So, I can't say for sure what this card is, but here is what we know:

*It has a Sequoia chip, like the earlier Soundscapes.
*The OTTO chip is an OTTOA2 rather than the OTTOR2 which is found on the early Soundscapes and the later, cheaper VIVO-90 model (also frequently found in Gateway systems)
*It does NOT have an OPUS chip, though according to this page the OPUS chip contains the functionality of the OTTO and Sequoia chips, so this would make sense
*The wavetable ROM clearly says 1M, so it will likely have the same sound as the OPUS and 1MB S2000 models.

If I had to guess, this was a stopgap Gateway OEM model made to cut costs between the earlier (huge!) Soundscape S2000 and the OPUS and it likely functions similarly to both of those. I don't know what the COW chip does, so its hard to say whether this will work with S2000 or OPUS drivers, but I'd lean toward the S2000 ones since it has the older separate chips.

I can't remember if there are any comparisons between the wavetable playback of these cards anywhere online, so I'm not sure if there is any perceptible difference between them.

Soundscapes of any kind are getting pretty hard to find. I was very happy to find a pair of OPUS cards earlier this year and I'm looking forward to putting one in a retro rig at some point. I've had a VIVO90 for a while but never wanted to mess with the TSR required to make it work. The OPUS, S2000 and Elite are the cards to look for, for sure, so either way you've got a useful card there. Definitely a neat find. 😀

Thank you for a such detailed answer! So this card still a mystery. I'll try S2000 drivers when I get it.
BTW, I didn't mention that I bought it, but yes - the seller accepted my $44 offer 😀

I also got this one, looks like 1MB cost reduction S-2000 OEM version?

borichka wrote:

Thank you for a such detailed answer! So this card still a mystery. I'll try S2000 drivers when I get it.
BTW, I didn't mention that I bought it, but yes - the seller accepted my $44 offer 😀

I also got this one, looks like 1MB cost reduction S-2000 OEM version?

That's a great deal on an OPUS! Nice job! 😀

And yes, from my understanding, that is the common OEM version of the card. I think the 2MB version has a larger, older style chip for the ROM and normally has all of the CDROM headers. Like the one on this page:
http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ensoniq_Soundscape_S-2000

With only 1MB ROM, would it sound differently vs. the original 2MB card?

I think the COW chip is a PNP interface. Notice lack of jumpers for the PCM and synth port addresses.

IIRC the Opus cards operate at a different port address that breaks some games' native Soundscape support if you can't reconfigure the address they look for. Instead of 534h they use something else. Maybe that one above does too. I don't remember if this could be changed on the card....

Yeah the 1MB cards sound somewhat less impressive.

ODIE is also the name of an Ensoniq chip: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OmB8cT140Lsk … v08WXM9IIh/view
More: http://r-massive.cellarseer.com/ensoniq-techn … and-schematics/

Stiletto wrote:

ODIE is also the name of an Ensoniq chip: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OmB8cT140Lsk … v08WXM9IIh/view
More: http://r-massive.cellarseer.com/ensoniq-techn … and-schematics/

This is interesting! Thanks for the links!

This is a neat find. Thanks for sharing.

swaaye wrote:

IIRC the Opus cards operate at a different port address that breaks some games' native Soundscape support if you can't reconfigure the address they look for. Instead of 534h they use something else. Maybe that one above does too. I don't remember if this could be changed on the card.....

The Opus cards use 338 for the WavePort. I have never tried changing it in sndscape.ini or the Windows device manager. These cards don't have any jumpers besides whether or not you are using a powered mic.

Are there any specific examples of games that break using port 338? In practice, I have not ran across anything where you couldn't at least manually edit the games config to get it working, but I will admit I have hardly tried every game out there.

Tenorman wrote:

but I will admit I have hardly tried every game out there.

Tenorman or someone else with an ISA SoundScape installed;
It would be nice if you could try Doom MBF 2.04 in my signature. Configured for SoundScape. I have no information whether or not the Allegro SoundScape Driver works properly. It is the only card I cannot test myself. (It should be similar to Windows Sound System, since the SoundScapes also have the AD SoundPort codec.)

Tenorman wrote:

The Opus cards use 338 for the WavePort. I have never tried changing it in sndscape.ini or the Windows device manager. These cards don't have any jumpers besides whether or not you are using a powered mic.

Are there any specific examples of games that break using port 338? In practice, I have not ran across anything where you couldn't at least manually edit the games config to get it working, but I will admit I have hardly tried every game out there.

The only example I remember is Crusader No Remorse with the patch that adds Soundscape support. It doesn't recognize that port. The older Soundscape cards don't have it as an option. But yes you can edit the crusader.cfg to get it working.

gerwin wrote:

Tenorman or someone else with an ISA SoundScape installed;
It would be nice if you could try Doom MBF 2.04 in my signature. Configured for SoundScape. I have no information whether or not the Allegro SoundScape Driver works properly. It is the only card I cannot test myself. (It should be similar to Windows Sound System, since the SoundScapes also have the AD SoundPort codec.)

Lucky for you I have the afternoon off work and was bored...

This seems to work fine for the most part. I usually let my SB16 handle sound effects on the games that use the Doom engine. It's cool to have this working with native Soundscape.

I recorded the demo that runs when you start the game on both my Opus and S2000.
-No issues with the S2000.
-I am getting some distortion with the digital sound on the Opus card. I don't have this issue with the other two Soundscape native games I had handy (Duke 3D and ROTT). I also don't hear this distortion on the same system with my SB32 CT3670. This happens with both 22k and 44k sampling options.

Soundscape S2000 (2MB patch set): http://www.tenorman.info/assets/pc/s2000/doom … _demo_s2000.mp3
Soundscape Opus: http://www.tenorman.info/assets/pc/ssopus/doo … demo_ssopus.mp3

Thanks a lot for reporting back on that, with not one but two SoundScapes!
When I have time I will see where the SoundScape drivers of Duke3D and MBF differ, in an effort to fix the menioned distortion ( I can hear it ). IIRC the Duke3D sound drivers were also open sourced.

Tenorman wrote:

This seems to work fine for the most part. I usually let my SB16 handle sound effects on the games that use the Doom engine. It's cool to have this working with native Soundscape.

I agree; Native support makes these exotic soundcards more enjoyable. So I backported, fixed and expanded all Allegro sound drivers I could get.

Hi guys new to the forum, i registered here to find out about this card. I was going thru a few bins of old computer stuff and happened across one of these. Unfortunately, i can't or have a need for it. If anyone is interested in it shoot me an offer. The card has been in storage for a few years. I can't test it to see if it is still functional. I'm in need of a 50pin scsi pic slot card, which i would trade for. Thanks.

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