ESS card with real OPL3 chip? \ VOGONS

ESS card with real OPL3 chip?

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First post, by atomeec

Posted on 2019-10-12, 18:33

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Hi all,

This is my first post here (oh, just saw after submitting it that actually second 🤣) however I am reading the forum for several months already (since I started to gather some old stuff to have real DOS experience...again after so many years).
So, I have already some sound cards, which I could afford for reasonable price. An AWE64, which is now installed but I am not so satisfied with it, I had issues and reflashed the firmware with the the Dell flasher, which was successful so basically revived the card from certain death (it was already mostly not recognized by the motherboard). It is quite noisy with headphones (fine with speakers), but still I am looking around for alternative options to have good sound, music in DOS games. I read already a lot, so I know there is no ultimate card here...Anyway 😀
I have no idea if OPL3 for midi synth would be that good, but what I know from experience already (I have 3 ESS cards, they are really good and were cheap) ESS would be the best choice because of the wavetable header (would be nice to get a dreamblaster later for it for GM) and nice sound quality and bugfree operation. I still don't have option for MT-32 music, as the device is too much expensive for me, I don't want a separate PC to emulate it, and...I would be fine with something close...if exists.

Anyway, the reason of my post is, as the only information I have about a card I found for sale is that it is probably from some early era of ESS when still they licenced real Yamaha stuff, but no other info found on it if it is would worth the price (no ebay prices, everything is too much cost for normal human being here in central-east Europe) - which is around 30 USD. I have a picture as a proof 😀 If anyone can give me advise, more info, direction, I am very thankful. And sorry for the new topic, but couldn't find this card anywere in discussions.

Reply 1 of 16, by kolderman

Posted on 2019-10-12, 19:24

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Get it, I think it is highly collectible. I would buy it in a heartbeat.

Reply 2 of 16, by root42

Posted on 2019-10-12, 19:25

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Interesting: I don’t see a Yamaha DAC. So the audiodrive IC must be doing the DAC part on behalf of the OPL3?

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Reply 3 of 16, by derSammler

Posted on 2019-10-12, 19:35

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The Yamaha DAC is there, right from the ESS chip (YAC512).

Reply 4 of 16, by keropi

Posted on 2019-10-12, 19:40

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I also have this card - it has a jumper to select what SB version you want: SB2.0 or PRO , very interesting but no idea if useful in reality 😁

🎵 🎧 ⏳ ⚡ PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 5 of 16, by root42

Posted on 2019-10-12, 20:28

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derSammler wrote:
The Yamaha DAC is there, right from the ESS chip (YAC512).

Indeed it is! I was looking in the wrong place.

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Reply 6 of 16, by atomeec

Posted on 2019-10-12, 20:52

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It comes with original manual and driver disks. For me not the value in money would be interesting but value using it instead of AWE64. Another image:

Thank you for the replies, indeed this is a nice forum 😊

Reply 7 of 16, by atomeec

Posted on 2019-10-12, 21:11

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keropi wrote:
I also have this card - it has a jumper to select what SB version you want: SB2.0 or PRO , very interesting but no idea if useful in reality 😁

I have an ES1688 which is the same (jumpers and same options for SB mimic) without OPL chip.

Reply 8 of 16, by appiah4

Posted on 2019-10-12, 22:49

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The jumpers to select SB2/SBPro and SB-MIDI/MPU-401 are the only interesting things on this board.

Why?

ES688 is normally SB/SBPro compatible and I have never seen a card with the option to disable SBPro compatibility, and the ES688 chip has no MPU401 functionality normally and requires a TSR to enable that. Regarding the latter, I see there is a jumper that directly connects to the OPL3 chip so it probably manually sets it to OPL2. That is novel, but not entirely useful. However the former leads me to believe there is something on this card that gives it intelligent mode MPU401 functionality. There is a PALCE16V8H chip on it which is a programmable logic chip I think, so maybe that?

I'd definitely get it myself for the (apparent) MPU401 interface, even though I have like five ES688 cards already. (Note: ES688+OPL3 is my GOTO card for 386/486 PCs)

EDIT: Also what is J4? Can't be a second wavetable header surely.. A breakout header for some MIDI related stuff?

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Reply 9 of 16, by keropi

Posted on 2019-10-12, 23:07

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ESS688 per datasheet offers midi support - the expected UART one. No intelligent stuff going on in that cart I'm afraid (or even a midi input port).

🎵 🎧 ⏳ ⚡ PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 10 of 16, by derSammler

Posted on 2019-10-13, 07:59

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EDIT: Also what is J4? Can't be a second wavetable header surely.. A breakout header for some MIDI related stuff?

Probably for some sort of (planned) extension. It mostly connects directly to the ISA bus, so certainly not for a breakout box or MIDI related.

That card is a "Sertek International Inc Sound/Game Card DCS8305I" btw, in case anyone cares. 😉

Reply 11 of 16, by kolderman

Posted on 2023-03-12, 03:03

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appiah4 wrote on 2019-10-12, 22:49:

the ES688 chip has no MPU401 functionality normally and requires a TSR to enable that.

Can softmpu be that tsr?

Reply 12 of 16, by keenerb

Posted on 2023-03-12, 03:35

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kolderman wrote on 2023-03-12, 03:03:

appiah4 wrote on 2019-10-12, 22:49:

the ES688 chip has no MPU401 functionality normally and requires a TSR to enable that.

Can softmpu be that tsr?

I don't believe softmpu currently is usable with 688 chips.

Reply 13 of 16, by appiah4

Posted on 2023-03-12, 07:10

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kolderman wrote on 2023-03-12, 03:03:

appiah4 wrote on 2019-10-12, 22:49:

the ES688 chip has no MPU401 functionality normally and requires a TSR to enable that.

Can softmpu be that tsr?

Nope, unrelated.

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 14 of 16, by stanwebber

Posted on 2023-03-12, 07:40

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i currently use a es688 with softmpu and the /comm switch. no problems whatsoever. it works with or without drivers loaded (do not specify address & irq unless drivers loaded). unisound will also instantly initialize this card with the /nopnp switch (official drivers take almost 60sec to initialize).

the es688 is still one of my primary cards, but it has fallen out of favor in preference to the azt-2320. they are both matched pretty evenly, but the azt-2320 also has wss and a real mpu-401 which the es688 hasn't. unisound, again, is the go to for the azt-2320 because the dos drivers suck.

Reply 15 of 16, by Pierre32

Posted on 2023-03-12, 08:09

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stanwebber wrote on 2023-03-12, 07:40:

i currently use a es688 with softmpu and the /comm switch. no problems whatsoever. it works with or without drivers loaded (do not specify address & irq unless drivers loaded). unisound will also instantly initialize this card with the /nopnp switch (official drivers take almost 60sec to initialize).

Both very interesting pieces of info. I have a 688 that I loved but never got MIDI working, and it has since expired. It would have been cool to try these things.

Reply 16 of 16, by Windows9566

Posted on 2023-03-12, 08:23

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i have a 688FC, it uses a DSP24S which is a copycat of the YMF262, sounds like the real thing too. it seems to be a good SB Pro 2.0 compatible card

R5 5600X, 32 GB RAM, RTX 3060 TI, Win11
P3 600, 256 MB RAM, nVidia Riva TNT2 M64, SB Vibra 16S, Win98
PMMX 200, 128 MB RAM, S3 Virge DX, Yamaha YMF719, Win95
486DX2 66, 32 MB RAM, Trident TGUI9440, ESS ES688F, DOS

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