First post, by BraveToaster
Hi,
a couple of months ago, I've reactivated my old Pentium 233 MMX, got myself a 17" CRT again and put together a retro corner in my house. 😀
After a little while, I've started exploring better options for the ISA soundcard. I started out with a TerraTec Base1 (AD1816 chipset) and a TerraTec Mini Wave System daughterboard - that's the original hardware I still have from when that stuff (and the computer) was new.
It's not a terrible combination, the Base1 offers good SB Pro compatibility, is very quiet, and features a fully functioning MPU401 UART interface that works well with SoftMPU, but the main drawback is a pretty... liberal interpretation of OPL3.
So I started out naively looking for an SB16 and got myself a CT2950 on eBay - I didn't know anything about the various options at the time and figured that the Creative cards are the gold standard of the time. Well... it is not noisy, and it has a PC speaker input (which I really like) - but the MPU401 interface has "all the bugs" and OPL3 is from a CQM chip, which is okay, but certainly not original.
Using MIDI with the wavetable card is not fun because of those bugs. Other than those caveats, the card worked great.
My next step was using an external laptop for MIDI emulation (MUNT for MT-32 and VirtualMidiSynth for GM) via Gameport -> adapter -> Roland UM-ONE MIDI USB interface. That works great, but with the SB16, that was not working out at all. The hanging notes bugs were obvious and sometimes the applications even crashed. Back with the TerraTec Base1, it works very well.
The next step was getting a Yamaha YMF719E-based card (A-TREND Harmony 3DS719), thinking that could be close to the optimum, since it has original OPL3, and is known to be very SB Pro compatible and has no MIDI bugs. I was also considering pairing it with the SB16, as in this thread.
The reality, at least in my configuration, was different. I didn't try it our for very long, but I got all kinds of weird behavior in some games, like sound not getting played properly, and MIDI playback with some flaws (although not as terrible as with the SB16). So I didn't consider this a great option overall and went back to the Base1.
The last option I would have directly is that a friend offered his old SB16 clone, an ALS100 card (no plus). It does feature an LS262 chip (proper OPL3) and at least from back in the day, he doesn't remember having any MIDI issues - he has also paired it with a wavetable card. Reviews I read online aren't great either though. Picture is attached.
So - I'm open for ideas. What would you suggest? What are some things I'm not considering yet?
I love the external MIDI solution, that just gives the old games a whole new fantastic feel, so that bit is non-negotiable. 😁
The SB16 together with PCMIDI (once that's available again) would be an option, but at a fairly steep price and still with the OPL3-caveat. Does anyone have experience with the ALS100, would that be an overall improvement over the Base1?
Thanks!
