I really like how I can just use the Set Blaster command, after initially setting jumpers, to use an old ES688 and not worry about loading drivers. Can anyone recommend any similar Sound Cards for DOS that you can simply set the jumpers and forgo drivers?
That would be a pretty big list.
Pretty much any sound card that is non-pnp can be used without drivers in DOS.
And even some pnp cards just have to have an initialization program run... No drivers have to be loaded in memory.
cyclone3d wrote on 2021-07-11, 00:19:That would be a pretty big list.
Pretty much any sound card that is non-pnp can be used without drivers in DOS.
And even some pnp cards just have to have an initialization program run... No drivers have to be loaded in memory.
Yah for sure, not looking for the whole list, just a few decently cheap cards I might be able to source from eBay. That also sound decent for games like Doom and Duke3D.
Well let's start with what you have: that ESS688.
Nice non-PnP goodness. What (more) do you want that that card isn't giving you? That would point us in the right direction to be able to help you.
dionb wrote on 2021-07-11, 08:43:Well let's start with what you have: that ESS688.
Nice non-PnP goodness. What (more) do you want that that card isn't giving you? That would point us in the right direction to be able to help you.
Yes the 688 works well, but I want to branch out and see what else is out there that I should try in future builds. I’m def interested in a non-pnp Sound Blaster, but there are so many models it’s a bit daunting. I also had a card in my first PC, a Leading Edge, that I think was an Aztech or Crystal. Would be interesting to hear that one again. Maybe these cards wouldn’t really sound all that different and I should seek out another 688?
Chadti99 wrote on 2021-07-11, 09:55:[...]
Yes the 688 works well, but I want to branch out and see what else is out there that I should try in future builds. I’m def interested in a non-pnp Sound Blaster, but there are so many models it’s a bit daunting. I also had a card in my first PC, a Leading Edge, that I think was an Aztech or Crystal. Would be interesting to hear that one again. Maybe these cards wouldn’t really sound all that different and I should seek out another 688?
Sound cards with similar specs should sound almost identical.
That 688 supports SBPro2 (stereo 22kHz), has an external, most likely genuine (or 1:1 copy of an) OPL3. It doesn't have a native MIDI synth, so nothing to compare there. It should basically sound identical to a real SBPro2, plus or minus analog noise levels (and the CT1600 is noisy, so chances are this one sounds cleaner). Additionally it supports a proprietary (and little-used) 16b 44kHz "AudioDrive" mode, which will sound identical to SB16 on the few games that fully support it.
Basically all DAC stuff will sound identical with identical specs (i.e. 8b 22kHz vs 16b 44kHz etc), the only differences will be in synthesized music. That means FM synth ("AdLib/Soundblaster music"), where the original is Yamaha OPL2/OPL3, and various vendors have other implementations of FM synth, in general order of quality: ESFM (newer ESS chips, different but generally liked), CSFM (Crystal chips, decent), CQM (newer Creative cards, considered metallic and not much liked) and then aberrations that try to do FM synth using samples-based synthesizer (eg. Analog Devices Echo, hilariously awful). Or it means samples-based synths like all the "wavetable" stuff, where quality is mainly down to the samples used (bigger is generally, but not always, better).
So if you want something to sound different, try a card with ESFM, CSFM, CQM or eh.. AD Echo (for really "different). Downside is that most are later PnP solutions, in fact I'm not aware of any with jumpers-only config.
Have you seen Unisound yet? UNISOUND - Universal ISA PnP Sound Card Driver for DOS v0.81b
It's a single small executable where you configure SET BLASTER to the setting you want for the sound card and then run it and it will initialize and then exit without leaving anything hanging around.
You can also re-run it and unconfigure a card and change the BLASTER settings and run it again to reconfigure if you get a picky game that wants IRQ 7, not 5. Or a different MPU401 port. This also works great where you can have multiple sounds cards in a single machine. I have an SB16 Vibra and YMF 719F in a DOS machine and have 16-bit SB and game port off the Vibra and SBPro, OPL, WSS and MPU off the YMF. But I can also execute a batch file to switch the Vibra to OPL duty for corner cases like Duke Nukem 2 which don't like OPL on the YMF.
So this isn't just set jumpers and you are done, but it does get rid of hunting down drivers for different cards and messing around in config.sys and autoexec.bat to load devices and execute programs for each card. But after a time sound cards moved to PNP, and you lose out on a lot of interesting cards if you only want something that's jumper settings only.
Thanks for the replies guys, I’ll def check out UNISOUND!
