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E-Wave : an ESS based waveblaster card

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Reply 100 of 125, by dreamblaster

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SuperDeadite wrote on 2022-03-21, 04:46:

E-Wave has some really strong bass. Fun match for sub-woofer users.

RetroGamer4Ever wrote on 2022-03-21, 14:43:

I don't have a sub and I could feel that bass. That chip gives a rich, old-school arcade sound with the clear, digital quality of today's audio equipment.

Hehe, yeah E-wave is a beast 😀
Please make more videos, i love it !

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Reply 101 of 125, by aspiringnobody

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I had a bit of a noise problem when I first installed my E-Wave -- Serge was excellent in helping me track the issue down to a noisy 5V supply and a sound card that didn't regulate the 5V going into the wave table header at all. With his help, I was able to add in a 5V regulator and the E-Wave is no longer held back by my crappy ESS sound card!

Serdashop is fantastic and really stands by their products. Can't recommend enough. If you're an ESS fan like I am this is really a must have -- for 55 Euro you can't beat it and it's much cheaper than trying to track down one of the rare ESS cards that contained the wave table support. You can add this into any ESS card for the same effect.

STRONGLY recommend playing Warcraft (2) with this card. It sounds FANTASTIC.

Reply 102 of 125, by RetroGamer4Ever

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On that note, someone could make a good amount of $$$ buying up the old 95-XP soundcards that are going for hardly anything these days, fixing/replacing the electricals, and adding wavetable headers to the ones that have the paths on the board but don't have the headers installed.

Reply 103 of 125, by froller

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I've spent some time trying to figure out why it was silent. But finally I noticed it uses AUX1 channel on my ESS8139 and I managed to make it play.
It sounds awesome! Thanks for the great product!

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Reply 104 of 125, by dreamblaster

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DutchBigEd used S2 and E-Wave in synth modules, and made a video :
here are the 'dueling waveblasters' : https://youtu.be/zb_GU_y4kmg

Visit http://www.serdashop.com for retro sound cards, video converters, ...
DreamBlaster X2, S2, S2P, HDD Clicker, ... many projects !
New X2GS SE & X16GS sound card : https://www.serdashop.com/X2GS-SE ,
Thanks for your support !

Reply 105 of 125, by vutt

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My "Green S2 + ESS bundle" arrived today. Have been playing around with both entire evening. I own SC-55, MU50 and Buran X3MB. I have to admit E-Wave produces very unique 90ies sound while S2 being good it sounds like regular SC55 clone. I had back in a days one of the cheap ESS based wavetable add-ons. Warcraft II with E-Wave sounds exactly like I remember it. I guess I might be biased...

Reply 106 of 125, by dreamblaster

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I have some more E-waves ready now (https://www.serdashop.com/EWave).
The current E-wave uses the ESS ES692 chip.
Is there any other ESS wavetable chip that sounds sufficiently different, to consider for E-wave II ?

Visit http://www.serdashop.com for retro sound cards, video converters, ...
DreamBlaster X2, S2, S2P, HDD Clicker, ... many projects !
New X2GS SE & X16GS sound card : https://www.serdashop.com/X2GS-SE ,
Thanks for your support !

Reply 107 of 125, by appiah4

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dreamblaster wrote on 2023-01-02, 14:03:

I have some more E-waves ready now (https://www.serdashop.com/EWave).
The current E-wave uses the ESS ES692 chip.
Is there any other ESS wavetable chip that sounds sufficiently different, to consider for E-wave II ?

I believe E-Wave uses the 1MB sample ROM? IIRC there is also a 2MB sample ROM implementation of ES692S..

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

Reply 108 of 125, by dreamblaster

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appiah4 wrote on 2023-01-02, 14:42:

I believe E-Wave uses the 1MB sample ROM? IIRC there is also a 2MB sample ROM implementation of ES692S..

Are you referring to this topic ? Is this ESS wavetable ROM chip legit?
Curious how it sounds..

Visit http://www.serdashop.com for retro sound cards, video converters, ...
DreamBlaster X2, S2, S2P, HDD Clicker, ... many projects !
New X2GS SE & X16GS sound card : https://www.serdashop.com/X2GS-SE ,
Thanks for your support !

Reply 109 of 125, by appiah4

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dreamblaster wrote on 2023-01-02, 15:03:
appiah4 wrote on 2023-01-02, 14:42:

I believe E-Wave uses the 1MB sample ROM? IIRC there is also a 2MB sample ROM implementation of ES692S..

Are you referring to this topic ? Is this ESS wavetable ROM chip legit?
Curious how it sounds..

Yes, this is the topic that came to my mind indeed.

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

Reply 110 of 125, by Ozzuneoj

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dreamblaster wrote on 2023-01-02, 15:03:
appiah4 wrote on 2023-01-02, 14:42:

I believe E-Wave uses the 1MB sample ROM? IIRC there is also a 2MB sample ROM implementation of ES692S..

Are you referring to this topic ? Is this ESS wavetable ROM chip legit?
Curious how it sounds..

I believe I have a sound card that uses one of those. If one hasn't been recorded elsewhere I may be able to get some samples recorded eventually (though I don't have much experience doing so).

EDIT: Nevermind, now that I think about it, I believe it was damaged and I no longer have it, and it was likely just an ES981, not ES982. Like this card I think:
download/file.php?id=30325&mode=view

(Confirmed... found a picture of an old "Parts\Repair" lot I sold a couple years ago and the card was exactly like the one above with an ES981P. Sorry for the false alarm. 😁)

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 111 of 125, by dJOS

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I just ordered an E-Wave for my Audician 32 and it'll compliment my MT-32 nicely I think.

I have the S2P as well, but I've never been thrilled with the sound - the ESS sounds much nicer to me as it has a nice analogue warmth to the sound IMO.

The impossible often has a kind of integrity which the merely improbable lacks.

Reply 113 of 125, by Retrograde_i486

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Can I ask a dumb question? I have an E-Wave attached to my ISA SB16 and it works great. In windows 98 I can easily switch the midi output from 'Creative Music Synth [220] and SB16 MIDI Out [330] and here the difference in midis being played in windows. But how to I enable this thing in DOS? Duke3d still sounds like basic synth like it's not using the wavetable. Something I need to enable in my autoexec or maybe in the duke3d settings?

Reply 114 of 125, by Retrograde_i486

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Ok yes that was a dumb question because I got Doom and Duke3d working with the E-wave now, dumb me didn't select Wave Blaster in either of the setup options.

Anyone who finds this in the future, go to setup for Doom/Duke3d and for Music Card Select Wave Blaster and your midi port (0x330 in my case)

Reply 115 of 125, by appiah4

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Retrograde_i486 wrote on 2023-03-28, 02:02:

Ok yes that was a dumb question because I got Doom and Duke3d working with the E-wave now, dumb me didn't select Wave Blaster in either of the setup options.

Anyone who finds this in the future, go to setup for Doom/Duke3d and for Music Card Select Wave Blaster and your midi port (0x330 in my case)

You can also just select General MIDI.

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

Reply 116 of 125, by OldWingCommander

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Got around to installing the E-Wave on my ES1869F ISA sound card.

It took me a few minutes to figure out that the wavetable audio is routed through AuxB, so a quick update to ESSVOL.EXE fixed the output. The wavetable audio volume was soft so I had to fiddle with the ESSVOL.EXE settings to find the right balance.

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Reply 117 of 125, by CODOR

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OldWingCommander wrote on 2023-05-07, 22:54:

Got around to installing the E-Wave on my ES1869F ISA sound card.

I acquired a card earlier this year that looks very much like that one (in fact it might be identical). Like just about everyone else here with a sound card that has an empty ES692 footprint I felt it was appropriate to add an E-Wave to it 😀

Reply 119 of 125, by dJOS

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Jacques wrote on 2023-09-13, 09:54:

Hi Guys, in your opinion, what's the better choice wavetable sound quality-wise: E-Wave or Dreamblaster S2?

It’s down to personal preference, I have both and prefer the E-waves warmer sound.

The impossible often has a kind of integrity which the merely improbable lacks.