If you are running Windows 9x then you can find Yamaha software synthesisers that are free. In the next order of expense would be an Audigy or Audigy 2 with GS sound fonts. The last and most expensive would be an X2GS wavetable board, which should fit nicely on that card you have there.

zapbuzz wrote on 2022-04-26, 16:30:

got it eBay was 45 but got it cheaper by offer. I need it for wavetable synthesis I like yamaha xg but they are so expensive and […]
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DELL TURTLE BEACH VORTEX PCI SOUND CARD

got it eBay was 45 but got it cheaper by offer. I need it for wavetable synthesis I like yamaha xg but they are so expensive and rare come on eBay sell then reasonable.
Anyhow does anyone know good sounding wavetable hardware that'd blow xg away? thats nice and cheap? plz let me know.
Also would appreciate links to more info and drivers 😁
TBH the retro build has turtle beach sticker on it so its my excuse 🤣
Am going to clone that sticker to sell as imitation i bet theres plenty of turtles out there 😀

That's only a Vortex 1 card, not a Vortex 2 card. The Votex 2 cards have the 8830 chip.

Where are you located where the XG cards are expensive? I regularly see them for $25 or so. When I was selling the AOpen ones NIB, the prices for all the other XG cards was pretty low. Since then, prices have gone up again but still not bad for the most part.

cyclone3d wrote on 2022-04-26, 17:46:

That's only a Vortex 1 card, not a Vortex 2 card. The Votex 2 cards have the 8830 chip. I actually own an xg soundcard but it ha […]
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zapbuzz wrote on 2022-04-26, 16:30:

got it eBay was 45 but got it cheaper by offer. I need it for wavetable synthesis I like yamaha xg but they are so expensive and […]
Show full quote

DELL TURTLE BEACH VORTEX PCI SOUND CARD

got it eBay was 45 but got it cheaper by offer. I need it for wavetable synthesis I like yamaha xg but they are so expensive and rare come on eBay sell then reasonable.
Anyhow does anyone know good sounding wavetable hardware that'd blow xg away? thats nice and cheap? plz let me know.
Also would appreciate links to more info and drivers 😁
TBH the retro build has turtle beach sticker on it so its my excuse 🤣
Am going to clone that sticker to sell as imitation i bet theres plenty of turtles out there 😀

That's only a Vortex 1 card, not a Vortex 2 card. The Votex 2 cards have the 8830 chip.
I actually own an xg soundcard but it has no wavetable socket it loads its 2mb canvas via drivers and isn't a true accelerated experience. It does have soundblaster link however I have a p3 machine.

Where are you located where the XG cards are expensive? I regularly see them for $25 or so. When I was selling the AOpen ones NIB, the prices for all the other XG cards was pretty low. Since then, prices have gone up again but still not bad for the most part.

i just need the wavetable now. here is ebay https://www.ebay.com/itm/275284527101?hash=it … &frcectupt=true my currency is AUD

zapbuzz wrote on 2022-04-26, 16:30:

Anyhow does anyone know good sounding wavetable hardware that'd blow xg away? thats nice and cheap? plz let me know.

Serdashop has a bunch of modern wavetables for sale: https://www.serdashop.com/

I'd suggest either the Dreamblaster X2 or the X2GS. They have audio demos on their site, so you can always find one that sounds good to you.

Shponglefan wrote on 2022-04-26, 18:58:

zapbuzz wrote on 2022-04-26, 16:30:

Anyhow does anyone know good sounding wavetable hardware that'd blow xg away? thats nice and cheap? plz let me know.

Serdashop has a bunch of modern wavetables for sale: https://www.serdashop.com/

I'd suggest either the Dreamblaster X2 or the X2GS. They have audio demos on their site, so you can always find one that sounds good to you.

thats much cheaper than ebay 😀

Picked up this Gigabyte GA-5AX Rev 5.2. I've had a number of other revisions but am glad to finally have the 5.2. Its in lovely clean condition.

I picked it up so i could run this K6 2+ 533

Bancho wrote on 2022-04-26, 20:59:

Picked up this Gigabyte GA-5AX Rev 5.2. I've had a number of other revisions but am glad to finally have the 5.2. Its in lovely […]
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Picked up this Gigabyte GA-5AX Rev 5.2. I've had a number of other revisions but am glad to finally have the 5.2. Its in lovely clean condition.

I picked it up so i could run this K6 2+ 533

Looks like new! The prices on eBay are stratospheric for this motherboard.

Bancho wrote on 2022-04-26, 20:59:

Its in lovely clean condition.

Oh don't worry about that, just leave it sitting on top of something in the kitchen for a few months, soon develop a lovely vintage patina. 🤣

Bought some cards a few days ago. I think that Geforce 6200 256mb PCI card would be nice for some small Pentium 3 system that lacks AGP slot.

Turbo -> wrote on 2022-04-27, 07:33:

Bought some cards a few days ago. I think that Geforce 6200 256mb PCI card would be nice for some small Pentium 3 system that lacks AGP slot.

Just curious: what's the PCIe x4 card in the middle left with an Agilent Technologies chip? I've never seen those two (proprietary?) ports before.

dormcat wrote on 2022-04-27, 08:50:

Turbo -> wrote on 2022-04-27, 07:33:

Bought some cards a few days ago. I think that Geforce 6200 256mb PCI card would be nice for some small Pentium 3 system that lacks AGP slot.

Just curious: what's the PCIe x4 card in the middle left with an Agilent Technologies chip? I've never seen those two (proprietary?) ports before.

Do you mean CELERITY FC-42ES? I didn't investigate further. I will just hoard it away, and hopefully, maybe use it when the time comes.

dormcat wrote on 2022-04-27, 08:50:

Just curious: what's the PCIe x4 card in the middle left with an Agilent Technologies chip? I've never seen those two (proprietary?) ports before.

Looks like either a fibrechannel card or dual port SFP nic

Turbo -> wrote on 2022-04-27, 08:59:

Do you mean CELERITY FC-42ES? I didn't investigate further. I will just hoard it away, and hopefully, maybe use it when the time comes.

Thanks! Never used a Fibre Channel card before; the card right above it with RTL8319D is more than enough for most of my applications. 😅

zapbuzz wrote on 2022-04-26, 16:30:

Anyhow does anyone know good sounding wavetable hardware that'd blow xg away? thats nice and cheap? plz let me know.

I don't. I haven't heard anything General MIDI yet that beats XG optimized away. Sure, for DOS games that mostly used Roland Sound Canvas the X2GS is the cheapest and best around while a Yamaha XG synth does actually a good but not perfect job with its TG300 mode. However if you like synth music, you actually need to listen to some XG optimized tracks.

Got this Leadtek branded TNT2 M64 for next to nothing:

It has an interesting BIOS animation where some letters are displayed in color and kind of move from left to right. I had a regular TNT2 back in the day, so I got this M64 because it's much cheaper, and I mainly wanted to test some things with older Nvidia drivers.

Bought a few items today a NOS Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro a PCI MX400 and 10 sticks of SDram (3xPC133, 3x PC100, 4x PC66). Been after a PCI MX400 for a while and it'll be put into use pretty much right away, I did pay far more for it than I feel its worth but PCI MX400s are pretty dang rare.

The NOS Audigy I had been watching for a while and the seller had been lowering the price they wanted for it . .so I sent them a lowball offer and .. they took it, still more than a lose Audigy 2 ZS but I do love NOS sealed creative items and this being a platinum pro made it worth it overall.

carlostex wrote on 2022-04-27, 09:43:

I don't. I haven't heard anything General MIDI yet that beats XG optimized away. Sure, for DOS games that mostly used Roland Sound Canvas the X2GS is the cheapest and best around while a Yamaha XG synth does actually a good but not perfect job with its TG300 mode. However if you like synth music, you actually need to listen to some XG optimized tracks.

I agree that XG is incredible, just like how GS tracks sound much better than standard General MIDI. But I don't think there are any DOS games that use XG. The only game that I can think of off the top of my head is Finally Fantasy 7, but if you're using Windows 9x then there is already a software synthesizer available.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-04-27, 12:34:

But I don't think there are any DOS games that use XG.

Some late-era DOS games which use the Miles Sound System do advertise XG support, but I'm not sure if it actually works.

The only game that I can think of off the top of my head is Finally Fantasy 7, but if you're using Windows 9x then there is already a software synthesizer available.

That software synth is super laggy though, at least on period correct systems. In comparison, a Yamaha YMF7x4 card works flawlessly in FF7 and sounds great in XG mode.

zapbuzz wrote on 2022-04-26, 16:30:

DELL TURTLE BEACH VORTEX PCI SOUND CARD

got it eBay was 45 but got it cheaper by offer. I need it for wavetable synthesis I like yamaha xg but they are so expensive and rare come on eBay sell then reasonable.

I have one of these as well.
Got it two years ago in a bundle. GA-586HX + Pentium 133MHz + crappy EDO RAM + shitty Trident graphics.
The seller wasn't a noob. He had a POST card and described everything that was part of the bundle. But the Vortex was just described as "PCI soundcard". He obviously didn't knew what Aureal Vortex and A3D is. When I noticed the Vortex I didn't think twice and bought the bundle for 40 bucks. :>

RaiderOfLostVoodoo wrote on 2022-04-27, 13:31:

I have one of these as well. Got it two years ago in a bundle. GA-586HX + Pentium 133MHz + crappy EDO RAM + shitty Trident graph […]
Show full quote

zapbuzz wrote on 2022-04-26, 16:30:

DELL TURTLE BEACH VORTEX PCI SOUND CARD

got it eBay was 45 but got it cheaper by offer. I need it for wavetable synthesis I like yamaha xg but they are so expensive and rare come on eBay sell then reasonable.

I have one of these as well.
Got it two years ago in a bundle. GA-586HX + Pentium 133MHz + crappy EDO RAM + shitty Trident graphics.
The seller wasn't a noob. He had a POST card and described everything that was part of the bundle. But the Vortex was just described as "PCI soundcard". He obviously didn't knew what Aureal Vortex and A3D is. When I noticed the Vortex I didn't think twice and bought the bundle for 40 bucks. :>

yes you see, my idea is to have a retro 98se or Me machine that can take this card with wavetable synthesis run in dosbox so I can tap into the wavetable with dosbox running games on a p4 but also I love synthesizers 😀 all the synthesizers I can buy have a huge gap in price due to pitch bend makes them so expensive. But often a simple midi board for pc has it all but the pc does the tones than the synthesizer. Exactly the economic solution!