12-bit sound card \ VOGONS

12-bit sound card

Topic actions

First post, by Grzyb

Posted on 2024-07-19, 04:39

Grzyb Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 2362
Joined: 2019-05-08, 13:47
Location: CET-1CEST-2

It's well known that Adlib Gold was 12-bit, when everybody else was coming out with 16-bit cards... oops!

Some people claimed that in the Noise Blaster^W^W Sound Blaster 16, only 12 bits were actually usable...
The "12-bit" Sound Blaster 16 Myth

Now I'm playing with this oddball:
Genius Sound Maker 12E
based on ES488 and some OPL2-like chip marked "KS8001"

I thought that ES488 was just an SB 2.0 clone, but apparently there's something more to it...

The attachment 1a.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 2a.jpg is no longer available

"12-bit Pseudo Stereo Sound"
"12-bit Emulate Stereo Sound"
What's that even supposed to mean?

(to be continued...)

Kiełbasa smakuje najlepiej, gdy przysmażysz ją laserem!

Reply 1 of 2, by Grzyb

Posted on 2024-07-19, 04:44

Grzyb Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 2362
Joined: 2019-05-08, 13:47
Location: CET-1CEST-2

The diskettes...

Kiełbasa smakuje najlepiej, gdy przysmażysz ją laserem!

Reply 2 of 2, by Grzyb

Posted on 2024-07-19, 16:13

Grzyb Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 2362
Joined: 2019-05-08, 13:47
Location: CET-1CEST-2

Test results so far:

SB compatibility isn't perfect...
ES488 returns DSP version 2.01, ie. SB 2.0, which supports up to 44 kHz playback.
But it doesn't work with this card - tried Inertia Player and QuickView Pro, both play fine at 22 kHz, but nothing more.

Mpxplay misrecognizes it as "SBp", and doesn't work at all - but this I can forgive, Mpxplay seems too modern...

But it doesn't work with Mod Master XT, either - which is very bad, as this card would fit very well in an XT...

Also tried a few games - no problems, except for Tunnels of Armageddon, which always fails to detect OPL2 on fast CPUs.

Kiełbasa smakuje najlepiej, gdy przysmażysz ją laserem!

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to Sound