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Sound card detectives welcome. Blurry photo of DCS Vibra16 with wavetable??

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First post, by Ozzuneoj

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I was just going through some pictures of odd-ball cards I have saved over the years and was reminded of this mysterious thing. It's kind of an annoying story, but I thought maybe if someone could help me ID this thing I could satisfy my curiosity at least.

Basically, I paid for a small lot of parts that included this mystery card about two years ago from a Facebook seller but the guy vanished without a trace and I ended up having to get a refund from Facebook. I attempted internet stalking contacting the guy a couple different ways since people often get locked out of FB accounts and just abandon them. Never heard a single word from him though, sadly.

Anyway, I posted about the card here and sent a couple PMs to another user trying to figure it out, but we were never able to 100% identify it.

Here is the blurry photographic evidence that I have of it:

The attachment mystery_vibra16.png is no longer available
The attachment mystery_vibra16_2.png is no longer available

And I'll just copy and paste what I posted about it before, because this is still all I know about it.
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The squiggly white PCB logo indicates that it's probably a DCS brand card (though they may go by different names too, I'm not sure), but it has a Vibra16 chip (CT2501 probably) and, most interestingly, what really really looks like a Yamaha OPL4 chip set. There are other wavetable chip sets that resemble these, but it really looks like a YMF278B + ROM to me. (The markings on the chips really look like these.)

Google searching any of these terms together comes up with absolutely nothing, so this seems to be a very rare card. I can't wait to tinker with it. 😀

Anyone ever seen or heard of anything like this? I know that Vibra16 and SB16 chips sometimes ended up on third party cards, but I've personally never seen one with wavetable and definitely never with OPL4.

EDIT: Actually, it could also be a Samsung SEC KS0164 + ROM. The ROM chip looks a little too narrow to be OPL4, but it's very hard to tell. The printing looks more like what is on the OPL4.

Either way, this isn't something I've ever seen before.
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I just did a bit of digging and managed to find an old DCS motherboard manual that also had a website address for them, which led me to their archived web page. Sadly, very little on the site seems to have been archived. There are lots of sound card models listed in the download section, but none of the links work and the file names are really long and unlikely to have been kept on any other sites. Strangely the sound card product page is totally broken.

I also noticed that the tech support email addresses in the DCS motherboard manual were @sertek.com.tw . Sooooo... bit more searching and Acer\Sertek was a "thing" back then. What sound cards did Acer make? How about this one:
http://legacycomputersnparts.com/catalog/prod … products_id=736

The Acer Magic S30 with a big fat Vibra16 CT2501 chip and real OPL3! I remember seeing these before (might even have one somewhere) but I had totally forgotten that it was made by Acer.

So, it's possible that this Vibra16 with wavetable could be traced to either Sertek or Acer. I really hope it doesn't need any weird drivers to make the wavetable work... but I doubt it does. In fact, it probably works fine with Unisound if it's all based around the Vibra chip.

I'm hoping once I get it there's a model name or something more definitive on it so I know what to call it. If it's a DCS card I'm guessing it's the S8333 or SP300\S8505 mentioned on their driver page.

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Since I never got the card, I could never confirm any of these findings. If anyone has any insight, has one of these cards, or even better: managed to buy this one from some dude in the US within the past couple years, please post here and let my curiosity rest. 😁

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 1 of 15, by pshipkov

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Found it right away. It was the first returned result by google for “acer isa sound card”. Sponsored!

The attachment IMG_0104.jpeg is no longer available

retro bits and bytes

Reply 2 of 15, by Ozzuneoj

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pshipkov wrote on 2025-02-12, 07:27:

Found it right away. It was the first returned result by google for “acer isa sound card”. Sponsored!

The attachment IMG_0104.jpeg is no longer available

🤣

Ah Google and Amazon. What would we do without them?

I totally forgot that the Matrox Millennium II is one of the finest ISA sound cards that Acer made.

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 3 of 15, by Tiido

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There's definitely a YMF278B and YRW801 on that card. It looks like there's actually a MCU with program code (on that socketed DIP) on the card and as such, it should be able to do MIDI without any TSRs etc. that most OPL4 bearing cards need. The sound quality is nothing special though, but it would be a neat card to have for sure.

T-04YBSC, a new YMF71x based sound card & Official VOGONS thread about it
Newly made 4MB 60ns 30pin SIMMs ~
mida sa loed ? nagunii aru ei saa 😜

Reply 4 of 15, by Ozzuneoj

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Tiido wrote on 2025-02-12, 08:40:

There's definitely a YMF278B and YRW801 on that card. It looks like there's actually a MCU with program code (on that socketed DIP) on the card and as such, it should be able to do MIDI without any TSRs etc. that most OPL4 bearing cards need. The sound quality is nothing special though, but it would be a neat card to have for sure.

Yes, the YMF278B and YRW801 stood out to me as soon as I saw it which is why I found it so interesting from the beginning. Only a handful of cards were made with the OPL4 and like you said, it seems that very few made good use of it... though it may have been partially due to a lack of game soundtracks that were designed to use it.

I just stumbled across this track made on the MSX and I think it just has such a cool sound to it with the combination of FM and wavetable.

I have been unable to find anything about the "MCU" you were talking about. Do you have any links that explain that better?

I just assumed that socketed DIP was related to the CD interface, but if it indicates some extra MIDI functionality I am even more annoyed that I wasn't able to get this thing. This is exactly the kind of oddball stuff that keeps me collecting.

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 5 of 15, by Tiido

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MCU is the square PLCC chip near the bottom. There's a RAM chip above it and its program ROM lives in the socketed DIP. I presume it is a intel 8032 or 8031 compatible part, as it is on every other MCU based OPL4 solution I have seen.

T-04YBSC, a new YMF71x based sound card & Official VOGONS thread about it
Newly made 4MB 60ns 30pin SIMMs ~
mida sa loed ? nagunii aru ei saa 😜

Reply 6 of 15, by Ozzuneoj

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Tiido wrote on 2025-02-12, 09:46:

MCU is the square PLCC chip near the bottom. There's a RAM chip above it and its program ROM lives in the socketed DIP. I presume it is a intel 8032 or 8031 compatible part, as it is on every other MCU based OPL4 solution I have seen.

Oh okay, I thought those additional chips were for the CD interface.

I googled OPL4 MCU and nothing comes up as far as I can tell, that's why I was wondering if there was any information about this.

I don't see anything similar on this card for example:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/common … dge_SW20_PC.jpg
Or this one:
http://www.amoretro.de/2012/04/mozart-wave-ta … etable-2mb.html

Although, it looks like this MediaTrix AudioTrix Pro has one?
https://www.dosdays.co.uk/topics/images/media … otrix_pro_2.jpg

And the Logitech Soundman Wave has some similar looking chips but I haven't looked them up yet to see if they are equivalents to the Intel ones you mentioned:
https://flaterco.com/kb/audio/ISA/index.html#SMW

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 7 of 15, by Tiido

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There's no specific "OPL4 MCU". The MCU I see on some YMF278B cards is a intel 8031/8032 compatible part, which is same general family os Sound Blaster's "DSP", but the exception is that it uses external program memory rather than one internal to the MCU itself.

The MediaTrix and Logitech cards have the MCU on it. The square chip with S on it is the MCU, similarly the Logitech one, but on that one it is the Siemens branded part. There's a Miro card that also works this way too.
That Mozart card lacks it and will not have any native MIDI support and it relies windows driver to provide MIDI functionality to DOS stuff. There's also a Miro card without a MCU also.

T-04YBSC, a new YMF71x based sound card & Official VOGONS thread about it
Newly made 4MB 60ns 30pin SIMMs ~
mida sa loed ? nagunii aru ei saa 😜

Reply 8 of 15, by Ozzuneoj

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Tiido wrote on 2025-02-12, 19:36:

There's no specific "OPL4 MCU". The MCU I see on some YMF278B cards is a intel 8031/8032 compatible part, which is same general family os Sound Blaster's "DSP", but the exception is that it uses external program memory rather than one internal to the MCU itself.

The MediaTrix and Logitech cards have the MCU on it. The square chip with S on it is the MCU, similarly the Logitech one, but on that one it is the Siemens branded part. There's a Miro card that also works this way too.
That Mozart card lacks it and will not have any native MIDI support and it relies windows driver to provide MIDI functionality to DOS stuff. There's also a Miro card without a MCU also.

Thanks for the info.

I searched multiple times for "MCU" in general online with regard to ISA sound cards and only found a few scattered posts of people using that initialism with no explanation of what it was referring to.

I see now though that MCU is just referring to a microcontroller 🤣. I apparently haven't had the subject of microcontrollers come up enough in my travels to ever get the point of referring to them as an MCU. I assumed we were talking about something specifically MIDI related. 🥴

Makes a lot more sense now though, so thanks again. 😀

EDIT: Also, regarding the Miro OPL4 cards, I did notice that there is the PCM 1 Pro with a much more complex design than the PCM 10. Interestingly, the DOSdays page for the PCM 1 Pro (which seems to have an Oki microcontroller) says that the onboard MIDI is Windows only, and that only the external MPU-401 interface is supported in DOS.

... MAN, I wish I could get my hands on this DCS\Acer card. Such a weird thing. I want answers. 😋

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 9 of 15, by Tiido

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Yeah, MCU = microcontroller 🤣

Miro PCM12 and 20 can do MIDI without any TSR. It isn't anything great (2MB samples but still most barebones GM implementation) but definitely works and there's even a WB card based on same general idea as these Miro cards have. The other Miro cards only do MIDI in windows.

Yamaha SW20PC can do MIDI in DOS using a TSR, but the way it works relies on a little chip that collects MIDI writes, then generates an IRQ which wakes a TSR that then uses the data in that chip to make the OPL4 sing.

T-04YBSC, a new YMF71x based sound card & Official VOGONS thread about it
Newly made 4MB 60ns 30pin SIMMs ~
mida sa loed ? nagunii aru ei saa 😜

Reply 10 of 15, by Jccwu

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I have such a card in my collection.
Mediaforte Products Pte Ltd SF32-WAV

Sound card's music

Reply 11 of 15, by Ozzuneoj

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Jccwu wrote on 2025-02-13, 16:59:

I have such a card in my collection.
Mediaforte Products Pte Ltd SF32-WAV

Wow, that is super cool! I have never seen one of those before!

It is a totally different card though. Your has ICS Wavefront MIDI, which uses that very distinctly huge ICS chip.

Thank you for posting it, but it is not the same card. 🙂

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 12 of 15, by Jccwu

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I know it's not the same, I just showed the card on the Vibra 16 chip, thereby making it clear that these chips had other wave tables.

Sound card's music

Reply 13 of 15, by Ozzuneoj

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Jccwu wrote on 2025-02-13, 17:13:

I know it's not the same, I just showed the card on the Vibra 16 chip, thereby making it clear that these chips had other wave tables.

Ah, no problem!

When you said "such a card" I thought you were referring to it being the same as the one in my post.

That is a super unique card though. Have you been able to test the wavetable on it? I'm curious if GM midi works in pure DOS with just the basic Vibra16 drivers.

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 14 of 15, by Jccwu

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Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-02-13, 17:16:
Ah, no problem! […]
Show full quote
Jccwu wrote on 2025-02-13, 17:13:

I know it's not the same, I just showed the card on the Vibra 16 chip, thereby making it clear that these chips had other wave tables.

Ah, no problem!

When you said "such a card" I thought you were referring to it being the same as the one in my post.

That is a super unique card though. Have you been able to test the wavetable on it? I'm curious if GM midi works in pure DOS with just the basic Vibra16 drivers.

yes, it works in pure DOS without problems. Here are you can listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59BGsPgOXHs&ab

Sound card's music

Reply 15 of 15, by Ozzuneoj

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Jccwu wrote on 2025-02-13, 17:25:
Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-02-13, 17:16:
Ah, no problem! […]
Show full quote
Jccwu wrote on 2025-02-13, 17:13:

I know it's not the same, I just showed the card on the Vibra 16 chip, thereby making it clear that these chips had other wave tables.

Ah, no problem!

When you said "such a card" I thought you were referring to it being the same as the one in my post.

That is a super unique card though. Have you been able to test the wavetable on it? I'm curious if GM midi works in pure DOS with just the basic Vibra16 drivers.

yes, it works in pure DOS without problems. Here are you can listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59BGsPgOXHs&ab

Awesome! It sounds great.

Have you noticed any hanging notes or any of the other usual issues with SB16 and Vibra16 cards? Normally they happen when PCM sound effects and MIDI are both playing on the same card.

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

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