VOGONS


First post, by swaaye

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I stumbled upon a super rare sound card on ebay the other day. It's some model from Crystalake, a company that is VERY hard to find info on.

I have been digging for hours looking for drivers. It's a Mad16 + CS4231 card and have managed to get it working for SBPro mode. But the Mad16 initialize doesn't seem to power up the MPU-401 at all and no MIDI plays. Does anyone know more about this combo of chips?

I can't even figure out what the jumper settings do so I haven't touched them. I hope it's on workable settings...

Under that printed Crystalake sticker I found the Opti 928 Mad16 chip.

Pics
fb7216102182620.jpg 37fef9102182625.jpg e55d52102182627.jpg b80485102182633.jpg

Attachments

  • Filename
    928d_w.exe
    File size
    568.93 KiB
    Downloads
    546 downloads
    File comment
    working DOS driver for Mad 16 Opti 928
    no MIDI
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
Last edited by swaaye on 2010-10-15, 21:50. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 1 of 11, by Davros

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Mozart and OPTi 82C928 (the original MAD16) chips don't support
MPU401 mode so enter just 0 when the configuration program asks the
MPU/MIDI I/O base. The MAD16 Pro (OPTi 82C929) and 82C930 chips have MPU401
mode.

MAD16 cards having a CS4231 codec support full duplex mode. This mode
can be enabled by configuring the card to use two DMA channels. Possible
DMA channel pairs are: 0&1, 1&0 and 3&0.

more opti drivers
http://www.mpoli.fi/files/hardware/SOUND/OTHER/index.html

Guardian of the Sacred Five Terabyte's of Gaming Goodness

Reply 2 of 11, by swaaye

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Hmmm the config program that is in this 928D_W collection doesn't even seem to ask about MIDI. I think it just sets up Sound Blaster options.

I'm wondering if there's a second utility to initialize the synth or something... I've been looking for other cards with the same chipset but I'm not having much luck. And there's a MIDI IRQ jumper that I have no idea on for settings.

Reply 3 of 11, by swaaye

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Well apparently the card is a "Crystalake Crystalclear Wavetable".

Found a bit of info in an old game readme

CRYSTAL CLEAR WAVE TABLE BY CRYSTAL LAKE AUTOEXEC.BAT SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T5 C:\CCLEAR\CSACMAX1.COM* […]
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CRYSTAL CLEAR WAVE TABLE BY CRYSTAL LAKE
AUTOEXEC.BAT
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T5
C:\CCLEAR\CSACMAX1.COM*
C:\CCLEAR\CSACHMX1.COM**

CONFIG.SYS
DEVICE=C:\CCLEAR\CSAMOD1.EXE -S***

*Enables Soundblaster compatibility.
**Add /ON to enable Soundblaster compatibility, /OFF to disable it.
***Use -S for Soundblaster mode and -W for Windows Sound System mode.

http://acepage.beckament.net/aod/aodts.txt

Driver file names but I can't find anything. Uhg 😀

Reply 4 of 11, by gerwin

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I saw that auction too. 😀

I suspect the wavetable chip has its own interface to the isa bus, and therefore needs an additional driver next to the opti driver. It is like that with many dream wavetable soundcards: Terratec Meastro and EWS as well as Guillemot maxi sound. It is a bit troublesome though.

--> ISA Soundcard Overview // Doom MBF 2.04 // SetMul

Reply 5 of 11, by swaaye

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gerwin wrote:

I saw that auction too. 😀

I suspect the wavetable chip has its own interface to the isa bus, and therefore needs an additional driver next to the opti driver. It is like that with many dream wavetable soundcards: Terratec Meastro and EWS as well as Guillemot maxi sound. It is a bit troublesome though.

I've never even seen a photo of one of this company's cards and then I stumbled on ebay auctions for a few of these cards. 😁

I too am thinking that there must be a second driver but I simply can't find anything. It uses a Crystal CS9203-CL synth which surely was used on other cards but I just can't find anything....

I was pumped about recording the card but I've spent hours on it now and can only get it to be a fake SBPro 🤣

Reply 6 of 11, by gerwin

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Hmm, Now I see this is like the earlier card of crystalake, from before the 105 and 140 models.

I did find a package at driverguide when googling CSACMOD1.EXE.

Since my terretec meastro I kinda prefer wavetables in the form of daughterboards. Like the Dream 1MB wavetable on the CCWT card you have here, it should sound quite the same as this: another vogons topic

--> ISA Soundcard Overview // Doom MBF 2.04 // SetMul

Reply 7 of 11, by leileilol

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Maybe the card is a budget card and the wavetable was supplemented as a software synthesizer? I know at least one CS4231 card that did exactly that.

You GOTTA LOVE the "Windows Sound System" standard. I'd take that over AC'97 any day 😀

apsosig.png
long live PCem

Reply 9 of 11, by swaaye

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Yup it's their first card I think. I think that ROM may actually be 2mb. But I can't get it going... I believe that I also found that archive with one of the DOS drivers (boca something) but I got nowhere with those. It wouldn't recognize the 4231 chip.

Reply 11 of 11, by swaaye

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usenet

The specifications for CrystaLake's CrystalClear WaveTable sound card are found at http://www.teleport.com:80/~crystal/ . We bel […]
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The specifications for CrystaLake's CrystalClear WaveTable sound card
are found at http://www.teleport.com:80/~crystal/ . We believe it
compares favorably with all the cards mentioned, at a SRP of $199.
Our sample-set is 2Mb, with GM and GS mapping, including support for
the GS extended drum kits. The card is not SB16 compatible, but instead
supports the Windows Sound System.

Also found that there were some "wavetable upgrade" cards that people bought to attach to motherboards. Sounds like a DB that fits in a slot, maybe like that AWE upgrade card. They were Model 2x0.