@Ace, unfortunately my digital camera can't do macro. I've tried, and everything appears very blurry, or the flash ruins everything. A new camera is on my list of things to get!

5u3, I would be really grateful if you could please explain how to get the AWE32's "FM to Emu conversion" functionality to work? Do you set the MFBEN jumper, and also use the aweutil.exe with some specific parameters, to get this to work? Also, is it possible to get this to work in either DOS or Windows, and if it's possible to get it to work in Windows, can you use soundfonts?

I remember trying to get this working with the game Dune II, but I couldn't make the FM music sound any different. I chose Dune II, because its music sounds a bit "weedy / feeble", and thought it would benefit from being "jazzed up" a bit via this interesting sounding option on this sound card. Thanks a lot if you could provide some advice.

The simplest way to set up chorus and reverb for the FM chip is AWEUTIL. The relevant parameters are /C:xx and /R:xx (type AWEUTIL /? for a list of parameters).

If you want to chorus/reverb types other than the default ones, check out the MasterMixer 5.11 utility. Find out more about it here.

retro games 100 wrote:

@Ace, unfortunately my digital camera can't do macro. I've tried, and everything appears very blurry, or the flash ruins everything. A new camera is on my list of things to get!

I don't really need a picture THAT close. Keep the camera about the same distance as in the image you took showing your 2 RAM sticks, but instead focus near the ISA connector.

Either that or count how many pins are on one side of the empty solder spots, which are U23 and U28.

EDIT: Never mind, I found a good picture of the entire CT3990 AWE32 which clearly shows the empty solder spots. I'll count how many pins there are and try to match 'em up with the YMF289 and YAC516 datasheets.

U23 has 12 solder spots along its length, and U28 has 11.

Hmm... in the high-res image of the CT3990 AWE32 I found, I count 12 pins along the length of both U23 and U28. Are there 2 different board designs for the CT3990 AWE32 which calls for different types of YMF289s? In the image I've seen, the CT3990 AWE32 would need a YMF289B-S and a YAC516-E. If U28 has 11 pins, then the AWE32 would need a YMF289B-F.

Here's the image in question: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons … _PNP_CT3990.jpg

Also had a look at the datasheets of the YMF289 and YAC516 and it seems along with the missing YMF289 and YAC516 on the CT3990 AWE32, all the external circuitry related to the two chips is missing as well, which includes several ceramic and electrolytic capacitors, a few resistors and a 33.8388MHz crystal.

Think I'll go to the flea market either later today or tomorrow afternoon to pick up the AWE32 and retrace the audio circuitry related to FM Synthesis on the sound card.

You're right. They've both got 12. I couldn't focus my eyes properly on the U28 section. The spots were too close together. So instead, I started counting those "line+spots" above the row of spots, and unfortunately, there's a "line+spot" combo missing in the middle, where there is a spot at the bottom. Bottom line is, hehe no pun intended, there's 12 on each. Sorry. 😦

5u3 wrote:

The simplest way to set up chorus and reverb for the FM chip is AWEUTIL. The relevant parameters are /C:xx and /R:xx (type AWEUTIL /? for a list of parameters).

If you want to chorus/reverb types other than the default ones, check out the MasterMixer 5.11 utility. Find out more about it here.

Thanks a lot for the info. Great link BTW.

I tried aweutil /?, but it does not list the /C and /R as valid switches. I ran aweutil, and it says that its version is 1.35. I wonder - is there a more up to date version, with the extra /C and /R switches? I am doing my testing in DOS 6.

Edit, Solved: I just found an exe that I downloaded from Creative's website. It's called aweutl. I didn't spot it when I ran the DIR command, because it's so similar in wording to aweutil. I ran it, and it unzipped a newer version of aweutil.exe. This version has the /C and /R switches. Sorry about that. Note to self - go to the opticians.

Unfortunately, I don't know how to get the AWE32 to successfully improve the sound of FM game music. Can someone please upload an example? What I would really like to hear is a "before and after" recording, for a game using FM music that a) does not use the AWEUTIL, and then b) uses it. - So I can hear the difference.

I have tried Doom and Dune2, and when I listen to the Soundblaster FM music, it sounds exactly the same, if I a) do not use AWEUTIL, and then b) use it. I have the MFBEN jumper closed on the card, and when I attempt to improve the FM game music, I am using AWEUTIL /C:90 /R:90 at the DOS prompt. This AWEUTIL command at the DOS prompt appears to successfully execute. Also, the CT3990 PnP card is configured correctly, and is working correctly.

Thanks a lot for any help. I've had an AWE32 since 1995, and have never heard FM game music improved. I hope I won't die of old age before I get it working. 😉

I don't currently have an AWE installed in anything, so's I can't provide a recording.

That being said though, the "AWEUTIL /C:90 /R:90" should really jack up the chorus and reverb on the card (for EMU soundfont synthesis, as well as stock FM synthesis). I used to use that eons ago (although, "AWEUTIL /C:50 /R:100") to enhance any game's FM synth music and (if it also used it) FM synth sound effects 😀

P.S. A "simulation" of sort of what it sounded like (I used DOSBox, and the EMU10K-1 reverb and chorus effects of my SBLive.) Note that IIRC this isn't *exactly* what it sounded like, but it'll give ya a rough idea.

RG100, also worth trying an AWE64.

I know it's not Yamaha OPL3, but when you initialise the card, it shows you the chorus and reverb settings (look like a bar), so I'm confident that it should work...

Ah, this is frustrating. I listened to rfnagel's Doom FM music upload [thanks a lot for that!], and I am now absolutely confident that I have never got this Chorus/Reverb effect working, because that doesn't sound like anything I have ever heard on an AWE card.

Regarding the AWE64 and also the aweutil reverb and chorus initialisation "bar" which appears on boot up - yes, I also see this bar. And also, when I set the R+C to 90, I see a large white bar and a tiny bit of grey colour at the end of it, to represent a 90% setting for these two types of effects.

What I'll do is switch on the rig later this morning, and upload the relevant contents of my auto/config here, to show how I am trying to use this card. Perhaps someone will spot something that I am doing wrong? Thanks a lot.

Can I just double-check something else? It's regarding the AWE's special FM music to EMU functionality. Are there two parts to it, for old DOS games? (1) Reverb and Chorus, and also (2) The DOS game FM music is "converted" from FM, to a kind of wavetable type sound?

Edit -
Sorry to keep rambling on. It's about the AWE's special FM to EMU conversion functionality, again! Does it only work with some DOS games? For example old simple real mode DOS games, and not with games that require protected mode support?

Doom and Dune 2 should work, I think. Although Doom needs 4MB, and also Dune 2 complains about not being able to use XMS memory for speech. I just say "no" to that feature inside its setup util, and I can still run the game and hear music OK.

Portions of my config/auto appear below. The CT3990 appears to work OK, but not the elusive "special FM to EMU conversion" functionality, or the reverb/chorus effects. I use the word "or" in that sentence, because I'm not sure if the AWE card can do these 2 things, or whether it's just the reverb/chorus that it is capable of doing. When I choose the sound card in Doom or Dune 2, I select Soundblaster (Pro) for the music, but it sounds the same as typical SB (Pro) FM music.

Config.sys

DEVICE=C:\CTCM\CTCM.EXE
DEVICE=C:\SB16\DRV\CSP.SYS /UNIT=0 /BLASTER=A:220

Autoexec.bat

SET CTCM=C:\CTCM
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6
SET SOUND=C:\SB16
SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E MODE:0
C:\SB16\DIAGNOSE /S
C:\SB16\AWEUTIL /R:90 /C:90
C:\SB16\MIXERSET /P /Q
C:\CTCM\CTCU /S

Pop in an AWE64. All the settings can stay the same. You should hear a difference right away.

I guess not all AWE cards are wired the same way so to speak?

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Pop in an AWE64. All the settings can stay the same. You should hear a difference right away.

I guess not all AWE cards are wired the same way so to speak?

Thanks a lot - that worked immediately. I wonder if I can answer my own question - the special routing of FM music to the AWE's EMU chip is just to add reverb and chorus to FM music, and that is all that it does. I've also got the different reverb and chorus effects working, by using Gun's "Mix Master" utility. I have to be honest here and say that I don't particularly like the AWE64. There's something "sanitised" about its sound, both the music and effects sound a bit "washed out". Oh well, that's just MHO.

Re: CT3990 + no special EMU FM reverb/chorus effects. As you suggest, perhaps it's wired up differently, to say a CT3980?

The AWE64 doesn't have a Yamaha OPL chip, so that's probably what you are hearing. I think it sounds rawer, not quite as smooth, but it's totally subjective of course.

I also know people who prefer the clone chip over Yamaha...

As for the different models of AWE32, I have no idea. I don't have a single AWE32. Not sure why, maybe because they are massive (long) and likely won't fit into my ATX case or maybe because, to me, they make little sense if you have SB16s and AWE64...

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

The AWE64 doesn't have a Yamaha OPL chip, so that's probably what you are hearing. I think it sounds rawer, not quite as smooth, but it's totally subjective of course.

The CQM YMF262 clone is not just raw compared to a YMF262, it's also inaccurate to a YMF262. I've noticed several sounds are quite different between a SoundBlaster 16/AWE32/AWE64 with the CQM YMF262 clone. Compare(again with my favorite example, X-Wing):

Real OPL3 on SoundBlaster Pro 2.0: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9a42Yf11WU

OPL3 from CQM clone on SoundBlaster AWE64: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG-p-bvHAHg

Real OPL2 on SoundBlaster Vibra16: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfmNlPG5-dw

OPL2 from CQM clone on SoundBlaster AWE64 with extra bass: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkJLOWmYUAk

To think I used the AWE64 for the longest time thinking its FM Synthesis was the real deal when, in reality, it doesn't have a real YMF262 anywhere on the sound card, not as a discrete part and not integrated within any of the chips, either.

I will say this about the CQM YMF262 clone: it's less prone to screwing up when used on computers with CPUs faster than 133MHz. With the floppy disk edition of X-Wing, any sound card I've used with a real YMF262(OPTi 82C929A, SoundBlaster Pro 2.0 and SoundBlaster Vibra16 model CT2260) outputs a mess of scrambled notes from the YMF262 when used on a computer with a CPU faster than 133MHz. I never had that happen with my SoundBlaster AWE64 and SoundBlaster 16 WavEffects model CT4170's CQM YMF262 clone, and I've used those sound cards on a computer whose CPU runs at 1GHz.

But when it comes to YMF262 clones, I prefer ESS' ESFM. It has one minor flaw with the white noise, but it's overall more accurate to the YMF262 than the CQM YMF262 clone(the high frequencies are a little louder on the ESFM than on a real YMF262, possibly due to a better DAC).

Or better yet, those discrete YMF262 clones found on some OPTi sound cards(those are practically flawless). However, I don't know if those will output garbage when used on a computer with a CPU faster than 133MHz with the floppy disk edition of X-Wing. Someone else will have to confirm that for me(the only OPTi sound cards I've seen use real YMF262s).

You got to start testing another game. Doesn't it get boring testing the X-Wing over and over again 🤣