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Audio card recommendation for my Gateway EISA system

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First post, by ReeseRiverson

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Alright, I'm in the market of picking a good audio card for my Gateway system since my SoundBlaster 16 CT2830 is disappointing me greatly, right now. Duke Nukem 3D has to be set to 8-bit sound mode, as 16-bit makes some weird noise... midi output becomes broken when going to my Roland SC-88 (On any game it seems.) Some games seem poppy in audio, Jazz Jackrabbit has an echo on both music and sound effects, and even in Windows 3.1 Sim Tower's game sound ends up cutting mid-way and all-together fall silent. Also the card seems a bit noisy. Seems the only thing functioning as it should is the onboard IDE, here.

I mean of course, I still plan to switch back to an SCSI CD-ROM while I can, but I kinda want to try something different as well. As both my AMD 486DX4 system and Pentium 133MHz system have the AWE64 golds...

What I have on hand, are quite a few ESS AudioDrive cards and such... I'll list what I have...

1.) Yamaha OPL YMF718-S, no IDE header.
2.) Creative SoundBlaster CT2940, no IDE header.
3.) ESS AudioDrive, chip marked ES1688F, board markings say BTC-1831 REV:B. Then another sticker says X60507AA1. This one has an IDE header and jumper settings.
4.) ESS AudioDrive, chip marked ES1868F, board markings say MPB-000074 VER:1.1. This one has an IDE header, however I don't see any jumper settings. PnP I guess?
5.) ESS AudioDrive, chip marked ES1868F, board markings say Addonics A111-860. This one has an IDE header, and I only see two jumpers.

6.) Creative SoundBlaster AWE64 CT4520.
7.) Creative SoundBlaster AWE64 Gold CT4540
8.) Creative Sound Blaster AWE32 CT3600, with IDE header. (In another machine that I could swipe out.)
9.) Aztech chip marked AZT2320, with an HP P/N: 5064-2620. No IDE header, and no jumper settings I see of.

With that said, I do have a Roland MT-32 and Roland SC-88 for means of midi music as well, which I could use in combination with most of the above devices, if not all. I also know the Vogons Driver Database has all the ESS AudioDrive, drivers for the sound portions, but I don't know if any have the IDE drivers, if I need those.

Heck, I am open for suggestions for a card I don't have, even. I just would like to pick something that will be pretty reliable, in the end, for this system. Especially if I am going to record game play with it. So yeah, any suggestions? 🤣

-edit-

By the way, I can toss in an I/O card with IDE, and just disable everything else, so don't let the need for IDE limit suggestions to IDE only soundcards! 😉

Last edited by ReeseRiverson on 2014-03-06, 03:09. Edited 3 times in total.

Reply 1 of 13, by retrofanatic

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The Yamaha YMF718-B gets my vote. There are many topics on vogons advocating it's surprisingly good compatibility. For example The Yamaha OPL YMF718-S chipset. I find that the one that I use in my P166MMX system had good sound too as long as you turn down the output volume a little. Many don't like the utility/driver software, but I find it is very simple and staightforward which I like.

Reply 2 of 13, by ReeseRiverson

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retrofanatic wrote:

The Yamaha YMF718-B gets my vote. There are many topics on vogons advocating it's surprisingly good compatibility. For example The Yamaha OPL YMF718-S chipset. I find that the one that I use in my P166MMX system had good sound too as long as you turn down the output volume a little. Many don't like the utility/driver software, but I find it is very simple and staightforward which I like.

Oh wow, that is pretty sweet. That user even has a model with IDE header. ( Wish mine had one, but I could always find one another time. 🤣 )

You really got my curiosity up with that one! 😁

Reply 3 of 13, by retrofanatic

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Yeah, they are surprisingly good cards for what you pay for them.

I just bought one from eBay, (albeit from Bulgaria) with an IDE header for only 99 cents + $8 for shipping...they can be had for pretty cheap.

Look out for one, I'm sure something will turn up if you decide you want to get one.

Reply 4 of 13, by chinny22

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Only thing I don't like about the Yamaha cards (apart from the drivers and resources taken by WSS) is its SB Pro not SB16. Not a big deal but I like maxing my games out. Duke3D will sound nice if you use it for midi as well, so gets my vote for the try something different category.

AWE64 is as good as it gets for late DOS games, But as you have an AWE32 in another machine and using external midi there isn't much difference in the 2 setups, you'll just be using the SB16 side of the card, none of the fancy EMU chip stuff

Reply 5 of 13, by badmojo

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Audiodrive fan over here, I recommend them over the OPLSUx (see what I did there?) - I've tried a few of the ESS based cards and like this one the best so far:

ESS AudioDrive (ES1868) - a surprisingly good ISA sound card

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Reply 6 of 13, by ReeseRiverson

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chinny22 wrote:

Only thing I don't like about the Yamaha cards (apart from the drivers and resources taken by WSS) is its SB Pro not SB16. Not a big deal but I like maxing my games out. Duke3D will sound nice if you use it for midi as well, so gets my vote for the try something different category.

AWE64 is as good as it gets for late DOS games, But as you have an AWE32 in another machine and using external midi there isn't much difference in the 2 setups, you'll just be using the SB16 side of the card, none of the fancy EMU chip stuff

So what was the real difference between SB Pro and SB16? I'm curious. 😀

badmojo wrote:

Audiodrive fan over here, I recommend them over the OPLSUx (see what I did there?) - I've tried a few of the ESS based cards and like this one the best so far:

ESS AudioDrive (ES1868) - a surprisingly good ISA sound card

Seeing as I have an ES1688F card here too, I am looking forward to trying that as well! 😀

Does this support Adlib playback as well?

Reply 7 of 13, by bristlehog

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SB Pro has only 8 bit stereo PCM, while SB 16 has 16 bit stereo. However, majority of DOS games use 8 bit PCM audio for the sake of memory saving. Also, SB 16 series are known for having some SB Pro compatibility issues.

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Reply 8 of 13, by ReeseRiverson

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Tried the Yamaha, and only one game so far, Epic Pinball, and it sounds pretty good, nice and clean! Though Sim Tower in Windows 3.1 seems to have trouble now, it errors out. Guess it wasn't happy with the driver changes.

Though I am having trouble with the IDE CD-ROM even working. I swapped out the basic I/O controller with one that offers HDD and FDD. I disabled the FDD portion since my SCSI controller already handles FDD, and set the IDE to port 170 and (I forget the default), and my CD-ROM just will not be detected.. Neither with my Samsung drivers or the UIDE.sys driver I had gotten to try. Normally I could work it just fine with such an ISA controller, but I don't know if having an existing harddrive on the IDE with the CD-ROM made a difference or what. Any thoughts?

I'd try that ESS AudioDrive card with the ES1688F chip, since it has IDE, but my complaint already is when installed, I can't plug in my midi cable for my Roland devices. Port is so close to the edge. 🤣

Reply 10 of 13, by ReeseRiverson

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Well, there is no harm in doing that. Will I be able to install both drivers going in windows? Or DOS?

I've seen people around here manage to do it, with far more than two cards at that. 🤣
I just don't know how to, myself.

Reply 11 of 13, by Anonymous Coward

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I'm not sure how Windows 3.x would like multiple soundcard drivers, but I think with 9x it's okay. I think there's really no need to load both. I'd probably go with the AWE64 for windows, and both for DOS. Load different system files depending whether or not you want SB16 (AWE64) or SB Pro (Yamaha).

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Reply 13 of 13, by ReeseRiverson

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Yeah, the Sound Blaster AWE64 honestly is just a favorite of mine, that plus the MT-32 or Sound Canvas really works like a charm for me.

Having a legit OPL3 chip on the Yamaha is nice, but I feel the above combo is best fit for the Gateway in the end. 🤣

I still had fun trying the other two cards, and may still keep the Yamaha card in the system along side with the AWE64. Still deciding.

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