Test the game in DOSBox, it might just be the recording.

Got any other cards you can test lying around?

Try a Sound Blaster Pro or non-Creative card.

What would be the pros and cons if I decided to remove the Creative Sound Blaster 16 CT-1750 and instead use a Yamaha YMF718 or Sound Blaster Pro 2 CT1600 besides the fact the latter 2 don't crackle and pop 😜

Yamaha chipsets do not like games that use the ADPCM features of Creative's DSPs. Thus certain sound effects in Duke Nukem II will not be heard, but that is the only game I know of that uses the ADPCM features of the Sound Blaster cards.

As far as the Sound Blaster Pro goes, you lose the UART MPU-401, the gameport has no system speed sensitivity at all and whatever games use 16-bit sound will sound poorer than with the 16. However, so few DOS games use 16-bit sound that the Pro will almost always sound better than the Noise Blaster. I would strongly suggest getting a 2nd generation Sound Blaster with the CT1747 chipset.

Great Hierophant wrote:

Yamaha chipsets do not like games that use the ADPCM features of Creative's DSPs. Thus certain sound effects in Duke Nukem II will not be heard, but that is the only game I know of that uses the ADPCM features of the Sound Blaster cards.

As far as the Sound Blaster Pro goes, you lose the UART MPU-401, the gameport has no system speed sensitivity at all and whatever games use 16-bit sound will sound poorer than with the 16. However, so few DOS games use 16-bit sound that the Pro will almost always sound better than the Noise Blaster. I would strongly suggest getting a 2nd generation Sound Blaster with the CT1747 chipset.

Thank You Great Hierophant and Phil, I appreciate your expertise. I would rather use what I have on hand currently unless I can get something dirt cheap. I refuse to pay inflated ebay prices and the most fitting sound cards I currently have are a Sound Blaster CT-1740, Sound Blaster Pro 2 CT-1600, Yamaha YMF718 and a Sound Blaster CT-1350B .

I also have a MPU-ITC-T I have never used that would fit with the Sound Blaster Pro well and enable me to still use the MT-32. I'm thinking that would be the solution? I'm not playing anything even as recent as DOOM/DOOM2 etc.

Nice! The MPU-ITC-T and Sound Blaster Pro 2 is a very good combo!

I have this exact card and experience popping throughout the dialog of Day of the Tentacle. However, with a Sound Blaster 16 CT-2940 there is virtually none.

That is another reason why there is no jack of all trades Sound Blaster. Digital speech and auto init DMA issues in general are (more or less) solved only with the last gen. ISA PnP Blasters, including the AWE64 Gold - but these cards often lack true OPL3, have the DB bug and in rare cases, incompatible with earlier games. I still prefer the CT2940 in most of my retro boxes.