Isnt it this card: http://retronn.de/imports/hwgal/hw_cps_sb25.html ?

Precisely, this one. Someone got the sticker removed. Thanks for the link, btw, I did not found it previously.

I read that it has hardware MPU-401 interface, but I suppose it's not an intelligent one (?)

No, it has a MIDI interface, but it is not MPU-401 compatible.
The aren't any sound cards that has an intelligent mode MPU-401 MIDI interface.
Those that were "MPU-401 compatible", only came out with the UART mode MIDI interface.

I thought so.

BTW - there is one card that I owe that is said to have quite decent MPU-401 intelligent mode emulation that works fine in most cases - it's Ensoniq Soundscape.

jesolo wrote:

I believe that Rabanik is already working on a similar project for the Aztech cards. Maybe he can just confirm from his side? […]
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I believe that Rabanik is already working on a similar project for the Aztech cards. Maybe he can just confirm from his side?

Regardless, I think it's a great idea. Aztech used to be quite a large sound card manufacturer back in the day and sold many sound cards.

PS: RGB, let me know if you happen to have the original installation disks for I38-SGNXPRO. Or, are they the same as for I38-MMSD802 that is on Aztech's ftp site?
The reason why I'm asking is that, although both models are Sound Galaxy NXPro cards, and the drivers on the ftp site (that they list are for I38-MMSD802) do work with model I38-SGNXPRO, the two models do look different.

I have the original Disks of the "CPS SoundBlaster Pro 4" which is the CPS eqivalent of the NX-Pro. I can upload the original disks and you can operate the NX-Pro with it, although you don't need them to operate in DOS or Windows 3.1. See for comparison if your card is the one I reviewed on AmoRetro: http://www.amoretro.de/2013/06/cps-sound-blas … axy-nx-pro.html

Regarding the Aztech Sound Galaxy Model number guide: I think Rabanik writes up a whole compendium while I plan something more rudimentary to offer a short overview with all the key fatures of the relevant cards from Aztech. I plan to use a similar style like on my Guide to the Sound Blaster Model numbers here: http://www.amoretro.de/guides-workshops/creat … r-modellnummern

tikoellner wrote:

I've got 1st gen Aztech Sound Galaxy NX II that was relabelled with "CPS Hamburg 1992" sticker, but you can see Aztech chip unde […]
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I've got 1st gen Aztech Sound Galaxy NX II that was relabelled with "CPS Hamburg 1992" sticker, but you can see Aztech chip underneath.

The card appears on your list, but not as CPS, which was a German company that later got into court quarrel with Creative. They say it's simply Sound Blaster 2.5 clone, made because of market shortages in Europe.

I would say this 8-bit OPL2 card is absolutely fantastic. It has very good noise to signal ratio, but the thing I love most personally is that it emulates parallel port and acts as Disney Sound Source or Covox Speach Thing. I don't know other cards that have such capability.

It's also something unusual - 8-bit card with CD-ROM interface (not that I use it, but still).

More info here:
http://www.amoretro.de/2012/09/cps-sound-blas … laxy-nx-ii.html

Actually, also other Aztech cards offer the DSS / Vovox feature. All the cards with a "NX" suffix do. The technique relies on the Aztech developed AZTSSPT0592 chip. The last card is the NX Pro 16.

There is also a sucsessor to the NX II card, or Sound Blaster 2.5, called "NX II Extra". It is basically the same card, but also has a Mitsumi CD-ROM Interface. It's a 16-Bit card but works well in 8-Bit Slots as long as you don't use the Mitsumi-Interface. I have the card boxed in two different versions, one Aztech and one CPS. The Aztech box also includes two tiny passive stereo speakers of lousy quality but the card itself is a great card. The Aztech box claims "The only sound card that supports 4 sound standards".. Let's count: AdLib, SoundBlaster, Covox Speech Thing, Disney Sound Source.. yep - that's four! so their claim is right 😁
I should do a review on my website because I like the NX series very much.

Regarding the removed sticker from your board: I became such a card a while ago. The story went like this:

The card came to me with torn stickers. I made a scan of the stickers from a mint card and printed them.

I removed the rest of the torn stickers, cleaned the chips and glued the printed stickers onto the chips. Looks good to me.

If you need: I can provide you the GIMP "XCF" of the stickers.

FGB wrote:

I have the original Disks of the "CPS SoundBlaster Pro 4" which is the CPS eqivalent of the NX-Pro. I can upload the original disks and you can operate the NX-Pro with it, although you don't need them to operate in DOS or Windows 3.1. See for comparison if your card is the one I reviewed on AmoRetro: http://www.amoretro.de/2013/06/cps-sound-blas … axy-nx-pro.html

Yes, I would appreciate it if you could upload the original disks for the "CPS SoundBlaster Pro 4".
My card looks very similar to yours (refer attached picture)

However, there are some subtle differences. For example:

1. Notice the location of the Yamaha YMF262-M chip on my card, compared to the one that you have.
2. My card has a jumper (JX3) for an EEPROM setting, but yours does not

FGB wrote:

Regarding the Aztech Sound Galaxy Model number guide: I think Rabanik writes up a whole compendium while I plan something more rudimentary to offer a short overview with all the key fatures of the relevant cards from Aztech. I plan to use a similar style like on my Guide to the Sound Blaster Model numbers here: http://www.amoretro.de/guides-workshops/creat … r-modellnummern

Go for it. I've browsed your website on many occasions for information. The more information we can gather, the better.

FGB wrote:

Actually, also other Aztech cards offer the DSS / Covox feature. All the cards with a "NX" suffix do. The technique relies on the Aztech developed AZTSSPT0592 chip. The last card is the NX Pro 16.

There is also a sucsessor to the NX II card, or Sound Blaster 2.5, called "NX II Extra". It is basically the same card, but also has a Mitsumi CD-ROM Interface. It's a 16-Bit card but works well in 8-Bit Slots as long as you don't use the Mitsumi-Interface. I have the card boxed in two different versions, one Aztech and one CPS. The Aztech box also includes two tiny passive stereo speakers of lousy quality but the card itself is a great card. The Aztech box claims "The only sound card that supports 4 sound standards".. Let's count: AdLib, SoundBlaster, Covox Speech Thing, Disney Sound Source.. yep - that's four! so their claim is right 😁
I should do a review on my website because I like the NX series very much.

.
Although this card does not have the "NX" suffix, my Sound Galaxy Basic 16 (also known as the Sound Galaxy Pro 16 - I38-MMSN810) also supports the Disney Sound Source & Covox Speech Thing. I took a couple of pics of the original box that I still have. This one supports "All major sound standards" (including the Windows Sound System). If I had to guess, then the Sound Galaxy NX Pro 16 (I38-MMSN803) should also the support the Windows Sound System?

tikoellner wrote:

I thought so.

BTW - there is one card that I owe that is said to have quite decent MPU-401 intelligent mode emulation that works fine in most cases - it's Ensoniq Soundscape.

That is true. What it does is to fool games, that is "looking" for an intelligent mode MPU-401 MIDI interface, into thinking that there is one.
Refer to this page for some info (just search for "Ensoniq" on the page): http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.co.za/2010/03 … land-mt-32.html

Thanks for the pictures of your "Basic 16" card. How could I forget about it?
The Basic 16 looks very similar to the NX Pro 16, the only notable difference apart from a slightly different layout is the missing volume wheel on the Basic 16. Apart from that it seems to be the same card with the same featureset.

Yes, the "16" indicates the presence of a 16-Bit Codec chip, which is either the Crystal CS4231/4248 or the AD SoundPort 1848 - both vendors are register compatible and do exactly the same.
I will upload the drivers tomorrow.

Hi guys. I updated the list of Aztech sound cards. Please fill some missing fileds and confirm/disprove all informations. I am not an expert about that.

I have another to add to the list... a Packard Bell OEM one. I've posted about this a few times but now that more information is being collected I finally took the time to remove the stickers.

Card is referenced by all Packard Bell documentation and drivers as a "Voyetra Sound144AM" but it is recognized by Win95 as a Sound Galaxy Washington 16. This version features a 14.4 modem on the card, with IRQ/COM port configurable by jumper. The raised portion of the card in the middle is part of the modem logic (What little info that is out there says the Rockwell chip is a "modem data pump" chip)

Spreadsheet info:
3rd Gen / Sound Galaxy Washington 16 (Voyetra Sound144AM)
Serial: I38-MMSN834
Chipset: AZT 2316 & AZT 816
ADC & DAC: CS4231A-KL
ISA Bus: 16-bit
FM Synth: YMF262-M
PC_SPK: No
WBH: No
MPU: Yes
SB compatibility: Pro 2.0
Adlib: Yes
DSS: No
Covox: No
WSS: Yes
PCB version: V1.5
Notes: Panasonic CR-5XX CD-ROM interface, 14.4 modem; Packard Bell release

I have a quick question pertaining to this thread. I have an IBM Aptiva with a Cyrix 166MX cpu and onboard sound. It's an ATX socket 7 motherboard with Alladin II chipset, I am not sure of the sound chip used. I recently found an old 8 bit Aztec sound card which is the BXII that is SB 2.0 and Adlib compatible. Would it be worth it to use this in my system instead of the on board sound? Is the on board sound better for DOS game? What about Windows 95?

Thanks in advance.

-tommaso

Tommaso wrote:

I have a quick question pertaining to this thread. I have an IBM Aptiva with a Cyrix 166MX cpu and onboard sound. It's an ATX socket 7 motherboard with Alladin II chipset, I am not sure of the sound chip used. I recently found an old 8 bit Aztec sound card which is the BXII that is SB 2.0 and Adlib compatible. Would it be worth it to use this in my system instead of the on board sound? Is the on board sound better for DOS game? What about Windows 95?

Thanks in advance.

-tommaso

It's difficult to say, since I don't know the exact model number of your Aptiva (look on the back or side of the case for a specific model number).
You probably have one of the Mwave sound cards (based on a quick browse on the internet).
There is also an old support site, "DON5408's. Unofficial Aptiva Support Site", that hosted drivers and tips - you can still find old "copies" of the site on http://web.archive.org.

However, the BXII is a standard Sound Blaster 2.0 (mono) compatible sound card (you can check the internet for the specifications of the card).
Your PC will definitely have a stereo based sound card that supports full 16-bit 44.1 KHz playback. If you are having problems with this onboard sound card in DOS (you shouldn't have any problems under Windows 95, since the native drivers should provide you with full sound capability), then I would suggest rather looking out for a later sound card from that era.

Jesolo, thanks for the response. I was wrong about the chipset, it is an Alladin IV and the model of the IBM Aptiva is 2137-EO3. I will check out that site also. So, even if the onboard is better than my card, could thecard be possibly better with older DOS games as I have had a few games sound not work correctly. Thanks again!

Tommaso

We are deviating a bit from the main topic, but if you do also want to use the Sound Galaxy BXII in your IBM Aptiva, then you might run into resource conflicts under DOS, creating bigger nightmares for yourself (you then need to have an understanding on how to look for and resolve those resource conflicts).

Your IBM Aptiva appears to have an onboard Crystal 4237B based sound chip.
In order for your sound card to work under DOS, you need to ensure that it is properly configured for DOS.
Based on an older posts (Pine sound card, Crystal 4235 - any good for wavetable daughterboards? & Laptops for DOS gaming), this sound chip appears to have good Sound Blaster Pro & Windows Sound System support & also has an MPU-401 compatible MIDI interface.

A couple of things to look out for (for DOS support):

1. Make sure you install the Windows 95 drivers properly. During this installation process, it will sometimes create a folder where it will save your DOS utilities as well (some of these utilities will help you to configure your sound card settings for DOS use). Alternatively, check for a separate DOS installation driver package on the site I referred to earlier.
2. Some DOS games are very picky from running in a DOS window (from within Windows 95). Restart in MS-DOS mode. You can also try to set up a start menu configuration - refer this guide: How to create a boot (start up) menu under Windows 9x/ME. Just take note that, as soon as you start in MS-DOS mode (real mode DOS), then you will also have to load mouse, CD-ROM, etc. drivers in order to have access to those peripherals. These are loaded either via your Autoexec.bat or Config.sys files.
3. Make sure you have the "SET BLASTER" statement in your Autoexec.bat & Dosstart.bat files, which is an environment variable that specifies to older DOS games what your sound card settings are.
4. Your BIOS might also have a setting that enables DOS (legacy) support for your sound card, but I think that your problem is more related to your sound card just not set up properly under DOS.

If you wish to investigate/explore this matter further, I suggest you open up a new thread under a header of something like "IBM Aptiva 2137-EO3 - getting sound card to work under DOS" and then just point to your first post in this thread to start out with.

Hello guys. Newbie here but I wanted to help out this thread by adding the Aztech AT3300 (FCC ID: I38-SN96106). The readme in the installation files call it "Aztech Audio Web AT3300" but I've seen it named differently in drivers sites. Has a built-in 33Kbps modem plus a few headers for midi and cd audio. There is a chip labeled "AZT2320". I used to connect to my Internet dial-up service back then and it worked fine (as far as I remember). Anyone knows what kind of OPL it has?

The Aztech AZT2320 is a PnP all in one audio chip. It includes a genuine Yamaha OPL3 circuit. So you get the most authentic music from it.

Yes, you will notice the "OPL" inscription on the AZT2320 chip.
It's probably similar to what Creative did with their CT-1747 chip, which also had an integrated OPL3 core.

Here's also a pic of the Sound Galaxy Basic 16 sound card (update to my earlier post).

Yup, The AZT2320 has a genuine Yamaha OPL3 in it. The AZT2320 was co-developed with Yamaha.

www.thefreelibrary.com/Aztech+announces ... a017449504

I picked up two Aztech cards.

1. CPS Sound Blaster PRO 4.0 Aztech Sound Galaxy NX PRO.

2. Aztech Sound Galaxy Multimedia 16 ABO I38-MMSN850

I have messed around with SB16 cards lately and they ALL plagued with various bugs.
The biggest problem is the Clicking bug which is present on all SB16 cards from CT1730 to CT2950, making older games that use single-cycle DMA modes sound horrible.
Ringing and whistling is present on all Vibra cards, and distorted audio output.
Not authentic OPL3 on later models, buggy MPU-401 on all of them to various degrees.
The SB16 is just a bad card, not recommended for DOS games at all.

The Yamaha 71x is close but it lacks a proper Lowpass filter, no 8-bit to 2/3-bit ADPCM , and games can't change it's mixer (Wolfenstein3D for example).
All I want is a bug free fully functional SBPro 2.0 with a MPU-401 and Wavetable header, hopefully the Aztech will provide.
EDIT: I got these YMF71x issues got fixed, read thread: Yamaha YMF71x SB Pro Mixer Bug Issue Fix

PS.
Thank you all for making a list and clarifying the differences among all the models and revisions; Very informative!

I would recommend you try out the I38-MMSN850 model first. It is based on the third generation of sound cards with the AZT-2316 chipset (if you have problems with finding the right drivers, let me know - I have that specific model's drivers).
Not very noisy and should tick all the boxes, based on your requirements. Although it is only Sound Blaster Pro II compatible under DOS, it is a full 16-bit 44.1 KHz stereo card under Windows.

The "CPS Sound Blaster PRO 4.0 Aztech Sound Galaxy NX PRO" is practically a Sound Blaster Pro II clone (with some minor differences) and as such, does not have an MPU-401 UART MIDI interface. Instead, it utilises the same MIDI interface that was found on the earlier Sound Blaster & Sound Blaster Pro models. So, you will not be able to route General MIDI sounds via this sound card's MIDI port to an external MIDI synthesizer, since most games requires an MPU-401 MIDI interface to "communicate" with the MIDI synthesizer.