Thanks Hunter, thread was useful, will do more research but I think the below card would do the trick i.e OPL2 chip as a DAC ?

"Xwave XG ESS Allegro ES1989S PCI Sound Card"

Not sure. Hopefully someone can answer.

All ESS PCI chipsets newer than the Solo-1 no longer have a hardware FM synthesizer. I wouldn't count on it working properly for this.

gdjacobs wrote:

All ESS PCI chipsets newer than the Solo-1 no longer have a hardware FM synthesizer. I wouldn't count on it working properly for this.

Hmmm not as easy to find for PCI, cheers for the information.

Sound blaster live emulates FM synthesis a lot better than the AudioPCI.

I wouldn't put up against a real OPL3, but it isn't plainly broken like the vortex or AudioPCI's attempts at it

I still wouldn't go out and purchase a Sound Blaster Live! on the assumption that it will work for an edge case like using OPL2 as a DAC.

Yeah, you are right. That is certainly an edge case, probably won't work well with SB Live.

canthearu wrote:

Yeah, you are right. That is certainly an edge case, probably won't work well with SB Live.

😕 will need to research, thanks guys!

I've done a little bit of experimentation.

I tried running it on my P3-667 with SB-live, but it divide by zero error occurs, and doesn't start.

Next I installed it on my 486-DX2 66, starts fine. In this machine, I have a CQM based sound blaster 16.
* With CQM, the music is sorta OK, but the digital sounds are all messed up.
* With OPL3, everything sounds right.

Next step is to try again on the Pentium 3 system with the Sb-Live. I am expecting a more CQM experience though, which is bad for this game.

Tested with SB-Live. It tries really hard, but sounds like a cat dying, and the "digital" sounds do not work at all.

I should test with an ESS Solo-1 next, or Yamaha PCI YMF724

canthearu wrote:

Sound blaster live emulates FM synthesis a lot better than the AudioPCI.

I wouldn't put up against a real OPL3, but it isn't plainly broken like the vortex or AudioPCI's attempts at it

I think the AudioPCI uses a wavetable remapping while the Live actually has basic OPL3 emulation. And it's really the DOS driver doing everything and nothing to do with the cards. It's actually just an upgraded version of the same DOS driver too.

Ensoniq's Soundcape cards also used a wavetable remapping to "emulate" FM synthesis and it sounded really funky. But these cards didn't do it in a driver. Soundscape cards do everything on the card's processor and synth hardware. AudioPCI doesn't have much in the way of processing or synth hardware and SBLive doesn't use any of that in DOS either.

I used to use VDMSound with SBLive. You can use Soundfonts with DOS games with this approach. Pretty quirky though and DOSBOX is certainly the way to go instead if you have the CPU power. Fun trivia - this forum was originally for VDMSound.

Just tried Wizardry VII with dosbox. It works, but the OPL2 DAC stuff doesn't work properly.

I'll need to throw a slower PCI system on my testbench and try the other PCI cards (Solo-1 and Yamaha YMF724)

Good work guys, does show that emulation is a tricky beast...on VDMSOUND I thought I'd have a go at that too but for some reason after installing it gave me the "Windows protection error pain"!

Just one question - There is no Ensoniq drivers for Windows 3.11, right? Because VMWare Fusion on macOS does not have SB16 emulation (but does emulate some kind of Ensoniq). Virtualbox does have SB16, but the sound is crackling. This is why I am still using it with DOSBox.

bfcastello wrote:

Just one question - There is no Ensoniq drivers for Windows 3.11, right? Because VMWare Fusion on macOS does not have SB16 emulation (but does emulate some kind of Ensoniq). Virtualbox does have SB16, but the sound is crackling. This is why I am still using it with DOSBox.

PCI or PCI Express Sound Card for Windows 3.X Sound

swaaye wrote:

bfcastello wrote:

Just one question - There is no Ensoniq drivers for Windows 3.11, right? Because VMWare Fusion on macOS does not have SB16 emulation (but does emulate some kind of Ensoniq). Virtualbox does have SB16, but the sound is crackling. This is why I am still using it with DOSBox.

PCI or PCI Express Sound Card for Windows 3.X Sound

Thanks, I got it. I will try it tomorrow

canthearu wrote:

I should test with an ESS Solo-1 next, or Yamaha PCI YMF724

Ok, I chucked a pentium 200-MMX onto my test bench, installed a clean copy of windows 98.

I tested wizardry 7 with the following sound cards in pure MS-DOS mode, as windows messes up the timing of emulated digital sounds over OPL:

ISA - Creative SB16 (CT 2260 Vibra 16 with true OPL3) - Works great
ISA - Yamaha YMF719 - Works great
ISA - ESS 1869 - Works great

PCI - Yamaha YMF-724 - Works great
PCI - ESS 1839 Solo-1 - Works great
PCI - Crystal CS4281 - Works OK, FM synthesis is slightly different to true OPL3 and better clones, but digital sounds work great.

Of course, your mileage will vary, as I am using a CPU/motherboard that is very compatible with PCI sound cards, that isn't too fast for wizardry VII.

Any other cards people want me to test before I pack the test system away.

I wonder how the CMI8738 FM synth does. It's probably the most inexpensive and available option in today's market. No good for pure DOS, but as a pass through hardware FM synth?

gdjacobs wrote:

I wonder how the CMI8738 FM synth does. It's probably the most inexpensive and available option in today's market. No good for pure DOS, but as a pass through hardware FM synth?

Which one of the three main variations?

Nothing outside of pure DOS will probably really work for the emulation of a DAC through FM synthesis