Hello everyone,
Recently I found an old ISA sound card (see attachments). However, on the internet I find no information about this at all?
Can someone help me? which brand, type?
Well the model is a "Sound Image Orchestra 32+" as it's written on the card. But you're right, there's very little information about it. It appears to be made by a Russian company called "antares", which is equally unknown to me. Maybe it's a rebranding of another card? If you're after the features that should be easy to determine by the chips, if you're looking for official software etc it looks difficult.
looks like orchid sound card
Just one of those generic Crystal sound cards. It'll do all of the usual DOS things.
World's foremost 486 enjoyer.
Found a PC Magazine : Russian Edition article that mentions it:
https://docstore.mik.ua/press/skpress/pc_mag/11961.htm
English translation:
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en& … =search&pto=aue
konc wrote on 2020-10-22, 18:47:Well the model is a "Sound Image Orchestra 32+" as it's written on the card. But you're right, there's very little information about it. It appears to be made by a Russian company called "antares", which is equally unknown to me. Maybe it's a rebranding of another card? If you're after the features that should be easy to determine by the chips, if you're looking for official software etc it looks difficult.
I think Antares may have just been a distributor that you could buy it from.
PCT-Belgium wrote on 2020-10-22, 18:27:Hello everyone,
Recently I found an old ISA sound card (see attachments). However, on the internet I find no information about this at all?
Can someone help me? which brand, type?
Can't help you with brand and type, but can tell you something based on the chips:
- Crystal CX4232 - very good sound chip, low noise levels, excellent Sound Blaster Pro 2 and WSS support with bug-free MIDI.
- Crystal CS9233 - MIDI synth, so 'wavetable' generator. Generally very well-regarded. The CS9233 also handles the FM synth functionality. Doesn't sound like 'real' Yamaha OPL3, but supposedly not too bad either.
- Crystal CS4112 - 1MB sample ROM. A bit low-end, but probably very serviceable.
Given there is no other custom logic, this card would probably work with generic Crystal CX423x drivers like these:
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?file … menustate=44,36
Or UNISOUND maybe, for DOS drivers.
Supporter of PicoGUS, PicoMEM, mt32-pi, WavetablePi, Throttle Blaster, Voltage Blaster, GBS-Control, GP2040-CE, RetroNAS.
Hello all,
thank you for steering me in the right direction. I have put the card in my retro P3 (SE440BX-2 motherboard) with Windows 98 SE install on it and it is automatically recognized by Windows 98 SE as "Sound Image Orchestra 32+" and above all it still works.
Now I'm going to try install the DOS drivers from vogons. To be continued.
