Yeah it's a great card but has some weird behaviour occasionally.

You can play midi from a daughterboard in the front panel, from soundfonts loaded into the card's ram, or I think it's OPL. Or from external modules via the midi ports.

It's OPL to me sounds the same as an SB Pro2 [but less "sharp"] or SB16 [but less muffled], I'm not a musician, I like music for the noise it makes...

Can be tricky to set up but once it's done it's good.

Some useful threads on here - usually I search for elianda [often posted much good advice on this] or distortion [had issues iirc, as did I periodically - think they mentioned the random behaviour you seem to get] names plus ews64xl, if that helps.

$50 seems a reasonable price to me.

Good enough card with solid compatibility. Price is adequate.

ratfink wrote:

It's OPL to me sounds the same as an SB Pro2 [but less "sharp"] or SB16 [but less muffled], I'm not a musician, I like music for the noise it makes...

This is my biggest concern. As I have usually been somewhat picky about OPL before buying a card, I usually get cards with genuine OPL3 chips or ESFM for DOS/Win98 PCs, and recently testing my Duron's onboard sound has opened my eyes to how horrible poor OPL implementations or emulation can sound. If it is close to the real thing I guess it is fine.

Btw, does DirectSound work fine? I had enough issues on an OPTi 82C929 card (which was otherwise great - one of the most quietest cards I own) that I had to relegate it to a DOS6 and below only.

The EWS64 does not focus on OPL3 synthesis and actually on default install the FM-Synth is even muted.
The implementation is like in other Crystal Codecs as the e.g. 4232. The difference to the Yamaha OPL3 is noticeable, but it doesn't mean that it sounds bad.
If you have the opportunity to get a working card with front panel I would go for it as the other features make it a really versatile solution.
(Digital In/Out, Midi Plugs at the front module, loadable sound fonts, tunable effects aso.)

The card is also easy to configure if you know what you are doing.

I use this card on a 486 class machine so cannot comment on DirectSound... (as all ISA cards, it would clog a good Windows9x system) but I recall a few forum members mentioned it has limited DirectX support just like the AWE64.

The OPL emulation from the Dream SAM9407 is mediocre at best, you will not want to use it if you are a connoisseur.

The card is useful as a dual GM interface (the Dream being a potent synth on its own, big Hoontech soundfonts also load under DOS, a big positive )
but this is also sort of a weakness, you need to tweak down / disable resources because the standard setup takes away too much resources.

But as Mike mentioned, if you learn the ropes it is not a big deal.

Neither of my two EWS64 XLs can reach the SnR, clarity and purity of my earlier Tropez cards (but come quite close)

The OPL emulation from the Dream SAM9407 is mediocre at best, you will not want to use it if you are a connoisseur.

The SAM9407 does not emulate FM-Synthesis.

Thanks. Bad copy-paste.
I was typing and editing my previous comment when yours appeared so I just skipped the Crystal codec part 😀

YOLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Snatched it! One more board for my collection!

its a nice card - i really want to find a EWS64 XXL because it has a waldorf microwave XT synth built into it!!!!!!!
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul99/articles/terratec.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_GfuINC2_0

I have the EWS64 XL with 64Mb RAM on it.
Its a Nice Card with Very Good Wavetable Support.

i don't want to give it away anymore 😀

In tests the waldorf microwave XT synth was not so suitable for music in old dos games, however if you want to produce it's probably a nice start.