Comparison of Soundscape revisions with 1 MB and 2 MB \ VOGONS

Comparison of Soundscape revisions with 1 MB and 2 MB

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First post, by moturimi1

Posted on 2016-02-04, 20:55

moturimi1 Offline

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I came along with the different ISA Soundscape sound cards by Ensoniq.

I know that there are different ROM revisions that are used on the Soundscape S2000 cards and the Soundscape DB.
The older cards do have a 2 MB ROM, the newer cards a 1 MB ROM that differs from the ROM of the Opus and Vivo card as can be cleary heard when comparing these cards. As I was not able to find a comparison of the 2MB and 1MB S2000 card on this great page: http://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/Ensoniq, I upload it here:

Dark Forces Intro, Soundscape S2000, 2MB ROM: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vxp8me7bi13t7ss/Snd … B_DARK.mp3?dl=0
Dark Forces Intro, Soundscape S2000, 1MB ROM: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6ngs79d8wdsviot/Snd … B_DARK.mp3?dl=0
Eco Quest Intro, Soundscape S2000, 2MB ROM: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fdulf7cigvus6yj/snd … MB_Eco.mp3?dl=0
Eco Quest Intro, Soundscape S2000, 1MB ROM: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qpmytsbyxt2bay0/snd … MB_Eco.mp3?dl=0
Doom, Soundscape S2000 2MB ROM: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1a415iz8466k1ek/Snd … _Doom1.mp3?dl=0
Doom, Soundscape S2000 1MB ROM: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4hdyk2nkzwylhme/Snd … _Doom1.mp3?dl=0

What is your opinion on the MIDI sound quality of both cards?

The 1MB ROM on the S2000 and DB mentions: 1M2, the OPUS and Vivo: 1M.

Reply 1 of 3, by BootyNugget

Posted on 2016-02-21, 06:06

BootyNugget Offline

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moturimi1 wrote:
I came along with the different ISA Soundscape sound cards by Ensoniq. […]
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I came along with the different ISA Soundscape sound cards by Ensoniq.

I know that there are different ROM revisions that are used on the Soundscape S2000 cards and the Soundscape DB.
The older cards do have a 2 MB ROM, the newer cards a 1 MB ROM that differs from the ROM of the Opus and Vivo card as can be cleary heard when comparing these cards. As I was not able to find a comparison of the 2MB and 1MB S2000 card on this great page: http://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/Ensoniq, I upload it here:

Dark Forces Intro, Soundscape S2000, 2MB ROM: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vxp8me7bi13t7ss/Snd … B_DARK.mp3?dl=0
Dark Forces Intro, Soundscape S2000, 1MB ROM: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6ngs79d8wdsviot/Snd … B_DARK.mp3?dl=0
Eco Quest Intro, Soundscape S2000, 2MB ROM: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fdulf7cigvus6yj/snd … MB_Eco.mp3?dl=0
Eco Quest Intro, Soundscape S2000, 1MB ROM: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qpmytsbyxt2bay0/snd … MB_Eco.mp3?dl=0
Doom, Soundscape S2000 2MB ROM: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1a415iz8466k1ek/Snd … _Doom1.mp3?dl=0
Doom, Soundscape S2000 1MB ROM: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4hdyk2nkzwylhme/Snd … _Doom1.mp3?dl=0

What is your opinion on the MIDI sound quality of both cards?

The 1MB ROM on the S2000 and DB mentions: 1M2, the OPUS and Vivo: 1M.

Is there a way to visually identify whether an s2000 has 1mb or 2mb? I've noticed that some of the cards have the pins for CD-ROM connections and some don't. I assume maybe the units without those pins soldered in are cheaper OEM units with 1mb?

Reply 2 of 3, by moturimi1

Posted on 2016-02-21, 16:36

moturimi1 Offline

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Joined: 2014-06-01, 16:45

Quite easy: Check the ROM on the card. Normally a large ROM Chip has 2 MB of Wavetable stored and "2M" written on it. A small ROM chip normally has 1 MB of Wavetable ROM stored and "1M" or "1M2" markings.

E.g. 1M: https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://w … HFtbAD&tbm=isch
2M: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensoniq_Soundsc … niqsss-2000.jpg

Normally all cards without CD-ROM interfaces have 1M ROM.