0019 Lots of PC sound card including a Compaq OEM Gravis Ultrasound
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- Welcome to SMMC 0019! In today's episode, we have a really cool assortment of ISA cards sent in by viewer Gabe. These include a 3rd party Gravis Ultrasound card, the STB Ultrasound 32 Pro for use in Compaqs. Let's take a look at these carts and test a few. (And I'll do some voice-overs with results of additional testing as well.)
-- Info
Creative Sound Blaster CT1305B
Ensoniq Soundscape S-2000
Creative Sound Blaster 16 CT1740
Yamaha DB50XG Sound Daughter Board
STB Ultrasound 32 Pro
ATI VGA Wonder 16
-- Video Links
Vogons Thread:
www.vogons.org...
Support the channel on Patreon:
/ adriansdigitalbasement
Adrian's Digital Basement (Main Channel)
/ @adriansdigitalbasement
-- Tools
Deoxit D5:
amzn.to/2VvOKy1
store.caig.com/...
O-Ring Pick Set: (I use these to lift chips off boards)
amzn.to/3a9x54J
Elenco Electronics LP-560 Logic Probe:
amzn.to/2VrT5lW
Hakko FR301 Desoldering Iron:
amzn.to/2ye6xC0
Rigol DS1054Z Four Channel Oscilloscope:
www.rigolna.co...
Head Worn Magnifying Goggles / Dual Lens Flip-In Head Magnifier:
amzn.to/3adRbuy
TL866II Plus Chip Tester and EPROM programmer: (The MiniPro)
amzn.to/2wG4tlP
www.aliexpress...
TS100 Soldering Iron:
amzn.to/2K36dJ5
www.ebay.com/i...
EEVBlog 121GW Multimeter:
www.eevblog.co...
DSLogic Basic Logic Analyzer:
amzn.to/2RDSDQw
www.ebay.com/i...
Magnetic Screw Holder:
amzn.to/3b8LOhG
www.harborfrei...
Universal ZIP sockets: (clones, used on my ZIF-64 test machine)
www.ebay.com/i...
RetroTink 2X Upconverter: (to hook up something like a C64 to HDMI)
www.retrotink.com/
Plato (Clone) Side Cutters: (order five)
www.ebay.com/i...
Heat Sinks:
www.aliexpress...
Little squeezy bottles: (available elsewhere too)
amzn.to/3b8LOOI
--- Links
My GitHub repository:
github.com/mis...
Commodore Computer Club / Vancouver, WA - Portland, OR - PDX Commodore Users Group
www.commodorec...
--- Instructional videos
My video on damage-free chip removal:
• How to remove chips wi...
--- Music
Intro music and other tracks by:
Nathan Divino
@itsnathandivino
Adrian, you are forgetting a very critical element to a YT career, and that is attitude. You come across as a really chill and knowledgeable elder geek (even though you're younger than me), and someone who I can just listen to tell a story about the thing you're fixing. There's a genuine excitement and enthusiasm about what you do.
PS: Bloomin Tsowber (rhymes with "ow"). Flower magic. :)
Not quite. It's an "ou" sound like in, well, "sound". And it ends with a "a" sound like in "father". So "tsoubah" :). (And the final vowel of "Blumen" is the same as in "the".)
@@kilianhekhuis Well, if we're going to northern Germany then the last syllable in 'Blumen' disappears anyway. Also, I tried to avoid the 'ou' as it's too ambiguous in English.
@@phelyan Yeah, but "tsober" would be "Zober", which means "box" or "container", so you don't wanna go there 😄
Not even a link to this guy's YT channel, to thank him, in the smallest way possible, for the kindness he showed you?
Its so easy to get hung up on view numbers but its important to keep perspective. Five Hundred Views may not be a lot in youtube numbers, but imagine you had a room full of 500 people who are all there to watch you do something. Thats 500 people who really enjoy what you do, and i feel like if even just a couple people are interested and enjoy what you do, it's worth doing. Love what you do Adrian, you keep it realistic and relatable.
Yes, honestly a channel that gets a gazillion views is somewhat off-putting to me because the direction and feel of a channel can start to change as the view counts go up into the hundreds of thousands and beyond. Although I know that it's beneficial to the RUclipsr to have as many subs as possible.
Is there a link for his channel? I'd like to help a youtuber out with subs and views.
I came to say pretty much the same thing! I just recently started my channel and had done the same thing as Adrian where I put up some basic videos on subjects that interested me. Few viewers here and there.
My initial content was more for practice (been years since I edited videos, last time was using miniDV tapes in high school).
For me I just have to remember, channels like this have years ahead of me. I look at it as a hobby and as me sharing stories on my little space on the internet.
I'm just stoked with my first video with 500 views. Before that I was happy with my 20 subscribers and few other lurkers who got to and enjoy seeing my content.
I will keep making my videos while I still get any views and while I still have interesting stuff to share.
But yeah, even if you're only getting a few hundred views. That's a few hundred people you've got a voice with that's enjoyed watching what you have to share. That's still a lot of people to be proud of sharing with.
@@frazzleface753 yes this. Being a slave to the algorithm. I like making what I like on my own channel rather than chase teh likez. Some channels seem to miss out on doing what they want when the algorithm takes over their lives.
Yes, I was doing RUclips in 07 and 08 and even 50 or 100 subscribers or views was a lot!
And like Adrian said, it needs a critical mass for YT to recommend en masse, but there’s folks who click though from comments and finds interesting videos and stuff like that who can slowly contribute to that critical mass.
After a certain amount of time of watching videos with friends, they started getting recommendations for smaller channels I had just watched.
So that can enable an occasional doubling of numbers. Doubling starts out slow but then accelerates.
Hi Adrian! I reverse engineered the CMS logic for the CT1350B and open sourced the solution. If you are interested search for the CMS video on my channel, there you can find the link to the project, where you can download the logic equations (unfortunately I can't put links directly here).
EDIT: As for the VGA card, the RAMDAC is in 95% the issue on those cards. If you have another VGA card with a similar RAMDAC you can give it a try. Should be an easy test, since it is already socketed.
speaking of other great youtube channels... :)
love your work, the deep dives and all your open sourced solutions.
I don't really know how the hardware on those cards work but I feel like it wouldn't be the RAMDAC. If that were the problem I would think the VBIOS would still load.
@@eDoc2020 I got a lot of ISA graphics cards back to life from that time and the most culprit was RAMDAC indeed. It usually has different stages of defect. The first one is of course broken colors. Then there are cases, where the card gets initialized, but you get no image. And the third case, where the card doesn't get initialized at all. I think, that the RAMDAC gets usually setup during the BIOS initialization and if it is completely dead, then the initialization fails and the PC reports, that no graphics card is installed. Certainly this is just one possible culprit, but a very common one.
Thanks for the extra info on your channel background Adrian!
8:15 - somehow I thought you quit your day job by now. It's amazing that you still have your day job and can crank out so much quality content at the same time! Yeah, it's important to be there at the start, it's easier to grow when only a handful of channels cover the same topic. I found your channel because I was trying to find how to fix C64s, specifically a 1541 drive. I still haven't got to my Commodore fixing, I've been dealing with Gameboys lately though :D I got on the repairing/restoring stuff because somehow I found The 8bit guy and he did a lot of restorations that I really liked, then as I picked up the hobby I searched the 1541 drive repair and found you.
Fast forward 2 years, and he's now quit his day job.
13:21 The designer of the SID chip designed the DOC chip and founded Ensoniq along with Al Charpentier and others. The DOC chip being the spiritual successor to SID and featured the features he couldn't get going at Commodore. The DOC chip found its way into the Apple II-GS. It's sort of a bit like a DSP chip I guess, it can do sample/waveform playback.
That XG sound daughterboard has amazing sound output. I remember using one on the original System Shock and being stunned by how much better the music was.
I actually randomly found you because of the light bulb tear downs and then watched one of the repairathon videos and fell in love with the content . So thank you good sir
Thanks for all the great content! I really appreciate you taking the time to make this footage, entertaining and informative.
I'm fairly certain that one year on Halloween we happened across a house belonging to one of the Pearson family, as a young girl answered the door and asked if we "would like a delicious Pearson's Nut Roll"
Three baskets at the door, all various flavors of full sized nut rolls/nut goodies
I kinda prefer this longer format. I'm often watching these while working out and it's good because it can take like an hour or more. Having limited time to work on this stuff is understandable though.
I just got a Creative Sound Blaster ct1320c 8 bit ISA sound card, it came with a rather cheap, even back than, pair of speakers. Than I inspected the card when I got home, looked it up and than realized what I found at a local Goodwill. The original box it came in is tore up quite a bit but it has the 5.25 in floppy and a 3.5 in floppy drivers and application disks and the manual, remember those? You have found your talent in life so now hopefully you can pursue this more, if you want, you are a good technician though and have helped get me back into older retro computers. I am 45 so I used a lot of this stuff back in the day, in high school and since than my love for all things electronics and computers have even grown more since 30 years ago. Thank you for the great videos.
The Gravis Ultrasound card Wow , the STB Ultrasound 32 Pro for use in Compaq's. Yes there are a Lot of Older Compaq's that are still out in the Wild . and Windows Identifies for a lot of these cards . Keep up the good work . Just Wow :) QC
do not forget the always friendly and positive attitude, and honest - appreciated, I suspect this contributed to the growth of the channel. Thanks
Oh my ! A DB50XG daughter board ! I bought it to add to my first SB16 and was blown away by it :) Doom music on midi was a first revelation and a lot more came afterwards (Day Of The Tentacle 🐙 for instance). Good donation 👍
I had a DB50XG daughterboard on my SB16 Value PnP for a while and it worked like a charm on Windows. Unfortunately I had borrowed it from a friend and he wanted it back in the end. Still, the card has a special place in my heart. Crisp sound, beautiful wavetable synthesis, etc.
About a year ago I became the proud owner of a Yamaha MU-128v2, which is an XF Midi synthesizer module. It is attached to the midi port of my sound card and I use it to listen to XG Midi music from time to time.
Oh man, that ensoniq test sample, the flashbacks...the flashbacks... neon shorts... Swatch... Crystal Pepsi... Wolfenstein 3D.
I have a couple of those DB50XG daughter cards that I converted to standalone MIDI modules back in the day. Very budget for really good sounding synthesizer! I even have one of the super rare DB60XG cards, which includes some effects processing as well!
Hearing "16-bit testing" again after all these many years gave me chills.
would be a good clip to start a Techno-8bit,16bit album off with
I also still have a DB50XG. I bought it new in late 90s, early 2000s and used it on my Soundblaster 16 and later some PCI soundcards that still had a Waveblaster header, before returning to my SB16 and doing a great job in my retro PC. I love this sound, although some might think that it is a little too much (some instruments have an aggressive bass). If you are using a waveblaster in combination with certain SB16 like the CT1750, you should know you cannot simply plug in a joystick. You have to use a Joystick/MIDI Splitter cable that separates the signals actively using optocouplers! Otherwise, if a joystick is plugged in during startup, you don't get any MIDI music, or if you plug in a joystick while music is playing, the music will freeze on the currently played note.
Regarding the SB2.0, if the card is completely dead, maybe try to start with the crystal oscillator. This tiny part actually caused a similar problem (no detection at all) with my Aztech NX-II.
Huh? This doesn’t make any sense. The MIDI I/O is just a couple of serial pins on the DB15 port. The joystick I/O is completely separate. The only way it CAN interfere is if your joystick is doing something weird with those pins. (I think they were previously allocated as power and ground pins.) That should not be an issue for most hardware combos though.
Also, you can’t use opto-couplers with a joystick input. Joystick inputs require a variable resistive load that will be sensed by the interface card. MIDI is always opto-isolated. Or at least it is supposed to be. It’s a current loop circuit.
I found your site because i started watching the 8 bit guy. And honestly, while i really like his channel, he doesn't post anywhere near enough for me. And because i have a strong electronics background, i find your repair videos extremely interesting.
So word of mouth advertising is essential for a starting youtuber.
But i think the most important thing is passion! If you are doing it because you like it, then you appear more authentic. Nobody likes a fake. And if you do it because you WANT to do it, instead of trying to make a living at it, that comes across as well.
That GUS card is basically the GUS PNP card, the original GUS used the GF1 while the PNP used the Interwave. There are some compatibility issues with the PNP cards but still a cool card. I would use it in conjunction with a real Soundblaster in a dos gaming rig. :)
Edit:I have no experience with the clones of the PNP so...
I don't know if it would make a difference but the T6 at the end of the set blaster string has (or at least should) be set to T4 I think? Maybe 3? It's been too long to remember it off the top of my head lol...
Edit: Note to self, don't comment before watching the entire segment.
I suspect I am not alone in saying we generally watch this channel for you (and your skills of course). That is something that cannot be bought. The other tech channels you mentioned, I also watch mostly for the personalities involved.
I watch a lot of channels for the person and don't really care what the subject is this episode.
Adrian you are more than a better content creator…no weird intended…you are part of our life’s…thank you don’t stressed just keep it fun for yourself and don’t burn out your hobby because it’s feeling like a job…have a good new year
Oh, sound cards! I have a weakness for them! :) Thanks for the stuff.
Adrian, well done video. I worked in the computer repair industry from the late 70's till 2010 when I retired. I remember these boards well. It was great to see them again.
I try to watch everything you put out. Keep up the good work.
Thank you for doing what you do. My first foray in computers as a kid was my uncle giving me junk PCs from his work. I would Frankenstein together machines for my family and I. Eventually I sold PCs at Best Buy as i built better computers and work to what I do now. Your channel along with LGR and the other mentioned bring me back to my childhood and teenage years. The joy you bring helps me get through my work day. Thank you!
DAMN, you playing Space Debris took me back, LOL. I LOVED mods back in the day, lol.
I even had the one with upgradeable memory on it. The memory allowed for higher quality midi samples to be used on the card for music playback... and it did make quite a bit of difference in the quality of samples. It was plainly audible the quality increase. Oh and the gravis, and other non Creative Labs cards, all had dos drivers that set the io port and irq. Often they would not initialize the correct port numbers or irq's if that driver was not loaded. If they happened to coincide with what the card was last used it, it may have worked then..
That Micron PC all those years ago made me subscribe to your channel as I thought it was so cool seeing a new in box PC. Complete with noisy CPU fan haha. Also being a Subaru Guy myself I liked seeing some of those videos in the early days. Looking back it's hard to believe how much free room you had down in the basement!
To anyone mulling over what Adrian said about low view numbers and feeling like it's not worth it... creating any sort of art should be done because you enjoy doing it. Anything after that is just gravy. A quote from one of my favourite musicians, Josh Homme, comes to mind: "I make music because nobody else is making the music I make, and because of that I almost feel I have to make it because it didn't exist." He would be making music regardless of whether or not his band had grown popular. That's sort of the attitude I take -- I do things because nobody else has done them, so you almost *have* to do it. And so anything that comes as a benefit from that is awesome.
You got my eyes on your Because back in the day I found Clint from LGR, and some how that lead to me finding David from the 8 bit guy, who lead me to finding my countryman Robin from 8 bit show and tell, who pointed me over to your way... Sometime amongst that chain I found also Techmoan, Vwestlife and Technology Connections...
My RUclips feed is an eclectic mix of Retro tech, Miniature Painting, Retro Gaming, Gaming general, Magic the Gathering and Hockey. In addition to some Model train channels which I live vicariously through as I don't have space in my house to have any kind of model train layout at present.
Every time I watch you I am reminded that I need to get some Deoxit and put it in the volume pot on my stereo however I have to figure out where I can buy/order some
Hahaha LOL
OMG Salted Nut Rolls! They are a perfect mix of sweet/salty!
You're SOOOO lucky to get this box. It's full of pure gold. That DB50XG is almost a unicorn at this point.
Part of your success is your chill attitude! Multiple watches seems to rank highly on the algorithm right now, so the folks who put familiar videos on to fall asleep to can make a difference to recommendation numbers! Plus it just makes your content accessible for a lot of folks anyway!
I bought a genuine Gravis Ultrasound MAX back in 1994. Still have it and the box. Added DRAM to it to max it up to 1MB of sample RAM. Still works, and I have it in my retro PC.
That DB50XG is the wavetable daughter board version of the ISA stand-alone Yamaha SW60XG I own and grew up with. The MIDI that card produces is fantastic, especially for tracks written to support XG MIDI. My favorite instrument samples are Yamaha's piano and drums.
The advantage to the DB50XG over the SW60XG is that you don't need an ISA slot. Both can be used it in DOS all the way up through Win98 and with a PCI based Aureal Vortex2, you're not reliant on ISA. The original Final Fantasy VII PC port has stunning XG MIDI support that sounds as if it were written specifically for the DB50XG/SW60XG. Happy listening, I have always wanted to find a DB50XG for when the day comes that my retro PCs with ISA slots stop working.
It's very hard to say how things will work for a smaller channel and especially retro when it does not get the wider audience outside the 40-50 year olds. I made a series of videos when I bought an atari 800xl stored under a box of batteries and was a brown rusty mess. My reactions to opening the box in ep1 and when I finally get it to work in ep3 are genuine and make the video a lot more entertaining over anything else I have made. It was picked up by YT recommended and I went from a few hundred views to 25,000 and I doubled my subscribers from 1000 - 2000. The problem is I have no idea how to continue this success so the new subscribers and views slowed back to what I had before. It really does need a lucky break when it is seen by the correct people who share the video on the socials to get the wider audience. I am sure you have inspired so many of us to make the videos in the first place and we thank you.
Nice to see a Gravis Ultrasound PnP clone - I had no idea that they existed. The video also reminded me that I have a genuine GUS PnP card in my old Windows 98 PC - I'll have to see if it still works. I wasn't aware that prices were so high! The drivers and configuration on the GUS PnP were finicky, and I seem to recall that there were some unofficial firmware updates to help work around bugs on the interwave chip too?
Always loved Compaq with their odd penny pinching ways. Reps acted like they were top of line. Always funny.
I used to work with a tech that worked for one of Crappaq’s suppliers and he said there were some products where only every fifth unit was tested after final assembly…
I found you through the light bulb videos and stayed for the Commodore's.
I wish I still had my Ultrasound. Purple board if I recall and it had a daughterboard with some sort of proprietary CDR. A friend gave it to me and it was honestly the best midi player. and at the time mod files.
The lightbulb reviewa brought me to your channel, never looked back.
Never got to experience a Gravis Ultrasound. It was only ever a setting I saw on 90's PC game setups! Always had to check SoundBlaster 16.
16:58 The DB50XG is a AWM ROMpler card. So it's a bit like a Yamaha TG300 sort of engine on a card. It has filters, reverb and other FX. A very good wavetable board and uses the XG standard which is an extended General MIDI standard, a bit like Roland's GS standard used on the SoundCanvas modules. I had one rigged up to my Amiga back in the day by wiring its connector up to MIDI and writing my own XG Sound Editor.
It has no patch memory, so you basically stuck a SysEx message with any edited sounds into your MIDI file at the start to "program" it up for the upcoming music. Later on Yamaha released the SW1000XG and the DSP Factory cards which could be connected up. The SW1000XG being the synth and sample soundcard and the DSP factory being a digital mixer on a card.
Oh and for a great MIDI file to try with the DX50XG try finding Robert Miles Children, the XG MIDI file version. There was also a demo CD supplied with the board, the version of Japan - Quiet Life was amazing, especially how they'd done a very convincing version of the fretless bassline played by the late Mick Karn.
Here's a video someone did of it. ruclips.net/video/YJECDGFXmZ4/видео.html
You made Hackaday with the lightbulb teardown. That's when I first encountered your channel.
@25:25 Damn, that track is smooth.
It takes time to get there. I'm in the last mile to get that first 1000 now. Hang tight and you'll get there.
The soundescape is an absolute blast on FM, very comical
One of my first sound cards was the soundblaster 2. OMG the ensoniq card with all the leaky caps... I had a customer at my repair shop bring in his big ensoniq synth. We replaced about 30 of those leaky caps. The synth was never fully repaired and we ended up getting a replacement PCB. It was very expensive as I recall...
On VGA/CGA/EGA cards, I used to own an Oak card that had the same outputs, and had dip switches on the backplate to switch modes so it natively acted as the appropriate card for the monitor connected and mode selected.
Oh My God!
So much memories!
I love mod amiga music!
I love the candy because I'm from Pittsburgh but I know ALL that candy from references from Minnesota made Mystery Science Theater. I finally know what a salted nut roll looks like!
Those Nut Rolls are maybe my favorite candy.
I've seen almost all that candy my whole life in Wisconsin. Didn't realize it was all from Minnesota, though that makes sense.
FYI: Blumen Zauber =~ enchanted flowers. Whenever you might need coulinary german translation :-)
Flower Magic🌺
I recently found a PC in the street that had an Audigy 2 in it, the black one with gold connectors. I remember years ago wanting one very much.
Hi Adrian, the card that magically started working, i suggest it had invisible whiskers of tin at some of the pins and desoldering it removed them. they are only an atom or 2 thick and just grow over a very long time in certain situations.
Adrian: Great video! I really enjoyed you going over testing these cards, and the voice over recap of what was wrong on some of them. It's a great way to inform your audience.
Recapacitating (my word) old cards is one of the quickest ways to get them up and running; It's almost always a go-to troubleshooting for me. And the issues with, and fix by socketing those 7400s make sense: over time and with handling, questionable wave soldering joints will deteriorate after decades. Socketing them fixes that the easiest (and most time-consuming) way.
Shout out to Gabe for giving you such a treasure trove. But I'm confused (or missing something?): I don't see a link in your description to Gabe's RUclips page. There are all of these other links to what you use, affiliate links, etc., but nothing on Gabe. Did I miss something? I'd love to follow is page and I would watch all of his videos, simply because of the gift he made to you.
A Wednesday long mail call; Perfection!
Really miss this tech. Especially some of the awesome joysticks.
I use later PCI Yamaha XG soundcards with a YMF724/744 in my end 90´s/early 2k win98 builds, they have excelent Midi and FM, and they even work in real dos mode!
Super Mini Mailcall is the best when it is really long :D
Cleaning PCB edge connectors. Try using a pencil eraser. Its abrasive enough to remove oxidation without scratching the contacts. After rubbing the contacts with the eraser use a soft cloth to clean the contacts and then a final clean using DeoxIT. Your edge connectors will look like new!
I used to have the sound blaster 1.5, AWE32 with the Yamaha DB50XG, these go around quiet expensive these days, better treasure it. The DB50XG is a very powerful soundboard that create almost realistic instrumental sounds with loads of real time effects (got later on an MU90R and MU128). You played the mid files, try one of the xgmidi files and hear the difference. Also got a Gravis Ultrasound Max and then went back to Sound Blaster better products.
I loved the old DOS Module players. I think I still have a superdisk somewhere with a bunch of them on it. I have to find my superdisk drive though.
#16BitDanceParty? I'm down for more of those Adrian!
Another very entertaining video. It amazes me that you can make such great content in your spare time, while having a day job. May I ask what you do for a living?
When you said 8-Bit Guy the first time, I heard "Hey Big Guy". I'm a little slow some times.
When I first started on RUclips with my channel in early to mid 2016, there were basically zero requirements. I was able to monetize my channel. I earned a whole $3 over the course of a year before they changed the requirements to be 1000 users and 4000 public watch hours. Which is completely understandable. It's nice to have the dream of being a successful RUclipsr, but I can understand why RUclips has minimum standards just to avoid the accounting nightmare of a bazillion channels earning pennies (if that) per month.
Still, I started a newer channel and I'm still at the point where I consider 500 views a pretty good video! :) Given that I'm only up to 190-some subs it is nice when the video makes a larger audience that won't be notified automatically.
I have had every one of those sound cards and more! Any time there was a supposed "Upgrade" or better sound, I had to have one. I had the basic sb 8 bit, up to everyting but the last few gens of CT labs cards.
It's an XG daughter board-- and that is a good score! I have had one for... yeesh... I don't know how long. I played FFVII with it. Big XG fan here :) I hope that SB card doesn't have the hanging midi note bug. The DB50XG was the daughter board version of the SW60xg and I *think* the MU-50. Old sound cards are so interesting. ETA: ah, you get to all of that!
I had a DB50XG. It was a fantastic add on. I programmed so many MIDI files on that! I eventually got a Waveforce PCI when the DB50 died. The XG sound font and escape codes allow for so many sounds.
Nostalgia good old music, everything in my collection almost gone. But the GUS did give me lot of nice music.
Those nut roll's sound awesome !
My life is complete. I can die happy now.
YOUR SOUND CARD WORKS PERFECTLY!
Enjoying yourself?
IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS!
Redneck Rampage - Yeehaw panning left and right
Yamaha DBX50XG is a wavetable synthesizer daughter card, they connect to the Wave Blaster(wavetable) port. | The "Wave Blaster"(wavetable) port was used in alot of devices after that, numorous 3rd party wavetable boards have come out for the port over the years.
However the best by far imho, is the Dreamblaster X2. A modern Wavetable card that sounds better and works flawlessly. | A few channels have featured the Orpheus (SB OPL3 Reproduction sound card) with the Dreamblaster X2 for wavetable functionality. Outside of a dedicated General Midi, its the best you can get.
“..we’ll it’s working now”. I remember have a lot of those experiences with 90s hardware. First with the transition to PnP and the later with the lack of DOS compatibility.
when every PC was the Millenium Falcon
Your videos are so amazing! Please keep going and growing as much as you can!
17:50 I still have a Yamaha MU50 box. And I remember using on the PC when I played Doom. For me the MU50 is the sound of Doom. It was very good sound for it's day, and because it was an external box, it didn't have all the crappy noisy output that was common for the PC sound of the day.
HELLO! also from Minnesota, but not Minneapolis. quite a bit farther north
Your CT1350B is probably fine. Here's why you couldn't get it to work:
1) Sound Blaster 2.0 is a speed sensitive card. It needs a 386 or maybe a slow 486... You can probably get it to work on your Pentium if you disable both L1 and L2 in the BIOS.
2) The SB diagnostics for the SB16 is incompatible for the SB 2.0. It has its own configuration and diagnostics program.
Also, early on you reference a jumper to the left-most of the card. That's to enable or disable DMA sharing... That should be set to disable sharing.
If you're interested in a CMS upgrade for your CT1350B, let me know in a reply.
I have a 1350b since new, and I can confirm that it is best suited for XT 8088 and AT 80286 and 80386 machines (specifically win 3.1 era non-PCI bus systems). While I have tried it in a Pentium class system, I have found it intermittently work with the SB 2.0 Diagnosis Utility. Most times it would be undetectable on Pentium systems, however an SB 16 would be a more suitable card for anything beyond a 386/486 anyway.
I had the "Game Blaster" card back in the day, with the CMS chips. Should have kept that puppy! It did not sound "like a Nintendo", Adrian! Don't offend my Nostalgia like that! lol I think I paid $200 for that card back in the day : ) I would say it sounded more synth-like, and it had some tricks up its sleeve. Nuanced dynamics, as I recall, and some really cool unique sounds. Two games I remember sounding amazing on that card were Ultima VI, and Sierra's Conquests of the Longbow.
DB50XG is *THE* midi daughterboard for DOS games. I have one in the original box, manual, drivers, etc. Also a NEC clone. And a SW10000XG PCI, that's basically the successor. Unfortunately I don't have (yet) the DB60XG, only the SW20PC...
10:30 Yes, that's definitely a Soundblaster 2.0. The Soundblaster 1.5 is only missing SAA1099 chips, so if two chips are "missing" it's a 1.5, if three chips are "missing", it's a 2.0. (I'd love an 8-bit Sound Blaster myself)
Ah, good old Space Debris! Love that track.
The SB 1.5 also has a longer board, IIRC and uses the DIP package for the 8051 based DSP.
I'd love to see you do some more Christmas light videos. That's how I initially found your channel.
I have one of those STB interwave cards but haven't used it in 20 years. My recollection is it worked just fine with impulse tracker and demos. I don't think I gamed with it much; I was trying to use it as a windows sound card and the gus pnp drivers were crap so in the end I went back to my ultrasound max. Who knows if either still work, I probably last used a real GUS card back in 1999, before switching to an AudioPCI (by ensonic, before creative purchased them). But I did hang on to them so it's encouraging to hear that the interwave was still good. I should hunt it down and see if mine also works.
It looks like the motherboard power connector wasn't inserted fully on the left-hand side. That would be the one with the negative voltage rails, so it's possible the Sound Blaster needed those to be detected by the system.
Despite looking fine, I would suspect that there were some bad joints on those bus transceivers on the Ensoniq card. Louis Rossmann sometimes has issues that he can fix by just reflowing chips with hints of corrosion near them.
17:00 Oooohhhhh.... XG MIDI... I loved this tech, and there was a software emulator (much like WinGroov) for the old Windows 9x computers. The first PC versions of Final Fantasy VII shipped with this emulator because it was the closest music compatibility to the Playstation without going to compressed audio recordings.
EDIT: Okay, seriously I need to send you a file, because those MIDI files you played don't to the XG module justice.
I remember my old soundblaster vibra, My Yamaha opl ymf series, My als 120 or My awe 32!
Haha, that Ensoniq midi sounds like it's from a Leisure Suit Larry game.
+1 for SpaceDebris!
I've seen Pearson's Nut Roll but never had it. Bit o' Honey, otoh, I'm *very* familiar with as a common thing to see around Halloween back in Central/Northern New York.
just love it how people are just sending in these things to him that are worth a fortune now
“Bit-O-honey” are the best!!!!
Blumen-Zauber literally means "Magic Flowers". Appropriate for the shape.