It wasnt the best sound card because it wasnt seriously compatible with anything before it. No adlib, WSS, or COVOX, software SB compatibility was a joke and almost never worked. If you intended to play games this card was useless.
It wasnt even the best music card. That would be Roland MT-32 and later anything General MIDI.
I often wonder why no one came out with Ensoniq 5503 sound card in 1986-87. Its a 32 track digital sampler used in Apple 2GS and many standalone synths. Designed by Bob Yannes, creator of C64 SID. This chip is somewhat comparable to Capcom CPS-1 OKI6295 (minus ADPCM compression) and SNES SPC700 (minus BRR compression, modulation and echo). We could of had native tracker music on DOS platform since 1987 :(
You generally need more than one sound card for optimal retro gaming.
I currently have an:
- an Adlib clone
- a GUS PnP Pro with 8 MiB (in addition to onboard, does GUS Classic emu, looking for the 72-pin SIMM adapter/s to go to 16)
- a slew of SBs from 2.0, Pro, 16, 16 PnP, Vibra, AWE 32, AWE 64 Gold, Live!.. most are the OPL chip versions
- Yamaha waveblaster compatible daughterboard. I think I have a real waveblaster somewhere.
- Drive-bay mountable MT-32 emulator
- Parallel port clone sound card (I forget which chipset OTTOMH)
- USB to waveblaster adapter
- Parallel port to waveblaster adapter
I bought a Roland 505 which is essentially a superset of what the 32 can do plus it can lay down beats. Also, I'm thinking about getting a TR-08 as it's a better, modern 808 and not a meeeilion dollars.
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 19.3 ms ] threadIf you're picking one up now look for the ACE model. It's output only, and has much less interference than the regular models.
It wasnt even the best music card. That would be Roland MT-32 and later anything General MIDI.
I often wonder why no one came out with Ensoniq 5503 sound card in 1986-87. Its a 32 track digital sampler used in Apple 2GS and many standalone synths. Designed by Bob Yannes, creator of C64 SID. This chip is somewhat comparable to Capcom CPS-1 OKI6295 (minus ADPCM compression) and SNES SPC700 (minus BRR compression, modulation and echo). We could of had native tracker music on DOS platform since 1987 :(
I currently have an:
- an Adlib clone
- a GUS PnP Pro with 8 MiB (in addition to onboard, does GUS Classic emu, looking for the 72-pin SIMM adapter/s to go to 16)
- a slew of SBs from 2.0, Pro, 16, 16 PnP, Vibra, AWE 32, AWE 64 Gold, Live!.. most are the OPL chip versions
- Yamaha waveblaster compatible daughterboard. I think I have a real waveblaster somewhere.
- Drive-bay mountable MT-32 emulator
- Parallel port clone sound card (I forget which chipset OTTOMH)
- USB to waveblaster adapter
- Parallel port to waveblaster adapter
I bought a Roland 505 which is essentially a superset of what the 32 can do plus it can lay down beats. Also, I'm thinking about getting a TR-08 as it's a better, modern 808 and not a meeeilion dollars.