Re: Sound Blaster: From best to worst

Posted on 2023-05-09, 22:57

by

by Cloudschatze

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

OK, first results are in!! :D Thank-you for gathering and sharing that information. That's a considerable effort! The difference doesn't seem to be as great as I was thinking, so while I don't think I'll be modifying any of my own cards, it's certainly still an enhancement/fix worthy of …

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Re: Sound Blaster: From best to worst

Posted on 2023-05-05, 22:41

by

by Cloudschatze

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Eep386 wrote on 2023-05-05, 17:45: Request: Add column for Floating Op-Amps too. This isn't meant to sound critical, but were you (or anyone else) able to get any pre/post-mod measurements to help better-define this issue and its implications, as applies to the affected SB cards?

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Re: Aphex' Aural Exciter - Uh-oh, it's Magic

Posted on 2023-05-03, 18:25

by

by Cloudschatze

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The circuit designer, Frank Durda IV, has said that the 5.3kHz filter value was chosen solely for the purpose of computer-noise suppression. With the first DAC-bearing Tandy systems having been released in 1988, the effect this would have on higher playback rates likely wasn't even a consideration. …

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Re: Aphex' Aural Exciter - Uh-oh, it's Magic

Posted on 2023-05-03, 16:08

by

by Cloudschatze

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Thank-you for the feedback, Tiido! I know exactly what you're referring to with the artifact behaviors. Some of that can yet be tweaked; I mostly just focused on trying to match the sound of the original (CD) recordings with a single, generally-applicable effect configuration. With the entire …

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Aphex' Aural Exciter - Uh-oh, it's Magic

Posted on 2023-05-03, 03:45

by

by Cloudschatze

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I'm always looking for the most incredibly inefficient ways to spend my time here on Earth, and recently went about trying to enhance the digital audio output of the PSSJ, or "Tandy DAC." https://www.symphoniae.com/misc/vogons/rlxpssj_s.jpg (For reference, the Tandy DAC is an 8-bit, DMA-capable …

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Re: Sound Blaster AWE32 + Roland SCC-1- How do I use them together?

Posted on 2023-05-02, 22:11

by

by Cloudschatze

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Also, are you planning to run some flavor of Windows on your Pentium 200 system? If so, and perhaps to better understand what you already have with the AWE32, I would suggest running your GS/GM-supporting DOS titles from Windows (where possible), with MPU-401 emulation enabled, and with the 4GMGSMT. …

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Re: Sound Blaster AWE32 + Roland SCC-1- How do I use them together?

Posted on 2023-05-02, 21:08

by

by Cloudschatze

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So the midi section of the awe32 is totally useless? wavetable or internal ram or external using joystick? Hardly. I've personally only experienced the slowdown problems with the two titles mentioned. To clarify the second question, it's the hardware "MPU-401" interfacing that is affected, either …

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Re: Sound Blaster AWE32 + Roland SCC-1- How do I use them together?

Posted on 2023-05-02, 20:32

by

by Cloudschatze

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

[...] What exactly act a slodown? only in duke3D? Not just Duke3D, any game that plays 16b digital audio over a MIDI soundtrack. Tie Fighter is the most notorious example, but basically you can take everything on this list: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=54670 (and it's by no means …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-04-24, 20:22

by

by Cloudschatze

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-04-24, 19:27: Most of us are still rocking the 8086 anyways. Windows 3.0 and GeoWorks 1.2 are decent options on those systems. I run both on the 8086-based Tandy 1000 RL, in any event:

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-04-24, 17:43

by

by Cloudschatze

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

NewDeal Office 3.2a (or "GeoWorks 3.2a"), with some additional aesthetic tweaking to make it better-resemble a Windows 95 desktop environment. Is there any reason to run version 3.2a vs 2000? The PC/GEOS 4.x kernel found in NewDeal Office 2000 and later contains 386 instructions. NewDeal Office 3. …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-04-24, 15:13

by

by Cloudschatze

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

https://www.symphoniae.com/misc/vogons/bbund_s.jpg What is this GUI? I vaguely remember using something similar (Win9x look) on my 286 back in the 90s... I recently searched for it and found some similar GUIs but I think yours closest to what I've used back then... NewDeal Office 3.2a (or "GeoWorks …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-04-24, 02:14

by

by Cloudschatze

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's one of Stanley "Artgerm" Lau's Pepper-themed pieces (NSFW link), converted to 800x600, 1-bit black+transparency.

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-04-24, 00:07

by

by Cloudschatze

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

https://www.symphoniae.com/misc/vogons/bbund_s.jpg Recently patched a number of Brøderbund MPU and Ad Lib routines for RS-232 MIDI and OPL3LPT usage, respectively. Brøderbund heavily supported the Tandy DAC as well, making the 286/10Mhz-based Tandy 1000 RLX an excellent system for these titles. …

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Re: Creative/Tandy Multimedia Audio Adapter, 849-3030

Posted on 2023-04-23, 23:58

by

by Cloudschatze

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thank-you for the insights, mkarcher. I haven't done much of any disassembly of the relevant Win 3.0 drivers, but agree that there are likely answers to be gained there. The "SB16" and "SBP16" (or, "Sound Blaster Pro 16") references found in the drivers and software are interesting, and suggest that …

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Re: "Noisy" Sound Blaster 16

Posted on 2023-04-23, 03:54

by

by Cloudschatze

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

aitotat wrote on 2023-04-22, 10:38: I think the CT1680 is the only Creative SB Pro with ground plane. But wait, there's another! 😉

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Re: "Noisy" Sound Blaster 16

Posted on 2023-04-19, 17:25

by

by Cloudschatze

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I am under the impression that most people when they talk about noisy cards they don't usually mean the lab measurement of noise, but rather how susceptible the card is to pick up interferences/computer "thinking" noises. It would be nice to know if that's actually an issue or not, or if it's just …

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Re: "Noisy" Sound Blaster 16

Posted on 2023-04-19, 17:02

by

by Cloudschatze

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I tested the output of several SB16 cards with RightMark Audio Analyzer a few years ago, where the internal amplifier of each card was disabled (or the dedicated line output jack was used otherwise), and leveraging a set of optimized mixer settings. The measured noise levels are considered "good," …

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Re: Lion King does not play stereo on SB16

Posted on 2023-04-17, 19:45

by

by Cloudschatze

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Something seems inherently broken with the music support in the retail release of The Lion King. I don't know that it will produce stereo sound with any capable/supported soundcard, let alone the SB16. There are several ways to force SB16 usage though, since the relevant SDI routine is both included …

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Re: Help remembering a PC game.

Posted on 2023-04-16, 00:04

by

by Cloudschatze

in Milliways

in Milliways

Sounds like Shannara. https://youtu.be/gSMSDxHcp6Y

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Re: MUNT Reverb configuration

Posted on 2023-04-05, 05:40

by

by Cloudschatze

in MT-32 General

in MT-32 General

I just created it in response to Sergey's post, after having queried an MT-32 unit for the reverb settings that correspond to each of the front-panel settings.

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