Category Archives: Sound

More on DXP44Q

Posted on October 26, 2016 by Michal Necasek

While pondering the DXP44Q mystery again, I realized that one of my sound cards most likely could be equipped with a DXP44Q. Here’s the card: It’s a pretty standard Sound Blaster clone. Note that the OPTi 924 chips is only … Continue reading →

Posted in PC hardware, Sound | 4 Comments

E-mu SoundEngine

Posted on September 5, 2016 by Michal Necasek

An interesting piece of hardware popped up at the OS/2 Museum not long ago. It’s an E-mu SoundEngine General MIDI sound module from 1993. This module has very close ties to the original Creative Wave Blaster upgrade module, even though that’s not … Continue reading →

Posted in Creative Labs, E-mu, MIDI, Sound, Wave Blaster | 13 Comments

What’s the Point…

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Michal Necasek

Somethings things just don’t make much sense. Like this, for example: What’s unusual about an ISA sound card with a wavetable daughterboard? Nothing. But experts will recognize that the host card is a Terratec Maestro 32/96, which already has a … Continue reading →

Posted in Sound | 2 Comments

Any Soundscape VIVO fans here?

Posted on May 12, 2016 by Michal Necasek

While digging into the implementation of Sound Blaster compatibility on PCI cards, I found an unexpected gem. Ensoniq’s U.S. Patent 5,790,837 includes partial source code for the Sound Blaster emulation driver used with the Ensoniq Soundscape VIVO boards, SSINIT.COM. The VIVO boards were … Continue reading →

Posted in Ensoniq, Sound, Sound Blaster, Source code | 6 Comments

Can a DB-50XG Talk?

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Michal Necasek

I seem to have embarked on another crazy research project. It was spurred by a broken Yamaha DB-50XG wavetable daughterboard. The DB-50XG was a bit dirty but not obviously damaged. It produces no output but gets warm exactly like a … Continue reading →

Posted in Sound, Wave Blaster, Yamaha | 1 Comment

The Vanishing Dream

Posted on September 11, 2015 by Michal Necasek

By sheer coincidence, three different yet similar wavetable daughterboards landed on my desk. They’re of different ages but all use Dream synthesizer chips. Together they provide an interesting window into the evolution of MIDI synthesizers. The oldest daughterboard is from … Continue reading →

Posted in MIDI, Sound | 2 Comments

OPL3 Copies

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Michal Necasek

A while ago, a reader commented that in certain circles, it’s well known that there were “fake” OPL3 chips. This does not appear to be widespread knowledge. After a bit of digging, an interesting chapter in the history of PC … Continue reading →

Posted in PC hardware, PC history, Sound, Yamaha | 14 Comments

44-Voice MIDI on Yamaha OPL4

Posted on June 10, 2015 by Michal Necasek

In 1994, sound cards with wavetable synthesizers were all the rage. Typically these supported 24-voice or at most 32-voice polyphony. So 44-voice synthesis sounded fancy. The following text can be found in a README file in the driver package for … Continue reading →

Posted in MIDI, Sound | 8 Comments

Do You Know This Sound Card?

Posted on May 22, 2015 by Michal Necasek

The guessing game is back, this time with a twist: I don’t know the correct answer. A generic-looking 1997 vintage sound card recently showed up: This is what I call a high-end low-end card… it’s a standard low-end sound card, … Continue reading →

Posted in PC hardware, Sound | 13 Comments

Sound Blaster DIAGNOSE and Disabled MPU-401

Posted on April 21, 2015 by Michal Necasek

Today I finally solved a nagging problem that always seemed like it had to have some sort of reasonable solution. Creative’s DIAGNOSE.EXE utility is quite useful when working with any Sound Blaster 16 derivatives (Sound Blaster 16, AWE32, Sound Blaster … Continue reading →

Posted in Creative Labs, Sound, Sound Blaster, Undocumented | 3 Comments