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What model Sound Card is the most compatible with DOS?

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barney

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I just put together a DOS machine. It is a 486 DX2 66, 2mb pci graphics, 64mb edo memory. I now need a sound card. Which brand and model number do you recommend? Thanks.

Barney
 
Try to find CT3900. It's the best Sound Blaster (AWE32). Non-PnP (stay away from PnP models), has real OPL3 and IDE interface. You should also get Gravis Ultrasound. Classic, Max and ACE will all do, just upgrade RAM to full megabyte.

I have AWE32 (CT2760), Gravis Ultrasound Max and Roland MPU-401/AT with internal SCD-15 and external MT-32 on my 486/100MHz. They all work very well together.
 
Sound blaster pro of Soundblaster 16 would be good. I generally use the SB32 with pentium machines because the games that tend to use that card need a little more processor then a 486. A PAS16 would be good if you wanted to be different and not use a soundblaster.

Gravis ultrasound would be great for high end 386 and slower 486, Ultrasound PnP is great in a Pentium.
 
My 486 has a Soundblaster 16 MCD ASP (CT1750) and it works like a charm (I have disabled the CD interfaces).

There are very few games that won't work with this card (if any).
 
If you just want one card, a plug it in and go sorta thing, the AWE32 is a good choice. Much better sound quality than an SB16, and it has passable MIDI capability. But I wouldn't say it's the best option.

Rather than try to talk out the pros and cons of the various different cards, I'll just refer you to the big sound card thread over at Vogons forums.

I'd say, for the best experience, you really need a combo... one card isn't going to do everything well. An SB Pro would be a good starting point since it's the most compatible, then add in another card or two to fill in the rest. If you go that route, you'll probably end up picking up a few cards and trying 'em out until you find something you like.
 
Ok, I will check ebay for a CT4900. I am a little weary about Sound Blasters though. I just bought a CT2740 off ebay last week and I could not get the thing to work at all.

Barney
 
The most compatible soundcard for DOS is the Sound Blaster Pro.

There are many games that support SB Pro but not SB16. SB16 can't do stereo sound when emulating SB Pro. For DOS, SB16 and AWE32 are a complete waste, because most of the sound samples are either 8-bit 22khz or 16-bit 11khz. AWE32 in theory would be nice for midi, but in DOS you can't load custom soundfont banks. The ROM bank on AWE32 sounds horrible.
 
So I guess my best bet would be to get a Sound Blaster Pro. Which model would be the best? Are there several versions of the SB Pro?

Barney
 
barney said:
I just bought a CT2740 off ebay last week and I could not get the thing to work at all.
Click to expand...
That's because many of the SB16's are pseudo PnP. This doesn't mean they're PnP, as they doesn't use the PnP standard so they need a special driver from Creative Labs in order to be set up properly.

Send me a PM if you are interested in the drivers.

One last note, the 40-pin header is not IDE/ATAPI, but it is another interface for CD-ROM drives from Panasonic. You need special Panasonic drives in order to use it, as standard IDE/ATAIP drives will not work.
 
There are two versions of SB Pro. The earlier one uses two OPL2 chips, and the later one uses a single OPL3. I think they're both good cards, but the later one is much easier to find.
 
If you want to use the CD- ROM Port on the card, you have to watch out what model you got. I`ve heard about IDE and I personally own a mitsumi card. Both of them have 40 pin connectors! ;)
 
I just recently obtained an old ISA sound card. It's a crystal sound card (I believe the chip says 4236 - something like that) with an awe add on card. How are these crystal cards in DOS? Are they able to function at full 16bit or do they have known issues? Thanks.

Barney
 
I had experience with some Crystal ISA card, and it was compatible with:
- Sound Blaster Pro - ie. 8-bit, stereo
- Windows Sound System - ie. 16-bit, stereo
So yes, you can get 16-bit sound in DOS games, but only if they support WSS.

Anyway, I would go for SB AWE32 or AWE64. Well-supported 16-bit sound, and well-supported wavetable.

If you're also interested in demos, add GUS as the second card.
 
Those PNP ones are a pain in the butt.
How are the CT3600's? I got one of those with some SIMMs installed on it.
Haven't used it yet tho.
 
I have a Sound Blaster AWE 64D, model CT4650-A1 , but I have never
succeeded in finding a driver for it on the net. Any help is highly
appreciated...

ziloo
 
Well, I just bought a Sound Card off eBay. It is a CT4390 AWE64 GOLD ISA Sound Card. Is anybody familiar with this model? Will it have 100% compatibility with all Dos software? Thanks.

Barney
 
barney said:
Well, I just bought a Sound Card off eBay. It is a CT4390 AWE64 GOLD ISA Sound Card. Is anybody familiar with this model? Will it have 100% compatibility with all Dos software?
Click to expand...
Well, no single card can have 100% compatibility with all DOS software.
But this one is probably the best you can get, it should work with almost all games, and many of them (games around the Doom1/Doom2 era) will even use the wavetable synthesizer.

All you have to do is to find drivers for this card. A few years ago on the Creative's site there was EVERYTHING, but then they totally screwed it up... I hope somebody mirrored all that stuff somewhere?
 
I managed to locate most of the stuff to make it function, but am still trying to track down all the rest of the original included software.

It is a PnP card, so you will need a PnP bios, or config.sys loaded ISA PnP configurator installed. Intel's generic one will work, or Creative had their own as well.

If you would like, you can PM me and I can send you what I have.
I think the AWE64 is about the best ISA sound card you can get, but probably overkill as well for 90% of what most people need an ISA sound card for ;)
 
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