First of all, wanted to wish everyone a Merry Chrismas and Happy Holidays!
I finally got around to installing my AWE 64 Gold card (CT-4390) to try it out on my classic gaming rig, which I had bought a few years ago with the original box and all included accessories on ebay. Since I had read that the AWE 64 Gold uses DSP 4.16 which had been recommended as one the versions that does not exhibit the "hanging notes" bug, I thought I would see how it compares with my SB Pro II/16-compatible Aztech Sound Galaxy card for playing classic DOS games from 1993-1997, as well as listening to MIDI. Results:
1. Unexpectedly, the AWE 64 Gold seems to add some extra "noise" or artifacts to the digital effects for my classic DOS games, which were not present when using the Aztech SG card. The sfx in the games are still playable but are not as good as on the Aztech SG. Is this normal, since I know the AWE 64 Gold does not use a true OPL3?
2. On the MIDI side: the AWE 64 sounds very good! On some MIDI files, it played nearly as good as an SC-55 equivalent; on others, an SC-55 is far superior. On certain select MIDI files, it even sounded a little warmer/stronger than an SC-55 (perhaps because it uses 32 voices as opposed to 24 on the SC-55 mkI?). Overall there seemed to be a wide range of variation sound quality-wise when compared to an SC-55, although as noted the SC-55 almost always still came out on top. Also interesting was that the Electric Piano patches sounded stronger and brighter on the AWE 64 Gold than using an SC-55.
