What kind of MIDI device do you have?

[HondaSiR]

offtopic, but I don't think the GuS max had a memory expansion?

The GUS Max didn't have any expansion sockets for added memory IIRC. The card came with an onboard 512k. On the other hand, the earlier GUS had empty sockets that could accept a maximum of 1MB (it had 256k standard memory though). I would presume this makes the original GUS superior to the MAX in terms of memory needs...but this is only in my theory since I haven't owned any GUS cards in the past.

[Rhizome]

offtopic, but I don't think the GuS max had a memory expansion?

The GuS MAX has 512K memory which can be extended to 1MB.

[Alistair]

Currently, I have:

Modules/Synths:

Roland MT-32 (2)
Roland SC-55 mk-II
Edirol SC-8850
Yamaha MU-100R

Digital Hardware:

M-Audio FireWire Audiophile
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
SB Live! 5.1 Special Edition

Sold:

Roland SC-55

Hopefully I'm going to add to the list soon, and improve upon it (Yamaha MOTIF, Roland Fantom, Roland SD-90, Korg something, etc). Will be selling a MT-32 as well.

Regards,
- Alistair

[HondaSiR]

Dustin: Does the IBM Music Feature card have digital capabilities? As in an on-board DAC?

[Dustin]

Dustin: Does the IBM Music Feature card have digital capabilities? As in an on-board DAC?

Yes it does have digital capabilities. An on-board DAC is present. This thing can me made to sound pretty smooth sounds if programmed right.

[jbltecnicspro]

Could you post some samples of this?

[Cloudschatze]

Dustin: Does the IBM Music Feature card have digital capabilities? As in an on-board DAC?

Yes it does have digital capabilities. An on-board DAC is present. This thing can me made to sound pretty smooth sounds if programmed right.

Err... Are you guys talking the same thing here?

If the question was whether the IMFC can play digital samples, ala SoundBlaster, etc., the answer is "not by design".

[Dustin]

At the moment, that would be rather difficult. The card is currently installed in my 286 which is in storage. It was last used in 1996 in which I recorded a few of my favorite computer game tunes using our at the time new 486 as the means of recording. I'll look around for those old recordings, but can't make any promises. Since it uses FM synthesis, it sounds very close to a Yamaha DX-7.


I will hunt around for those recordings, as I actually did a good job recording them while getting maximum sound quality all those years ago.

[Dustin]

Dustin: Does the IBM Music Feature card have digital capabilities? As in an on-board DAC?

Yes it does have digital capabilities. An on-board DAC is present. This thing can me made to sound pretty smooth sounds if programmed right.

Err... Are you guys talking the same thing here?

If the question was whether the IMFC can play digital samples, ala SoundBlaster, etc., the answer is "not by design".

I may have mis-interpreted the question. It can't play digital samples like speech from a SoundBlaster, just synthesized FM sounds. Sorry if I got matters confused.

[HondaSiR]

Ahhh, ok...thanks for clearing that up guys. I didn't think the IMFC had a DAC in the first place. But it would be nice to have one though, just for nostalgia's sake.

[andrew603]

HMM...  Here goes:
[EDITED: 7/2/2010]
1 Roland XV-5080 (with following expansion boards: SR-JV-80: 01,08,09,10;  SRX: 01,06,09,10;  Also, 64MB of extra RAM)
1 Roland Fantom XR (with following expansion boards: SRX: 02,03,04,07,08;  Also 512MB of extra RAM)
3 Roland MT-32's (1 normal, 1 rackmount, 1 with LA Custom/RWI Mod)
1 Roland SC-55MKii
1 Roland SC-88
1 Roland SC-880 (Rackmount SC-88pro)
1 RolandED SC-8850
1 RolandED SC-8820
1 Roland D-110
2 Roland D-550 (RACKMOUNT D-50!  I LOVE THIS THING!)
1 Korg X5DR
1 Yamaha MU128
1 Yamaha PSR-530 (61key GM/XG Keyboard)
1 Casio CTK-601 (61key GM Keyboard)
Gonna include: complete version of FL Studio in here too, lots of cool softsynths there, heh.
(their SYTRUS synth claims to reproduce DX-7 sounds & even reads its sysex, but as I have never heard a real one, I dont know how it compares...)

[MusicallyInspired]

Wow that's quite a setup. Wish I had the money for that much stuff!

[glendower]

DB50XG
SW60XG (2) (bought one from a guy in germany, we had some communication errors, then I thought that I was going to get shafted after a month and a half, so I grabbed another one for a really good price... then the one from german showed up ).
SW1000XG (I have to admit that i bought this mostly out of a burning curiosity)
AWE32 & 64
MT-32
Edit to include my SCB-55

(Those SW60s would be nearly perfect for a retro system if they could also control external devices).

[Great Hierophant]

Creative
CT-1300 Game Blaster
CT-1330 Sound Blaster Pro 1.0 (V3.01 DSP)
CT-1750 Sound Blaster 16 MCD ASP (V4.05 DSP)
CT-2940 Sound Blaster 16 PnP (real Yamaha OPL3 chip)

Yamaha
FB-01

Roland
MPU-401 + MIF-IPC-A
MT-32 w/ROM 1.07
CM-32L
SC-55 GM/GS
SC-55ST

Gravis
Gravis Ultrasound Ace rev.0

Disney
Disney Sound Source

[Rhizome]

Time to update my list I suppose:

In use:
Audigy 2 ZS
Yamaha YMF724
Yamaha SoftSynth

In old system:
Gravis Ultrasound MAX
Ensoniq Soundscape Elite (with ESP attached)

In storage:
AWE32
A load of other soundblasters.

[5u3]

Hi everyone!

I'm new here, thought I'd (ab)use this poll for a introduction
Originally I built my oldschool computers (specs in signature) just for watching classic scene demos, but then I realised I also wanted to play my old games again, but this time with proper sound. After playing around with the AWE32 and GUS MIDI emulation, I decided that it was time to get the 'real thing'.

My MIDI devices:

Roland LAPC-I
Roland SCC-1A
Roland SCB-55
Creative WaveBlaster

Other soundcards:

SoundBlaster 2.0
SoundBlaster Pro 2.0
a bunch of SoundBlaster 16
a couple of SoundBlaster AWE32/SB32
some SoundBlaster AWE64 (Gold)

Gravis Ultrasound classic
Gravis Ultrasound ACE
Gravis Ultrasound PnP

Terratec EWS64 XXL

Nice forum you have here btw...

[Tom]

Welcome aboard!!

A genuine Creative WaveBlaster?!  Wow...how cool.  I've always wanted one of those, only so I could hear if they're really as bad as everyone says they are.    But seriously, are they much better than a AWE32/64?  Are they closer to Roland GM balances then the AWE series?

[5u3]

A genuine Creative WaveBlaster?!  Wow...how cool.  I've always wanted one of those, only so I could hear if they're really as bad as everyone says they are.    But seriously, are they much better than a AWE32/64?  Are they closer to Roland GM balances then the AWE series?

Let me tell the story of this one: It was my first wavetable board, I found it in some shady store that sold off inventory of bankrupt companies, it was in a quite bad condition and still attached to a SB16. The storekeeper obviously didn't know what it was and sold me the combo (labelled '8bit Soundcard' ) for almost nothing.
When I tried it for the first time, I thought it was either defective or I had forgotten to load the appropriate drivers - yes, it's that bad . It's a first generation WaveBlaster, featureing an 'E-MU rev.A' chip and it doesn't support chorus or reverb effects. I've read somewhere that there was a second generation based on the E-MU8k, which is supposed to sound similar to the AWE series.
Compared to the AWE the WaveBlaster I sounds worse. The balances are way off, the lack of C&R effects make it sound tinny and the sample quality is not very good to begin with. Also, it's really noisy, even when attached to good soundcards. When I've got time, I'll record some samples for comparison.

[Trixter]

Guess it's time I 'fessed up too:

Creative:
Creative Music System
Game Blaster
Sound Blaster 1.0
Sound Blaster 1.5 (with CMS chips)
Sound Blaster 2.0 (2.02 as reported by DSP)
Sound Blaster Pro (stereo OPL2)
Sound Blaster Pro v.2 (OPL3)
Sound Blaster 16 ASP (*with* the ASP chip)
Sound Blaster AWE32

Media Vision:
Thunderboard
Pro Audio Spectrum+
Pro Audio Studio 16
Pro 3D Spectrum

LPT DAC devices:
Disney Sound Source
Covox Speech Thing
Covox Sound Master II
M-Sound
That dongle you get inside of Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2 ;-)

Adlib:
Adlib
Adlib Gold (not sure if it has the chorus module, hope so!)

Gravis:
Every GUS variant ever made (including an Interwave prototype that never saw market).

Roland:
Roland LAPC-1
Roland SCC-1

Turtle Beach:
Multisound (no software though  )
Montego (a tropez (sound) and maui (wavetable) bundled together.  Wavetable is exceptional.)
Santa Cruz (best 16-bit card ever made imho)

Other:
Sound Galaxy Basic 16 (an SB clone notable for two things:  routing PC speaker sound through the card using only the bus, and emulating the Disney Sound Source)

And my personal favorite:

IBM Music Feature Card

Most of these have their original boxes, manuals, software.  Some of the boxes aren't in the best shape, but at least I have them.  I'm especially proud of having the tech reference for the IMF -- that card is the best FM synth I have (OPL4) and was capable of some truly nutty stuff (like, you could tune it +/- 128 semitones... it also had it's own 8253 timer chip onboard, that the host system could also tap if it needed additional timers).

I have much more, but they're mostly clones and not terribly interesting except what I've noted in the Other: column above.

So yes, eventually I will open up my sound card museum.  I just need to get one more hobby finished up; unfortunately it's my biggest hobby and make take 6 months or more to finish.

[Great Hierophant]

Guess it's time I 'fessed up too:

Creative:
Creative Music System
Game Blaster
Sound Blaster 1.0
Sound Blaster 1.5 (with CMS chips)

Are there any major board differences between the Creative Music System and Game Blaster cards and the Sound Blaster 1.0 and Sound Blaster 1.5? 

I'm especially proud of having the tech reference for the IMF -- that card is the best FM synth I have (OPL4)

A slight correction, the proper designation of the IMFC sound chip (YM-2164) is OPP, which is capable of four-operator FM-synthesis.