Help! Crystal replacement on PAS16 card.

[Cloudschatze]

I have one of the last Pro AudioSpectrum cards produced (which also happen to be the only WaveBlaster-compatible PAS'), and I'd like to mount a MIDI daughtercard onto it. MediaVision, for some reason, decided to stick a big crystal in the way (pictured below the card), which effectively makes this impossible.

I've removed (err... broken) the crystal from the card, but now need to replace it, leading to my questions...

Printed on the crystal is the following information:

RALTRON
12.000 MHz
20PF
93G10

Does the 20PF mean anything? If I were to replace this with a low-profile crystal, would I need to look for anything besides simply a 12.000MHz model?

When mounting, is there a plus/minus side, or does it matter?

[Cloudschatze]

Nevermind guys - I found the answers.

[Laust]

Couldn't you just have desoldered it (the right way ), and put it on its side, extending the legs with a bit of wire if necessary?

Nice card, BTW. The PAS-16 was my first sound card. Good quality sound and great SB compatibility.

[Cloudschatze]

Having it break off wasn't an intended result; I think it may have been bad/weakened to begin with. Replacing it with a low-profile crystal should be a pretty clean fix though, assuming I can purchase just one or two. Often times, manufacturers, who normally perform bulk sales, will ship out "product samples". In my experience, it's a nice way to get components.


I've had a Pro AudioStudio card in my "MIDI" PC for a couple years now, and I absolutely agree with you - the sound quality is very, very nice, and configuration is an absolute breeze. I'm only now replacing the SBPRO in my gaming PC with one.

It's good to hear that others are familiar with, and have used, MediaVision cards. I was beginning to wonder.

[Cloudschatze]

I soldered on the new crystal last night, and the daughterboard fit just fine afterward.

I have mixed opinions regarding the finished product though. As if the obstructing crystal was not a big enough indication, it becomes very apparent that MediaVision cancelled their DB-use intentions when you find yourself changing the MIDI volume with the "PC Speaker" mixer slider. I even tried the Pro3D mixer, which retains backwards-compatibility, but still omits any wavetable mention when used with a PAS16. Weird, but it works.

My biggest issue is with the mixer chip, an upgraded MVA-508B. The original PAS16 508 mixer maintains AdLib and SoundBlaster volume-level compatibility, whereas this new chip requires additional tweaking. I've noticed that this B-revision chip was not used in production very long...

I've read through numerous USENET posts regarding the Pro AudioStudio16XL card, and how it remained unreleased due to hanging MIDI notes. Speculatively, this was because of a limitation with the PAS' MVD101 chip, however, my SB16 has this problem, and I think the resolution came with changes made to the daughterboards, rather than the host cards - the point of this being that I've not experienced any MIDI dropouts using the PAS/DB combination, thankfully.

(Interestingly, I have a version of the Pro AudioStudio with two sets of 20-pin headers, which I believe would have been used for the Korg DB, perhaps making this one of the 16XL cards.)

In the end though, what a rare combination, and a perfect fit with my gaming PC. A MIDI DB on a PAS16... that's almost unheard of.

[Cloudschatze]

Here is a picture of the fix, for anyone who might have wondered.

Can YOU find Waldo?[/i]

[Laust]

Why would the Korg daughercard need two connectors? what's supposed to be passed through the second one? I know someone who has the card (or one card anyway). Maybe I should mail him...

I'm more inclined to think it's an "Apple SCSI" (eg. only one ground) connector, especially given the yellow resistor pack.

[Cloudschatze]

I'm not sure what the second connector on that card was intended for.




This is the card that I think may have been designed as the Pro AudioStudio 16XL, for use with a proprietary-interface Korg daughtercard. The combination never materialized however, due to the hanging MIDI note issue encountered during testing.

Notice the two 20-pin headers. My theory is that originally, MediaVision designed their own header interface, as the Waveblaster was a Creative Labs design. I suppose that later, they opted to simply use the WB standard (or maybe Korg forced the issue), which allowed them to sell the daughtercards separately.

I traced the top header out, and most of the pins actually go to the FM chip...

[Cloudschatze]

Moderators, this thread can probably go as well.

[Laust]

Why? nice pics of the PAS sound cards

[Cloudschatze]

Twins!

[kreatorb]

I was just ransacking my sound card box and I found a PAS very like the one in the second last picture.. it has the same FCC ID "IXW-PAR".  

But instead of pins on the two extra connectors it just has solder pads.

Anyway.. I was having a bit of trouble ID'ing it.. is it def. a pro audio studio?

EDIT: ah... google says yes:  http://www.dearhoney.idv.tw/Museum/MediaVision_ProAudioSpectrum16Studio.jpg

so just to verify, this card is your recommendation for the best card to use for most DOS games?

EDIT again: after checking out http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=11124 -  is this your current setup (I'm guessing you are using the non-studio PAS because of the waveblaster header)?  Did you decide to use the mixer again after this?

[Cloudschatze]

so just to verify, this card is your recommendation for the best card to use for most DOS games?

It's what I use, but individual results may vary.

EDIT again: after checking out http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=11124 -  is this your current setup (I'm guessing you are using the non-studio PAS because of the waveblaster header)?  Did you decide to use the mixer again after this?

I'm still using the same setup as described at Vogons. The LAPC-I output is routed into a mixer, which feeds a pair of Roland monitors, and everything else is routed into the PAS, which feeds a pair of Bose speakers.

It's kind of a bizarre setup, but not without purpose - I'll have to take a detailed photo sometime.