Sound Boards: Purchase Recommendations

Which board should you buy? It depends upon your needs. Different people have different wants in a sound board, and I've tried to lay out some common scenarios below. Note that some boards appear in more than one category. Also keep in mind that I've personal experience with a SoundBlaster 8-bit, a Reveal SC500 rev. 1, and a miroCONNECT 34 wave, so I'm most confident about placement of these boards.

Cheap sound

 * Crystal Semiconductor-based
 * OS/2 support for these chipsets has been getting better and better, and many "generic" boards based on these chipsets can be had at computer shows or by mail for $50 or so. Unfortunately, because these bargain boards are often generic, I can't offer specific contact information at this time.


 * ESS-based
 * similar comments apply to these products as to the CS-based boards, including the fact that the best bargains are to be had on generic boards for which I have no specific contact information. ESS boards have a weaker reputation for the quality of the sound they produce, though, so if sound quality is important to you, I'd favor a Crystal Semiconductor product.


 * Yamaha OPL-3SA-based
 * These are starting to become common in some hardware, particularly laptops, it seems. I've now seen enough reports of good luck with them that I feel comfortable recommending them.

Upgrading from 16-bit FM synthesis to wavetable

 * Assorted manufacturers
 * Including Yamaha, Creative Labs, Aztech, Turtle Beach, and others, make wavetable "daughtercards" to upgrade many 16-bit FM synthesis boards to wavetable. Check your existing card's manual to see if it supports this. The latest SoundBlaster drivers include an option ("/EXT" appended to the driver's CONFIG.SYS line) to reliably force use of the daughtercard. I can make no guarantees about support from other cards.


 * MPU-401 standalone cards
 * Are an option, but be aware that there may be conflicts between an existing sound card's FM synthesis MIDI drivers and IBM's MPU-401 drivers.

Solid 16-bit .WAV and FM synthesis
Creative Labs SoundBlaster series except for the AWE64 -- various boards of different design ages and with different CD-ROM options exist. All have good OS/2 support, and should provide superior DOS games compatibility. Whether drivers for Creative products will continue to improve is another matter, though. They're already well behind the competition in terms of features such as full-duplex support. Sound quality is reputed to be variable, with older models being so-so and newer models pretty good. Crystal Semiconductor-based -- OS/2 support for these chipsets has been getting better and better, and many "generic" boards based on these chipsets can be had at computer shows or by mail for $50 or so. Unfortunately, because these bargain boards are often generic, I can't offer specific contact information at this time. ESS-based -- similar comments apply to these products as to the CS-based boards, including the fact that the best bargains are to be had on generic boards for which I have no specific contact information. Note that the Crystal boards, on average, will probably produce slightly better sound than the ESS boards.

Solid OS/2 wavetable support
Creative Labs SoundBlaster AWE or 32 series -- there are net reports of problems, but others of success, so I suspect there may be some configuration tricks or pitfalls. Otherwise, should work fine and provide superior compatibility when running DOS games. Three caveats: MIDI tempo is reportedly a bit off on at least some files with the latest drivers for these boards; the PnP boards may give problems with some motherboards or with OS/2 2.1; and whether driver updates will continue to be available is still not 100% certain. Advanced Gravis UltraSound Series or InterWave-based board -- With the latest (1.20, beta-level as of 10/19/96) Manley drivers, these boards should perform adequately for OS/2 use with OS/2 and Windows programs, and for DOS programs which are GUS- aware. You'll have to pay the registration fee for the Manley drivers, though, effectively raising the cost of the board. Be sure you have at least 1MB of RAM on any GUS board you get, and preferably 2MB or more. Note that the GUS line itself has recently been discontinued, and so may not be widely available. The Core Dynamics DynaSonix 3D was still available the last I checked, however, and may be a good alternative. I can't guarantee that it will work with OS/2 and the Manley drivers, but in theory it should. Crystal Semiconductor boards with wavetable capabilities -- Those Crystal-based boards that have wavetable hardware should work pretty well, provided you get IBM's MPU-401 driver and do not install the OPL-3 (FM synthesis) driver that comes with the current CS drivers. Logitech SoundMan Wave -- shareware OS/2 drivers exist, and are reportedly reasonably robust. The latest MPU-401 driver reportedly does work with the board, though I've no details on how to best set it up. SoundBlaster 16 with wavetable option and separate wavetable daughter card -- although this entails two purchases, it should provide reliable wavetable sound from OS/2 if you use the latest drivers from Creative Labs and the "/EXT" CONFIG.SYS driver option to force use of the daughter card. This should work fine with any brand of daughter card, but be cautious in trying different "base" cards, as they might require different drivers that might not support daughter cards as well, if at all. Also, note the cautions about Creative Labs having dropped OS/2 support; the current OS/2 drivers work (most of the time), but support is not guaranteed for the future. MPU-401 boards -- These are worth considering mainly if you've got a .WAV-file-only sound card or if you know you can avoid driver conflicts between the MPU-401 driver and whatever your current sound board uses for MIDI.

Solid Win-OS/2 support
Any Creative Labs product except for the AWE64 -- some will require that you download new Windows drivers from ftp.creaf.com, but all can be made to work adequately, at least for most people (there are a few holdout reports of problems, but given the installed base, this may be understandable). Again, there's also the caveat about the uncertainty of future Creative Labs support for OS/2, so future compatibility is not guaranteed. Crystal Semiconductor-based boards -- I've seen a number of reports that these can work pretty well under Win-OS/2, including an ability to run Windows programs without locking out OS/2 sound, except when the Windows program is actually playing a sound. Other boards -- this isn't exactly my area of greatest interest or expertise, so I'm probably overlooking boards that work well under Win-OS/2 but not-so-well for native OS/2 support.

Simultaneous OS/2 and Win-OS/2 use
MediaVision ProAudio series -- if you can find one, these offer two sound boards in one, and can in theory be used from both OS/2 and Windows programs simultaneously, though I've seen a lot of problems posted about such setups. FM synthesis only. Mwave boards -- These wavetable boards offer the best solution to simultaneous OS/2 and Windows program use, and often include modem features, too. They can run out of DSP resources, though, if you try to do lots with them (like play a MIDI file and use the modem simultaneously, at least at high modem speeds and MIDI quality). They may be hard to find, but a search for a used or closeout model may be worthwhile if this functionality is important to you. OPTi 928/929 -- The 2.0 or above drivers put these boards barely within this category, as they allow OS/2 sound when running Windows programs, so long as the Windows programs aren't actually playing a sound when the OS/2 sound request goes in. Note that these boards don't work with VTD, though. Crystal Semiconductor-based boards -- Recent drivers reportedly allow Windows programs to run without shutting out OS/2 sound entirely, though it's not possible to actually play sounds from both systems simultaneously. This puts them in the same category as OPTi boards in this respect.

Superior wavetable sound quality
Check on the various soundcards newsgroups for recommendations; I don't have enough experience with these boards to make a judgment about where each falls, though the miroCONNECT is worse than the Reveal SC500 when using the medium samples but a bit better when using the large samples. Chances are that a Roland or other high-end dedicated MPU-401 board will provide the best quality, in conjunction with the MPU-401 driver from IBM, if you can get that driver to work. Turtle Beach products are also reputed to get good sound, as is the Mediatrix board. IBM's MPU-401 driver is reported to work with at least some of these, but may require booting DOS first to initialize the board. Some wavetable daughter cards from Yamaha, Turtle Beach, and others also have good reputations in this respect, so a SoundBlaster + daughter card combination may be worth considering here.

Multifunction support (sound/modem/fax/voicemail)
Creative Labs PhoneBlaster -- this is the only FM synthesis board with modem functions which I know has OS/2 drivers. Be aware that the voicemail functions aren't guaranteed to work under OS/2, though, and Creative has dropped OS/2 support, so future compatibility is not guaranteed. Separate boards -- Because the Mwave boards use a multifunction processor, that processor can be overwhelmed if you try to do too much with it, so if you want to use lots of functions at once, separate fax/modem/voicemail and sound boards may offer a better solution. Be aware, too, that an integrated board will save you a slot if you'd otherwise use an internal modem, but will not save you IRQs, etc.; the miro board, for instance, takes four IRQs for full functionality.

Users interested in using their computer as an answering machine may also want to check out the web page at http://www.he.net/~jubjub/, which has information on OS/2 voicemail programs.

Microchannel (MCA) boards
Reply board -- I know virtually nothing about this, other than that it's based upon the Vibra-16 chip. I gather this is an FM synthesis board, and it should work with OS/2's SoundBlaster drivers, or better with the Vibra-16 drivers available from ftp.creaf.com. I would assume that Creative Labs' dropping support for OS/2 might eventually impact this board. ChipChat 16 and 32 -- These are FM synthesis and wavetable SoundBlaster clones for MCA. I know little about them except that they exist, though ChipChat claims full OS/2 functionality with their drivers. IBM Windsurfer for MCA -- IBM made both ISA and MCA versions of its (discontinued) Windsurfer Mwave board. If you can find a used or closeout Windsurfer, this may be a good choice if you also want modem features; but as this is based on the older 1000-series Mwave DSP, it will run out of resources quickly, and has weak SoundBlaster emulation for DOS programs.

Also-rans
Aztech boards -- these have a history of flakey OS/2 drivers and poor DOS games compatibility. Some people have reported their Aztech boards working reliably under OS/2, but the overall history doesn't inspire confidence. I've seen more reports of success recently than a few months ago, though, so things may be improving here -- except that my one Aztech WaveRider 32+ report with the MPU-401 drivers is a "no-go." Also, these boards don't support DART at the moment, and so they won't work with VTD in Warp 4.0. Mediatrix Audiotrix Pro -- Mediatrix reportedly has OS/2 drivers, but MPU-401 drivers aren't yet integrated, though they reportedly can be made to work, if a bit spottily. If you don't reboot OS/2 often, then, this might be worth considering, particularly if you prefer the Mediatrix's wavetable samples to other boards; but the probable tedium of getting it working correctly just barely pushes it down to "also-ran" from fully-recommended. Orchid SoundWave -- Orchid has recently released drivers that enable the board's SoundBlaster mode under OS/2, which provides for some support. The board reportedly works with the MPU-401 drivers from IBM, but the spotty nature of the support from Orchid keeps this one, like the Mediatrix, just barely in the "also-ran" category. Oak Mozart OTI 601 boards -- There are now beta drivers available, but they apparently don't support wavetable sound and still have a few bugs. Most Turtle Beach boards -- although the Tropez and Monte Carlo have been made to work, at least partially, with the opti928.zip drivers, other TB products have no OS/2 support at present, and should be avoided. The Maui does work with the MPU-401 driver from IBM, and it's conceivable that others would, too, so these boards may deserve a better placement; I'm being a bit conservative on this one.

Avoid if at all possible
Ensoniq SoundScape -- currently OS/2 .WAV drivers exist, but major problems have been reported with DOS/Windows compatibility, and these boards apprently don't work with VTD in Warp 4.0, so I'd recommend avoiding this board, as well as the similar (but discontinued) Reveal SC600 ("SoundFX Wave 32"). The lack of Ensoniq's OS/2 support after previous promises of support keep this one in the lowest position. MediaVision Jazz 16 -- I've seen too many reports of problems with these boards to be able to recommend them, though OS/2 comes with drivers for the board. This is especially true since MediaVision seems to be washing its hands of OS/2 support. MediaVision Pro 3D -- similar comments to the MediaVision Jazz 16, plus no support under OS/2 for the board's wavetable features. Any Reveal product. Reveal has now gone under, apparently for good. Most of their products were based around Aztech or OPTi chipsets, which don't work with OS/2's VTD. You might see a Reveal product advertized used or in a clearance bin, but they should be pretty rare these days. The Creative Labs AWE64 board. Whatever its other merits, it has no OS/2 support and apparently doesn't work with drivers for other Creative Labs boards. Generic "SoundBlaster-compatible" boards -- unless you've identified the board as something with native OS/2 support (such as a direct clone of one of the above boards), these may or may not work with OS/2, and so represent a poor bet.