#Which Soundboard?
5 messages in this thread
I use CD-Rom mainly for reference (encyc, magazine rack, etc) and listening
to music while 'puting. So far no need for a sound board. But a friend
who works for Sierra has turned me on to some gorgeous 16 color games (so
far non-CD) most of which are supposed to have incredible sound when used
with a board. For this purpose I could get by with a relatively cheap
ThunderBoard.
What will I NOT be able to do with this board as opposed to, say, the Pro
Audio Spectrum? Any advice to a novice would be appreciated.
Mark
Mark,
First of all, I do not consider the Thunderboard cheap, just inexpensive
🙂
The PAS is in some ways twice the card of the Thinder board. It has Two
YM3812 Synthesizers, Two 8-bit linear DACs which can digitize AND play back
at 44.1 kHz in stereo. The drawback here is that you need a 386 and a
special device driver to achive the Sound Blaster/ Thunderboard
compatibility that older games require. The card also has
programmable filtering which greatly reduces noise.
The PAS also uses a YM3802 Midi controller which is better than the sound
blaster's (I don't know what the Thunderboard uses). There is a device
driver which provides MPU-401 UART compatibility being developed by Doug
Cody [70324,65], Sr. Software Engineer at mediavision.
The PAS has an on board SCSI interface for CD-ROM, but I gather from your
message that this will not be necessary.
Doug can and will be happy to tell you more if you 'plex him.
-Rell
Rell,
Thanks for the info.
Would I not get sound from CD-Rom games without that SCSI interface? I
trust headphone jack on the drive itself is just for audio cd's, right?
Thanks again.
Mark
Mark,
CD Sound from CD-Games is played via MSCDEX calls (Even the windows MM
Extension eventually get to this level I think). MSCDEX will still talk to
your CD through it's current interface.
The headphone jack should be for just CD-Audio. Depending on the drive,
there may also be an auio line out which can be routed to the PAS card to
allow CD-Audio to be played via the headphone/ speaker jack on the pack of
the card.
-Rell
You won't be able to use the MME. You won't be able to record audio from
MIC, LINE-IN or CD sources.