[2J[1m[37;41mĿ[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                            SOUND CARD REVIEW II                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mI.  Contents                                                                 [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m    A. Disclaimer                                                            [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m    B. QuickIntro                                                            [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m    C. SoundBlaster-16                                                       [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m    D. Pro Audio Spectrum-16                                                 [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m    E. Gravis UltraSound                                                     [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m    F. Acknowledgements                                                      [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mAuthor's Disclaimer                                                          [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m-------------------                                                          [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mMaybe I'm all wrong about this.  Maybe there will be a new version           [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mof the emulating driver that will fix all problems.  Maybe I didn't have     [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mthe card itself all the way in the bus slot. Maybe if you bought a GUS       [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mand a SB you'd be in sound heaven. Who knows....?                            [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mQuickIntro                                                                   [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m----------                                                                   [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mThis article will basically review 3 sound cards based on performance,       [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mbased on the opinions of the original author (Tony DiNitto), a small portion [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mof the article was changed for clarifications and the differences of formats.[1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mSoundBlaster-16                                                              [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m---------------                                                              [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mTo start off I'd like to talk a little about the Sound Blaster               [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m16.  The Sound Blaster 16 is a great card and I found its installation       [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41ma snap, merely running a little program and putting in the card itself.      [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mIt's sound performed nicely in most areas I was interested in and it         [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mwas also compitable with the regular Sound Blaster in case older games       [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mdidn't support the SB16.  Unforunately the mixer, which was a program        [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mthat controls the volume and various other things, was not the easiest       [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mto understand and also if you ever wanted to use it you had to have an       [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mestimated 20k of DOS drivers in your memory to get it to run. Therefore,     [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mif you were in a game and had headphones without a volume control there      [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mwas no way to control the sound at all unless you exited out of the game     [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mand went through the mixer program and you had to hope that you loaded the   [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mdrivers otherwise it didn't work. The SB16 will probably be around for       [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mquite a long time, since most games comes out supporting it or it's little   [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mbrother, the original SB.  The SB16 uses the FM technology, which is widely  [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mused in other popular sound cards.  Creative Labs, the makers of Sound       [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mBlaster, also provided an internal CD-ROM interface, which I consider        [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41ma good deal.                                                                 [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mPro Audio Spectrum-16                                                        [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m---------------------                                                        [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mWith the PAS16, installation was quicker incredibly fast and easy. It's      [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mgreat emulation of the SoundBlaster is excellent and had little or no        [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mdifference can be heard, it could also emulate the Adlib and the             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mThunderBoard sound card.                                                     [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mWith this card there were no drivers that ever needed to be installed to     [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mdo something.  I believe it had a mixer but I never tested it considering    [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mthat it had the capability of turning the volume up and down by hitting      [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mCTRL-ALT-D, U, or M <Down, Up, and Mute>.  Those controls worked in most     [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mgames except say DOOM and maybe a couple others that used the Ctrl and Alt   [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mkey.  I would say, this is much better than SB16 considering the fact that   [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mit has yet a better volume control without taking much of your memory.       [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mI suggest you take this card over Creative Labs's SB16, and you can save     [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41maround $10 if you buy it other than SB16.  This card also uses FM.           [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mGravis UltraSound                                                            [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m-----------------                                                            [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mAh, here we are the true sound card to talk about.  Everyone I've            [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mmet has a different opinion with this sound card.  This sound card,          [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41munlike the others, uses wavetable synthesis.  What that means is, instead    [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mof using fake instruments such as FM, this one uses true and realistic       [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41minstruments.  This card sounds great when playing MIDI files and such.  But  [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mwait, everyone knows that such a great thing has its drawbacks and that it   [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mdoes.  First off, it's patches, instruments when playing sound, requires 15  [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mor so megs of harddrive space.  So you say "Ah...I've got 15 megs of drive   [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mspace."  But wait theres more, if you run a program that uses the GUS it     [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41muses its patches so it goes off and looks for them and tries to load them    [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mmaking the game sound like its scratchy or like a skipping record.  If you   [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mhave a HD thats slower than 20ms then forget ever buying this card until you [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mget a faster one.  After reading the small troubleshooting section, I went   [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mto DOS to defrag my hard drive and that helped a little just to play one     [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mgame.  Thus, this made the GUS installation not very fun nor easy.  The fact [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mof hearing junky sound and thinking that's what it'll sound like forever     [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mwill almost make you have a heart attack after paying more than $120 for the [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mcard.  After I went through a day or so of installing and fine tuning the    [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mGUS, sounded great.                                                          [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mIn its midi files instead of coming out as a plink plink it sounded like     [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41ma big band playing with all their might delivering great rich and full music.[1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mIf you like the full and rich sound you'll like the GUS.  If you like the    [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mplain, easy to listen to sound that gets to the point without the other      [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41minstruments go with a PAS16 or SB16. The GUS, as it sound to me, puts in     [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mevery single instrument it can think of without it ruining the sound.  At    [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mtimes it sounded like a marching band, since it puts so many instruments     [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41min one selection of music.  Many programs that come out are now supporting   [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mthe GUS and many companies, like Sierra, have distributed "sound patches"    [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mthat you run and it will make most of their games support the GUS.  I tried  [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mone of them and couldn't get it to work at all, but I didn't take too long   [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mon that either.  It seems that GUS is not for the impatient people, nor      [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mthe cheap ones.  If something still doesn't support the GUS you're gonna     [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mhave problems.  I don't care what the little ad says "emulates SB, MT-32,    [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mGeneral MIDI", I say you're going to have problems. Instead of the SB 16     [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mor PAS 16 emulation this board requires you to use a driver that will        [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41msupport different cards.  You type SBOS for Sound Blaster emulation and it   [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mtakes up arout 20k of DOS memory and it then pretends that a GUS doesn't     [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mexist.                                                                       [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mSo you can't use a GUS for music and a SB for sound.  It's one or the other. [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mUnlike the flawless SB16 or PAS16 emulation, the GUS uses the crazy          [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mlittle drivers.  Well, I tried to use the MT-32 emulation in a few games     [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mand it sounded pretty darn good about 80% of the time and in other parts     [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mit would sound like it was getting instruments confused.  For example        [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41minstead of the normal bong in a grand father clock it used a bunch of off    [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mtuned horns.  Its Sound Blaster and Adlib emulation is hardly the best       [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41meither. The SB emulation will almost definitely not run in any game that's   [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mprogrammed in protected mode, like DOOM and so forth, giving you a lock up   [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mif you try it.  It also locks up in other games also.  If it does work it    [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41musually comes out pretty lousy compared to the real thing.  Emulation with   [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mthis card is terrible.  You should not buy this card relying on it to make   [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mgreat emulations of other cards.                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mI can't really give a true rating than the above advice, I'll hear one       [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41memulation that's quite amazing, then the next one sounding like a mad        [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mman with a twisted vocal cord.                                               [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mThere is however Advanced Gravis's UltraSound, which cost more than SB16,    [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mPAS16 or the original GUS.  This board, which has an astonishing 32 digital  [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mchannels (14 at the full 44 kHz, 16-bit sampling tables on your hard drisk,  [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mand you can swap them out.)  If you don't like the sound of an acoustic      [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mguitar, for example, you can replace it with a third-party audio wavetable   [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41msample.  And the board, which is MIDI-compatible as well, sounds great.      [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mUnlike the RAP-10, the UltraSound has a Sound Blaster emulation mode so      [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mgood that it sounds better than the Sound Blaster itself.                    [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mAcknowledgements                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m----------------                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mSoundBlaster is a registered trademark of Creative Labs, Inc.                [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41m                                                                             [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;41mAny other trademarks are property of their respective owners.                [1m[37;41m[40m
[1m[37;41m[1m[37;40m
