

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 22 May 1996 09:04:31 -0600 (MDT)
From: Roderick Smith <rsmith@psych.colorado.edu>
To: John Wirt <jw233@columbia.edu>
Subject: Re: Summary of Sound Cards

On Tue, 21 May 1996, John Wirt wrote:

> Could you please send me a copy of your "Summary of Sound
> Cards" document.  I saw it on the newsgroups tonight but my
> SENDMAIL didn't work so I couldn't get a copy.

Sure.  Here it is.  It's also available from
http://psych.colorado.edu/~rsmith/sound.html.

SUMMARY: Soundcards for OS/2
LAST REVISION: 4/28/96
BY: Rod Smith,
rsmith@psych.colorado.edu

This is a summary of information I've learned about sound cards for use
under OS/2.  This document focuses upon wavetable cards in the $100-$200
range, but cards in other price ranges are also included on a more
sporadic basis.  I update this document as I receive more information,
so please send me any corrections or additional information you may have.  I
post this to the comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.advocacy and
comp.os.os2.multimedia newsgroups most Sundays.  Anybody wishing to make
this document available via a web server or other means has my permission to
do so, though I ask that you try to keep the document reasonably up to date
with the current release.  An official web version is available at
http://psych.colorado.edu/~rsmith/sound.html.

                            CHANGE SUMMARY
                            --------------

1) Miscellaneous small textual changes
2) Ftp access to the IBM Europe driver repository has reportedly been cut,
but web access is still available at
http://www.europe.ibm.com/getdoc/psmemea/progserv/device/
3) Added section on Voice Type Dictation to be included in Merlin
4) Added reference to Robert Manley's web site and 1.10-level GUS drivers
5) Modified tech support contact information for Ensoniq
6) Added a small section on the OPTi 930 chipset
7) Added Orchid's BBS number
8) Added section for Packard Bell sound cards
9) Drivers are now available for the Reveal SC500 rev. 3; this bumped it up
a tad in the recommendations section

* In the text below, changed or new sections are marked with asterisks
* to the left of the affected lines, like this.

                           GENERAL COMMENTS
                           ----------------

Getting solid information on sound cards under OS/2 has been a VERY
frustrating experience for me.  Tech support people are sometimes unclear,
evasive, or incorrect, and sometimes totally unresponsive.
Knowledgeable responses from the net have been rare.  I've seen some reports
of actively hostile tech support, such as ValueMedia, which reportedly told
a customer "We don't support OS/2, so don't call back."

In general, it seems that sound card support under OS/2 is spotty at best.
Many cards have either no drivers or flakey drivers, and many
SoundBlaster-compatible cards don't work with OS/2's SoundBlaster drivers
(one IBM employee says these were written by Creative Labs with code
designed to render the drivers useless for unauthorized SB clones).
Other SoundBlaster-compatible cards require initialization software which
may or may not be available for OS/2.  Fortunately, most of the
manufacturers I contacted said they were working on OS/2 drivers, either
as a first release or to fix buggy or limited drivers.
Unfortunately, it's hard to say when any given "in progress" driver will
become available because of the notorious slippage of ship dates in the
industry.  I'd therefore recommend going with a card for which OS/2 drivers
are available NOW, if at all possible.

Many sound cards these days offer "Windows Sound System" compatibility,
frequently implemented with an AD1848, CS4231, or CS4248 chip.  The IBM
Business Audio AD1848 driver (which comes with OS/2) frequently works with
cards designed for this standard, though one post (from lad@vnet.ibm.com)
mentions adding some (unspecified) parameters to the driver for CS4231-based
boards.  Therefore, if you've got an unsupported sound card which does
support this standard, and if you're having problems with the SoundBlaster
driver, try this one instead.  Similarly, the Compaq Business Audio driver
that comes with OS/2 may work with many of these boards.  In addition,
Turtle Beach has recently placed drivers written by Crystal Semiconductor
for a variety of CS-based boards on their ftp site.  Check ftp.tbeach.com
under /pub/tbeach/os2 for the file mctz_os2.zip if you have a Microsoft
Windows Sound System, Boca Modem, Acer Magic S20, Gallant, Mozart (OTI601),
Crystal Vivaldi, Thinkpad 750C, or Turtle Beach Tropez or Monte Carlo and
can't get another driver to work.  (These drivers are reputedly still a bit
buggy and limited.)

There's a relatively new web site devoted to sound cards, and many OS/2
* drivers can be obtained there.  The URL for this site is
* http://wvnvaxa.wvnet.edu/~hrieke/US.html.

Some of the general information presented here comes from the March 28, 1995
issue of PC Magazine, which has a review of sound cards.  Although I
generally don't trust magazine reviews, this article does have a fair amount
of useful information on different sound card types and whatnot, and is
worth reading if you're not already familiar with the current market.
Unfortunately, it contains NO information on OS/2 support for the reviewed
cards.  Other information comes from newsgroup posts and e-mail replies to
my newsgroup posts or other queries, and from files downloaded from ftp
sites and BBSes.  The October, 1995 issue of Computer Shopper magazine also
has a sound card review, but it only looks at a few boards, and mentions
OS/2 in a very peripheral way.
Finally, the November, 1995 issue of Computer Shopper has an article on
combination sound/fax/modem/voicemail boards, but this focuses almost
exclusively upon the Windows voicemail software for these boards.

                            BASIC TECHNOLOGY
                            ----------------

Sound boards today come in two main types: FM synthesis and wavetable.
The former is exemplified by the classic SoundBlaster 8-bit and 16-bit
boards.  They can play back digitally-recorded sounds (Captain Picard saying
"warp factor 3," for instance) and can produce music from MIDI files played
from OS/2, Windows, etc., by combining various sine waves to roughly emulate
the sounds of various instruments.
Wavetable boards can almost always also play back digital sounds, but they
produce MIDI sounds by using a "wavetable" -- digital samples of
instruments, or simulations thereof, recorded in ROM (or sometimes in RAM,
loaded from a disk file) on the board.  Thus, a wavetable board will sound
much better than an FM synthesis board when playing the music files in many
multimedia games, or if you use music composition software on the computer;
but wavetable boards don't have any necessary advantage when playing
digitally-recorded sounds.  Wavetable boards can also differ from each
other, sometimes substantially, in the quality of their samples.

The features of a sound board, however, require drivers in order to work.
OS/2 drivers for many wavetable boards don't support the wavetable features
from OS/2, so the MIDI music used in Galactic Civilizations 1.0, for
instance, won't sound any better than on an FM synthesis board, if it plays
at all.  OS/2 drivers for many boards (of both types) also provide only
limited access to the sound board for DOS and Windows programs, or such
access will disrupt the OS/2 drivers. Much of my quest involved attempting
to extract straight answers to the question of whether various features are
supported under OS/2.

MIDI
----

Many (but not all) of the wavetable boards use what's known as an MPU-401
interface for playing MIDI files.  There are sometimes ways to get wavetable
sound without using the MPU-401 interface, but this is the preferred method
for most cards.  (Some people prefer cards that use other wavetable
interface methods because the MPU-401 method reduces the number of external
MIDI devices that can be connected to the card by one.)  IBM has released an
MPU-401 driver for OS/2.  Look for a file called mmpm_mpu.zip, or some
variant of that, on your favorite OS/2 ftp
* site (ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/drivers and
* http://www.europe.ibm.com/getdoc/psmemea/progserv/device/ are good bets
if you can't find it elsewhere).  In theory, this driver can provide access
to wavetable sound for many wavetable boards in one fell swoop.
In practice, the picture may not be so rosy.  I've received reports of
success with this driver on Turtle Beach Maui, Mediatrix, Ensoniq SoundScape
Elite, MIDI Quest, Midiman, and some Roland cards, though some of these
haven't been entirely consistent.  I've seen other reports of NO success
with OPTi 929-based, Aztech, Ensoniq SoundScape, and other Roland boards,
though an earlier beta version of the driver reportedly DID work with a
Reveal SC500 rev. 1 (OPTi 929) board.  If you're trying to use the IBM
MPU-401 driver and not having much luck, check the section on adding sound
card drivers, below, and then try to install your sound board's .WAV drivers
WITHOUT the associated MIDI support.
Alternatively, try installing the MPU-401 driver BEFORE installing the ..WAV
support.  Also keep in mind that the MPU-401 port may require software
initialization not provided by the sound board's main drivers.
Initializing MPU-401 support in DOS and then re-booting to OS/2 (via Dual
Boot or <Ctrl-Alt-Del>; NOT via the Reset switch on the front of most
machines) may help matters.  The order of drivers in CONFIG.SYS could also
conceivably make a difference, though I've seen no reports that this is so
with any specific card.  Also, note that the MPU-401 driver seems to require
OS/2 Warp 3.0; don't count on it working with OS/2 2.1 or earlier.

Chipsets
--------

As mentioned above, many sound boards today are "Windows Sound System"
compatible for digitized audio; but these boards also often require
initialization software before they'll work.  It seems that a handful of
companies, such as OPTi and Crystal Semiconductor, provide the chipsets
* used in most sound boards.  A given sound board may integrate chips or
* chipsets from multiple manufacturers to work in a specified way.  For
* instance, the popular OPTi 928 and 929 chipsets provide interface
* support for the actual sound-producing chips from Yamaha, Crystal
* Semiconductor, and others.  Drivers for one board will often work with
boards bearing other brand names.  The situation is similar to, but more
chaotic than, the situation with video boards, in which, for instance, Brand
X and Brand Y both make boards based upon the video Chipset A and Chipset B.
OS/2 uses drivers for the chipsets, and the video board brand itself serves
largely to confuse people about this.
I try to cover sound boards by brand name in this document, but in some
cases I lump several boards together by the chipset they use.  If you're
looking for drivers for an existing board, be aware that a listing for an
unrelated-sounding board may have the information you require.  As with
video boards, but more so, it's not completely safe to assume that two
boards using the same chipset will work equally well under OS/2, so if
you've any doubts, try posting a question to comp.os.os2.multimedia and/or
contact the board's manufacturer.

Recently, sound boards have begun appearing using DSP (digital signal
processing) technology.  DSPs are general-purpose processing chips that can
be used in a number of applications.  For instance, DSPs are used in certain
types of modems, such as US Robotics and ZyXEL 14,400 bps and faster models.
IBM's Mwave chip is a DSP chip that's being used in sound boards which can
usually also be used as modems. Most such extra-flexible sound boards don't
yet have much in the way of OS/2 driver support, however (though the IBM
Multimedia Modem Plus and a few other Mwave boards are exceptions to this
rule).  Also, note that the presence of a DSP doesn't necessarily make the
board unusually versatile; some DSPs (such as Ensoniq's OTTO) are still used
as little more than special-purpose sound chips.  Such boards do often have
various sound effect options which aren't present on lower-end boards,
though.

* Voice Recognition
* -----------------
*
* The next version of OS/2 (code-named "Merlin") will reportedly include a
* technology IBM calls "Voice Type Dictation" ("VTD"), in which the computer
* recognizes the spoken word in addition to keyboard, mouse, and other
* traditional computer inputs.  This technology is already available for
* some Aptiva models and as an (expensive) add-on hardware/software
* product.  Merlin will reportedly include a version that works with
* ordinary hardware.  Present rumor holds that this will require 16MB or
* more of RAM and either an ordinary 16-bit sound card with OS/2 drivers
* and a Pentium-75 or better CPU or an Mwave sound board and a 486DX2/66
* or better CPU.  VTD requires the Pentium not so much for its raw speed
* as for its superior floating-point capability.  It's therefore unclear
* how much CPU "horsepower" would be required in non-Intel CPUs, which
* usually include different floating-point capabilities (many NexGen CPUs
* don't include a floating point unit at all, for instance).
*
* VTD can use the Mwave DSP to offload much of the processing
* requirements, hence lowering the necessary CPU level. (If IBM actually
* includes special Mwave support; this isn't guaranteed, AFAIK.)  Some
* other sound cards include DSPs, but they are mostly much less powerful
* than the Mwave DSPs, and so it's unlikely they would help much in this
* respect.  Also, if VTD were to take advantage of them, somebody (IBM or
* the card manufacturer) would have to write support code, and AFAIK the
* only VTD DSP code in existence is for Mwave.  It therefore seems
* unlikely that the DSPs in non-Mwave products will help much with VTD.
*
* At this point, the details of Merlin's voice recognition must be
* considered speculative, though.  The Merlin beta should be out within a
* few weeks, however, at which point some details may become firmer.  For
* more information on Merlin, check Kris Kwilas' OS/2 beta FAQ at
* http://www.students.uiuc.edu/~kwilas/ and the comp.os.os2.beta newsgroup.

Multi-Instance Support
----------------------

Most sound boards don't allow playing more than one sound file at a time.
In a multitasking OS such as OS/2, it is of course possible that two
programs will want to play sound files at once, and this generally isn't
possible, at least not with the current drivers. Similarly, if you install
Windows sound drivers, these generally "take over" the card when you run any
Windows program, unless you select "none" for the AUDIO_ADAPTER_SHARING
option in the Settings notebook for a program. This happens whether or not
the program is actually playing sounds.  The MediaVision ProAudio series
boards do have two "channels," and it's
* possible to assign the SoundBlaster-compatible channel to Windows and
* the PAS "native" channel to OS/2, for a limited solution to this
problem.  (Note, however, that many people have problems configuring this
properly.)  Also, at least some boards allow playing MIDI and digitized
sounds simultaneously.  The latest (version 2.0) OPTi drivers allow playing
OS/2 sounds when a Windows session is open, but not true concurrency of OS/2
and Windows sounds.  These drivers reportedly work by having the OS/2 and
Windows drivers "talk" to each other to avoid conflicts.  Boards based on
IBM's Mwave chip allow OS/2 sounds to play when the Windows sound drivers
are loaded, and even to play more than one .WAV file simultaneously, though
two MIDI files generally exceeds the board's processing capacity.  In
theory, drivers could be written to get around this problem in a more
general way, as the new OPTi drivers do.  I recently heard some rumblings
that OS/2's MMPM/2 may be undergoing revisions which may make this more
common in future versions of OS/2.

Interfaces
----------

Modern sound boards frequently have interfaces for one or more types of
CD-ROMs.  As I have a SCSI CD-ROM with a separate controller, I wasn't very
concerned with this in my own search, but I've included a note for each of
the boards I mention below on what types of interfaces it has. Interfaces
can be SCSI (general, for any SCSI CD-ROM drive), IDE (general, for any
IDE/EIDE/ATAPI CD-ROM), or proprietary (for Sony, Panasonic, Mitsumi, etc.
drives).  In any case, you'll need a driver for the interface and/or CD-ROM
drive.  OS/2 comes with drivers for most of the proprietary standards and
for IDE drives, though I can't guarantee these will work with all boards
using these interfaces. OS/2 may or may not come with a driver for a
specific SCSI interface.  As with the sound features, many boards require
initialization software be run before the CD-ROM interface becomes active,
so this may be a prerequisite for using such interfaces under OS/2.  Sound
card CD-ROM interfaces can generally be disabled (or simply not
initialized), and so won't cause problems if you've already got another type
of CD-ROM.

Sound boards require interrupts (IRQs) in order to function.  Simple boards,
such as the 8-bit SoundBlaster board I was replacing, require only a single
IRQ (generally #5).  More complex boards may require two or more IRQs for
the sound board, and frequently another for the CD-ROM
* interface, if it's being used.  The miroCONNECT 34 wave board takes up
* to FOUR IRQs, including one for its modem features, and I assume other
Mwave boards would do the same.  Thus, if you want an advanced wavetable
board, be sure you've got enough free IRQs, and IRQs the board can use.
Similarly, sound boards use address spaces for I/O and DMA channels. Most
modern boards use software to set the IRQs, etc., that they use.

In theory, PCI-based sound boards could get around some of the IRQ hogging
inherent in advanced ISA-based boards.  At the moment, though, I know of no
PCI-based sound boards that are currently shipping or planned.  I have heard
a rumor that some combination audio/video PCI boards are in the works for
release in a few months, but I've no idea who's doing this or whether these
boards will have OS/2 support.

Some FM synthesis boards include a connector for a wavetable daughter card,
which allows one to upgrade to wavetable abilities relatively painlessly.  I
haven't seriously investigated such daughter cards, though, and don't know
much about them.  These daughter cards typically cost $60-$200.  The
wavetable features may or may not be automatically utilized by the OS/2
drivers for the main board.  I've heard that the latest SoundBlaster drivers
include a CONFIG.SYS option ("/EXT") to force use of the wavetable
daughtercard.  Therefore, a true SoundBlaster in combination with a
wavetable daughtercard can make a good choice for wavetable sound under
OS/2.  There are also a few wavetable-only boards available that can be used
in conjunction with an existing FM synthesis board.  These would require
IBM's MPU-401 driver to function properly, but if you use a sound board with
its own FM synthesis MIDI capability (such as most SoundBlasters), the two
drivers may conflict.

                          DRIVER INSTALLATION
                          -------------------

I've found that driver installation can be a bit tricky, especially if
you're replacing an existing board or driver.  The problem in this case is
that the driver installation software frequently doesn't properly eliminate
the configuration for the previous driver.  The result is that you'll get no
sound.  In order to avoid these problems, I suggest you take the following
steps when updating your MMPM/2 sound card drivers:

1) Remove all references to the x:\MMOS2 directory (x: being your boot
partition) from OS/2's CONFIG.SYS.  Be sure to get the references in the
PATH and LIBPATH statements.  The best way to do this is to restore a
CONFIG.SYS from a point before you ever installed multimedia support, but
this usually isn't practical.  Be sure to keep a backup of your old
CONFIG.SYS and an emergency boot routine, in case you accidentally produce a
non-bootable system.
2) Reboot.
3) Remove the entire x:\MMOS2 directory structure.  If OS/2 complains that
it can't remove some files because they're in use, you missed something in
step #1; repeat it.  Or there may be something else using the file (a
reference in OS2.INI or OS2SYS.INI, maybe).  You may be able to safely
ignore this file, or a deletion from an emergency boot floppy or partition
may do the trick.
4) Use Selective Install to install multimedia support.  If you're
installing drivers that don't come with OS/2, make sure that NO sound card
is listed on the first dialog box; you want ONLY multimedia support for this
step.  If you're installing a driver that came with OS/2, be sure the
appropriate card is selected.  Note that multimedia support may not be
checked on the second dialog box if you don't select a sound card, so be
sure it's selected for installation.
5) After installing multimedia support, reboot.
6) If you're installing drivers that didn't come with OS/2, do so now.
Follow the directions that came with the drivers.  Most Warp sound card
drivers require you to use the Multimedia Application Install program.
7) After installing the drivers, reboot.  You should get Warp's startup
sound when the desktop appears.

One correspondent suggests also using an .INI file maintenance tool between
steps 3 and 4 to remove references to MMPM/2 from OS/2's .INI files, but I
haven't found that necessary, myself.  It can't hurt to take the extra
precaution IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING. Mucking with ..INI files can be
DANGEROUS, so I DO NOT recommend this for relative novices.

I've also experienced personally and seen posts relating problems using
Warp's "Selective Uninstall" utility.  My experience with it rendered my
CONFIG.SYS file full of garbage and my system unbootable. I therefore
recommend NOT using Selective Uninstall to remove multimedia support (or
anything else).

Another poster indicated problems removing the MMOS2 directory even after
removing all references to it from CONFIG.SYS, but I've never experienced
this myself when uninstalling SoundBlaster 8-bit or Reveal SC500 support,
but I did when removing Mwave support.  One poster reported that Selective
Uninstall was the only way to get MMPM/2 removed.  I used an emergency boot
partition to delete the remaining errant .DLL file.

If you're trying to install the MPU-401 drivers, it may be necessary to find
some way to NOT install your sound card's FM synthesis MIDI drivers, if it
has them.  With some cards (such as the OPTi-based boards), there will be a
separate MIDI driver to install, which you can de-select during the
installation process.  With others, this may be difficult or impossible.  If
you're lucky, installing the MPU-401 driver before the regular sound card's
driver may achieve the desired result, too, but I've not tested this myself.

                           MIDI FILE PLAYBACK
                           ------------------

I've found in using various boards and drivers that OS/2 will respond
differently to the same MIDI file depending upon the driver, and differently
to different files with the same driver.  For instance, some of the MIDI
files that come with Galactic Civilizations 1.0 play at VERY low volume with
the Mwave drivers supplied by miro; and I've seen reports that OS/2's Media
Player doesn't always reset sounds and tempo when loading a new MIDI file
with at least some beta versions of IBM's MPU-401 driver (though this may
not be true with the release version). One cause of such problems is MIDI
files which aren't 100% "General MIDI" compatible, so loading and then
saving them with MIDI utilities like those which come with most sound cards
may help. Another possible "help" is to use the MakeGM utility, available
from ftp.servtech.com in /pub/users/wraymond/os2midi.  I recently got ahold
of this program, and I HIGHLY recommend it for cleaning up troublesome MIDI
files, and even non-troublesome ones which may be affected by a "problem"
file.  I do recommend, though, that you not delete the original file until
you've confirmed that the modified file plays correctly.

                              SOUND BOARDS
                              ------------

This section goes over the sound boards about which I have any information,
in alphabetical order.  I don't pretend this is a comprehensive list, and I
am far from certain about much of the information I've presented, since some
of it is based upon only one or two comments from individuals who use the
boards in question, or upon tech support people who may have an interest in
minimizing the extent of problems with individual boards.  I've tried to
flag the least-reliable information as such.

I've tried to include various ways of contacting the manufactuer, as well as
where to find drivers, for each entry below.  "OS/2 ftp" refers to the big
OS/2 ftp sites, such as ftp-os2.nmsu.edu and ftp-os2.cdrom.com.  Sound board
drivers should normally be in the /os2/drivers or /pub/os2/32bit/drivers
directories, respectively.  IBM Europe also operates a driver repository ftp
site at
* http://www.europe.ibm.com.  The "street price" line gives the approximate
prices I've seen advertized in Computer Shopper or local stores, or which
have been reported to me.  Prices are usually given as an approximate value
("~" to the left), a range, or a minimum ("+" to the right).

Advanced Gravis UltraSound series:
----------------------------------
Phone: 800-663-8558, 604-431-5020
Fax: 604-431-5155
BBS: 604-431-5927
e-mail: os2.driver@gravis.com for Gravis, rjm@io.org for Robert Manley
* Web: http://www.io.org/~rjm (Robert Manley) Type: Wavetable Chipset: ICS
GF1 CD-ROM: none (GUS)/proprietary (GUS Max: Sony, Mitsumi, Panasonic)
Street price: $130-$200 (???) OS/2 Drivers: Available for original and "Max"
boards, but limited; unknown for more recent plug-and-play boards
* Drivers from: BBS, OS/2 ftp: grav031a.zip, ultra110.zip Comments: Gravis
has "released alpha-level" drivers (an oxymoron), and judging by the
documentation, they're OK for OS/2-only use, but DOS (and presumably
Windows) programs will cause problems.
  Robert Manley has released $25 shareware drivers that reportedly work well
for OS/2 (.WAV and MIDI playback, but not recording), DOS programs (GUS
"native" mode only), and Windows (after registration).  The board itself is
reported to produce quite good sound.  Note that this board does NOT use an
MPU-401 hardware interface for wavetable sound, unlike most wavetable
boards.
  Gravis has apparently discontinued the original UltraSound and replaced it
with a "plug-and-play" board.  The existing GUS drivers reportedly do work
with the PnP version, at least for .WAV file playback, when iwinit is used
to put the board in GUS mode.  Robert Manley is reportedly working on full
and official (from him) support for the new boards.

Aria boards:
------------
Phone: 408-263-9300 (Sierra Semiconductor); 800-477-3473 or 503-692-9600
(Prometheus Customer Service)
Fax: 408-263-3337 (Sierra Semiconductor)
BBS: ?
e-mail: 76004.527@compuserve.com (Prometheus)
web: http://www.wi.leidenuniv.nl/aria
Type: Wavetable
Chipset: Aria
CD-ROM: Variable; usually none or SCSI
Street price: ~$70-$280
OS/2 Drivers: Available
Drivers from: OS/2 ftp: aria16.zip
Comments: There are several sound boards, from manufacturers such as
Prometheus, Genoa, Kingston, Diamond, Zoltrix, and others, which use Sierra
Semiconductor's Aria chipset.  These boards have varying capabilities and
prices.  I've received one report of 100% success with the Aria drivers on
an IBM PS/1 with an Aria board, though a parameter ("/P:310") was required
on the CD-ROM driver to get it working.  Another poster said that the driver
worked, but produced low volume.  I gather that the drivers were developed
with the Prometheus boards in mind, so that should be the safest bet among
Aria-based boards.  Unfortunately, these boards are becoming very difficult
to find.  IBM PC Direct may still have them, and a Damark (800-729-9000)
catalog dated "March, 1996" lists what seems to be the Prometheus Aria board
for $70 (item B-7542-472531), though identification in the catalog is
incomplete.  Prometheus tech support suggested calling their Customer
Service number (listed above) to help locate a supplier, though I haven't
done that.

Aztech Sound Galaxy 16:
-----------------------
Phone: 800-886-8829, 510-623-8988
Fax: 510-623-8989
BBS: 510-623-8933
e-mail: aztechca@netcom.com or suppport@aztechCA.com, but **NOT**
AZtech.com, which is an unrelated company!
Type: FM synthesis
Chipset: Aztech proprietary (?), Yamaha OPL3 (?)
CD-ROM: IDE, proprietary (Sony, Panasonic, Mitsumi, Aztech) (?)
Street price: ~$70
OS/2 Drivers: Available but possibly unreliable
Drivers from: OS/2 box, ftp: ftp.aimnet.com, /pub/users/aztech
Comments: OS/2 drivers exist, and have reportedly recently (late August,
1995) been updated.  My one report on these updated drivers has them working
fairly well, but with the major caveat that the system occasionally locks up
when trying to open a Windows session after playing a DOS game that requires
sound in OS/2.
Net reports indicate only so-so DOS games compatibility with this board.

Aztech Waverider 32+:
---------------------
Phone: 800-886-8829, 510-623-8988
Fax: 510-623-8989
BBS: 510-623-8933
e-mail: aztechca@netcom.com or suppport@aztechCA.com, but **NOT**
AZtech.com, which is an unrelated company!
Type: Wavetable
Chipset: Aztech AZT2316A, ICS WaveFront, Yamaha OPL3
CD-ROM: IDE, proprietary (Sony, Panasonic, Mitsumi, Aztech)
Street price: $110-$150
OS/2 Drivers: Available but possibly unreliable
Drivers from: OS/2 box, ftp: ftp.aimnet.com, /pub/users/aztech
Comments: As with the Aztech Sound Galaxy 16, new drivers have apparently
recently (late August, 1995) been released.  My report on these indicates no
OS/2-native wavetable support.  See above for other caveats.  PC Magazine
reported so-so wavetable sound quality from this board.  Net reports
indicate only so-so DOS games compatibility with this board.  I've received
one report of failure with IBM's MPU-401 driver and this board, but this may
have been due to installation errors, so if you get the MPU-401 driver
working with this board, please e-mail me.

ChipChat Sound Card-16 & Sound Card-32:
---------------------------------------
Phone: 313-565-4000
Fax: 313-565-4001
BBS: ?
e-mail: ?
Web: http://www.chipchat.com
Type: FM synthesis & wavetable, respectively
Chipset: ?
Street price: $200 & $260 list, respectively
OS/2 Drivers: Available, unknown capabilities
CD-ROM: none (?)
Drivers from: OS/2 box, ChipChat box
Comments: These are Microchannel (MCA) only boards.  The information on the
web site indicates that they work with the OS/2 SoundBlaster drivers, or
with OS/2 drivers designed specifically for the boards themselves.  Beyond
this, I know relatively little; I don't know if the wavetable features of
the 32 model are supported under OS/2, and I've received no reports from end
users on how well the boards work.

Creative Labs SoundBlaster 8-bit & 16-bit:
------------------------------------------
Phone: 800-998-5227 (customer assistance), 800-998-1000 (customer service),
405-742-6622 (automated tech support),
405-742-6655 (tech support)
Fax: 405-742-6633
BBS: 405-742-6660
e-mail: 72662.1602@compuserve.com
Web: http://www.creaf.com
Type: FM synthesis
Chipset: Proprietary (?), Yamaha OPL2 or OPL3
Street price: $60-$150+
OS/2 Drivers: Available
CD-ROM: Variable; depends on specific model
Drivers from: OS/2 box, OS/2 ftp, ftp.creaf.com, BBS
Comments: These are well-supported under OS/2, and are "the" standard for
DOS games.  Some SB clones may not work with the OS/2 drivers, though.
These are well-supported but uninspired cards by today's standards.  I was
having assorted minor problems with an 8-bit SoundBlaster, which was my main
reason for upgrading, but most people report few or no problems with these
cards.  If you have problems getting sound from Windows to work, try the
latest Windows driver for your model from ftp.creaf.com or the Creative Labs
BBS.  One report indicates that updated drivers may be released in the
August- to-November (1995) time frame.  Beta versions of these drivers are
now reportedly available, and apparently include useful new features, but
they are BETA, and so should not be considered stable.  Check the ftp site
if you want to try them.  OS/2 2.1 drivers for the newer "plug-and-play"
versions of these boards are reportedly unavailable, though drivers for OS/2
3.0 are.

Creative Labs SoundBlaster AWE32/AWE32 Value Edition:
-----------------------------------------------------
Phone: 800-998-5227 (customer assistance), 800-998-1000 (customer service),
405-742-6622 (automated tech support),
405-742-6655 (tech support)
Fax: 405-742-6633
BBS: 405-742-6660
Web: http://www.creaf.com
e-mail: 72662.1602@compuserve.com
Type: Wavetable
Chipset: E-mu 8000, Yamaha OPL3
CD-ROM: Proprietary (Sony, Panasonic, Mitsumi)
Street price: ~$200-$300
OS/2 Drivers: Available
Drivers from: OS/2 box, OS/2 ftp, ftp.creaf.com, BBS
Comments: Similar comments as for the SB FM synthesis boards.  I saw one
post which indicated that MIDI sounds played from OS/2 result in both a
wavetable and an FM synthesis implementation, though, which would be
annoying at best.  Another post indicates that MIDI files are played with FM
synthesis only.  Still others say that MIDI playback uses the wavetable
features only.  Windows sound reportedly will only work after installing the
latest Windows drivers from the Creative Labs ftp site.  Note that this
board does NOT use an MPU-401 interface in hardware for wavetable support,
unlike most wavetable boards.  One report has it that updated OS/2 drivers
may become available in the August-November (1995) range.  Beta versions of
these drivers are reportedly available now, and add new features; but as
they are BETA drivers, caution is advisable.  The Value Edition version of
this board is discontinued, replaced by the SB32 board, which uses a
Vibra-16 chip.  The new "plug-and-play" version of this board is now getting
driver 16 drivers, but work better with the new Vibra 16 drivers from
Creative's ftp site or BBS.  The fax and voice-mail software for the Phone
Blaster is written for Windows, and Creative Labs says they do NOT support
it under OS/2, so caveat emptor in this respect.  They say the modem
features work fine under OS/2, however.  Some respondents (but not
Creative's tech support) hinted that Creative is moving to the Vibra 16 for
all their boards, but I've no timetable on this switch, if it's real.  A
Microchannel board based on this chipset is available from a company called
Reply (phone number above).  I've seen one report of success using this
board and Creative's Vibra 16 drivers, but that person was having problems
with Windows support.  Essentially, the Vibra-16 is a chipset (chip?) which
replaces several chips in the original SB series boards with one chip.  As
such, these boards should be very compatible with the original SoundBlaster
series boards. OS/2 2.1 drivers for the newer "plug-and-play" versions of
these boards are reportedly unavailable, though drivers for OS/2 3.0 are.

Ensoniq Soundscape/Soundscape Elite:
------------------------------------
Phone: 800-776-8637, 610-647-3930
Fax: 800-257-1439
BBS: 610-647-3195
* e-mail: multimedia@ensoniq.com, or soundscape-bugs@ensoniq.com
Type: Wavetable
Chipset: Ensoniq OTTO
CD-ROM: Proprietary (Sony, Panasonic, Mitsumi)
Street price: $150-$200
OS/2 Drivers: Available, but limited
Drivers from: ftp.ensoniq.com
Comments: According to both Ensoniq tech support and one respondant, OS/2
drivers exist but DOS/Windows access is tricky and unreliable.
Drivers also don't support wavetable features from OS/2.
Ensoniq has recently announced that they will NOT be developing new OS/2
drivers.
Wavetable quality is reputed to be good from native DOS/Windows.  I've
received one report of no success with this board and IBM's MPU-401 driver,
but this could be the result of recoverable installation problems.
Another person has reported success with the "Elite" version of the board,
but apparently had to initialize the board under DOS and warm-boot to OS/2
to make it function.  A third person reports success by using the OS/2
SoundBlaster 8-bit drivers (initializing the board first with the SSINIT
utility and rebooting) in combination with IBM's MPU-401 driver.

IBM Mwave-based boards:
-----------------------
Phone: 800-549-6476 (miro, USA); 44-71-8310467 (miro, UK)
Fax-back: 800-426-4329 (IBM; option 2, document 3928);
415-855-9494 (miro)
Fax: 800-426-3396 (IBM), 415-855-0940 (miro)
BBS: 919-517-0001 (IBM), 415-855-9944 (miro)
e-mail: support@miro.mirousa.com (miro)
Web: http://watson.mbb.sfu.ca
Type: Wavetable
Chipset: IBM Mwave
CD-ROM: IBM: Proprietary (Sony, Panasonic); miro: Proprietary (Mitsumi,
Sony), IDE; others: varies
Street price: ~$300 for full function boards; ~$200 for audio-only (no
modem/fax/voicemail) boards
OS/2 Drivers: Available for some models
Drivers from: Board manufacturer -- usually in the box;
ftp.pcco.ibm.com, /pub/os2_apps, /pub/mobiles, /pub/refdisks (various files)
Comments: There are two lines of Mwave chips: the 1000 series and the 2000
series, the latter being more powerful.  Many Mwave boards can function as
modems, faxes, and voicemail systems as well as serving as wavetable sound
cards.  These boards store their wavetable samples on disk and use DSP code
loaded from disk, so there are delays when starting a new function; but this
design gives unusual flexibility and the capacity for software-only upgrades
of the board's features.  Most modem-capable Mwave boards have 28,800 bps
(v.34) speed.
The miroCONNECT 34 wave and IBM Multimedia Modem boards are the ones with
the best OS/2 support; the popular Spectrum Office F/X, which is physically
identical to the IBM board, comes with no OS/2 drivers.
  IBM also offers a sound-only Mwave board which, physically, lacks
telephone connectors, but which comes with OS/2 drivers. The miro's drivers
present many installation pitfalls and cause problems with Galactic
Civilizations prior to version 2.11, but otherwise work well.
  The Windows voicemail software that comes with the IBM board and version
1.45 of the miro CD work under OS/2, but earlier versions of the miro
software are troublesome at best.  An IBM employee is developing a native
OS/2 fax/voicemail application for Mwave.  It's currently in a tightly-
controlled beta, and it's uncertain how or if it will be officially
released.  There should be no problems using native OS/2 modem and fax
applications with these boards.  Of the miro and IBM, I'd have to recommend
the miro because of the convenience of CD-ROM driver installation.  The IBM
board is hard to find, too; IBM PC Direct is probably the best way to get
ahold of one.  IBM made MCA versions of some 1000-series Mwave boards, but
there are no MCA 2000-series boards available.

Logitech SoundMan Wave:
-----------------------
Phone: 800-231-7717, 510-795-8500
Fax: 510-792-8901
BBS: ?
e-mail: jennings@dlj.ENET.dec.com (Dave Jennings)
Type: Wavetable
Chipset: MediaVision Jazz 16, Yamaha OPL4
CD-ROM: SCSI
Street price: ~$100
OS/2 Drivers: shareware, but limited
Drivers from: OS/2 ftp, ftp.digital.com in /pub/micro/OS2/smwdd021.zip
Comments: Tech support says no OS/2 drivers exist, and don't count on them
in the future, but that the board should work with SoundBlaster drivers.
Dave Jennings has written shareware drivers, but they don't support the
board's wavetable features, and I don't know how well DOS and Windows
programs are supported with these drivers. Dave says he's not planning
further development of his drivers, unfortunately, citing technical
difficulties getting adequate timing from OS/2.
I've heard that it's possible to get the MediaVision Jazz drivers that come
with OS/2 to work with this card by either doing a soft reboot from DOS
after running the DOS initialization software or by running this software
from an OS/2 DOS box.  The IBM MPU-401 driver reportedly "should" work with
this board, but the one report I have from somebody who's tried it indicates
no success.

Mediatrix Audiotrix Pro:
------------------------
Phone: 800-820-8749, 819-829-8749
Fax: 819-829-5100
BBS: ?
e-mail: ?
Type: Wavetable
Chipset: CS4231, Yamaha OPL4
CD-ROM: optional: proprietary (Sony, Panasonic, Mitsumi, Philips)
Street price: ~$225 (?)
OS/2 Drivers: Available
Drivers from: ?
Comments: This board is well-respected for its sound quality, and I gather
that OS/2 driver development is proceeding.  The current OS/2 drivers are
reputed to support everything but OS/2 MIDI (wavetable).  The IBM MPU-401
drivers reportedly do work, but require initializing the board in DOS first
and warm booting to OS/2.  Mediatrix claims to be working on an OS/2-native
MPU-401 initialization program.

MediaVision Jazz:
-----------------
Phone: 800-845-5870, 510-770-8600
Fax: 510-770-8648
BBS: ?
e-mail: ?
Web: http://www.mediavis.com/support/opro3d.htm
Type: FM synthesis
Chipset: MediaVision Jazz 16 (I assume)
CD-ROM: ?
Street price: ?
OS/2 Drivers: Available, but possibly unreliable
Drivers from: OS/2 box
Comments: This is a relatively recent board from MediaVision, and OS/2
drivers are available with OS/2; however, I've seen some reports that these
drivers may be difficult to get working correctly, especially with
DOS/Windows support.  One person reports that volume control doesn't work
and that "some hardware configurations fail."  Other reports indicate no
such problems.  MediaVision has announced that it will no longer be
developing or updating its OS/2 drivers (the drivers that come with OS/2
were apparently written by MediaVision).

MediaVision ProAudio Spectrum/ProAudio Studio:
----------------------------------------------
Phone: 800-845-5870, 510-770-8600
Fax: 510-770-8648
BBS: ?
e-mail: ?
Web: http://www.mediavis.com/support/opro3d.htm
Type: FM synthesis
Chipset: ?
CD-ROM: Variable; depends on specific board.
Street price: Discontinued, but may still be available from HSC,
1-800-4-HALTED, for $30.
OS/2 Drivers: Available
Drivers from: OS/2 box
Comments: Discontinued.  Allows simultaneous use of sound from OS/2 and
Windows programs, if you can get this feature working (it's frustrated a lot
of people).  The PROMIX/2 program is reputed to help get this card working
correctly.  Loading the DOS driver for the card in OS/2's CONFIG.SYS is also
reported to help.  There's also a file called PASSETUP.DOC available from
various sources (it's listed on my March, 1995 Hobbes CD-ROM, but not on the
latest index files I have from ftp-os2.nmsu.edu or ftp-os2.cdrom.com).

Mediavision Pro 3-D:
--------------------
Phone: 800-845-5870, 510-770-8600
Fax: 510-770-8648
BBS: ?
e-mail: ?
web: http://www.mediavis.com/support/opro3d.htm
Type: Wavetable
Chipset: MediaVision MVD1216, Korg wavetable, Yamaha OPL3
CD-ROM: SCSI
Street price: ?
OS/2 Drivers: Unavailable, but may work with Jazz drivers
Drivers from: --
Comments: Obviously, I know very little about this board, but it's from a
Big Name, so I thought I should mention it.  ;-)  I have heard that
MediaVision has formally announced that they are NOT working on OS/2
drivers.  The board reportedly works ("barely") with the Jazz drivers
included with OS/2.

MEI Premium 16a/i and WaveTable:
--------------------------------
Phone: 800-634-3478
Fax: 614-486-6417
BBS: --
e-mail: --
Type: FM synthesis and wavetable, respectively
Chipset: Aztech AZT2316A (?), ICS Wavefront (for WaveTable only), Yamaha
OPL3
CD-ROM: IDE, proprietary (Sony, Panasonic, Mitsumi, Aztech)
Street price: $68 and $106, respectively
OS/2 Drivers: Mentioned for 16a/i; not mentioned for WaveTable
Drivers from: OS/2 box, ftp.aimnet.com, /pub/users/aztech
Comments: These are Aztech boards without the Aztech name, and as such, the
comments and cautions for the Aztech boards apply to these.  MEI primarily
sells computer supplies, books, and CD-ROMs.

OPTi 928/929 (MAD16?):
----------------------
Phone: 408-980-9774, 408-980-8178 (unknown precisely what each is; one or
both may be fax numbers); 800-398-6784
Fax: ?
BBS: 408-486-8555
e-mail: ?
web: http://www.internet-is.com/opti/index.htm
Type: FM synthesis/wavetable
Chipset: CS4248, OPTi 928/929
CD-ROM: IDE, proprietary (Sony, Panasonic, Mitsumi)
Street price: ~$50 for non-wavetable [at a trade show]; ? for wavetable
OS/2 Drivers: Available, IBM's MPU-401 driver needed for wavetable
Drivers from: BBS, OS/2 ftp: 929_v2.zip or opti928.zip
Comments: As near as I've figured out, OPTi sells a sound board design to
other companies, and may sell this design themselves under the "MAD16" name.
The Reveal SC400 rev. 4G and SC500 rev. 1 boards are based on this design,
as is the card included with Diamond's MMK4000 package and boards from other
manufacturers, including MediaMagic.  The 929_v2.zip (aka opti928.zip)
driver is a version 2.0 driver which adds official support for Windows sound
and which activates the 929 board's MPU-401 port, officially for use with
Windows.  While at least one beta version of IBM's MPU-401 driver worked
well with this feature, the release version does not, unfortunately.
Another report indicates that the MPU-401 activation is automatically
enabled for Windows even on OPTi 928-based systems, which don't support it.
This can be defeated by editing Windows .INI files; send e-mail to
tamerick@rmci.net for details.  At least some specific versions of these
boards work well with OS/2, save for wavetable support.  The 929_v2.zip
drivers include Windows drivers which "talk to" the OS/2 drivers, thus
allowing OS/2 sounds even when running Windows programs, so long as those
Windows programs aren't actually playing sounds.  In practice, there may be
delays of several seconds if an attempt to play from both environments
occurs, however.  I've received one report that, in order to use the board's
CD-ROM interface, a base address of H340 must be specified on the CD-ROM
driver line, and another report that H320 is the "magic" address, so users
may need to fiddle with this.

OPTi 930:
---------
Phone: 408-980-9774, 408-980-8178 (unknown precisely what each is; one or
both may be fax numbers); 800-398-6784
Fax: ?
BBS: 408-486-8555
e-mail: ?
web: http://www.internet-is.com/opti/index.htm
Type: FM synthesis/wavetable
Chipset: OPTi 930
CD-ROM: ??
Street price: ??
OS/2 Drivers: Available, IBM's MPU-401 driver needed for wavetable
Drivers from: BBS, OS/2 ftp
Comments: This is a sound board chipset that's apparently closely related to
the 928 and 929 chipsets from OPTi, but separate 930 driver files are
reportedly available.  I've received one report of success with a board
using this chipset under OS/2, but know little else about it.

Orchid SoundWave 32:
--------------------
Phone: 800-767-2443, 510-683-0300
Fax: 510-490-9312
* BBS: 510-683-0327
e-mail: ?
Type: wavetable
Chipset: Analog Devices DSP-2115
CD-ROM: SCSI, proprietary (Mitsumi)
Street price: ~$200-$300
OS/2 Drivers: beta-level SB initializer with OS/2 SB drivers
Drivers from: ftp://cr1.see.plym.ac.uk/pub/orchid
Comments: I know relatively little about this board, but Orchid is
reportedly working on improving its OS/2 support.  The above ftp site
reportedly contains drivers which enable the board's Sound- Blaster
emulation under OS/2, allowing the user to use OS/2's SoundBlaster drivers.
I don't know what happens with wavetable sound using this option, though
I've received one report that IBM's MPU-401 driver does work with this
board.

* Packard Bell
* ------------
* Phone: ?
* Fax: ?
* BBS: ?
* e-mail: ?
* web: ?
* Type: Multi-function sound/modem
* Chipset: Aztech (?); Rockwell for modem
* CD-ROM: ?
* Street price: ? (included in some systems)
* OS/2 Drivers: Available, but may be unreliable
* Drivers from: ftp://ftp.packardbell.com/pub/snd16os2.exe;
* Comments: I know relatively little about this product, but there have
*   been a number of posts on it recently.  It's apparently a re-badged
*   Aztech unit, or at least is based upon an Aztech chipset for its
*   sound functions.  The file above is reputed to work with the board.
*   If not, check the section on Aztech products.  There is an OS/2
*   program for using the answering machine functions of voice-enabled
*   Rockwell-based modems that might be worth trying for the answering
*   machine-enabled Packard Bell products, but I've no idea how well
*   this works or if it will work with these cards.  Check for it on
*   ftp://ftp-os2.nmsu.edu/os2/comm/ans106p.zip.

Reveal SC400 ("SoundFX"), rev. 2:
---------------------------------
Phone: 800-326-2222 (customer service), 800-535-0339
(orders), 818-704-6300
Fax: 818-594-8477
BBS: 818-713-8188
e-mail: 72662.3604@compuserve.com
web: http://www.reveal.com
Type: FM synthesis
Chipset: Aztech (?)
CD-ROM: ?
Street price: Discontinued (?)
OS/2 Drivers: Available, but may be unreliable
Drivers from: BBS, OS/2 ftp: revsc4r2.zip; ftp.aimnet.com,
/pub/users/aztech, ftp.reveal.com
Comments: This board appears to be a close cousin or identical to an Aztech
design.  I've received conflicting reports on whether the revsc4r2.zip
driver works correctly (the readme indicates that it's a beta-level driver
for OS/2 2.1).  The Aztech ftp site includes a variety of drivers, some of
which may be a better bet (see above, under the Aztech boards).

Reveal SC400 ("SoundFX"), rev. 3:
---------------------------------
Phone: 800-326-2222 (customer service), 800-535-0339
(orders), 818-704-6300
Fax: 818-594-8477
BBS: 818-713-8188
e-mail: 72662.3604@compuserve.com
web: http://www.reveal.com
Type: FM synthesis
Chipset: Aztech (?)
CD-ROM: ?
Street price: Discontinued (?)
OS/2 Drivers: Uses Aztech NOVA 16 drivers, but unknown reliability
Drivers from: OS/2 box
Comments: The OS/2 ftp sites and the Reveal BBS and ftp site have a text
file describing how to set up the board for use with the Aztech NOVA 16
drivers included with Warp.  One net report indicates that the Sony CD-ROM
drive which is sometimes bundled with this board doesn't work under OS/2.

Reveal SC400 ("SoundFX"), rev. 4a:
----------------------------------
Phone: 800-326-2222 (customer service), 800-535-0339
(orders), 818-704-6300
Fax: 818-594-8477
BBS: 818-713-8188
e-mail: 72662.3604@compuserve.com
web: http://www.reveal.com
Type: FM synthesis
Chipset: Aztech (???)
CD-ROM: IDE (?), proprietary (???)
Street price: Discontinued (?)
OS/2 Drivers: Available, but unknown reliability
Drivers from: BBS, ftp.reveal.com, OS/2 ftp: revsc4r4a.zip
Comments: Drivers for this board look suspiciously Aztech-like, but I know
essentially nothing else about it.

Reveal SC400 ("SoundFX"), rev. 4g:
----------------------------------
Phone: 800-326-2222 (customer service), 800-535-0339
(orders), 818-704-6300
Fax: 818-594-8477
BBS: 818-713-8188
e-mail: 72662.3604@compuserve.com
web: http://www.reveal.com
Type: FM synthesis
Chipset: CS4248 (??), OPTi 928 (?), OPL3 (??)
CD-ROM: IDE, proprietary (Sony, Panasonic, Mitsumi)
Street price: ~$70
OS/2 Drivers: Available
Drivers from: BBS, ftp.reveal.com, OS/2 ftp: 929_v2.zip or opti928.zip
Comments: This is based on the OPTi 928 design; see above. These boards are
sold mainly through CompUSA, Sears, Best Buy, and other local stores, as
well as by mail order direct from Reveal.

Reveal SC500 ("SoundFX Wave"), rev. 1:
--------------------------------------
Phone: 800-326-2222 (customer service), 800-535-0339 (orders), 818-704-6300
Fax: 818-594-8477
BBS: 818-713-8188
e-mail: 72662.3604@compuserve.com
web: http://www.reveal.com
Type: Wavetable
Chipset: CS4248, OPTi 929, OPL3 (??)
CD-ROM: IDE, proprietary (Sony, Panasonic, Mitsumi)
Street price: ~$130
OS/2 Drivers: Available, but limited
Drivers from: BBS, ftp.reveal.com, OS/2 ftp: 929_v2.zip or opti928.zip
Comments: This is an OPTi 929-based board; see above.
These boards are sold mainly through CompUSA, Sears, Best Buy, and other
local stores, as well as by mail order direct from Reveal.

Reveal SC500 ("SoundFX Wave"), rev. 3:
--------------------------------------
Phone: 800-326-2222 (customer service), 800-535-0339
(orders), 818-704-6300
Fax: 818-594-8477
BBS: 818-713-8188
e-mail: 72662.3604@compuserve.com
web: http://www.reveal.com
Type: Wavetable
Chipset: ?
CD-ROM: ?
Street price: ?
* OS/2 Drivers: Available but imperfect
* Drivers from: http://www.reveal.com (?)
Comments: Apparently Reveal is playing the version number game with the
SC500 now, and the latest version (rev. 3) is reported to not work with the
OPTi drivers, nor to have any identifiable OPTi chips on it.
*   I've received one report that Reveal has released OS/2 drivers for
*   this board and that they do work, but that IBM's MPU-401 drivers are
*   a bit flakey with the board, as are DOS and Windows support.

Reveal SC600 ("SoundFX Wave 32"):
---------------------------------
Phone: 800-326-2222 (customer service), 800-535-0339
(orders), 818-704-6300
Fax: 818-594-8477
BBS: 818-713-8188
e-mail: 72662.3604@compuserve.com
web: http://www.reveal.com
Type: Wavetable
Chipset: Ensoniq OTTO
CD-ROM: ?
Street price: ~$200 (Now discontinued)
OS/2 Drivers: Uses Ensoniq Soundscape drivers (?); available but limited
Drivers from: ftp.ensoniq.com (?)
Comments: An announcement on the Reveal BBS confirms that this board has
been discontinued, and that Reveal has no plans to develop drivers for it.
As of mid-April, my local Sears store had it in stock but not the SC500.
The brochures from Reveal say that it uses "Soundscape technology from
Ensoniq," and the board does apparently use Ensoniq drivers, at least under
DOS/Windows.  I can't confirm that the same is true under OS/2.

Turtle Beach (various boards):
------------------------------
Phone: 800-645-5640, 717-767-0200
Fax: 717-767-6033
BBS: ?
e-mail: davez@tbeach.com, support@tbeach.com,
sales@tbeach.com
Type: Wavetable or FM synthesis
Chipset: Variable (proprietary, CS4231, ICS WaveFront,
Yamaha OPL3)
CD-ROM: Varies depending upon model
Street price: ~$100-$200+
OS/2 Drivers: Anybody's guess
Drivers from: ftp.tbeach.com, /pub/tbeach/os2
Comments: Turtle Beach recently put some "generic" drivers on their ftp site
which reportedly work with the Monte Carlo and Tropez, but reports are that
these drivers are VERY minimal.  The Tropez board will reportedly work for
digital files (not MIDI) using the OS/2 Warp Business Audio AD1848 driver.
Another post indicates that the Tropez will work with the Compaq audio
driver included with OS/2, but again, only for digital audio (no MIDI
support).  Another post indicates limited success with the Monte Carlo using
the drivers for the Reveal SC400 rev. 4G (OPTi 928).  This same person
indicated that his board bears a stencil of "revision 4G," suggesting the
two may be one and the same hardware.  A more recent post indicates that the
Monte Carlo works very well with the 929_v2.zip drivers (see the OPTi boards
section for details).  Most recently, timur@vnet.ibm.com posted an offer to
write Tropez drivers if he were given a Tropez and development kit, and
krzyszto@ifi.uio.no organized a campaign to collect donations to make this
purchase; e-mail him for more information.  I've received one report of
success with the TB Maui and the MPU-401 drivers, though the individual
reports having to boot OS/2, initialize the card using the provided DOS
software, and reboot.  (Presumably booting DOS first to initialize the card
would also work.)

                        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: SoundBlaster 8-bit (e.g., 8-bit "Value Edition") -- provide
adequate .WAV file playback and tolerable FM synthesis for system sounds and
non-critical game use.  They're also THE standard for DOS games.  I
experienced a number of minor system problems with my 8-bit SB board, though
others haven't reported this. These also aren't easily upgraded, and won't
play back 16-bit .WAV files (but most files on ftp sites and whatnot, as
well as most games, are 8-bit, so this isn't usually a major problem).

OPTi 928-based -- at about $50-$70 street price, these provide 16-bit .WAV
playback and better FM synthesis than an 8-bit SB board, for a small
increase in price.  OS/2 drivers should be adequate.  These cards also have
a wavetable upgrade option, though I gather it's not well-documented, and I
don't know how well it works from OS/2.  The Reveal SC400 rev. 4G is one
such board, but its street price in stores is higher than that of similar
boards at computer swap meets.
Prometheus Aria-16 -- if you can find one, these boards reportedly go for
about $80, which is as cheap as I've heard for wavetable boards.  (See the
section on Aria boards for a possible lead on where to get one for $70.)
OS/2 drivers should be adequate, though I've seen a number of desparaging
comments about the board's sound quality on the net (but this may have been
from "sound snobs," so take it with a grain of salt if you've modest needs
in this respect but still want something a cut above FM synthesis for MIDI
files).

Upgrading from 16-bit FM synthesis to wavetable:
Assorted manufacturers, including Roland, 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. I gather that Roland makes some of the best-sounding of
these boards, but I don't have the details.  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 -- 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.  Beware of
"plug-and-play" SoundBlasters if you're still using OS/2 2.1, though. OPTi
928 (e.g., Reveal SC400 rev. 4g) -- a bit less expensive than the CL boards,
with drivers from the manufacturer rather than in the OS/2 box, and less in
the way of guaranteed compatibility; but better for concurrent Windows and
OS/2 program use.

Solid OS/2 wavetable support:
Creative Labs SoundBlaster AWE 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.  I recommend against the new "Plug-and-Play" version
of this board, though, as drivers for this still seem a bit buggy.
  Prometheus Aria16 or other Aria boards -- the fact that wavetable-
enabled OS/2 drivers EXIST for these boards puts them on the list for this
heading.  May be difficult to find, though.
  IBM Mwave-based boards -- my testing with the miro suggests that wavetable
performance is OK overall.  There's a pause whenever playing a new MIDI
file, and an occasional minor timing glitch. Sound quality is improved if
you modify the MWAVE.INI file to point to the large wavetable samples
installed with Windows support rather than the default medium wavetable
samples that may be installed with OS/2 support.
  Advanced Gravis UltraSound/UltraSound Max -- With the latest 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.  Recording
reportedly doesn't yet work, though, nor does SoundBlaster emulation for DOS
sessions.  You'll also have to pay the registration fee for the Manley
drivers.  Since I haven't seen an explicit claim that wavetable support
exists for the new "plug- and-play" versions of these boards, I'd be a bit
wary of them, though Robert Manley says he's working on official support.
  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.
  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 -- 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).
  Mwave boards -- aside from the incompatible Windows voicemail software,
the performance of my miro board was exemplary for Win-OS/2 use, once
installed (it required installation of the Windows drivers under native
DOS/Windows).
  OPTi 929 -- The latest (opti928.zip) drivers for these boards give full
Win-OS/2 support, though this may require initially installing drivers from
DOS/Windows.  OS/2 wavetable support is also good *IF* you've got access to
IBM's BETA MPU-401 drivers, otherwise you'll be missing wavetable sound in
OS/2 (this obviously applies only to wavetable-equipped boards; OS/2 FM
synthesis MIDI support is fine).
  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.
  For the miro and Reveal, which I've tested, I've also not tested much or
any under DOS/Windows once OS/2 support was installed, so this is an
unknown.

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).
  OPTi 928/929 -- The latest drivers put this board 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.

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 Roland, 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.
  IBM Mwave-based boards -- these would be my wavetable board of choice with
these features, if I had to buy just one board. Supports up to 28,800 bps
(v.34).  Windows voicemail software reportedly works under OS/2, though not
with the miro with driver versions 1.33 and earlier; and native OS/2
software is under development.
  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.

Microchannel (MCA) boards:
  Reply board -- I know virtually nothing about this, other than that it's
based upon the Vibra-16 chip (see that section for contact information).  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.
  ChipChat 16 and 32 -- These are FM synthesis and wavetable Sound- Blaster
clones for MCA.  I know little about them except that they exist, so I
suggest proceeding with caution, especially if you require wavetable sound.
  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.

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 mays 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.

So, I hope this has been helpful to somebody.  As I mentioned earlier, if I
get much feedback and/or more information, I'll revise this document and
re-post it.

------------End

