This is definitely sounding to me like something's up with the dream chip itself. check the pins with a needle or safety pin to make sure they're all soldered down still. An idea for a video would be to put multiple sound cards against each other against a SCUMM game like Beneath A Steel Sky which seems to have a penchant for only working with certain cards in certain modes. for instance, no matter what I've tried, the CS4237B is not able to properly function with the "talkie" version once a voice starts playing, but will happily run with the "floppy" version with no speech. I still to this day have never figured out why. but, I'm sure other cards with sound blaster emulation must not have this issue.
Thanks! Yes, I think I ll check /resolder the pins of the admos qdsp to see if it helps, as well as with the DAC. Never played B.a.s.s. so far but sounds interesting to check and compare👍
PT8211 is the DAC (pin 6 L-out, pin 8 R-out), 24C16 seems to be the PNP EEPROM. The DAC is dirt cheap on Aliexpress so you could try replacing it... or probing the outputs directly to see if the problem is further on... Might be worth replacing the decoupling capacitor next to it or bridging it with another
I checked some pictures online, and it seems to be a real possibility. The 5th pin on the back of the card (starting from the bracket) seems to be connected to a capacitor. Maybe nothing on the card uses the -5v except the MIDI chip. Check your (presumedly ATX) power supply for the -5v wire!
Some suggest the WT synth chip may be the culprit, which may be right, but from the sound of it, I'd say the synth may as well be good but there may be some data corruption inside the WT ROM going on. Some instuments were fine, some almost fine, and some totally messed up. If the synth chip was bad, I think nothing woud sound right, but I heard some sounds that actually were correct. I jsut don't know if it's possible to re-write the ROM (and where to get the data for it) or you just need another ROM chip.
I have a qdsp on a opti chip card and it wasnt working right until i used the original driver that wrote the eeprom chip. Maybe something is up with your eeprom. Id also check the pins for loose connections.
Maybe trying original drivers? I know, makes not much sense with QDSQ wavetable. Does it have dedicated DAC? Then replace that. If it utilizes an integrated DAC in the Crystal, original crystal drivers might come in handy. Last option, less speed for the ISA bus.
Thanks! The small IC to the right of the admos qdsp (PTxxx) is said to be it's DAC and maybe the one to look at and check/replace. But I should try crystal drivers /!windows drivers first indeed
Hört sich übel an oder? 😅 Ja, müsste eigentlich eine ähnliche Karte in meiner Sammlung haben irgendwo. Danke, hab hier schon gute Anregungen und Hinweise bekommen zum testen :-)
Wave /sound effects and FMis totally fine, tested in Doom II and Descent. Unfortunately I won't be able to check if clock signals are good but maybe can replace the clock crystal above the qdsp wave table ic if I find a donor card. Thanks!
@@pc-sound-legacy only now listened to the last 2 minutes. Can also be a lifted GM chip leg. You can try finger it over chips while playback. Necroware user/channel could probably say more about this issue.
I think the OPL3 sounds lovely. The bass synth at 4:07 is amazing 😍
This is definitely sounding to me like something's up with the dream chip itself. check the pins with a needle or safety pin to make sure they're all soldered down still.
An idea for a video would be to put multiple sound cards against each other against a SCUMM game like Beneath A Steel Sky which seems to have a penchant for only working with certain cards in certain modes. for instance, no matter what I've tried, the CS4237B is not able to properly function with the "talkie" version once a voice starts playing, but will happily run with the "floppy" version with no speech. I still to this day have never figured out why. but, I'm sure other cards with sound blaster emulation must not have this issue.
Thanks! Yes, I think I ll check /resolder the pins of the admos qdsp to see if it helps, as well as with the DAC. Never played B.a.s.s. so far but sounds interesting to check and compare👍
PT8211 is the DAC (pin 6 L-out, pin 8 R-out), 24C16 seems to be the PNP EEPROM. The DAC is dirt cheap on Aliexpress so you could try replacing it... or probing the outputs directly to see if the problem is further on...
Might be worth replacing the decoupling capacitor next to it or bridging it with another
Thanks for the suggestions! When the DAC is cheap I think a replacement is worth a try👍
Is it possible that it requires -5v on the ISA bus?
I checked some pictures online, and it seems to be a real possibility. The 5th pin on the back of the card (starting from the bracket) seems to be connected to a capacitor. Maybe nothing on the card uses the -5v except the MIDI chip. Check your (presumedly ATX) power supply for the -5v wire!
I was listening to this in the background and got jumpscared by 6:34 lol
@@DOSStorm 😄
Lmao
Some suggest the WT synth chip may be the culprit, which may be right, but from the sound of it, I'd say the synth may as well be good but there may be some data corruption inside the WT ROM going on. Some instuments were fine, some almost fine, and some totally messed up. If the synth chip was bad, I think nothing woud sound right, but I heard some sounds that actually were correct.
I jsut don't know if it's possible to re-write the ROM (and where to get the data for it) or you just need another ROM chip.
I have a qdsp on a opti chip card and it wasnt working right until i used the original driver that wrote the eeprom chip. Maybe something is up with your eeprom.
Id also check the pins for loose connections.
At 6:55 there's a shot of the AW-1000 chip, is there a solder bridge on the top row of pins towards the left?
Maybe trying original drivers? I know, makes not much sense with QDSQ wavetable. Does it have dedicated DAC? Then replace that. If it utilizes an integrated DAC in the Crystal, original crystal drivers might come in handy. Last option, less speed for the ISA bus.
Thanks! The small IC to the right of the admos qdsp (PTxxx) is said to be it's DAC and maybe the one to look at and check/replace. But I should try crystal drivers /!windows drivers first indeed
Um, um wow...
I read this in Owen Wilson's voice... and you just reminded me that I should send you my Gold clone for a reflashing. Completely forgot about that.
This does not sound normal . Maybe a component failure ? Or unisound not working well even if it's pnp ?
Yes, first thing I will try is the crystal driver and windows driver instead, just to be sure unsound isn't the reason.Thanks!
6:35 JESUS! Was ist denn DA passiert?
Habe von der Karte allerdings auch noch nie etwas gehört. Hast du noch andere Crystal-Karten zum Vergleich?
Hört sich übel an oder? 😅 Ja, müsste eigentlich eine ähnliche Karte in meiner Sammlung haben irgendwo. Danke, hab hier schon gute Anregungen und Hinweise bekommen zum testen :-)
@@pc-sound-legacy
Ich dachte zuerst, MEINE Soundkarte veruracht das. Wäre nicht das erste mal ...
Hast du Treiber dafür gefunden? Ich nicht.
@Rumms-Bumms69 Paddy hat mir vorhin gerade ne ISO der Treiber-CD geschickt :) Schaue ich mir nachher mal an
Crystal VS. Yamaha OPL3: ua-cam.com/video/mY89BtFwvjs/v-deo.html
Bad clock signal switching instruments? Noise seems ok, is wave also ok?
Wave /sound effects and FMis totally fine, tested in Doom II and Descent. Unfortunately I won't be able to check if clock signals are good but maybe can replace the clock crystal above the qdsp wave table ic if I find a donor card. Thanks!
@@pc-sound-legacy only now listened to the last 2 minutes. Can also be a lifted GM chip leg. You can try finger it over chips while playback.
Necroware user/channel could probably say more about this issue.