SoundBlaster Pro Compatiblity

486DX2-50 · Post by **486DX2-50** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 1:53 am

I've read The Right HardStuff and posts in this forum, what I'd like to know is whether the SoundBlaster AWE 64 improved on SoundBlaster Pro compatiblity? I know the SoundBlaster 16 has problems with stereo when using SoundBlaster pro compatiblity, but was this problem rectified in the AWE 32 or 64? I've had trouble finding this information.

Thanks

jmmijo · Post by **jmmijo** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 9:34 am

You know that's a good question and I'm afraid I can't answer that one for you, sorry

If I remember correctly, the SB Pro was the 8-bit Stereo sound was it not as compared to the SB16 which took it to 16-bit sound ?!?

I guess the only way to know is to try it out and see what happens, but I imagine you are asking this as you want to know first before buying an old AWE64 then ?!?

GameMaster.EXE · Post by **GameMaster.EXE** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 8:01 pm

I don't know quite much about this either, but I'm using just a regular SoundBlaster and the audio and just fine. SB32, now that I've got to see.

jmmijo · Post by **jmmijo** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 9:21 pm

GameMaster.EXE wrote:I don't know quite much about this either, but I'm using just a regular SoundBlaster and the audio and just fine. SB32, now that I've got to see.

The SB32 was an enhanced SB16 in that it came with one or two 30-pin SIMM slots for memory so you could do wavetable sound as well

Unknown_K · Post by **Unknown_K** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 9:44 am

The Soundblaster 16 and later cards were never Soundblaster Pro 2.0 100% compatible because of changes in hardware (I have a SBpro 2.0 just for this reason).

jmmijo · Post by **jmmijo** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 10:54 am

Unknown_K wrote:The Soundblaster 16 and later cards were never Soundblaster Pro 2.0 100% compatible because of changes in hardware (I have a SBpro 2.0 just for this reason).

So do you know which games, if any, are effected by this issue ?!?

I'm sure there are some but couldn't you then just use the older SB 1.0 compatible mode instead

Unknown_K · Post by **Unknown_K** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 3:19 pm

jmmijo wrote:
Unknown_K wrote:The Soundblaster 16 and later cards were never Soundblaster Pro 2.0 100% compatible because of changes in hardware (I have a SBpro 2.0 just for this reason).
So do you know which games, if any, are effected by this issue ?!?

I'm sure there are some but couldn't you then just use the older SB 1.0 compatible mode instead

http://www.oldskool.org/guides/oldonnew/sound

SB16 Isn't a Pro
One of the more subtle reasons Wolfenstien 3D was such a success in 1992 was because of the way it handled sound on a Sound Blaster Pro: When an enemy was to your right, you heard him on your right; when a shot was fired off to your left, you heard it on the left, etc. It was one of the first true immersive stereo experiences, and also helped you play the game better because you had an audio clue as to where the enemy was.

If you've tried to play this game (or any other game that supports stereo sound on the Sound Blaster Pro) on your modern sound card, however, you've probably noticed that it's not in stereo, which detracts from the fun. You're not going deaf; it really isn't in stereo. Here's why: Most modern sound cards are either the Sound Blaster 16 or clones of the Sound Blaster 16. The Sound Blaster 16 is backward compatible with earlier versions of the Sound Blaster, with one exception--the on-board mixer. The Sound Blaster 16 improved the on-board mixer of the Sound Blaster Pro, giving it finer control over volume levels and automatic gain control. What they forgot to include was the filtering system, which had two functions: A high-pass filter that muted the sound, and a stereo/mono filter that controlled whether or not the output of the card was mono or stereo. To do stereo sound, the Sound Blaster Pro would initialize a 44100Hz digitized output stream, then flip the stereo/mono filter bit, which converted the output stream into 22050Hz stereo.

Without this filter, modern sound cards initialize the 44100Hz mono stream okay, but then do nothing when the stereo/mono filter bit is flipped--because it doesn't exist. So you're left with mono sound. There is no way to fix this problem without switching to a sound card that says it is explicitly Sound Blaster Pro compatible.

A small footnote on this issue: When I discovered this, I felt cheated by Creative Labs and called them up to complain. They responded by asking me to look at the box and find where it said it was Sound Blaster Pro compatible. I couldn't find it! Damn those marketing people! You'd think that a new product in a product line would be compatible with older versions of the product... Well, the box did say it was 100% Sound Blaster compatible, and it was--with the original Sound Blaster only.