Image not mine, found on Pinterest via search engine that is NOT Google.
One point that last month's post should have elaborated is the fact that, at least when it comes to retro PC gaming of 20th-century vintage, there is no one-size-fits-all audio card solution because of the sheer number of supported standards. Some options, like older offerings from Aztech Labs for instance, may appear to come close on paper, but the truth is such devices attempting to cover such a huge variety of standards did so at the expense of execution. As will be elaborated further today, the standard-setters themselves were not immune to this tendency. But before we get into that, I must grant due respect by clarifying some specific points:
I may have seemed overly harsh on MediaVision's PAS standard by neglecting the interested fans of early 90s Sierra games that exclusively support stereo FM synthesis via the original 8-bit cards; while a PAS16 is still relatively easy to find today, it is not backwards-compatible in this manner due to its upgrade to OPL3 (Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 has the same issue relative to original Sound Blaster Pro, only with far fewer games affected by it) and an original PAS or PAS+ is as difficult to obtain as other rarities from the era, but emulation support now solves that problem
I mentioned it but did not explain due to how long the post had already grown: while pioneered by Roland GS, the General MIDI standard opened the industry up to custom choices of instrument sets by anyone, and results in some are not infrequently considered on par or better than Roland's; the sticking point is that, with a handful of known exceptions for Yamaha's XG models (a few Japanese-originated games) and Sound Blaster AWE32's wavetable (Heretic plus the small list of games which use custom patches exclusively with that card), compositions were done either for Roland devices or no specific MIDI device at all thus desired quality of results will always be a matter of subjectivity
While for DirectX-based Windows it was a non-issue, not that many DOS games support 16-bit PCM (a database of them is kept here) and those which do tend to exhibit bugs that make some choices of 16-bit cards objectively superior to others depending on the game (more on this later today)
Since the focus of last month's subject was the sound standards themselves, ISA & PCI compatibility issues were not touched upon; this will be covered regarding some of the more prominent choices today, but one highly-regarded that will not is Yamaha's YMF family with its genuine on-board OPL and [save for some varied Sound Blaster ADPCM modes] superb native DOS support
The Contestants
I started by noticing that 1995 was a great year to be on the market for an audio upgrade: just about any DOS-based need could be covered by the plethora of options now on the budget market thanks to ISA still not having been fully supplanted, 16-bit PCM was currently baseline regardless of specific standard, many chipsets covered 16-bit Windows well since WSS compatibility was a popular inclusion, and driver complications were about to get overhauled in a big way thanks to Windows 95 plug-and-play. It would still be a little while before DirectX officially launched and Windows 9x finally succeeded extended DOS as the prime gaming choice; as such, through 1997 options seen were a very interesting straddling of the old and the new regarding operating systems and bus standards. Windows 95 permanently addressed sound standard disparities in its native support (one of the reasons this is also when motherboard audio first grew in desktop popularity) which, for the most part, translated well to DOS games played within its DOS box...but this was no help to the fairly large list of games that could not run under Windows due to various compatibility issues, thus keeping native DOS support an important feature.
I chose these 3 card types for their combination of 32-bit Windows compatibility, General MIDI support in native DOS, and 16-bit PCM via proprietary standards that were nevertheless all supported by DOS games of the time:
Sound Blaster AWE: Sound Blaster 16
AMD InterWave: Gravis UltraSound
Soundscape/AudioPCI: Ensoniq SoundScape
Category 1: Sound Blaster Compatibility
The first widely-supported digital PCM standard for PCs was a first-come first-served coup for Creative. Even by 1991 it was clear any worthwhile sound device for gaming needed to support, at the very least, the original 8-bit/22 kHz protocols as devices which failed to do so either had to fall out of the market (i.e. Disney Sound Source) or blaze a trail of its own and try to keep it up while not leaving others behind (i.e. Pro Audio Spectrum designed to operate alongside its SB-compatible Thunder Board). Even more exotic offerings such as Covox Speech Thing and its clones eventually had to accommodate a software-based option for at least some level of SB support.
Gravis UltraSound was one of the first of these, yet despite getting the rough deal of being first to offer Sound Blaster support solely via software emulation (with the key exception of UltraSound Extreme and its clones) the result is remarkably good...if limited like other options of the day. In legacy mode, 1995's Windows-compatible UltraSound Plug & Play is basically an enhanced GUS with a different driver set. As such, it delivers only first-generation SB support but its emulator notably covers unique ADPCM modes.
The Sound Blaster AWE family, on the digital PCM side at least, is identical to Sound Blaster 16. Yet for native-supporting DOS games, Creative may have had good reason to proclaim itself the game industry standard when AWE32 first launched in 1994 but in practice it was still merely one choice among several. The key weakness of Sound Blaster 16, as stated in the last post, is that it fails to cover Sound Blaster Pro digital stereo which affects a small handful of games. In this category that is considered less of an issue than the fact that, being a Creative device, it supports original Sound Blaster in full including ADPCM.
When Ensoniq Soundscape S-2000 first launched in 1994 it was like a GUS 2.0 (the two families even had similar wavetable chipsets): a significant upgrade over 8-bit & FM synthesis but backwards compatibility with either had mixed results at best. They even followed similar progressions: Soundscape VIVO is not only contemporary with GUS PnP but parallels most of the feature set. While the OPUS & VIVO models (the latter of which happens to be the most affordable ISA Soundscape today) have an Analog Devices chipset that offers some level hardware-based support while all others use software emulation, generally the feature set is identical: support for Sound Blaster Pro plus Windows Sound Standard but lacking the Creative-unique ADPCM (an issue most may not care about because it affects only a handful of games, but I care because I am an Apogee fan and 3 affected games are 1993 in-house titles by Apogee).
Winner: AWE for full native hardware-based support
Runner-up: GUS for decent software-based support if driver configuration complications are overcome
Honorable: Soundscape could trump GUS depending on card type and whether standalone or not
Category 2: Adlib Compatibility
In the early days this corresponded perfectly to Sound Blaster support, but by 1995 that was no longer the case. Compositions geared towards FM synthesis shrunk exclusively to the budget/shareware realm before being supplanted altogether between proliferation of General MIDI and CD audio. Yet many in the retro gaming community retain fond memories of soundtracks from this time that were composed so well they sound great on FM despite being made for wavetable, not to mention that for those of us who are fans of shareware or older games that use OPL for special effects proper translation is a must.
This is going to be quick and easy, though: unless you possess a variant of the mega-rare GUS Extreme with its on-board ESS AudioDrive (which not only offers superb OPL3 compatibility but its native ESFM is considered superior in some games), a Creative card [despite some using CQM instead of OPL] is simply the only viable option. Gravis and Ensoniq hardware attempts to translate its wavetable instruments sets for backwards compatibility with older standards; this works OK for Roland LA music (not custom effects) but the results for FM synthesis range from laughable to sickening.
Winner: AWE exclusively for native hardware support
Category 3: Wavetable Quality
All three of these hardware families were geared specifically towards MIDI support, even GUS which was developed at the same time as General MIDI thus not produced with it necessarily in mind. All support some type of MT-32 fallback mode which translates its on-board instruments to emulate the Roland LA devices, with the caveat that expanded and customer instruments are unsupported thus making sound effects and some compositions sound way off (an issue affecting everyone: even the MT-32 compatibility mode on Roland Sound Canvas devices worked the same way; any game developed for Roland LA only works properly on an actual Roland LA device or full emulation solution like Munt). General MIDI was a common standard by 1994: the order of instruments were technically the same, but different developers synthesized them their own different ways [thus the endless debates about what is best for what games].
He may have been just another subjective observer, but in the mid-90s Rich Heimlich was in the unique position of being able to compare MIDI cards of the day and document his findings. His method, which involved playing MIDI files, differs from the retro gamer's preference towards evaluating music as it plays within the games, but is still a good starting point for considering relative instrument quality. His notes make a great time capsule of the day's options, since his overall evaluations account for other pertinent factors such as standards compatibility and ease of setup.
First-generation Ensoniq Soundscapes are great quality for MIDI music if mixed for games composed for Roland GS devices...yet that quality is inaccessible today since those particular cards go for hundreds on the rare occasion they appear at all. Second-generation Soundscapes are accessible but definitely take a MIDI quality hit, though they still achieve being something above entry-level. Ensoniq's final offering, the AudioPCI, shifted to full software-based soundbanking but lost its identity in the process: it is less a Soundscape and more a predecessor to Sound Blaster Live! but its MIDI quality, even using larger patch sets, is generally considered inferior to its ISA ancestry.
Despite sharing the same base chipset as Ensoniq (OTTO), GUS native MIDI support is rougher because it is geared towards the family's lowest common denominator of 256 KB memory for loading instrument patches (Soundscape minimum is 1 MB). This is definitely entry-level wavetable, but depending on the game it still provides those great retro vibes many prefer (early modernized ports of the original Doom series used GUS patches for its music). Because of the rarity of GUS cards, however, this is most likely to be experienced only through emulation.
Despite Rich Heimlich triggering an uproar over rating its quality higher than GUS, AWE wavetable is likewise entry-level. Like GUS it can sound great depending on the game (particularly those that upload custom instrument sets on this family only), but memory-predatory TSRs and serious bugs such as the infamous "hanging notes MIDI" put a damper on its desirability. While I have personal experience with these cards and they have emulation support in PCem and its offshoots, they have plenty of issues which are already elaborated by DOS Days involving their configuration and alternatives.
Since I am not counting AudioPCI in this evaluation (not that Ensoniq needs a handicap), another factor for GUS and AWE is their soundbanking capacity. Someone made higher-quality patches for GUS, but the supreme advantage on this front goes to AWE since their memory could be expanded [depending on specific model] up to 32 MB and their soundfont format is compatible with the same type commonly used today making options near-limitless. But as anyone who has done their homework knows, getting soundfonts working in native DOS is quite the chore and AWE is not the only option for that particular capability.
Winner: SoundScape, just as would be expected from an electronic music company
Runner-up: AWE has no great stock wavetable but soundfont support can more than make up for it
Honorable: certain older games with MIDI soundtracks seem to like the GUS instrument sets better
Category 4: Proprietary Game Support
While another simpler matter for evaluation, the truth is none of the contestants are weak in this regard. There is a clear winner only because it has the advantage of being older and got more games to exploit its strong capabilities for the time, but the others have wide support of most games from the era which matter. The rest of this section will be a commentary on unique factors rather than a relative weighing.
The better of the emulators included with GUS is Mega-Em since that activates Sound Blaster support & MIDI compatibility, but extended DOS games will not play nice with the memory manager it requires to run which would coerce falling back to the inferior SBOS (the one that emulates FM) on any such game unless it supports GUS natively. Fortunately, Links 386 Pro is the only title in which that appears to be the case, and it is technically unique anyway. As the vast majority of protected mode DOS games have native GUS support (some may need patching) it is a superb choice for 16-bit digital audio, but fans of games using the Apogee Sound System (Rise of the Triad and anything on the Build Engine) should be aware that minor quirks with high-fidelity PCM playback have been observed due to how that particular protocol mixes in stereo.
SoundScape support parallels GUS well, two years separated (note: I capitalize SoundScape in reference to the standard itself as it appeared in game setup menus, though the hardware is named Soundscape). Game support is more varied and less wide: I notice it was well-supported by Apogee and LucasArts but MicroProse barely touched it, and patches for older games enabling SoundScape support are much less prolific than the same for GUS and AWE. Sound Blaster Pro support, which needs a memory manager (but the TSR is tiny), lets it cover most stereo PCM games that run in real mode.
The attributes of the AWE family are something those interested need to evaluate for themselves, but at least native game compatibility is no more of an issue than with the other two. Like them AWE functions most smoothly in games with native support of which there are many (some pre-1994 even got patched), but barring that the AWE cards have native Sound Blaster 16 support as their fallback which can be plus or minus depending on the game. Unfortunately its best standalone assets are curtailed in Build Engine games which run into serious problems if high-fidelity PCM plays concurrent with MIDI from the card.
Winner: GUS launched first and got the widest support, several games exclusively using its 16-bit PCM
Runner-up: AWE has deficiencies in some games but there is no beating the range of Creative support
Honorable: for certain titles SoundScape offers the best option for bug-free 16-bit high-fidelity
Category 5: Miscellaneous
This category relates to ease of setup, ability for end-users to make the most of the hardware in games, and other possibly pertinent factors. As such these matters may not be important to everyone, but the greater issues have already been covered with game support being the most important. While it has [as of this year] been throttled by a new subscription model, MobyGames remains the best starting point to research what is covered by what hardware (provided it is kept in mind that the MobyGames database is user supported thus not guaranteed to be comprehensive): Sound Devices Supported - MobyGames.
While more associated with 16-bit Windows, games exist in which Windows Sound System is among the high-fidelity options. Ensoniq hardware supports WSS natively, while the AMD InterWave found on GUS PnP (but not any GF1-based GUS) could possibly be configured as such via "fooling" the address offsets (elaborated here). No DOS games come to mind in which this would be a practical choice above native support of the base hardware standard, but there could be a non-gaming advantage in old Windows.
Regarding software configuration, in general the closer to installing something so that it "just works" the better, within the condition that manual configuration (which may not be forthcoming on plug-and-play hardware) is necessary to avoid conflicts in the multi-card setups of retro PCs. Particular circumstances, like disabling Adlib calls on GUS or Soundscape in order to avoid conflict with another device offering superior FM synthesis, are another consideration. AWE TSRs are the most predatory while Soundscape is the least, and while the memory manager vs. protected mode conflict technically exists it is practically rendered moot by how widespread native game support is.
Winner: SoundScape "just works" best, has the smallest footprint and emulates intelligent mode MPU
Runner-up: GUS has an edge on native game support, more complicated when emulation gets involved
Honorable: AWE, even older models, has the potential to be a configuration headache in native DOS
Conclusion
Like I said before: it is amazing what still remains to be learned even after studying something for years. I am among those who hope first-generation Ensoniq Soundscape emulation (or cloning) is forthcoming because it really was something else for its wavetable quality and the original cards in which that was the case are now unobtanium. On the note of emulation, another advantage it offers is practice configuring these cards for running with games in a risk-free virtualized environment; they may have been frustrating challenges back in the day, but getting these things to work is now part of the nostalgic fun.
My own weighing of these factors has led to a decision I did not anticipate because I never thought the opportunity would even be available: I have replaced my AWE64 Gold with a newly-made clone of the Gravis UltraSound Plug & Play (this one, though mine is not direct from Scandinavia but a lightly-used one with full memory upgrade I got via a US-based seller), a possibility I had ruled out years ago when I noticed how expensive GUS cards were selling for [and how often they were failing to work]. I know this sacrifices some usability and configuration (since I do want to use its Sound Blaster emulation for the ADPCM coverage) meaning fun times ahead, but I knew that would be worth it since I am a fan of Epic titles and other games that exclusively support high-fidelity GUS mixing [and unique GUS soundtracks] plus I have other cards (like a Yamaha YMF PCI) that cover deficits in other standards.
Not in a sense of actual numbers, but my own particular gaming interests, my goal is to support as many viable standards, audio and video, in my retro PC as I can (preferably without emulation). Adding GUS support is a big part of that accomplished which would not have happened if not for the enthusiasm of the retro community in developing this clone hardware. It is just a matter of time (hopefully distant time) before emulation remains the only option due to aging hardware failures, but supporting this hobby via its replication projects is a great way to defer that outcome.
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