surround sound!
surround sound!
Got an old Pentium Pro 180 MHz I use for late-stage DOS games, it has a Sound Blaster 32, ISA PnP (not AWE32), which has two 30-pin SIMM slots to install RAM. Installing the RAM gives you the capability of uploading your own instrument banks to the card. Can also load sound samples and use them as instruments.
I had some 1 meg SIMMS laying around, so I installed those. Found some Gravis Ultrasound-like soundfonts on VOGONS that would fit in the 2 mb RAM on the card. This was a big improvement on the stock Creative instrument banks, which sound like shit.
Once I got bored with that, I found some 16 mb SIMMS on ebay for a good price and installed those. There's a free soundfont instrument bank out there on the internet called Chorium that appears to be made for SB32/AWE32/64 cards with 32 mb RAM.
Holy shit. Massive improvement in music. This is about the coolest thing I've done with this kind machine in a long time. I find there's many instruments with parts in game music that I haven't even heard before.
Only downside is, it takes 1:10 more time to boot, since it takes that long to load all 32 mb (actually it's 28, because reasons) through the ISA bus.
If you have a SB32/AWE32/64 in an old ISA bus machine, I highly recommend upgrading the RAM if possible and loading the Chorium soundfont.
Got an old Pentium Pro 180 MHz I use for late-stage DOS games, it has a Sound Blaster 32, ISA PnP (not AWE32), which has two 30-pin SIMM slots to install RAM. Installing the RAM gives you the capability of uploading your own instrument banks to the card. Can also load sound samples and use them as instruments.
I had some 1 meg SIMMS laying around, so I installed those. Found some Gravis Ultrasound-like soundfonts on VOGONS that would fit in the 2 mb RAM on the card. This was a big improvement on the stock Creative instrument banks, which sound like shit.
Once I got bored with that, I found some 16 mb SIMMS on ebay for a good price and installed those. There's a free soundfont instrument bank out there on the internet called Chorium that appears to be made for SB32/AWE32/64 cards with 32 mb RAM.
Holy shit. Massive improvement in music. This is about the coolest thing I've done with this kind machine in a long time. I find there's many instruments with parts in game music that I haven't even heard before.
Only downside is, it takes 1:10 more time to boot, since it takes that long to load all 32 mb (actually it's 28, because reasons) through the ISA bus.
If you have a SB32/AWE32/64 in an old ISA bus machine, I highly recommend upgrading the RAM if possible and loading the Chorium soundfont.
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