Added: 6 months ago
From: phreakindee
Views: 11,335
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  • Did you try adjusting the sample rate in Adobe Audition to match the output the CMS card? That could be the problem.

  • @indignantatheist There should be annotations in the video that describe what was wrong. But basically, Audition was set to only record one channel from line-in. Changed out to stereo and it was fine.

  • is youtube starting to advertize rogues now?

  • That really took me back. As a kid who got stuck with a Game Blaster, the biggest thing going for the Adlib was that it could play drums. Sort of. Not having heard that music played on that card since the '80s, the lack of drums is what really sticks out. The drums in that piece are actually pretty good.

  • Sounds quite similar to the MSX to me. Nice sound.

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  • First

  • sounds quite arcade, very nice, what's the exact configuration? pc speaker via cms "line-in" and then speakers?

    does it have a adlib chip for music? and the shootergame is with this adlib music?

  • @marquis0r If you're asking about the CMS in particular and not the SB1.5, it's just CMS sound through its line out. PC speaker is totally separate and CMS is used for music, as shown in the video with Silpheed.

    The SB1.5 on the other hand has AdLib for music in addition to the CMS chips. All I showed in this video was CMS music though.

  • @phreakindee aaah thx, i was a bit confused about that... so you can say CMS native support sounds similar (at least a bit) like a tandy 3-voice speaker system. very nice! i was looking for something like a tandy soundcard for my 286, so this might be a good alternative, although it's not so much supported like tandy i guess.

  • Awesome video! Very well done.

  • at the stat of the video i paused it ( to let it load of course)

    and the... i saw... your face...

    me gusta

  • Of all the video reviewers etc on utube, your the coolest and least douchiest!!!

  • Was that actual 3D graphics at the beginning of the game or just vector?

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  • @clongoram *The first game.

  • @clongoram The ships during gameplay is made up of 3D polygons as far as I know. Not sure about the intro, it might just be some kind of vector thing going on. I have a full review of Silpheed explaining a bit more.

  • Wow im admiring the classic-ness of your computer case there then noticed that there is a 5.25 floppy plugged in. Wow, havent seen one of those in years.

  • I have no idea how I got here but I enjoyed every second of it,

  • You have one of the same passions as I do. How old are you? 26 here. You don't seem much older. I'd say it's rare that someone our age (presuming you're around the same) has similar interests in such hardware.

    This video was awesome man. I have subscribed.

  • @LanIost Yes, 25 here. It is a bit unusual, glad to meet another!

  • I actually own such a rare SGI workstation, and can confirm that the SAA1399 is on the IO board.

  • @PimpinBassie2 Awesome stuff, thanks for the confirmation!

  • It's cool watching you screw :) QC

  • Can I PLEASE have a link to the Organ program? I can NOT find it. If u do, I'll give u a cookie (not really LOL).

  • Nice computer case

  • you have same monitor as me

  • i love aphex twin (:

  • Dude these old forgotten machine's are so much more interesting then today's pc's.

  • @xxdavidhaloxx Absolutely true.

  • the recording sounds like it drops a lot of low frequencies. bump da bass!!

  • Back then I think I can comfortably say that hardware synths beat the pc straight up. I have an old old workstation (hardware synth) from 89 called the Korg T3. Even that has sequencing abilities, and some of the sounds are actually excellent! It's not the same as for instance my Motif XS (modern Yamaha workstation synth) but it's actually good some cool features and sounds. But ok... Both those synths are about same price; (in their respective periods..) just about $5000

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  • 22:00 SCREAMER! D8

  • Singapore? That's where I live!:-)

  • Hello, great video and please ask me if there is any douchery that I can defend you from ;)

    One question, how were you able to switch the video plug on the monitor so quickly from your obviously modern machine to the old one at 11:31?

    Sorry for my incompetence, I can't remember what machine you are using there to test the SB, *takes a wild guess* A 386-equipped one, perhaps?

  • @VTS1337 My monitor has both SVGA and DVI connectors in the rear, so I hook both up at once. It also has a switch that you see me press to go between the signals.

    And it's my NCR Comten 386SX, I did an overview video of it a while back if you're interested.

  • @phreakindee Ah yes I remember.

    Very nice, I wonder if my BenQ has a similar feature...?

  • i could imagine the first time getting this card back in the day,, turning a game on and hearing that would of blown my little mind!!

  • @Shiqna1 oh you know... video hidden in the metal or wooden crate. You open it with a crowbar or just wrap the paper and boom - there is the video xD

  • @Shiqna1 Whoa relax! You've misunderstood what I wrote. I am a big SID-fan! There are many SIDs, especially the early ones, that sound really similar to what the CMS produces which I find to be pretty characteristic. That doesn't mean the SID can't do more, I'm well aware of the capabilities of this fantastic chip. :)

  • I don't have much experience with it, but the C/MS / Game Blaster sounds somewhat NES-like to me. I was glad to see that phreakindee shared my reaction to TD3's CMS music, as it sounded like bad Tandy music to me. Silpheed sounded great, but the Japanese have always been better at composing for those old sound generator chips. Western developers liked to use all sound cards as if they were cheap MIDI synths, which tends to make them sound much more mediocre.

  • If anyone have a copy of the Creative Music System's Intelligent Organ. Just PM me please !

  • PROTIP: Use a AUX wire and plug it into the audio output of the old PC and the other end into a microphone input in another computer and use Audacity or any other sound recording program that lets you use mics and record, you have directly recorded the sound in stereo.

  • @larryinc64 Don't ever use the mic input of a sound card to record line-level audio. Most mic inputs are single-channel (i.e., mono instead of stereo) and have hardware or software pre-amplifiers that will mess with the sound levels. Instead, use the Line-In or Aux inputs.

    It's also worth mentioning that some old sound cards have both amplified and unamplified outputs. You'll want to record from the unamplified outputs because the other ones are for cheap speakers/headphones.

  • Very similar "bee-in-a-box"(?) sound to one of the Atari ST's modes.

  • Creative Music System Intelligent Organ Version 2.02

    DJ should drop that at the club :D

  • Silphed music does not sound as good as adlib or later sound blaster 2.0 but it has it's own unique tembre. 17:18 was kinda epic.

    Keep them up. I just love to watch those videos, especially when they're yet to be unboxed.

    Test drive 20:45 - sounds like it is generated by pc speaker. Well square sounds do their job. But many old racing games on PC had that noisy screetch and wub of the "engine car". I hated that :D

    The review is awesome, you just do this with heart and pure fun. I like that.

  • WTF Mastertits :)

  • LOL @ 10:46, great review!

  • I remember my first computer had the built in PC audio, a separate card for music, a separate card for midi, and the CD drive audio wouldn't mix with the system. Four sets of speakers laying around it...Ugh.

  • First off, thanks for your channel! I just love it. Regarding your recording problem: Try to record at the same sample-rate and bit-depth (8bit i guess) as your audio card playing back the sound. Modern sound sampling software tries to antialias the waveform to the target-rate and you will lose the hard, crisp oldschool sound. I had the same problem some time ago while recording something from my Amiga.

  • Might someone let me know why people "Thumbs up" Video creators reponses/comments?...LIke on...Every video?

  • Lol, doesn't he say he takes requests?...He's yet to reply to mine from 3 months ago. LOLOL!!!

  • @xObediencex Three months? That's nothing, I have requests from 2 years ago I haven't gotten to.

    Sure, I'll take requests, but I never promised I'll fulfill them. I often get dozens a day, there's no way I can.

  • I've been wanting a CMS or SB1.0 for the longest time, but I can never seem to find any for sale. It sounds like a souped up NES. Ultima 6 sounds pretty cool on CMS, too.

  • @beigemore Yeah, it's taken me ages to locate my card here. I finally got mine from a collector on the Vintage Computer Forums.

  • nice old 386.

  • Hey man, really looking forward to more of these Oddware videos. I've only been subscribed to your channel for a few months now but I just want to say I've become a huge fan of these videos - both your hardware and software reviews. They're so in depth and yet completely accessible for those who know little about the topic in the first place. So yeah, thanks - here's to many more LGR videos !!

  • next time gravis ultra sound....pleeeeeaaaaassseeee ;)

  • @oxxor77 If I ever come to own one, I'll certainly be featuring it on LGR!

  • I...want...your soul!

    I...will eat...your soul! xD

  • Scary intro o.O

  • It may have been caused by the different khz output and input

  • @kinmanyuen It turns out it was caused by only recording one channel instead of both. It was recording in stereo in the project settings, but somehow the input was set to record only the right audio channel.

  • Great insight into early PC sound/music! My first sound card for the PC was the Soundblaster (don't remember which version). I bought it in 93 anyway. The CMS sounded really nice though.

  • Clint was pretending to be Richard D James' twin, his aphex twin as it were.

  • i got lost at about one min.

  • i enjoy these sort of video's! keep it up!!

  • I have that same monitor, True story!

  • This is awesome, and first I like to say that I would like to see more videos like this in the future!

    Secondly, that card is on my list to get one of these days. I like the sound of it from the games you played on it so far. Also, I liked that tune you played at the end with the keyboard. =D

  • you should go TV

  • i got scared dude that was like you were really watching me

  • This thing sounds a lot like the wonderful SID chip does. Although the examples given are a bit like the more simple bits of music you hear from the SID. I'd like to hear something that really uses the features of this card to the fullest. :)

  • I got a friend of mine who had (and think he still has) a VERY unusual card which has graphics, sound and possibly something else all in one! Think it might have been a Voodoo and Soundblaster combo thing.

  • Thanks, that was rather educating. :) Meh, Creative, a company with such a big history. And sucks so much now because of lazy programmers or weird company politics, or something. The current situation with creative's software is pretty disappointing :(

  • @Zoomer2008 dude, shut up about, you know, about todays programmers, company politics and stuff, really

  • YAY im the  1759th viewer!

  • man i wish i could play half as good as you do with the keyboard. it really don't sound bad. and what is with all this spam all of a sudden?

  • i have a few soundblaster 16 and they really are not bad. sure they are isa but they work.

  • Aphex Twin reference. You automatically rock.

  • Great video!

  • How about name it "Hardtofind"ware?? Awesome videos, keep it up!

  • Dude that start freaked me the fuck out

  • Man those were the days, I bought the SoundBlaster AWE just to see if I could make the music in the ol' xwing/tie fighter games sound more realistic. Alas it didn't quite work. Still a great card though.

  • It was nice to see some GameArts :) I have a feeling they will be gone soon...

  • I seriously love your voice.

  • are you going to be reviewing the sims 3 medieval pirates and nobles expansion?

  • Test Drive sure didn't take full advantage of the CMS. It sounds like they just piped the Tandy 3-voice sound track through it.

  • @vwestlife That is unfortunately true. Same happened to several games that supposedly had CMS support. Since the Tandy was far more popular and in several ways the two sound formats were quite similar, I'm guessing they just used sounds from the Tandy version as a base and only changed what they needed. It's uncommon to find a game that takes advantage of the stereo and extra voices the CMS could do.

  • Chipchune!

  • Thumbs up if you know who Richard D James is!

  • LOL your songs made me giggle and this video was freakin' awesome! I just love this old PCM and FM PC music hardware stuff you're always showing. The sounds from some of these games just puts a stupid grin on my face! I still remember the day I got a Sound Blaster Pro. I hooked up my tape deck to the line in and started recording songs to WAV. You know Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains... filling up my 40MB Hard Drive in a flash. I was waiting for MP3 too early I guess.

  • Cool video!

  • I had this Intelligent Organ software back with i had my 386SX 25Mhz "Multimedia PC" made by Philips. The sound card inside was a Sound Blaster Pro.

  • @RaptorZX3 nice man

  • wow, the music it sound even better than the NES.

  • "Apparently Creative didn't want to be..." -me: Creative. AHAAAHAAAHAAAA....

  • Oooh.... I so miss the excitement from upgrading your system... with sound blaster pro, 16bit, AWE 32.... you could really notice the difference in games each and everytime you upgraded. Now it's all the same, I don't even bother buying an offboard card.

  • I got the recording problem fixed! It turns out it was the program I was using. I have no idea why, as all the settings seem to check out, but once I switched over to Audacity instead of Audition, it recorded both channels correctly and now I have the proper bass and everything. Thanks for all the help, guys!

  • @phreakindee Regarding to this audio problem, I suspect it has something to do with the recording settings within Audition.

    Not trying to be clever here, but it might be possible that you were only recording one channel over two channels, making it essentially mono extracted from one channel. Auditions recording input settings can be pretty vague, so for future reference you might want to check the input settings in Audition's setup and be especially conscious with inputs that end with L or R.

  • @SaMPLeMaSTeR Yes, that was the issue. For whatever reason, the line-in was set to R instead of both channels, even though the project settings were set to stereo.

  • @phreakindee Alright, glad that's cleared up. :)

    Btw I learn so much from you. Wish I was born in the 70s so I could really have been part of this great history.

  • dude, your face at the beginning of the video is way creepy.

  • It really sounds like the Master System...

  • WWWWWWWOOOOOOOO i was actually just started looking into the game blaster. you have amazing timing.

  • You should make more Goodwill haul vids,with your brother! :D

    And maybe minecraft vid, Haloween< Spelt that wrong I think:3

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  • ahh.. cmf music fm files <3 they also compressed very well with pkzip

  • You've sure gone into a lot of detail here, that's good because I like detail a lot. I don't mean to insult you or other people who talk about old computers, but I don't understand at all why people pronounce ISA phonetically as opposed to pronouncing it as the 3 letters, I just don't get it. But yeah, audio is fun to talk about, I enjoy thinking about how much PC audio and game system audio has changed over the years.

  • creepy stare at the start X_X

    

  • Wow, that's a huge card in teh 386 below the sound card you installed, I assume that's the video card?

    I remember throwing a 386 away thinking it was useless (around 1996), I soooooooooooooooooooo regret that now :o(

    'shall this our lofty scene be acted over', I am sure there should be a comma in there, just being picky lol :o)

    How strange, using the pc speaker for some of the effects lol :o)

  • Damn i totally forgot about the Sound Blaster line of cards, aaahhh memories.

  • Oh man, it looked like you were going to zoom in on the waveform at the end there, and then... you didn't.

  • Wow - the C/MS sounds SO similar to a NES! Probably due to the fact that it uses square wave generators like the NES. IMO the C/MS would be a perfect choice to use for NES games (unless they made use of the AdLib or SoundBlaster, of course)!

    Also, it sounds like the C/MS sound, when recorded directly like you were demonstrating at 27:00 , is TOO sharp. Don't know how you can correct it, but I bet it's possible!

  • Pretty awesome sound, doesn't quite fit with TS3's graphics though :P

  • The face! THE FACE!!! Aaaarggglllllll..

  • The recording sounds to me like it could be out of phase, possibly the port uses a positive voltage reference instead of 0V/ground.

    Could also be a sampling rate mis-match, as you'd need to be dead on to record a square wave without some sort of analog smoothing. I know newer PC audio typically uses a 48kHz rate, not the 44kHz rate most home equipment uses.

  • @tom611 I tried messing with the sample rate, everywhere from 22k, 44k, 48k, up to 192k and it made no difference. The phase I don't even know what I'd have to do to correct.

  • @phreakindee You might be able to use an isolation transformer or ground loop isolator to remove the problem.

    If it was mono, flipping the ground with audio line could work. With stereo it wouldn't work as there's only one reference and two audio lines and you need individual references. Hmm... with multiple line ins on modern cards, you do two mono recordings with the reference and audio flipped.

  • sounds amazing! the good ol days :)

  • I think we used to have one of these.

  • "I'm not gonna talk about that. Screw you." hahaha 9:51

  • if memory servs you could rout the pc speeker through the SB and the old game blaster. i had both in the day and clearly remember all my beeps comming form the main speekers and conecting a jumper to the card from the mobo.

  • I really enjoyed it when you played those keys.

  • What audio recorder is that?

  • @nilz23 Adobe Audition 3.

  • @CaptainPoovabladoo No Amstrad yet, but I do have a IIGS. That system I will be covering after the BBC.

  • Will you play the moonlight sonata?

    ->Yes  no

  • if memory servs you could rout the pc speeker through the SB and the old game blaster. i had both in the day and clearly remember all my beeps comming form the main speekers and conecting a jumper to the card from the mobo.

  • @Zagroseckt You certainly can! I did that on one of my machines back in the day so I could control the volume of the PC speaker to play games at night without bothering anyone with incessant beeping :D

  • That keyboard one looks really fun. I'd like to see a cheap (around $50) mp3 creating software using an interface like that.

  • In the SB 1.0 and SB 1.5, the CMS chips are mapped to two I/O ports, but with the SB 2.0 and later, those two I/O ports were assigned to the AdLib by default. That extra chip requiered for CMS support on the SB 2.0 is therefore a "PAL" (Programable Array Logic) module which takes care of directing those I/O port-accesses to the correct hardware device.

    By the way, technically speaking; the LAPC-I is actually a Roland CM-32L-on-a-card rather than a Roland MT-32-on-a-card...

  • 13:28 = Ear sex!! :D

  • p.s yopu got postal 2 apocalypse weekend on your desktop..;)

  • Your Aphex Twin reference was not lost on this dude!

  • great series-pilot..hope to see more soundblasters,like the AWE 32

  • I find it fitting that the ad that came up said "This is a computer? Not really."

  • Cool video tho, like the idea.

  • I had to scroll down at the beginning. That was really creepy. :)

  • Oh, review a Roland MT-32 as well

  • @shugo21 If I ever come to own one, I most definitely will.

  • I want more. :-)

  • mmm my first pc in 1997 came with sound blaster awe 32, but the pc manufacturer had installed a slower cpu than promised and after installing the right cpu (pentium 1 200) as an apology they replaced that sound blaster with awe 64, it had awsome sound quality. yes, i just stole 15 seconds of your life.

  • Never came across and NCR pc even back in the day.

  • I like reviews like this, keep it up!!!

  • Been wanting to hear more of this thing since you posted your "Evolution of PC Audio" video a while back. Interesting stuff.

    BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DO NOT PLAY TEST DRIVE III AGAIN!

  • 16:10

    BS0D !!

    Black screen of death***

  • Ugh, why are you so awesome!! <3<3

  • @CaptainPoovabladoo , i am looking forward to that review, got a look inside one has a kid and it was like something out of Frankensteins lab and so have bean curious ever since

  • i always found the sound of the adlib sickening , every sound that came out of that CMS was tasty. Wish i had known about this thing sooner ,most likely an awesome tool to this day for any chip tune producer or experimentalist. nice one for exposing this

  • @DARKJURNEY You're sickening. FM Synthesis RULES.

  • @pHr33kAcHu,, XD maybe read the comment all the way through before replying .I am certain CMS uses fm synthesis ,or am i wrong????

  • @DARKJURNEY Adlib is FM synthesis, the "Sega Genesis sound" to you commonfolk. The CMS is a squarewave generator or PSG, it does not use FM synthesis. The hybrid card that phreakindee has can do both.

    And my reply basically meant "If you don't like the way the Adlib sounds, keep it to yourself because just about everyone else loves it".

  • @pHr33kAcHu ,or did you think tasty means bad ???????? i am confused by what your replies motive could be

  • @DARKJURNEY err...sorry if my reply kinda sounded rude and snobby, im going through something I don't wanna discuss and basically I'm not me. I apologize. :(

  • @pHr33kAcHu , no worries :)

  • Also I love the freaking bass this chip puts out, would make a great subbass for DnB!

  • @CaptainPoovabladoo Working on it! Expect in the next month or two.

  • What's the song at 21:37?

  • damn that ticking clock noise! damn it to hell!

  • Really nice video, You have a really vast knowledge about these old computer components, love these videos, are You going to make "Oddware" a regular or kind-of-regular series? Thanks!

  • @Vaskamos That is the plan. I have a dozen or so subjects of weird software and hardware I want to cover and I'm always finding more!

  • @phreakindee Awesome news! Can't wait for more. ;) Any leaks on another video? :P

  • Hahaha, Aphreakindee Twin! I love this card, so chippy!

  • So, one question that went unanswered is: How many simultaneous square waves can it play? I counted at least 3 so far, but is there a possibility for more?

    And what about noise or triangle waves?

  • @Dragondraikk I couldn't seem to find that exact information, but each of the 12 voices allowed for either a square wave or one of three types of noise. No triangle waves to my knowledge, though with some clever programming I'm sure one could make something that sounds like it. I've read one place that 6 voices could be played at once, but I read another that all 12 could be played at once, one for the left and right audio channel.

  • @phreakindee That's indeed quite impressive for such an early system :)

  • wow, reminds me of the Master System's sound.

  • Silpheed sounds pretty neat in CMS mode. I'll have to try that sound mode in dosbox.

  • @ThomasGGebert That it does! CMS emulation is really pretty lackluster in DOSBox though, which is a huge reason I wanted to get one of these cards. It just sounds tinny and sometimes even out of tune.

  • god i loved those old D&D games!