AdLib Sound Card - Part 1: Unboxing, History & Installing - LGR

[Chaniyth]

I too love FM Synthesis, which is why I actually prefer Sega Genesis chiptunes over the SNES "sampled" tunes. FM Synthesis can sound absolutely AMAZING especially when the music is sequenced with a competant musician. :)

[phreakindee]

@Chaniyth Absolutely! The SNES just sounds "canned" so often, but with FM the potential is virtually limitless.

Unfortunately, so many audio designers took the easy way out with FM synthesis, and in turn many people were turned off to it before long. And then some just hate the sound of FM, but I can't for the life of me understand it.

[thatguyontheright1]

@Chaniyth FM sounds better in many cases, take for example the Famicom Disk System versions of NES games like Castlevania 2, Metroid, Zelda 1 and 2, these all used FM synthesis on the Disk System and sound better than what we got. Then there is the Famicom cart of CV3 vs the NES, the Fami cart has an FM synthesis chip for the same result.

[SgtThom]

@thatguyontheright1

The extra channel on the FDS isn't totally FM synthesis but have operators and can select different wave forms(Triangle, Square , Saw , Sine) which gives it more flexibility then the NES. Only one game used FM synthesis and that was Largainge point(2 OP, allows only one custom instrument to be used , and have 15 built in instruments). Games like CV3 used a analog sounding chip like the one in the nes. It can use more duty settings allowing more complex sounds to be made.

[Dakkiller1]

I had finally gotten ScreamTracker 3 working on DOSBox 0.74 (Had to change the CORE to Normal) and today I played around with its OPL2 features since I'm not sure about making extremely complicated FM Synth music. I'm not sure if ST3 supports duel OPL2 chips or OPL3 chips but I do know that it has Adlib FM synth capabilities in it so I'm gonna work with the FM Features in OPL2 mode in DOSBox.

I could just make a MIDI song and then render it through Win3.1 or Duke3D but I would love to push OPL2

[discolando]

Are you listening to 'Jazz Casual' in the background?

[FelipeYamagishi]

Sim city 3000 music :D

[thunderscratch66]

back when sound cards came to my local pc store i chose the adlib cuz it was like 100 bucks, instead of 120 bucks for the soundblaster. i had to take the adlib back because it didnt have the chip to make the voices work in games. so 2 days later i came home with the SB and everything worked fine. i think it was back in 1990-91, can't remember too well.....

[G9King]

I liked somehow the fact that you were making the video as you were unwrapping the whole thing. Makes me feel like we are actually joining in this whole thing.

I like MIDI myself because it's so precise that you can hear every little exact detail. Aaaand... nice music for the video. Very classy and fitting.

[G9King]

The summary of the letter made me laugh; "In other words, we are awesome, thanks for buying our stuff, please don't buy Creative" XD

[Fuzy2K]

3:15 You... sounded... just like... William Shatner....

[lbtof]

good old times... 486... Ciryx, Pentium66...

[kinmanyuen]

what is the music at 13:15

[ThePichu7892]

now this makes me remember all the prank call i made with this:

please hold *TEST* dundundunduunduun your call is important to us *TEST* dun dundundunduun...

[1ex1uger]

Creative Labs sucks my right voxel. It was interesting to learn a bit of history re: the AdLib.

[pHr33kAcHu]

FM synthesis rules all.

[justincgs]

WOW I would be more gentle with that material including the manuals and such. You don't want to bend them etc. Understand that older PC games and devices like that are and will be collectible and very valuable just as golden and silver age comic books are!!!

At $40 bucks it will on appreciate as a collectable.

[phreakindee]

@justincgs Note that I'm the kind of person who buys vintage things sealed and often unwraps them to enjoy them to their fullest. Thanks for the concern, but I'm not looking to resell these things, just to have fun with them while they still work!

[shinobizach89]

@phreakindee when it come to old school computer, you use them, not sit them on a shelf and stare at them

[phreakindee]

@shinobizach89 Agreed 110%

[xargos]

Man, I'm going to have to dig. I think I still have a boxed Adlib sitting around somewhere. I regretted not having my first one. I also noticed the promo sticker for the Adlib Gold on your box. Gotta find one of them!

[Blurredman]

The test music is damn cool and relaxing. I love it!

[LunaVorax]

1:03 FUCK YEAH FIRE & ICE

[surfingthechaos]

I love fm synthesis as well.

[KubaPSP]

@surfingthechaos Me too, GUS is lot of better, but FM synth is good old classic :)

[grayfox106]

What do the game ports do?

[phreakindee]

@grayfox106 They let you play games. Used for connecting joysticks, steering wheels, etc.

[justincgs]

@phreakindee actually the original joystick port was really just a MIDI interface and the port was a DB-15 but I believe you could use an Atari standard joystick with a special DB-15 to DB-9 adapter with special pinout.

[phreakindee]

@justincgs Not sure what you're referring to, but the game ports I was talking about are for DB-15 PC joysticks, no conversions needed. And yes, also for MIDI on sound cards like the SB. But joysticks have always been the primary use for me, both on sound cards and standalone game port cards.

[renekenshin6573]

Those where the days, i really miss my first x386 pc destop lol

[djtonyxxx5]

i have an ibm 3 voice... what a piece of sh...it

[MightyNostromo]

WOW! This really took me back to my youth. I remember the sheer excitement the first time I heard decent audio coming from my 286 12mhz Northgate AT computer. The influence of this primitive sound card on the IBM compatible gaming scene cannot be understated. Great video, thanks!

[12ismorethan2]

I love when you use Spore music.

[Doommaster1994]

I also heard of this card called the Bank Street Music card, which was supposedly a card that used sound like the Macintosh. But I heard there's only one in existence. Not sure if that's true or not.

[someperson42]

I have a crappy (as far as documentation and drivers, not functionality) Ad Lib clone (Aztech Labs Sound Galaxy 16 Washington), and when I saw this I just had to find the Ad Lib Jukebox, which nicely works with my card. This is pure awesomeness!

[Blurredman]

That test music is beautiful :O

[Cloudschatze]

@phreakindee Nah, no worries. My knee-jerk (or maybe just jerk) response wasn't really called for. I happen to very much like what you're doing besides, so carry on. :)

[Cloudschatze]

Nice inclusion of my IMFC photo. Better to beg forgiveness than ask permission, eh?

[physalis17]

I like the test music. very relaxing and really good output for mono.

[phreakindee]

@physalis17 It does make for lovely "mood music"!

[dexx2233]

I remember the ym3812 from the arcade games and even from a yamaha pss-570

[hobocamptheater]

I'm so happy for this video because I learned so much

also it reminded me about the ad-lib mode on most of my dos games that I was trying to run.

it wasn't being co-operative when I said that I was using a sound blaster compatible but this reminded me of the adlib mode that made all the games work with sound. no PC speaker mode, I actually got sound, and no "invalid sound card" message keeping me from starting.

[1300l]

I remember the soundblaster 16 of my first pc. I love FM too. and listening your card it show how even that dosbox fm emulation is close, its not the real deal

[offperception]

I too, love FM synthesis. Unfortunately, I've never been able to get my hands on a genuine Adlib. I only have the german Rainbow Arts variant. Same chip as far as I know. Love your feature on the Adlib. There is suprisingly little about this soundcard on the internet.

[fourbarposer]

See Adlibtracker for DOS, that thing has some awesome demo music, check their demo page eg. my favorites:

adlibtracker net download php

nula_-_onward, benjamin_gerardin_-_high_tech_­environment_iii

I know christmas went but it'd be so awesome to have real Adlib recordings of songs in (what you can) Elite 2, Strike Commander, System Shock 1 - the dosbox emulation just sounds so wrong, I'd like to verify that it's not my memory getting worse.

[PeTTs0n88]

I absolutely love the small taste of bitterness everyone that has ever owned an AdLib felt when SoundBlaster came in and just took over the scene. I shed tears of nostalgia for a lot of your videos, I must say - the unboxing of an original AdLib being one of the best.

Additionally; it's generally easy to spot if an ISA slot is 8bit or 16bit - the 16bit slot has another set of connectors. (The ones unused by the 8bit AdLib card in the slot shown on your 386 rig.)

[izlude2]

What would you say the best "Hardware MIDI" sound card is today? Currently I'm using an SBPCI128 8MB Wavetable... though I don't think that counts as hardware... I hear the x-fi xtremegamer is a hardware card. Would you suggest a card for me that has top of the line MIDI sound? (no sound fonts though)

[1337Shockwav3]

No idea if anyone has posted this yet, but the 1987 version had a bigger soundjack (6.xx mm [I think] rather than 3.5mm) making it incompatible or rather requiring an adapter to be used with common audio gear.

[phreakindee]

@1337Shockwav3 6.35mm maybe? That would make sense as the MT-32 had those as well, from what I know.

[1337Shockwav3]

@phreakindee 6.35mm sounds about right (too lazy to check right now) and would make sense. Here's a picture where it can be seen quite well -> bit . ly / gYMJGj

Either way, cool video ... gives a good overvideo of the adlib ... and quite frankly I've never seen a boxed one myself :)

[kinmanyuen]

freakin awesome!

[WhiteValkery]

i saw "minecraft" in the list! O.o

[Zestypanda]

The base on the adlib card is nice and deep, you don't hear that in a lot of games nowdays.

[Zestypanda]

I have that sb card in my winxp computer :D

[FloppyFormatFrenzy]

I like how simple the card looks in it's construction. It's one thing that always made me admire the early Apple computers that used fewer components and did equal if not more than their competitors.

[FastFoodies]

I had some soundcard or driver set that had a demo of the 3d surround, it had you sitting in a chair with a bee flyng in a circle around. You could flip some settings and stuff. Any ideas what that was ??

[phreakindee]

@FastFoodies Sounds just like the Aureal 3D Vortex "Bees" demo, it was the ultimate 3D sound card for a while from 97-99 or so.

[FastFoodies]

@phreakindee i think you nailed it, thx !

[phreakindee]

@FastFoodies No problem! I remember clearly the bees demo from the Diamond MX300 MonsterSound card, they had displays at Sam's Club and MAN I was lusting hard!

[RetroGamerVX]

Wow, that 386 now has mega drive quality sound!! lol Nice to see the old boards again :o)

[GeorgesVI]

Well, even back in 1993 both me and my best firend had 486 with no sound cards...sad I had to waitt late 1996 to see sound blaster pro on my father laptop to experience multimedias.

Ad lib was a tv show popular in Quebec province at the time(hosted by Jean-Pierre Couallier), but I really don't think it was enginered in Québec.(sort of like ubisoft which is a French corp but have it's main office in Québec and most ppl think it's a local company).

[phreakindee]

@GeorgesVI AdLib was founded by Martin Prevel, former professor of music and vice-dean of the music dept at the Université Laval in Quebec City, QC, Canada. The card engineers worked at Lyrtech, and they are also in Quebec City. So it's pretty Canadian, from my point of view!

[GeorgesVI]

@phreakindee I lived there and was totally unaware of this, impresive what they made considerign at that time our gouvernement didn't gave a thing about computers, unlike today with the city of multimedia.

[yushatak]

Lucky bastard! lol.. I've always wanted a real Adlib card, to put in my XT for the very earliest compatible games. In an AT or better no reason not to use a SB16 or similar, afaik. I'm curious to see if there's any sound difference between Adlib and SB16 Adlib compatibility. I hope you cover that in one of these two videos or in the future.

[phreakindee]

@yushatak I do hope to get an XT or AT at some point to install the thing in, since I have my SB2.0 for my 286 and SB16 cards for later machines. My 5150 is just too limited to merit a sound card, so an XT or AT seems like the way to go for the AdLib. I'm also curious to see if there are any compatibility differences, I have so many things I have yet to try! You'll see more in the future, for sure.

[Dant2142]

@yushatak Actually the SB-16 doesn't have full compatibility with the SB Pro (sort of in-between the SB 2.0 and the 16) in that in games that supported the Pro and not the 16, running in compatibility mode you wouldn't get stereo sound.

[yushatak]

@Dant2142

Yeah, that's true - personally I don't care too much whether something is mono, stereo, or surround, myself, though. The only time it matters is in a modern FPS, and that's only in multiplayer when others are using it to their advantage. I know that others might rely on sound more than I do in games, but I always forget when I'm discussing things publicly and kinda gloss over the SBPro as a footnote.. :P

[leidenKA]

neat...

One question..: Whats the name of the jazzy tune playing in the background starting round about the half of the video?

[phreakindee]

@leidenKA Look through the comments, or read the video description.

[MrWhatman2010]

I wish you could produce your videos in high def. I cannot make out the command that you typed on the monitor.

[phreakindee]

@MrWhatman2010 I'd like HD as well, but there are two reasons why that wouldn't have happened for this video anyways: I don't have an HD camera, for one. Two, this wasn't an in-depth instructional video so I didn't feel I should have to show the most basic of DOS commands, otherwise I'd have zoomed the camera in or focused the picture a bit more.

[pWnaniX]

Thanks dude. Your videos are awesome as always :)

You should be a youtube partner and make some money of this.

[phreakindee]

@pWnaniX Can't, YouTube has denied me repeatedly. They don't allow my kind, apparently (the kind that shows video games)

[pWnaniX]

@phreakindee That sucks. Strange too... I thought Machinima was a partner and they only show videogames.

[phreakindee]

@pWnaniX They're a partner, but they also have money and likely a legal team! If you're just a small-time individualize you really don't stand much of a chance using game footage unless you have express written permission from each game publisher. And that's not going to happen.

[svenneri]

How many computers and how many monitors do you own?

PS: That jukebox looks like the on on Street Rod doesnt it?

[phreakindee]

@svenneri I don't know, 35 or so if I had to guess. Monitors: maybe a dozen.

And yes, it looks quite similar, but really so does any jukebox if you think about it ;)

[hitachi088]

OMG , IN A BOX !

how much did you pay it ? 0-50$ 50-100$ 100-200$ ?

[phreakindee]

@hitachi088 $39+20 shipping. Ridiculously good deal, I thought, one of the better eBay deals in a while for me.

[diowfj]

I have my old Gravis Ultrasound knocking around some where.

[lollerskates123]

Just think about how cool it was back then, when someone who had only heard pc speaker beeps before, installed that card and ran that test program for the first time.. must have been awesome.

[Lachlant1984]

I've never actually used an Ad Lib card before, but I've read about it on Wikipedia, it was good for the first few years it was around, but of course when the Sound Blaster came out with digitized sound that was just about the end of Ad Lib. I believe they had an Ad Lib Gold card in the works, but I'm not sure if that even came out in the end. I'm both surprised and not surprised they didn't include a set of speakers for the card.

[M0VYGURU]

Wow, it really sounds great, didnt expect it to sound that awesome. For 1987 that must have been somthing to hear after just having a PC speaker. 5/5 cool vid sir!

[cacaaleau]

I've just realised i do have the same monitor as you (an ACER X193W).

[phreakindee]

@cacaaleau It's the same brand anyway: mine's an x223w

[crogeek]

You should make review of famous SoundBlaster card.

[kazimann]

Great video.

[Borin81]

still have my old Soundblaster 1,5 and PRO somewhere in storage.

[Zelgadis020]

I have just one word: Awesome!

[tudythegangster]

Fancy.

[vipor29]

i remember when adlib came out and wow what a difference from the pc speaker LOL

[5553371]

Hell Clint , I Had one and it was Awesome :)

[lettmons]

What is that background music?

[phreakindee]

@lettmons "Power Grid" and "Nightlife" from the SimCity 3000 soundtrack

[lettmons]

@phreakindee Thx, I will grab it.

[Fuzzy192006]

Does anyone else have trouble streaming phreakindee's videos? On every single one, I have to pause it and wait for it to load. The speed never gets past 130 Kb/s, whereas I normally get speeds of 600 Kb or higher. I think youtube chooses to add them to a less powerful server, or one that I don't have a good connection with.

The solution is obvious: get more subscribers!!! :D

[Audiomancer]

@Fuzzy192006 I've had that problem with other people's channels, but not his. Youtube streams pretty slowly sometimes, it seems.

[SaMPLeMaSTeR]

I remember the day I traded my Yamaha card for a Soundblaster and all de Standard MIDI files suddenly used Creative's soundbank instead of FM synthesis … I will always regret that day.

[twistedfarker]

Awesome video, I always loved the Adlib sound. The FM synthesized music in old games just sounds so great and takes me back to the early 90's.

[shaurz]

I love FM too! :-)

[Bakemon13]

Great info!

[Zontar82]

i had a sound balster pro back in the days,yet,somehow,some game managed to work with the adlib set up in the setsound menu.ahh i remember thosesetsound menu,i miss those

[TaoNakamora]

Very Subtle Voiceover at 6:11.

[TheLORDMJ]

Awesome, you should do more off these videos, maybe with some other PC hardware. Can't wait too see the part 2.

[AlfredRusselWallace]

dude how do you not have one of the most popular retro gaming/computing channels on youtube?  your vids are some of the best ive seen, they dont get nearly as many views as they deserve. people need to start giving you more shout outs or something

[2HornDogs]

I never knew much about adlib cards, i just knew that if I always selected it as the music hardware for my dos games it worked and i had to fool around with the different settings for soundcards and irc channels to get the sound effects to work.

[vwestlife]

You should try to track down an OmniLabs "AudioMaster" card. It was a full length ISA card, and I believe it was the first ever PC sound card with wavetable MIDI. It had an on-board Motorola 68008 CPU and 384K of RAM to store the wavetable samples. It also was available with an add-on "AdLib compatible" OPL2 daughterboard.

[lemonrind]

- Adlib was based in Québec, Québec (Québec is a city and a province) and founded by a music professor from Laval, Québec, (a suburb of Montréal).

- I still think the SID chip from the Commodore 64 sounded better than Adlib/OPL2, even though it is more primitive.

- Sierra was always pushing the superiour Roland MT-32 in their games, but it was too expensive for most consumers.

- The PC speaker could be tricked into producing PCM audio, but it required lots of CPU power, and precise timing.

[emptoiletduck]

Awesome stuff, man! I seem to like your hardware reviews better than your game reviews. Guess I geek out over old components and revel in how far we've come in technology. This sure beats my Hercules Muse DVD 5.1; my first card I've ever bought!

[EoCx]

I fucking love this guy

[MN12BIRD]

W00t Canada! We gave the PC world Adlib and ATi! LOL this video was awesome. Put a big smile on my fact just watching it. I learned a few things too since I've never own or even seen an adlib before. My first Sound Card was a Sound Blaster Pro (OGM Stereo!) and I loved the demos it came with.  Yeah Synth music is awesome can't wait to hear more!

[matthewh16]

What is the song from that starts at around 5:20?

[phreakindee]

@matthewh16 "Nightlife" from the SimCity 3000 soundtrack.

[matthewh16]

@phreakindee Thanks, I knew it from somewhere but couldn't remember what.

[sdaonline]

it's got a great tone to it... i want to track one down now too!

[shorty1k]

it's kind of sad to see the father of PC sound gets killed off by someone cloning their technology. That's business I suppose.

[phreakindee]

@shorty1k Yeah, that seemed to happen somewhat often back then due to cloning, to varying degrees. Compaq eating into IBM PC sales, Tandy overtaking PCjr standards, Microsoft Windows gaining traction over the Mac and GEM, Creative and others killing AdLib, and on and on.

[skateingMetalHead25]

every time i look in my Subscriptions box, and i see a new video by phreakindee, i get so happy

[oxxor77]

one of my favorite soundcard back in the days was the gravis ultra sound. this thing kicked ass =)

[MoreDakka101]

wow this brings back memories.

[rejectofsoul24]

did you get a haircut?

[phreakindee]

@rejectofsoul24 Why yes, ain't it purdy?

[svtcontour]

Awesome! I never had something that old. My oldest soundcard which I remember purchasing is my old Gravis Ultrasound which I still have :)

[phreakindee]

@svtcontour Lucky! The GUS is up there with the MT-32 as far as most-wanted PC sound devices. They really can't properly be emulated, IMHO.

[svtcontour]

@phreakindee Ah I remember seeing MT-32 in the list of soundcards in some games but I've never actually seen one! Was that a Roland? BTW I also have the Gravis PNP but I never really liked it as much. Something special about the old Gus (Well mine is the GUS MAX). My other soundcard that I really like is a Guillemot Maxisound Homestudio Pro 64 - LOL very long name. I like to keep my old stuff.

BTW you have an awesome channel. Great vids!

[NOOBNUT08]

@phreakindee Also you need to do a review of:

1. Castle of the wind lifthransir's bane 1 and 2.

2. captain comic.

I'm trying to think of others right now I'll send you a message when I have a complete list. :)

[NOOBNUT08]

What about the roland MT-32?

[phreakindee]

@NOOBNUT08 Great device. Not nearly as common as the AdLib and it's not included in the scope of this video.

[NOOBNUT08]

That sound card was epic!

At the time.

[RichiesGranpa]

Continue what you do sir. Please! This is something on the internet that doesn't suck.

[NOOBNUT08]

@RichiesGranpa True