SOUND BOARDS: CREATIVE LABS
SoundBlaster Series
Last update: 12/26/97
- Phone:
- 800-998-5227 (customer assistance), 800-998-1000 (customer
service), 405-742-6622 (automated tech support), 405-742-6655 (tech support)
- Fax:
- 405-742-6633
- BBS:
- 405-742-6660
- e-mail:
- 72662.1602@compuserve.com
- Web:
- www.creaf.com (Creative Labs);
www.ionet.net/~colin/awe32.html
(AWE32 web page)
In 1997, Creative Labs announced that it
was dropping OS/2 support. Since then, I've encountered very contradictory
rumors and information. Creative's original announcement remains on their
web site (try the above link to see if it's still there); but another page at
Creative says they "support... many of [their] products in the OS/2
operating system" -- only to include a link to their announcement of
dropped support. On the unofficial side, the web page www.ionet.net/~colin/awe32.html
indicates that Creative has reversed its decision to drop OS/2 support,
and this page has some very useful links to OS/2 SoundBlaster-series
drivers. What's the truth? I haven't the foggiest. At the very least,
Creative is guilty of poor web page management. At worst, they've dropped
OS/2 support. Note that it's also possible that some division of Creative
has picked up the OS/2 cause, but that Creative as a whole hasn't.
I've heard that the Creative Labs drivers may set the CD audio input's
volume to 0 by default, which makes hooking up a CD-ROM's audio output a
perplexing experience. Check the CWAUDIOS.SYS driver line in your
CONFIG.SYS for "0" values if you're having problems with this.
Win-OS/2 support for these products is another matter. I've
received word that the latest Windows drivers for Creative Labs
products don't work under Win-OS/2, and older versions (if you can
find them) may not install correctly. OS/2's Win-OS/2 subsystem does
include working drivers, but if you try "upgrading" them, it could be
a problem recovering working drivers.
SoundBlaster 8-bit
- Type:
- FM synthesis
- Chipset:
- Proprietary (?), Yamaha OPL2 (?)
- Street price:
- ~$40 (if available)
- OS/2 Drivers:
- Available
- CD-ROM:
- None
- Drivers from:
- OS/2 box, OS/2 ftp, ftp.creaf.com, BBS
- Comments:
- These are well-supported under OS/2, and are "the" standard
for DOS games. These are well-supported but uninspired cards by today's
standards. The "Value Edition" 8-bit boards are mono; the "Pro" models
are stereo. Very old versions of these boards may not work with the
OS/2 drivers. I experienced assorted minor problems with an 8-bit
SoundBlaster, but most people
report few or no problems with these cards. Creative Labs
is reportedly doing little or no development on these older boards. Also,
Merlin's Voice Type Dictation will not work with these 8-bit boards.
SoundBlaster 16 series
- Type:
- FM synthesis
- Chipset:
- Proprietary or Vibra-16,
Yamaha OPL3
- Street price:
- $60-$150+
- OS/2 Drivers:
- Available
- CD-ROM:
- Variable; depends on specific model
- Drivers from:
- OS/2 box, OS/2 ftp, ftp.creaf.com, BBS
- Comments:
- These are well-supported under OS/2, and are "the" standard
for DOS games. These are well-supported but uninspired cards by today's
standards. The latest boards in this series use the Vibra-16 chipset and
PnP technology, the latter of which seems to cause problems with some
older motherboards under OS/2.
SoundBlaster AWE32 & AWE32 Value Edition
- Type:
- Wavetable
- Chipset:
- E-mu 8000, Yamaha OPL3
- CD-ROM:
- Proprietary (Sony, Panasonic, Mitsumi)
- Street price:
- Discontinued
- OS/2 Drivers:
- Available
- Drivers from:
- OS/2 box, OS/2 ftp, ftp.creaf.com, BBS,
http://www.creaf.com/wwwnew/tech/ftp/ftp-beta.html
- Comments:
- Similar comments as for the SoundBlaster FM synthesis boards. Note
that these boards do not use an MPU-401 interface in hardware
for wavetable support, unlike most wavetable boards. I've seen
reports that the DOS General MIDI support for this board doesn't work
under OS/2, so if you've got DOS games or programs which rely upon
this, you might want to look elsewhere. Some versions of the drivers
reportedly have problems with MIDI tempo control.
SoundBlaster 32 & AWE32 PnP
- Type:
- Wavetable
- Chipset:
- E-mu 8000 (?), Vibra-16, Yamaha OPL3 (?)
- CD-ROM:
- IDE (at least for some)
- Street price:
- ~$75-$250 (lower prices may be clearance items; higher may be outdated)
- OS/2 Drivers:
- Available
- Drivers from:
- OS/2 box, OS/2 ftp, ftp.creaf.com, BBS,
http://www.creaf.com/wwwnew/tech/ftp/ftp-beta.html
- Comments:
- Similar comments as for the SB AWE32 series boards, but these products
use the Vibra-16 chipset and are PnP-enabled. They may thus have problems
under OS/2 on some older motherboards, but are well-supported otherwise.
SoundBlaster AWE64
- Type:
- Wavetable
- Chipset:
- ??
- CD-ROM:
- IDE (??)
- Street price:
- ??
- OS/2 Drivers:
- Unavailable
- Drivers from:
- --
- Comments:
- This board is a hardware update to the AWE32 and related products.
There are reportedly drivers available at www.ionet.net/~colin/awe32.html,
but I admit I haven't been following developments with these very
closely.
PhoneBlaster series
- Type:
- FM Synthesis
- Chipset:
- Vibra 16; Rockwell (for modem functions)
- CD-ROM:
- ??
- Street price:
- ~$200 for Phone Blaster
- OS/2 Drivers:
- Available
- Drivers from:
- OS/2 box, OS/2 ftp, ftp.creaf.com, BBS
- Comments:
- The fax and voice-mail software is written
for Windows, and Creative Labs says they do not support it under OS/2,
so caveat emptor in this respect. They say the modem features work
fine under OS/2, however. It's possible that an OS/2 voicemail program
for Rockwell chipsets would work with this board, but I've seen no reports
one way or the other on this.
Copyright © 1996, 1997, Rod Smith, rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
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