S3 Sonic Vibes PCI Sound Card Reviewed by Matthew Fam Kai Liang (03/06/98)
| Card Interface | 32-bit PCI Bus 2.1 compliant |
| Model | Sonic Vibes 617 Retail Box |
| Wavetable Synthesis | 32-Voice Hardware Wavetable |
| General Features | Microsoft Direct X
5.0/6.0 Compliant Hardware Direct Sound/Music accelerator SRS 3D Audio Surround DSL(Downloadable Sound) 1.0 Compliant |
| Software Compatatibility | Support
Win95/Win98/WinNT Sound Blaster Pro/DIRECT X Compatiable MPU-401 MIDI |
| Others | 16 levels,speed
compensated Joystick interface Compatiable MPU-401 MIDI UART |
| Unit Accessories | 1) Instruction Manual 2) CD-ROM driver & softwares |
Introduction
This sound accelerator card
comes in a full retailer box version.Somehow looks a bit cheaper in quality(as usual with
the OEM S3 products).I'm having to the Tertle Beach TBS-2000 32-voice ISA bus Wavetable
sound card as a comparsion for ISA/PCI & wevetable sound here.
The reason for the new card is that Sound Blaster compatiability era is almost over,I run
into some Direct Sound compatibility problem.And therefore it's time to search for a new
sound card,that's exactly when PCI based cards come about.The other bigger dilemma is
which brand to go for? That time,there's only this card & the TERASOUND Maestro-1
sound card.As both offer the latest PCI acceleration,it comes down to cost effectiveness
plus compatiability.I decided on this S3 new product which give you the better assurance
from the world's biggest video chipset maker.
The SonicVibes card was installed painlessly in WIN95. Believe it or not, this board is
even bus mastering, a necessary byproduct of TertleBeach(also inclusive of some Voyetra
software in it,Voyetra is the owner of Tertle Beach products) proprietary DLS technology
whereby the board reserves needed system RAM to store MIDI files. The Daytona will also
emulate the Sound Blaster Pro standard in a WIN95 DOS box, but if you need full DOS
support you will have to keep your old sound board in its ISA slot(I've savage the TB card
into the ISA slot, exactly as required by Diamonds Monster Sound product. In fact you may
have to do this anyway.. legacy DOS support is weak.
The Good
Naturally, the SonicVibes also
supports full duplex operation and SRS Surround Sound. The latter means that you will have
fairly good spatialized and located sound with a two speaker system, and even better
results if you run the board through a four channel amplifier. Its amazing how well this
works, and in Janes Longbow 2 or F22: ADF you will hear your wingman slightly behind and
to the right if thats his correct location. I also jumped into the French Spad XIII to
check out the tear of canvas and rattle of the guns =)
Subjectively, this is as clean as ANY sound board I have ever heard and better than
most.S3 seem to built some worth taking a look at, and the Daytona won't have them
sweating about their future! As for specifics, it uses S3s Sonic Vibes chip which allows
32 voice synthesis. Channelized reverb and chorus is also supported on MIDI wavetable
instruments. The MIDI interface is through the joystick connector, which by the way is
speed compensated.
In fact, it may be the new joystick I was experimenting with, but joystick response never
seemed smoother to me. It could be a combination of the joys of digital technology (the
new TM Millennium) and the freed up CPU cycles, but response in F22: ADF had definitely
improved. ADF and Longbow 2 are two of the more demanding simulations out there at the
moment, making judicious use of sound and effects while also calculating a lot of other
elements!
In case you are also a music buff, software includes a moderate software like MIDISOFT
Internet Kit, Internet Audio Postcard (v 1.0), MediaPlayer, pretty good Voyetra audio
player(the real goody for this card) plus DLS files & manager software.
The Bad
There still plenty of bad
points.Its also a resource hog. With all options and the top down on a warm summer night
it wants two IRQs, one DMA, and EIGHT memory addresses. Legacy DOS support is also
weak.This is a big problem if you have plentiful of cards inside the system.The SRS
surround software version that came with the installation disc is one of the most
problematic SRS software.With no level control or anything,it's simply crack up when
running.Plus the reverb & chorus functions are really lousy.It's not all that bad as
the latest version available for download in the S3 website have sort of solved the SRS
problem and added some controls to it,including Centre/Space level control.Reverb &
Chorus also gets better.It will only get better.
Sound quality in MIDI is no way compared to my TertleBeach card.Even wavetable options are
slightly below my TertleBeach card.But the quality is still clear & is more than
adquate to beat the cheaper OEM YAMAHA OPL-3 or ESS sound cards.The software bundled are
also limited.But at such a low cost,there's nothing to complain about.
The lack of onboard DSP like Maestro-1 or the Vortrex A3D chipset makes this card a notch
slower in processing sound.
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ConclusionOverall,this card is
more suitable for people wanting new technology at a budget price.PCI technology is
definately the way to go as INTEL PC99 specs will not have ISA bus anymore. S3 Sonic Vibes PCI Sound Card RATING
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