11-11-2016, 08:56 PM
OK, so I have rendered one of my my favorite tunes from the era -- Alliance 3 from Warcraft II -- using all four sound cards.
1. Ensoniq Soundscape Elite
2. E-MU APS
3. Yamaha Waveforce 192XG
4. Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Now, I'm obviously biased towards the Soundscape card, as that was what I originally heard this music on back in the day. Having said that, both the Waveforce and the Santa Cruz do a pretty good job of it. The APS on the other hand sounds pretty pathetic, even though it's using the 8MB GM soundfont shipped with it -- the highest quality official bank available at its release in 1998, i.e. only two years after Warcraft II -- and moreover, the APS is basically an enhanced SoundBlaster designed for creating music. This makes me think it would be interesting to also add a traditional SB card to the setup, just for the sake of comparison.
Anyway, what's interesting with all this is that the digital sound quality of these synth chips does not seem to be a big factor in their overall sound. The Soundscape is 22kHz (!) and the Waveforce is 32kHz, but the Santa Cruz (I think?)and APS are both 44kHz. And there's not a HUGE difference in terms of perceived sound quality. In fact, the Soundscape has by far the warmest and lushest sound of the four despite its low sample rate. They all have their apparent strong and weak points as well when it comes to samples. Listening to the individual cards they sounds like shit by today's standards, but I absolutely think it would be possible to cherry pick the best bits of all four and create something that isn't half bad. I mean, if one were inclined to use this hardware to actually make some music. Which no one in their right mind would be in this day and age.
...right?
Hrrm.
Anyway, my two biggest surprises in this experiment were a) the APS sounding as bad as it did, and B) the Santa Cruz sounding as good as it did. I'm kind of indifferent to the Waveforce overall, and I have a nostalgic connection to the Soundscape.
1. Ensoniq Soundscape Elite
2. E-MU APS
3. Yamaha Waveforce 192XG
4. Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Now, I'm obviously biased towards the Soundscape card, as that was what I originally heard this music on back in the day. Having said that, both the Waveforce and the Santa Cruz do a pretty good job of it. The APS on the other hand sounds pretty pathetic, even though it's using the 8MB GM soundfont shipped with it -- the highest quality official bank available at its release in 1998, i.e. only two years after Warcraft II -- and moreover, the APS is basically an enhanced SoundBlaster designed for creating music. This makes me think it would be interesting to also add a traditional SB card to the setup, just for the sake of comparison.
Anyway, what's interesting with all this is that the digital sound quality of these synth chips does not seem to be a big factor in their overall sound. The Soundscape is 22kHz (!) and the Waveforce is 32kHz, but the Santa Cruz (I think?)and APS are both 44kHz. And there's not a HUGE difference in terms of perceived sound quality. In fact, the Soundscape has by far the warmest and lushest sound of the four despite its low sample rate. They all have their apparent strong and weak points as well when it comes to samples. Listening to the individual cards they sounds like shit by today's standards, but I absolutely think it would be possible to cherry pick the best bits of all four and create something that isn't half bad. I mean, if one were inclined to use this hardware to actually make some music. Which no one in their right mind would be in this day and age.
...right?
Hrrm.
Anyway, my two biggest surprises in this experiment were a) the APS sounding as bad as it did, and B) the Santa Cruz sounding as good as it did. I'm kind of indifferent to the Waveforce overall, and I have a nostalgic connection to the Soundscape.
