Category Archives: Sound Blaster

Dumping Ensoniq Soundscape ROMs

Let us posit that one has a need to obtain an image of the instrument ROM of an Ensoniq Soundscape S-2000, Elite, or OPUS sound card. There are two basic approaches: A) Desolder or cut off the ROM chip, plug … Continue reading

Posted in Ensoniq, Software Hacks, Sound Blaster | 12 Comments

Audio Frequency Data Acquisition

Readers of this blog may have noticed that besides OS/2 software, I have interested in PC sound cards. I thought I had a decent idea about the major milestones in PC sound history, but I had to perform a few … Continue reading

Posted in IBM, MCA, PC hardware, PC history, PS/2, Sound, Sound Blaster | 17 Comments

Any Soundscape VIVO fans here?

While digging into the implementation of Sound Blaster compatibility on PCI cards, I found an unexpected gem. Ensoniq’s U.S. Patent 5,790,837 includes partial source code for the Sound Blaster emulation driver used with the Ensoniq Soundscape VIVO boards, SSINIT.COM. The VIVO boards were … Continue reading

Posted in Ensoniq, Sound, Sound Blaster, Source code | 6 Comments

Sound Blaster 1.0 or 1.5?

According to some sources, a Sound Blaster model CT-1320C is a Sound Blaster 1.5. But according to Creative’s own reference materials (which do contain many inaccuracies and cannot be taken as gospel), the only difference between a Sound Blaster 1.0 … Continue reading

Posted in Creative Labs, PC hardware, PC history, Sound Blaster | 19 Comments

Sound Blaster: The French Connection

Ever been wondering why there are chips labeled MHS on many Sound Blaster cards, and why there usually was some chip with a © Intel marking? For example this one, on a Sound Blaster 1.5 (1991): Or this one, on … Continue reading

Posted in Intel, PC hardware, Sound Blaster | 16 Comments

Sound Blaster DIAGNOSE and Disabled MPU-401

Today I finally solved a nagging problem that always seemed like it had to have some sort of reasonable solution. Creative’s DIAGNOSE.EXE utility is quite useful when working with any Sound Blaster 16 derivatives (Sound Blaster 16, AWE32, Sound Blaster … Continue reading

Posted in Creative Labs, Sound, Sound Blaster, Undocumented | 3 Comments