Sound Blaster 1.5 and Gravis Ultrasound PnP Clone Review!

[@bzanzaFN]

bro? why is this goated youtuber only at 11.6k subs

[@vswitchzero]

Thanks so much 😄👍

[@bzuidgeest]

Because there are thousands of channels like it. Nice video, but not that special bro

[@bzanzaFN]

bringus, CRT Guy, theres so many more but i dont see audio content much so it stood out to me in particular.@@bzuidgeest

[@weepingscorpion8739]

You know when I was first introduced to the Dope demo I immediately downloaded it, fired it up, and was met my the fact that it requires a GUS. So the first thing I did was to sign up for an Orpheus 2. Also when I heard about the SB 1.5 clone, I immediately considered getting one but I had already bought the TexElec SAAYM card. I might still get this clone as ressources in old PCs are so annoying to deal with. But I am still very happy for the effort David has put into these cards. So whether or not I am actually going to buy one of his cards, he has my respect. I think I will get the SB clone and use the Orpheus for GUS compatibility. I guess my only critique and it's so minor that it's probably not worth bringing up but here we are anyway, is a PC-speaker input. But as I say, it's a small thing, and even without it, having these cards is always a good thing. Great review of these cards.

[@davidelarsson]

I haven’t tried myself, but couldn’t you use the CD-ROM connectors as input from the PC speaker?

[@weepingscorpion8739]

@@davidelarsson No. Has to be a special speaker-in from what I know. Philscomputerlab did a video about this a while back.

[@spladam3845]

These projects are the best aspect of our communities preservation efforts. It really gives me a great feeling, knowing the GUS will continue to exist even after the originals all die or get lost.

[@wasd____]

I still say that _by far_ the most criminally overlooked and underrated ISA era sound card is the Pro Audio Spectrum 16. Sound Blaster compatible, great sound, 50-pin SCSI controller for CD-ROMs, and really solid build quality a notch or two above the normal consumer level ISA cards... they are imo absolutely THE sound card to get ahold of for old ISA systems if you can find one at a decent price. But these reproduction projects are pretty exciting too. I never had a real GUS back in the day, so it might be fun to get a repro version and finally put one through the paces.

[@vswitchzero]

Agreed! The PAS16 is one of my favorite sound cards. I have one in my 486 gaming system that I did a build series on a while back. They are getting a bit pricy now, but still way more affordable than cards like the GUS and classic sound blaster models.

[@mikebeutler84]

I agree that the PAS16 doesn't get the attention it deserves. The sound quality is night and day above the typical SB16 clone. However, MPU401 is the achilles heel. Hanging notes are worse than any SB ever was. But pair it with an intelligent midi card and you have a 1-2 knockout punch that's hard to beat.

[@FriedEgg101]

Wow the lemmings music was a wave of nostalgia. Followed by the apogee splash screen. Emotional.

[@vswitchzero]

The Apogee splash screen and jingle is permanently burnt into my memory. Love it :-)

[@gremfive4246]

Great review and props to the creator of these 2 cards. A few years back I had a original GUS offered to me for $50 and I passed on it as I didnt really want one. If I knew how expensive they would become I probably have done it different.

[@techdistractions]

I’ll always have a soft spot for the good ol’ adlib :-)

[@micv2]

I bought two GUS replicas from David. David also helped me with questions after the purchase. Simply great! Thanks 👍

[@vswitchzero]

Thanks for the comment! Awesome! Did you buy two different revisions or both the same?

[@Smakificator]

Complex by Dope is famous for the song which just keeps on adding more and more voices as the Demo continues. At the start it is well within the capacity of Sound Blaster. But by the end, when 16 voices are used, a Sound Blaster could not possibly play it decently. In 1995. Maybe by 1998.

[@Retrojuju]

28 channels are used!

[@josephalbrecht3735]

I picked up the Sound Blaster 1.5 from David. I just love it in my Juko ST 12MHz XT system. My first sound card was a CMS GameBlaster, so having that as well brings back a lot of memories. What a great alternative to trying to obtain the original hardware at crazy prices and already 30 plus years old!

[@DOSStorm]

Both these cards are awesome. David is also really cool about giving support if you need help.

[@Shmbler]

If all you want is Sound Blaster/AdLib in your XT but you haven't got the cash: Many cheap 16 bit PnP sound blaster clones work perfectly fine in an 8 bit slot. UNISOUND can initialize them on an 8088/8086.

[@mjmonjure]

Excellent video! I purchased both of these from David. That was months ago and I am still working up the gumption to install the GUS.

[@vswitchzero]

Thanks so much!

[@briangoldberg4439]

awesome video! love seeing what's going on in the retro PC community. see you around

[@vswitchzero]

Thanks very much! :-)

[@BrassicGamer]

I love how oldskool the PCB for the Sound Blaster looks!

[@nethoncho]

Thanks for sharing your videos

[@vswitchzero]

Thanks so much for the contribution and support! I really appreciate it! 😄👍

[@Freddie_R]

I have the GUS clone myself and it is very good. Installed the drivers, plugged in the RAM and it runs without any problems. It has the original chips and is therefore a very good clone!

[@SobieRobie]

Don't Blast your sound! GUS forever!

[@klausschmidt982]

I got the SB 1.5 clone from David. I just love the old-fashioned sounds of adlib and cms. I might get GUS later too

[@awilliams1701]

The channel bits and bytes had blue memory. He got them from PCB way and put the chips on the boards. You could get red memory that way. It probably wouldn't even cost that much if you already have the ram chips.

[@krzbrew]

I respect the amount of work and effort put into these products and I sure hope that these products find their user. But personally for me a YMF719 is a perfect bang for 5 bucks.

[@mikebeutler84]

All well and good until you play Duke Nukem 2. The one pesky game that used ADPCM.

[@JimLeonard]

Once again, fantastic product review and demonstration. I wish the SB 1.5 clone had speaker input, but otherwise very nice and fair price.

[@vswitchzero]

Thanks so much! :-)

[@IBM_Museum]

The original Sound Blasters sometimes didn't have the PCB edges at the bus connection beveled down - really sloppy...

[@ZeroHourProductions407]

Glad to see at least some effective clones for sound cards. But makes me wonder why no efforts on gpu's? At least per my observation, it's like none are even willing to try other than the s3 _decelerator_ for virtual machines and fpga boxes. As it is, only ever even new of an x86 cpu clone from that one portable that a good third of youtubers snatched up before it came out that it used a pirated bios.

[@vswitchzero]

Thanks for your comment. I've seen a few clones of 3dfx VSA100 based cards out there including the V5 5500 and the unreleased V5 6000, but I agree - it would be really neat to see more clone graphics cards out there!

[@RogerWilco486]

Very cool. I never really gave much attention to the GUS. Back in the 90s I went with an Ensoniq Soundscape S-2000 instead which offered complete SoundBlaster support as well as a really solid General Midi wavetable.

[@vswitchzero]

Thanks for sharing! The Soundscape S-2000 is a legendary card, that's for sure :)

[@1337Shockwav3]

Nice you've mentioned the ARGUS. Just out of interest, are you aware that the gerber files are public so you can have your own PCBs produced?

[@vswitchzero]

Thanks for your comment! Yes, that's awesome. I came across the thread recently on Vogons with the files. Would love to try to build an Argus one of these days :)

[@fft2020]

awesome video !

[@ianpolpo]

I really like the Monkey Island theme in CMS!

[@JohnSmith-iu8cj]

Great video! Love everything about it!

[@EsaKarjalainen]

Gus PnP had some early driver issues, but it was pretty dang good after a few updates. I can't believe I SER'd mine. :(

[@ahabwolf7580]

Awesome video, thank you!

[@vswitchzero]

Glad you liked it! Thanks! :-)

[@ruxandy]

13:32: You pronounced "ID" as "Eye - dee". John Carmack wants to have a word with you. 😁

[@vswitchzero]

Haha yeah, I've been saying it incorrectly for decades.. It's going to be a tough habit to break I think 😅

[@ruxandy]

@@vswitchzero, I know, me too! 😀

[@ErrantMasa]

​@@vswitchzerowe all made that same mistake back in the day!

[@Vanessaira-Retro]

Great video VS0. Thank you.

[@bitdevice]

I want a Sound Blaster 16 clone with proper Pro backwards compatibility (no stereo bug), I don't think such a card exists? Sound Blaster 16 is ideal for Fast Tracker 2 in my opinion.

[@JorgeCarvalho_web_dev]

Hi Sir! You missed the PicoGus, card that uses an Raspberry Pico for Gus emulation and others (very affordable card)

[@vswitchzero]

It got a mention at 8:54 actually :-) .. I'm looking forward to building and trying out a PicoGUS one of these days. Fantastic project!

[@JorgeCarvalho_web_dev]

​@@vswitchzeroHi again I am so sorry, I missed that part of the video... I made one for myself and it is fantastic, sure, some tweaks to the firmware are needed but it will not cost you a leg to build one.... it is a poor man solution and very good, I can't see me paying+150 euros for a clone

[@bzuidgeest]

I appreciate the effort, but the special chips are getting rare. I advise looking into more future proof solutions like the picoGUS. Despite the name it recreates more than just the Gus. And the parts are cheap and easily available.

[@vswitchzero]

Agreed. The picoGUS is a great project! I'm planning to build one soon. I'm also interested to see what FPGA technology can do in this area too.

[@bzuidgeest]

@@vswitchzero the complexity of FPGA is just not worth it. Audio is easy to do in software and Isa is very slow. The pico is cheap and available. Something FPGA based would be expensive and there would be little to nothing to gain from it. Maybe a cpld for some assistance like the ttl2rgb thing does for video.

[@NielsHeusinkveld]

hoho the LGR connector!

[@Smakificator]

Love this. ALL OF IT!!! ! ! ! !1

[@KaldekBoch]

Holy crap was that fighting game at 7:50 "One Must Fall"?

[@vswitchzero]

It was indeed! 👍

[@KaldekBoch]

@@vswitchzeroI really enjoyed that game. Mind you I also really liked "Tongue of The Fatman" (aka "Mondu's Fight Palace") so my standards were pretty low back then. :D

[@NightSprinter]

"Quirky"? XD Pfft, try me literally dealing with the setup freezing my AST. I can't even get the card installed for WfW3.11 as a result.

[@sergiobisonte]

I remember back in the early 2000's puting 'boxes' of old isa sound blasters and other cards in the garbage

[@nalinux]

And I used vintage computer metal case sheets to fix old cars bodies with a Mig welder :)

[@1NIGHTMAREGAMER]

Ouf bet that memory hurts

[@sergiobisonte]

@@1NIGHTMAREGAMER like a voodoo 5 5500 that i put on a crappy pc and sold it almost free.. yes it hurts... ( or trade it for an ati 9200, cant remember right..) i also remember i had one of those IBM keyboards of the 80's, like new, I loved it, but I have no idea or remember what I did with it..

[@francistheodorecatte]

looks like there's a dry joint or two on the SB1.5 clone's OPL chip

[@vswitchzero]

I noticed that too when I was watching it. It only looks like that on the top side. All of the solder joints on the back of the card for the OPL2 chip are solid 👍

[@Arivia1]

Jazz Jackrabbit saying "yum" sounds like one of those girls on TikTok these days.

[@Ale.K7]

Nice!

[@awilliams1701]

CMS on monkey sounds like some of the notes are being cut off.

[@vswitchzero]

Agreed! I tried it on my real SB 1.5 and it behaves the same way. I'm definitely going to explore a few more games that have CMS support. It's a really interesting sound that's for sure.

[@Cinncinnatus]

I owned a GUS I loved it.

[@worroSfOretsevraH]

Wait, what? I've never seen white ISA connectors.

[@vswitchzero]

A unique trait of many ECS branded boards from that era 👍

[@Chris-yc3mm]

Would unisound work with the gus?

[@vswitchzero]

Good question - Unisound supports the GUS PnP and AMD interwave so in theory it should work fine. I may give it a try later when I get some time 👍

[@zybch]

That GUS clone is way overpriced. The PicoGUS is around $40. Props for him doing it, but that price...

[@vswitchzero]

The PicoGUS is an amazing project! I just recently picked one up and hope to do a video on it.

[@SianaGearz]

Haha i was like "play dope play dope PLAY DOPE" and then you just did! :D

[@vswitchzero]

Haha awesome 😄 .. I never got into the demo scene back in the day, so I'm only now starting to discover and experience many of these 👍

[@SianaGearz]

@@vswitchzero My lesser known favourites may be Untitled by DUST and Heartquake by Iguana.

[@SianaGearz]

@@vswitchzero The whole reason i learned of the Demoscene was the demo compilation disc that came with the Ultrasound ACE.

[@PROSTO4Tabal]

This video lack of average isa 90s sound cards for comparison, how bad competition was

[@jonathanellis6097]

something about being "first"