From: felixc@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (felix.cabral)
Subject: GUS or SBPRO
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 13:51:29 GMT


About a month ago I purchased a SBpro after discussing the GUS problems
related to SB emulation. I got into some heated conversations with
GUS owners about the two cards. I was at times told I must be deaf not
to notice the difference between the two. Well, I got to borrow a GUS
yesterday. I downloaded all the latest GUS software (SBOS 1.23, setup etc.)
Here is what I concluded.

The GUS sounds great! Sure it does. When I played the midi files it came
with. I guess that ran in native mode. However, when I loaded sbos and
attempted to play each of my games, it was a different story. Let me first
say I used every switch possible as well as resetting the DMA, IRQ, and
I/O address for each game to find the optimal sound. I even consulted the
GUS switch settings in sbos_flg.txt.

- Kyrandia sounded terrible compared to the SBpro
- KQ6 would not play voices (audio system failure with -03)
- Wolf3d would intermittently play sound effects (doors opening, voices)
- Wizardry 7 would not play any sound effects and intermittent music
- Hoyle3 voices were played very low barely audible
- Ultima 7 background musci would garble during speech
- Windows 3.1 sounds (Ta Da, chimes etc) sounded no different than SBpro

In essence, the GUS sounded way better than the SBpro when playing non
sounblaster specific music (ie playmidi from GUS software bundle). When
playing SB compatible games the music in no way sound better than on the
SBpro. In fact the SBpro blew the GUS out of the water. Some games refuse
to play halfway decent unless I changed the I/O, DMA and IRQ to the SBpro
default settings (I/O 220, DMA 1, IRQ 7). GUS soundblaster emulation is
in no way better sounding than the SBpro itself, period. 

However, I'm not giving up so easy. I have the option of trading my SBpro
for the GUS. I want to be able to get better performance from these
games using the GUS. I like the fact the GUS is software driven. This 
raises hope for improvement. I also like the wavetable sounds over FM
synthesis. The GUS is better technology. The GUS has better features
(Ie 16 bit). Pricing is not an issue since the SBpro basic is about $160
and the GUS is about $140.

My system is a 386-33 with 12 megs memory and 370 meg HD. My GUS only
has 256k ram. SB compatible games don't use patches so don't tell me
things will sound much better if I had more ram on the GUS. Unless of
course sbos specifically loads in FM based sounds and music files from
SB compatible games as if they were patches? Some of you may answer this
question but what about the real problems mentioned.

There is still chance for me to go with the GUS over the flawless SBpro if:

What can I do to make things sound better? How can I get my favorite game
wizardy 7 to play sound effects on the GUS? How do I get KQ6 to play the
voices? 

Can you convince me?


-- 
Felix Cabral         {felixc@mtgzfs3.att.com}      "Give me nukin winds,
AT&T Bell Labs       {  att!mtgzfs3!felixc  }       a rad board, rad waves,
Middletown,NJ        {     (908)957-5081    }       and a company sickday!"
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard