Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!corton!chorus!opera.chorus.fr!mir
From: mir@opera.chorus.fr (Adam Mirowski)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: SoundBlaster vs AdLib
Message-ID: <8145@chorus.fr>
Date: 7 Mar 91 15:37:45 GMT
References: <8037@chorus.fr> <91063.003136UD157912@NDSUVM1.BITNET> <91064.235828UD157912@NDSUVM1.BITNET> <1991Mar6.174743.17033@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu>
Sender: mir@chorus.fr
Reply-To: mir@opera.chorus.fr (Adam Mirowski)
Organization: Chorus systemes, Paris, France
Lines: 44

In article <1991Mar6.174743.17033@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu>, smsmith@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Stephen M. Smith) writes:
%% I asked Leading Tech. what the new board will do, and he said it
%% will do anything the Soundblaster will do, including the digitized
%% voice stuff, and it also comes with the Voxkit.  I don't think it
%% does anything MORE than what the soundblaster does, and I don't
%% know whether it comes with CMS chips.

It could sample at 23 instead of 12 KHz max. With a SB you cannot
equal a Mac Recorder yet.

%% Anyway, after speaking the Leading Tech's rep, I came to the
%% conclusion that it is basically just a soundblaster, and that
%% Leading Tech just wants to get part of the lucrative market that
%% SB has gotten.

After having discovered that CMS are just Philips SAA 1099, I started
to think that maybe other SB components are fairly standard and
Creative Labs are just assembling them, providing a PC bus interface,
etc. Why do they stick paper sheets over some chips on the board?
Stealing the market of a company who didn't put much effort into R&D
doesn't bother me (*Creative* Labs... hahaha :-)
 
%% >How important the MIDI interface to me as a game player? 
%% 
%% As for as I know, NO game uses the MIDI interface.  You need to

One of the demos I downloaded from sequent.mcs.kent.edu has the MT-32
option (I think it was Test Drive 3).  Anyway, I suppose it expects a
NORMAL midi interface, even if it supports SB. I am not a big game
user and there are some many ones on the market...

%% buy MIDI software (as well as the MIDI adapter if you have a
%% SB) in order to use the MIDI.

As for the MIDI adapter, you can do it yourself with $5.

%% BTW, the soundblaster is NOT compatible with much of the MIDI stuff
%% out there.  I would NOT buy the SB if you're planning on getting
%% into MIDI in any serious way--it's a waste of money.  Buy the SB
%% for your games and for the digitizing features. 

-- 
Adam Mirowski,  mir@chorus.fr (FRANCE),  tel. +33 (1) 30-64-82-00 or 74
Chorus systemes, 6, av.Gustave Eiffel, 78182 Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines CEDEX