************************************** * The New Sound Blaster Pro V2 * * a feature Article by Mike Moffat * ************************************** How many of you have heard rumours of the "New Sound Blaster Pro" ? If you haven't then you've missed out on some quite astonishing information. It got to the stage where it was hard to tell fact from fiction, it seemed as though we might have three or four different Sound Blaster Pro style cards, as well as the many variations of the original Sound Blaster, for anyone looking to buy a sound card for there pc, i'm SURE they'd have been having nightmares... Now, finally, we KNOW what the new Sound Blaster Pro is and has.. The Sound Blaster Pro V2, although theorectically the same card, has undergone MAJOR renovations. The Pro V2 is an all new design, using many surface mount components, and a much shorter PCB, infact, its not that much larger than the standard Sound Blaster! Gone are the twin, big, space waisting 24pin FM chips, the amplifier ic's, and other 'garden variety' chips, instead in there place are new, custom made surface mount devices. The two FM chips have been replaced by the much vaunted OPL-3 stereo FM chip, which provides better panning for stereo effects. As well as being fully compatible with the previous Sound Blaster and Sound Blaster Pro, the OPL-3 has 15 melodies using two operators plus five percussion sounds, or six melodies using four operators, three melodies using two operators plus five percussion sounds. The analog to digital sampling rates remain as on the original Sound Blaster Pro, from 4kHz to 44.1kHz in MONO or 22.1kHz for stereo. Perhaps as a result of new, custom designed ic's, or an all new, shorter and redesigned pcb ( or both ) i find that samples sound a little clearer, and where previously i would pick up interference from the computer or hard drive ( never worked out what it was ) now i just get a nice, clean sample. With my original Sound Blaster Pro V1, using VocEdit's "Scan Input" with my Hi-Fi connected to the LINE input and NO AUDIO at all, the "WaveForm Window" would show a slight, random signal, and recorded samples seemed to have a "click" that could be heard in the quiet parts of a sample, the "click" seemingly in time to when the hard drive had saved that chunk of the sample. Nothing i did would cure it, moving the card from slot to slot, moving cables and even a different power supply! However, the Sound Blaster Pro V2 had NONE of those problems, and now i can sample to my hard drive's limit! Another point, i seem to get less noise comming through the hi-fi when i'm using the PC with the amp still on, no more "top ten data transfers"! The rest of the card is basically the same as the V1 Pro. You have line, mic and cd-rom audio and pc speaker inputs, back mounted volume control and audio outputs. At-BUS style CD-Rom interface and the same jumpers for IRQ,DMA,Port Address and so on .. On last note on the subject of hardware, the MIDI BOX is *NOT* included in the SB-Pro V2 package. Like the standard Sound Blaster, it is again an option. At the time of writing, the Sound Blaster Pro V1 (with midi) and Sound Blaster Pro V2 (without midi box) are identical in price. The software has also undergone some changes. As well as the usual packaged software, the "Voice Utilities" have been added to. New additions are VOC2WAV - convert your VOiCe samples into a form usable by Multi-Media (.wav) sound programs. WAV2VOC - the reverse of the above PLAYCMF - Plays .CMF music files Also included is a program called the "Sound Blaster Standard Programming Tool". Here i will quote from the book, as i have not been able to test the software due to a floppy drive controller failier. * Relief from the drudgery of loading and unloading Sound Blaster sound drivers. * Flexability of choosing the driver to load for your application. * Easy programming method for playing .CMF and .VOC files with a simple and consistant command set. * Access to the same piece of music or voice from different DOS applications at the same time. * Full use of extended memory to play VOC files, taking advantage of SBSIM's close coupling with the CT-VOICE driver. Basically, it provides a "script" language for playing the various types of music files associated with the Sound Blaster and SB-Pro, allowing easy selecting of the driver and alteration to the settings of that driver. It seems you can load any one, or ALL of the drivers, and unload any one at any time. It should be quite useful to those preparing presentations allowing a wide variety of effects which previously would have been labour intensive. Lastly, apart from the new drivers, there is an additional program to play .MID midi files from DOS. The manual has undergone a dramatic change! For one thing, it is no longer spiral bound, which should mean your manual will remain intact if you reference it alot. The mistakes have been fixed, including the most serious of them all, the chapter dealing with connecting the PC speaker output to the pc speaker input on the Sound Blaster Pro's PCB .. It has also lost that "toy" manual look. The there are more pictures of the pcb when dealing with jumper location, alteration and connection points and the style of print gives the book a much more professional look and feel. There us also a good deal more information in there too, which means the manual can really lay claim to the "Users Reference Manual" boldly printed on the front cover. CONCLUSION! Overall, the Sound Blaster Pro V2 is a much better card than the previous Pro. With its improved design, sampling suffers less from intereference, the sound output seems a little clearer, the pcb layout and design looks much neater, the manual is not only now accurate but is also easier to read and there have been some useful additions to the supplied software. If you have had problems with a interference, or werent impressed with the sampling quality of the V1 Pro, i suggest you wonder down to your local computer shop and get them to demo the new Pro. I have sold off my original Sound Blaster Pro (with its midi kit) and now own the V2 SB-Pro, and LOVE IT! ** FootNote : It appears that in the not to distant future Creative Labs will have an SCSI version of the Pro V2. Mike Moffat For additional Information contact: Creative Labs 2050 Duane Avenue Santa Clar, CA 95054 Phone: (408) 986-1461 FAX : (408) 986-1777