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Date:      Sun, 13 Dec 1998 05:26:28 -0600
From:      Zach Heilig <zach@gaffaneys.com>
To:        Nik Clayton <nik@nothing-going-on.demon.co.uk>, multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: SoundBlaster AWE 64 -- good choice?
Message-ID:  <19981213052628.A2983@znh.org>
In-Reply-To: <19981212202639.48886@nothing-going-on.org>; from Nik Clayton on Sat, Dec 12, 1998 at 08:26:39PM %2B0000
References:  <19981212202639.48886@nothing-going-on.org>

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On Sat, Dec 12, 1998 at 08:26:39PM +0000, Nik Clayton wrote:
> Is the SoundBlaster AWE 64 a good choice of soundcard for FreeBSD? 
> I plan on using it for playing MP3s, as well as wiring my CD and BT848
> output through it.

It's ok, but definately not the best choice.  I have one, and it is quite
noisy (If lots of hiss doesn't bother you, it's a fair choice, just don't plan
on getting good results when digitizing audio).  I think I read that it barely
has 40dB SNR.  The regular soundblaster 16 has about 35dB SNR.  Just about
anything is better than a soundblaster in this respect.

> I've had a look through LINT, which does list an (undocumented) awe0
> device, but I'm not sure if the AWE 64 and the AWE 32 are compatible.

It seemed to be (I never actually used it), but only with the voxware driver.
With Luigi's driver, only the DAC and ADC (/dev/audio, /dev/dsp, /dev/dspW)
devices are supported.

$ cat /dev/sndstat
FreeBSD Audio Driver (981002) Nov 30 1998 22:47:06
Installed devices:
pcm1: <SoundBlaster 16 4.16> at 0x220 irq 9 dma 7:0
sequencer1: <???> at 0x388 (not functional)

> Failing that, what's a recommended card?

sorry, can't help you here... Check
/usr/src/sys/i386/isa/snd/CARDS   (Luigi's Driver)
/usr/src/sys/i386/isa/sound/Readme.cards (VoxWare)

-- 
Zach Heilig (zach@gaffaneys.com)
Our one strength was that our senior officers were more flexible than theirs...
How's that?
We can customize our colonels.   [ Illiad in User Friendly, Dec. 1, 1998 ]

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