Aztech
Aztech Labs started in 1986 as a manufacturer of disk drives and modems. They arrived slightly late to the home computer audio market, but became very successful in this area, primarily because they formed strong partnerships with the big box PC-compatible OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) and peripheral manufacturers such as Packard Bell, Reveal, Trust & HP.
The company are still in business but focus these days on wireless technology for businesses and IP cameras.
When the multimedia boom hit in the 90s, Aztech were quick to launch a series of 'Multimedia Upgrade Kits' (MUKs) that comprised one of their sound cards, a CD-ROM drive, two desktop speakers, and usually a CD-based game title. Such kits include the Asteroid and Voyager, both released in 1994. Asteroid was marketed as the basic kit while Voyager was aimed at the more experienced gamer. Both contained the exact same hardware (a Nova 16 sound card and Aztech Labs' Zeta CD-ROM drive) but Voyager included Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Comanche: Maximum Overkill, Wired for Sound Pro, The Software Toolworks Multimedia Encyclopedia, Macromedia Action! 2.5, Learn to Use Windows and Professor Multimedia. Asteroid came with only the latter three plus Day of the Tentacle.
While the Aztech range of sound cards doesn't quite rival Creative Labs in terms of the volume of model numbers, they probably run in 2nd place with in excess of 30 different sound cards produced between 1992 and 1998 (33 models are covered here at DOS Days).
Creative Labs issued a lawsuit against Aztech Systems Pte Ltd in 1996, stating that Aztech had infringed on their copyright in various firmware and software they had created for the Intel 8051. Both the firmware in this chip and their CT-VOICE.DRV and TEST-SBC.EXE files were allegedly copied in full or in part during the creation of Aztech's BX, NX and NX Pro sound cards. Aztech denied the infringement (despite stating they had a right to debugging the Creative card they had purchased to understand its mode of operation), and won the case in the High Court. It went to appeal and was overturned in favour of Creative on the grounds that it was a patent case, not a copyright case, and that Aztech did not have the right to use and sell the protected work.
2nd- through 4th-generation cards all supported Sound Blaster Pro 2.0. None of their cards supported Sound Blaster 16.
The best Aztech card that supports the broadest audio formats is the Sound Galaxy Pro 16 (I38-MMSD810). This supports Covox Speech Thing, Disney Sound Source, Sound Blaster Pro 2.0, Ad Lib and Windows Sound System. The only thing it doesn't have is wavetable header support under MS-DOS.
1st Generation
The first generation of Aztech sound cards was based around the Aztech AZTSSPT0592-U01 or AZTSB0792-U07 chipset. All of the 1st-generation cards support Adlib and Sound Blaster 2.0, and aside from the BX cards also support Disney Sound Source & Covox Speech Thing. Some of the later ones from 1993 onwards added Sound Blaster Pro 2 and Windows Sound System support. *None* of the 1st generation cards got an MPU-401 UART-compatible MIDI interface - instead theirs was compatible with the Sound Blaster MIDI ports.
2nd generation
All 2nd-generation cards have the AZT-1605 chipset. Whilst these have the excellent Yamaha YMF-262 OPL3 chip for stereo FM synthesis, they only support Ad Lib, Windows Sound System, and Sound Blaster 2.0 (mono) on their DAC. They do not support Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 digital output under DOS. The 2nd generation also dropped support for Covox Speech Thing and Disney Sound Source. All of this generation got an MPU-401 UART-compatible MIDI interface.
3rd generation
All 3rd-generation cards have the AZT-2316 chipset. These all support Adlib, Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 and Windows Sound System. They are configured through a combination of jumpers on the board and software settings via the CONFIG.EXE utility in the driver software. Settings from this utility are saved to the card's EEPROM, so it will retain its settings next time you reboot assuming the jumper marked JMPCFG is set to EEPROM on the card.
All 3rd-gen cards have an MPU-401 UART-compatible MIDI interface. One advantage of these is that the first two generations were supposedly timing-sensitive, i.e. if you're running a gen-1 or gen-2 card in anything faster than a 486 you may experience issues - these problems are gone in the 3rd generation of cards.
The AZT-2316 lacks a low-pass filter, which makes the output sound more treble-y when compared to the Sound Blaster Pro.
4th Generation
The 4th-generation cards are based around the AZT-2320 chipset. These still come in both PnP and non-PnP variants. For DOS gaming, the PnP ones are naturally more difficult to configure (you usually need to load the DWCFGMG.SYS driver at startup - this is the Intel PnP configuration manager - and then run DIAGNOSE.EXE), so probably best to avoid these cards for that purpose. The 4th generation really doesn't provide any benefit over the 3rd-gen cards either, and since most 4th-gen cards are PnP, I would advise sticking to 3rd-gen non-PnP cards.
A summary of all the Aztech sound cards for DOS. Click for a larger version
Issues with poor digital sound quality
Poor digital sound quality in DOS is actually due to a setting in the soundcard's Mixer control utility. This can affect 1st-gen right up to 4th-gen cards. All you have to do is to load the Mixer control TSR (normally found under the relevant soundcard's subdirectoy called "utility") and look for a setting where you can toggle between MONO or STEREO (the older soundcards' Mixer control had drop down menus, whereas the newer ones had a more simplified Mixer control). Select MONO (not STEREO), save and exit. You can unload the Mixer TSR afterwards. If you playback your games' digital sounds now, the sound quality will not sound as distorted/muffled. Bear in mind that this won't affect the actual digital sound output - a stereo sound source will still produce stereo sound provided you select the correct option in the game (SB Pro or SB Pro 2).
Wavetable Support
Some cards support wavetable daughterboard cards via a Wave Blaster header. Some support Aztech's own wavetable daughterboard called WaveTide - this requires both a Wave Blaster header and an EXPCON (expansion connector) header to be present on the card.
Here are some Aztech drivers and other software that aren't necessarily model-specific:
Aztech Business Audio Drivers for Win3.1
Aztech Sound Galaxy Drivers for Win3.1
Aztech IDE CD-ROM driver
Aztech Multimedia Kit add-on programs
Aztech WaveTide MIDI Synthesizer software
Sound Galaxy Developer Kit Version 1.06
Aztech sound cards by generation (in chronological order):
Pre & 1st Generation | 2nd Generation | 3rd Generation | 4th Generation |
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BX (1992) NX (1992) BXII (1992) NXII / NXII Extra (1993) NX Pro / Extra (1993) NX Pro 16 / Extra (1993) Basic 16/Pro 16 (1994) |
Nova 16 / Extra (1994) Pro 16 II (1995) Orion 16 (1995) |
Waverider 32+ (1995) Washington 16 (?) Multimedia Pro 16 (?) Multimedia Pro 16 IIB-3D (?) Multimedia Audio Telephony 2000 (?) Multimedia Audio Telephony 3200/3260 (?) Pro16 II-3D PnP (?) Nova 16 Extra II-3D (?) Multimedia Pro 16 ABI/ABO (?) Waverider Pro 32-3D (?) |
Waverider Pro 32-3D PnP (?) Waverider Platinum-3D PnP (?) Multimedia Pro-16V (?) Multimedia Pro-16 IIIS+ PnP (?) Multimedia SC128-3D (1997) |
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Multimedia Pro 16
Introduced: - A known-working driver for the Multimedia Pro 16 was provided by Andalusian RetroGamer (Jesús Daniel Borja Delgado). You can download it from the Aztech Downloads page. More Images |
Multimedia Pro 16 IIB-3D
Introduced: - This is the last card produced by Aztech that is *not* PnP. It does have a wavetable header. SoftMPU is known to work with the AZT-2316 chipset. Audio from the Aztech Sound Galaxy Pro 16 IIB-3D can be listened to on the following game pages: More Images
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Multimedia Audio Telephony 2000
Chipset:
AZT-2316/A/R Wavefront ICS (3rd generation chip). |
Multimedia Audio Telephony 3200/3260
Chipset:
AZT-2316/A/R Wavefront ICS (3rd generation chip). This card was an
OEM version for Packard-Bell (model number 030101). DriversFor drivers, copies of original floppy disks and more, go to my Aztech Downloads page. |
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Nova 16 Extra II-3D
FM synthesizer: Yamaha YMF262-M (OPL3). DriversFor drivers, copies of original floppy disks and more, go to my Aztech Downloads page. More Images |
Multimedia Pro 16 ABI/ABO
Chipset:
AZT-2316/A/R Wavefront ICS (3rd generation chip). MPU-401 compatible. This is Aztech's last card that was both non-PnP and does have a wavetable header. Lacks a low pass filter when running in Sound Blaster Pro mode, which makes the output audio sound more tinny/treble. Overall though, this card is nice and quiet (low noise). SoftMPU is known to work with the AZT-2316 chipset. The card was also sold to third parties who rebranded it. One example of this is the Toptek Golden Sound Pro 16 ES/MCD. Eirik Øverby, whose card is shown in this section, got in touch with me to let me know that he tried installing a Dream Blaster in the WaveTide header on his MMSN850, and it worked! - sort of. He was only able get sound out of one channel from the Audio Out port on the back of the card. Since his daughterboard has its own audio output jack he was able to get around this problem, though it's less than ideal. If anyone has pinouts for the WaveTide header please let me know! DriversFor drivers, copies of original floppy disks and more, go to my Aztech Downloads page. More Images |
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Waverider Pro 32-3D PnP
Chipset: AZT-2320 (4th generation chip). This card is also sold as the Galaxy Pro 16 III 3D PnP. There are 4 variants of this card:
The variant of Waverider Pro 32-3D with an onboard wavetable synthesizer used the SEC (Samsung) 0164 wavetable synth chip and a 1 MB ROM that holds the samples. DriversFor drivers, copies of original floppy disks and more, go to my Aztech Downloads page.
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Waverider Platinum-3D PnP
Chipset: AZT-2320 (4th generation chip). Just like the Waverider Pro 32-3D, the Platinum 3D PnP came with an onboard wavetable synthesizer in the form of the SEC (Samsung) 0164 and a 1 MB ROM that holds the samples. I could well believe these two cards are identical, and the Platinum branding was simply a means to bundle the card with some application or game software. DriversFor drivers, copies of original floppy disks and more, go to my Aztech Downloads page. |
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Multimedia Pro-16 IIIS+ PnP
Chipset: AZT-2320 (4th generation chip). More Images |
Multimedia SC128-3D/MM SC128-3D
Introduced: 1997 The SC128-3D used the Sonic Vibes chipset from S3, which was also used on the Turtle Beach Daytona and several other cards. The Turtle Beach version of this was the very first PCI sound card on the market. The SC128-3D contains a 2 MB wavetable patch set from EuPhonics with 32 voices. Aztech's card based on this chipset does *not* come with the optional 32Kx8 SRAM chip necessary for reverb effects, where other cards like the Turtle Beach do. It does, however, comes with a Line-Out jack in addition to Speaker-Out, Line-In and Mic-In jacks. Like the Ensoniq AudioPCI cards, Sonic Vibes uses RAM-based wavetable patches which are loaded into RAM when the driver is initialised. The chipset supports 1 MB, 2 MB and 4 MB patchsets which are in .DLS (Downloadable Sound) format. For legacy DOS support, it uses Distributed DMA (DDMA), and requires a small 3 KB driver to be loaded into memory for it to work. In addition, for Sound Blaster Pro support to work in DOS the chipset requires an additional driver, S3DOSVM.EXE, to be loaded into memory - this requires EMM386 to be loaded also. More Images |