DOS Days

Orchid SoundWave 32 Series

The Orchid SoundWave 32 was a 16-bit ISA sound card with onboard wavetable, arriving in October 1993.

	Released	October 1993
	Interface	ISA 16-bit
	FM Synthesizer	Analog Devices Echo ESC614 (OPL3 emulation)
	Audio Codec	Analog Devices AD1848KP
	DSP	Analog Devices ADSP2115
	Ports	3.5mm jacks for speaker out, line out, line-in, and mic. Game/MIDI port
	CD-ROM	Sony and Mitsumi
	Wavetable	Onboard 512 KB (SW32) or 1 MB (SW32 Pro)
	Plug & Play	No
	Part #	835-0139-1/A
	FCC ID	DDS7EF0393-03-SWA
	Price	Oct 1993: $299 1994: $249 (standard ROMs), $289 (InVision ROMs) Mar 1995: £159
	See Also	Orchid GameWave 32

The SoundWave 32 supported Ad Lib, Sound Blaster, Windows Sound System, General MIDI, Roland MPU-401 interface and Roland MT-32 sound standards.

SoundWave 32 had either 512 KB or 1 MB ROM for samples onboard. These samples, known as "Prosonus", are compressed, so it is likely with the 512 KB ROM version you get 1 MB of compressed samples, and with the 1MB ROM version you get 2 MB of compressed samples. ROMs could be optionally upgraded to the 2 MB InVision ones. These came with over 200 recorded instrument samples. The card had a decent Signal to Noise Ratio (SnR) of -74.5 dB.

The card had an onboard DSP (Digital Signal Processor) that was apparently capable of 20 MIPS. One interesting thing about the SoundWave 32 is that you can load up different DSP firmwares for General MIDI mode and Roland MT-32 mode, which tell us that there is also some kind of LA Synthesis that is emulated. The usual MT-32 emulation does not feature this.

Compared to its cheaper sibling, GameWave 32, the SoundWave 32 came with the Analog Devices AD1848KP which provided the card with its Windows Sound System support. Like the GameWave, the standard Sound Wave 32 came with both Sony and Mitsumi CD-ROM drive interfaces.

The SoundWave 32 Pro was the same as the SoundWave 32, but came with 2 MB of samples compressed into 1 MB ROM.

A SoundWave 32+SCSI and SoundWave 32Pro SCSI were released shortly after, which came with a SCSI interface and a Mitsumi CD-ROM interface. Like the SoundWave 32Pro, it had 2 MB of compressed samples onboard (a total of 56 wavetable synthesis voices). The SW32 SCSI cards all shipped with the InnoVision / InVision ROMs, which were an optional cost upgrade for the original SoundWave 32 card. In addition, all the SCSI and Studio cards came with a wavetable header.

The SoundWave 32+Studio is the same as SoundWave 32+SCSI and SoundWave 32Pro SCSI, but adds Orchid's WaveBooster 4FX high-quality wavetable synthesizer card, which features 4 MB of ROM samples (compressed to 2 MB?), built-in digital effects such as reverb, chorus, and is compatible with GS (General Synthesizer) specification.

Both the Doom and Descent games pages have sample OPL4 audio from this card.

SoundWave 32 with InVision - This is a SoundWave 32 but with different ROMs (so a different patchset to Orchid's standard SW32 card) from InVision Interactive. InVision, based in Scotts Valley, CA., were mostly known for developing a ROM card for the Korg M1, named "M1 Plus 1", and their Lightware AKAI samples in co-production with North Star and Sound Genesis. They also produced sample ROM expansions for EMU Proteus. This card comes with different drivers (2.x) and also new DSP firmware (.LD files for General MIDI and Roland MT-32). You could buy the InVision ROMs for approx $40 back in the day.

User FGB on Vogons believes you can detect if your SoundWave 32 is using the original ROMS or InnoVision ones by the fact the ROM sticker has an 'A' suffix (original) or a 'B' suffix (InVision). That, and the copyright message reading '(C) Orchid/INVSN' for the InVision ones. Not only were the InnoVision ROMs better than the original Prosonus ones, but the updated DSP code provided better Sound Blaster compatibility, improved MIDI THRU support, and improved MIDI SYSEX support. Even with the InVision patchset, the output quality is poor.

Rich Heimlich said this of the SoundWave 32 w/InVision: "A very competent entry level card if you want better sound but you get what you pay for which in this case means a low quality patch set and poor SB/FM compatibility.". He scored it 3 out of 10 for digital quality and 2.5 out of 10 for music quality.

Board Revisions

There are 3 known board revisions, with the 'A' revision not having a jumper to tell the board if a 512 KB or 1 MB patchset is installed (assume it only supported the former).
The 'B' and 'C' revisions added this jumper. Also differences in the ROMs themselves, with 820-, 821-, and 810- prefixes. The 820 and 821 both seem to only be on 'A' revision board, while the 810 ROMs are only on the 'B' and 'C' revision boards.

Competition

Other sound cards that are very similar to the SoundWave 32 include the Beethoven ADSP-16 (no wavetable) / Beethoven ADSP-16 Wave (with wavetable chips), Cardinal MPC700/DSP16, and the Wearnes Peripherals MML9050 (PA-WP9050-B) - these both use a combination of the Analog Devices AD1848KP, Analog Devices Echo ESC614 and Analog Devices ADSP-2115.

In the Media

"Also new from Orchid is the SoundWave 32, which supports a variety of sound and multimedia formats including AdLib, SoundBlaster, Windows Sound System, and general MIDI. It's based on the Analog Devices ADSP2115 DSP, which processes over 20 million instructions per second."
PC Magazine, October 1993

"Today's sound boards face the challenge of integrating new standards and capabilities while offering quality coverage for existing features and formats.

Orchid Technology's SoundWave 32 board is a $299 solution to this problem. Its two Analog Devices processors give true 16-bit audio processing at a maximum sampling rate of 44.1 kHz for full CD sound quality. Meanwhile, its ROMs hold 8 megabytes of instrument and sound effect samples that give you 24 simultaneous voices in Sound Blaster/Yamaha OPL2 or General MIDI mode and 32 in Roland MT-32 modes. The chip sets work in concert to support simultaneous processing of sound emulations in combination with its core Sound Blaster, Microsoft Sound System, and Roland MPU-401 MIDI modes and interfaces.

With digital sound processing based in its 20-MHz Analog Devices ADSP-2115 chip, the 16-bit board is designed with integrated interfaces for Sony and Mitsumi CD-ROM drives, too. It also has an external 15-pin joystick/MIDI port connection and a full array of line, speaker, microphone, and CD audio inputs/outputs. There are no external volume controls on either the board or its included unpowered speakers, but the SoundWave driver software and one of the board's bundled software packages gives you access to the board's audio settings.

In addition to its DSP, the SoundWave board has the Analog Devices 1848 CODEC, a version of the same chip used in Microsoft Sound System to handle analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversions with space-saving compression."
PC Magazine, December 1993

"InVision Interactive, a supplier of sound samples for leading synthesizer manufacturers (Korg, Ensoniq, Yamaha and others), has designed a custom sound set for Orchid Technology's SoundWave 32 card. This new sound set, with over 200 instrument and effects sounds , improves the quality of both the General MIDI and MT-32 instruments by utilizing InVision's patented sound processing techniques.

"Originally aimed at music markets, this new sample set is great for games and other multimedia applications, enhancing the realism and depth of the Orchid SoundWave 32 card. These ROM sets are available now from InVision Interactive. The price is $39.95 (plus shipping and handling), and includes the new ROM chips and software. A new ROM upgrade for Orchid's GameWave 32 will also be available February 1, 1994, from InVision. InVision Interactive can be reached at 800-468-5530 (orders only), (415)812-7380, or (415)812-7386 FAX." Orchid Press Release, August 1995

An Advert for the SoundWave 32 (October 1993)

Setting it Up

The SoundWave 32's settings are configured via jumpers on the centre-bottom of the card.

Jumper	Purpose	Available Settings
J3	I/O Base Address	1-2 = 240h, 2-3 = 220h (default)
J4	DMA Channel	left = 1, middle = 2, right = 3
JP1	ROM size installed	1-2 (1 MB), 2-3 (512 KB)