Retro Review: Orchid NuSound PnP 32
30th June 2024
This month's retro review is one I've been meaning to write for a while, as it's been in my collection for a little over a year already - it's the Orchid NuSound PnP 32 from 1995:
Orchid NuSound PnP 32
Bought for £35 in June 2023
Introduced after Orchid were acquired my motherboard manufacturer Micronics, the NuSound PnP 32 followed the Orchid SoundWave 32 series from the year before.
Like its forebear, the NuSound provided audio compatibility with Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, Windows Sound System and General MIDI. It also has "Spatializer 3D" capability for 3D positional audio from two speakers. One key 'upgrade' with the NuSound was that its codec and wavetable synthesizer are provided by Crystal Semiconductor instead of the inferior Analog Devices chips used on the SoundWave 32.
Here's the full set of technical specifications:
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The '1 megabyte (compressed)' is a good sign, as this tells us the samples stored were previously larger than the 1 MB, but they have been compressed to fit into a 1 MB ROM chip. Compression of course does compromise the purity/quality of the original samples, but with any luck these are the same decent samples they used on the original Soundscape 2 MB patchset, just compressed. Other lesser cards might have advertised 1 MB compressed to mean you have 512 KB of actual stored samples.
The key differentiators that stand out from the spec sheet above is the 18-bit DAC and an excellent 85+ dB signal-to-noise ratio.
So in 1995, what were this card's competitors? Well, there were several that had similar specs (SB Pro and WSS support, and onboard wavetable):
- Ensoniq Soundscape OPUS - excellent built-in 1 MB wavetable (OTTO) but SB Pro support was via emulation only
- Ensoniq Soundscape VIVO - decent built-in 1 MB wavetable (OTTO) and marginal SB Pro FM synth
- MediaTrix AudioTrix Pro - decent built-in 2 MB wavetable (Crystal) and solid SB Pro FM synth via original Yamaha YMF278B
- Turtle Beach Tropez - decent built-in 1 MB wavetable (ICS Wavefront, expandable via onboard SIMM slots) and solid SB Pro FM synth via original Yamaha YMF262
- Terratec Maestro 16/96 and 32/96 - decent built-in 2 MB/4 MB wavetable (Crystal with a copy of the Roland SC-55 soundbank) and ok SB Pro FM synth built into OPTi 82C924
The VIVO's FM synth comes from the rather poor Analog Devices AD1845. Likewise the Terratec's use of the OPTi 82C924 isn't great-sounding but shares the same CS4232 and CS9233 combo seen on this NuSound. The AudioTrix Pro and Turtle Beach Tropez are arguably the best cards in this list.
The Fly-Past
Looking around the Orchid NuSound PnP 32, we can see the following:
- Crystal CS4232 - the main codec chip
- Crystal CS9233 - General MIDI synth chip
- Crystal CS4112 - 1 MB ROM used to store the onboard wavetable patchset
- Crystal CS4331 - stereo DAC
- LM1877N - stereo audio amplifier
- Atmel AT27C010 - a 128 KB EEPROM chip
- CL62C256F - a 32 KB Static RAM chip
- Several PAL chips
- Three crystal oscillators
- IDE and Panasonic CD-ROM interface connectors
- A 26-pin wavetable header
- A 34-pin header for connection to the optional Orchid NuPanel
- One white 4-pin header and one black 4-pin header for CD Audio-in
- A set of jumper blocks
- Faceplate with 15-pin game/MIDI port, Speaker Out, Mic-in, Line-in and Line-out 3.5mm jack sockets
Date-wise, the most recent date stamp on the card's chips is week 38 of 1995, so the original manufacturing date of this card was certainly no earlier than 18th September 1995.
Let's look at each of these in more detail...
Crystal CS4232
The Crystal CS4232-KQ chip is the NuSound's main audio controller, providing it with its Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro and Windows Sound System (WSS) compatibility. It also provides an MPU-401 UART-compatible MIDI interface. The CS4232 was a popular choice in 1995 as prospective sound card manufacturers were looking for ways to reduce cost with a lower chip count.
The OPL3 implementation is noticeably different-sounding compared to the Yamaha YMF262 original, but is pretty decent with good range.
Crystal CS9233 and CS4112 ROM
These two provide the card with its General MIDI and GS-compatible wavetable synthesis. This supports up to 32 simultaneous voices (channels). It can also emulate the Ad Lib register sets.
Crystal formed a technology partnership with the French company, DREAM S.A., and they designed the CS9233 together. I don't know if the 1 MB ROM patchset pre-dates the DREAM CleanWave(TM) that arrived around the same time - if it's not CleanWave then it's actually the Roland patchset used in their SC-55 external MIDI synthesizer.
Where the SoundWave 32's DSP (Analog Devices ADSP2115) could process up to 20 million instructions per second
The CS9233 can use either ROM-based instrument samples or pull the samples in from DRAM, though I've never seen a card with a CS9233 that has SIMM slots for DRAM sample storage. Another capability of the CS9233 is support for an external effects processor, the CS8905/CS8905A - if you have a card with the CS9233 DSP and a CS8905 along with a second 32 KB SRAM chip, you have the full complement of everything Crystal/DREAM built for this wavetable. Sadly, Orchid didn't plumb for the effects processor with the NuSound.
The CS9233 datasheet specifies that it is compatible with both the GM standard and Roland's extension of that, which they called GS (General Synthesizer). Crystal/Dream got into some hot water with Roland for illegally using the Roland patches, at which point they created their own (CleanWave).
Crystal CS4331
The Crystal CS4331 is the rather unique 18-bit stereo DAC (digital-to-analogue converter) designed to work alongside the CS9233/CS4112 combo, taking all the mixed digital audio channels and converting them into a single stereo analogue output. Most sound cards of the time only provided a 16-bit DAC.
This DAC has an excellent SnR of 96 dB.
32 KB Static RAM and 128 KB EPROM
Both the 32 KB SRAM chip and the 128 KB EPROM are part of the CS9233 wavetable circuitry.
The SRAM is used by the CS9233's onboard microcontroller as its 'external data workspace' and the 128 KB EPROM contains both the microcontroller program code and the wavetable instrument parameter data which provides definitions of the envelopes, LFOs, and filter settings to be used for each instrument.
LM1877N Audio Amplifier
The stereo audio amplifier used on the NuSound is the Texas Instruments LM1877N.
This provides up to 2 watts per channel of audio amplification with low harmonic distortion and noise.