Aztech Waverider 32+
In late 1995, Aztech released the first of their 3rd-generation cards, the Waverider 32+. It was the first Aztech card to feature an onboard General MIDI synthesizer.
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Released | 1995 |
| Bus | ISA 16-bit | |
| FM Synth | Yamaha YMF262 (OPL3) or LS-212 | |
| Audio Codec | Crystal CS4231KL or Analog Devices AD1845XP | |
| Chipsets | AZT-2316/A/R (3rd gen chip) and Wavefront ICS MIDI | |
| Standards | Ad Lib, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro 2, Windows Sound System, General MIDI | |
| Ports | Speaker-Out, Mic-In, Line-In (stereo), Line-Out (stereo) Game port |
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| CD-ROM | Sony, Mitsumi and Panasonic | |
| Wavetable | Yes, WaveTide-compatible | |
| Plug & Play | No (but does use Auto-Init for DMA) | |
| FCC ID(s) | I38-MMSN826 or I38-MMSD826 | |
| Price | $159, £113 (Sep '95) | |
| See Also | Sound Galaxy Orion 16 |
The Waverider 32+ provides Sound Blaster Pro II, Windows Sound System and General MIDI support.
Codenamed "Washington", the first Wavefront ICS cards from Aztech have 2 MB of samples (the same as found in the Turtle Beach Tropez and Maui cards) and their "VoiceCrystal Lite" soundfont is better quality than the later Samsung-chipped ones that only had 1 MB of samples.
Aztech also offered an optional SRS daughterboard for the Waverider 32+, which retailed for $39.
Rich Heimlich said this: "Would have been a really nice 1-card solution except that Aztech decided to go the cheap route and use the less expensive and less functional WaveFront Lite chipset. It sounds as good as a Tropez but lacks the RAM feature. Another downside to the initial Waverider was its software implementation with a 37KB TSR needed to run General MIDI.". He scored it 3 out of 10 for digital quality and 4 out of 10 for music quality, with a total score of 5 out of 10.
SoftMPU is known to work with the AZT-2316 chipset.
Board Revisions
I have no information on the various board revisions for the Waverider 32+.
Competition
In the Media
The WaveRider provides proprietary interfaces for Sony, Mitsumi, and Panasonic CD-ROM drivers, as well as a separate controller that allows the board to work with all IDE drives (including Aztech's). The card features a software-controlled installation routine, though we did run into resource conflicts when we hooked it up to our test system. The card would not work with our CD-ROM drive attached to an Adaptec 1510 or Adaptec 1542 SCSI controller. Unable to resolve the conflict with the help of Aztech's technical support, we tested the card using a Future Domain 1610 SCSI adapter instead.
The WaveRider achieved good results on our Frequency Response tests and produced sound suitable for business needs and the occasional game user. But MIDI files sounded synthetic, as if produced by a cheap electronic keyboard. The WaveRider showed acceptable performance on our Digital Recording tests. Its Quantization Noise figure was a little below average, but THD+N and Intermodulation Distortion scores were better than most. The card should prove usable for creating business presentations and the like.
Aztech provides rudimentary business and media software in support of its card, including a basic mixer, simulated set of stereo components, Midisoft's Recording Session, and First Byte's Monologue for Windows (a text-to-speech program). You also get Aztech's Comvoice speech-recognition software, a .WAV file editor, and Aztech's CLEF OLE, an application that lets you embed sound into documents.
On paper, the Aztech WaveRider 32+ looks like a winner: wavetable synthesis, Sound Blaster and Microsoft Windows Sound System compatibility, decent software, and acceptable sound for $199. But difficult installation and poor MIDI playback make it tough to recommend."
PC Magazine, 28th March 1995
Setting it Up
Downloads
Operation Manual Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
Windows 95 Driver |
Windows NT Driver v1.00 |
OS/2 Warp 3.0 Driver v1.03
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