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 by motherboard manufacturer Micronics, the NuSound PnP 32 followed the Orchid SoundWave 32 series from the year before. Alongside the card itself you could buy several optional accessories, including the NuSound CD adapter ($199) which added a 16-bit SCSI-2 PnP interface and a 1 MB wavetable synthesizer (upgradable to a 4 MB sample set), the NuSound Studio adapter ($299) which added professional music enhancements, 4 MB of ROM, and downloadable RAM-based wave-table synthesis, and the NuPanel which was a 3.5" drive bay-sized control panel for easy access to most of the audio jacks, volume control, and 3D on/off.
It retailed for $159 for just the card, or $249 as a bundle with the NuPanel. At this price point it competed directly with other mid-range cards like the Creative Labs Sound Blaster 32 and MediaVision Premium 3D. There was also a cut-down version called the NuSound PnP 16 which retailed for $99. I'm not sure what the differences are (I've never seen one) - perhaps no accessory capability. The Orchid drivers don't distinguish between the two, indicating that the driver set will work on either. Also don't confuse these NuSound PnP cards with the later Orchid NuSound 3D which is a PCI card based on the Aureal Vortex.
A magazine advertisement for the NuSound (August 1995)
Like its forebear, the NuSound provided audio compatibility with Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, Windows Sound System and General MIDI. It also had "Spatializer 3D" capability for 3D positional audio from two speakers. One key 'upgrade' with the NuSound was that its codec and wavetable synthesizer were provided by Crystal Semiconductor instead of the inferior Analog Devices chips used on the earlier SoundWave 32.
Here's the full set of technical specifications:
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The '1 megabyte (compressed)' is just as we saw with the Ensoniq VIVO, where the samples stored were previously larger than the 1 MB, but have been compressed to fit into a 1 MB ROM chip.
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) but marginal SB Pro FM synth support/quality
- 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 with FM synth emulation
- 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 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.
Crystal CS9233 and CS4112 ROM
These two provide the card with its General MIDI and Roland GS-compatible wavetable synthesis. This supports up to 32 simultaneous voices (channels). It also provides the card's FM synthesizer emulation for Ad Lib, Sound Blaster, and Sound Blaster Pro support. The OPL3 implementation is noticeably different-sounding compared to the Yamaha YMF262 original.
Crystal formed a technology partnership with the French company, DREAM S.A., and they designed the CS9233 together. It was an enhancement over their earlier CS9203 DSP. 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.
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 when designing the NuSound card.
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. Of course the card's design plays a critical part in the overall SnR, but using this DAC is a promising sign Orchid were going for premium quality.
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'.
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.
CD-ROM Interfaces
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The card comes with two CD-ROM interfaces: an IDE and, somewhat strangely, a Panasonic/Creative one.
I say strange, as the latter really wasn't used by the majority of sound card manufacturers outside of Creative Labs. There are only about six different CD-ROM drives that ever used this interface, and even Creative themselves had largely dropped the Panasonic interface from their own sound cards by 1995, favouring IDE as the standard.
Wavetable Header
I like any sound card that has both onboard wavetable synthesis and a wavetable daughterboard header. This gives you the option to have different-sounding MIDI music depending on the game you're playing.
The wavetable header on the NuSound is fully Wave Blaster-compatible. Orchid Technology sold their own wavetable daughterboards which they called WaveBooster (2 MB ROM), WaveBooster/4 (4 MB ROM), and WaveBooster/4FX (4 MB ROM with effects processor). All these daughterboards increased polyphony to 56 voices from the 32 provided by the Crystal onboard wavetable synth.
NuPanel Connector
The Orchid NuPanel connector allows you to connect the sound card to a front panel fitted into a standard 3.5" drive bay.
This provided easy access to Speaker-Out, Line-Out, and Mic-In jacks, plus 3D on/off, mute and volume control.
Jumper block
The NuSound has a small jumper block near the bottom-right of the card. From the top they are:
- JP6: PC Speaker-in connector (don't worry about the missing pin 1 - I guess the GND is taken from the ISA bus so is not needed from the wire - connecting your PC speaker output from the motherboard directly into the sound card allows it to be mixed with other sources for output through your speakers/headphones)
- J6: Microphone type (factory set, but would usually allow you to select between a condenser microphone or a carbon microphone)
- JP5: NuPanel MIDI I/O port (connects to the NuPanel to provide MIDI in and MIDI out connections to the front panel)
There is also a jumper in the top-left of the card to disable the onboard IDE interface (if you are using your motherboard's IDE interface this jumper should be on to avoid a resource conflict).
In Part 2 we'll install the drivers and get it up and running.