Retro Review: Orchid NuSound PnP 32 - Part 2
1st July 2024
In Part 1, I took you on a guided tour of the Orchid NuSound PnP 32's hardware. Here's the card again:
Orchid NuSound PnP 32, ca. 1995
In this Part 2, we'll install some drivers and test the card out.
Driver Installation
There are several versions of drivers out there for the NuSound, which I've listed in the table below:
| Date | Details |
|---|---|
| 25th September 1995 (nusound1.zip) |
3 Disk images: Windows VXD drivers and CS4232C and RESOURCE.EXE files for DOS. No NUCTLDOS. No DOS installer - installing in Windows creates a C:\NUSOUND directory with the Windows tools only. |
| 8th February 1996 (nusound.zip) |
Contains Windows VXD drivers and NUSDMIX, CS4232C and RESOURCE.EXE files for DOS. No NUCTLDOS. |
| 8th February 1996 (nusoundpnp32.zip) | Windows 95 Upgrade 1.10 Release. Windows VXD drivers. Adds DirectSound support, enhanced PnP compatibility, PnP support for the Panasonic CD-ROM interface, sound support is MS-DOS mode only, Mixer and CD Player operation in a DOS environment under Windows 95. |
| 24th August 1996 (orchid-nusound.zip) |
Windows-only files |
After installing the card and starting Windows 98SE, you will see the following as it detects the Plug & Play card. You will need your Windows 98SE CD-ROM handy (I assume it has a later driver for the CS4232):
After Windows has done all it needs to and after a reboot, it's time to run the SETUP.EXE program from the installation disks:
Once setup is completed, you will see the NuSound Audio Software folder in your Programs list:
Here's the MIDI Control Panel app and the Synthesizer selection options (changing this will amend the 'Program' list below it to reflect the groups of instruments being mapped to reflect that synth):
and Drum Set options:
Under Input Device (left) and Output Device (right) menus:
Sadly, you cannot make any changes in the MIDI Control Panel on-the-fly when MIDI music is playing - Windows will throw a .DLL file error if you try. I also had Windows hang once while playing around with this.
On the DOS side of things, the NuSound driver disks come with a few tools and an initialisation utility called CS4232C.EXE.
In Part 3 we'll hear what the card sound like in both FM emulation mode and General MIDI.