5.1 PCI Sound Card for Beige G3?

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Need one, do they exist? Sound of any kind at all would be nice.

ASP Attributes = Audio/Video Card

ASP Attributes = Whisper now that I've emptied the PERCH Slot to get the assembly down to 2U

I'm successfully running my BG3DT with the Rage128/DVD Daughtercard in all three slots of the 2U riser and it's time to start filling the other two, Sound Card first.

Suggestions?

 

[ArmorAlley]

I got an eMagic sound card in one of the Beige G3s that I bought. The HD died so I have no drivers to it and it needs a breakout cable but you're welcome to it if you're prepared to hunt down what's missing.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Thanks, sounds interesting, I like a challenge. Searched online for eMagic/Mac for a few minutes, but only found the type with 5 color coded connectors. Seems to be a standardized mic in/ speaker out and what appears to be a 2.1 output setup? Something to nail down later tonight at work.

Found a few with what looks like a breakout connector, but is probably just a game port.

Meanwhile, checked out everymac and it seems that "Whisper" is the default attribute for the stock, unintelligent audio card.

BG3 w/empty PERCH Slot doesn't even whisper, no sound at all, nada, zilch, which is okay by me, it's a 2U Rackmount home build project. Who needs alert or startup sounds for that? The humongous MetalMiniTower enclosure is hitting the recycling bin within 48 hours. There's no turning back. Worst possible scenario is a 9 inch deep 3U plexi box. [}] ]'>

I'll also be looking for another 2U riser (gotta research the type/pincount) to point the thing's A/V personality card to the left while the 2U PCI riser points those three slots to the right. Cable version's fine, no high speed signalling to speak of, but I'd like another riser card to KISS.

Just realized I should have hit the Digital Audio WorkStation gang up with this question over at macos9lives. :

 

[CC_333]

Before you junk the (I presume) G3 enclosure, do you have any ZIP bezels for it?

Or is it just the bare metal chassis, without the plastics?

c

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Nope, no Zip bezel. I always strip the plastics and save them for future projects. Just the sheet metal goes into the hopper. If nothing else, I can dissolve them in MEK to make a gloppy, color matched Mac Plastics Cement. I've got a 6500 side panel waiting to go into the pot over my upcoming staycation. It has just the right tinge of yellow to match a certain Paladin case I know. [}] ]'>

PERCH slot's a 182 pin MCA connector that doesn't match any PCI riser spec, However, hacking a pair of the ribbon cable type should knock the fat@$$ card over and down into 2U territory just fine. [] ]'>

 

[ArmorAlley]

Is this the sort of thing that you are looking for?

M-Audio Brings 5.1 Surround Sound To a Mac Near You

M-Audio has introduced a new 5.1 surround card for PCI Macs. The new card is called Revolution 5.1, and is based on M-Audiois Revolution 7.1 technology. Revolution 5.1 offers Mac users 5.1 surround sound out from their Macs that have a PCI slot. M-Audio says the product supports games, DVD, and other products that offer 5.1 sound output.

Revolution 5.1 runs on PCI Macs with a G4 or G5 processor, under both Classic Mac OS 9.22 and Mac OS X 10.2.6 or higher.

The card is priced at US$99.95 and is available now. Revolution 5.1 also runs on a variety of Windows platforms.

https://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/M-Audio_Brings_5.1_Surround_Sound_To_a_Mac_Near_You/

There's one on ebay for $50 and I don't know if it's a Mac card (or if that makes a difference): http://www.ebay.com/itm/M-AUDIO-Revolution-5-1-5-1-Channels-24-bit-192KHz-PCI-Interface-High-Definition-/263071580656?hash=item3d4049c1f0:g:M3cAAOSw~XpZW-Ut

 

[rsolberg]

How about a FireWire PCI card and a FireWire audio interface?

 

[ArmorAlley]

Would the FW audio interface not need a driver or would that be handled by Cubase / audio app of choice?

 

[Cory5412]

I don't remember 5.1 in particular being common until later. AC'97 and later Sound Blaster versions were common at the time. a 5.1 version of SB Live came out in 2000, so it's not at all surprising that on the Mac side of things, 5.1 sound may state G4 as a requirement.

This is perhaps overly practical... If this is a desktop where you want sound and a Rage128, is there literally any way you could just run the personality card in the system?

Or, just run a blue-and-white or G4 w/ PCI Graphics motherboard, which has onboard sound to start with.

One more thought: There are a few Apple-sanctioned USB audio devices. In particular, thinking of the amplifier that came with the G4 cube and the h/k soundsticks. What's the possibility of picking up something like that?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I found a way to tuck the personality card down into the 2U form factor by hacking a pair (tested it with just one) of flexible PCI risers. Learned a lot of really neat stuff about the cards and the PERCH slot, but decided against going with the 2U build.

Prototyping a more generally appealing case is well under way,

 

[jamie marchant]

Wasn't there an old "Sound Blaster Live! for Mac"? Maybe it's old enough that it will run on your machine. 

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Good one: http://www.macworld.com/article/1002536/soundblaster.html

4 Channel Surround Sound is good enough on BG3 under OS9. But I'll likely save the PCI slot for something more useful and just run the 2.1 Computer Speaker setup that's already in place on the rack off the A/V card

 

[jamie marchant]

That's a good idea. Offhand I can't think of many programs or games that have surround sound in Mac OS 9. A shooter probally does but I don't usually play those. 

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I've got a Rage Card with the DVD decoder daughtercard and it outputs 1080p. I've got a pair of 5.1 Receivers Speaker setups from the "stolen Japanese formula caps made in China" era to fix. Was looking for an excuse to recap them. [] ]'>

 

[Unknown_K]

How does a DVD decoder do 1080P which wasn't invented yet when it was designed? DVD is 480i and it wasn't until late in the game that DVD players deinterlaced the video to do 480P.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Good points: Shoulda said "IIRC the video card with the decoder on it does 1920x1080 in 24bit." which would be 1080HD. I'll have to hook it back up to the PSU to verify that and see if I've killed anything in the re-casing process. :-/

I knew DVD's 480 pixel resolution was upscaled to 720p on my first big TV, but I never realized the DVD format itself was interlaced. I thought that the "i" was a limitation of displays, not the format itself. Curious.

It's only been a year and a half that I've had a 1080p TV and a BluRay player for about two and a half, still collecting used DVDs with the occasional BluRay splurge.

Curiosity is driving this project, I've yet to hook any optical drive other than the baseline CD to a machine compatible with these two card/daughtercard sets. More fun here with finding out how they work. [] ]'>