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Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 20:24:09 -0500
From: Randall Hopper <rhh@ct.picker.com>
To: Andre Albsmeier <Andre.Albsmeier@mchp.siemens.de>
Cc: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Sound Card recommendation
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Andre Albsmeier:
 |What is a good soundcard for FreeBSD? I now have the SPEA Media FX which
 |doesn't make me happy. I would think of buying an original SB 16 since
 |this is supported everywhere.
 |
 |I searched through the FAQs and the Handbook but didn't find a hint...
 |I only found which types are supported but no recommendation.
 |
 |Does anyone have experience with an SB 16? Also, I think I only will get
 |one of these plug and pray things... will they work too?

It really depends on what you're interested in doing with it.  If
full-duplex is a must, then from my understanding a GUS is the way to go
(not sure which one but plenty of folks on the list can help you out
there).  The SB drivers don't have full-duplex support yet.

I personally own a SB32, which is functionally a SB16 + EMU8000 wavetable
synth, which FreeBSD does support (its functionally an AWE32 without any
memory by default).  The SB32/AWE32s are good cards with a good price and
you can't beat the all-around driver support by apps and drivers of
virtually all operating systems.  At some level, there's always SB, SB16,
or AWE32 support.  I've been very happy with my card.

One thing to be careful of is Plug-n-Play.  Non-PNP card is better for
FreeBSD right now if you can get it, but some folks have had success with
the various PNPs.  Might want to grep the mailing list archives at
www.freebsd.org/search.html to find out the latest status for the board(s)
you're considering.

Randall