No, they were mostly available on P2/P3 motherboards, which is kinda pointless.

It might work using DDMA.

Und you're right, the MIDI on these cards is awesome 😎

It's no contest, is it? The SB Pro 2.0 uses a budget 80s FM synthesizer chip, where the newer Yamaha cards use much more modern and advanced XG wavetable synth chips. There's a huge generational gap.

Just connect a Yamaha MU-50 to your SB Pro and the difference is gone. 😉

derSammler wrote:

Just connect a Yamaha MU-50 to your SB Pro and the difference is gone. 😉

If the SB Pro had an MPU-401 compatible interface perhaps... but I don't think you can get DOOM running via MIDI on an SB Pro.

Yes, a huge apples and oranges gap comparing FM to wavetable music on one of the better sounding cards. The SB Pro sound is a great fit for 286/386's and many 486's, for FM and lower production quality 90's SFX material.

Doom has a pretty rocking FM soundtrack, but it's definitely the low-fi option there.

[quote]Is a Creative Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 better than a Yamaha ?{/quote]

For selling on eBay, yes.

Pabloz wrote:

but i havent tested them yet. are SB-link connectos available on P4 and athlonXP motherboards too?

A small number of early P4 motherboards support PC/PCI. QDI, for instance, seemed to include them quite commonly.
List of motherboards with SB-link (PC/PCI) header

Both also features an integrated OPL3 which is the same FM chip found on the Sound Blaster Pro 2.0. I made a record of several OPL3 sound cards including one of my YMF744 here https://youtu.be/2v6FqmQbs2w and it sounds exactly the same (and with less noise and better amplification)

For DOS games I’d take the ISA option, so my vote goes to the SB Pro 2.

Whenever I run a Win9x box, then I install a YMF-724. If I run a MS-Dos 6.22 box, then I go for an ISA card. That can be everything from YMF-718/719, over SB16 and up to AWE64. It all depends on the target. Is it a mid-90's Pentium with Dos-6.22 or is it an early 90's 486dx33 box with Dos-6.22. However, I allways install Doom and Duke3D on every Win9x box that I build, as the only two Dos games. And for those two games, the YMF-724 is an awesomme card.

How does a YMF-719 isa card compare to a SB pro 2.0?

Baoran wrote:

How does a YMF-719 isa card compare to a SB pro 2.0?

There is a tread here on vogons, about the drawbacks on that chip, and phil has a couple of videos up on this. Something about some intruments missing or wrongly played. Yet it is so close to a SB Pro 2.0, that one will not really make any notice. It is not the same difference as say a SB16 with OPL3 chip vs. AWE64 using the CQM.

On SB 2.0 you do not have a Waveblaster header and on the YMF-718/719 you have it. Differences in OPL are not that big, yet the price difference is huge. So..... To me it is a no brainer. YMF-718/719 beats the SB 2.0 these days, when all factors are counted in. (Price, sound-reproductiom, features and more)

Really, the only issue with YMF-71x cards is the lack of ADPCM format support, so a handful of older Apogee titles (DN2, Major Stryker I think, etc) don't quite work. It doesn't have an issue with reversed audio on any of the mixer channels, and James-F goes into how the output filter can be modified to perform identical to the SBP 2.0.

brostenen wrote:

Baoran wrote:

How does a YMF-719 isa card compare to a SB pro 2.0?

There is a tread here on vogons, about the drawbacks on that chip, and phil has a couple of videos up on this. Something about some intruments missing or wrongly played. Yet it is so close to a SB Pro 2.0, that one will not really make any notice. It is not the same difference as say a SB16 with OPL3 chip vs. AWE64 using the CQM.

On SB 2.0 you do not have a Waveblaster header and on the YMF-718/719 you have it. Differences in OPL are not that big, yet the price difference is huge. So..... To me it is a no brainer. YMF-718/719 beats the SB 2.0 these days, when all factors are counted in. (Price, sound-reproductiom, features and more)

OP is talking about the SB Pro 2.0 not the SB 2.0.

Funny thing is, although I have a ton of different sound cards, I still have not been able to get a YMF-718/719 based card. When I see them for sale, they are generally priced really high for what they are.

I got told off about this here once so I’m going to play it forward - the Pro is named “2”, not “2.0”. The original SB had a 2.0 version. So it’s confusing to say Sound Blaster Pro 2.0.

Indeed, SB 2.0 is completely different from SBPro 2. One is mono (except if you install the CMS upgrade, then that new part is stereo) while the other is fully stereo, but can't be upgraded with CMS anymore.

Funny enough I have one of these "Sound Blaster Pro 2" cards, but they don't mention anything like that in the manual or the included software as far as I recall. Most stuff just talks about it as a "Sound Blaster Pro".

No, that name is written on the PCB. Not that hard to miss.

I believe the only new name it had in branding and marketing was "Sound Blaster Pro Deluxe".

Yeah. That is correct on that naming thing. I don't know why I have it wrong.
I still think the YMF-718 or 719 are good enough cards. As said. A select few titles does not work correctly.
Personally, I kind of like the 718/719 cards. They have a nice sound to them, and does what I need of them...