Sound Galaxy NX Pro

What a difference the word Pro makes! It has stereo and a better synthesiser, with 20 voices and better applications for the Windows user, as well as all the features of the non-Pro version, for virtually the same price.
The packaging includes the same set of free speakers and a similar set of applications. However, the card itself is completely different. It’s a half-length device with a stereo audio output socket, a joystick port (doubling xs a MIDI port), and a line-in and line-out socket found on the back. The synthesiser chip is die Yamaha OPL3, an improved version of the Yamaha YMF262 chip.
The card has jumpers to set the I/O addresses, interrupts for the card and CD-ROM drive, as well as ‘change the PC speaker amplification’, ‘redirect the PC speaker’ and ‘set up a virtual parallel port for Disney Sound-Source’ compatibility. A test utility, which is found where DMA channel setting can lie altered or the CD-ROM interface disabled, confirms everything is okay. This card really leaves nodiing to be desired in die setup area.
Some of the applications are the same ones that come with the other Sound Galaxy cards. They include Galaxy Master (to record and edit sound files), Monologue (a text-to-speech converter), CD Player, and Song (to play back songs under DOS).
But there are other applications suited to the better capabilities of the NX Pro. For instance, there arc three different mixer programs: one running TSR under DOS, another running the DOS command-line program, and a Windows mixer. Each one allows the relative levels of six different sound sources to be adjusted, on both left and right channels, over 16 levels. Overall
volume, balance, treble and bass can also be adjusted. The Window’s program looks snazzier, but all perform the same job. The command-line utility could be used in batch files.
For recording, the NX Pro has automatic gain control to improve recording quality, as well as two 8-bit ADCs, with a sampling rate of 4 to 44.1kHz in mono mode. For stereo, the sampling rate is halved. However, two 8-bit DACs w ith stereo playback at 44.1kHz and programmable filtering provide very good sound effects.
The 20-voice synthesiser is not used often in the supplied software, but with an appropriate musical application, it offers the chance to play more complex compositions than the NX. An optional MIDI adaptor will channel the output to MIDI devices.
For the Windows user, a standout application is the version of Voyetra’s Jukebox included with the NX Pro. Armed with a CD-ROM and the NX Pro, users can set playlists of tracks from WAV, MIDI and audio CD sources. These play in the background and, with a powerful CPU, will not impact greatly on foreground applications.
Another Windows application is called WinDat. It is a class)’ waveform sound recorder and editor, with an easy-to-use interface and a host of special effects. The final Window’s application is SoundScript, a multimedia authoring language that works with the FU format animation files made popular by Animator Pro. Using a BASIC-like language. it can trigger playback of MIDI, WAV, VOC and audio CD tracks.
All this adds up to an excellent sound card for the gamester, and multimedia aficionado, alike, at a reasonable price. It also makes the NX Pro a very different proposition from the Sound Galaxy NX.