AdLib Gold 1000
8-bit ISA Sound Card
During financial issues as Creative Labs began to saturate the market with the budget SoundBlaster cards, AdLib regrouped as 'AdLib Multimedia' with a German company. The last 'official' product under Martin Prevel was the AdLib Gold 1000; as the German company eventually took over and released basic soundcards with Crystal Semiconductor ICs, such as CS4236B.
This card is extremely well balanced and offers extensive filtering; but also the stereo Philips amplifier stacks the OPL3 output lending to some very interesting sounding FM music. This Philps amp was not implemented in any other OPL3-based soundcards that I am aware of. The Gold 1000 also sported a few addon cards allowing SCSI, Telephone, and Surround Sound. However these modules are rarer than the card itself, and I am not sure if the SCSI and Telephone adapters made it to market before the company's demise.
Downloads
--> Adlib Gold Drivers and Mixer (Windows 3x to 9x)
Note: IRQ and other settings are set through software.
--> Adlib Gold Program Disk
--> Adlib GrooveKey
Note: Groovekey just seems to be a midi player-- it will undoubtedly work with any OPL3-capable computer.
--> Adlib SonicStudio 8
Falsified Rumours
Long after the company's demise, some eccentric rumours have appeared:
#1 No MicroChannel (MCA) version of the AdLib Gold 1000 was ever released. AdLib went bankrupt before such a thing could have been released, and no cards physically exist. Had it been released, it would have been even rarer than the ISA cards; but would have offered the cleanest and most unique OPL3 output of any known implementation. There was a MicroChannel version of the original AdLib card released but is most assuredly rarer than the Gold 1000.
#2 Yamaha was not involved with the development of the AdLib Gold 1000. Just look at the circuitry! Very little integration and attention to detail.