If you want to equip a PC XT, such as my beloved Amstrad PC1640, with a sound card, you have typically two possibilities. Either you spend a lot of money and get one of the rare 8-bit soundcards at ebay, or you buy a replica. The latter are also not for free, and may have a limited function spectrum.
A third possibility is you buy one of the 16-bit ISA cards that function also in an 8 bit ISA slot. But how to make them fit in a PC like the Amstrad, who have the mainboard covered with an anti-static shielding? You can remove the shielding, but to you want that? And do you get drivers?
I might have a solution for you! At least if you’re not a one of those guys that touches hardware only with an anti-static gloves 😊 I did have a Sound Blaster Vibra CT4170 (was sold under the Soundblaster 16 brand). They were common, and you can buy them cheaply and ou masse at ebay. The card uses the 16 bit expansion only if you drive a CDROM with it… as the XTs have only a 8 bit bus, that is no option anyway! So I took a metal saw, and gently cut-off the 16 bit connector. Have a look at the picture, you need to look very closely to realize this is not a genuine 8-bit card.
Then, the original CT4170 driver disk doesn’t work nicely in the XT; effectively it is so slow it makes the whole Computer unusable. BUT I found a simple DOS executable (ct4170.exe) in the forums, that activates the PnP card, and is non-resident. The only thing you need from the SoundBlster dos driver is the mixer tool to control the card, and set the BLASTER variables in a .bat file before you load ct4170.exe. I attach a small rar file with all the files you need, and a sample config!
Tested on Prince of Persia, Arkanoid, and Secret of Moneky island, and all give a nice and crystal clear Adlib sound 😊 Have fun!