Went this route for the Midi Thru - curious if you guys have seen/used it:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/301713566456?_trksid= … K%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Also, I ended up getting some powered monitors for speakers. They happen to have both RCAs and a 1/4" Mini plus for inputs. So, I ran RCAs from the AWE64 and mini from the MT-32 and it seems to take both, although can't mix the volume too much.

Back to something that is relevant to this board... I notice that when using MT-32 in the Monkey Island games, the sound effects are not present. I read another topic about patches, etc. to make it work. Is there an internal sound card that would be most appropriate for accompanying sound effects...mostly for the point-and-click adventures? I'm using the AWE64 Gold now as mentioned, but maybe could use my second ISA slot for an Adlib or Yamaha of some sort. Just curious if that's a sound strategy.

There are projects that combine Adlib / Sound Blaster effects with MT-32 music in the Monkey Island games under DOS. Under Windows I believe ScummVM can also do this. The information should be on this forum, but I'm not sure about the exact location.

Gotcha, thanks Phil. I'll seek it out. I ran the executable without the "r" and got the sound blaster's audio out. Still no effects though. Is there another variable that I need to use when launching to enable sound effects? Does the Adlib have more effects than the sound blaster? Maybe the sound blaster is using it's midi out by default?

I can only speak for Monkey Island 2.

Yes, the Adlib and sound Blaster mode has more sound effects.

The game feels quite empty with MT-32, especially if you grew up with a Sound Blaster, it was quite a disappointment. And for some reason I never read about it anywhere. I guess back in the old days nobody compared these things.

Another example of this is in The 7th Guest. I have the mixer now (works great) and it does successfully mix the Midi with the CD sound. So, I get the music with the digital voices...but...I don't get the opening sounds at the title screen or any sound effects. Is this the same case or is there something I'm not doing with the AWE64 to get those sounds?

Run diagnose from C:\SB16 it will test your card thoroughly.

This is on MS-DOS 6.22 yes? Please say yes...

I'm a bit over trying to fix people's Windows 98 / MS-DOS mode issues 🤣

Yes, fresh 6.22 install. Everything tests fine...all sound modes, all channels.

I use a different setup with MIDI IN and OUT boxes together with a mixer. This is all connected to my KVM setup for control of 4 computers and I can easily connect any MIDI device I want to each of the computers:

My 4-PC KVM setup with audio, MIDI and recording options

NooNaN wrote:

Yes, fresh 6.22 install. Everything tests fine...all sound modes, all channels.

Ok good. After you've run diagnose, do games still not play any sound?

There a lot of shareware versions which you can download without legal issues. Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Epic Pinball, are all good games to test if the sound effects work.

I only have the GOG version of 7th guest, and unfortunately it uses Scumm VM and can't be played on a real DOS PC 🙁

Ok, so Doom works fine. Music and Sound Effects... Wolf 3D has sound effects fine, but no music, although I'm not sure if there is any during the game.

It just seems like several games have sound issues.

7th Guest - Still no sound at all during opening studio credits and title screen.
Laura Bow 1: Colonel's Bequest - Just locks up when selecting MT-32. Ran KQ5 before and after with no issue. Same environment.

Any other ideas?

PC too fast is my first thought.

Set FSB to 66. Lower multiplier to 2x so it runs at 66 MHz.

Disable L1 cache.

Alternatively, do you have a slower PC available? Ideally a 386/486 or a regular Pentium like a 100 or 133?

I'll check on that again. I did disable both caches in the BIOS, but will make sure. Also tried with conventional mem only to see if that made a difference. I do have 256MB of RAM...can't imagine that would do it though, especially when only using conventional mem.

No older PC as of yet. Built the K6 III+ build after watching some of your videos. It def steps down though...Doom initially was crawling, then I bumped both back on and it was good.

It's just that you are playing all this 386 type games. I know many have issue, even with caches disabled, when the CPU is too fast.

A Pentium 100 with caches disabled is as good as it gets.

But a K6 at 133 with caches disabled should get all of them going too.

K6 meaning what I'm using now with everything disabled?

I went in this direction based on your 4-in-1 video. I know nothing is perfect for sure. It seemed like a great solution to cover these eras.

Could I put a slower proc in the SS7 board I already have?

Yes, what FSB and multiplier are you using?

I don't know why so many games don't work. Wolf 3D is such a basic game, it works on basically anything. Maybe post your startup files, because we can only assume that everything is setup correctly.

2.0x multiplier. 100Mhz FSB. It's the lowest I can go I believe.

Laura Bow 1 runs fine with PC speaker, just won't load with MT-32. I get the arrow on the screen and it remains movable, but it just hangs there forever. No activity on the MT-32.

I'll post my startup at some point, but it's straight off of your site/recommendations. Dos startup menu with SB drivers, mouse and CD rom only. I've tried different startup options. Gonna mess around with some more games and see if it's isolated.

EDIT - I wasn't previously using setmul, just disabling the caches... just went to the above with several games. Wolf3D is good with this config, music and sound effects. Laura Bow is still the same. Maybe it is CPU speed. Can I put an older chip in the SS7 socket?

You board for sure supports 66 MHz FSB instead of 100 MHz. Check the prints on the PCB. 133 is the lowest you can go.

Laura Bow might require an intelligent mode interface. You can try SoftMPU.

Will try it, thanks. 7th Guest still the same...continuing to try other stuff. Installing off original floppies takes a while! 😀 Any good way to image them for safe keeping? I have a USB floppy drive for my main PC.

Looks like my mboard (Asus P5A-B, latest BIOS) will do 60Mhz FSB. Looks like I'd have to drop to a K6-2/366 to get to 66Mhz bus speed. Wonder if that's worth a try...

Any AMD chip will take 66 MHz FSB.

Ok, so I can configure my 450mhz with 66mhz fsb? should just be jumpers then...

Installed Clouds of Xeen just now. Kind of the same thing. Hangs and freezes the PC when starting with MT-32. Change to Sound Blaster and starts/runs fine. Will def try SoftMPU.