general midi is just a standard of writing notes and it is up to you what synthesizer you connect to it. You can even connect an FM synthesizer to it.

if you want to compare, compare with SCC which is the first Roland synthesizer compatible with General Standard (that includes General MIDI)
http://www.crossfire-designs.de/index.php?lan … dcards/&page=13

You can also compare with GUS, yamaha XG or roland lapc

also gus is emulated in dosbox, lapc is in gulikoza's build.

you can install any software synthesizer, or buy a real device

you can use timidity and load just any soundfonts you want

you can have a sound card that allows loading sound fonts

awe32 also could be expanded with memory and allowed loading soundfonts but it was limited to 20MB soundfongs.
by the way scc and awe sound fonts were about 3mb i think or even less
Right now i can load even almost 300MB (haven't found any larger) soundfonts in timidity

you can do whatever you want

Yup the General MIDI spec has nothing to do with the actual sound of the instruments. Every company had their own sounds.

AWE32 has a crappy 1MB patch set ROM from E-Mu that I think is one of the worst out there. 😉 If you want to use this in DOSBOX you need a way to load Soundfonts into a MIDI synth. A Creative sound card of some sort or Timidity maybe.

Here's the patch set from AWE32 in soundfont format.
http://www.maz-sound.com/archives/aweromgm.rar
from http://www.soundtrackers.de/awe_text_only.html

AWE32 could be stubbed toward General MIDI at least IMO, particularily for the very few "AWE32 enhanced games" one can just use their soundfont-supported midi mapper (like fluidsynth and timidity++) and load the games' corresponding soundfont bank file manually themselves if they think it's that important.

swaaye wrote:

Here's the patch set from AWE32 in soundfont format. http://www.maz-sound.com/archives/aweromgm.rar from http://www.soundtrackers.de/awe_text_only.html

Actually, that one at the MAZ Sound site is something that someone created from scratch.

The "1MGM.SF2" included with E-mu's "SoundFont Librarian v1.0c" program is the actual "official" AWE32 ROM in soundfont format -> http://www.emu.com/support/files/download3.as … form=2&File=109 . Loading that one into my SBLive sounds exactly like my old stock AWE32s 😀

Big thanx for SoundBlaster AWE32 SoundFont =) this is really interested for me, thanx for all =) i am satisfied.

RaVeN-05 wrote:

Big thanx for SoundBlaster AWE32 SoundFont =) this is really interested for me, thanx for all =) i am satisfied.

Yer welcome 😀

BTW, sort of along the same topic as 1MGM.SF2, something that is a bit of a curiosity. To save some typing, two messages that I posted over at Creative Labs' messages forums a while back:

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Subject: CT1MGM.ROM?

A random and unimportant (yet curious) question:

I have an SBLive! Value (and I'm assuming the following is also true for other similar CLI sound cards), and found this file on my hard drive:

C:\Windows\System32\CT1MGM.ROM

It appears to be referenced by:

C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\CTSFM2k.sys

Now, what exactly is this file for? After haveing a looksie at it in my trusty DOS hex editor, it appears to be an encrypted and compressed version of E-mu's "1MGM.sf2" SoundFont, which is a SoundFont version of the stock ROM on a standard AWE32 or AWE64 sound card ("1MGM.sf2" is included with E-mu's old "SoundFont Librarian" bank manager utility).

Since the SBLive!/Audigy/etc... line of sound cards have no onboard ROM samples, and since this file doesn't appear to be used during any mode of MIDI synthesis, what is the file for (and why is it referenced by "CTSFM2k.sys")?

Anybody know ('inquiring minds wanna know' <G>)? 😀

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

70+ thread views and no answers? Well, I finally figured out today on my own 😀

It appears that this is indeed a direct ROM dump from the onboard AWE32/64. FYI, the file is used whenever you load in a soundfont (usually the older "SBK" format) as your main synth bank that uses some of the older AWE32/64 ROM samples; and since the SBLive! doesn't have an onboard ROM, any samples that are usually loaded from the AWE's ROM are loaded in from this file.

Mystery solved 😀

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Heh <G> 😀

Found more soundfonts here http://www.pistonsoft.com/soundfonts.html
And i am using this utility to create MP3 from true MIDI

rfnagel wrote:

It appears that this is indeed a direct ROM dump from the onboard AWE32/64.

What about the 512kb version, unless there's 1mb sample rom on that too?

there is 1MB ROM on every one
1MB rom contains only AWE instruments

there is 64kB RAM on every one too
that allows loading Synthgm.sbk (34kb) (so that it tries to emulate General MIDI) or Synthmt.sbk (61kb) (so that it tries to emulates Roland MT-32)

some cards had extra 512kB RAM that allows loading Synthgs.sbk (563kb) too (so that it tries to emulate Roland General Standard)

all versions without extra 512kb ram had simm slots for extra memory (up to 20mb) so you can load Synthgs.sbk only if you install extra memory

By the way, when awe is forced to work in GM mode it has very poor quality compared to awe mode or to scc. So using this sound fonts in gm mode cannot be compared to awe mode.

leileilol wrote:

What about the 512kb version, unless there's 1mb sample rom on that too?

All of the AWE32 sound cards (and AWE64 sound cards as well, I think?) had a 1MB ROM, as well as 512KB of onboard DRAM.

The DRAM was for loading in smallish soundfonts (including patch data for the SYNTHGM.SBK/SYNTHGM.SF2 soundfonts; which directly pointed to samples contained in the onboard ROM, as well as the additional samples contained in the SYNTHGS.SBK/SYNTHGS.SF2 and SYNTHMT.SBK/SYNTHMT.SF2 soundfonts).

The 512KB DRAM was disabled when adding SIMMs; up to two 16MB sticks; to the card, although the card could only address up to 28MB of the 32MB of SIMMs.

i checked my cards:

Sound Blaster AWE64Gold CT4390
4.194.304 bytes DRAM

Sound Blaster AWE32 CT3910
524.288 bytes DRAM

SB32PNP CT3670
this card have simm slots and has missing dram chip
diagnose.exe doesn't detect dram
i can only load synthgm.sbk
if i try to load synthmt.sbk i get:
ERR015: Not enough sample DRAM to load SYNTHMT.SBK
(same with synthgs.sbk)

i also found a picture of a different card with missing dram chip too
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5408/p1020641s … dblaster32i.jpg

robertmo wrote:

Sound Blaster AWE64Gold CT4390 4.194.304 bytes DRAM

Sounds to me like your AWE64 has one of those memory modules installed (not to be confused with onboard DRAM, thought).

robertmo wrote:

SB32PNP

I know very little about the SB32PNP, but AFAIK those are a completely different animal than the AWE32/AWE64 series of sound cards.

robertmo wrote:

i also found a picture of a different card with missing dram chip too
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5408/p1020641s … dblaster32i.jpg

That's a strange one (CT3600)... it's not even listed at Creative Labs' site where they list all of their sound cards -> http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=10846 .

(Edit) You know, something that just dawned on me; I seem to remember that the 'Value' line of AWE32 cards (e.g. AWE32 Value Edition) may not have had the 512KB of onboard DRAM. IIRC that may have been one of the differences between the 'regular', Gold, and Value editions of the cards.

you will find all the answers here:
http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=5800
or in the enclosed file in a more readable form 😉

SB32 is essentially a AWE32 but using the Vibra 16 tech instead of the more expensive SB16 hardware. It has the same compatibility but I'm thinking the FM synthesis hardware may be inferior.

Probably lacks the onboard RAM, but it has SIMM slots. They are physically smaller cards than AWE32 because they have fewer chips (more integration and no ASP/CSP socket).
http://web.archive.org/web/19980120222459/www … c/techsb32.html

rfnagel wrote:

Actually, that one at the MAZ Sound site is something that someone created from scratch.

The "1MGM.SF2" included with E-mu's "SoundFont Librarian v1.0c" program is the actual "official" AWE32 ROM in soundfont format -> http://www.emu.com/support/files/download3.as … form=2&File=109 . Loading that one into my SBLive sounds exactly like my old stock AWE32s 😀

I signed up to say thank you. I have been looking off and on for years for an AWE32 soundfont. I got the 'fake' one a couple years ago, and gave up for a while. The link you provided is now dead, but I followed the trail and managed to find a working 1MGM.SF2 link.

There were a couple Lemmings 3D MIDI tracks that I liked way back in the day, and I had a PC with an AWE32. It's great to hear it again how it originally sounded.

Thanks!