Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2020-09-07, 23:28:

You're welcome. Can you tell me which SBLive model you're using? I'd like to add it to the "confirmed working" model list in my […]
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renejr902 wrote on 2020-09-07, 22:46:

Oh my god ! Wow! Im impress ! I followed all your guide carefully. All works perfect! I can't believe how great the music sounds in Doom and King Quest VI. Its much better than Yamaha Opl3 FM synth. I'm really impress. King Quest VI in village play so great its unbelivable ! Thanks so much !

You're welcome. Can you tell me which SBLive model you're using? I'd like to add it to the "confirmed working" model list in my guide.

1. If i buy the awe32, is the default soundfont play as great like sblive with SC-55 soundfont ? im pretty sure not really, but i want your answer 😉 and i have the same question vs Awe64 vs sblive with SC-55 soundfont ! Thanks a lot for answer !

No. By default, an AWE32/64 card uses the 1 MB sample ROM which sounds like this. You can add up to 32 MB RAM to an AWE card, of which 28 MB will be usable for soundfonts. With the extra RAM, you can load any soundfont that is smaller than that, but Patch93's soundfont which I use on the SBLive won't work since it's 45 MB in size.

2. Is a real SC-55 wavetable play exactly like the sblive with SC-55 soundfont ? Thanks for answer.

A real SC-55 will sound better. See Phil's Doom SC-55 video for comparison. I would say that Patch93's soundfont comes fairly close though, but the real thing will always be superior.

3. Is the Sound Blaster live have a real authentic wavetable ? even if its integrated in the card.
(i think its called emu 10k)

No. Unlike the AWE cards, there is no integrated ROM with sound samples on a SBLive. By default, the drivers load one of Creative's soundfonts into memory, but nothing is on the card itself.

4. Does it have any advantage to buy a awe32 or awe64 or a wavetable midi card for my sb16 ct2740 VS using a Sblive with the SC-55 soundfont loaded in it ? ( Could any other sound card option play better or exactly the same quality as my sblive with sc-55 soundfont loaded ? ) Thanks !

The advantage of using a wavetable daughterboard is that you can run games in pure DOS. For the SBLive, soundfont loading works only when running DOS games under the Win98 DOS prompt. As for wavetable daughterboards which can give you sound similar to the SC-55, I know only of this one: New Waveblaster card : Reptile Paradise - Yucatan FX There may be others but I'm not familiar with them.

5. For the 3.5mm cable. Which sound card should has line in and line out ? ( i didnt try using my sblive with my sb ct2740 yet on my P3 933mhz. I will try it later today.) (And about my sb16 ct2770 i keep it for my p233mmx pc build only)

I would try using the line out from the SB16 and plugging that into the line in of the SBLive. However, if that gives you too much background noise, try the reverse.

Thanks so much for your answers ! I'm very interested at that stuff now 😀 I really appreciated a lot your previous help and your guide, you are a nice guy! 😀

No problem! I'm just sharing what I've learned over the years from people on this forum and some other places too.

Its a Sound Blaster Live 5.1 Digital, Model S0220 (i think its a dell sblive, if i understand well, it has all features of a real sblive)

By the way, i'm very surprised, i got workimg easily both sound blaster card in my P3 with no conflict and i have one pci and one agp video card.
But for the dos partition 6.22 i configure only the sb16 ct2740( not pnp card ) . For windows 98 i configure only Sblive. ( sblive at irq 5 and sb16 ct2740 is irq 7) ( sblive 330, sb16 300) (both at 220) In theory they both use dma 1 but i dont see any conflict, and sound and music play perfectly without distortion or noise , no conflict. But only one sound card is configured by partition and it seems to work perfect, im surprised because its the 2nd time i use 2 soundcard (and its 2 sound blaster brand) in the same pc and the first time i did this i had more problems and conflicts, but still got it working after some configuration. I think you suggested to configure both card in win 98 and get sb16 use digital effect, but win98 dont detect the sb16(non pnp) without the option for searching for new hardware, so i didnt want to take a chance to get conflict for now, so i let the sb16 not found by win98 and i didnt search for new hardware. It seems perfect, i tested a lot in dos 6.22 partition and win98 partition. So is it ok to let things configured like that ?

About SBlive not having a real wavetable midi card because no rom with samples on the card, is it change something in reality ? Is it change something about the music midi quality vs a real wavetable card ?

Thanks so much for all previous answers! Its so much appreciated!

renejr902 wrote on 2020-09-08, 01:00:

About SBlive not having a real wavetable midi card because no rom with samples on the card, is it change something in reality ? Is it change something about the music midi quality vs a real wavetable card ?

It is better to have real wavetable daughterboard for DOS games. For Windows programs is better the card like Live! because you can change soundfonts according to your preferences. You can use one sounfont for Final Fantasy 7 and another for Guitar Pro (for example). You can even use computer with Live! as MIDI playback device for your DOS computer 😉
Quality-wise, I think it is not a big difference (if any).

renejr902 wrote on 2020-09-08, 01:00:

Its a Sound Blaster Live 5.1 Digital, Model S0220 (i think its a dell sblive, if i understand well, it has all features of a real sblive)

Yes, I have also tried one of those Dell SB0220 cards and it worked fine for me as well. It is indeed a proper SBLive, unlike the infamous Dell SB0200.

By the way, i'm very surprised, i got workimg easily both sound blaster card in my P3 with no conflict and i have one pci and one agp video card.

I'm guessing your SB16 isn't seen by Windows due to being non-PnP, so the SBLive works fine. If you're ok with SB16 emulation of the Live, you can keep it like that. You lose out on real OPL3 and may encounter some crackling/pops in certain games (Quake and WarCraft2 for example) but you don't have to worry about freeing up a second set of resources.

If you do decide to use both cards at the same time, there is a way, but it takes quite a bit of effort. First, under Win98 go to Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Information. Once there, click on Hardware Resources and then take a look at the IRQ and DMA sections. Check if IRQ 7, DMA 3 and DMA 7 are free (not used by other devices). If they are, you can configure the SBLive to use those resources and leave IRQ 5, DMA 1 and DMA 5 for the SB16.

About SBlive not having a real wavetable midi card because no rom with samples on the card, is it change something in reality ? Is it change something about the music midi quality vs a real wavetable card ?

It doesn't affect music quality, except in a couple of games like Final a Fantasy VII which load custom soundfonts on top of the AWE ROM samples and then use both for their music. Such games sound best on an AWE card, but they are very rare. See this thread for more info: AWEstruck...

The main advantage of a real wavetable daughterboard is that you can use it in pure DOS, which allows you to slow down your system by disabling the caches or using Throttle. Some games are speed sensitive and won't play correctly without slowing your system down to 386 levels. Other games simply won't work under the Win98 DOS prompt and can only be used in pure DOS.

Oh thanks so much for your answers guys ! Its so much appreciated ! I learned so much things here !
Sometime i will check wavetable daughterboard on ebay, but price are high and only a few choices. I would prefer a SC-55 but i guess it should be very expensive when available. I would like to use the SC-55 soundfont, but i guess theres no way to do it with any wavatable card or awe card. I will try to configure both soundcard in win98, but in general i play most of my dos games in dos 6.22 ( except for general midi dos games) and sb16 (ct2740) is configured and works perfect in dos 6.22. I didnt configure the sblive in dos 6.22 and i dont see any conflict right now.

By the way, today was a wonderful day. One of my father computer tech contact gave me as a gift 40 pc agp and pci cards and a computer. I will name a few of them: Pentium III 1000mhz, Sound Blaster 16 ct2940, (not the one with opl3 but 1978) agp Radeon 9800 pro, agp geforce 5500, pci S3 virge dx, agp tnt2, agp radeon 9600 pro, agp ati rage 128 pro and ultra, agp matrox millenium G450, Geforce mx 4000, pcie geforce 7300, agp radeon 7000, agp radeon 9250, agp nvidia Vanta 16, pci Quadro 280.. and more i cant remember all of them right now. I'm very lucky today 😀