I agree with your choices.

I keep my GUS's to DOS/Win3.1x, though, so the third card I'd like to have working in a Win9x setup would be an Audigy. The older build can upgrade to an AWE64 for better quality SFX, an SB Pro 2 mainly for FM, and GUS Classic/ACE.

If you manage to make all of them to work together, the third option is the best one, but otherwise the second should be the best and should still be easy enough to make

The 3 card setup works quite well, SB is at A220 I5 D1 H5, Gus is at 240,7,7,7,7 and Aureal has its SB Pro emulation turned off.
All com and parallel ports are disabled in bios and irqs 5 and 7 reserved for isa use.
More details here:
Making a GUS max 2.1 to work alongside a sound blaster 16

Personally, I couldn't run anything on my GUS MAX using address 240 for some reason. Address 220 worked much better for me

Those three choices are very close to my own for my SS7 build.

K6-3+ Daily Driver Finally (Almost) Complete&

The ULTIMATE sound card setup for DOS, and even early Windows would be an AWE32 non PNP, or in a pinch a CT3670, with an MPU-401 card from Roland plugged into something like the MIDI mountain LGR did. An MT-32 and SC-55 would be I think the bare minimum for highest end PC MIDI, with the AWE32 using a real OPL3 chip having perfect support for everything else.

Both types of Roland MIDI are a high priority, but they're easy to replace with external modules. I don't think I personally rate the intelligent MPU interface over SoftMPU if it means losing higher quality glitch free SFX, real OPL FM or GUS support.

Man, the things you compromise with a mere three cards. 🤣

An AWE32/OPL3 card in combination with a GUS extreme would give you good coverage of PCM audio (including SB Pro support, for those titles that need it). An SCC-1A or LAPC-I would then give you synth with intelligent MPU. Of course, you need both GM and LA MIDI synth, so modules would be required at some point.

Single card:
-You mentioned Win9x, so I have to default to an Aureal Vortex2 card here. Gotta have that A3D, even if SB Pro emulation isn't perfect for DOS games.

Two cards:
-AWE32 non-PNP alongside the Vortex2, mostly for Eradicator and anything else particularly optimized for the AWE cards. Bonus points if the ASP/CSP is included for TFX's sake.

This is actually exactly what I'd do with my P4EE 9x/XP gaming build, but the current case I have it in (Lian-Li PC-61) won't fit the AWE32 in its bottom-most slot even with the hard drive cage removed, sadly. The resting brackets for said hard drive cage get in the way. I'd have to remove the rivets holding it in place without causing too much cosmetic damage to the case.

Three cards:
-XP isn't a factor here, so I can't say X-Fi like I have going for the aforementioned P4EE build. I suppose the natural choice for DOS would be a GUS or LAPC-I, preferably the former because there's always the option to use an external MT-32/CM-32L/CM-500, and there isn't a rule saying that you can't add external modules on top of those three sound cards...

1 card :

a)Any AWE32 or AWE64 without hanging note bugs

2 cards :

a)Any AWE32 or AWE64 without hanging note bugs
b)Any card with real OPL3, preferably an SB Pro compatible

3 cards :

a)Any AWE32 or AWE64 without hanging note bugs
b)Any card with real OPL3, preferably an SB Pro compatible
c) Any member of the Gravis family (GF1 or Interwave based)

Bonus points for an SC-55 and an MT-32

darry wrote:

1 card : […]
Show full quote

1 card :

a)Any AWE32 or AWE64 without hanging note bugs

2 cards :

a)Any AWE32 or AWE64 without hanging note bugs
b)Any card with real OPL3, preferably an SB Pro compatible

3 cards :

a)Any AWE32 or AWE64 without hanging note bugs
b)Any card with real OPL3, preferably an SB Pro compatible
c) Any member of the Gravis family (GF1 or Interwave based)

Bonus points for an SC-55 and an MT-32

Some AWE32s have real OPL3. You can comebine cards 1 and 2

Some AWE32s have real OPL3. You can comebine cards 1 and 2

AFAIK and according to http://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/Hanging_note_bug , only cards with DSP 4.05 or 4.16 are completely free of the hanging note bug, which again AFAIK excludes all AWE32s and SB32s except the CT3670 (DSP 4.16) . All AWE64 cards have a DSP 4.16 and are thus immune .

darry wrote:

Some AWE32s have real OPL3. You can comebine cards 1 and 2

AFAIK and according to http://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/Hanging_note_bug , only cards with DSP 4.05 or 4.16 are completely free of the hanging note bug, which again AFAIK excludes all AWE32s and SB32s except the CT3670 (DSP 4.16) . All AWE64 cards have a DSP 4.16 and are thus immune .

The type 2 bug must be very rare or hard to notice as I own my ct3900 for few months now and I am yet to experience it.

There's that and also the DMA clicking. Neither is a huge problem, but they don't exist on the AWE64's.

1 card:
- AWE64 Gold: noiseless, amazing compatibility, no hanging note bug, supported by SoftMPU

2 card:
- AWE64 Gold
- GUS with 1024kB (Classic or MAX, tracker music, demos, cleaner sounds than SB)

3 card:
- AWE64 Gold
- GUS
- Real OPL3 card

Ideally all of these setups include an MT-32 and SC-55. 😉

Exactly my setup but sadly my mobo doesn’t have 3 ISA slots.

olivil wrote:

Exactly my setup but sadly my mobo doesn’t have 3 ISA slots.

Can you imagine yourself saying this 20 years ago? Crazy huh?