😎
Use these WDM drivers attached at bottom (date:09-2001): NOTE: There might be newer WDM drivers but I don't know how new you can go while preserving Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 (NEW) emulation without problems (drivers from march 2002 gave me problems). These drivers should be hosted @ MGDX's website!

Install audiohq from this cd http://speedy.sh/jaqGd/Sound-Blaster-Live-Val … -1713330760.zip. Choose to install Sound Blaster Live, choose custom install when asked, and clear all the checkboxes when asked what options to install (don't choose dos drivers, launcher, etc). Setup proceeds as normal and it will try installing the VXD drivers but just ignore it. Windows should keep the WDM drivers installed after rebooting, but usually it'll replace the gameport with the multimedia device driver which you'll have to upgrade to the WDM gameport driver again. If it replaces the Sound Blaster Live WDM driver with the VXD one too, you'll have to upgrade the Sound Blaster Live driver to the WDM driver again as well. Seems like a hassle but I highly recommended it because it is very light compared to the newer versions of audiohq, and the speaker setup has profiles you need for all your games (and I think they work with DOS games too! But don't quote me on that). The soundfont manager also comes in handy for increasing memory and loading your favorite soundfonts!

You can now have midi and arguably the best sound blaster emulation with Sound Blaster Live! (sound blaster Pro 2.0 (new)) for dos games running inside Windows 98/ME (unless your dos game absolutely hates Win98/me hehe 😜 ). Simple but not easy to find, and nobody seems to know about it!

NOTE: If you select any other sound blaster emulation type in the game setup, sound will be mono; and there's possibility of L/R channels being reversed. Sound can lag on some DOS titles (Doom for instance. Whether it's the driver or game at fault, I don't know but probably the driver). You can also use more than one IRQ value sometimes... Weird.

Why use these instead of VXD drivers? Don't VXD drivers offer better performance?
Modern-recent mobo's have problems with sb16 emulation via VXD drivers and real-mode dos; this can be from no NMI and/or DDMA. VXD drivers may or may not improve performance for Windows Games but it's probably not true. Main reason however, is enabling SB16 emulation with modern-recent mobos can cause no sound at all (not even for Windows), or BSOD. In these cases, disabling SB16 emulation and removing sbeinit.com from autoexec.bat is the only workaround to keep using VXD drivers. But, this results in no sound for Dos applications whatsoever. Another reason to go with these WDM drivers (besides the infinitely better sound blaster pro 2.0 emulation under Windows9X), you can avoid EMS memory and free up more RAM during bootup, enable digital cd audio, microsoft GS wavetable, and use huge custom soundfonts for Dos games/midi; things are greatly simplified as well. WDM drivers also work wonderfully in Windows ME with the same results. It kills Windows XP vdmsound, with a boomstick!

Tips for those using WDM drivers:
If your Dos program/game must use real-mode dos no matter what, you can use an older version of Virtual PC and install a legal copy of Dos as the guest. This may or may not be faster than DOSBOX which everyone here knows about hehe...

Why not use Dosbox instead?
Windows 9X runs stupidly fast on modern hardware; no joke! For instance, Blood screams at 1600X1200 and looks freakishly smooth with no slowdown on my Piledriver AM3 CPU (see sig). Other games like Duke3D, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Shadow Warrior, Carmageddon (think you have to slow this one down natively) all have problems running decent with dosbox. There might be other reasons but I don't know right now...

Regards