You forgot about -io ac97 afront 100. Maybe on your device LINE IN is not linked to i2s1 input.
If you will type -b everytime it will not be bad.

so if I run this:

1ek2m -b -v -io ac97 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

It takes it without error, if I then just run:

1ek2m -b -v -io ac97

it shows them all at zero again?

Does that sound right?

Work with a lot of keys is extremely inconvenient if they don't fit in one command line and you're forced to type another commands. Therefore use "-f matrix" please, it's absolutely self-sufficient method. Try to enable ac97-afront route and disable i2s1-afront route.

I don't understand what you're doin wrong. But something you're doin wrong for sure, the program is successfully tested on i440/Apollo families. And not only.

No worries, I appreciate the help!

I finally installed a my SB Live! Value CT4830 along with a CT4660 S/PDIF breakout . Thanks to this program, I can initialize the digital out and use it as a clock source for my VS-880EX even when running under DOS .

I am probably going to try a DOS based EMU10K1 compatible MOD player soon .

Extremely happy and grateful that this mixer application exists!

So, let me know what other info you might need, but here's the short version.

I'm using EK1M from the ekm049.zip posted for my SBLive CT4780 to turn on the PC Speaker I've connected to the card. PARUS was helpful enough to suggest it in a troubleshooting thread I posted. It works great, but now I have a different problem.

Whenever I run it, my available EMS memory drops from 32 MB to 2 MB. Now granted, I only use it for games that use the PC Speaker, like Might & Magic, Bard's Tale, etc. So generally, if I'm using the PC Speaker for games, I don't really care about EMS. At least, I haven't encountered that yet. But it is curious.

I'm not doing anything too crazy when it comes to memory. Just using DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS and DEVICE=EMM386.EXE RAM D=32 MIN=0. It was actually taking me a while to figure out where all my available EMS memory vanished off too. Took me a hot minute to back track changes until I removed EK1M from my autoexec.bat and all my EMS became available again.

I'm running EK1m with a config file. It was a config file I dumped from the current setting, and then edited the BEEP input. I can pull that off the system and post it if it's helpful.

Namrok, it's very interesting. Never asked such question myself. I'm using NOEMS always. Epxanded memory was used on ISA bus controllers by very old soft. EMS is emulator of expanded memory in fact. This emulator uses area of real XMS addresses location. And I don't know what the DOS game may need more than 4 mb EMS. All later 90's DOS games which required many memory (8 mb and above) can already to work with XMS only and wholly.

Did you see what happens with XMS (during EMS getting 2 mb)? Did you try to change EMS volume to less? 8 for example, and then run ek1m again.
Type all system configuration please.
Next, try please to run ek1m with starting pure DOS from boot diskette/flash/old hdd. It doesn't real matter 6.2 or 7.1 but really does matter to do it without full installed GUI. So try boot real pure DOS with EMM386 startup configured not from your main regular system disk and run ek1m again.

darry, thank you very much!

RE: Not using EMS: I believe the SBLive DOS drivers require EMS. So even if the game I want to run can run on XMS only, it wouldn't have audio.

Now like I said, at this point it's purely academic. I'm using your utility to get the PC Speaker mixed up for games so old they use it exclusively. I don't need the SBLive DOS drivers for that, and they mostly only care about conventional memory to boot. Honestly I was overjoyed when Might & Magic 1's music finally bleeped and blooped through my headphones instead of waking up the baby next door. So your utility has already been a huge help.

That being said, unfortunately this machine does not have a floppy drive. Been thinking about getting a Gotek floppy emulator, but I haven't yet. So booting purely off a boot disk is unfortunately not going to happen.

The system is running Win98SE, and I have the boot menu set up to boot into a plethora of DOS configurations. Whichever version of DOS it is that is packaged with Win98SE. I'll try to dump some before and after MEM screens in various memory configurations for you later this evening. Along with the EK1M config file if you think that helps at all.

Any particular memory configs you'd like me to try to help narrow it down? I was thinking just himem loaded, then himem and emm386 with the RAM setting, emm386 set to 16mb, emm386 with the noems setting, emm386 with the auto setting, and after that I can't really think of much that would be different enough.

Namrok wrote on 2020-12-11, 14:49:

Along with the EK1M config file if you think that helps at all.

No, I don't think so. I think it depends to your system configuration and not depends to ek1m/ek2m work modes.

I use a system with ISA bus and therefore don't use Creative's Live DOS driver for a long time, use my card only as mixer for all ISA cards and sound modules in the system. But if I do remember right Live's driver requires EMM386 manager but it doesn't require EMS. Correct me please if I'm wrong.

Namrok wrote on 2020-12-11, 14:49:

Whichever version of DOS it is that is packaged with Win98SE.

It is DOS 7.1.

Ok, took a tad longer to getting around to that than I thought. Gonna do this in two parts to split my uploads.

DOS1 config has
device=c:\windows\himem.sys /testmem:off
dos=high,umb
device=c:\windows\emm386.exe ram d=64 min=0

Before running EK1M

After running EK1M

DOS3 config has
device=c:\windows\himem.sys /testmem:off
dos=high

Before running EK1M

After running EK1M

DOS4 config has
device=c:\windows\himem.sys /testmem:off
dos=high,umb
device=c:\windows\emm386.exe 16000 ram

Before running EK1M

After running EK1M

DOS5 config has
device=c:\windows\himem.sys /testmem:off
dos=high,umb
device=c:\windows\emm386.exe ram auto ram

Before running EK1M

After running EK1M

Weirdly enough, I tried running emm386 with NOEMS RAM, and it straight up caused my computer to reboot. In fact, running emm386 with just NOEMS caused my computer to reboot as well. Which is a new one to me. Weirdly enough, running Hexen in pure dos mode causes my computer to reboot too. But I suppose fixing whatever issue that is, is a problem for another thread.

Yesterday I've run 0.49 version on my old Pentium-2 i440. The EMS volume was 8192-32768 and no problems, no decreases. Later I will recheck it on "hub" chipsets. What config do you using?

Namrok wrote on 2020-12-13, 23:47:

In fact, running emm386 with just NOEMS caused my computer to reboot as well. Which is a new one to me.

It is abnormally. NOEMS is one of regular usual modes for EMM386. What config do you using?

I got an AWE64D sound card which uses the same codec as some of the Live! cards, the Creative CT1297-TAT. The problem is that under DOS the card is completely mute and I think that's because the codec hasn't been initialized and I haven't found any tool for doing that. Unfortunately the AWE64D/EMU8008 lacks documentation but as a shot in the dark I ask for your help initializing the codec.

Here's the thread where I try to get the AWE64D working in DOS.

Kamerat, unfortunately I lost connect to programmer. He does not answer the phone and mail. And I don't know what happened.
The work is in WIP status and frozen in fact. But I'll try to find some .ASM files which may be saved on my HDDs for you.

I know that this program edits AC97 registers before EMU10k registers. It's always, it's algorithm for all Live/Audigy cards. But I'm surprised by your question: same AC97 codecs are soldered on other cards of that era - Vortex 2, YMF7x4, ESS1938 etc. Does the Sigmatel AC97 (for example) have same registers as Creative AC97? Not?

If one wants to mix multiple S/PDIF inputs, this might be another option to consider . No idea if sound quality would be worse, better or similar . Bill of materials is around the 200 US$ mark, so definitely not cheaper, but likely more scalable (not sure how far Pi 4's CPU and USB bandwidth will go, but I guesstimate about 5 or 6 sources should be doable).
See Not so crazy idea : using a Raspberry Pi 4 with jackd , Zita A2J bridge and jack_mixer to make a software S/PDIF mixer

Hi! I tried this method to pass the signal of my ESS Solo-1 through my SB Live (line-in to line-out) and it worked pretty well. But do I have to execute this command every time I boot to DOS?

@khyypio : of course you could save the command you use in a batch file and run it in your autoexec.bat. But why dont you do as the doc suggest and display the config that work best for you, pipe it in a file and load it using the -f switch ?

@PARUS : thanks for that tool, it allow me to control the sblive! mixer under dos without to have to reboot into windows or load emm386 to enable sbinit and then use the not as precise sbemixer.exe. So I'm very glad I can use your init/mixer on that sblive model sb0102 on a p4 with a 845g chipset. I like how you can simple dump your current config, edit it and reload it, it's very convenient. I found that if I just use the -v or -verbose switch it return a weird error (something like: exit return 0x0 error 0 0), not really a problem, but maybe something you would like to fix? On windows I use KX driver that allow to swap the front/rear speaker as apparently the rear one had a better DAC, I dont know how it's made under the hood and your mixer dont mess with that, but is it a supported functionality from your mixer ?

ElBrunzy wrote on 2021-03-05, 20:23:

@khyypio : of course you could save the command you use in a batch file and run it in your autoexec.bat. But why dont you do as the doc suggest and display the config that work best for you, pipe it in a file and load it using the -f switch ?

To me it´s just about streamlining my system to be as easy to use as possible.

Hi! sorry about my noob question, i Have a SB live with the green jack broken, the black rear jack works great in Win98. I'm trying to route the main output to the rear jack with this mixer, but I just don't get it. Works along with sb live dos drivers? what command and switch should I try? thanks a lot for your help.

martinb wrote on 2021-06-17, 17:10:

Hi! sorry about my noob question, i Have a SB live with the green jack broken, the black rear jack works great in Win98. I'm trying to route the main output to the rear jack with this mixer, but I just don't get it. Works along with sb live dos drivers? what command and switch should I try? thanks a lot for your help.

Hello martinb, You can use "ek1m -b -c" to view your current configuration. By default both "afront" and "rear" are identical in my sblive model sb0100 setup. Allow me to suggest the problem might be that you get no sound at all under dos. What are you trying to achieve more precisely ?