No, the Ensoniq/Creative PCI DOS emulation does not do midi through.
I would advise an Aureal Vortex 2 or a Yamaha YMF-724 based card, or maybe an ESS Solo-1?

Hmm, might have an ESS around, I'll have to look.
Question that has probably be asked and answered plenty before: Is a Vortex 2 and Live! able to co-exist? I've always wanted one but never found any, and the Live! has always done me well so I worry about just outright replacing it if I do.

Or is it outright superior?

E2: Is a "A301-G50" a YMF 724 card? I had no idea I even had this.

SRQ wrote:

Hmm, might have an ESS around, I'll have to look.
Question that has probably be asked and answered plenty before: Is a Vortex 2 and Live! able to co-exist? I've always wanted one but never found any, and the Live! has always done me well so I worry about just outright replacing it if I do.

Or is it outright superior?

Coexist? I suppose it should.
One downside of the Vortex 2 is its poor Windows 2000/XP driver. Aureal closed down before they could finish it or something. Creative has EAX, Aureal has A3D. Forced resampling may be a factor with some of those PCI cards. Besides that I cannot say. My interest in PCI sound cards decreased since.

SRQ wrote:

E2: Is a "A301-G50" a YMF 724 card? I had no idea I even had this.

Looks like one. 😀

So that'll give me DOS mode MIDI? Oh man, wonderful. Muh perfect system is coming together!
(I do have a Pentium 2 with proper ISA but I really want to have this system be for most things.)

For the record yes, it does work. However I found out two things.
1: The YMF724 is unusable alone without a missing DSDMA file I can't find.
2: However, if I disable the SBblaster emulation on it, switch the Live midi emulation to port 300, and then enable only Midi out and OPL on the Yamaha through the setup, it works exactly how I hoped. It outputs midi to external devices just as if it was a midi out on the soundblaster itself.

The lack of line in working on the live is kind of a pain the ass but oh well.

SRQ wrote:

For the record yes, it does work. However I found out two things. 1: The YMF724 is unusable alone without a missing DSDMA file I […]
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For the record yes, it does work. However I found out two things.
1: The YMF724 is unusable alone without a missing DSDMA file I can't find.
2: However, if I disable the SBblaster emulation on it, switch the Live midi emulation to port 300, and then enable only Midi out and OPL on the Yamaha through the setup, it works exactly how I hoped. It outputs midi to external devices just as if it was a midi out on the soundblaster itself.

The lack of line in working on the live is kind of a pain the ass but oh well.

Here is an archive with DSDMA.EXE

What kind of motherboard/chipset are you using?

Asus CUSL2. i815e I think.

I'll give that a try but honestly this is probably best, since I can just jam the output from mt-32/iphone emulating sc-55 into a spare port on the speakers instead of switching the sound card output if I wanna do dos games- since the line in on the Live! isn't doing anything under DOS and I'm not sure how to make it. Ctmixer doesn't list it at all.

Aureal Vortex2 is your card. MIDI out, wavetable connector and good DOS compatibility 😀

Oddly, even with DSDMA I can't get sound. Dark Forces imuse doesn't detect anything, Doom doesn't make any sound. Midi still works though.
Without DSDMA stuff just crashes, so man that's weird. Either nothing, or crashes.

Does anyone know /how/ to use DSDMA? Just running it gives some generic line about activation, neither /help or anything I can think of gets me an explanation of commands gives me a command line error so there must be /some/ arguments

Did you try the whole package and the LOADTSR.BAT for loading the TSR? It's important to make sure the FIRSTTRY= line in DS.INI is set to 1 before you running it for the first time.

I'll try that once I fix the ethernet card in this system.

Running the actual bat made it work fully, cool.

Now, the Yamaha emulates SB Pro (reversed, but it does) and the SB Live! emulates SB16. Is there any reason to want to emulate a pro over a 16, or should I just use the yamaha as a dos midi out like I was planning? Works fine combined with the SB Live! emulation.

Picking the best DOS Sound Blaster(s)

Good to see that it works now, with Kamerat's advise. 😀

SRQ wrote:

Is there any reason to want to emulate a pro over a 16, or should I just use the yamaha as a dos midi out like I was planning? Works fine combined with the SB Live! emulation.

It is both emulation, each with their own peculiarities and limitations. You just have to try how it works with the games you care for. YMF-724 has flawless FM music for one.

SB Pro was reversed originally, so it is not clear what is the right left and right with that interface.

By the way, I do have a DOS tool to set the mixer of the SB Live!, so you can enable the line-in with that tool. But I am not at home right now.

The only significant design flaw in the Yamaha ISA and PCI chipsets is lack of ADPCM playback for games like Duke Nukem 2.