I'm working on a multi sound card build, which I hope will be able to play back pretty much anything designed for any even marginally mainstream sound card/module. My first iteration will be a combination of Aztech NX Pro (with real OPL3 and support for AdLib, SB, SBPro2 and Coxox/DSS), Soundblaster 32 CT3670 (for SB16 compatibility) and GUS Classic, with a MT-32 and GM/GS capable Roland piano via MIDI. All of this will have to work under DOS on an So7 motherboard.

Now, the big issue is of course resources. I intend to run the NX Pro's Soundblaster on A220 I7 D1, and use its MIDI at A330 I2 for the Roland stuff. That leaves the rest for the GUS and the SB32. The GUS will probably work with 240,6,6,11,11 (the last digit irrelevant as FM and MIDI are disabled) In the case of the 32, I only really need the SB16 support, but it looks like I need to configure the whole legacy SB as well to get it working. That means A260 I5 D3 H5 - which complicates matters. Is there any way to economize on resources between the SB Pro (clone) and the SB 16? I.e. by sharing IRQ or (low) DMA as only one of the two cards will ever be used at any given time.

All is not lost if I can't reduce it: it should be possible to get this config working, and if I can, it means I can compare the NX Pro's OPL with the SB32's CQM without changing anything other than game settings (at least, so long as the games let me select DMA 3...). But it will certainly limit my options to add a fourth card in the future, and I'm a bit concerned about being able to get a network card to work with this config too.