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Trouble Enabling Wave Blaster on SB16

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First post, by fleedar

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Probably a dumb question, but I’ve got a Sound Blaster 16 (CT2230), and I recently purchased a DreamBlaster X2. The DreamBlaster is plugged into the Wave Blaster header, but for the life of me I can’t figure out how to get any audio out of it. All midi music sounds identical, I can’t find any settings in the mixer or elsewhere to enable or unmute a daughterboard, and there’s no audio even when plugging speakers directly into the line out of the DreamBlaster. The DreamBlaster setup guide says to consult with the sound card’s manual, but the only mention of the Wave Blaster header in my manual is that it is used for upgrades.

I’d appreciate any help! I’m using one of the DOS driver packages from the Vogons Sound Blaster thread.

Reply 1 of 4, by jesolo

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The Wave Blaster header on the sound card is hardwired to the MPU-401 MIDI interface on your sound card.
First, on your sound card, set up your MPU-401 port address correctly (usually it is port 330h) and make sure it is also defined in your SET BLASTER environment variable in your Autoexec.bat file - the Creative Diagnose utility (normally found in the same folder as your mixer utility) will help you to configure the card and test the sound output.

You can connect your Speakers directly to the Line Out of the sound card.
Once the sound card has been properly configured, then you can try out the General MIDI synthesis of the X2.
Most games require you to specify in the game's setup menu what sound device you wish to use - specify General MIDI, Wave Blaster or Roland Sound Canvas (depending on what is listed).

Last edited by jesolo on 2019-04-07, 08:29. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 2 of 4, by badmojo

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What are you selecting for music in games setup programs? General Midi is the ticket, or Sound Canvas.

Start with something like DOOM - easy to set up and very obvious when you’ve done it right.

EDIT: sorry I didn’t read jesolos reply properly, he already stated that and more 😵

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Reply 3 of 4, by Jo22

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Also check your resources. ACPI and Ethernet cards often use IRQ 2/9, which an MPU-401 normally uses for communications.

Edit: Depending on the game, you can also select "SB-MIDI". That's the legacy MIDI interface of the SB/PRO/16.

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