I don't have SB Live! drive in DOS, but can't set it in SBEMIXER.EXE? http://index-of.co.uk/Hardware/MANUAL000010556.pdf

I didn't try it in pure DOS, but the SB Live 5.1 and SB Audigy 1 both need to run some init process with the Live Drive. My use case was tapping into the additional pins for the external IO bracket at the back to connect an MX-300's SPDIF out pins to the Live drive so I could have both EAX and A3D 2.0 on the same machine all through that great headphone jack.

I like the card's SB16 support, but I'm not a fan of the bad Adlib implementation. Any DOS games I run are still through Win98 and I'm accessing MIDI while using an older system with an SB16 Vibra and YMF719 for older games under real DOS.

If I'm remember right, one thing I ran into with Windows is that the SBLive by default only supported MPU401 in a DOS prompt to go the of the synth which did allow Soundfonts to work. But having the Aureal drivers gave me an option to choose the MIDI output port for the DOS prompt so I could direct this to the Live Drive's MIDI output and have an external MIDI pipe its output back into the Live Drive's RCA or optical-in and do mixing on the PC.

Ydee wrote on 2021-09-26, 12:04:

I don't have SB Live! drive in DOS, but can't set it in SBEMIXER.EXE? http://index-of.co.uk/Hardware/MANUAL000010556.pdf

I have tried it and the other little programs, too, there is no option for the drive, I also can't see it in the manual.

SScorpio wrote on 2021-09-26, 15:12:

I didn't try it in pure DOS, but the SB Live 5.1 and SB Audigy 1 both need to run some init process with the Live Drive. My use case was tapping into the additional pins for the external IO bracket at the back to connect an MX-300's SPDIF out pins to the Live drive so I could have both EAX and A3D 2.0 on the same machine all through that great headphone jack.

I like the card's SB16 support, but I'm not a fan of the bad Adlib implementation. Any DOS games I run are still through Win98 and I'm accessing MIDI while using an older system with an SB16 Vibra and YMF719 for older games under real DOS.

If I'm remember right, one thing I ran into with Windows is that the SBLive by default only supported MPU401 in a DOS prompt to go the of the synth which did allow Soundfonts to work. But having the Aureal drivers gave me an option to choose the MIDI output port for the DOS prompt so I could direct this to the Live Drive's MIDI output and have an external MIDI pipe its output back into the Live Drive's RCA or optical-in and do mixing on the PC.

Cheers Sccorpio,
thanks for the tips. I might end up with two soundcards (SB16 and SBLive) in one machine, if thats possible. Need to do further research, I didnt have that much stuff back in the day 😁
Is there any further information about that init process? I can't really find anything about this in DOS.

There was another post with a driver here yesterday, that got deleted - was it the wrong driver? Didn't have time to dig into it, now its gone.

Roger Wilco wrote on 2021-09-27, 16:25:

There was another post with a driver here yesterday, that got deleted - was it the wrong driver? Didn't have time to dig into it, now its gone.

That was me, didn't know whether you were using two sound cards or not. I apologize for the inconvenience.

It was about a mixer software for SB Live! and Audigy for DOS and they don't need the drivers (which requires EMM) to work.

Roger Wilco wrote on 2021-09-27, 16:25:

Cheers Sccorpio, thanks for the tips. I might end up with two soundcards (SB16 and SBLive) in one machine, if thats possible. N […]
Show full quote

Cheers Sccorpio,
thanks for the tips. I might end up with two soundcards (SB16 and SBLive) in one machine, if thats possible. Need to do further research, I didnt have that much stuff back in the day 😁
Is there any further information about that init process? I can't really find anything about this in DOS.

There was another post with a driver here yesterday, that got deleted - was it the wrong driver? Didn't have time to dig into it, now its gone.

An SB16 would be limiting. The SBLive's SB16 support is actually really good, if the SB16 had a real OPL3 then it might make sense.

But an SB16 won't have a digital output to go into the SBLive. Your best option would be SB16 Line-out to SB16 Line-in both on the back of your case with the shortest most shielded 1/8" to 1/8" audio cable you can find.

If OPL is your goal, one of the later Yamaha cards might provide some type of digital output. I'm running two sound cards in my Pentium DOS gaming machine, I have a SB16 Vibra for 16bit sound blaster, and gameport. And a YMF719 for OPL, WSS, SBPro, and MPU-401. I have the audio doing the line out to line in, but it's analog and there is some hissing.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-09-27, 17:16:

That was me, didn't know whether you were using two sound cards or not. I apologize for the inconvenience.

It was about a mixer software for SB Live! and Audigy for DOS and they don't need the drivers (which requires EMM) to work.

Cool, I will definitely try this out, thanks a lot.

SScorpio wrote on 2021-09-27, 20:40:

An SB16 would be limiting. The SBLive's SB16 support is actually really good, if the SB16 had a real OPL3 then it might make sense.

But an SB16 won't have a digital output to go into the SBLive. Your best option would be SB16 Line-out to SB16 Line-in both on the back of your case with the shortest most shielded 1/8" to 1/8" audio cable you can find.

If OPL is your goal, one of the later Yamaha cards might provide some type of digital output. I'm running two sound cards in my Pentium DOS gaming machine, I have a SB16 Vibra for 16bit sound blaster, and gameport. And a YMF719 for OPL, WSS, SBPro, and MPU-401. I have the audio doing the line out to line in, but it's analog and there is some hissing.

I wasn't aware, that you can run more than one soundcard, so this changes everything.

Is the SBLive passing the line_in on the back to the headphone_out in front, as long as the driver for DOS is not loaded? Or does it need that init process, you mentioned?
(I am asking this, because the drive is On as soon as I boot, and there is also a hiss on the headphone out. But as soon as sbeinit loads, it shuts down.)
If the sound is passed through, does it just use the last volume settings...? I know that behaviour from my RME sound cards.
I could live with two sound cards - some early Sound Blaster with OPL for DOS and the Live! for Windows / headphone in Dos. I wouldnt mind about a little hiss.
Actually, it sounds pretty cool, best of both worlds 😀

Roger Wilco wrote on 2021-09-27, 22:10:

I wasn't aware, that you can run more than one soundcard, so this changes everything. […]
Show full quote

I wasn't aware, that you can run more than one soundcard, so this changes everything.

Is the SBLive passing the line_in on the back to the headphone_out in front, as long as the driver for DOS is not loaded? Or does it need that init process, you mentioned?
(I am asking this, because the drive is On as soon as I boot, and there is also a hiss on the headphone out. But as soon as sbeinit loads, it shuts down.)
If the sound is passed through, does it just use the last volume settings...? I know that behaviour from my RME sound cards.
I could live with two sound cards - some early Sound Blaster with OPL for DOS and the Live! for Windows / headphone in Dos. I wouldnt mind about a little hiss.
Actually, it sounds pretty cool, best of both worlds 😀

I haven't tried that mixer program that's linked. But in the discussion it says it does enable the Live Drive. So you should be able to run it and unmute the Line-In.

My machine with the SB Live and Vortex 2 cards runs Win98 and I only run later DOS games that run fine in Windows.