Hang on... you seem to contradict yourself regarding 16b PCM audio. Does that "sound just fine" or "simply won't play sounds" if you select SB16 but no MIDI (AWE)?

A SoundBlaster AWE32 has three separate ways of making sound:
- PCM (playing digital audio samples)
- FM synthesis (making sounds using an AdLib-compatible OPL3 or its CQM clone)
- Wavetable synthesis (playing back samples to make music based on MIDI commands)

They are essentially separate devices and each can work (and fail) pretty independently of the other. When you say "SB16/AWE", do you mean both 16b PCM digital audio and MIDI Wavetable synthesis? Or only the MIDI?

If 16b PCM works and it's only AWE MIDI that fails, I'd focus on that. You say you have CTCM working. What about AWEINIT?

If 16b PCM doesn't work but 8b SBPro2 PCM does, then you probably have a high DMA conflict. Try setting high DMA to a different value and see if that helps.

Also, it's worth double-checking if you have ID'd the card correctly. The CT3600 is a SoundBlaster 32 with a Vibra DSP chip; it's not one of the AWE32s. So if you have an AWE32-branded card, maybe it's a CT3900 instead...

dionb wrote on 2022-08-01, 18:06:

Hang on... you seem to contradict yourself regarding 16b PCM audio. Does that "sound just fine" or "simply won't play sounds" if […]
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Hang on... you seem to contradict yourself regarding 16b PCM audio. Does that "sound just fine" or "simply won't play sounds" if you select SB16 but no MIDI (AWE)?

A SoundBlaster AWE32 has three separate ways of making sound:
- PCM (playing digital audio samples)
- FM synthesis (making sounds using an AdLib-compatible OPL3 or its CQM clone)
- Wavetable synthesis (playing back samples to make music based on MIDI commands)

They are essentially separate devices and each can work (and fail) pretty independently of the other. When you say "SB16/AWE", do you mean both 16b PCM digital audio and MIDI Wavetable synthesis? Or only the MIDI?

If 16b PCM works and it's only AWE MIDI that fails, I'd focus on that. You say you have CTCM working. What about AWEINIT?

If 16b PCM doesn't work but 8b SBPro2 PCM does, then you probably have a high DMA conflict. Try setting high DMA to a different value and see if that helps.

Also, it's worth double-checking if you have ID'd the card correctly. The CT3600 is a SoundBlaster 32 with a Vibra DSP chip; it's not one of the AWE32s. So if you have an AWE32-branded card, maybe it's a CT3900 instead...

I think there’s allot of confusion around the CT3600. That’s def what it is, but from what I have found online it was sold as both an SB32 and an AWE32 in different board setups. Mine is def the AWE32 version because it has the soldered ram and a spdif connector. And the creative software sees it as an AWE32.

When I run diagnose everything works, all 4 sound tests midi and 16bit. From what I can tell all the creative software is working correctly, it’s just the games that won’t. Or I should say they won’t work in 16bit mode. I did change the high dma from 5 to 6 and same issue.

Also the 2 games I’m currently testing are the dig and lost Eden. I don’t believe either of those games use midi, so it is specifically the 16bit digital audio that’s failing. But again only in games.

dionb wrote on 2022-08-01, 18:06:

You say you have CTCM working. What about AWEINIT?

I don’t have an AWEINIT, but I do have the AWEUTIL, and that seems to work fine is that the same?

Update: So I got The DIG working. It had to be set to the high DMA of 5 not the low DMA of 1. Now it’s happy. Lost Eden still won’t work because it doesn’t allow me to set the high DMA, I can only pick 1 or 3. So this is obviously games issues not card issues. Oh dos 🤦‍♂️

are you setting BLASTER correctly? most games will use it to pick up their config

Ok, so it’s just a Lost Eden issue. Just fired up Duke and it works and sounds AMAZING. Now I see why AWE32/SB16 was a big deal in the day, such a step up from 8 bit. It’s odd that all the stereo is reversed. But it seems like most games knew what was an issue and allowed you to correct it? Do any of the creative unities have the option of fixing that?

FinalJenemba wrote on 2022-08-01, 18:36:

dionb wrote on 2022-08-01, 18:06:

You say you have CTCM working. What about AWEINIT?

I don’t have an AWEINIT, but I do have the AWEUTIL, and that seems to work fine is that the same?

Sorry, I was mixed-up. It's AWEUTIL.

FinalJenemba wrote on 2022-08-01, 18:46:

Update: So I got The DIG working. It had to be set to the high DMA of 5 not the low DMA of 1. Now it’s happy. Lost Eden still won’t work because it doesn’t allow me to set the high DMA, I can only pick 1 or 3. So this is obviously games issues not card issues. Oh dos 🤦‍♂️

So definitely a 16b DMA issue. You could set "high" DMA to 3. Probably Lost Eden is anticipating the low-end SB16-compatible cards that don't have true high DMA, and only allow two low DMAs.