First post, by Lazer42
I was hesitant to make a new post on a general topic that's been discussed so many times, but in the end I've not come to much of a conclusion reading prior stuff.
Long story short is that I'm trying to find a sound card, or even a combination, that will work for my setup, which is a SS7 system with a DOS/Win3.1 boot and a Win98SE boot.
There's an ESS 1938S on the motherboard which I couldn't get to work in Win3.1 so a few years back I had gotten an SB16 CT2230. This seemed fine until I encountered and learned about the single cycle DMA bug. I replaced it with an Aztech Sound Galaxy II 16 Pro 2316R which I chose because I had the same basic thing back in the 90s under the Reveal brand. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to play nicely with WIn98 and I can't at all get the MIDI/Game port to work in 98. It is also very susceptible to having its mixer settings changed by some games to the point that it can be pretty problematic. Just this week I came across a really helpful post here where someone had posted the correct drivers to get the ESS 1938S working in Windows 3.1, but after actually setting that up and using it for a while the FM synth is just a deal breaker. In some ways it's similar to an OPL3, but in many others I find it really far off and unpleasant. On the other hand, everything else about it was spectacular and honestly way, way cleaner and better sounding than any other vintage card I've ever experienced. Crucially, I'm not just talking about noise floor here but artifacts, distortion, etc.
I've also tried doing dual sound cards. The on-board ESS doesn't seem to allow me to use either of the other cards simultaneously, but I can get the Aztech and SB16 running at the same time. I've experimented heavily with that, trying to come up with a way to use one as a "primary" card and the other as a "backup" for anything that causes popping or is just incompatible with the SB16. I'd tried running the line out of one to the line in of the other but the biggest problem has been that some programs wind up outputting to both cards simultaneously, especially the FM, so it causes problems. In some other cases it's also difficult to get the software to use the particular card I want it to, and it does require some Port/DMA/IRQ setups that are a bit less than ideal to make it work. It's also disappointing just how bad both of these sound to me compared to the ESS - other than the FM of course.
I suppose one option may be to get some kind of mixer and just run both cards simultaneously, though that's an expense I'd rather avoid and I'd rather spend the money on a single card that works better all around, though that may be a bit irrational. Still, it wouldn't solve the issue of getting things to use the "correct" card or of some of the problems I've had with the Aztech mixer changing - and moreover, at least thus far I've found that what I'd much rather do is set the SB16 as the main card and let the Aztech be there as a backup for compatibility, BUT most of the games with compatibility issues are hard coded to use 220/5/1 meaning that I need to let the Aztech take those values and give the SB16 240, something which basically makes the Aztech the primary card because of how many programs default to 220.
This post is really just a general shot in the dark for suggestions, whether configuration-wise, cards to look into, etc..
Basically, I want something that works completely in both DOS/3.1 and 98SE, that has a real OPL3 or at least a much better imitation than what I mentioned above, and doesn't have major issues like the single cycle DMA popping. I'd prefer a single card but would be happy to combine a couple IF it worked - including combining the ones I already have if there is a way to make it work. Anyone have any suggestions?
