ux-3 wrote on 2023-07-25, 22:15:

But I would also like to use a SB 16/32 combatible card like the AWE 64 Gold.

The YMF (Yamaha) chipset includes excellent WSS support, so you can get 16 bit support that way instead of using SB16. Just a suggestion!

Multi card setups are quite possible but I've always found them to be awkward with regards to mixing the output. You can pipe the out from one to the in of the other, or use a mixer of course - it can all work fine but there are a lot more variables than just having one nice card setup.

To be honest, I am not sure if it seems worth the trouble.
At the moment, I am using a SB32AWE CT2760 with an XR385( yamaha DB clone). This basically runs my stuff "out of the box". BUT...
The card is rather noisy (1701-T), it has the hanging notes bug, it is not truely SBpro compatible, Dos drivers are cumbersome.

As far I can tell from my experience, there are hardly games in the date range that output true 16-bit sound. Which is suggesting to me that I could instead just drop the SB16 compatibility. I consider moving to an ES1868 board, of which I have two. (Promedia Gold 16/96 and PT-230X). The advantages are less noise, no hanging notes, less drivers, SBpro compatible. Just no SB16 and no genuine OPL(but ok).