All of those are great options, it's literally just about what you want, like, and prefer. There's no wrong answer.

I use an ESS personally. I actually bought an SBPro 2, but ended up liking the ESS so much that I've never installed the SBPro 2. It's all just down to personal preference.

There isn't really a single best ISA sound card if the goal is just MIDI music playback.

Anything with a wavetable header, bug-free MIDI, and decent audio out will do the job. Add in your wavetable daughterboard of choice and you'll be set.

If your ESS 1868F card is doing the job, then stick with that. The only reason to include the AWE64 is for native SB16 or AWE32 support (AFAIK, the ESS 1868F doesn't do SB16, just SB Pro support).

Personally, I tend to do 3 to 6 sound cards in my DOS setups, but I just like having a plethora of audio options at my disposal. 😁

the ess 1868 is only sb pro compatible just like the vast majority of non-creative cards out there (with very few exceptions supporting sb16). for that matter the awe64 isn't strictly sb pro compatible itself. ess chips are also not windows sound system compatible, but neither is the awe64.

either card is a fine choice by itself as i've used both for my builds. if you were going to add a second isa sound card alongside the awe64 i'd pick something other than the ess. a 3rd or 4th gen aztech card or an opti 924/930 or even a crystal 4232 would give you wss and a yamaha opl3 or 1:1 clone. btw, while a second card would give you a waveblaster header, it's also possible to add a chill & phil adapter to the gameport of the awe64 to get the same result.

thanks for the thoughts ... I feel like the ESS with the Dreamblaster on the wavetable header produces much nicer midi than the Awe64 so perhaps I can figure out how to run both cards without having too much conflict. Or is it possible to run the dreamblaster through some other method / connection on the AWE64 so using only one card?

EDIT: found this - CHiLL V - Waveblaster MIDI interface board

https://www.serdashop.com/CHiLL

looks like an interesting solution which would allow me to keep the AWE64 and also run the wavetable module through MIDI interface on the card. Are there any other similar solutions out there?

CMI8330 (HT1869V+): Integrated OPL3 full clone; WSS, AdLib, SB 2.0, SB Pro and SB16 compatible; supports some early 3D audio implementation; no need of TSR driver to be initialized and used under DOS; cheap (almost no one knows how good for DOS gaming is this chip), but hard to find.

Omarkoman wrote on 2023-09-16, 22:21:

I have the Dreamblaster S2 that works perfectly and the MIDI music from games sounds really nice and imo better than the AWE64.

If you are able to upgrade the amount of RAM for the EMU8K, try running DOS games within a Windows 9x environment where the MPU-401 emulation is much more useful as SF2 SoundFonts can be used. This works by selecting "General MIDI" instead of "Sound Blaster AWE32" (which uses the onboard samples from the EMU8011 ROM in nearly all cases) when available.

I dont see the point of using both cards to take up more slots and resources and create potential conflicts.

I do see the point once you have set resources carefully. In your case, with the AWE64 you get SB16 compatibility in late DOS games and the ESS sound card can provide SBPro support, ESFM (mostly faithful to the real OPL3 FM synth) and an onboard WaveBlaster adapter.

Omarkoman wrote on 2023-09-17, 22:56:

EDIT: found this - CHiLL V - Waveblaster MIDI interface board

https://www.serdashop.com/CHiLL

looks like an interesting solution which would allow me to keep the AWE64 and also run the wavetable module through MIDI interface on the card. Are there any other similar solutions out there?

Check the CHiLL and Phil Adapter, which is smaller and designed to work with DreamBlasters.

Omarkoman wrote on 2023-09-17, 22:56:

[...]

looks like an interesting solution which would allow me to keep the AWE64 and also run the wavetable module through MIDI interface on the card.

Do bear in mind this card (like all Creative SB16 derivatives) suffers from an irritating slowdown bug when high-bitrate digital audio is being played at the same time as MIDI music. This does not occur if you're playing MIDI through a second card. Those slowdowns really irritate me, so I always ensure I have a second card in a system with an AWE.

Does this happen in DOS games?

Omarkoman wrote on 2023-09-19, 07:07:

Does this happen in DOS games?

Yes, particularly in Duke Nukem 3D.

jesolo wrote on 2023-09-19, 09:21:

Omarkoman wrote on 2023-09-19, 07:07:

Does this happen in DOS games?

Yes, particularly in Duke Nukem 3D.

This is part of the reason I ended up getting an original genuine roland mpu 401 breakout box.
I had games like Legend of Kyrandia 2 crash on startup and Duke Nukem 3D stutter really badly when I had my SC-55 connected via a gameport midi cable to my sb16.

Sure it was on the expensive side , but since then all my games run perfectly with midi selected as the music option and no weirdness happens.
So using a second card might be a good idea.

Omarkoman wrote on 2023-09-19, 07:07:

Does this happen in DOS games?

Unfortunately, yes. 🙁

Only in Duke Nukem 3D (and other Build-based games with MIDI support) as others mentioned and Boppin' (initialization issues in this case) is where I faced that bug. It is one of the reasons why I pair the AWE64 with another ISA sound card.

The MPU-401 emulation thru the EMU8K doesn't suffer from this though.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2023-09-19, 13:41:

Only in Duke Nukem 3D (and other Build-based games with MIDI support) as others mentioned and Boppin' (initialization issues in this case) is where I faced that bug. It is one of the reasons why I pair the AWE64 with another ISA sound card.

It can occur in any game which uses sample rates higher than 11 KHz for digital sound.

I've seen it happen in Mortal Kombat 2 and Dark Forces as well. There are probably other examples too, but Duke3D is certainly the most prominent one.

It is amazing how Creative managed to never fix its MIDI implementation after getting it right on initial SB16s, it almost feels like that was an intentional thing..

appiah4 wrote on 2023-09-19, 13:51:

It is amazing how Creative managed to never fix its MIDI implementation after getting it right on initial SB16s, it almost feels like that was an intentional thing..

I dunno this is creative labs we're talking about after all, you can easily describe them as hack frauds , chances are they did genuinely screw up and never bothered to fix it.

AppleSauce wrote on 2023-09-19, 14:51:

appiah4 wrote on 2023-09-19, 13:51:

It is amazing how Creative managed to never fix its MIDI implementation after getting it right on initial SB16s, it almost feels like that was an intentional thing..

I dunno this is creative labs we're talking about after all, you can easily describe them as hack frauds , chances are they did genuinely screw up and never bothered to fix it.

Creative's moment of brilliance was the integration of the gameport into the sound card and implementing some basic MIDI functions on it (SB-MIDI), from there they become reactive towards competition.

If AdLib reacted to the original Sound Blaster (aka "Killer Card") adequately, things would have been different.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2023-09-19, 15:06:

If AdLib reacted to the original Sound Blaster (aka "Killer Card") adequately, things would have been different.

If Adlib had petented their original sound card things would have been very different.

Hello World!
This is my first post. I did not know where to put it, so im sorry if its placed in the wrong section! 😁
Thx to this community over here at first!
This site helped me soo much, its like the holy-grail of retro-Hardware-info to me.
Im a silent reader for years now.. but i think its time to show some cool Stuff too! 😀
Today i found an amazing Midi-collection that i want to share with you... But im not sure if its legal to upload the img-Files! 😒
If its okay to upload them please tell me!
Anyway - some Pictures: