The option of "Wave Blaster on Sound Blaster 16" is GM, as a WB is (mostly) a GM device. I don't know if the game uses anything like sysex messages that are specific to the WB, but you can try the option with your GM synth to see how well it works.

Yes, the game has CD audio. Dunno if it is used in place of, or in addition to, other music in the game; but its sound quaility is better than many GM synths, and certainly better than the FM synth music options.

The line-in volume setting is provided for setups where an external synth (such as an MT-32 that can be configured in the game) is connected to the SB's line-in, allowing the shared use of one set of speakers. That's on real hardware; in DOSBox it has no practical use.

The Vesa setting works just fine with the default machine=svga_s3 in DOSBox.

would the Wave Blaster be better than GUSPPL161?

also I'm going to try a no-cd patch and determine where the cd music normally is. I've already seen several places where synth music is (vs no music).

Also, I saw this on another thread, but the in-game settings for music volume (both "music" and "cd" ) don't seem to actually change the levels at all. Not sure what's going on there.

Just think of the WB as GM in this case. You will have to decide whether the GM synth you have is better than GUS MIDI emulation or not.

I think the music volume control works if you use an OPL music option, because DOSBox can control the volume of the OPL emulation; however, DOSBox does not control MIDI volume on the host. As for the CD volume, I recently posted a patch for DOSBox in another thread (perhaps the one you refer to) that allows it to be set through the SB mixer ports, which does indeed work in LBA.

Okay I'm a little confused. I chose Roland MT32 for the music and I'm getting music......... I thought dosbox didn't actually emulated one of these cards and I had to have the hardware itself

edit: same goes for "Waveblaster on SB16"

edit 2: yet it doesn't like AWE32 choice... dosbox doesn't emulate that either, right?

Official DOSBox does not emulate an MT-32. There is an unofficial build that does offer an MT-32 emulation, but it requires ROM dumps from an MT-32.

The music you are hearing is MIDI data intended for an MT-32 as rendered by whatever MIDI device DOSBox is sending it to, probably a GM synth you have configured as the default. The instrument patches are different between a GM synth and an MT-32, so even though you're hearing something, it is probably not how it's supposed to sound.

Nope, there is no AWE support.

I have it set to the default windows GM synth set .... which is based on the roland sound canvas, right?

also check my 2 edits above

also you are a major help!

also, does that mean I could effectively choose "roland mt 32" for any game and get the same music as choosing "general midi" ?

The Roland Sound Canvas is like an archetype for GM synths. The Windows GM synth is based on it only in so far as it follows the GM spec; there are differences.

No, if you want reasonable sounding MT-32 music, you will have to use a special build of DOSBox that includes emulation for the device, or you'll need a real MT-32 hooked up using MIDI IO in DOSBox.

is dosbox doing the same thing when I pick "waveblaster + sb16" as it does to MT-32 (using my default GM synth)?

why doesn't it do it for AWE32?

and if I can't control music when its GM in LBA (you're right in that it does work for FM synth), because of dosbox doesn't do that, why does the music slider in Hexen work, even when I have that set to GM

As I said before, the instrument mapping (patches) are different between a GM synth and an MT-32. You hear stuff being played with either option because the data is going to your GM synth, but the instruments will not be chosen correctly with the MT-32 option.

Again, DOSBox does not control the output volume of MIDI (like the Windows GM synth) on the host. Some DOS games change the MIDI volume by changing the volume on the MIDI events (the data); that is why it works in some cases and not in others.

ok I'm just learning all this stuff. can you explain the behaviour with those other 2 choice I described? why I hear music on "waveblaster + sb16 (midi)" and yet nothing on "AWE32" ?

what is dosbox behaviour regarding those?

The WB+SB16 option is basically just GM, that's why it works. Maybe there is something that is specific to the Wave Blaster going on, which would explain why Adeline didn't simply call the option "General MIDI" instead of a specific device. If it sounds OK, then you can use the option, right? 😀

The AWE32 had the EMU8K soundfont-based synthesis. Any game that tries to use the specific abilities of the card will not work in DOSBox, because it isn't supported.

ah, thanks so much! so my choice for music for this game is either

GUS (2 different synth sets in the commonly distributed package)
Roland MT-32 (which may very well end up sounding not right cuz of mismatches with GM synth)
Waveblaster (same issue as above)
some FM synth

whew! exhausting. Or, I could also learn and work out doing actual RT-32 emulation (assuming it's the best sounding).

But then I see Relentless is on this list of games that falsely claims using it...?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MT-32-co … 2_compatibility

What do you make of that? Is it possible dosbox is not the one passing data to my GM synth, and that it's just the game is always simply looking for GM? I'm going to try at least one other MT-32 game and see if I can also hear music.

yeah Magic Carpet and Dark Forces play music when MT-32 is selected, but they both don't sound very good/right

as for me it looks all four possible options options: wave blaster and mt-32 sound exactly the same on both my real mt32 and with windows' GS synt.

also if you look at the Setup.lst you see there is the same driver used for both
so i think

other thing is that i actually can adjust mt music volume in game when i select sb1 or sb2 as a sfx device.

I have not tried the MT-32 option in LBA. I'll give it a try at some point with my real MT-32.

The WB option may be inferior to others in that its volume isn't controlled, but it does play reasonable sounding music.

i meant all four possible options sound the same:
wave blaster setting with windows' GS synt
mt-32 setting with windows' GS synt
mt-32 setting with real mt-32
wave blaster setting with real mt-32

It may be the rare game where the instrument patches line up between GM and MT-32. 😉

My comments about the difference in instrument patches between the devices was in the general case, not in the specific case of LBA.

when i select wb for music and sb1/2 for sfx i still can control midi music volume.

So i think sth is not implemented in dosbox's mixer for sb16/pro. Would it be possible to add that to dosbox?

or is it possible the game is not even attempting to do MT-32 and is simply doing GM? is that what that wiki list is suggesting in that it doesnt have MT-32 compatibility.

I'm going to try a couple games with waveblaster and see if they also sound just like GM or not

thanks guys, I'm learning so much. How much did your MT-32's cost you?

in that case it would sound wrong on mt32, but it is not (at least not on the logo/options screen)