Back when I had a SB 32 PnP I had to install Win 3.x drivers for the card to work properly in DOS games. They included some TSR that fixed everything.

Thanks for the suggestion filipetolhuizen, BTW your avatar freaks me out somewhat.

I tried an Ensoniq Soundscape S-2000 I've had sitting around in the shed and I'm impressed, never tried one before. Nativity supported by the relevant games and sounds great to my ears. I have an AudioPCI card hanging around here somewhere too which I understand has soundscape emulation + reverb, etc (which the soundscape doesn't). I might give it a go too.

You will definitely need the Windows drivers for your SB16. Pretty sure that Windows needs a driver for the MPU401 interface.

But yea, this is one of the reasons I don't like to mix DOS and Windows. I always recommend dedicated machines for each tasks.

I was having a problem with some games like doom and wacky wheels not working with the midi out on both my SB16 and AWE64 this program fixed it for me.

http://www.dcee.net/Files/Music/Blaster/sbmpu401.arj

Is midi out working ok in dos?

The SB32 PnP MPU401 only worked fine for DOS games under Win9x. Under pure DOS I had to load a different TSR which made the machine lock up or reboot as soon as the MIDI started.
-OT-
I know it's kinda scary, it's just that I found it damn funny. 🤣

The way I set up my Midi choices in my Dell was like this:

--internal cards--
SB AWE-32 for both DOS and Win98
Gravis Ultrasound 2.1 (strictly DOS)
Yamaha XG knock off daughterboard (Win98 only)

--external--
Roland MT-32, 1st Gen
Roland SC-55 mk. I

Both of the external synths I run through the AWE-32's gameport. It's IRQ hell, but to coin a phrase, "60% of the time, it works every time!" 😁 I look back over the past 5-6 years of my life and can't believe I actually spent all that money on Midi. So worth it.

jmrydholm wrote:

The way I set up my Midi choices in my Dell was like this: […]
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The way I set up my Midi choices in my Dell was like this:

--internal cards--
SB AWE-32 for both DOS and Win98
Gravis Ultrasound 2.1 (strictly DOS)
Yamaha XG knock off daughterboard (Win98 only)

--external--
Roland MT-32, 1st Gen
Roland SC-55 mk. I

Both of the external synths I run through the AWE-32's gameport. It's IRQ hell, but to coin a phrase, "60% of the time, it works every time!" 😁 I look back over the past 5-6 years of my life and can't believe I actually spent all that money on Midi. So worth it.

jesus that would be IRQ hell, found it hard enough with just one SB16, took me almost an hour to figure out that doom needed the 8-bit IRQ not the 16bit =P

What's kind of funny is I just installed an Ensoniq ES1370-PCI in my Windows 2000 machine, yet the drivers that Windows installed list it as a "Sound Blaster." I also can't get DirectX to play sounds from hardware buffers on it, but maybe that's just a limitation of the card? I heard that particular model is ideal for Dos compatibility in PCI. (Besides, I always wanted a non-Creative Ensoniq!) I've PM'ed SquallStrife for some assistance on that.

I actually jumpered the Ultrasound in my other computer to IRQ 11, set the AWE32 to IRQ7, run a TSR in DOS, and run the external synths off a USB to Midi cable. I also only use the Gravis card in DOS, so it amazingly all works and sounds awesome. Basically I've converted my Optiplex into an ultimate DOS music machine/MIDI instrument.

I don't a lot of money to spend on things like that right now, but next on my list of computer hardware to pickup is a SBAWE32 and a gravis ultrasound. Right now all i've got is 2 common place SB16's. (though i must say i'm far better off than most people. having 6 working desktops's and all =P)