I have retested Hexen warp 2 inside Windows 98 with General Midi and sfx, this time with "Allow MPU401 Emulation on this device" unchecked inside Awe Control Panel, and I now (unfortunately) hear the hanging note.

PS: which CT model does not have this bug, are the CT3900 or CT3980 better models to go for? Is the CT2760 good too?

Or perhaps another way to avoid this bug is to choose a different sound card for the sfx?

Thanks.

retro games 100 wrote:

PS: which CT model does not have this bug, are the CT3900 or CT3980 better models to go for? Is the CT2760 good too?

All AWE32 models have the bug, as far as I know.

retro games 100 wrote:

Or perhaps another way to avoid this bug is to choose a different sound card for the sfx?

Yes, using a different card for digital SFX gets rid of the hanging notes. It pays off to have another card installed, preferably one that is usually supported in DOS games, like GUS, PAS, ESS or WSS.

Thanks a lot for your advice.

My 3900 and 3980 have not this bug. Probably sometimes in certain games it appears after long period of playing time. Maybe overheat?
Anyway, solid constant bug with hexen map02 or hocus pocus in-menu midi i get only with CT2760, CT3990 and never with CT3900, CT3980.
I think here is a few different hang note problems with SB cards.

Hello, unfortunatetly your "here is a few different" link does not work.

Please note that I did the following additional test:

CT2760 + DB50XG
Hexen -warp 02
Running in DOS (not Windows 98 dos command box)

For the music, I select General Midi, address 300 (I used setcard.exe to change it to 300). I also have the MFBEN jumper open.

I hear no hanging note - the music seems ok.

This is not link. I just have underlined this part of text because i wished to pay your attention. IMHO here is more than one issue with MPU401 bugs on these creative soundcards. This one is dumb and detects easily at first steps. Others depend on many factors - overheat, bus latency, overclocking and etc.

In that your last test with CT2760 - do you use SFX?

Don't ignore the terrible signal quality of all ISA Creative cards. Running a nice DB on one of them is just such a waste. A SB16 is not really 16-bit quality at all by any stretch and it's full of noise and other electrical crap to top it all off.

I have tried a SCD15 on various SB16s and had problems with most of them. Missing notes and, strangely enough, wrong notes included. I finally got myself an original SB16 model that does work but, after discovering how awful it sounds compared to an Ensoniq ISA card or Aureal PCI card, I stopped using it.

On my second rig i use AWE64 Gold with external hand-made adapter for DB's hooked to game port. I route it to line-in. Gold have very noiseless and clear line-in even with maximum signal value. I just didn't hear any noises and artefacts in headphones.
http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj258/alek … ont_800x600.jpg

Re: "In that your last test with CT2760 - do you use SFX?"

Yes, for the sfx I select the SoundBlaster option, and for the music I select General Midi.

When I run the game, I hear the sound effects ok, and I also hear the midi music without the hanging note.

Re: "....compared to an Ensoniq ISA card or Aureal PCI card, I stopped using it."

I would really love an ensoniq elite card. I got a vivo card, but I didn't like the way it used 2 IRQs. I have an aureal pci card - perhaps I could utilise the legacy dos emulation driver software?

Ok, maybe that bug not depends of certain revisions but related to each individual card?

4 *possible* thoughts are -

1) I think my CT2760 is revision 3 - perhaps that has something to do with it.

2) I have set my midi address to 300, and not the more usual 330.

3) Sometime in the card's lifetime it was sent back to Creative for servicing, and they applied some kind of fix to it?

4) I'm lucky. 😉

...CT2760 is revision 3
this one also known as CT2760A
Maybe because of it?
I have common CT2760 and it have bug.
Who knows...

Yes, perhaps the CT2760A is immune to this bug?

Sorry to briefly change the subject, but do you (or anyone reading this sentence) have a GUS PnP for sale?!?

does anyone know what vibra-chips apple used on their pc-compatibility-boards?
do they suffer from the hanging notes bug, so no mt32 with softmpu on the joystick-port?