I listed my notes on how to disable HRTF. Unfortunately, I tend to fail to document where I found that info or how I tested it so I don't know if this will work.

• Set enable_lib to 1,0 in inf installation file
• Change all registry instances of enable_lib to 0
• If you open the CMI mixer, then you have to redo step 2 and reboot.
• Remove CMI mixer from autostart.

xtreger wrote on 2025-01-18, 19:31:

I've installed the CMI8738/CD3X drivers in Windows 98 SE. The sound card is exactly this: https://theretroweb.com/chips/3629. I've tried installing both VxD and WDM drivers, and in both cases, I get this weird echo-ey and incomplete sound through my headphones. The headphones are connected to the green jack (FRONT OUT) of the card.

Even the Win98 startup sound plays incompletely (it plays only from the middle to the end). My guess is that part of the sound is routed to the REAR OUT channel, so half the start jingle plays in that channel and the other half plays in the FRONT OUT channel that I hear. All this is probably part of what they call "HRTF 3D Positional 3D (C-Media 3D)" (pg. 25 of https://theretroweb.com/chip/documentation/cm … 9d502264601.pdf)

In the mixer settings, the 3D option can only be set to high or low. Is there any way to completely disable it? I'm quite fed up of it and just want to hear normal 2 channel sound in my headphones without any of the 3d crap. Would really appreciate any help, thanks!

when you install the drivers it gives you an option to set 2 or 4 speaker setup, if i remember right you dont always get this option depending on the driver version, if you have got it set to 2 channel setup, then your problem might just be windows 98, sometimes when i boot mine (also using a 8738) the startup sound doesnt play fully or it cuts in/out or is crackly, it doesnt do it all the time, also does it on other systems with different sound cards/audio devices, so prob just normal for win98. infact i also have this problem on other Os's so i wouldnt worry about it.

it might be worth trying a different driver version it may fix your problem, if you use the later drivers which i think are WDM, you wont have working FM synth, it only seems to work with with older VXD drivers, i use version 2.37a, also FM synth works with version 2.73. i found with version 2.81 the FM synth is not working, so if you want authentic sounding yamaha OPL2/3 you need to use 2.37a or 2.73 (i found them on archive) one of my cards is an LX the other an MX, not sure if these drivers work for SX versions.

2.37a has the standard Roland GM softsynth you get with most cards/audio devices, and 2.73 has a slightly different sounding GM synth as i noticed different sounds in doom/duke3d, these are great cards for adlib opl2/3, only downside is the pure dos drivers are broken so sfx doesnt work, only adlib which is fine for games like monkey island, to get the card fully working under pure dos SBEMU works great, running it with /SCFM will enable the cards FM synth so you can have hardware opl2/3 rather than emulated.
aside from that playing dos games in win98 works perfectly.

DudeFace wrote on 2025-01-19, 16:20:

when you install the drivers it gives you an option to set 2 or 4 speaker setup, if i remember right you dont always get this op […]
Show full quote

xtreger wrote on 2025-01-18, 19:31:

I've installed the CMI8738/CD3X drivers in Windows 98 SE. The sound card is exactly this: https://theretroweb.com/chips/3629. I've tried installing both VxD and WDM drivers, and in both cases, I get this weird echo-ey and incomplete sound through my headphones. The headphones are connected to the green jack (FRONT OUT) of the card.

Even the Win98 startup sound plays incompletely (it plays only from the middle to the end). My guess is that part of the sound is routed to the REAR OUT channel, so half the start jingle plays in that channel and the other half plays in the FRONT OUT channel that I hear. All this is probably part of what they call "HRTF 3D Positional 3D (C-Media 3D)" (pg. 25 of https://theretroweb.com/chip/documentation/cm … 9d502264601.pdf)

In the mixer settings, the 3D option can only be set to high or low. Is there any way to completely disable it? I'm quite fed up of it and just want to hear normal 2 channel sound in my headphones without any of the 3d crap. Would really appreciate any help, thanks!

when you install the drivers it gives you an option to set 2 or 4 speaker setup, if i remember right you dont always get this option depending on the driver version, if you have got it set to 2 channel setup, then your problem might just be windows 98, sometimes when i boot mine (also using a 8738) the startup sound doesnt play fully or it cuts in/out or is crackly, it doesnt do it all the time, also does it on other systems with different sound cards/audio devices, so prob just normal for win98. infact i also have this problem on other Os's so i wouldnt worry about it.

it might be worth trying a different driver version it may fix your problem, if you use the later drivers which i think are WDM, you wont have working FM synth, it only seems to work with with older VXD drivers, i use version 2.37a, also FM synth works with version 2.73. i found with version 2.81 the FM synth is not working, so if you want authentic sounding yamaha OPL2/3 you need to use 2.37a or 2.73 (i found them on archive) one of my cards is an LX the other an MX, not sure if these drivers work for SX versions.

2.37a has the standard Roland GM softsynth you get with most cards/audio devices, and 2.73 has a slightly different sounding GM synth as i noticed different sounds in doom/duke3d, these are great cards for adlib opl2/3, only downside is the pure dos drivers are broken so sfx doesnt work, only adlib which is fine for games like monkey island, to get the card fully working under pure dos SBEMU works great, running it with /SCFM will enable the cards FM synth so you can have hardware opl2/3 rather than emulated.
aside from that playing dos games in win98 works perfectly.

Thanks a lot! I'll see about the DOS functionality. But how do you get sound in dos games in win98? I installed the vxd drivers and the 4 devices get set up successfully (normal, legacy, MPU and gameport). But when I open skyroads, I hear no sound. If I open tomb raider's sound setup, it doesn't autodetect anything. It's a bit strange. Which version of the drivers are you using - 2.73 or 2.37a? I'll attempt to use the exact same ones.

xtreger wrote on 2025-01-19, 17:04:

DudeFace wrote on 2025-01-19, 16:20:

when you install the drivers it gives you an option to set 2 or 4 speaker setup, if i remember right you dont always get this op […]
Show full quote

xtreger wrote on 2025-01-18, 19:31:

I've installed the CMI8738/CD3X drivers in Windows 98 SE. The sound card is exactly this: https://theretroweb.com/chips/3629. I've tried installing both VxD and WDM drivers, and in both cases, I get this weird echo-ey and incomplete sound through my headphones. The headphones are connected to the green jack (FRONT OUT) of the card.

Even the Win98 startup sound plays incompletely (it plays only from the middle to the end). My guess is that part of the sound is routed to the REAR OUT channel, so half the start jingle plays in that channel and the other half plays in the FRONT OUT channel that I hear. All this is probably part of what they call "HRTF 3D Positional 3D (C-Media 3D)" (pg. 25 of https://theretroweb.com/chip/documentation/cm … 9d502264601.pdf)

In the mixer settings, the 3D option can only be set to high or low. Is there any way to completely disable it? I'm quite fed up of it and just want to hear normal 2 channel sound in my headphones without any of the 3d crap. Would really appreciate any help, thanks!

when you install the drivers it gives you an option to set 2 or 4 speaker setup, if i remember right you dont always get this option depending on the driver version, if you have got it set to 2 channel setup, then your problem might just be windows 98, sometimes when i boot mine (also using a 8738) the startup sound doesnt play fully or it cuts in/out or is crackly, it doesnt do it all the time, also does it on other systems with different sound cards/audio devices, so prob just normal for win98. infact i also have this problem on other Os's so i wouldnt worry about it.

it might be worth trying a different driver version it may fix your problem, if you use the later drivers which i think are WDM, you wont have working FM synth, it only seems to work with with older VXD drivers, i use version 2.37a, also FM synth works with version 2.73. i found with version 2.81 the FM synth is not working, so if you want authentic sounding yamaha OPL2/3 you need to use 2.37a or 2.73 (i found them on archive) one of my cards is an LX the other an MX, not sure if these drivers work for SX versions.

2.37a has the standard Roland GM softsynth you get with most cards/audio devices, and 2.73 has a slightly different sounding GM synth as i noticed different sounds in doom/duke3d, these are great cards for adlib opl2/3, only downside is the pure dos drivers are broken so sfx doesnt work, only adlib which is fine for games like monkey island, to get the card fully working under pure dos SBEMU works great, running it with /SCFM will enable the cards FM synth so you can have hardware opl2/3 rather than emulated.
aside from that playing dos games in win98 works perfectly.

Thanks a lot! I'll see about the DOS functionality. But how do you get sound in dos games in win98? I installed the vxd drivers and the 4 devices get set up successfully (normal, legacy, MPU and gameport). But when I open skyroads, I hear no sound. If I open tomb raider's sound setup, it doesn't autodetect anything. It's a bit strange. Which version of the drivers are you using - 2.73 or 2.37a? I'll attempt to use the exact same ones.

Dos games sound under windows should just work if everything went right- do you have the "set blaster" variable set in autoexec.bat? Usually the driver will set this on installation but you never know.

I'd also not worry about the sound cutoff upon boot as I have seen this with various soundcards/systems with no other apparent problems.

bertrammatrix wrote on 2025-01-19, 17:40:

xtreger wrote on 2025-01-19, 17:04:

DudeFace wrote on 2025-01-19, 16:20:

when you install the drivers it gives you an option to set 2 or 4 speaker setup, if i remember right you dont always get this op […]
Show full quote

when you install the drivers it gives you an option to set 2 or 4 speaker setup, if i remember right you dont always get this option depending on the driver version, if you have got it set to 2 channel setup, then your problem might just be windows 98, sometimes when i boot mine (also using a 8738) the startup sound doesnt play fully or it cuts in/out or is crackly, it doesnt do it all the time, also does it on other systems with different sound cards/audio devices, so prob just normal for win98. infact i also have this problem on other Os's so i wouldnt worry about it.

it might be worth trying a different driver version it may fix your problem, if you use the later drivers which i think are WDM, you wont have working FM synth, it only seems to work with with older VXD drivers, i use version 2.37a, also FM synth works with version 2.73. i found with version 2.81 the FM synth is not working, so if you want authentic sounding yamaha OPL2/3 you need to use 2.37a or 2.73 (i found them on archive) one of my cards is an LX the other an MX, not sure if these drivers work for SX versions.

2.37a has the standard Roland GM softsynth you get with most cards/audio devices, and 2.73 has a slightly different sounding GM synth as i noticed different sounds in doom/duke3d, these are great cards for adlib opl2/3, only downside is the pure dos drivers are broken so sfx doesnt work, only adlib which is fine for games like monkey island, to get the card fully working under pure dos SBEMU works great, running it with /SCFM will enable the cards FM synth so you can have hardware opl2/3 rather than emulated.
aside from that playing dos games in win98 works perfectly.

Thanks a lot! I'll see about the DOS functionality. But how do you get sound in dos games in win98? I installed the vxd drivers and the 4 devices get set up successfully (normal, legacy, MPU and gameport). But when I open skyroads, I hear no sound. If I open tomb raider's sound setup, it doesn't autodetect anything. It's a bit strange. Which version of the drivers are you using - 2.73 or 2.37a? I'll attempt to use the exact same ones.

Dos games sound under windows should just work if everything went right- do you have the "set blaster" variable set in autoexec.bat? Usually the driver will set this on installation but you never know.

I'd also not worry about the sound cutoff upon boot as I have seen this with various soundcards/systems with no other apparent problems.

Nope, it doesn't work for some reason. There are no yellow exclamation marks with any of the devices. I also ran Install from the dosdrv folder and checked the autoexec.bat. There is a set blaster variable in it. My motherboard's BIOS also assigns IRQ 5 to the sound card which works out perfectly..

xtreger wrote on 2025-01-19, 17:04:

DudeFace wrote on 2025-01-19, 16:20:

when you install the drivers it gives you an option to set 2 or 4 speaker setup, if i remember right you dont always get this op […]
Show full quote

xtreger wrote on 2025-01-18, 19:31:

I've installed the CMI8738/CD3X drivers in Windows 98 SE. The sound card is exactly this: https://theretroweb.com/chips/3629. I've tried installing both VxD and WDM drivers, and in both cases, I get this weird echo-ey and incomplete sound through my headphones. The headphones are connected to the green jack (FRONT OUT) of the card.

Even the Win98 startup sound plays incompletely (it plays only from the middle to the end). My guess is that part of the sound is routed to the REAR OUT channel, so half the start jingle plays in that channel and the other half plays in the FRONT OUT channel that I hear. All this is probably part of what they call "HRTF 3D Positional 3D (C-Media 3D)" (pg. 25 of https://theretroweb.com/chip/documentation/cm … 9d502264601.pdf)

In the mixer settings, the 3D option can only be set to high or low. Is there any way to completely disable it? I'm quite fed up of it and just want to hear normal 2 channel sound in my headphones without any of the 3d crap. Would really appreciate any help, thanks!

when you install the drivers it gives you an option to set 2 or 4 speaker setup, if i remember right you dont always get this option depending on the driver version, if you have got it set to 2 channel setup, then your problem might just be windows 98, sometimes when i boot mine (also using a 8738) the startup sound doesnt play fully or it cuts in/out or is crackly, it doesnt do it all the time, also does it on other systems with different sound cards/audio devices, so prob just normal for win98. infact i also have this problem on other Os's so i wouldnt worry about it.

it might be worth trying a different driver version it may fix your problem, if you use the later drivers which i think are WDM, you wont have working FM synth, it only seems to work with with older VXD drivers, i use version 2.37a, also FM synth works with version 2.73. i found with version 2.81 the FM synth is not working, so if you want authentic sounding yamaha OPL2/3 you need to use 2.37a or 2.73 (i found them on archive) one of my cards is an LX the other an MX, not sure if these drivers work for SX versions.

2.37a has the standard Roland GM softsynth you get with most cards/audio devices, and 2.73 has a slightly different sounding GM synth as i noticed different sounds in doom/duke3d, these are great cards for adlib opl2/3, only downside is the pure dos drivers are broken so sfx doesnt work, only adlib which is fine for games like monkey island, to get the card fully working under pure dos SBEMU works great, running it with /SCFM will enable the cards FM synth so you can have hardware opl2/3 rather than emulated.
aside from that playing dos games in win98 works perfectly.

Thanks a lot! I'll see about the DOS functionality. But how do you get sound in dos games in win98? I installed the vxd drivers and the 4 devices get set up successfully (normal, legacy, MPU and gameport). But when I open skyroads, I hear no sound. If I open tomb raider's sound setup, it doesn't autodetect anything. It's a bit strange. Which version of the drivers are you using - 2.73 or 2.37a? I'll attempt to use the exact same ones.

im using driver version 2.37a i found on archive, i just tried the cd version of tomb raider and its not working for me either, when i select install then auto detect audio i get a load of text on screen then the game starts with no sound, the text is the same as i get when trying to load a game with sound fx under pure dos, its an irq/dma conflict caused by the dos drivers that cant be resolved no matter what settings you select, its the first time i've seen a dos game do it from within windows 98, happens every time loading a game from pure dos like doom/duke3d.

only option is to use SBEMU in pure dos and load tomb raider from dos, but tbh the dos version of the game is inferior to the playstation as its missing some music, i think the GOG version has it added back in, so prob best to use that version, its the one i use.

if you want full compatibility with all games you'd be better off with a sound blaster live or audigy as compatibilty with games is pretty much 100%, i swapped my live for the 8738 as i prefer its FM synth, the opl2/3 just sounds great in monkey island 1/2, doom/duke3d, the live cards just cant compare, only downside is the 8738's compatibilty isnt as good as the live.

DudeFace wrote on 2025-01-19, 18:16:

xtreger wrote on 2025-01-19, 17:04:

DudeFace wrote on 2025-01-19, 16:20:

when you install the drivers it gives you an option to set 2 or 4 speaker setup, if i remember right you dont always get this op […]
Show full quote

when you install the drivers it gives you an option to set 2 or 4 speaker setup, if i remember right you dont always get this option depending on the driver version, if you have got it set to 2 channel setup, then your problem might just be windows 98, sometimes when i boot mine (also using a 8738) the startup sound doesnt play fully or it cuts in/out or is crackly, it doesnt do it all the time, also does it on other systems with different sound cards/audio devices, so prob just normal for win98. infact i also have this problem on other Os's so i wouldnt worry about it.

it might be worth trying a different driver version it may fix your problem, if you use the later drivers which i think are WDM, you wont have working FM synth, it only seems to work with with older VXD drivers, i use version 2.37a, also FM synth works with version 2.73. i found with version 2.81 the FM synth is not working, so if you want authentic sounding yamaha OPL2/3 you need to use 2.37a or 2.73 (i found them on archive) one of my cards is an LX the other an MX, not sure if these drivers work for SX versions.

2.37a has the standard Roland GM softsynth you get with most cards/audio devices, and 2.73 has a slightly different sounding GM synth as i noticed different sounds in doom/duke3d, these are great cards for adlib opl2/3, only downside is the pure dos drivers are broken so sfx doesnt work, only adlib which is fine for games like monkey island, to get the card fully working under pure dos SBEMU works great, running it with /SCFM will enable the cards FM synth so you can have hardware opl2/3 rather than emulated.
aside from that playing dos games in win98 works perfectly.

Thanks a lot! I'll see about the DOS functionality. But how do you get sound in dos games in win98? I installed the vxd drivers and the 4 devices get set up successfully (normal, legacy, MPU and gameport). But when I open skyroads, I hear no sound. If I open tomb raider's sound setup, it doesn't autodetect anything. It's a bit strange. Which version of the drivers are you using - 2.73 or 2.37a? I'll attempt to use the exact same ones.

im using driver version 2.37a i found on archive, i just tried the cd version of tomb raider and its not working for me either, when i select install then auto detect audio i get a load of text on screen then the game starts with no sound, the text is the same as i get when trying to load a game with sound fx under pure dos, its an irq/dma conflict caused by the dos drivers that cant be resolved no matter what settings you select, its the first time i've seen a dos game do it from within windows 98, happens every time loading a game from pure dos like doom/duke3d.

only option is to use SBEMU in pure dos and load tomb raider from dos, but tbh the dos version of the game is inferior to the playstation as its missing some music, i think the GOG version has it added back in, so prob best to use that version, its the one i use.

Even I've tried a bunch of settings - reserved IRQ 5 in the BIOS so that no device uses it. Then in windows I go to the C-Media PCI Audio Legacy Device's properties -> Settings tab in which the DOS IRQ Setting = IRQ 5. Even in the autoexec I have SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 T4. Despite that no luck with any DOS game so far (tried Prince and Skyroads) - let alone Tomb Raider. Also whatever I tried with IRQ 5, I tried with IRQ 7 as well - no luck

xtreger wrote on 2025-01-19, 18:39:

DudeFace wrote on 2025-01-19, 18:16:

xtreger wrote on 2025-01-19, 17:04:

Thanks a lot! I'll see about the DOS functionality. But how do you get sound in dos games in win98? I installed the vxd drivers and the 4 devices get set up successfully (normal, legacy, MPU and gameport). But when I open skyroads, I hear no sound. If I open tomb raider's sound setup, it doesn't autodetect anything. It's a bit strange. Which version of the drivers are you using - 2.73 or 2.37a? I'll attempt to use the exact same ones.

im using driver version 2.37a i found on archive, i just tried the cd version of tomb raider and its not working for me either, when i select install then auto detect audio i get a load of text on screen then the game starts with no sound, the text is the same as i get when trying to load a game with sound fx under pure dos, its an irq/dma conflict caused by the dos drivers that cant be resolved no matter what settings you select, its the first time i've seen a dos game do it from within windows 98, happens every time loading a game from pure dos like doom/duke3d.

only option is to use SBEMU in pure dos and load tomb raider from dos, but tbh the dos version of the game is inferior to the playstation as its missing some music, i think the GOG version has it added back in, so prob best to use that version, its the one i use.

Even I've tried a bunch of settings - reserved IRQ 5 in the BIOS so that no device uses it. Then in windows I go to the C-Media PCI Audio Legacy Device's properties -> Settings tab in which the DOS IRQ Setting = IRQ 5. Even in the autoexec I have SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 T4. Despite that no luck with any DOS game so far (tried Prince and Skyroads) - let alone Tomb Raider. Also whatever I tried with IRQ 5, I tried with IRQ 7 as well - no luck

i'd leave the settings as they are its the same as mine, even if you change to irq7 in the properties it will still be irq5 in your autoexec, so it will only confuse things, depending on the game, compatibility can be hit and miss, i just tried prince of persia, selecting sound blaster for sound device i get no sound fx so i have to select adlib for sound device and adlib for music synthesizer to have fully working sound, to have Adlib working (FM synth opl2/3) you need the 2.37/2.73 driver otherwise you'll have no sound.

with the 2.37 driver you will have an option under the midi tab in multimedia properties under control panel for C-Media OPL2/OPL3 Synthesis.
with the 2.73 driver that option wont be there but the OPL2/OPL3 synth will still be working.

forgot to mention after tomb raider gives the wall of text error, my computer doesnt play any sound at all until i reboot.