Yamaha S-YXG50 SoftSynth in the DOS window within Windows 98SE (not working) \ VOGONS

Yamaha S-YXG50 SoftSynth in the DOS window within Windows 98SE (not working)

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First post, by Elixium

Posted on 2025-05-20, 21:26

Elixium Offline

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I have the Yamaha S-YXG50 SoftSynth installed on Windows 98SE (real hardware) and its working to playback .mid files on the desktop.

In DUKE3D I have General Midi selected on 330h, when I hit test music there's no audio output and no error message.
In Windows I have the Yamaha S-YXG50 SoftSynth set as the default instrument.

I'm using a Creative SoundBlaster ViBRA 16C CT4180 ISA Sound Card, I have no drivers installed for it beyond what happens automatically when using the oerg866 Windows 98 Quick Install.

Reply 1 of 5, by Elixium

Posted on 2025-05-20, 21:28

Elixium Offline

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Forgot to add: The sound effects work in Duke3D but no music output.

Reply 2 of 5, by Babasha

Posted on 2025-05-20, 22:08

Babasha Offline

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VDMsound for Win98 (alpha version, very glitchy)
DOSbox for Win98 (midi ok but it emulates soundblaster over exists soundblaster?)

Need help? Begin with photo and model of your hardware 😉

Reply 3 of 5, by SScorpio

Posted on 2025-05-20, 22:15

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The Vortex 2 cards are the only thing I'm aware of that lets you select the Windows MIDI output device to use from a native DOS window.

Reply 4 of 5, by Elixium

Posted on 2025-05-20, 23:21

Elixium Offline

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Babasha wrote on 2025-05-20, 22:08:

VDMsound for Win98 (alpha version, very glitchy)
DOSbox for Win98 (midi ok but it emulates soundblaster over exists soundblaster?)

Running on this athlon XP 2400+ Frame rate was awful even on 15,000 cycles on Dosbox 0.65 (newest for win98)
Still no midi music even though dosbox says the midi device is selected.

Guess I'll be dual booting Windows XP and checking out what DOS gaming is like in there, It seems like there won't be any issues making soft synths work in there.

Reply 5 of 5, by Elixium

Posted on 2025-05-26, 00:27

Elixium Offline

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Solved by upgrading to an Audigy 2 (PCI) following the guide on here " Guide: Installing Windows 9x and DOS drivers on Audigy cards (version 3.1)"

General Midi now works in Duke3D inside a regular ms-dos window (Windows 98SE)

It's not the Yamaha but its something & the Audigy allows for custom sound fonts.

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