There is a program called DOS32AWE written by Georgel which allows the general midi emulation to function in protected mode games like doom. Without it, any 32bit dos extender game will crash just like you experienced.

Doom may have an awe32 option in the music setup which would eliminate the need for aweutil and dos32awe but I don't remember for sure if it does

joseph! wrote on 2026-01-06, 00:23:

Hi! […]
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Hi!

as the title said, i'm getting a lot of problems trying to run my sound blaster awe 64 pnp CT4520 under dos 6.22, i used the Phil computer's lab SSBASIC drivers but almost everything sounds like a SB16 in FM mode

doom is the most problematic, both 1.2 and 1.9 reg. version, first to get midi to work in DOOM i need to manually start the general midi emulation by aweutil /em and set the bgm settings in doom to general midi port=330 and the fx to soundblaster port=220 IRQ=5 DMA=1 8 channels, but... and that's the part that concern me most, if i enable the FX the game freeze shortly after starting a level, and if i disable fx or use the pc speakers the bgm plays fine in awe mode, but after something around 10 minutes, the screen blink 1 note plays on loop the game freeze and the image completely glitches out!

but! if i play doom without enabling the general midi emulation, in sb16 fm, the game plays fine! or at least for 25 minutes (tried 3 times)

what i'm doing wrong?
please don't tell me is something related to the cirrus logic integrated GPU...

thanks in advance for the help

IBM PC 340 with DOS 6.22
phil computer's lab basic AWE drivers
sound blaster config: SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6
cirrus logic integrated GPU
audio drivers source: https://www.philscomputerlab.com/creative-labs-drivers.html

forget about midi emulation in awe64 is BAD and mostly will give you problems in ALL games

Beside this, one game that work fine with GM emulation is wolfenstein 3d midi patch, try

Doom have native support to awe not need to do any emulation

About init the awe64, use unisound and nothing else and try

Unisound work fine for awe and can control mixer and reverb/chorus as extra too

The general midi emulation is as good as your soundfont. Even with the default ROM samples I wouldn't say it's "bad"

As far as I remember, aweutil /s is actually needed for EMU8K to work, but I'm too lazy to check it right now..

Final DOOM supports AWE32. This is recommended choice for MIDI playback and should work with ctcm + aweutil /s, no General MIDI emulation needed.

well right now doom sounds like a soundblaster 16 in FM, the card works fine in the diagnose utility and midis plays fine on win 3.11

aweutil /s is set in the autoexec by default

in doom 1.9 i use soundblaster option both for sfx and bgm

so what should i do? keep using the card like that, try final doom, use the awe32 tool...

most importantly the crash and the glitched graphics are a consequence of the midi emulation?

sorry for my English, it's not my first language

maxtherabbit wrote on 2026-01-06, 01:28:

The general midi emulation is as good as your soundfont. Even with the default ROM samples I wouldn't say it's "bad"

There is not a quality thing, is compatibility. The tsr is problematic and very chipset dependant

Even if a game seems to work well in gm, like for example hocus pocus, mostly all chances the game will slowdown or crash after some minutes of playing

joseph! wrote on 2026-01-06, 03:36:

well right now doom sounds like a soundblaster 16 in FM, the card works fine in the diagnose utility and midis plays fine on wi […]
Show full quote

well right now doom sounds like a soundblaster 16 in FM, the card works fine in the diagnose utility and midis plays fine on win 3.11

aweutil /s is set in the autoexec by default

in doom 1.9 i use soundblaster option both for sfx and bgm

so what should i do? keep using the card like that, try final doom, use the awe32 tool...

most importantly the crash and the glitched graphics are a consequence of the midi emulation?

sorry for my English, it's not my first language

Use just unisound and check

Doom with awe is or SB or awe options, no midi

In fact midi emulation aweutil /gm or /gs i think are only for real mode games then no doom, if i dont forget bad, i dont have computer here to check i dont know what you say "midi emulation"

even if you manage to make it work, the awe 64 sounds off in DOS

There are MUCH better options like the ESS 1868F

Living wrote on 2026-01-06, 10:53:

even if you manage to make it work, the awe 64 sounds off in DOS

There are MUCH better options like the ESS 1868F

Love awe64, specially with right reverb and chorus levels opl game sound like heaven, new level of quality

After awe no way i can enjoy same a simple opl card without this enhacements

thanks everyone, if you have any other tip feel free to share

so, the glitched screen is a normal behavior with emulated midi and i should use unisound (which didn't sound that bad honestly)

the sad fact is that i actually had an ess 868 (868 not 1868) but it didn't work unfortunately, i have tried on different motherboard and slots

just to be sure, i used the correct drivers?

theelf wrote on 2026-01-06, 10:33:

Use just unisound and check […]
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joseph! wrote on 2026-01-06, 03:36:

well right now doom sounds like a soundblaster 16 in FM, the card works fine in the diagnose utility and midis plays fine on wi […]
Show full quote

well right now doom sounds like a soundblaster 16 in FM, the card works fine in the diagnose utility and midis plays fine on win 3.11

aweutil /s is set in the autoexec by default

in doom 1.9 i use soundblaster option both for sfx and bgm

so what should i do? keep using the card like that, try final doom, use the awe32 tool...

most importantly the crash and the glitched graphics are a consequence of the midi emulation?

sorry for my English, it's not my first language

Use just unisound and check

Doom with awe is or SB or awe options, no midi

In fact midi emulation aweutil /gm or /gs i think are only for real mode games then no doom, if i dont forget bad, i dont have computer here to check i dont know what you say "midi emulation"

ooh ok ok, i should remove the sound blaster drivers before installing unisound, or i need to start the tool with the s.b drivers initialized?

theelf wrote on 2026-01-06, 10:29:

maxtherabbit wrote on 2026-01-06, 01:28:

The general midi emulation is as good as your soundfont. Even with the default ROM samples I wouldn't say it's "bad"

There is not a quality thing, is compatibility. The tsr is problematic and very chipset dependant

Even if a game seems to work well in gm, like for example hocus pocus, mostly all chances the game will slowdown or crash after some minutes of playing

You're right it's chipset dependent. If you put it in a machine it likes it works 100%. If you don't happen to own such a machine I could see why you would think it is bad, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work for everyone.

joseph! wrote on 2026-01-06, 03:36:

well right now doom sounds like a soundblaster 16 in FM, the card works fine in the diagnose utility and midis plays fine on wi […]
Show full quote

well right now doom sounds like a soundblaster 16 in FM, the card works fine in the diagnose utility and midis plays fine on win 3.11

aweutil /s is set in the autoexec by default

in doom 1.9 i use soundblaster option both for sfx and bgm

so what should i do? keep using the card like that, try final doom, use the awe32 tool...

most importantly the crash and the glitched graphics are a consequence of the midi emulation?

sorry for my English, it's not my first language

You need to select AWE32 for BGM, not soundblaster

joseph! wrote on 2026-01-06, 13:56:

theelf wrote on 2026-01-06, 10:33:

Use just unisound and check […]
Show full quote

joseph! wrote on 2026-01-06, 03:36:

well right now doom sounds like a soundblaster 16 in FM, the card works fine in the diagnose utility and midis plays fine on wi […]
Show full quote

well right now doom sounds like a soundblaster 16 in FM, the card works fine in the diagnose utility and midis plays fine on win 3.11

aweutil /s is set in the autoexec by default

in doom 1.9 i use soundblaster option both for sfx and bgm

so what should i do? keep using the card like that, try final doom, use the awe32 tool...

most importantly the crash and the glitched graphics are a consequence of the midi emulation?

sorry for my English, it's not my first language

Use just unisound and check

Doom with awe is or SB or awe options, no midi

In fact midi emulation aweutil /gm or /gs i think are only for real mode games then no doom, if i dont forget bad, i dont have computer here to check i dont know what you say "midi emulation"

ooh ok ok, i should remove the sound blaster drivers before installing unisound, or i need to start the tool with the s.b drivers initialized?

No sb drivers just unisound and set blaster enviroment

set blaster ...
unisound ..

and thats all

maxtherabbit wrote on 2026-01-06, 14:50:

theelf wrote on 2026-01-06, 10:29:

maxtherabbit wrote on 2026-01-06, 01:28:

The general midi emulation is as good as your soundfont. Even with the default ROM samples I wouldn't say it's "bad"

There is not a quality thing, is compatibility. The tsr is problematic and very chipset dependant

Even if a game seems to work well in gm, like for example hocus pocus, mostly all chances the game will slowdown or crash after some minutes of playing

You're right it's chipset dependent. If you put it in a machine it likes it works 100%. If you don't happen to own such a machine I could see why you would think it is bad, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work for everyone.

even in the best chipset i tried the awe midi emulation, triton and 440 is a hit and miss, and some games that look work fine have random crash or slowdowns etc

I tried my awe in 15 or maybe more computers, with different chipsets, from a
386SX to a 440bx celeron, and never have good experience

thanks again to everyone, with unisound everything went well, midi now works pretty much everywhere and doom didn't crash at all, but yeah midi emulation it's still very problematic, with unisound to be honest this tiny card sounds very well, a little bit off... but very well

awe32/64 general midi is much easier to use from within windows 98SE and it also gives you the ability to use sf2 fonts (limited on the memory you have though)

In DOOM Setup, select "Sound Blaster AWE32" for Music Device and "Sound Blaster" for Sound FX Device.