I have managed to get the Chorium soundfont to run on Realtek onboard audio on Win 7 x64 😀 I used the software MIDI synth, Timidity++.
Being a software solution this means that basically anyone can use a soundfont with DOSBOX, although presumably with a performance hit compared to a sound card that supports sound fonts natively. In my testing however I didn't notice any adverse affects, but then I've got a 3GHz quad core which usually handles dosbox pretty well 😀
Firstly you need to download this package from Sourceforge - a modified version of Timidity++
Then of course you need the soundfont, either Chorium or another one of your choosing.
When you install Timidity, you will have a new group in your start menu - under Timidity++ run setwindrv
Add the directory where your soundfont is saved in the top text box and click the 'add' button.
Then just below that you need to 'add' the SF2 files and 'remove' the other entries in the 'soundfonts & includes' box.
Save and quit. Now go back into your start menu under Timidity++ and run twsyng
This will put an icon in your system tray, near the clock. Right click it and select preference
click the synthesizer tab. Set 'port max' dropdown to 1 and set port 0 and port 0 to 'MIDI Mapper'. Hit OK. Right click the icon again and select 'start synthesizer'.
You will need to ensure that twsyng is running, and select 'start synthesizer' every time you want to use it, if it isn't already running.
Now go into your DOSBOX config file. Under the [midi] section ensure it looks like this:
mpu401=intelligent
mididevice=default
midiconfig=1
Save and start DOSBOX. At the prompt, type mixer /listmidi
You should get something like this:
0 "Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth"
1 "Timidity++ Driver"
If the Timidity++ Driver is something other than 1, close DOSBOX, go back into your config file, and change the midiconfig setting to whichever number was the Timidity++ Driver. Start it up again.
Now assuming all your other settings are default, any DOS game that supports General MIDI, Wave Blaster or Roland Sound Canvas should work on port 0x330 if you choose these options in the game setup utility.
You can further change the way it sounds, by right clicking the twsyng icon, selecting Preference, and changing the options on the Effect tab. I personally prefer no reverb and no low pass filter but this is personal preference.
In my testing so far, Doom sounds identical to mau1wurf's recording, and Duke Nukem 3d sounds pretty close, but mine seems to be a bit more heavily filtered. This is probably due to the cheap onboard realtek audio though, the instruments sound pretty much the same, just some higher notes seem slightly quieter/more muffled. Still sounds pretty damn good though.
When I get time I will try out a few other soundfonts including rfnagel's 😀
If you are squeamish, don't prod the beach rubble.