Usually, the card that's not in the SET BLASTER variable should have its MIDI volume zeroed in its mixer.

P.S
SB16 CT2950 has the hanging note bug BAD, clicking single-cycle DMA, and CQM.
One of the worst variants of the SB16.

Well it seems to slow the system down anyway- see the other thread- so rip.
Suggest me a good card?

Audician 32 Plus.
Abundantly available on ebay.

If you can find one, get a Sound Blaster Pro 2 CT1600, IMO a must have for any DOS gamer.

Holy shit they really are, and new in box too. What the heck.
When was it released? I am super weird about proper dating with this system.

SRQ wrote:

Holy shit they really are, and new in box too. What the heck.
When was it released? I am super weird about proper dating with this system.

Yeah I get weird about that issue too 😊 The ISA OPLSAx cards were around circa '97 in my experience - I've found a few in systems from that era. Dunno why there's a never ending supply of NOS ones on the bays, but they're not newly made.

I guess I'll just keep it for now- it suits my needs, as far as I can tell.
How many games have stereo sound and run on a 486/66 anyway?

SRQ wrote:

I guess I'll just keep it for now- it suits my needs, as far as I can tell.
How many games have stereo sound and run on a 486/66 anyway?

Most DOS games released after 1992 provided stereo sound playback and quite a number of these (up to around 1994) will run quite happily on a 486DX2-66.

Sooo if I want working stereo sound and retaining period correct my only real option is
An SB-Pro ($$$)
A non-bugged SB16 ($)
?

Don't forget about the PAS16! A very nice card, but does need support from the game for stereo. Otherwise it's only SB2.0 compatible.

And I have no proof but I also fancy that the ES688 based Audiodrives would be period correct for a 486 (I assume we're talking 94/95?). They can have a real OPL3 and do SB Pro.

Aiming for 1993.
Eh I'll just keep it as is and use the Pentium I've been unable to sell for Doom and work backwards until I can finance a new/better sound card.

SRQ wrote:

Sooo if I want working stereo sound and retaining period correct my only real option is An SB-Pro ($$$) A non-bugged SB16 ($) ? […]
Show full quote

Sooo if I want working stereo sound and retaining period correct my only real option is
An SB-Pro ($$$)
A non-bugged SB16 ($)
?

If you want to stay period correct, then there were a number of clone cards that were manufactured around that time, but some of them didn't offer 100 % Sound Blaster Pro compatibility (which is probably what you want). But, I agree with James-F that having a Sound Blaster Pro is ideal for any retro 386/486 PC.
Being a fan of the Aztech range of sound cards (the Sound Galaxy range), I can recommend perhaps one of the first generation cards, which were the Sound Galaxy NX Pro 16 (I38-MMSN803) or Basic 16/Pro 16 (I38-MMSN810). They offer excellent Sound Blaster Pro compatibility, are also 16-bit cards (under Windows) and as such are also Windows Sound System compatible. They are also Covox Speech Thing/Disney Sound Source compatible. These cards are speed sensitive and I wouldn't recommend installing them in anything faster than a 486DX4-100.
You can also look at the third generation of Aztech Sound Galaxy cards (those are the ones that has the AZT-2316 chipset which includes some of the following model numbers: I38-MMSN824, I38-MMSN830, I38-MMSN837, I38-MMSN845, I38-MMSN846, I38-MMSN850 & I38-SN96103). These are also Sound Blaster Pro & Windows Sound System compatible, but doesn't have the low pass filter of the original Sound Blaster Pro.