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Tomb Raider - music only through drive's audio jack despite connecting to sound card

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First post, by xtreger

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Hi all, I have a Tomb Raider CD - it's a redbook audio game and I'm trying to run it in DOS. I've connected my drive's audio 4 pin slot to CD-in of my sound card (Audigy 2). My speakers are connected to the sound card's audio jack. When I run the game, only the menu effects (i.e. sounds of switching between menu options) are audible via speakers. But when I connect my headphones to the CD drive's front audio jack, then I can hear the menu music in the headphones.

Initially I thought that maybe the CD drive to sound card connector wasn't working or maybe a sound card-specific issue of not registering CD audio. But then I started MPXPLAY and was able to play all audio CD tracks in the disc through the speakers (I think there are 9 of them). Even in Windows with the same setup, when I insert a random music CD in the drive, the tracks do play out through the speakers. So no issues with the connector or the sound card receiving audio tracks data from the CD drive.

So why is this happening with tomb raider? Don't the CD audio and the game sound effects get mixed down into two stereo channels, and finally get routed to the speaker connected to sound card?

Reply 1 of 6, by jmarsh

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The CD Input on the sound card has its own individual volume control, sounds like it is either muted or turned down. Check if the game has volume controls for the music, and use another app to make sure the CD input is unmuted before starting the game.

Reply 2 of 6, by xtreger

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jmarsh wrote on 2025-01-10, 13:10:

The CD Input on the sound card has its own individual volume control, sounds like it is either muted or turned down. Check if the game has volume controls for the music, and use another app to make sure the CD input is unmuted before starting the game.

So I tried with the exact same setup on Win98SE. In that, Tomb Raider runs with both sound effects and music playing via the speakers. If the volume on the sound card itself were turned down, then I guess I wouldn't be hearing music on Win98 either.

Just in case though, could you tell me how to find the volume control on the sound card? I don't see any dials or knobs, sorry if I sound ignorant

Reply 3 of 6, by jmarsh

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It's a software controlled volume, so win98 would use completely different settings. There's usually a DOS app that comes with the card that will let you change the individual input volumes.

Reply 4 of 6, by Gmlb256

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xtreger wrote on 2025-01-10, 14:07:

Just in case though, could you tell me how to find the volume control on the sound card? I don't see any dials or knobs, sorry if I sound ignorant

In Windows 98, open the Volume Control application. There should be a volume setting named CD Audio or something similar depending on the sound card driver.

Reply 5 of 6, by xtreger

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Gmlb256 wrote on 2025-01-10, 14:35:
xtreger wrote on 2025-01-10, 14:07:

Just in case though, could you tell me how to find the volume control on the sound card? I don't see any dials or knobs, sorry if I sound ignorant

In Windows 98, open the Volume Control application. There should be a volume setting named CD Audio or something similar depending on the sound card driver.

Yes I see it. I'm not sure whether there's a CD audio setting in DOS though. I'm using VSBHDA (a fork of SBEMU). I wonder if there's a way to enable CD audio through that.

jmarsh wrote on 2025-01-10, 14:11:

It's a software controlled volume, so win98 would use completely different settings. There's usually a DOS app that comes with the card that will let you change the individual input volumes.

Also there's another thing - the CD audio does play in DOS. i.e. the audio tracks in the Tomb Raider CD actually play at a decent volume in MPXPLAY. So then I guess that means CD audio volume is already good enough? Or is it that MPXPLAY internally overrides the system CD audio volume, and sets its own CD audio volume?

Reply 6 of 6, by xtreger

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An update, I used sbmix to set all volumes (including CD volume) to 13,13 (i.e. 13 in both channels). But this still doesn't work. Also, I'm using SBEMU/VSBHDA SB emulators.

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