You can use soundfonts (sf2) with DOS games if you are in Windows 9x and run through the card's General MIDI emulation I think (or is it the AWE mode?) I've done it.

I don't know about better sbk files tho.

ff4sf2.sf2

* runs

leileilol wrote:

ff4sf2.sf2

* runs

Hmmmmmmm........... 😁

Paddan1000 wrote:

I have an AWE64 Gold with 12 MB of RAM in my DOS-computer. I know how to upload soundfonts to the card in DOS and emulate General MIDI.

My question is:

Which is the best soundfont, in the .sbk format, known to man? I want a soundfont that works with any GM supporting game and sounds so good that I'll never want to use another soundfont again.

The problem with your desire to use the Creative *.SBK sound-font format in pure DOS is that you must then use the Creative AWEUTIL DOS Terminate Stay Resident (TSR) program to load the sound-fonts. Since the AWEUTIL program uses the non-maskable interrupt (NMI), you will have problems with any DOS protected mode game. So if you can afford the DOS memory hit of the AWETUIL TSR you would be OK for real-mode only DOS General MIDI games. That is, if your motherboard properly supports the NMI - many do not do so...

Paddan1000 wrote:

So far I'm still using the ROM-samples of the AWE64, since I've haven't been able to find anything better by myself

As forum member swaaye suggested, if you use the superior Win9x solution of Creative Win9x VDX drivers to support the loading of *.SF2 fonts, along with the Creative AWECP32 control panel app you can gain access to the loaded *.SF2 loaded sound-font banks via the General MIDI re-direction inside of the Win9x DOS emulation. If you go this route you get the support for the more common Creative *.SF2 sound-font format.

Some additional General MIDI choices for an AWE64 Gold *.SF2 sound-font are:

1.) The Creative 4MB General MIDI sound-font: 4GMGSMT.SF2
This Creative 4MB sound font is better than the 2MB GM sound-font and better balanced than the 8MB Creative GM sound-font.

2.) The converted 4MB Roland SCC-1 General MIDI sound-font: SCC1T2.SF2
This appears to be an AWAVE tweaked user conversion of the Roland SCC-1 ROM to *.SF2 sound-font. Not bad for a conversion and will allow an AWE64 Gold to get into the Roland SCC-1 (SC-55) ball park.

3.) The 4MB Gravis Ultrasound evolved General MIDI (GS) sound-font: VCGS4MV4.SF2
This sound-font is a commercial product (~$15) which is sold by Voice Crystal and is in essence the refined version 4 of the Gravis Ultrasound General MIDI version 3 PATch files which were produced by the same company Eye & I Productions. I have purchased this sound-font and have used it on an AWE64 Gold as a Gravis Ultrasound emulator for my nephew's 'retro' Win9x Intel 44BX based computer.

If you need good performance of DOS games under Win9x with an AWE64 Gold, you must use the ROM or *.SF2 sound-fonts. The use of a emulated General MIDI card such as the Roland Virtual Sound Canvas v3.23 will not suffice for DOS games under Win9x, while the Roland VSC will function properly as a General MIDI player, WAVE converter or as General MIDI support for Windows games or programs. For any DOS games needing General MIDI support under Win9x you must use the AWE64 Gold ROM or have loaded a GM *.SF2 sound-font or you will have poor game performance and General MIDI sound output

Best of luck,

dvwjr

I tried some .SBK soundfonts may years ago with Sound Blaster 32. I had GUS long before SB32 and I could not find anything that would have sounded better or even close to GUS. Aweutil wasn't as good as Mega-EM so lack of good .SBK soundfont didn't matter.

One soundfont I found was FINEGM.SBK. It is a 2MB soundfont and it sounded better than the 1 MB AWE ROM. I still have that soundfont if someone needs it and cannot find it anywhere.

I want to play in pure DOS and not Windows 95. That's why I can't use .sf2 soundfonts. Some of my favourite games, like Betrayal at Krondor, won't run in Windows 9x, since it needs more base memory than the 576 kB that was available in my Windows 98 environment (and not using pure DOS would be cheating anyway).
The Aweutil TSR leaves me with 597 kB of base memory which is enough for all the games I play and all protected mode games I have support the AWE cards natively.

I tried the finegm.sbk soundfont and it sounds good. I'll stick with it for now.

I also found a 5.5 MB .sbk soundfont called gus.sbk that claims to be "assembled from Advanced Gravis's patches". I'll try that one out later.
I've seen the .sf2 soundfont based on the SCC-1. I wish someone could find or make a .sbk soundfont like that one!

By the way, as I wrote in another thread, my Ensoniq Soundscape Elite is now fully functional. Do you think I should I give up on finding the perfect soundfont for the AWE64 Gold and instead use the Soundscape for General MIDI?

I have the Creative's 8MB sound font which came with my E-MU Creation Studio package. I can't comment on the quality though, since I rarely use it. I'll upload it if required.

Malik wrote:

I have the Creative's 8MB sound font which came with my E-MU Creation Studio package. I can't comment on the quality though, since I rarely use it. I'll upload it if required.

IMHO the 08MB E-mu Systems GM Revision B soundfont (8MBGM.sf2) sounds great for it's size; good balance, and (mostly) realistic sounding instruments.

You can snag it directly from E-mu's site here -> http://www.emu.com/support/files/download2.as … =654&Platform=1 .

There are two versions listed on that page:

8mb E-MU GM SoundFont Bank (Windows 2000)

8mb E-MU GM SoundFont Bank (Windows XP)

...not sure what the difference is though.

@Paddan1000,

Throughout the years I've converted SF2 format soundfonts to the older SBK format (using a utility such as "AWave"), but generally the result was a real mess... out of tune instruments, and general horrid sound.

This, back when I was trying to basically do the same thing as you. At the time I was still running W311, and although I had bought the 8MBGM.sf2 soundfont shipped on a CDROM, I couldn't use it (the newer SF2 format) in native DOS.

dvwjr wrote:

Some additional General MIDI choices for an AWE64 Gold *.SF2 sound-font are: 1) The Creative 4MB General MIDI sound-font: 4GMG […]
Show full quote

Some additional General MIDI choices for an AWE64 Gold *.SF2 sound-font are:
1) The Creative 4MB General MIDI sound-font: 4GMGSMT.SF2
2) The converted 4MB Roland SCC-1 General MIDI sound-font: SCC1T2.SF2
3) The 4MB Gravis Ultrasound evolved General MIDI (GS) sound-font: VCGS4MV4.SF2

CHAOS4M.SF2 is not bad too for AWE

Please don't resurrect really old threads. Start new ones instead. Thanks.