Are you talking about DOSBox as the emulator called "DOSBox" or the NTVDM DOS emulation of Windows?

DOSBox emulates a Sound blaster so use that when setting up Duke Nukem 3D. Also use the dynamic Core and DirectX or OpenGL as the output device.

Erik.

I use the DOS-box as emulator and access setup and duke3d from there.

I can use Soundblaster but it has inferior sound quality to my previous AWE64 computers. It comes of sounding more like midi. Also, Duke Nukem used to have a "normal" music sound, and a much heavier music which it would alternate between at times for no particular reason. This is not the case in Dos-box either.

And how do I use DirectX, OpenGL or dynamic Core under Dos-box? I don't even know what they do (except that DirectX is in general a good thing to have, so I keep it up to date).

DOSBox does not emulate an AWE32, so you can't chosse that as a sound card. If your computer is equipped with an AWE32/64 type card, just use a MIDI sound card and tell windows to play midi via the AWE32. AWE32 music is, roughly speaking, just some kind of midi. The difference in sound comes from the synthesizer samples used (windows softsynth vs. AWE32 soundfont)

Is there some other way to improve the quality of sound? Or some way to unlock these synthesizer sounds for DOS-box/Duke Nukem 3D without the AWE32/64?

Or is there a DOS emulater that supports AWE series sound cards?

Select General MIDI in the game setup, then your AWE should be used.

And how do I use DirectX, OpenGL or dynamic Core under Dos-box? I don't even know what they do (except that DirectX is in general a good thing to have, so I keep it up to date).

Open up C:\Program Files\DOSBox 0.72\DosBox.conf, there you can change all parameters DOSBox uses to setup its environent.

Remember
Core = dynamic
Cycles = max
soundblaster enabled

Or use a frontend like D.O.G. or DBGL.

Erik.