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AWE64 Gold - Best Music Configuration?

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First post, by Speed King

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I just got an AWE64 Gold (CT4390) to replace my old AWE64 value in my retro game PC and after installing the drivers off of the disk from VOGONS driver site, everything is now running okay however I am not sure how to configure music for my old DOS games:

Duke 3D
Blood
Shadow Warrior
Warcraft 2

Take Duke 3D for example; If I choose AWE32 it sounds better than the FM version I used as a kid on my AWE64 (Never knew that an AWE64 could use the AWE32 setting at the time), but it just sounded a bit off. I went into the AWE control panel and selected a 4MB sound bank and re-ran the game but there was no change. I then turned on MP401 emulation and changed the music device to "General MIDI" and then re-ran the game and the music sounded a lot better.

How come it sounds better under General MIDI rather than what I thought would be the native AWE32 driver? Should I be choosing General MIDI over AWE32 in most games?

Another thing I noticed is that if I run a game in AWE32 mode, if I try to then run a game using General MIDI, it will be silent. The only way I found to correct this is to disable and then re-enable MIDI emulation. Is this a known issue?

I guess when I was younger I had the AWE64 value but always treated it as a SB16 so even though I've had AWE64 cards for a long time, all the MIDI stuff is new to me, but it is very interesting playing through my old games where the music sounds completely different.

Reply 1 of 4, by d1stortion

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Short version: Build games have issues with Creative cards in general, all the more if you are running Win9x. If you run the AWE driver from pure DOS the music will come out fine, but still you are limited to effectively 11 kHz sound effects.

The MPU-401 emulation is sort of the equivalent of AWEUTIL in DOS, but better, since it supports protected mode games (like Build games). Why that is so I'd like to know myself... in any event, yes, loading a good soundfont and using the GM driver can get you a subjectively better result than the native AWE driver, and you also won't get the Win9x-specific issues that are present when running the AWE driver.

Unchecking the "MPU-401 emulation" setting will result in the MIDI data being sent to an external synth, either through gameport or Wave Blaster header (AWE32 only). Duke3D was composed for Sound Canvas synths so that could be seen as the most "authentic" synth for the game.

Reply 2 of 4, by Speed King

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Thanks d1stortion. That makes sense. I got an SIMMConn and a 16MB SIMM (should have been 32MB but seller mislabelled it) and have loaded a few different sound fonts. I never knew Duke3D and similar games can sound so good.

One thing I found is that if you run an AWE32 game and then try to use the General MIDI, it will be silent. I had to go back into the AWE control panel, uncheck the emulation, and then check it again, hit apply, and then it is back working. A quirt but only a minor annoyance.

I want to try the chromium sound font but I am 8MB short. Hopefully a cheap 32MB SIMM comes up on eBay because the only ones I have found are either dirty cheap plus AU$50 shipping, or AU$100 to start with. Too expensive for a retro hobby.

Reply 4 of 4, by d1stortion

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Never noticed the issue with having to uncheck the option. You should be getting completely garbled music when running the AWE32 driver from Windows, for which a quick and dirty fix is to send a GM reset (can be done by starting Doom for example). With sample rates >11 kHz some notes will be cut off, additionally, and unfortunately in this game the lower sample rate comes with noticeably inferior sound quality even though the samples themselves are just 8-bit 11 kHz mono.

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