I see. I actually read one article about fiddling around with SB16 ( http://www.wcnews.com/webmirrors/tech/hardwar … sound/sb16.html - this one) and from what I saw/understood from the config, it does provide some FM/Midi support. I don't really care about the quality of the sound, I'd actually be happy if everything at least worked. 😜

Anyways, a quick glance at available ISA cards reveals such models:

Creative: […]
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Creative:

Creative CT2980
CREATIVE CT3600
CREATIVE CT 8920-NBQ ISA FV/GW
SOUND BLASTER CT 4170
SOUND BLASTER Vibra 16C CT4180
SOUND BLASTER AWE MODEL CT4380
SOUND BLASTER AWE64 MODEL CT4520
SOUND BLASTER AWE32 PnP + Memory

Other:

TERRATEC TT1816-N/S
OPTI 931
FX-3D Plus AD1816AJS
Analog Sound Devices AD1816AJS
WAVERIDER PLATINIUM-3D
ASOUND-007/XX
AUDIODRIVE ES1868F
Labway A111-860 FV/GW
AVANCE LOGIC ALS100Plus+
AZTECH MM PRO 16III0 PNP
CRYSTAL CS 4235
ASOUND ALS007
YAMAHA OPL
ESS AUDIODRIVE
CRYSTAL CRD4237B-5

Question for pros - is any of listed models extraordinary beautiful, that will cover most of DOS-related sound things?

Kurasiu wrote:

I see. I actually read one article about fiddling around with SB16 ( http://www.wcnews.com/webmirrors/tech/hardwar … sound/sb16.html - this one) and from what I saw/understood from the config, it does provide some FM/Midi support. I don't really care about the quality of the sound, I'd actually be happy if everything at least worked. 😜

That article doesn't talk about the later Vibra/WavEffects/PCI variants.

Question for pros - is any of listed models extraordinary beautiful, that will cover most of DOS-related sound things?

According to the wikipedia article I linked on the previous page, these are the "true" SB16 models with a real OPL-3 chip:

CT12**: CT1230, CT1231, CT1239, CT1290, CT1291, CT1299 CT17**: CT1730, CT1740, CT1749, CT1750, CT1759, CT1770, CT1779, CT178 […]
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CT12**: CT1230, CT1231, CT1239, CT1290, CT1291, CT1299
CT17**: CT1730, CT1740, CT1749, CT1750, CT1759, CT1770, CT1779, CT1780, CT1789, CT1790, CT1799
CT22**: CT2230, CT2290
CT27**: CT2700, CT2740, CT2770

Edit: I see a lot of Yamaha cards on ebay.pl. Some people on VOGONS seem to like them as SoundBlaster-compatibles: Atrend ATC-6631 with YMF715B-S chipset (also check out threads linked in that thread).

Since Yamaha designed the OPL chip used in Adlib and SoundBlaster cards, you're likely to get good sounding OPL music out of them.

Yes, from what I saw, in both user posts, and the ISA soundcards list from gerwin's signature, the Yamaha soundcard (YMF7XX family) seems like a resonable buy, as it features an OPL3 and it's compatible with SB, SBPro, SB16 and MPU-401. Anyone can conifirm it's capabilities?

Oh, that is a typo, It should read SB/SBPRO/WSS compatible, not SB16. Don't know how that got there. Fine card still.

If you go ISA, the AWE64 is your best choice. For PCI cards, I can say the SBLive! has good DOS emulation drivers, which makes it 100% SB16 and MPU401 compatible.

But since it's compatible with SbPRO and MPU-401, and features an OPL3 chip, it shoud spit out music and sound effects for the majority of the DOS games, right?

Actually, the MIDI on the SB Live is one case in which it is demonstrably terrible. I posted some samples at Trying to find out about a particular AWE32 .

There's probably some way around it if the proper soundfont is loaded; I admit I didn't go digging into that. (Perhaps I should.)

filipetolhuizen wrote:

If you go ISA, the AWE64 is your best choice. For PCI cards, I can say the SBLive! has good DOS emulation drivers, which makes it 100% SB16 and MPU401 compatible.

Did you really compare them properly to the other options... I doubt it.

AWE64 is a great beginner card and pretty quiet as well. Personally I would forget about PCI cards altogether unless one has a 3D audio fetish going on (I found it to sound muffled and weird, at least with basic headphones, it may be better with surround speakers).

The way I see it:

- For DOS, ISA is the way to go. There is no substitute.
- The AWE64 Gold is a great companion card with an external Sound Canvas or other MIDI device and a great card on its own for later DOS games
- For older DOS games you really want a card with Yamaha OPL3 chip
- My favourite is the Sound Blaster Pro 2, but there are many others, like cards directly from Yamaha
- There is no perfect ISA sound card. It's always a compromise

Kurasiu wrote:

Yes, from what I saw, in both user posts, and the ISA soundcards list from gerwin's signature, the Yamaha soundcard (YMF7XX family) seems like a resonable buy, as it features an OPL3 and it's compatible with SB, SBPro, SB16 and MPU-401. Anyone can conifirm it's capabilities?

In my experience the software is flakey - the mixer, etc are a pain in the bum. The FM is fine of course but the digital FX are tinny, and you can't fit a full sized DB on. Also the ones I've tried do that nasty pop that some cards do when you power on the PC.

Alrightey, after returning from spring break I decided to get a Yamaha A151-A00. Looked pretty neat, as the BIOS automaticly detected it as a OPL3-SAX card and configured it (IRQ5/DMA1). Installing Windows drivers also resulted in adding "SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4" line in autoexec. So far, so good? Well, partially.

Using the same config (SBPro, 220h, Irq 5 and DMA 1) in different games has a different effect. Everything plays (music + fx sounds) in Bolz and Rayman Designer. Using the same config in BioForge and Wacky Wheels results only in music, no sounds are playing (even though it says "device/hardware successfuly detected"). And Inner Worlds doesn't play any sounds/music at all.

Anybody got a clue why the sound playback differs so much?

I'm not sure if this is your problem, but:: Some games use the SET BLASTER setting for IRQ, some try to detect it directly (and could get it wrong), some are hard-wired for IRQ 5 and some are hard-wired for IRQ 7 (which would probably result in no sound effects).

Ah, the solution was rather trivial; sorry for posting, without checking first.

For whatever reason the SETUPSA.EXE wasn't ran evey time I switched to DOS mode. Made the appropriate changes in dosstart and autoexec. Now I can fully enojy some Wacky Wheels (the soundtrack is just amazing on OPL) or BioForge with music and sound goodies. 😁 So I guess that concludes my "Adventures with sound in Dosland", thanks again for everyone, every little bit of hint/suggestion helped!

This is an old thread but I just got the Sound Blaster PCI 128 working in Doom with music and sound effects. I have to retrace my steps and figure out what I just did, I've been trying to get it running for days. I was about to give up and buy another card, but if you've got a PCI 128, don't give up on it!

I'll return as soon as I get this figured out and I'll let you guys know what to do.

Besides necroposting, this forum is for DOS games on *modern* systems. You should ask old hardware and old OS questions in a new thread here: Marvin, the Paranoid Android

collector wrote:

Besides necroposting, this forum is for DOS games on *modern* systems. You should ask old hardware and old OS questions in a new thread here: Marvin, the Paranoid Android

When you Google search for PCI 128 and DOS sound issues this thread comes up on the first page of search results. That's how I discovered it. I think other people will be lead here with the same issue as well.

I'm still working on the exact solution but so far I've found that it includes enabling EMM386 in DOS.

Okay to get the Sound Blaster PCI 128 running in both DOS and Windows 98 SE, I did this:

I used these drivers here:
http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=370&menustate=0

After extracting the zip file I ran the autorun in the "Ctrun" folder titled "Ctrun"
- After this step sound worked in Windows 98 and a directory was created in
C:\Program Files\Creative\Audio\DOSDRV

The sound blaster installation added this line to my DOSSTART.BAT
C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\AUDIO\DOSDRV\SBINIT

and it also added this to my autoexec.bat
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H7 P330 T6
SET SBPCI=C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\AUDIO\DOSDRV

At this point sound wasn't working in DOS and I was getting crashes when I tried to use it.

I discovered if I enable EMM386 in my config.sys and order my autoexec.bat like so, it works.

AUTOEXEC.BAT

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H7 P330 T6
SET SBPCI=C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\AUDIO\DOSDRV
C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\AUDIO\DOSDRV\SBINIT

CONFIG.SYS

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE

Moved the whole thread to Marvin -> Sound.

adultlunchables wrote:

When you Google search for PCI 128 and DOS sound issues this thread comes up on the first page of search results. That's how I discovered it. I think other people will be lead here with the same issue as well.

I'm still working on the exact solution but so far I've found that it includes enabling EMM386 in DOS.

Thanks to your necro post I was able to get a SB PCI 128 going in DOS easily. The key for me was the driver disc on Vogonsdrivers was more complete than mine. Very odd my original driver CD would not have all the DOS driver setup software, but maybe mine was marketed for Windows only. Who knows as I only have the card and CD and no box or docs. Works great in DOS now. Thanks.