Wouldn't using a GUS only for digital sound kind of defeat the whole purpose of a GUS? I mean, "Digital Sound" in terms of games basically means "Digitized Waveform Audio", i.e. some derivation of ".wav". This should sound the same on any sound card with similar quality level of DACs. The thing that made the GUS stand out, was the midi music, because of the wavetable synthesizer, compared to FM synthesizer on most competitors. So by not using the midi music playback part, and only using it for digital sound, a GUS is pretty much a "generic 16-bit soundcard".
Please correct me if I'm wrong though.

GUS can perform hardware mixing for sound effects and sample-based music, whereas with other cards mixing takes place on the CPU.

I vaguely remember reading that people jumpered the MAX to some non-standard settings (like $240 address etc) to get it working with a real SB

Unfortunately the majority of games which support the GUS just use software mixing for digital sound effects, like with any other sound card. So, unless you're planning to explore the demo scene or play a lot of games with tracker music, the GUS won't offer anything special.

5u3 wrote:

Unfortunately the majority of games which support the GUS just use software mixing for digital sound effects, like with any other sound card. So, unless you're planning to explore the demo scene or play a lot of games with tracker music, the GUS won't offer anything special.

I agree. And GUS cards are terribly overpriced nowadays, i want one merely for tracker music and some specific gaming. It's wavetable MIDI is IMHO inferior to both Yamaha and Roland GM.

Regarding the OP question, i believe even with a MAX you can make it work along side a Sound Blaster. I'm not a GUS expert but a lot of people have been doing it.

I do know about the hardware mixing, but to be fair, I don't really see the end result on game sound being that different. If it's for use with Impulse Tracker and Fast Tracker 2, then sure, I see the point, that's why I've bought a GUS for the system I'm going to build in just over a week. I agree with keropi though, I imagine that setting the jumpers to something like address 240 and irq 7, leaving 220 and irq 5 free for the SB, would allow them to run together. I used to know somebody who ran GUS MAX and SB16 together, but that was long ago, and I've not seen him in years, so I don't know how to get in touch with him to ask. He'd probably not remember anyway. But then again, who knows, he was obsessed with the greatness of the GUS MAX, and probably had modified his new PC to be able to run it still.

Default software mixing on many games is 22kHz so the GUS should sound a bit better (where it's supported). But yes I agree the difference isn't massive and only a few games support it properly.

I fancy trying it out with a few specific things: Pinball Fantasies, Crusader: No Remorse/Regret, Second Reality, Crystal Dream, Cubic Player etc.

I've got no first-hand experience with a GUS MAX, but there shouldn't be any issues as long as you avoid hardware resource conflicts and don't use the SB emulation.

I used to have this setup on my 486 and I believe LunarG's suggestions are correct.

I had a gus max alongside various other sound cards with no problems - eg sb2, pas16, sb pro. Can't recall the setup I'm afraid but nothing especially difficult about it.

Ditto. I have a Gus MAX, AWE32 (+XR385) and MPU401 in my retro box - no problems as long as it's jumpered to 0x240 and an IRQ that neither the MPU or SB are set to. You'll probably also want to disable all the cd-rom interfaces too.

I had GUS in the 90'. When i decided to build retro machine I automatically bought GUS again. But! I never had Roland or Yamaha midi cards. So I get SCC-1, MT-32 and Yamaha MU80 and also NEC board. I start playing games and testing the sound and my old memories of super cool sound from GUS disappeared. The quality is so so and so many hassles with HW config made this card not worth the money. if you want good sound I will recommend some OPL3 card with Roland SCC-1 and you are set.

(excuse my english)

OK, got a GUS Classic alongside my AWE64 Gold now.

I find that games with tracker music (e.g. Pinball Fantasies) sound a bit thin on the AWE64, but the GUS sound is much more punchy.

Setup-wise there were no problems. I have 3 cards in the same PC now:

AWE64 Gold: SB 220, IRQ 5, DMA 1 & 5, FM 388, MIDI 300, GAME 200
YMF718 + XR385: SB 240, IRQ 9, DMA 0, FM 388, MIDI 330, GAME off
GUS: PORT 260, IRQ 7, DMA 7, GAME off