Well, I feel dumb (clueless?). I tried the SB16 drivers from Creative's site and they don't have any problem recognizing the MPU-401 interface. I had been using the SB16 Vibra drivers from Vogons Driver Archive. Maybe the Vibra drivers intentionally don't build in support for this interface.

Woo hoo!

I recommend you keep your eyes open for another really cheap sound card with a daughterboard header. You may not mind it too much right now, but some games (Hexen, for example) sound nasty in places because of stuck notes. If you can find a really cheap Crystal Semiconductor card, it may be worth picking up to use by itself or alongside the CT2800 in your rig.

🤣 That's funny

The crummy part is the seller offered to refund me for the card. I sent him a note asking him to disregard the refund but it came through anyway. I'm not sure if I can re-pay him, but I've got another message sent to him asking him how I can reimburse him back. He's a top notch seller, so check out his stuff. His name is johnboy37.

Talk with him then send another payment to him through paypal.

There were two mysterious MPU-401 related utilities for the SB16 cards. I attached them to this post. Maybe they can trigger the MPU interface to cooperate?

Thanks, gerwin. I downloaded for future reference. If you read 5 posts above yours, you'll see I got the issue resolved with the SB16 (non-Vibra) drivers from Creative's site. I appreciate everyone's help here. Cheers!

Somewhat related.

I have installed a Vibra CT4180 in a 386 and just used the standard SBBASIC driver that I always use.

What surprised me was that this card routes the PC speaker through, even at POST. I believe on the SB16 the card needs to initialise first, but I don't remember 100%. But it was nice hearing the memory ticks and POST beep through the external speakers 😊

My CT2810 routes PC speaker on post.

gdjacobs wrote:

My CT2810 routes PC speaker on post.

Then maybe I just remember it wrong...

Could be variable depending on the card.

gdjacobs wrote:

Woo hoo!

I recommend you keep your eyes open for another really cheap sound card with a daughterboard header. You may not mind it too much right now, but some games (Hexen, for example) sound nasty in places because of stuck notes. If you can find a really cheap Crystal Semiconductor card, it may be worth picking up to use by itself or alongside the CT2800 in your rig.

What's a Crystal Semiconductor card? Can you link some info or one on ebay?

Here's an example, but could be a bit cheaper I think:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Crystal-SK241-111000-D … QEAAOSw2s1U0KbD

I suggest Crystal based sound cards because I know for the PnP models the majority of resources (including the FM synth) can be disabled leaving only MIDI and WSS (for the mixer) enabled. They may not be unique in this regard. If anyone knows of cards which can do similar, I'd love to know.

/\ That doesn't have an OPL chip, so it uses Crystal's subpar OPL clone.
For the DreamBlaster S1 any cheap YMF-71x card should do fine, as it is not a full sized daughterboard.

The Audician 32 Plus, a Yamaha chip based ISA sound card, works really well with the S1 and X2 DreamBlaster 😀

I'll wait to see how much the hanging note bug affects me. I don't have Hexen, but I do have some of the other games mentioned as being plagued by the bug. But at this point I prefer simplicity. Having two sound cards doesn't sound too bad as long as everything is plug and play. If I have to buy or make special cables or drill holes into my case or the card's backplate, then nevermind. The Audician 32 + looks really appealing. Any downsides to it over an SB16? If I remember, it stops at SBPro compatibility, right? Yes, I did watch your review of it, but it's been awhile.

Every card is a compromise 😀

While I didn't have any issues with the Audician, I don't think it is 100% compatible. There is always that 1% chance of having an issue with some games.

The newer cards like AWE64 or Vibra are good options IMO, but they don't have the wavetable header. Using an external wavetable adapter, you can connect the DreamBlaster. However they don't have a real OPL3 chip.

So whatever way you go, it's a compromise 😀

I agree, see how you go with your existing card. You might not have any issues.

alexanrs wrote:

/\ That doesn't have an OPL chip, so it uses Crystal's subpar OPL clone.
For the DreamBlaster S1 any cheap YMF-71x card should do fine, as it is not a full sized daughterboard.

I understand the deficiency. Again, I use my Crystal based card exclusively for the MIDI interface. If I knew where to get the MPU401AT cheeply, I'd recommend that 😀.

I am just assuming clueless1 would rather have a single card solution than juggle with multiple sound cards in the same machine.

alexanrs wrote:

I am just assuming clueless1 would rather have a single card solution than juggle with multiple sound cards in the same machine.

Good assumption. 😉

But I do have two available ISA slots, so that is not out of the question either (assuming I turn out to be unhappy with the CT2800/DreamBlaster S1 combo). What I'm not sure of in gdjacobs suggestion is how to feed the music from one card and digital effects from the other to the same set of desktop speakers. I'm guessing line out of one card into line in of the other?