Kodai wrote:

Sorry to hear about your CT2230 issues. I too have mine sitting off to the side, now relegated to test builds because of issues like this. But not to fear, you're getting an Audician 32 Plus and they just plain work. They aren't as friendly to setup as a Creative card, but it's not difficult either. It's biggest drawback is height if you're gonna use the waveblaster header. No biggie, as you can slap together a cable that goes from the header to whatever DB you want to use. No soldering or special tools. A pair of side cutters and you're in business. It will take about two weeks (give or take a few days) to get your new Audician 32 Plus in the mail. I've got four of them the past couple years and it always takes that amount of time.

On a P3B running 98, I would suggest a Vortex 2 for a PCI soundcard. But as you already have a good GM daughter board with the X1, it really isn't necessary. It's a great sounding card, and fun for playing with earlier surround, but just one more thing to deal with. The Audician 32 Plus with good MIDI via DB and working uart 401 will give you access to all the bases as far as general compatibility is concerned. Any other cards and gear are just icing on the cake. Good luck with the new card and let us know what you think with some updates.

Thanks! Your post gives me hope. 😀

OP, since your board has a single ISA slot, is this a shared ISA/PCI slot? Is it possible you're running into bandwidth/IRQ issues with the PCI card in the adjacent slot? Might try pulling the NIC (if i read your setup right) and see if there's any change. Probably not your issue, as others have pointed out, but it might be worth a shot.

nekurahoka wrote:

OP, since your board has a single ISA slot, is this a shared ISA/PCI slot? Is it possible you're running into bandwidth/IRQ issues with the PCI card in the adjacent slot? Might try pulling the NIC (if i read your setup right) and see if there's any change. Probably not your issue, as others have pointed out, but it might be worth a shot.

I've tried removing the PCI cards (3Com NIC and VooDoo II card). No go. Thanks for the thought, though.

It seems this is a well known issue with some games and the SB16 MPU401 interface. I didn't know when I bought the dang thing...

This has been in the back of my mind since you posted this and I cannot remember how I got around this problem (or even if I did).
However, since you are using an "external" MIDI synth to play back your MIDI sounds, change the following parameter in your Autoexec.bat file as follows:
SET MIDI=SYNTH:2 MAP=G

jesolo wrote:

This has been in the back of my mind since you posted this and I cannot remember how I got around this problem (or even if I did).
However, since you are using an "external" MIDI synth to play back your MIDI sounds, change the following parameter in your Autoexec.bat file as follows:
SET MIDI=SYNTH:2 MAP=G

I'll give that a go when I get home. Thanks!

The more I get into this retro build, the more heinous things I find I didn't realize existed back in the day.

This is a good example (a real SB16 has some really bad quirks and quality issues). I always wanted a real SB card since I used to have whatever was included with the OEM PC (Packard Bell, then a Digital Starion). When I finally built my own system, the time for old classic SB passed, so my first Creative card was the SB AWE64. Good card, but I always thought the music didn't sound right. Even though wavetable sounds were supposed to be superior, it just didn't feel right...

Then I found out Windows 9x will change the OEM ID of all removable disks so it can prevent some programs to fail if they rely on it. That's egregious.

GuyTechie wrote:

This is a good example (a real SB16 has some really bad quirks and quality issues). I always wanted a real SB card since I used to have whatever was included with the OEM PC (Packard Bell, then a Digital Starion).

When I got my first retro PC, it was a Packard Bell that came with one of those combo sound/modem cards. It turns out it actually had a real Yamaha OPL and with the right drivers, it was a perfect SB Pro 2 clone. The only problem was it didn't have a MIDI header for the DreamBlaster S1. I really wanted to get a "real" Sound Blaster, even though some folks here cautioned that I might face things like noise and hanging note bugs. Some folks even recommended the Audician 32 Plus. 😉 Turns out they were right. After using my CT2800 for a month or so, I ordered the Audician 32 Plus and never looked back. Actually, just put that CT2800 in my 486DX2-66 build, but it's working well so far, and not using any external MIDI devices, so it's in its element. So yeah, I've kind of been down the same path. 😀

Well, SET MIDI=SYNTH:2 MAP=G didn't work. 🙁

Just as a matter of interest, what is your setup like?
Are you running from pure DOS? Which version?
Or, from a DOS prompt within Windows? Which version?

Would a PAS16 cure the OP's woes?

jesolo wrote:

Just as a matter of interest, what is your setup like?
Are you running from pure DOS? Which version?
Or, from a DOS prompt within Windows? Which version?

Windows 98 SE running in DOS mode.

Logistics wrote:

Would a PAS16 cure the OP's woes?

What's that? Google says some kind of power scrubber, 🤣.

GuyTechie wrote:

Logistics wrote:

Would a PAS16 cure the OP's woes?

What's that? Google says some kind of power scrubber, 🤣.

Pro AudioSpectrum 16. 😀

PAS 16s have more MIDI problems than SB cards.

gdjacobs wrote:

PAS 16s have more MIDI problems than SB cards.

Yes thats my understanding too, not to mention that most don't have a header anyway

Still waiting patiently for the Yamaha card among other things...

Really disliking the SB16 now. Wondering why it was ever a big deal. :p

It has been pointed in the other thread (also this one previously actually), that if you use a dedicated MPU-401 card, the SB16 becomes usable as a... well as a SB16 for digitized voice / digital playback. There's another alternative for SB16 compatibility though (CMI8330).

Historically Creative also packaged software incl. games that made their kits more attractive for the common buyers. And further taking advantage of their brand recognition post-AdLib* era, they also did great in marketing esp. in the 90s -- definitely a better job than what was done in their R&D department. 🤣

*I just checked the wiki page of AdLib, and there's some serious postmortem accusation/controversy there (but the "evidence of anti-competitive behavior by Creative in the failure of [AdLib Gold] card" is missing... or definitely lacks punch):
http://www.pcgamer.com/author-of-sound-blaste … ys-of-pc-audio/

I've always blamed AdLib's failure on AdLib. They started out using off the shelf designs, and compounded that mistake with very high prices. They took an attitude with gamers (at first), that they were beneath doing business with as they wanted to sell to musicians. Only after Creative came out with the Game Blaster did AdLib start to cater to the gaming community. The AdLib Gold was an awesome card hindered by a ridiculous base price, even more ridiculous expansion board price, and piss poor management from AdLib. Creative may have made junky cards by comparison, but they focused on a core audience and kept the price within reason.

I encountered the same problem as the OP with my AWE32 CT2760 (with 32MB onboard) and Diamond Monster MIDI 4MB daughterboard (Dream). Duke 3D fine when run from 98SE, stutters from DOS.

This is on an Intel SE440BX-2 with a P3-450. I tried with a Voodoo3 3000 and then a GF2 MX in the AGP slot.

What's weird is that I don't remember this being a problem with this build when I last used it about a year ago. I think I'm ready to blame poor Creative engineering and move on.

boxpressed wrote:

I encountered the same problem as the OP with my AWE32 CT2760 (with 32MB onboard) and Diamond Monster MIDI 4MB daughterboard (Dream). Duke 3D fine when run from 98SE, stutters from DOS.

This is on an Intel SE440BX-2 with a P3-450. I tried with a Voodoo3 3000 and then a GF2 MX in the AGP slot.

What's weird is that I don't remember this being a problem with this build when I last used it about a year ago. I think I'm ready to blame poor Creative engineering and move on.

Another person who is experiencing this issue! I'm glad I'm not alone, but there are less people reporting this issue than the hanging note bug. There's also no YouTube video of this except for the one I made.

I also have a CT2230, and I tested it with a CT1910 (Waveblaster II). Same problem.

I have a lot of ISA sound cards with DB headers, so I'll test a non-Creative card later. Pretty sure this is a Creative problem.