I would start with using pure MS-DOS 6.22, not Windows 98, as well as an era correct machine (for whatever game you're using). Because you can easily introduce a ton of other variables when trying to diagnose the issue.

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

I would start with using pure MS-DOS 6.22, not Windows 98, as well as an era correct machine (for whatever game you're using). Because you can easily introduce a ton of other variables when trying to diagnose the issue.

Well, I don't have a ton of machines either. 😀 I only have a single system for this kind of retro-gaming, it's a Super Socket 7 with K6-II running Windows 98 SE, which by default boots into pure DOS mode (BootGUI=0).

However, I do sometimes use Windows, so it's important to me that the audio works there too.

dr_st wrote:

Lingering sounds after terminating General Midi playback in DOS

Yes, this sometimes happens with various games, even with the SC-55.
I use DOSMID with the attached GS_Reset.mid to send a reset sysex to the Dreamblaster S1 or anything connected to the MPU-401.
Make sure you set /mpu in dosmid.cfg file (read dosmid.txt) else it will use OPL, then a batch file with "dosmid.exe gs_reset.mid" is all it takes.

I also use various other midi files to tweak the S1 or disable it completely if I use an external midi module like the SC-55.
Tweaking the DreamBlaster S1

Selecting a general MIDI option would not work sometimes, up to causing a lock up

Yes, it happens in MK2 CD version only, floppy version is fine.
Happens on the SB16 CT2230 too, it's a problem with the CD version of the game, not the sound card.
But when I use the SBPro for sounds and SB16 for MPU only, it will not freeze even in the CD version.
MK2 automatically goes for port 330.

Resource conflicts in Windows 98

I think the Audician already shares IRQ with its MPU and WSS.
You can disable the LPT port in the bios to free IRQ 7, there will be no conflict.

Good tips. I will give it a shot next time. I am fairly positive I was running the floppy version of MK2 when it happened, but it may be configuration-specific. I wish I had more than one retro machine for these experiments, to speed things up and simplify comparisons. 😉

Having experienced issues with some games, which I suspected were due to the AWE64, I decided to give the Audician 32 Plus / Dreamblaster S1 combo another go. This time the results are much better.

James-F wrote:

I use DOSMID with the attached GS_Reset.mid to send a reset sysex to the Dreamblaster S1 or anything connected to the MPU-401.
Make sure you set /mpu in dosmid.cfg file (read dosmid.txt) else it will use OPL, then a batch file with "dosmid.exe gs_reset.mid" is all it takes.

I'll keep that as an option, but I found out that I can silence the Dreamblaster by playing anything in MUSPLAY and stopping. Apparently, MUSPLAY correctly resets the MPU-401 device when it quits.

James-F wrote:

Yes, it happens in MK2 CD version only, floppy version is fine. Happens on the SB16 CT2230 too, it's a problem with the CD versi […]
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Yes, it happens in MK2 CD version only, floppy version is fine.
Happens on the SB16 CT2230 too, it's a problem with the CD version of the game, not the sound card.
But when I use the SBPro for sounds and SB16 for MPU only, it will not freeze even in the CD version.
MK2 automatically goes for port 330.

My MK2 issue turned out to be a different one: it was happening in both floppy and CD versions, and it appears to be a conflict with EMM386. Initialing the General MIDI driver with EMM386 loaded crashes because EMM386 suspects MK2 is doing something bad. The good news is that the issue is during initialization only: it is enough to set the sound device to SCC1+SB once, running without EMM386, and then the game will play through it without problems, even if EMM386 is loaded.

James-F wrote:

I think the Audician already shares IRQ with its MPU and WSS.
You can disable the LPT port in the bios to free IRQ 7, there will be no conflict.

Actually, the Audician uses a separate IRQ for the WSS. On my current setup, the main audio device is on IRQ5, the WSS is on IRQ7 (in DOS only). Disabling the serial ports (which I never use) in the BIOS freed some IRQs, so there is no longer a conflict on IRQ5, and LPT can stay on IRQ7 (not that I use that either). So, the card now works in Windows as well.

Another tweak:

To properly initialize the digital audio portion, SETUPSA /S must be run at boot; an annoying side-effect is that it insists on modifying AUTOEXEC.BAT every time, erasing BLASTER= lines that I have there for alternate configurations. A bit annoying. There may be a switch to tell it not to, but I didn't find it; instead I just hex-edited SETUPSA.EXE and changed all references to AUTOEXEC.BAT (I think there were 4 of them) to AUTOEXEC.YMF (a dummy file); now it leaves my startup settings alone.

CD Audio:

There are two CD audio connectors (J10 - ATAPI and J11 - JST). Unfortunately they cannot work at the same time. If J11 is connected, it takes precedence and J10 is muted, so I cannot get CD audio from both my drives through this card. I think the AWE64 had no such limitation, and both CD-IN and AUX-IN worked at the same time.

Game compatibility:

I tried with many more of my DOS games, and the majority of them works with no issues; the added benefit is I can get better music in a couple of games that support General MIDI but not AWE32 (e.g., Prince of Persia 2, The Lost Vikings). On an AWE32, I was limited to FM (CQM) sound in those games.

Of all the games in my collection that I tested, only the following had issues:

• Bio Menace / Keen 4-5-6 series - about 50% of the time the games do not detect the Sound Blaster and revert to PC speaker sounds (music still works); however the other 50% the sound card is detected and sounds work perfectly.
• Funball - cannot play digital sounds (does not detect the sound card as SB-compatible for whatever reason). According to the manual, the game uses the BLASTER variable to detect the IRQ, and should support IRQ5; it only supports DMA1, but my card is on DMA1 anyways, but it still does not pick it up. Maybe it requires SB (not SBPro/SB16) compatibility. I don't remember now if it worked with the AWE64 and don't feel like checking at the moment.
• Duke Nukem II - Sound Blaster digital effects don't play (usually a few play and then break up). I believe it is a known incompatibility with anything that's not Creative, so not much that can be done at this point; Adlib sound effects play fine (they are a bit duller, but still alright).
• Blackthorne - Some of the digital sound effects (e.g., gunshots) are corrupted / distorted or don't play at all. And most of the time, music is not working either (neither the FM nor the GM soundtrack). Interestingly, the music problem was present on the AWE64 as well, but the digital audio played fine. The issues are present in both the original version and the one recently re-released for free by Blizzard. Even more surprising, the demo version has neither of these issues, and works perfectly with either sound card. I wonder what changed in the sound code between the demo and the final version...