Hello,
I've recently got CT4760 and I am not sure if there's possibility of emulating the soundfont in games ran on Windows 98 that are DOS (ex. Doom). Soundfonts are working fine in Windows mode, and I can't simply find any information about that anywhere.
AWE games (i.e. Eradicator), no. Games that can output through General MIDI, yes.
wrote:AWE games (i.e. Eradicator), no. Games that can output through General MIDI, yes.
Thanks, actually due to my own stupidity, I made two mistakes:
- Installing WxD drivers (reinstalled VXD from some CD image)
- Setting to General MIDI instead of SB16
Now it sounds waaaaaaaaaaaaaay better! Thanks! 😀
Waaait hold on, you can use a soundfont in DOS with a Live!? Oh man I had no idea tell me more.
God I could get one to output midi under DOS I'd be all set but creative disabled that for some reason.
If under 'soundfont' you mean *.sf2 files then the answer is no. But you can use *.ECW soundfonts (that's actually only 3 publicly available soundfonts from Ensoniq) under DOS with an SB Live.
Under DOS (and Win9x DOS boxes) the Live uses a modified version of the Ensoniq Audio PCI drivers that use the proprietary ECW format.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensoniq_AudioPCI
I had the impression that soundfonts still worked in "Win9x DOS boxes", but not under DOS. Is that not the case?
If you mean the hardware assisted SB Midi device (that can use SF2 format soundfonts loaded by the soundfont manager) the answer is no. It's not used either in pure DOS or in Win9x dos boxes.
Both Dos modes use by default the 'Default.ecw' soundfont located in the system folder. You can find CTSYN.INI in windows folder where you can change the soundfont used by Dos modes.
If you installed 'Creative SB16 emulation' you do not have to set anything else and you get GM support under win9x for Dos games (by CTSYN.vxd). Under pure DOS you have to set the emulation TSR to get GM midi support (either by using SbeInit.com, or SbeSet/SbeLoad manually). But both driver use the settings in CTSYN.INI from Windows folder and both driver use the software engine of Ensoniq and thereby the defined ECW format soundfont.
Default.ecw is usually the 2MB soundset (internal name: 2MEG_R_2.ECW) but you can find the 4 and 8 MB versions either on the installation CD or online.
Could've sworn I used to run Fluid sf2 with dos games on my Live in 2002-2004...
also i wasn't considering use of it in pure dos (which has its own set of limitations and i never really had the insistence to run in pure dos then anyway)
Hi,
I have re-checked and made a video about it. Win9x dos boxes do not use the SB HW synth and SF2 soundfonts but the Ensoniq based SW synth and ECW soundfonts. It seems passing of time makes memories look better 😀
https://youtu.be/DiM-x09FW1k
With WDM drivers SF2 soundfonts should work within Win9x DOS BOX.
Wdm drivers provide perfect midi and Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 emulation for dos games
running in Win9x/Me with Live! (ct4780)
source: The New Creative Labs Sound Blaster Drivers Collection. (Updated 6th Jan. 2014)
AFAIK any card using a WDM driver uses Windows' default MIDI device for
DOS applications as the MPU-401 MIDI-out device.
source: Re: Seriously dumb MIDI question
