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Strange sound issues with SBlive and win95

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First post, by joeyjojo

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So I finally got this gateway 2000 p5-75 up and running. I tried some games in DOS and they run ok but if I turn on the midi music in wolf3d the game slows to a crawl. Sound effects work fine through the sound blaster but midi is slow as whale dung. I used to have a p75 back in the day and I don't remember it being this slow. The computer has a s3 trio64v+ video card also. Any ideas as to why any games that uses midi runs slow? I've tried some really old games that use sound such as street rod 2, high seas trader, ect, same situation. Should I upgrade the video? change the sound card?

here is a video of the game running with just sound effects.
https://youtu.be/5bvh3rICgA4

Reply 1 of 3, by jtchip

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It'll be the sound card. Wolf3D does not use MIDI, it uses FM synthesis via the Yamaha OPL2 chip on AdLib, and compatible, sound cards. The SB Live does not have a real OPL2 chip so emulates it in software with a DOS TSR. The P75 is probably not fast enough for that and running the game at the same time, hence the slowdown.
Ideally, get an ISA sound card, or if you must use a PCI, one with hardware FM synthesis like a Yamaha YMF7x4 (genuine OPL3) or ESS Solo-1 (ESFM).

Reply 2 of 3, by joeyjojo

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jtchip wrote on 2020-01-15, 01:29:

It'll be the sound card. Wolf3D does not use MIDI, it uses FM synthesis via the Yamaha OPL2 chip on AdLib, and compatible, sound cards. The SB Live does not have a real OPL2 chip so emulates it in software with a DOS TSR. The P75 is probably not fast enough for that and running the game at the same time, hence the slowdown.
Ideally, get an ISA sound card, or if you must use a PCI, one with hardware FM synthesis like a Yamaha YMF7x4 (genuine OPL3) or ESS Solo-1 (ESFM).

Thanks for the info. Ill be on the lookout for a better sound card. I picked up about 6 the other day. Maybe Ill get a good one out of the lot.

Reply 3 of 3, by jtchip

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It's all relative. The SB Live is 'better' for Win95-native games that use EAX, ISA sound cards are 'better' for DOS games. You could use both in the same system, though the games that run well on the SB Live usually run best on a Pentium II, or faster, system. Good luck in your search for a DOS-compatible sound card.

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