First post, by Dochartaigh
Been researching and testing sound on my 'new' Windows 98 system, in both later DOS games, and Windows 98 games (so roughly 1991-2002ish). FYI, I plan on launching all DOS games from inside Windows (except where problematic). I haven't used Windows 98 in about 15 or so years so have some questions about my setup:
--GeForce 4 ti4600
--256mb RAM
--120gb SSD w/ SATA to IDE adapter
DOS/ISA Sound Card: ESS ES1869F (this is a slightly improved version of the 1868 "with a higher 48 KHz sample rate and 3D Spatializer technology")
WINDOWS/PCI Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS (gold edition)
--internal audio cable from CD-ROM goes to Audigy
--A 3.5mm audio/stereo cable goes from the Line-Out of the ESS, to the Line-In of the Audigy; Line-Out of Audigy goes to my speakers
DRIVERS
--ESS ES1869F drivers get installed automatically by Windows 98 SE as "ESS Plug and Play AudioDrive (WDM)" (and even if I manually use the drivers listed on multiple topics on this site they seem to be the same).
--Audigy 2 ZS I used the CD ISO from VogonsDrivers.
ESS I went into device manager and unchecked the "use automatic settings" as I wanted these to never change no matter what. They're:
DMA: 01
DMA: 00
(IRQ) Interrupt: 05
(Address) Input/Output Range: 0220, 0388, 0330
Audigy 2 ZS seems to have less settings (I unchecked "use automatic settings" as well) and those are:
(IRQ) Interrupt: 3
(Address) Input/Output Range: 280 (was 1000 but that seems WAY higher than any audio settings I could choose, so I changed it to 280 which it says it does NOT have a conflict)
MIDI
My buddy told me that to setup Midi to run from the ESS, that I needed to go to Control Panel> Multimedia Properties> MIDI tab > then choose “ESS FM Synthesizer” as the device to output MIDI on
(and in game, mostly for DOS games, I can then choose “General MIDI” for MUSIC in those DOS games, and I choose Port 330)
Multimedia Properties
Last, and I'll go into weirdness/issues for this below, I can choose either the ESS or the Audigy for the preferred playback device:
(for when I reboot into DOS -- i.e. do NOT run a DOS game from inside Win98)
--I have the "ESSCFG" drivers from Phil's computer lab. No problem there - I run the config program in DOS, choose IRQ/DMA/etc and it seems to edit my autoexec (or was it config.sys?) with the correct drivers.
--I can not install the Audigy DOS drivers (problem listed below)
ISSUES
1.)
When I heard the Windows 98 chime on reboot after installing the drivers the audio skips (at 5 secs) every time. When I try an actual program (the Creative sound demo - it's from the pop-up screen you get after you successfully installed the Creative Audigy 2 ZS drivers) - the sound skips in multiple areas during that song. Sound in-game seems ok, but I thought that having two glitches right off the bat didn't bode well...
2.)
I want DOS games (launched from inside Win98) to use the ESS for both Sound FX AND Music, and Windows games to use the Audigy 2 ZS for ALL sound... and it doesn't seem to be able to do that AUTOMATICALLY.
I have the settings in Device Manager for both the ESS and Audigy set with the "use automatic settings" UNCHECKED, so as far as I know these are unchangeable by the system unless I change them. The ESS for example is set to A220 I5 D1, with a secondary A330 used for MIDI (this is also set in the MIDI Tab as pictured in the spoiler above). I have DOS games like Doom 1 and 2 and Duke3d manually setup to use A220 I5 D1 for Sound FX, then for Music they're using 'General MIDI' set to A330. BUT, if I change the below Multimedia Properties>Audio tab> Playback Preferred Device setting to be "Audigy 2 ZS", I'll get Sound FX from the Audigy, and Music from the ESS:
This doesn't make sense to me. The game (multiple games!) are setup to throw its Sound FX to A220 I5 D1. A220 is setup in device manager to be for the ESS and NOT the Audigy....so why would the Audigy be playing any sound at all? (and I found this out by plugging in the wire from the speakers directly into each sound card individually, fyi, just to test what was playing what sounds or music)
Conversely, if I want to play a Windows game on the Audigy (ONLY! as that's how I should be setting up most games, right?), and the Playback Preferred Device is set to the ESS, the game won't make full use of the Audigy (for instance in Warcraft 3 it defaults to 'Miles Emulated 3d' for ESS, instead of the Audigy default which is 'Dolby Surround').
3.)
I can't boot into DOS (i.e. NOT from inside Win98, but boot directly into DOS) and have my ESS/DOS/ISA sound card work because it's routed through the Audigy 2. When I unplug my speakers from the Audigy and plug them into the ESS I get sound. I assume it's because the passthrough only works on the Audigy if it has drivers enabled in DOS? And the ESS currently goes: ESS Out > Audigy In, Audigy Out to speakers; so if there's no drivers telling the Audigy to do passthrough sound, I get no sound.
If the above is the case, I then read I would have to install the http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fi ... OS drivers, which I can't get to work (where in those DOS setting there would be a setting to turn on passthrough I assume). Those DOS drivers are the ones mentioned on many posts here where they took the Audigy 1 DOS drivers then patched them for the Audigy 2 ZS. When I run the installation program (which is a Windows-only program, can't be run from DOS) I get the error:
"SB16 Emulation can only be run on Windows 95 or 98 with VXD Drivers installed. Setup will now exit."
I currently have WDM drivers installed for the Audigy 2 ZS from the ISO everybody recommends (link above). Am I not able to use Audigy Windows drivers (for Windows games) at the same time as Audigy DOS drivers?
OR, and I don't know why I didn't think of this, but should I just reverse the order of the wires so it goes: Audigy Out > ESS In > ESS Out to speakers?
Bonus question 🤣: that error mentions "SB16 Emulation". The ESS is only an 8-bit card, right? I know some DOS games have an option for SoundBlaster 16 - would there be any benefit to try those DOS games in SB16 running through the Audigy, instead of using my normal (8-bit) ESS for DOS? (this is assuming I can even get those Audigy DOS drivers to work, which I currently can't). If there's like a 5% difference forget about it, but I thought I'd ask.