I've found a partial solution to the problem.

By installing these drivers Using Audigy drivers with a Sound Blaster Live the Windows MIDI device Live! MIDI Synth A now can be used by DOS games via port 330. AWE Synth can also be used as long as the DOS game has native AWE support. This now gives me 2 choices for MIDI in DOS apps.

DOS games still do not honor the MIDI device you've picked in the Windows control panel Multimedia tab. For that functionality you'd have to remove the AWE64 from your system und install the original SB0220 drivers.

But it's better than nothing and with the AWE I now have increased compatibility with regards to FM synthesis.

What exactly was your goal here? What can the AWE64 give you when running DOS games in Windows, that the Live! cannot? Does the Live! not provide FM synthesis option in its SB emulation layer?

dr_st wrote on 2020-11-04, 19:34:

Does the Live! not provide FM synthesis option in its SB emulation layer?

People mostly consider CQM superior to the FM synth emulation on the SBLive.

Some samples: OPL3 vs. ESFM vs. CQM vs. SBLive

dr_st wrote on 2020-11-04, 19:34:

What exactly was your goal here? What can the AWE64 give you when running DOS games in Windows, that the Live! cannot? Does the Live! not provide FM synthesis option in its SB emulation layer?

It was about bad compatibility really. The SB0220 DOS driver on my machine is really hit and miss when it comes to actually running games. In pure DOS mode games crashing, freezes and all that jazz.

After the 3rd or 4th title refused to run properly I thought "Hey I'm building a DOS/Win9x machine that doesn't run DOS games." ^^ Which I thought was kind of pointless. The Live may be a great Win9x card but for DOS there are better options.

So I put the good old AWE in and now DOS games work. Unfortunately it screws with my Windows 98 a bit.

My setup has some drawbacks for sure - for example the AWE being very noisy - but I got my Soundfonts back in Windows and all that. It was a kind of a annoying figuring it all out in the first place but now I'm quite content with regards to compatibility and stability.

Maybe one other route that could be taken is to disable/uninstall the AWE64 in Windows completely and to only invoke the card via DOS PIF reboots or something. But then, I don't know if that would worke out the way I hope, thanks to PnP. And besides, I now have a working setup already...

IlhanK wrote on 2020-11-04, 22:51:

Maybe one other route that could be taken is to disable/uninstall the AWE64 in Windows completely and to only invoke the card via DOS PIF reboots or something. But then, I don't know if that would worke out the way I hope, thanks to PnP. And besides, I now have a working setup already...

You should be able to disable the AWE64 in device manager. Then use UNISOUND while in DOS mode to configure its PnP settings. UNISOUND - Universal ISA PnP Sound Card Driver for DOS v0.81b

IlhanK wrote on 2020-11-04, 22:51:

It was about bad compatibility really. The SB0220 DOS driver on my machine is really hit and miss when it comes to actually running games. In pure DOS mode games crashing, freezes and all that jazz.

Oh, if you do use pure DOS mode, then say no more. 😀 I have no faith in any Creative PCI card's SB emulation for pure DOS. It's finicky at best.

SScorpio wrote on 2020-11-05, 01:00:

You should be able to disable the AWE64 in device manager.

Yep, no problem at all. If you only use it for pure DOS, that's what I would do.