VOGONS


Reply 20 of 35, by maxtherabbit

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DonutKing wrote:

Interesting, had people actually attempted to load a soundfont into the AWE64 ram in dos or did assumption=fact? I always read the same thing that the soundfonts were only usable in windows but never actually tried it under dos.

Yes, I've done this before with an AWE32 under DOS.
However I got sick of waiting ages for the soundfonts to load and I personally didn't think any of the SBK soundfonts sounded particularly good, compared to a sound canvas or XG synth.

sorry for the necro - but what happens when you load the upgraded soundfont in DOS and run a game with native AWE synth selected (not GM)? does it still use the loaded soundfont or revert back to AWE ROM?

Reply 21 of 35, by jesolo

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maxtherabbit wrote:

sorry for the necro - but what happens when you load the upgraded soundfont in DOS and run a game with native AWE synth selected (not GM)? does it still use the loaded soundfont or revert back to AWE ROM?

No, it will use the 1MB ROM sample set.
The only way around this is to play the game from a command prompt within Windows and select General MIDI in the game's setup menu. You then also have a wider selection of soundfonts that you can load under Windows, since you're then not limited to version 1 Soundfonts (*.sbk) only.

Reply 22 of 35, by maxtherabbit

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jesolo wrote:
maxtherabbit wrote:

sorry for the necro - but what happens when you load the upgraded soundfont in DOS and run a game with native AWE synth selected (not GM)? does it still use the loaded soundfont or revert back to AWE ROM?

No, it will use the 1MB ROM sample set.
The only way around this is to play the game from a command prompt within Windows and select General MIDI in the game's setup menu. You then also have a wider selection of soundfonts that you can load under Windows, since you're then not limited to version 1 Soundfonts (*.sbk) only.

that's a pity, windows 9x is banned from my household because I have an intense, burning, probably irrational, hatred of it after living through its day as a mainline OS

Reply 23 of 35, by georgel

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Will it be really useful if you could load and play SF2 soundfonts under DOS? Which soundfonts that fit within the 28MB limit of the AWE's cards' RAM would you use? Isn't there a way to convert properly SF2 soundfonts to SBK format and use them that way? To my present info the only third party SBK that is available now for DOS with AWEUTIL is fantagm (~8M). Isn't that good enough?

Reply 24 of 35, by maxtherabbit

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I've used finegm.sbk in DOS and it's pretty ok. The larger 20MBish SF2 soundfonts are significantly better sounding, my favorite is masterpiece.sf2. There is no way to convert a SF2 to SBK file that I've seen

Reply 25 of 35, by georgel

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Here is an excerpt from the readme for the Creative's API:

c) SF2 DOS library Now the AWEDIP comes with 2 sets of libraries. 1 to support SBK (SoundFont 1) and another […]
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c) SF2 DOS library
Now the AWEDIP comes with 2 sets of libraries. 1 to support
SBK (SoundFont 1) and another set to support SF2 (SoundFont 2).

Major differences between these 2 sets of libraries:

SBKLIB SF2LIB
====== ======
i) NRPN support YES NO
ii) Embeded GM YES NO
preset

When using SF2 library, your application need to load the GM
presets at runtime. A SF2 GM preset ( SYNTHGM.SF2 ) is included.
This gives you an option to load customized presets.

Are you sure the NRPN lack would be justified just to hear better sounding games in DOS? Is NRPN used by games?
I couldn't run so far the Creative's demo from the API archive https://github.com/qb40/soundblasterawe32 and noticed that another guy has attempted to achieve this but succeeded to play sounds only in windows dos box which makes me think that the Crteative's SF2 support via API is buggy.

Re: Using SF2 soundfonts in DOS for AWE32/64

The API pdf documentation only describes the possibility to load SF2 under windows API via VIENNA functions...But none of them is present in the DOS API...There is a controversy of some kind between the readme file and the API doc itself in one and the same creative's archive!?

Reply 26 of 35, by Joseph_Joestar

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georgel wrote on 2021-10-09, 10:33:

The API pdf documentation only describes the possibility to load SF2 under windows API via VIENNA functions...But none of them is present in the DOS API...There is a controversy of some kind between the readme file and the API doc itself in one and the same creative's archive!?

Under Win9x you load .SF2 soundfonts using the AWE Control Panel utility which is installed from the card's driver CD. The interface looks like this:

file.php?id=99576&mode=view

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 28 of 35, by Joseph_Joestar

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georgel wrote on 2021-10-09, 11:06:

We were discussing programming here, not fiddling with the GUI from a user's perspective. Moreover windows is not desired at all here!

In the passage that I quoted, you specifically mentioned Windows, which is why I posted that screenshot.

For reference, the AWE Control Panel also works under Win 3.11 using that same interface.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 30 of 35, by Joseph_Joestar

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georgel wrote on 2021-10-09, 11:19:

Jo_Jo, you are flooding the topic and you know it!

I was merely trying to be helpful, but you seem to think you own this forum.

For the sake of courtesy, I'll stop responding to you. Added to my ignore list.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 32 of 35, by piasek

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Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-10-09, 10:41:
Under Win9x you load .SF2 soundfonts using the AWE Control Panel utility which is installed from the card's driver CD. The inter […]
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georgel wrote on 2021-10-09, 10:33:

The API pdf documentation only describes the possibility to load SF2 under windows API via VIENNA functions...But none of them is present in the DOS API...There is a controversy of some kind between the readme file and the API doc itself in one and the same creative's archive!?

Under Win9x you load .SF2 soundfonts using the AWE Control Panel utility which is installed from the card's driver CD. The interface looks like this:

file.php?id=99576&mode=view

Hi,

I found this thread while looking for solution to my problem with AWE64 Gold in DOS. With it and a few others I managed to understand what should be configured and how to approach it. One thing however is still a mystery to me and I cannot find a solution. When playing MIDI in Windows 98 the music is, well... average 😀 But when I go to AWE ctrl panel I am able to load any sf2 file and the music sounds way better after loading one of the GM files. The problem is that I have to click Apply in AWE ctrl panel every single time I play new music file. Its like everything is being reset after playback finishes. I went to MIDI devices and tried every device/setting I could find but to no avail. Is there a solution to that? Thanks in advance!

Reply 33 of 35, by Joseph_Joestar

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piasek wrote on 2023-10-23, 13:07:

The problem is that I have to click Apply in AWE ctrl panel every single time I play new music file. Its like everything is being reset after playback finishes. I went to MIDI devices and tried every device/setting I could find but to no avail. Is there a solution to that? Thanks in advance!

Once loaded, the soundfont should remain active permanently under Win98. If this isn't the case for you, maybe something went wrong with your driver installation.

I suggest downloading this driver CD image and then doing a clean install of Win98 + the drivers from that disc.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 34 of 35, by gdjacobs

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HunterZ wrote on 2009-11-02, 20:46:

Of course a good GM synth is going to sound better with KQ6 than an MT-32 would, since KQ6 was composed primarily for General MIDI even though it has MT-32 support: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MT-32-co … _computer_games

Only a few games support both General MIDI and MT-32 but were composed primarily for the MT-32. Dune 2 is an example of this.

Conquest of the Longbow, LSL1VGA, SQ1VGA, LSL5, SQ4 (all using Sierra's patch). MIDI music for X-Com was originally MT-32 but then patched to support GM in later releases of the game.

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 35 of 35, by xcomcmdr

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Dune (the first Dune game) supports the MT-32 / LAPC I, and does not support General MIDI at all. The MT-32 soundtrack is quite basic, however. Good, but not better than the Adlib version.