If you can get the game to run in Windows 9x, you can use a soundfont on AWE for your DOS games. You just have to make sure that the MPU-401 emulation for AWE is enabled in the AWE control panel, upload your soundfont, and choose General MIDI in the game. At least that is what I remember from when I figured it out, I could be off a bit. If you choose AWE in the game I believe it will still use the horrible onboard ROM.
It's tricky though because you have to run games in Windows. But if you can get it to work, and you have say 8MB on your AWE, you can really bump up your MIDI quality.
Actually, I'm having very good luck with a Diamond Monster Sound MX300 (Vortex 2) PCI with a SCD-15 attached. The DOS driver for it doesn't need EMM386 (or even HIMEM for that matter) and seems to have great SB Pro 2 digital audio support. I haven't messed with FM at all though (I'm sure it's not "authentic" OPL sound.) It has worked well with Wing Commander 3, System Shock, Cybermage, TIE Fighter, Dark Forces and Terra Nova so far.
I currently don't have a PSU with -5V output which means I can't use ISA cards in my retro system. So I'm sticking with PCI cuz I don't really want to spend even $30 for another PSU. 😀
edit: I stumbled on a interesting post on Google Groups from Aureal's David Gasior regarding why SBPRO was chosen over SB16 for their DOS support:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.ibm.p … 1d1c7148e23d584
Okay, let me address this one because this recently was just discussed. The
reason we chose SB Pro is because SB Pro is the sta […]
Show full quote
Okay, let me address this one because this recently was just discussed. The
reason we chose SB Pro is because SB Pro is the standard for DOS games. Even
some SB16 chips from Creative had problems with some older DOS games that
supported SB and SB Pro only. Not all old DOS games support SB16, but pretty
much all support SB Pro. The mixer is also different between the SB Pro and
SB16. Supporting both the code for SB Pro and SB16 would not have been
feasible. Our main goal with DOS mode support is compatibility, and we have
(IMO) the best PCI SB compatiblity of any non-Creative card. And even then,
I think we're better than any of the cards based on the Ensoniq AudioPCI
chipsets (ES1370, ES1371) even the SB PCI 64/128.
There aren't that many DOS games that really sound better with a SB16 setting
than SB Pro. Most DOS games use 11kHz samples - either 8 bit or 16 bit. As
I recall, the SB Pro 2 can do 11kHz 16 bit but that's as high as 16 bit
support can go.