Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-12-07, 21:09:

Stretch wrote on 2024-12-07, 21:05:

Does the Audigy driver enable Soundfont 2.01 operators on the SBLive, or will the SBLive still be restricted to Soundfont 2.0?

I'm not familiar with the differences between these soundfont versions, so someone else will have to test that.

I forgot to post the instructions on how to check the SF support with Vienna Soundfont Studio:
Click Options, Preferences, Devices
The SF Support will be listed at the bottom

Stretch wrote on 2024-12-07, 21:59:

I forgot to post the instructions on how to check the SF support with Vienna Soundfont Studio:
Click Options, Preferences, Devices
The SF Support will be listed at the bottom

Nice, that's easy to test then.

Unfortunately, I no longer have a SBLive card in any of my retro builds, having switched them for various Audigy models. But maybe someone else who's using this guide with an active SBLive can check this.

yukboboyuk wrote on 2024-12-04, 16:56:

Hi...greetings joseph, i'm trying to install my first retro pc to play some sierra and lucas arts game. i have P1 166 Mhz , 80 r […]
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Hi...greetings joseph, i'm trying to install my first retro pc to play some sierra and lucas arts game.
i have P1 166 Mhz , 80 ram , Chipset: VIA Apollo VPX, WIn96SE
Sb Live Ct4760 + Front panel
i'm completely newbie with all the settings, but gladly found your tutorial
Tried to follow your instructions and all drivers already installed
Creative audio @port 6400 irq 5
Try to play Fate of Atlantis from pure dos there was no sound at all
Did i do something wrong?
Please advise....thank you

looks like something has gone wrong, as Joseph_Joestar said there should only be one SB16 entry in device manager, i also have a CT4760, i use the Liveware 3.0 cd drivers, it might be worth giving it a try just to make sure your system is working as it should before trying alternative drivers.

1) If I run a dos game in win98 dos prompt, can I redirect the midi sound to my real sc-88 attached to the joystick port?

2) And a joystick attached to the joystick port is visible in the win98 dos prompt?

3)and in pure dos the midi out to joystick port and a real joystick works?

matti157 wrote on 2025-02-03, 01:56:

1) If I run a dos game in win98 dos prompt, can I redirect the midi sound to my real sc-88 attached to the joystick port?

2) And a joystick attached to the joystick port is visible in the win98 dos prompt?

3)and in pure dos the midi out to joystick port and a real joystick works?

MIDI out via gameport won't work in pure DOS on SBLive and Audigy cards. That's just how Creative coded their drivers.

As for the actual joystick functionality, I haven't tested that, but maybe someone else can offer more insight.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-02-03, 07:29:

matti157 wrote on 2025-02-03, 01:56:

1) If I run a dos game in win98 dos prompt, can I redirect the midi sound to my real sc-88 attached to the joystick port?

2) And a joystick attached to the joystick port is visible in the win98 dos prompt?

3)and in pure dos the midi out to joystick port and a real joystick works?

MIDI out via gameport won't work in pure DOS on SBLive and Audigy cards. That's just how Creative coded their drivers.

As for the actual joystick functionality, I haven't tested that, but maybe someone else can offer more insight.

Thank you,
but at this point why install your modified CD and not from the original CD? What advantages do you get?

matti157 wrote on 2025-02-03, 09:57:

Thank you,
but at this point why install your modified CD and not from the original CD? What advantages do you get?

Soundfont support while playing DOS games from within the Win9x prompt.

That's the main reason I made this guide back in the day.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-02-03, 09:58:

matti157 wrote on 2025-02-03, 09:57:

Thank you,
but at this point why install your modified CD and not from the original CD? What advantages do you get?

Soundfont support while playing DOS games from within the Win9x prompt.

That's the main reason I made this guide back in the day.

But instead using one of the original CDs versus your modified one, what does that entail? Just asking out of curiosity

matti157 wrote on 2025-02-09, 21:37:

But instead using one of the original CDs versus your modified one, what does that entail? Just asking out of curiosity

With stock VxD drivers, you cannot use soundfonts for playing DOS game music on SBLive cards. Instead, you're limited to ECW sets. If you don't know what soundfonts are, I suggest you look that up.

As an example, a 50MB soundfont allows Duke3D to sound like this. For comparison, with an 8MB ECW set, Duke3D sounds like this. And before you ask, yes the SB128 PCI uses the same ECW sets as SBLive and Audigy cards.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-02-09, 22:08:

matti157 wrote on 2025-02-09, 21:37:

But instead using one of the original CDs versus your modified one, what does that entail? Just asking out of curiosity

With stock VxD drivers, you cannot use soundfonts for playing DOS game music on SBLive cards. Instead, you're limited to ECW sets. If you don't know what soundfonts are, I suggest you look that up.

As an example, a 50MB soundfont allows Duke3D to sound like this. For comparison, with an 8MB ECW set, Duke3D sounds like this. And before you ask, yes the SB128 PCI uses the same ECW sets as SBLive and Audigy cards.

Thanks!

This piece of your guide clarify all

Note that soundfonts only work when DOS games are running from within Windows 98/ME. If you go to pure DOS (by choosing Start > Shutdown > Restart in MS-DOS mode) then the card will use the (worse sounding) ECW sets instead. To my knowledge, there is no way to use .SF2 based soundfonts in pure DOS with an SBLive card.

Had a nightmare with this one.

I followed the process for an SB Live! SB0100 and I'm now having to reinstall Windows.

The drivers failed to install properly, the Creative Media Interface had a ? over it in Device Manager and there were no references to Game/Joysticks in the Device Manager. I did however have sound.

Wanting to rectify the problems I used the installer to remove the Drivers. Now when I boot up Windows it just hangs with a mouse pointer over a blank, teal screen. If I Ctrl+Alt+Del it sayd Msgsrv.32 is not responding. If I do it again it says HIDserv is not responding and I can go no further. I can get into Safe Mode and have tried removing every shred of SB drivers I can find in Inf and nothing changes. Even if I remove the Sound Card from my machine it still happens.

This was on a fresh install of Windows 98 SE.

jami3rez wrote on 2025-03-27, 18:51:

Had a nightmare with this one.

I followed the process for an SB Live! SB0100 and I'm now having to reinstall Windows.

Sorry to hear that.

What were the system specs? While I have never experienced anything similar myself, I have heard that DOS and SB16 Emulation drivers for SBLive cards can have problems on nForce chipsets, and potentially on some later Intel chipsets (ICH10 and such). Certain VIA chipsets also have latency issues with SBLive and Audigy cards. In any case, I would recommend trying the official drivers from the SB0100 installation CD and seeing if they work better on your system.

Thanks, that CD seems to have worked, everything has installed now!

My new issue is that my PC now hangs for ages on boot. After the Windows 98 splash screen has been up it reverts to this.

If I wait long enough it does go into Windows and sound is fine.

I’m assuming it’s some sort of IRQ conflict. I’ve tried the card in a new PCI slot, disabled COM and Parallel ports, disabled plug n play, cleared ESCD… I can’t assign IRQ to devices manually, just mark it as ‘reserved’ or ‘PCI DEVICE’.

My PC boots fine if I remove the sound card.

Any ideas?

Image link didn’t work, attached it here.

Oh and system -

Athlon xp 2400+
FIC AM39L mono
2 x 256mb 333 RAM
S3 Trio V2 PCI VGA
NEC USB hub

Tried swapping them all around and it hangs still.

Tried switching slots again. Now when I reboot it runs scandisk which sticks on 20% and I have to cancel it, then it tries to install the SB16 driver and I get BSOD!

About ready to throw this out the window!!

My PC hangs on SB16 emulation if I have the parallel port disabled in the BIOS. Can you enable the parallel port again? Maybe that will let you boot into Windows 98.

jami3rez wrote on 2025-03-27, 23:58:

FIC AM39L mono

That motherboard uses the VIA KM400/KN400 chipset, right? I haven't tried that one myself, but I had serious problems with an Audigy1 card on a motherboard with the VIA KT333 chipset. Random crashes and freezes during hard disk activity and such.

Try the VIA latency patch mentioned in this thread and see if it helps. But yeah, sometimes a certain hardware combination sadly just won't work.