Linoleum wrote on 2025-04-25, 11:40:

I am running a SB32 on one of my 486. But I was hoping to add an ESS1868 to get a wavetable header and experiment with its proprietary FM music… Since ESS is sound blaster compatible, will is conflict with the SB32?

SB32 will be a220,i5,d1,h5,330 (with Set Blaster)
ESS will be a240,i7,d3,300 (no Set Blaster)

You will have a conflict on 388 for the FM music. I don't know whether you are able to configure your SB32 (assuming it is PnP) to use some other port for FM music or disable 388 completely. While you can access FM music on 220-223 + 228/229 for the SB32 and 240-243 + 248/249 on the ESS, which does not conflict which each other, a lot of software will try to access FM music on 388h.

mkarcher wrote on 2025-04-25, 11:45:

Linoleum wrote on 2025-04-25, 11:40:

I am running a SB32 on one of my 486. But I was hoping to add an ESS1868 to get a wavetable header and experiment with its proprietary FM music… Since ESS is sound blaster compatible, will is conflict with the SB32?

SB32 will be a220,i5,d1,h5,330 (with Set Blaster)
ESS will be a240,i7,d3,300 (no Set Blaster)

You will have a conflict on 388 for the FM music. I don't know whether you are able to configure your SB32 (assuming it is PnP) to use some other port for FM music or disable 388 completely. While you can access FM music on 220-223 + 228/229 for the SB32 and 240-243 + 248/249 on the ESS, which does not conflict which each other, a lot of software will try to access FM music on 388h.

Good point… Risky then.

If you're just using pure DOS, the port 388 conflict is largely irrelevant. Both cards will play FM synth at the same time, so simply mute the one you don't need.

In Windows 9x it's a different story, and you will have to configure one of the cards to use a different port. That said, I think you might be able to do this in pure DOS as well by using CTCU/CTCM for the SB32. Been a while since I bothered with that, so I don't remember the exact details.

I've got the CT3930, it's a non-pnp card... I was thinking that Midito could be of some help. Meaning I could redirect 388 port to 220 only to play FM on SB...

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-04-25, 11:59:

If you're just using pure DOS, the port 388 conflict is largely irrelevant. Both cards will play FM synth at the same time, so simply mute the one you don't need.

This will work as long as you only write to these ports. OPL3 detection using the timer bits is likely also working, because (most of the time) the read from both cards will return the same results. But I'm unsure about the way to detect ESFM@388, and whether this will break if the SB32 is also at 388. Furthermore, the SB32 will create "wrong music" if some program tries ESFM@388, and you don't use MIDIto to redirect 388 to dedicated ESS ports.