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Ensoniq AudioPCI

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First post, by seskanda

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Hello

Is it possible to use an Ensoniq AudioPCI, emulated or real, with any edition of DOSBox ?

Thanks

Reply 1 of 4, by leileilol

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As a guest emulated sound card:
No. The AudioPCI DOS SB emulation TSR was terrible enough that it motivated DOSbox development in the first place.

As a real sound card on the host system:
Yes, the AudioPCI on Windows can have DOSbox play SB sound on it.

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Reply 2 of 4, by seskanda

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Ok, also the AudioPCI is a big PITA to get working in DOS but the Sound Blaster Live! is somehow easier to run under DOS even though it has a TSR too

I see, but how can DOSbox use a real AudioPCI to output any sound from it ?

Reply 3 of 4, by NeoG_

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seskanda wrote on Yesterday, 07:22:

I see, but how can DOSbox use a real AudioPCI to output any sound from it ?

DOSBox doesn't support hardware passthrough for sound cards. Only specifically for OPL FM sythesis and MPU-401. Since the AudioPCI has neither interface, DOSBox can't use any hardware specific to the AudioPCI card in passthrough mode.

However, since DOSBox already emulates most popular sound cards internally, the AudioPCI card will play DOSBox sound just as if you were playing an MP3 file. The software inside DOSBox will believe you have whatever sound card you have set to be emulated (EG Sound blaster 16).

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Reply 4 of 4, by seskanda

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NeoG_ wrote on Yesterday, 08:19:

DOSBox doesn't support hardware passthrough for sound cards. Only specifically for OPL FM sythesis and MPU-401. Since the AudioPCI has neither interface, DOSBox can't use any hardware specific to the AudioPCI card in passthrough mode.

However, since DOSBox already emulates most popular sound cards internally, the AudioPCI card will play DOSBox sound just as if you were playing an MP3 file. The software inside DOSBox will believe you have whatever sound card you have set to be emulated (EG Sound blaster 16).

Too bad as what I need is hardware passthrough for this case. Sure, DOSBox can use OPL FM synthesis and MPU-401. Yes, the AudioPCI has zero FM synthesis, not even in software, and the same goes with MPU-401 but that was a standard interface.

I'd say that DOSBox emulates most of the 'old' sound cards internally instead, DOSBox will output its sound from just about any sound card, but my hope was for it to emulate an Ensoniq AudioPCI or use a real one via passthrough mode, but it looks like will need a virtual machine for this