I have a Sound Blaster Audigy and Vortex 2 in the same 98SE machine. The PCI devices aren't limited to the standard ISA IRQ ranges legacy cards need. You just need access to those old resources for DOS compatibility.

I don't use pure DOS, only DOS from within Windows. I use digital audio from the Audigy as it can do SB16, and I have the MPU401 of the Vortex 2 active. The application included in the Vortex 2 drivers let you select the MIDI output device for DOS application in real time. So I can switch between Windows, Vortex 2, Audigy, Audigy Soundfont, or External Sync.

I also have the Vortex 2's internal SPDIF connector going to the Audigy. So I don't need to switch cables around. Have two more or sound devices is fine.

Im running a audigy 2 and aureal 2 card together.
You can typically run 2 sound cards. Might need to play in the bios to setup the irq each one gets. I would not install the windows dos driver for the aureal card.
Your right you can select the card you want to be active for windows sound in the multimedia control panel section.
I route the line out into the line in of the other card.

Again its the dos resources that could conflict, but if the win dos driver isnt installed then that problem goes away.
Serdashop Dreamblaster S2 is a good priced wavetable card, so it doesnt have to be expensive.

I would not spend $100 on a yahaha card unless you have to have it now and can burn cash. I spent $50 on a Yamaha XG YMF724 in 2024.

I don't really need it now, per say, rather it would be nice to have. I don't tend to play a lot of DOS games, but having those sound good is somewhat important to me, even if not one of the more critical/important upgrades for the machine. I am aware of the many versions of the Dreamblaster S2, and will probably get one eventually. The Audigy seems to come up a lot in discussions, so I might see if I can get like an Audigy 2 ZS, since that might be a better investment, due to having Soundfont support, EAX, and other cool stuff, alongside having proper drivers for Windows 2000, which I just could not get working for the Aureal Vortex 2, having to stick with the bone stock ones that came with the OS. Though I guess that leads to a few questions.

SScorpio mentioned piping the SPDIF from the Vortex 2 the Audigy. What sort of cable would I want to get for that? It sounds more elegant than the line in setup I was thinking. And, if this were to be how I'd do it, would I plug my speakers into the Audigy 2 ZS, to listen to both sound cards?

I *was* going to ask about legacy resources, but apparently the Audigy 2 ZS doesn't have those anyways, so I guess I don't have to worry about that. Which is fine, because the Vortex 2 has that gameport I need for my Sidewinder Gamepad and others, and while it's OPL3 sucks, I seem to recall it's digitized sound is *fine*, so even if the Audigy 2 ZS did have legacy resources, it seems like I would just disable those in the context of the Audigy, and leave them enabled for the Vortex... I think.

Oh, one other thing, because it came to mind. Since it sounds like the Audigy would be the main card (with it taking the SPDIF from the Vortex), would the CD Audio connector from my DVD drive go into the Audigy instead?

Sorry for all of the questions, and if I'm being super confusing.

Shadic95 wrote on Yesterday, 17:46:

I don't really need it now, per say, rather it would be nice to have. I don't tend to play a lot of DOS games, but having those […]
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I don't really need it now, per say, rather it would be nice to have. I don't tend to play a lot of DOS games, but having those sound good is somewhat important to me, even if not one of the more critical/important upgrades for the machine. I am aware of the many versions of the Dreamblaster S2, and will probably get one eventually. The Audigy seems to come up a lot in discussions, so I might see if I can get like an Audigy 2 ZS, since that might be a better investment, due to having Soundfont support, EAX, and other cool stuff, alongside having proper drivers for Windows 2000, which I just could not get working for the Aureal Vortex 2, having to stick with the bone stock ones that came with the OS. Though I guess that leads to a few questions.

SScorpio mentioned piping the SPDIF from the Vortex 2 the Audigy. What sort of cable would I want to get for that? It sounds more elegant than the line in setup I was thinking. And, if this were to be how I'd do it, would I plug my speakers into the Audigy 2 ZS, to listen to both sound cards?

I *was* going to ask about legacy resources, but apparently the Audigy 2 ZS doesn't have those anyways, so I guess I don't have to worry about that. Which is fine, because the Vortex 2 has that gameport I need for my Sidewinder Gamepad and others, and while it's OPL3 sucks, I seem to recall it's digitized sound is *fine*, so even if the Audigy 2 ZS did have legacy resources, it seems like I would just disable those in the context of the Audigy, and leave them enabled for the Vortex... I think.

Oh, one other thing, because it came to mind. Since it sounds like the Audigy would be the main card (with it taking the SPDIF from the Vortex), would the CD Audio connector from my DVD drive go into the Audigy instead?

Sorry for all of the questions, and if I'm being super confusing.

I use a Live Drive with my Audigy. The ZS2 has a different interface. I just use generic jumper cables, it's only two pins for SPDIF. You could go from the Vortex 2 to the digital in CDROM interface on the other card if you aren't using it. I depends which other card you end up using.

I have both cards (Vortex 2, A2ZS), but the Audigy 2 ZS is not the best choice for Windows 98 in addition to Vortex 2.

Also, the S/PDIF connection (between these cards) isn't as good as it seems.

I need time to prepare detailed post.

Doing some more digging, it seems like the live drive would be required to do this SPDIF thing, unless im mistaken. As the only digital header I'm seeing on an SB0090 is the CD digital in pins, which I don't think would be quite right for the digital input for the Vortex. At any rate, I am certainly curious to see what you have to say when you're ready, ott.

Multiple sound cards should be fine. I run three sound cards in my multi-OS Pentium 4 build. Though one of those cards is an Orpheus II, so it's more like 5 sound cards in terms of all the hardware resources.

I also have a Vortex 2 and Audigy 2 ZS in that same system.

For CD audio, I connect the audio to the Orpheus II. For each of the Vortex 2 and Audigy 2 ZS cards, I have two different Windows 98 installs, one for each card. Then I just disable one of the cards in each install so they don't conflict.

Shadic95 wrote on Yesterday, 17:03:

Greetings,

I recently built a new PC (the specs of which can be read about here: Pentium 3 Build Running Insanely Slow???), and, while I love the Aureal Vortex 2 for it's good sound, and A3D in supported games, it's OPL support in particular is... poor. As a result, I went to look and see if there were any decent OPL3 PCI cards, and came across the YMF724. From what I have read, it has proper OPL3, as well as good Sound Blaster support, which seems like it would make it good for my system. Heck, the XG support sounds good too, since the Aureal's MIDI is kinda mediocre without an expensive waveblaster header board.

My PIII retro box has the exact same two sound cards. I just assign them different resources in Windows. In DOS, I have a couple batch files that swap between which I want to use for whatever DOS game, or certain games are assigned the IRQ/DMA etc for the particular card I want to use. I have a Roland MIDI daughterboard on the Aureal.

My computer uses an ASUS P2B and although I originally bought it for the trifecta of ISA/PCI/AGP, I don't use the ISA slots anymore. The combo above gives me what I need for all my games. It also helps that the 440BX chipset is the bees knees.

Shadic95 wrote on Today, 13:06:

Doing some more digging, it seems like the live drive would be required to do this SPDIF thing, unless im mistaken. As the only digital header I'm seeing on an SB0090 is the CD digital in pins, which I don't think would be quite right for the digital input for the Vortex. At any rate, I am certainly curious to see what you have to say when you're ready, ott.

The CD Digital Audio should just work.

If you go with a Sound Blaster card the Live and Audigy use the same Live Drive pin out. I can't find the information at the moment, but I recall it just being grounding a pin to fake a Live Drive being connected, and then you can access the new SPDIF inputs and other I/O that the Live Drive would give you. https://pinoutguide.com/Audio-Video-Hardware/ … nt_pinout.shtml

The Audigy 2 and X-Fi use a newer Live Drive revision with a completely different connector. And I'm not sure that anyone ever figured out how to fake one being connected.