As I thought.

NeoG_ wrote on 2026-05-07, 06:38:

crusher wrote on 2026-05-07, 06:14:

Now we need a dual card feature.
One in GUS mode and the other in SB mode for games that support it. That would be the ultimate killer feature.

I have a PicoGUS and SB16 in the same computer, which games can take advantage of it?

In such a configuration, games would basically just use the GUS as a generic General MIDI device, which would not have any added value over SB16 + General MIDI over MPU-401, which is a combination that I believe a single PicoGUS can also already emulate.

I guess there's the aspect of nostalgia for the specific way how the GUS patches/instruments sounded for General MIDI music playback, compared to Roland Sound Canvas and such. But TiMidity supports GUS patches. Can't PicoGUS use TiMidity for emulating General MIDI playback over MPU-401?

digger wrote on 2026-05-07, 10:34:

In such a configuration, games would basically just use the GUS as a generic General MIDI device, which would not have any added value over SB16 + General MIDI over MPU-401, which is a combination that I believe a single PicoGUS can also already emulate.

I guess there's the aspect of nostalgia for the specific way how the GUS patches/instruments sounded for General MIDI music playback, compared to Roland Sound Canvas and such. But TiMidity supports GUS patches. Can't PicoGUS use TiMidity for emulating General MIDI playback over MPU-401?

With MPU-401 the game can only tell the device which patches to use. With GUS it can actually use custom samples.

jmarsh wrote on 2026-05-07, 11:01:

With MPU-401 the game can only tell the device which patches to use. With GUS it can actually use custom samples.

Yes, but do you know of any games where you'd use an SB16 for PCM audio and a GUS for MIDI output, yet the game would use custom samples or patches?

I reckon there wouldn't be that many, if any at all.

I'm genuinely curious if there are any though, so if anybody can mention some examples, that would be really interesting.

NeoG_ wrote on 2026-05-07, 06:38:

crusher wrote on 2026-05-07, 06:14:

Now we need a dual card feature.
One in GUS mode and the other in SB mode for games that support it. That would be the ultimate killer feature.

I have a PicoGUS and SB16 in the same computer, which games can take advantage of it?

I typically use the PicoGUS alongside my AWE64, and I've used them to have Ultrasound music with SB16 digital sound in TIE Fighter, Duke 3D (not shown in my video), Doom/Doom II, and Descent. Any game that lets you choose the music device separate from the digital audio device should be able to do a similar setup. The PicoGUS typically is configured as a GUS with a MPU-401 device on Port 320 so that it doesn't conflict with Port 330 on the AWE64. It's similar to how one would use the Orpheus II card's different resources, I imagine!

MadMac_5 wrote on 2026-05-07, 16:27:

I typically use the PicoGUS alongside my AWE64, and I've used them to have Ultrasound music with SB16 digital sound in TIE Fighter, Duke 3D (not shown in my video), Doom/Doom II, and Descent. Any game that lets you choose the music device separate from the digital audio device should be able to do a similar setup. The PicoGUS typically is configured as a GUS with a MPU-401 device on Port 320 so that it doesn't conflict with Port 330 on the AWE64. It's similar to how one would use the Orpheus II card's different resources, I imagine!

Thank you!
That is what I meant. I have a GUS clone card + MK8330 (SB16).
Many games support seperate selection for music and sound effects. You named a few.
This way you can have the game playing music with GUS + sound effects with SB/SB Pro/SB16.
Just as you could select GM + SB if you have a GM capable sound card and a separate one for SB.

MadMac_5 wrote on 2026-05-07, 16:27:

NeoG_ wrote on 2026-05-07, 06:38:

crusher wrote on 2026-05-07, 06:14:

Now we need a dual card feature.
One in GUS mode and the other in SB mode for games that support it. That would be the ultimate killer feature.

I have a PicoGUS and SB16 in the same computer, which games can take advantage of it?

I typically use the PicoGUS alongside my AWE64, and I've used them to have Ultrasound music with SB16 digital sound in TIE Fighter, Duke 3D (not shown in my video), Doom/Doom II, and Descent. Any game that lets you choose the music device separate from the digital audio device should be able to do a similar setup. The PicoGUS typically is configured as a GUS with a MPU-401 device on Port 320 so that it doesn't conflict with Port 330 on the AWE64. It's similar to how one would use the Orpheus II card's different resources, I imagine!

I have a AWE64 gold+PICOGUS in my 486DLC, found the best conbination

But i preffer to use a wavetablepi, the midi emulation tsr on 64 is terrible and connect external midi devices is too many cables jaja

Work great, in fact i almost never use real GUS emulation, i put a GUS GM soundfont and sound fine. Only use for demos mostly

sorry if this was asked before but I installed the latest beta version of firmware so I can get SB16 compatibility but the issue seems to be, many games that ask for high dma / 16bit dma only offer 5,6,7 as options but PICOgus only has 1 for both if I understand it correctly? Or has anything changed ? even in the set blaster variable has it at 1:

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H1 P330 T6

most games seem to require that so what is the solution?

Omarkoman wrote on 2026-05-10, 01:54:

sorry if this was asked before but I installed the latest beta version of firmware so I can get SB16 compatibility but the issue seems to be, many games that ask for high dma / 16bit dma only offer 5,6,7 as options but PICOgus only has 1 for both if I understand it correctly? Or has anything changed ? even in the set blaster variable has it at 1:

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H1 P330 T6

most games seem to require that so what is the solution?

Perhaps for these games you have to fall back to SBPro mode. These games probably won't work in SB16 mode on similar real hardware like ALS007 either...

Omarkoman wrote on 2026-05-10, 01:54:

sorry if this was asked before but I installed the latest beta version of firmware so I can get SB16 compatibility but the issue seems to be, many games that ask for high dma / 16bit dma only offer 5,6,7 as options but PICOgus only has 1 for both if I understand it correctly? Or has anything changed ? even in the set blaster variable has it at 1:

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H1 P330 T6

most games seem to require that so what is the solution?

what games??

Omarkoman wrote on 2026-05-10, 01:54:

sorry if this was asked before but I installed the latest beta version of firmware so I can get SB16 compatibility but the issue seems to be, many games that ask for high dma / 16bit dma only offer 5,6,7 as options but PICOgus only has 1 for both if I understand it correctly? Or has anything changed ? even in the set blaster variable has it at 1:

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H1 P330 T6

most games seem to require that so what is the solution?

The PicoGUS is physically a 8-bit ISA card. Those high DMA channels are not present at all on a 8-bit ISA slot. The PicoGUS was also designed to only occupy one DMA channel at a time. Two DMA channel usage is not possible with the current hardware design.

In the case of Build engine games, it is possible to manually edit the configuration file to point the low and high DMA to the same value. This is also required for some genuine Creative Vibra 16 cards, as well as some of the SB16 compatible clones.

If it is not possible to edit the game configuration files, then one will have to settle for SB Pro compatibility instead.

theelf wrote on 2026-05-10, 07:16:

what games??

there are many games like Rise of the triad, Duke3D etc ... they all ask for high DMA when sb16 is selected .

akimmet wrote on 2026-05-10, 19:57:

The PicoGUS is physically a 8-bit ISA card.

thanks, makes sense ... so best not to use the SB16 configuration and stick with SB 2.0 to avoid these issues.

Omarkoman wrote on 2026-05-11, 22:18:

theelf wrote on 2026-05-10, 07:16:

what games??

there are many games like Rise of the triad, Duke3D etc ... they all ask for high DMA when sb16 is selected .

I tested both games, and work fine in my SB16 using only low dma (my motherboard have issues with high dma)

Omarkoman wrote on 2026-05-11, 22:18:

thanks, makes sense ... so best not to use the SB16 configuration and stick with SB 2.0 to avoid these issues.

4.0.0+ also includes SB Pro stereo support, so you should use that rather than SB 2.0 mono. Also in build engine games, you can select HDMA5 in the sound setup (the test will fail) and edit the config file to set the HDMA to the same value as LDMA (e.g. set both to 1) and it will work fine.

The same trick may work with other games. Generally speaking examples of games that outright don't work with 8-bit DMA only on SB16 seem to be few and far between.

Omarkoman wrote on 2026-05-11, 22:18:

theelf wrote on 2026-05-10, 07:16:

what games??

there are many games like Rise of the triad, Duke3D etc ... they all ask for high DMA when sb16 is selected .

I have been able to get Duke3d working by editing the config file. I believe the same can be done with ROTT.

thank you, I will check it out but yeah, SB Pro emulation (T4) should be enough if games dont need High DMA for SBPRO. Im happy with that.

I wonder how many games there are out there that actually have 16-bit digital sound assets while also having this limitation of supporting Sound Blaster 16 with high DMA only.

Because if there are none, then I don't really see a downside to just using SB Pro mode for games that require high DMA for SB16 support.

But if there are indeed some games where we'd miss out on higher 16-bit quality sound output because of this, maybe it would be worth considering adding WSS (Windows Sound System) compatibility to the PicoGUS? That standard was known for supporting 16-bit digital sample playback on a strictly 8-bit ISA card. And if I'm not mistaken, there are even some games out there that support 16-bit audio on WSS and PAS16 cards, but don't even support the Sound Blaster 16.