I would do these steps

1) Check what existing IRQs and DMAs the sound blaster emulation is working on
2) Check what existing IRQs and DMAs the SB16 is working on
2) Set those IRQs and DMAs to "Legacy ISA" in the BIOS under PnP assignment
3) When you select basic configuation 04 (which is sans OPL@388), use manual assignment
4) Ensure the IRQ, DMAs 1 & 2 and base port are the same settings as when it's working
ps) Personally I'd also do this for the SB16, using fixed values cleared by the BIOS is the most stable way to run legacy cards/emulation

Also I'm pretty sure this only works inside windows, the DOS drivers for the Live card have no option to disable or move the OPL port

I think mixing both cards at the same time won't work.

Let's look at the situation from above a little:
First, for the digital part there shouldn't be a difference between the two as they both do SB16 quality.
Second, and is what matters, the music part is kinda exclusive: a game either uses FM or General Midi.. not both at the same time.

So basically you don't really need to "mix" the two together as they both have the same capabilities except for FM vs GM.

What should work is to keep only one card enabled and disable the other. Even though it is not ideal for quickly switching between different games.. but maybe it's not that bad.

Under Windows, just disable the legacy emulation device for one card in Device Manager and enable the other one. It might even work if you ignore the restart requests, in which case it would be really nice and quick to do the switch.

Under real DOS it is also easy.. either init the SB16 (if it is PnP) and skip SBEGO, or vice-versa. If your SB16 is not PnP, it should also be fine to either do SBEGO as the TSR will reroute the IO away from the real SB16.

NeoG_ wrote on 2026-05-24, 11:23:

I would do these steps […]
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I would do these steps

1) Check what existing IRQs and DMAs the sound blaster emulation is working on
2) Check what existing IRQs and DMAs the SB16 is working on
2) Set those IRQs and DMAs to "Legacy ISA" in the BIOS under PnP assignment
3) When you select basic configuation 04 (which is sans OPL@388), use manual assignment
4) Ensure the IRQ, DMAs 1 & 2 and base port are the same settings as when it's working
ps) Personally I'd also do this for the SB16, using fixed values cleared by the BIOS is the most stable way to run legacy cards/emulation

Also I'm pretty sure this only works inside windows, the DOS drivers for the Live card have no option to disable or move the OPL port

OMG This worked!! Thank you so much 😀 I usually use 1 5 and 7 for Soundblaster so I just set them to that and the FM synth now comes out of the SB16 and not the Live! I didnt even need to set Basic Configuration 4 now either! And ofc Midi works with the Live (using port 320)

Will try it out on true dos mode when I get round to fully configuring it (still working on my build and have to sort out Autoexec and Config.sys properly).

This is good to know, as I am planning a build with SB Live and SB16

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2026-05-24, 13:01:

This is good to know, as I am planning a build with SB Live and SB16

Its really annoying to set them up as the Live likes to crash windows when you're assigning ports in device manager, my best advice would be to manually disable both cards in device manager, set each of their IRQs and DMAs so none conflict, restart, then turn them both on and hope for the best 🤣, just bear in mind configuration 4 on the Live DOES NOT WORK for me at all no matter what I did

Virtue wrote on 2026-05-24, 13:11:

Its really annoying to set them up as the Live likes to crash windows when you're assigning ports in device manager, my best advice would be to manually disable both cards in device manager, set each of their IRQs and DMAs so none conflict, restart, then turn them both on and hope for the best 🤣, just bear in mind configuration 4 on the Live DOES NOT WORK for me at all no matter what I did

Thanks for the info. I will bear that in mind. Though, it may be dependant on motherboard chipset or BIOS version also. What motherboard are you using?

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2026-05-24, 13:33:

Virtue wrote on 2026-05-24, 13:11:

Its really annoying to set them up as the Live likes to crash windows when you're assigning ports in device manager, my best advice would be to manually disable both cards in device manager, set each of their IRQs and DMAs so none conflict, restart, then turn them both on and hope for the best 🤣, just bear in mind configuration 4 on the Live DOES NOT WORK for me at all no matter what I did

Thanks for the info. I will bear that in mind. Though, it may be dependant on motherboard chipset or BIOS version also. What motherboard are you using?

yeah that is very true! Im using an Acorp 5ali61 with an AMD K6-2 clocked at 550Mhz

I added a PicoGUS to my 5ALI61 system to "patch" all of the SB16 faults - MIDI hanging notes, clicking/ringing on SCDMA games, stereo SB pro support. Plus it has a lot of other benefits like not having any audio TSRs loaded like the Live does. Also having 3 sound cards is cool.

So this setup is working really well in Windows, and launching DOS programs in there works fine (SB16 for SFX and OPL music, Live for Midi and native programs) however when I exit to DOS it seems the Live takes over completely even though I've setup the SB16 in Autoexec, I'm struggling to find a way to keep the same setup as with windows where I use the live essentially only for MIDI.

You should be able to get the SB16 and DOS drivers enabled at the same time as long as the IRQs and DMAs are different, the OPL will still be active on both though I never found a way to stop the Live drivers in DOS from enabling OPL.

Whichever card "takes over" is a matter of what the BLASTER variable is set to - you can overwrite it but it depends how you are getting into DOS. If you are "exiting" to DOS from windows it would be in DOSSTART.BAT instead of in AUTOEXEC.BAT

DOS and Windows management on the same machine is a whole other kettle of fish, I prefer to use a shortcut that restarts the entire system into DOS mode and uses a completely separate config.sys and autoexec.bat from windows so I can load whatever I want and it doesn't interfere.