You need the PnP software manager (CTCM I believe) and then AWETUL.EXE / S

Both can be found on the Creative site.

You need the PnP software manager (CTCM I believe) and then AWETUL.EXE / S

Both can be found on the Creative site.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

You need the PnP software manager (CTCM I believe) and then AWETUL.EXE / S

Both can be found on the Creative site.

Thanks, btw I love your Youtube vids comparing the different soundcards and their quality. 😁

Of course you need a driver for the soundcard in DOS.
Creative website is your friend.

Chaniyth wrote:

Thanks, btw I love your Youtube vids comparing the different soundcards and their quality. 😁

😀

In the process of moving, but I plan on doing heaps more...

Ma1wurf1977 said it all. They're on the included CD too.

Malik wrote:

Ma1wurf1977 said it all. They're on the included CD too.

The furthest back I seen on the installation CD were for Windows 3.11 drivers but no DOS ones.

Try searching for the Dos directory. If I'm not mistaken the Win3.1x installation begins from Dos, and there might not be a separate Win3.1x's Win32 executable to run the install. The Win3.x applications will be setup from the Dos installation and all will appear the next time you boot to Win3.x

If you're having troubles, you can download the Pnp, Aweutil and Win95DosFiles - the basic and small individual packages from my mediafire link : http://www.mediafire.com/?xnfb45xjxqada

Thanks for all the suggestions!

The Creative PnP Configuration Manager (Rev 4) [CTCM] and AWE64 Basic Disk for DOS/Windows 3.1 packages from Creative Labs did the trick.

In-game tunes sound amazing, though i'll admit I do miss the FM-synth tunes that my SB16 provided.

Just curious what AWEUTIL soundbank flag do you all use and/or think sounds the best?

For now I use the /EM:GS flag for in-game music as to me it sounded the best [and it is a bigger soundbank than the other ones]. Any suggestions to enhance the in-game MIDI tunes any further? Thanks all.

P.S. Right now I have a pure FreeDOS only system, no Win 3.11 [yet] or any other GUI.

Descent and Descent 2 has pretty funky AWE sound. Or maybe it's that this kind of music is better suited to the AWE?

Yea the FM sound is different, but I'll tell you what, for a loooong time I wasn't aware of the differences, I never noticed them and I was very surprised when I read about it 😀

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Descent and Descent 2 has pretty funky AWE sound. Or maybe it's that this kind of music is better suited to the AWE?

Yea the FM sound is different, but I'll tell you what, for a loooong time I wasn't aware of the differences, I never noticed them and I was very surprised when I read about it 😀

Please correct me if i'm wrong, but the AWE64 Gold don't have an FM chip do they? Isn't all FM Synth through it emulated? That's what i've always heard anyway from FM Synth fanatics.

It does have an FM chip. But there are a few versions.

The "originals", let's call them that way, are the Yamaha OPL2 and OPL3 chips. The original Sound Blaster had OPL2, the first Sound Blaster Pro dual OPL2 and with the newer Sound Blaster Pro all cards went with the OPL3.

Now Creative wanted to increase profits / not pay Yamaha, so they made their own chip which replaces the OPL3. Obviously it sounds different, but most people in those days simply didn't notice.

Other companies did the same, some with more success, like with the ESS cards.

So in short, if you want the authentic FM sound, your card needs to have an Yamaha OPL chip.

But for games that use MIDI (and most newish DOS games do), it's not an issue. MIDI (MT-32, General MIDI and AWE synth) were options since games such as King Quest 4, Space Quest 3, Monkey Island, Wing Commander...

It's for games before those that you really want to have a card with OPL chip.

Hence it's often easier to build a second, or a third machine, rather than a single one and always having to make a compromise.

Chaniyth wrote:

Just curious what AWEUTIL soundbank flag do you all use and/or think sounds the best?

For now I use the /EM:GS flag for in-game music as to me it sounded the best [and it is a bigger soundbank than the other ones]. Any suggestions to enhance the in-game MIDI tunes any further? Thanks all.

There are much better soundfonts than the Creative ones. But size matters, so the first thing to do is upgrading RAM on the card, either with Creative modules if you can lay your hands on those, or buy 32 MB SIMM RAM + a Simmcon adapter.

I mostly use Chaos 12MB, Chorium and an Enhanced 8 MB GM/GS set that is actually about 27 MB (designed for Descent). There are tons of other soundfonts, some can tune the synth towards the Sound Canvas modules, some for certain GUS patch sets and so on.

Of course, you will need Windows to load up these larger sbk and sf2 files. In DOS you are severly limited to non-protected mode games and (usually) fonts smaller than 2 MB.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

It does have an FM chip. But there are a few versions. […]
Show full quote

It does have an FM chip. But there are a few versions.

The "originals", let's call them that way, are the Yamaha OPL2 and OPL3 chips. The original Sound Blaster had OPL2, the first Sound Blaster Pro dual OPL2 and with the newer Sound Blaster Pro all cards went with the OPL3.

Now Creative wanted to increase profits / not pay Yamaha, so they made their own chip which replaces the OPL3. Obviously it sounds different, but most people in those days simply didn't notice.

Other companies did the same, some with more success, like with the ESS cards.

So in short, if you want the authentic FM sound, your card needs to have an Yamaha OPL chip.

But for games that use MIDI (and most newish DOS games do), it's not an issue. MIDI (MT-32, General MIDI and AWE synth) were options since games such as King Quest 4, Space Quest 3, Monkey Island, Wing Commander...

It's for games before those that you really want to have a card with OPL chip.

Hence it's often easier to build a second, or a third machine, rather than a single one and always having to make a compromise.

I don't understand, because if I don't use the AWEUTIL I get no music at all, FM or otherwise. Also if I don't use it I get a "FM Synthesis card not found" or "Soundblaster not found" and simular error messages or no error message at all [game runs but no music of any sort]. Which is why I didn't think the AWE64 Gold had any sort of FM synth chip. Now i'm confused. 😒

There is an FM synth chip on it for sure... the CQM wonder 😈

Aweutil /s just initializes the chip (FM mode)
Aweutil /em:gm the emulation mode is General Midi

/r and /c switches work even in FM mode, it is worth using them.

Usually people get confused when discussing about the FM "chips". FM chips are commonly referred to the presence or absence of an actual Yamaha OPLx chips. (Which may not be appropriate.)

And yes, as Jolaes76 mentioned, you need AWEUTIL to initialize both parts (FM & Wavetable) of the SBAWExx cards.

Yea that should do the trick...

Ah okay thank you all so kindly. 😀

It's sad that modern computing has really made me "DOS dumb", i'm 31, I grew up with these type of systems ffs, hell one of my PC's had an Awe64 Gold back then... it's amazing how much i've forgotten. >.<

Anyways thanks for all the enlightenment and refreshers. 😁

Well it was a tiny bit easier back in the day.

Because the card came with a quick guide and all you needed to do was insert the first floppy and run SETUP or INSTALL.