Pierre32 wrote on 2021-03-21, 04:21:

Finally tried this using my SB0100, and the handy download pack from Phil's page. Smooth process. Most excellent.

I decided to go all out with the SC-55 soundfont as per item 5 in the OP. And I ran into a small issue: I could only set soundfont cache to 16MB! After puzzling for a moment, I remembered that this machine only had a 64MB stick of RAM in it. So I scratched around and found another one - an extra 64MB would surely unlock another ~40MB of soundfont cache. Nope: 46.4MB. Which of course will not load the 45.1MB soundfont. Arrrrgh! I dug even deeper into the stash and found a nice pair of 128MB sticks, and finally I was able to set my cache high enough. And the result is outstanding.

So there's a little tip. System requirements: 256MB RAM if you want to go full beans on this process.

Glad it worked. My takeaway, though, is how remarkably good even the early Sound Canvas models sounded with patch ROM sizes in the 3-4MB range, if I am not mistaken . Incidentally, one of my favorite SF2 banks is the 4MB Voice Crystal . Look here for some sample MIDI recordinfgs . Re: Noisy AWE64 recording from any input (line in, EMU8000 MIDI, etc) + upcoming AWE64 comparison

darry wrote on 2021-03-21, 04:48:

Glad it worked. My takeaway, though, is how remarkably good even the early Sound Canvas models sounded with patch ROM sizes in the 3-4MB range, if I am not mistaken . Incidentally, one of my favorite SF2 banks is the 4MB Voice Crystal . Look here for some sample MIDI recordinfgs . Re: Noisy AWE64 recording from any input (line in, EMU8000 MIDI, etc) + upcoming AWE64 comparison

That does sound pretty great, and it raises a good point. There are many great sounding options to explore that aren't quite so chunky.

I have updated the guide to include a couple of steps which should be performed prior to the driver installation process.

The goal is to help people determine if their system has enough free resources to install the card.

Many thanks for this great tutorial.
I was able to reproduce it and it works absolutely fine.
Running it on this system:
Pentium 4, i875P, 256MB RAM, SB0100, Windows 98SE "naked" (only chipset and VGA driver)

sepp wrote on 2021-05-07, 13:03:

Many thanks for this great tutorial. I was able to reproduce it and it works absolutely fine. Running it on this system: Pentiu […]
Show full quote

Many thanks for this great tutorial.
I was able to reproduce it and it works absolutely fine.
Running it on this system:
Pentium 4, i875P, 256MB RAM, SB0100, Windows 98SE "naked" (only chipset and VGA driver)

Cheers! I'm glad it worked for you.

And thanks for posting your system specs. It's good to have a list of known good systems.

Something I found is that this driver package works for Audigy SB160 but not An Audigy 2 SB350, when attempting to install on my 98 machine It breaks the windows install .

whosdeon wrote on 2021-05-07, 19:25:

Something I found is that this driver package works for Audigy SB160 but not An Audigy 2 SB350, when attempting to install on my 98 machine It breaks the windows install .

These instructions were specifically tailored to SBLive cards.

If you want to use the drivers on an actual Audigy2 ZS, follow this guide instead: Guide: Installing Windows 9x and DOS drivers on Audigy cards (version 3.1)

I installed this on my Win98SE computer with a CT4620 card and it works , DOS games sound great under win98.

My problem is the joystick port stopped working.
The Device Manager shows something called Creative Joystick Emulation with a yellow exclamation mark on it.
Going into the properties the Device Status says: The MMDEVLRD.VXD device loader for this device could not load the device driver.
Clicking update driver just installs the same one, and I can't seem to find a different one on my computer or the folder I downloaded.

tp1020 wrote on 2021-05-11, 15:32:

My problem is the joystick port stopped working. The Device Manager shows something called Creative Joystick Emulation with a y […]
Show full quote

My problem is the joystick port stopped working.
The Device Manager shows something called Creative Joystick Emulation with a yellow exclamation mark on it.
Going into the properties the Device Status says: The MMDEVLRD.VXD device loader for this device could not load the device driver.
Clicking update driver just installs the same one, and I can't seem to find a different one on my computer or the folder I downloaded.

Did you have any previous version of Creative's drivers installed?

Or did this happen on a clean Win98SE installation?

I had official driver installed that I uninstalled before

tp1020 wrote on 2021-05-11, 17:06:

I had official driver installed that I uninstalled before

That might have caused the issue.

As noted in the initial post, if a clean install of Win98SE was not performed, there will be a significant chance of failure. Particularly if any other version of Creative's drivers was used before.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2020-06-03, 07:11:

This post is reserved for listing the SBLive models that were confirmed to work with this approach

I followed the guide using an install of Windows 98 SE that only included network drivers and a couple utilities; no sound drivers were previously installed. I was able to get several SBL! Value cards to work including the CT4830 and 2 versions of the CT4780. I also tried a SB0410 (SBL 24-bit, CA0106) and a SB0200 (Dell OEM, EMU10K1X) but neither of those worked. Basically all the cards I tried that featured the EMU10K1 audio IC worked.

The box I tried this all on is a Dolch PAC 64 with Pentium P54 200MHZ, Intel 82430VX, and 64MB RAM. For each install I started with a "clean" image of 98 SE that was untouched by Creative installers. More information and card pics can be found on my site.

unixispower wrote on 2021-06-18, 02:59:

I was able to get several SBL! Value cards to work including the CT4830 and 2 versions of the CT4780.

Thanks for the report! I've added CT4780 to the list.

More information and card pics can be found on my site.

I dig that retro look! It takes me back to the late '90s, when everything used to be hosted on Geocities.

I boiled it down to fewer steps.

On a P4 1.8 (PlatiniX 2) with an SB0220 I had a fresh copy of Windows 98 SE. Only thing I did was disable the integrated sound card.

I loaded the drivers from this site https://oemdrivers.com/sound-sound-blaster-li … igital-dell-oem, unpacked it onto a USB drive (I had the universal USB drivers already loaded) and pointed the installer to it. I then skipped right to Phil's Audigy drivers https://www.philscomputerlab.com/sound-blaster-live.html to file #2 (VxD drivers), let them do their thing, and restarted.

I had the SB16 emulator installed, and fired up Doom Ultimate (through a DOS prompt run from Windows - direct running the file gave a BSOD) and it worked! I tried Settlers2 and it autodetected the SB settings. Dune2 also worked. Stunts also played the music, as did Arkanoid-Revenge of DOH. THe sound isn't perfect, but good enough.

I will clone this drive to put into a mirror machine, then try this same process with an SB0200 card, which I also have. If I have time, with an SB0410 sometime....

Would I want to try this on a SB0410 I just got the other week and haven't given a home to yet?

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-09-01, 03:33:

Would I want to try this on a SB0410 I just got the other week and haven't given a home to yet?

The SB0410 is based on a CA0106 chip variant . It is not compatible with drivers meant for the EMU10K1/EMU10K2 based Live! And Audigy cards .

See SB Audigy (SB0570 with ca0106-watlf chip)

Negative on the SB0220 (EDIT I meant SB0200)- Works all the way up until the VxD driver install.

I'm keen to try it on the SB0410 (if Windows 98 drivers even exist for it) as it has a CA0106-DAT chip.

darry wrote on 2021-09-01, 04:06:

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-09-01, 03:33:

Would I want to try this on a SB0410 I just got the other week and haven't given a home to yet?

The SB0410 is based on a CA0106 chip variant . It is not compatible with drivers meant for the EMU10K1/EMU10K2 based Live! And Audigy cards .

See SB Audigy (SB0570 with ca0106-watlf chip)

Very good, you've saved me a bunch of time. I'm happy that the SB0220 units were able to work.

Jed118 wrote on 2021-09-01, 04:11:

Negative on the SB0220 - Works all the way up until the VxD driver install.

You probably mean SB0200 here.

I have a SB0220 and it works just fine with this method.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-09-01, 05:04:

Jed118 wrote on 2021-09-01, 04:11:

Negative on the SB0220 - Works all the way up until the VxD driver install.

You probably mean SB0200 here.

I have a SB0220 and it works just fine with this method.

Yes, correct. It was a late night, a digit error was made. I have made that edit in the previous post.