The popping speakers at startup is normal with the SB Pro2. The loading times are not.

wil do some more testing tomorrow ,maybe wil test with a real hdd and not a compact flash card

scroeffie wrote on 2021-09-10, 18:36:

wil do some more testing tomorrow ,maybe wil test with a real hdd and not a compact flash card

You can also try to force select your soundblaster card. Maybe the detection takes longer than normal on your PC.
mpxplay.exe -scs SBP

My Socket 7 computer has three ISA sound cards (I use S16 on MPXPLAY.INI) and even with auto detection (also modifying the environment variables to force which card will be used) it doesn't even take that long for MPXPLAY to start like the OP stated.

Also used multiple CPUs on that computer to make sure, this is the most strangest issue I've ever seen.

the maker of the program told me this wil try it after dinner

did you set the BLASTER environment variable in DOS?
Mpxplay
type on the command line:
set
Mpxplay
you get the list of environment variables
Mpxplay
you need a setting like this:
BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4
Mpxplay
the simpliest way to get the correct BLASTER value:
mpxplay -sct SBP
Mpxplay
then put that line in the autoexec.bat file, eg:
Mpxplay
set BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4
Mpxplay
Mpxplay
at the next reboot, the setting takes effect, the mpxplay will/should start faster

Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-09-09, 15:35:

Yes, with MPXPLAY. You'll need a least a fast 486 as minimum for playing high bitrate MP3 files.

Quite a few options.
https://pmwiki.xaver.me/drdoswiki/index.php?n … diaplayers#toc4

I suspect the most efficient player will be something fairly cut down such as DOSAMP. I've heard of reduced quality files being decoded in real time on a 386 with no hardware assist, but it'd be fairly sketchy.