dosbox version?

Are you sure you running DOSBox?

AFAIK, the only music in Dungeon Keeper comes from audio tracks on the CD. Where in the game does it even mention MIDI?

EDIT: There are some .SBK soundfont files that are installed, and they are copyright by Creative. It's possible that a MIDI music option is enabled if you have an AWE32; and if that's the case, then it won't work in DOSBox.

Yes I'm sure I'm running it on dos box and using version 0.72. Mine, appears to be one of those cases where all the vista workarounds fail miserably and I finally had to give in and install the dos version of the game (which apparently only exists if you attempt to install the game using dos mode), of which only runs in dos box as all versions that are not dos do not run in dos box and apparently not on my vista.

Looking at ripsaw's insight, I'm guessing I'm pretty much screwed getting the music working unless there really is some magic i/o address I can input.

Only thing I haven't tried yet is dual booting or installing a virtual machine to run windows 98 or so. Gotta do that eventually anyway if I want DK2 to run more than 5 minutes on some levels without being quick save paranoid about almost guaranteed but still unpredictable random crashes. But then I'll have to locate a windows 98 OS I can use.

Anyways, thanks for the help.

It's hard to imagine that soundfont MIDI would produce a superior result compared to the audio tracks, so I would recommend using an image of the disc mounted in DOSBox to ensure than you can hear the CD audio without any Vista-related problems. IMO, the BGM is more atmospheric than musical, and gets old pretty quickly, so I prefer to not use it.

FragSelf wrote:

Yes I'm sure I'm running it on dos box and using version 0.72.

Why are you sure?

I play without the music because the music is played in analog mode so the game pauses/stutters on each and every track change 😒

sorry for necromancing, but I looked on the music situation of dungeon keeper in case someone wonders in the future....

Dungeon Keeper uses Redbook Audio (CD music). At least some collection compilators did not include the music tracks. I have one such CD, so I don't know anything about the music. You can put any audio CD into the drive, and the game will play it.

and most interesting:

Additionally the game has an AWE32 MIDI driver and three custom soundbanks (ATMOS1.SBK, ATMOS2.SBK, BULLFROG.SBK) of about 1.5MB in total. So obviously, if you have an AWE32, the most common sound effects are loaded into the card's memory and played from there. This should provide a small performance boost.

all found here: http://members.chello.at/theodor.lauppert/games/keeper.htm