Have you got "SET ULTRADIR=C:\ULTRASND" in your dosbox/autoexec.bat?

The best test is to try the playmidi utility that should be in your C:\ULTRASND folder - if your environment and other config is fine then it should load the patches from the C:\ULTRASND\MIDI directory and playback the midi file.

(edit: sorry, ULTRADIR, not ULTRASND)

[Thread moved to DOSBox General Section]

FWIW, I have no problems getting GUS music to play (using the stock 4.11 drivers) in Doom (1.9) or Heretic (1.0). Just using the default DOSBox (thus DBGL) settings, except for setting soundblaster type to 'none' and GUS 'enabled'. Keep your GUS base address on default (240) and get rid of that trailing backslash in the ultradir setting.

thanks to everyone, I just noticed the midi tester 😀 I get "baseport not found" on the first midi playback attempt, and then "another program is using the ultrasound card" constantly afterwards. Im not sure what else could be using ultrasound? I dont have an "autoexec.bat" file in dosbox either? No doubt both of these issues are stopping the gamelauncher from working correctly with ultrasound, but when running dos games within the launcher, no autoexec.bat has ever been created? I have checked dosbox 0.73 and 0.74 from the official website. ....a quick update:- Ive just realised from the dosbox wiki that the bat is actually a section of the dosbox.conf.. sorry about that! Im new to dosbox so I dont know all the basics 😀 yes, the autoexec.bat section is empty, so I edit it to show:-

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
# You can put your MOUNT lines here.
# SET ULTRADIR=C:\ULTRASND

Is this how I do it-or should I delete the two general info lines above it? Its a pity that dosbox gameslauncher couldnt have added the info as default itself, after enabling it within the launcher and possibly asking me a few quick questions regarding it. With the midi test within ultrasound, Im still getting the same "baseport not found" and "another program is using ultrasound" messages, even with the above now added? I hope the above makes it clearer in what Im doing wrong 😀

In that last sentence I meant to say that dosbox launcher was still behaving the same-any ideas how I can set ultrasound to find this baseport-does a similar config need to be edited in ultrasound? thanks

The # at the beginning of the line comments it out, so remove that and try again.

I can't get gus working at all. I found a download that I think has the patches or what ever in it, that I need. The gus install doesn't work. setting Doom and Duke Nukem 3D to us gus, doesn't work. I was able to get as far as doing some sort of driver install, but that didn't make gus work either. No wonder Sound Blaster took over back in the day. I wonder if it was this hard to get the actual physical cards working back then.

I had a GUS back in the day, and yes while it sounded great, it was a pain with regular SB/Adlib games. But games that directly supported the GUS would be fine.

You have to remember that you need to have a ULTRASND directory in the root of your emulated C: drive with the ultrasound patches and such. Then in DOSBox all you really need to set is

1[sblaster]
2sbtype=none
3
4[gus]
5gus=true

It is not strictly necessary to disable SB, but it is easier as that way there is less chance for resource conflicts and the game detecting a SB.

I only enable GUS support for games that really benefit from it, and for games you mention you may as well use SB16.
Try it on games like Terminal Velocity or Turrican II. There is a thread here somewhere with the games that really are best on a GUS.

Also, don't select a later GUS model like the MAX or PnP as those are not emulated.