SB Live Issue

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qzxcvbn
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SB Live Issue

Post by qzxcvbn »

Hi, I have an issue with getting General Midi / Sound Canvas to work in DOS. When I configure e.g. DUKE3d to use either GM or SC and "Test Music Card" the sound is coming for the on board soundfonts and not my Roland SC-7. If I boot in to Windows 98 and play canyon.mid then the sound play directly on to the Roland SC-7. So I know the cable is working.

I dont know what setting to use for it to playvia GM. Any ideas?
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Rwolf
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SB Live Issue

Post by Rwolf »

The DOS settings used by games are usually read as environment variable BLASTER set in some batchfile (like autoexec.bat), for SB cards.
(io port 300 or 330 and irq 2/9 was the normal parameters for the MPU-401 MIDI card, which is usually what old games can understand)

So you have an SB Live with Midi cables to the external SC-7 I gather? Looking in the user manual, there are some DOS utilities to verify settings, like SBECFG.exe, SBEMIXER.exe & SBEGO.exe and make sure your card is setup in the same way your game needs to. Sometimes old games only has a single setting for io port and interrupt, and this might not be the same as how you have your card set up?

(I had one SB Live, but the magic smoke escaped from the main chip unfortunately, so it is currently dead.)
Last edited by Rwolf on Sun Mar 13, 2022 2:23 pm, edited 2 times in total.
qzxcvbn
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SB Live Issue

Post by qzxcvbn »

Hi Rawolf, Thanks for the advice. Foe the Roland SC-7 to work in Windows 98 I had to tell it to use MIDI and then the music now is fed through to the MIDI device. For DOS its doesnt matter if I choose General MIDI or Sound Canvas on port 330 the music go to the SB16 via the soundfonts and not the MIDI device. I guess I am asking can the SoundFonts be disabled or is there an extra command in DOS to use the MIDI device and not the soundfonts on the card.
Even in Windows 98 DOS games music go through the SB Live and not the MIDI device.
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Rwolf
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SB Live Issue

Post by Rwolf »

Looking at the manual, most of the instructions relate to using the onboard MIDI capabilities of the card; I wonder if the (Windows) AudioHQ application would be needed to unload the SoundFont banks or disable the onboard synthesizer for getting the external interface to be used in normal DOS?

I don't think I ever used an external synthesizer with this specific card, but I note it has both a combined joystick/MIDI DB15 connector (needing a split cable), and also the separate mini-DIN MIDI-IN/OUT connectors on the cable-connected Digital I/O card - maybe these are not identical when used in DOS?
I cannot try it out now, as my card is dead.
qzxcvbn
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SB Live Issue

Post by qzxcvbn »

Hi RWolf,
Again thank you trying to help. After much searching, hair pulling out etc it seems the SB Live does not support external MIDI devices. Any ideas what PCI sound card would support external MIDI devices?
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Rwolf
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SB Live Issue

Post by Rwolf »

It is strange that it will not pass through the MIDI, as it has the MIDI interfaces included.

I used older ISA cards mostly, like Rolands MPU-401 or Soundblaster cards with similar functionality.
https://www.retrorgb.com/pcmidi-roland- ... ement.html

Of course, now there are USB attached MIDI interfaces, but I don't think they would work in plain DOS.

For the old PCI bus specifically, I'm not sure what would be best to use.
(I liked to use hybrid motherboards with both ISA and PCI bus for this reason)

I see on Vogons there are some people making PCIe (PCI express) cards in small numbers:
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=63273

Maybe you can get some fresh ideas from them, both regarding the SBLive issue and any suitable replacement for the PCI bus.
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Rwolf
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SB Live Issue

Post by Rwolf »

I did find a webpage in Russian language with some information on using SBLive under pure DOS, but it is rather technically complex to set up.
At the very end of the article, it also specifically points out some DOS games that has problems with sound effects, when using PCI cards in general, and one of them is the Duke Nukem 3D game, unfortunately.

https://www.ixbt.com/multimedia/sblive-dos.shtml
qzxcvbn
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SB Live Issue

Post by qzxcvbn »

Hi Rwolf, I've had a look at that web site before and tried my best to follow but the end result is no midi to external midi devices.
I do have a motherboard with ISA but It wont power on I thinks its a pcchips m598lmr. So Im suck with motherboards with PCI for now. The guy from eBay said it was working lol.
Again thank you for taking the time to help.
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