Which Sound Card should I use in Dosbox

[discobobdude]

I'm playing these games in Dosbox and was wondering which sound setup I should use?

I know when I was younger I used to always play under Soundblaster but I noticed the sound is a little funny when I use that. So I switched to General Midi.

I have a Creative Soundblaster Live! Card so what do you guys suggest?

[Great Hierophant]

I think you could use any Sound Blaster 16 or greater.  DOSBox doesn't really care what kind of sound card you use as long as it can do 16-bit @ 44,100kHz because the emulation is accomplished in software.  What you have is fine.

[the_doctor]

Tandy emulation is the best!

[HondaSiR]

I strongly suggest having the real deal if you don't have them in your arsenal already. Namely an MT-32 or compatible for LA support and a Sound Canvas for GM.  

[Dustin]

I've never had any luck getting DOSBox to work with my MT-32. Could it possibly be because the IRQ port isn't set to 9? Do you have to modify  anything in the config file?

[Ari]

I've never had such a problem. Does your MT-32 work normally in XP?

[Lennart]

I've never had any luck getting DOSBox to work with my MT-32. Could it possibly be because the IRQ port isn't set to 9? Do you have to modify  anything in the config file?

In the config file of Dosbox, have the following configuration for your MPU-401 emulation:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[midi]
# mpu401      -- Type of MPU-401 to emulate: none, uart or intelligent.
# device      -- Device that will receive the MIDI data from MPU-401.
#                This can be default,alsa,oss,win32,coreaudio,none.
# config      -- Special configuration options for the device. In Windows put
#                the id of the device you want to use. See README for details.

mpu401=intelligent
device=default
config=
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Then make sure that in Windows you have selected your "MPU-401" device or whatever it's called as your default Midi-Player. You can find that screen somewhere in your configuration screen. Not sure how to guide you to that screen, because I use a localized Dutch version of windows. If this setup doesn't help, you could always change "device=default" into "device=win32", they both work for me. Hope you'll be able to use your MT-32 with Dosbox in this way.

[Maxor127]

I wish DosBox would just emulate MT-32.  I've tried playing games with MT-32 sound but it sounds like crap so I'm guessing it's emulating wrong.  I've never had an MT-32 system so I don't know, but I was curious as to how it sounded.  I know there are different unofficial versions of DosBox that support MT-32 but it all sounds too confusing to me.  I read that the DosBox team doesn't ever plan on supporting MT-32 because it would require a ROM file and they don't want people asking for it and causing piracy.

[Cybercow]

Maxtor127,

Earlier on, I was just like you, trying out different Dosbox versions with the MT-32 emulation build in.

Unhappy with the resulting quality, I bought a real second hand MT-32.
I can tell you straight up : the difference is like night and day.
The real MT-32 gives you music. The emulator (in it's current state anyway) gives you only noise.

The only MT-32 emulator that's anyware close to being usable is the
one built into SCUMMVM and it still requires the ROMS of course.

Trust me, try to get a real MT-32 on E-bay.
They can be had very cheaply these days and you won't regret it.
I know I don't !