I am currently trying to get Might and Magic 3 running on optimal settings. Meaning Soundblaster + CM-32L
The game works well with just Soundblaster (well it has issues, but thats a different problem)
And the game also Works well with just CM-32L for the Music.

Once you select Soundblaster+CM-32L in the Menu of the game, the game automatically mutes Line-In. Which means that a mixing becomes impossible via the Orpheus.
Now I have been using MIDITo before to lock the settings (e.g. for Lands of Lore) to just keep a loudness level, but keeping Line-In locked as "On" is something I didn't have to do before.

While it does work, and Midi Sound still arrives via Line-In, unfortunately it's now mixed incorrectly. Left and Right channels receive a diffrent amount of Volume from the Line In, while the Soundblaster volume is evenly spread.

I tried MidiTo in combination with Unisound as well as the Orpheus Orphinit Driver with the same result.

Is there a different solution? Or an additional fix I can apply here as workaround?

Kordanor wrote on 2025-03-19, 23:13:

Is there a different solution? Or an additional fix I can apply here as workaround?

Optimal solution is to get an external mixer. That will give you more control over the mixing volume and you won't have to worry about games muting line-in.

I have never heard of a game muting the line-in. That's pretty terrible. Does this happen in any other game? Maybe it can be patched out?

Using the onboard mixer in this way to combine audio channels is extremely common. I'm surprised that any developer would intentionally do this.

Perhaps it’s a matter of setting a whole byte instead of bit masking a single bit and leaving the others untouched. Programmers can be lazy and from the developer’s perspective “it works, right?”

Kahenraz wrote on 2025-03-20, 07:19:

I have never heard of a game muting the line-in. That's pretty terrible. Does this happen in any other game? Maybe it can be patched out?

Using the onboard mixer in this way to combine audio channels is extremely common. I'm surprised that any developer would intentionally do this.

Maybe it makes more sense for a LAPC-I than it does for a CM-32L, so that the "intended" way is tha it's mixed together in the LAPC-I?

I am not aware of any other game which mutes it. But then again I am not using Roland devices often.

Kahenraz wrote on 2025-03-20, 07:19:

I have never heard of a game muting the line-in.

It does happen with some games. I recall running into the same issue with Dark Forces.

This is partially why I switched to using external mixers. Less headaches to deal with.

Hello guys. If somebody has a well set up Orpheus II under Windows 98, could you share the addresses set (possibly all for Orpheus and GUS devices)? I had issues, tried different things. Now I am not sure what I did but the sound is mostly okay but still getting a lot of pops (easiest to trigger with volume bar, but in games like Heroes 2 also). I tried both of my cards, same thing, so it is not a faulty card or something (and in my DOS machine all works without issues and strange noises). I would really appreciate the help. Thank you!

atomeec wrote on 2025-03-22, 08:58:

Hello guys. If somebody has a well set up Orpheus II under Windows 98, could you share the addresses set (possibly all for Orpheus and GUS devices)? I had issues, tried different things. Now I am not sure what I did but the sound is mostly okay but still getting a lot of pops (easiest to trigger with volume bar, but in games like Heroes 2 also). I tried both of my cards, same thing, so it is not a faulty card or something (and in my DOS machine all works without issues and strange noises). I would really appreciate the help. Thank you!

I don't see any edit option for the post....

So I'll figure it out and share my settings eventually 😀 I have disabled all GUS devices and the popping disappeared. So definitely I am right with the resources. Strange there was no other mention regarding to this (or was described differently and my search didn't show it).

probably there is a resource conflict under windows and that is why interwave is not entirely happy
there is no other explanation for this, could be the dac address - not necessarily an irq/dma

keropi wrote on 2025-03-22, 10:57:

probably there is a resource conflict under windows and that is why interwave is not entirely happy
there is no other explanation for this, could be the dac address - not necessarily an irq/dma

Nothing shows conflict. My initial issue returned (not the pops, but the sound issue under Croc...playing still with the addresses), so still if someone has properly working installation, Resource tab information for every component would be very welcome 😀

atomeec wrote on 2025-03-22, 12:58:

Resource tab information for every component would be very welcome 😀

If you boot in safe mode, I believe it will show you everything that is assigned to different resources.

While in safe mode, you can also "reserve" resources for ISA devices from the device manager to force Windows to use something different, if it keeps allocating something that you don't want it to.

Kahenraz wrote on 2025-03-22, 16:46:

While in safe mode, you can also "reserve" resources for ISA devices from the device manager to force Windows to use something different, if it keeps allocating something that you don't want it to.

This is not the case, you can, and need to set resources manually, and can be done in normal mode as well. The only thing I have noticed in safe mode that Windows stores all devices ever installed in the machine and I have no cluse if that affects normal operation or not (should not but it is not like latter Windows systems). So slowly but getting there.

One thing I can definitely say, installing the latest available WDM drivers resolved my Croc sound issue, which I am super happy about. It was working fine if I changed in Multimedia settings the preferred device to Ultrasound but that is not a real solution if we have such a swiss army knife card, right? However now I can't get GUS working under DOS games and I have no clue 😁

I think it will be easier to start over with a clean Windows installation. However there is light at the end of the tunnel and I am enjoying the ride 😀 Sometimes it gives a lot when have proper time experimenting, of course can be bothersome but at the end the result worths it. An then I can say this is the best sound card not only for DOS but for PC where Windows98 AND DOS also used. I'll come back with more when I have and will try to collect everything in one post, what exactly I have done. If it interests anybody... 😜

@atomeec

Using WDM drivers means it'll bypass all the DOS capabilities of your sound card and use Microsoft's not so good sound blaster emulation via sbemul.sys driver.

It won't matter for windows games but it's terrible for DOS games.
If your priority is DOS games it's best to use VXD drivers, since that'll use the real capabilities of your sound card.