Hello! Welcome to VOGONS!

I will answer your four questions.

JoelD wrote on 2021-09-17, 02:18:

1)Can I use the Live! Card for Midi only and the Onboard card for SFX? If so, I couldn't figure that out so any insight would be amazing (Windows DOS mode, not Pure DOS)

With both sound devices enabled the SB16 emulation for the SB Live! will be disabled. However, there's a way that will allow you to only get MIDI support on the SB Live! card for DOS games while keeping the SB16 Vibra for digitized sound effects.

JoelD wrote on 2021-09-17, 02:18:

2)Is there any way to solve the Hanging Note bug?

NewRisingSun did release a workaround for that bug that plagues certain SB16 revisions. However I don't have any cards (including SB16 devices) that suffers from said bug and don't know if that works on Windows. There are also two types of hanging notes, which one much less frequent but can be annoying for some people.

JoelD wrote on 2021-09-17, 02:18:

3)Is the problem with the Live! card dropping sound common? Is there a solution?

I've heard issues with Build Engine based games when using the SB Live! Ken Silvermann did release a workaround for this. Check the section where it mentions the "echo" crash patch. Also make sure that you have the VXD drivers installed as by default it will install the WDM ones which has many problems.

JoelD wrote on 2021-09-17, 02:18:

4)Should I just buy a new Sound Card and if so which one would be best to use with the SC-88vl connected through gameport?

Buying another ISA sound card is the best choice here. Getting an SB16 with the least amount of bugs (especially regarding the MPU-401) or a SB Pro compatible clone card with MPU-401 support are the only options in this case.

You can also get more information from the following link about the SB16 bugs: Sound Blaster 16 Bugs and Deficiencies Summary

Wow thanks for all the insanely helpful information! It's looking like picking up a new card might just be the best option here which really isn't a big deal that Live! card was cheap. It's also given me other problems like stuttering audio in certain windows games unless I turn hardware acceleration off, waiting literally an hour of the setup to complete each time I re-install windows, so I won't be sad to see it go. It might just be a little too new for the PC it's in. I'll do some more research and take a look on ebay to see what I can find. If you have any specific recommendations that would be awesome! Thanks again so much for all the help you listed!

An ESS AudioDrive 1868F is cheap, readily available and doesn't suffer from any of the bugs that plague Creative's cards.

It will happily coexist with your Vibra as long as you ensure that both cards use different resources (address, IRQ, DMA etc).

JoelD wrote on 2021-09-17, 03:23:

If you have any specific recommendations that would be awesome! Thanks again so much for all the help you listed!

You're welcome!

Some specific recommendations for a good ISA sound card:
- Like Joseph_Joestar said, the ESS AudioDrive ES1868F is a very cheap sound card and has good SB Pro compatibility. The FM synth on these cards are mostly faithful to the Yamaha OPL3.
- There's also the YMF-71x based sound cards with real Yamaha OPL3 FM synth. However they don't support an specific ADPCM format which only about two or three games uses it (most notably Duke Nukem II).

Both cards also supports MPU-401 for you Roland Sound Canvas device without any problems and WSS on Windows for 16-bit mixing.

Awesome, Thank you both so much! I'm just browsing Ebay for an ES1868F now. You were right, there's quite a few listings and they aren't expensive, just gotta pick the best looking with the fastest shipping times.

Found one with a CD Audio Connecter, listed as tested/working and wasn't covered in dust and was under $50. Thank you both again! Can't wait for this thing to show up!

Here's a nice video review of the 1868F by Phil.

You might also want to get the DOS driver pack from here.

That's funny I just finished watching that video. I'll definitely grab that thanks for the link!

One last thing to note. By default, Windows 98SE will install WDM drivers for the 1868F, which are suboptimal.

If you want to play DOS games from within Windows, grab the VxD drivers from Phil's website and install those manually. Specifically, you want the 185xw95.zip archive.

Ya I downloaded those and the DOS drivers he has after watching the video. I learned quickly after starting this PC his website is as useful as this one for finding old drivers, what an amazing dude. Should I go with 185xw95.zip or 189xw98.zip for windows 98? I had downloaded 189xw98.zip but if 185xw95.zip works better for any reason I can throw that in the folder instead.

JoelD wrote on 2021-09-17, 06:50:

Should I go with 185xw95.zip or 189xw98.zip for windows 98? I had downloaded 189xw98.zip but if 185xw95.zip works better for any reason I can throw that in the folder instead.

If I'm remembering correctly, the 185xw95.zip archive contains VxD drivers while 185xw98.zip contains WDM drivers.

You don't want WDM drivers for playing DOS games as they lack FM synth functionality.

Ok Sweet extra thanks for the heads up on that! I'll stick those in the folder for when the card shows up. I'm maybe even thinking of going Win 95 this time around, that's what came installed on this model when I was a kid, It's the same model as the first computer my family got when I was like 11, but upgraded in all the ways.

JoelD wrote on 2021-09-18, 01:00:

I'm maybe even thinking of going Win 95 this time around

Win95 is a solid choice for a Socket 7 system. I use it on my Pentium MMX rig, mostly for nostalgic reasons.

You might want to check out this thread: Windows 95 setup guide for the 2020's