This article applies to both the AWE 32 and AWE 64 cards, since the AWE 64 is

	This article applies to both the AWE 32 and AWE 64 cards, since the AWE 64 is
	nothing more than a slightly improved version of the AWE 32.

	Even though they are one of the best DOS-compatible sound cards, the
	SoundBlaster AWE cards have their quirks when it comes to MIDI and FM. Here
	below I list a few observations I made during the years.

	====== MPU-401 ======
	There is no real MPU-401 under port 330h. Applications are expected to use
	the EMU8000 chip directly instead (usually via I/O 620h). However, a funky
	MPU-401 emulation layer is provided for desperate people, it requires you to
	load AWEUTIL as a TSR. AWEUTIL uses some NMI magic to catch I/O events on
	port 330h, and translates them into EMU8000 messages. This works only with
	real-mode applications, and even then - not every one. I noticed for example
	that if I try to use XMS calls right after having output a note to AWEUTIL,
	the driver will crash (and my PC reboots). If I wait 2ms between AWEUTIL
	calls and XMS calls, then everything works fine. Also, it won't run correctly
	on computers that do not support NMI. All this to say: don't count on AWEUTIL
	as a 100% reliable method to get music (I wasn't able to make it work with
	Wacky Wheels for instance, no regrets though, since Wacky Wheels MIDI is
	awful anyway - the OPL music in this game is much brighter).

	Additional note: for the above-mentionned MPU-401 AWEUTIL emulation to work,
	the card MUST have the "MFBEN" jumper (JP4) set. This appears to be
	responsible for generating NMIs. If you do NOT wish to emulate MPU-401 via
	AWEUTIL, then I'd advise to unset the MFBEN jumper - otherwise you might
	experience crashes sometimes when an application tries to access the I/O port
	330h (a message appears on the screen then, saying something like "no NMI
	handler found" or so).

	====== FM MUSIC ======
	The FM part is not a fully standard OPL3 either (or at least - not directly
	wired on the I/O port 388h like the original YMF262 should be). It works
	pretty well and all, but unlike real OPL3, it needs to be activated
	("rerouted?") by the AWEUTIL driver first (AWEUTIL /S is enough, no need for
	the TSR part). Note, that at least some AWE boards have a bug that makes FM
	either muted or noisy whenever an application plays with the EMU chip. The
	only solution to restore proper FM sound is to re-run AWEUTIL /S again. I
	observed this bug on two SB64 cards: a CT4500 and a CT4390 ("Gold"). I did
	not notice it on a SB32 CT2760.

	====== CUSTOM SOUND FONTS UNDER DOS ======
	Applications that use the AWE chip directly cannot be forced into using a
	specific sound font, they have the total control over sound fonts (and most
	of the time, they simply use the default ROM sound font). However, it you use
	the AWEUTIL MPU-401 emulation (with all the troubles and limitations already
	explained), you can load a custom sound font into your AWE card so it won't
	use the 1 MB ROM fonts. This can be interesting if your card has more than
	1 MB of RAM (for example the AWE64 Gold card comes with 4 MB of RAM, while
	many other models allow to extend RAM with additional SIMM chips). To load
	your custom sound font, your will have to find a suitable *.SBK font file
	first, since AWEUTIL doesn't load SF2 fonts. Then, simply replace the
	synthgm.sbk file from your SoundBlaster AWE drivers directory by your own SBK
	file, and you're good to go. Note, that it can take a longish time for
	AWEUTIL to load the sound font into AWE RAM, so your system's boot time will
	be delayed by that much. On my PII system, AWEUTIL takes about 6s to load a
	2 MB SBK file into the SoundBlaster AWE 64 Gold.

	====== BOOT CONFIG ======
	Finally, here I provide my autoexec.bat & config.sys lines related to the SB
	gold initialization, I hope it will help:

	=== CONFIG.SYS ===
	DEVICE=C:\SYSTEM\SB64\CTCM.EXE

	=== AUTOEXEC.BAT ===
	SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E MODE:0
	CD C:\SYSTEM\SB64
	CTCU /S
	DIAGNOSE /S
	AWEUTIL /S
	REM Uncomment the memory hog below only if desperate for MPU-401 emulation
	REM AWEUTIL /EM:GM /KEY-
	MIXERSET /P /Q
	CD \

	Note, that I have no BLASTER variable set at all. The BLASTER variable is
	automatically set by the DIAGNOSE driver. On my system, I obtain this:
	C:\SET BLASTER
	BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6

	SBK sound fonts
	AWE64FAQ.txt
	SoundBlaster AWE 64 Gold Install CD.7z