SOUND: There is no sound
Be sure that the sound is correctly configured in the game. This might be done during the installation or with a setup/setsound utility that accompanies the game. First see if an autodetection option is provided. If there is none try selecting Soundblaster or Soundblaster 16 with the default settings being "address=220 irq=7 dma=1" (sometimes highdma=5). You might also want to select Sound Canvas/SCC/MPU-401/General MIDI/Wave Blaster at "address=330 IRQ=2" as music device. The parameters of the emulated sound cards can be changed in the DOSBox configuration file.
If you still don't get any sound set the core to normal in DOSBox configuration and use some lower fixed cycles value (like cycles=2000). Also
assure that your host operating sound does provide sound. In certain cases it might be useful to use a different emulated sound device
like a soundblaster pro (sbtype=sbpro1 in the DOSBox configuration file) or the gravis ultrasound (gus=true).
SOUND: What sound hardware does DOSBox presently emulate?
DOSBox emulates several legacy sound devices:
Internal PC speaker/Buzzer
This emulation includes both the tone generator and several forms of
digital sound output through the internal speaker.
Creative CMS/Gameblaster
The is the first card released by Creative Labs(R). The default configuration places it on address 220. It is disabled as default.
Tandy 3 voice
The emulation of this sound hardware is complete with the exception of the noise channel. The noise channel is not very well documented and as such is only a best guess as to the sound's accuracy. It is disabled as default.
Tandy DAC
Some games may require turning off sound blaster emulation (sbtype=none) for better tandy DAC sound support. Don't forget to set the sbtype back to sb16 if you don't use tandy sound.
Adlib
This emulation is almost perfect and includes the Adlib's ability to almost play digitized sound. Placed at address 220 (also on 388).
SoundBlaster 16 / SoundBlaster Pro I & II / SoundBlaster I & II
By default DOSBox provides Soundblaster 16 level 16-bit stereo sound. You can select a different SoundBlaster version in the configuration of DOSBox. AWE32 music is not emulated as you can use MPU-401 instead (see below).
Disney Sound Source and Covox Speech Thing
Using the printer port, this sound device outputs digital sound only. Placed at LPT1
Gravis Ultrasound
The emulation of this hardware is nearly complete, though the MIDI capabilities have been left out, since an MPU-401 has been emulated in other code. For Gravis music you also have to install Gravis drivers inside DOSBox. It is disabled as default.
MPU-401
A MIDI passthrough interface is also emulated. This method of sound output will only work when used with external device/emulator. Every Windows XP/Vista/7 and MAC OS has got a default emulator compatible with: Sound Canvas/SCC/General Standard/General MIDI/Wave Blaster. A different device/emulator is needed for Roland LAPC/CM-32L/MT-32 compatibility.
SOUND: The sound stutters or sounds stretched/weird.
You may be using too much CPU power to keep DOSBox running at the current speed. You can lower the cycles, skip frames, reduce the sampling rate of the respective sound device, increase the prebuffer. See section 13: "The configuration (options) file"
If you are using cycles=max or =auto, then make sure that there is no background processes interfering! (especially if they access the harddisk) Also look at Section 10. "How to speed up/slow down DOSBox" |
