Sound

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Revision as of 19:23, 21 January 2008 by Sryx (talk | contribs) (Added sound page (possibly wrong about the various audio device capibilities))
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DOSBox is capable of emulating various Sound Devices. By emulating the hardware the user can utilize whatever Audio Device they have installed (in whatever configuration), while the DOS Game or Application believes it is running on the emulated hardware. Most of the Sound Devices are capable of existing inside the same computer at the same time, so when configuring DOSBox Sound you need to think of it as separate devices that can be enabled or disabled. A game will likely only use a single device at a time, so you don't gain much in the way of performance by having only one device enabled. DOSBox also makes sure the appropriate environment variables are defined for each device so game audio device auto-detection usually works.

DOSBox can emulate

Sound Blaster

The Sound Blaster is widely considered the most popular audio device standard. In the DOS era of games, it came in a few editions. The difference between each is largely about audio quality and compatibility. In most cases sb16 is the best option. Here is a list of the different capabilities of the various Sound Blaster cards.

Device Name Bits Stereo
none Sound Blaster Emulation disabled n/a n/a
sb1 Sound Blaster ver. 1.0 8 no
sb2 Sound Blaster ver. 2.0 8 no
sbpro1 Sound Blaster Pro ver. 1.0 8 yes
sbpro2 Sound Blaster Pro ver. 2.0 8 yes
sb16 Sound Blaster 16 16 yes


Gravis Ultrasound

Tandy Sound System

Disney Sound Source

PC-Speaker