Is DOSBox Staging better than real Retro PC? Part 2 Audio Sound and Music 

Fun fact: Dune uses the HERAD (HERbulot ADlib) sound system created by Remi Herbulot, and the soundtrack was written by Stephane Picq. These two were absolute technical masters of FM synthesis. HERAD is the only sound engine which implements the full feature set of the OPL2 chip, there is functionality which HERAD exposes that just isn't possible anywhere else. The games KGB and MegaRace also use HERAD. The only other person who I think even approaches this greatness is Bobby Prince who wrote the Doom soundtrack, he really knew his way around the Roland SC-55 and Yamaha OPL, being one of the very few PC music composers who bothered to vary the instruments instead of using the pre-made instrument set.

I'd definitely be interested in a comparison between DOSBox Staging vs. DOSBox-X vs. original DOSBox.

I'm very grateful for dosbox staging, it's so much better ! Especially love the Adlib Gold with Surround Module support. It sounds so good, so rich !

That was a great comprehensive overview of the main audio enhancements we've introduced to DOSBox Staging lately! Congrats again, and I'm glad to see you enjoy using "our product" 😎🎧 I particularly liked that you mentioned the mighty Roland D-50, and I've finally learned what the number 32 in the name of the Roland CM-32L represents! I got a good chuckle out of watching the Elite Plus example; not only do we get SOUND in space, now there's REVERB too! 🤯 I 100% agree on the need for the ability to easily adjust the mixer levels while playing a game; it's one of my long-standing pain-points. Well, I guess it's not much of a secret anymore that OSD (On-Screen Display) and On-Screen Notification support is coming to DOSBox Staging in the foreseeable future (think of the user interface of a TV, a modern console, or one of the more polished console emulators). That will include many exciting things, such as a vastly improved keymapper and (drumroll! 🥁) a brand new mixer! Yikes! Stay tuned! 😎🤘

11:30 ... damn, just awesome. What a great combination of the well known tune with the C64 "sound".

I emulate my DOS games and I have to say the future is looking bright. Now, I wish there was some technology that perfectly emulated the CRT experience.

GODS uses those 33 extra effects on channel 10.

Thanks, Phil. This video has taught me two things: One, DOSBox Staging is excellent; And, two, I need a real MT-32.

Great showcase Phil! I love my old hardware, but I also love where we are at with emulation. The work of all these devs is how the DOS era will be preserved forever.

I had the Tandy 1000EX, and at the time had no idea most IBM compatible computers sounded so bad. When Sim Earth came out and required a hard drive, a family friend helped us build a clone to get us on the standard parts path. For a few months games sounded worse, but when the Sound Blaster came out we ordered one.

There is a free and legal (but not open source) alternative to the Roland Sound Canvas VA software. Cakewalk is free and includes a MIDI synth called TTS-1 which just so happens to have licensed the real Sound Canvas instrument set from Roland, it sounds identical. Expect to spend 30-60 mins getting it up and running though. I installed it a few years ago thanks to a RU-vid video I saw, I tested it with DosBox and PrBoom-plus and it worked great. NB: This synth and parts of Cakewalk are really old, my retro gaming PC runs Windows 7 x64 so YMMV. If you have any problems consider running it in a virtual machine.

The newest version of DOSBox is huge step forward.

No matter how many times I hear the Roland MT-32 I'll never get over how incredible games sound with it. It's my dream dos hardware piece, but I would need to win the lottery to be able to afford one. Dosbox staging has made some enormous improvements, massive kudos should go to the team working on it cause these new features are amazing.

I've been following your videos for many years and this is the first time I've seen you in person. (or at least its image). you are a legend of retro computing. Greetings from Brazil

I was blown away by the voice sample of Mach3 when I first played it on my AT-clone (IPC) with only a PC speaker. It was a business only setup, but since my father worked as a city planner, he required high-resolution graphics with as much colours as possible, so while my sound experience was quite poor, the graphics were astounding for a late 80's PC-compatible :-D. Now I own both the Roland MT-32 and the Sound Canvas 55 to have a great MIDI experience whenever I feel the urge to fire up some classics that support it. Just hold while I insert another buckazoid...

That Mach 3 intro instantly took me back to Saturday afternoons on the Tandy HX1000.. nostalgic hit lol

Like many other youngsters I had no access to MT-32 or SC-55 in the early 90s and I had to settle for SoundBlaster clone. But in the early 2000 all those Roland MIDI modules and Gravis Ultrasound cards were dirt cheap and I finally got several of them when DOS gaming was not hip anymore. Everybody was dumping ISA sound cards in favor of Windows 98/XP compatible PCI sound cards and EAX or A3D surround. Now I have LAPC-I, MT-32, SC-55, GUS Extreme and loads of different SoundBlasters and their clone cards. I love my old stuff but I'm still super happy that everyone else can hear those glorious MIDI and FM sounds in emulation as they sounded back in the good ole days. No need to spend fortunes in old hardware!

Its awesome how passionate you are about audio. As always, great to see a vid of yours pop up on the feed 🎉

You are committed to the community as far as you can go, thank you! Install on Mint doesn't work but I'll give it a go this weekend. It may have solved my dosbox issues.

Just disovered your 2 part video on Dosbox, loved it, subscribed !

Man, I remember when I was overjoyed to go from PC Speaker to a sound blaster...how things have changed since those days.

Loving your retro content lately, Phil! 🍻

Discovered this channel and your videos about DosBox (which I've used in the past) and your ultimate 386 gaming PC.. Great! So much fun to watch. Gives me a warm and nostalgic feeling inside.. ; ) When I was young, 486 was my main childhood computer. Space Quest, Quest for Glory, Commander Keen, etc.. We only had PC Speaker sound, but I loved it. But was always a bit jealous when I came over at friends with glorious Sound Blaster and speakers. Makes it sound extra nostalgic and mysterious now.

thanks for all your hard work this is amazing i can't wait for tinkering and experiment with many of my childhood games especially Descent i have some old hardware but this sure helps to preserve so many memories and the spirit of the time

Another great video! Love the large variety and comparisons.

In my opinion, audio is definitively better through emulation. Original sound cards are buggy and noisy, and the emulated version is just the same thing, but better. There are extremely strong arguments in favor of original hardware regarding video output (CRT motion sensation, completely different looks, input lag) but I don't think the same can be applied to sound. That being said, there is a market for vinyl enthusiasts, so if there are people who prefer to hear their music with scratches and noise, perhaps the same thing exists in retro gaming.

That game blaster really has grown on me throughout the years

Lemmings with Adlib at 60% reverb and 60% chorus sounds fantastic ....... it's a total game changer - I'm gonna have to play through Lemmings on DOSbox Staging with the sound setup like that.

That Doom Arachno soundfont did it for me. I'm digging this!!!

Fortunately, emulations are getting better every year. I'm a big fan of the real thing myself, but I certainly can't get the flexibility that emulation gives me when using my old hardware. Thanks for the many years of interesting content.

Fantastic overview of retro sound options, Phil!

Although not common, the Tandy 1000 was sold in Europe. Tandy had stores in various countries, including the Netherlands and Belgium.

Oh man the S-YXG50 sounds lovely.

I played soo much of Bodukan when I was young. I had a IBM computer with a internal speaker. I would never imagine that the game had such sound using the Roland 😊

G'day Phil, Ah the memories of playing Lemmings, especially when you get stuck & frustrated with a level so just let out all 100 & turn them into exploders to watch them go off like Popcorn 😂

Great content Phil. When it comes to PC retro gaming you are truly the king!

19:17 Oh my god... that hit me hard! Privateer was one of the greatest games of my youth. Thank you for the video. I might look this up and revisit some old games :-)

Great video Phil! I would say this is the best way to experience the old software we still love without the issues and cost of having original hardware. As much as I love my old equipment it is such a lovely experience having the games and music applications (trackers) load exceptionally fast and work and sound great. I also liked the comment regarding the lifetime key with the Roland VA SoundCanvas VST "How long will that lifetime key last", this is exactly what I said to them as it needs to keep reauthorizing every 30 days, if they turn the server off I am left with nothing... With regards to the sound, the DOSBOX Staging team are going to keep upgrading the sound so that if you select a SB1.0 or SB16 etc it will sound as close as possible to that card as possible (filter/frequency curve), something to look forward to but it already sounds more or less perfect.

Great to see you on camera Phil

I loved hearing all those midi devices and what devs did with with them back in the day. Great video!

Thanks for another great vid Phil and promoting DosBox as an option in case you don't have the retro HW. Anyway like you said no emulator can replace the joy of dealing with your own physical, noisy AT or ATX retro machine :) For me the way of bringing my preferred Gravis MIDI sound flavour into the Pentium IV Win98 machine (=no ISA slot) was instaling Gravis PAT compiled as 32 MB sound font for SB Live 5.1. Now I have both the Reverb from SB and the sounding of Gravis which is awesome :)

So much effort was paid of - such amazing video ♥

The external MIDI players are nice but they make the games sound weird, the sound quality is kinda disconnected from the visuals. I grew up with Sound Blaster, so the Adlib sound fits DOS games much better imo.

Descent on the Yamaha sound FANTASTIC, I hope someone uploads the entire soundtrack with that... :)

The music of Epic Pinball with GUS was magic.

Nice video Phil. Sound is the most important thing in a DOS gaming PC. Nothing more annoying than playing Lemmings on a bad FM implementation

Excellent video Phil.

Great video, time for an Ultrasound special..😉👍

Descent on the Sound Canvas sounded amazing. I went back recently and played through Descent and it really holds up well.

I remember it back in that days. Nobody of us know how MT-32 actually sounds like, we have been only speculating, so therefore it was such as huge surprise when I have got one later on. It couldn't be emulated via soundfonts (only it's basic presets), as in reality it was virtual analogue synth + PCM with "endless" programmability. SB AWE 32/64 had literally awful basic 1MB ROM GM bank, there was a huge potential in dos games to use it's standard 512KB RAM for custom patches-samples, but I don't remember any single games to utilize it (maybe FFVII). Gravis Ultrasound I remember as super amazing for trackers (MOD, S3M, etc..), it sounds quite warm and natural, however for MIDI it was useless a it didn't had Reverb/ Chorus effect processor. Yamaha XG was phenomenal standard with amazing effects and filters, I always wanted SW1000XG, after I heard SW50XG and XG MIDI I was totally sold on it, later on I manage to get MU100R, anyway it have also GM/GS emulation mode and also "MT-32" preset bank emulation. Anyway best fun is if you try DOS games (GM/GS MIDI) with profi class synth modules like Yamaha Motif-RACK or Roland Fantom XR, it doesn't matter how big soundfont your will upload into DOSBOX these two will blow it out of water.

Very cool stuff. 🙂 My first add in sound card, from 1992-1995, was a Pro Audio Spectrum by Media Vision. That's the card I played most of the games in this video on. It emulated Sound Blaster but also had its own mode that a small number of games supported.

Yeah, I've been trying to get my hands on a Sound Blaster Pro 1, and it's actually harder to find than a SB 2.0 (non-pro). I've literally got handful of the latter that I've picked up over the years whenever I've seen them going for a reasonable price, but I've only seen a few SB Pro 1 cards and they've all been asking or selling for crazy prices. I've seen more of the original SB 1.0 cards go up than SB Pro 1 cards. That Adlib gold card sounds awesome in Dune, I loved that game growing up and it's pretty awesome to hear it in stereo! Ultima VI sounds pretty awesome coming out of a SID too. I'm glad I spent the money to buy a bunch of gear (including among others a MT-32 and SC-55 MkII, both of which I never had growing up). but honestly it seems so much easier to just use DOSBox Staging. If I were getting into retro computing today, I wouldn't bother with real hardware, I'd just use this instead. And even $69 (presumably yankee bucks?) for a SC lifetime key is pretty great compared to what they're selling for these days. Anyway, it was fun to see all the different options for sound in retro games. I'm more into a big electronics phase at the moment, and I don't really have room for both hobbies, so it's great to see there's some great options for getting a real retro sound out of a modern emulator (especially since I'm running a mac as my daily driver these days).

I got to the end of the vid and was like "where's the Dosbox sounds?" Then realised that it was Dosbox all the way though and not the cards he was holding up, damn those sounds are accurate.

This is really cool. I do just like seeing my MT-32 or MU-1000 do their thing while they play music back or the silly message that some games put on the MT-32's screen. If I didn't already have the MT-32, I'd gladly emulate it. I just lucked out and bought one years ago because I'd always wanted one as a kid. It was before the prices really went nuts-- I'd never spend what most people are asking for them now. Same is true for my SCB-55, sw1000xg, SW60xg, DB50xg, AWE32... I just kind of liked to try different MIDI dodads when they were fading from popularity and just scooped them up (a couple of them I bought new, though). So I'm kind of lucky in that I can play games with different modules just to hear what they sound like, but Staging sounds amazing! I mean, I might have to finally semi-retire my real DOS machine and give it a shot. Thanks for the video!

You pretty much nailed it. The hardware is really expensive and if you lucky to have the MT32 ROM's, you all set. As a kid I remember that I was "over the moon" when the first AWE cards supported MT32 emulation. It worked for a bit and would then just lock-up horribly but I missioned through that. The Ensoniq SoundScape to me was also a beautiful card (GM Support) but the Sound Blaster support just was not there. My Dosbox emulation is here right next to my DCS world so I'm happier then a pig-in-poo.

Nice video, I've known DosBox Staging for a while but haven't tried it yet. I play a lot of retro games, I'll give it a try. Thanks for the video.

Awesome, thank you for producing such detailed content.

Another interesting Philday Video.

Holy shit I really needed this video. Setting up a SC-88 Pro in my DJ rig. Thank you!

The attention to detail in sound emulation in dosbox-staging is next level. Now, when it comes to GM, I use the fatboy soundfont. It sounds great for pretty anything I've used it for.

That audio selection for Budokan brings back some memories ^_^

Great video with the latest options, love how it's getting REALLY close to the original experience, minus the signal noise and driver setup hassle. I have a lot of the original hardware (AWE 64 Gold, MT32, SC155), and I am really interested how close it actually is. I might do some comparisons myself to see if I can hear the difference, or measure it in any way.

Great stuff! I'm personally still using MUNT and Coolsoft Virtual Synth along with DOSbox staging but I'm going to try the dosbox staging emulation

DOS game music so totally sick, Phil. Awesome video! 😎😎😎

I have an SC-155 which I am learning to use at the moment, whether for pc dos games(connected to soundblaster Audigy card & rack), as with my other instruments such as the Rm1x, the CS10 keyboard, and the Korg Volca bass all recorded on AW16G managing analog multitrack and midi. I have been at the start for a few months, but I have already been able to take advantage of the SC-155's multitrack allowing existing music to create variations, really cool.

Excellent video comparison!!! Many of the sound cards I had only heard at that time, because they were too expensive to buy (just for gaming). Recently I watched a whole Space Quest III longplay just to enjoy how it sounds on real Roland 32. It seems with this new DOSBox Staging I could experience it for myself - the way it was meant to be.

Sick! Adlib Gold emulation! Gotta replay Dune!

HI Phil, I have been watching your videos for 8 years and you look exactly as you sound !

Great video, Phil. I am also from the same era like you with my 386dx40, but i never had the full overview of all that multiple sound options. I would also go with a soundblaster 16 and a soundcanvas for midi, which i can also use with my Atari St.

In the 90s, a sound card was something that I couldn't afford. I didn't realize that the music and sfx were so capable and I missed out on hearing the highest quality.

It's great indeed! I still prefer my eMac and a real MT32 but wonderful application. You can mix MT-32 for music and Soundblaster for FX in some games. Dosbox Staging supports HiDpi on Macs by the way, 1280x720 HiDpi looks great with the right scanlines shader."

Happy Friday Phil!!!

Good stuff, great content, thanks a bunch, Phil!

One game to always mention whenever the topic of FM synthesis comes up: Tyrian sounds amazing on OPL2, but pretty lacklustre on anything General MIDI. Also, sounds like the Sound Blaster Pro 1 should be a target for hobbyist cloning. The original Sound Blaster got cloned with the Snark Barker, after all.

Phil's making my main PC pump out the retro beatz!

If you already have physical midi modules you can connect them to dosbox with cheep usb to midi cable, it's pretty great.

Somewhere in my closet I know I have an SB AWE 64 Gold. That thing was soooo good for its time. Moved from it to an XFI card from what I remember (which I also still have somewhere).

Phil, it's finally great to see a face to the voice in your recent videos 🙂

I'm definitely going to have to try this. One of the things mainline DOSBox can't handle is how Wizardry 6 and 7 drive the OPL chip, resulting in very glitchy sound. I followed your guide to set up my main PC as a virtual midi synth with the Roland CM-64, SC-55, Yamaha XG, and 2 different sound fonts. Arachno is one of them. I forget the name of the other, but it's huge! But that doesn't necessarily mean better. I do have a physical CM-64, but it's in storage. Don't really have the space to set up a stack of 3 midi modules and switches. Just like I don't really have the space for multiple machines. I've been very impressed with the quality of emulation these days, having followed it since the mid 90s. Now, if only a flavor of DOSBox would add EMU8000 support to fully emulate an AWE32/64, I would be very happy. As it is, I can use PCem or 86Box for that.

Great video as always, Phil! Your coverage on these sorts of things always goes above and beyond! Since your first video I've been tinkering with DosBox Staging, and I am incredibly impressed especially with a 4K monitor and the fakelottes.tweaked shader. For Sound Canvas VA and the Yamaha S-YXG50 VST's, what host program do you use? Still SAVIHost or did you find something else?

I have a DOS/Win98 pc but I find I'm not using it much. I've been using dosbox and recently dosbox-x (much easier to use). Also stumbled onto exodos. So convenient.

I will say that through a really good sound system, that the real thing has a certain lush character to it that Munt or Nuked just don't have. And this is mostly down to the analog stages being different of course. And only partly down to the actual emulation itself. The emulation options are pretty dang good though. And especially though a decent quality DAC are more than good enough. It really makes it not worth seeking out the vintage roland or Gravis hardware. Especially when you can export extended midi to a modern computer from a vintage one, and emulate what ever you want while still using a real 386. I would say this has really come to its own only in the last year or so with things like 86box and PCEm becoming more popular. Its wonderful to hear.

Great video!

Crazy how much of a difference there is!😮

Sooner than later I'm going to have to learn to use Dosbox. Having to say goodbye to original hardware as it fails from age is hard and using the old stuff daily it's just a matter of time. I'm going to definitely get into this this week while on holliday.

Gotta switch to DOSbox staging after these last two videos. This is everything I've been waiting for.

I love skip from pc speaker directly to roland ;D but it also shows how great pc speaker version was so it is still both recognizable and actually good in it's own right

Dosbox-X , another fork of dosbox can connect to the "Real" OPL3 aka YMF262 chip through USB, and a nice GUI for almost every option you need to adjust, on the fly.

Super cool video ❤

1 thing most of these videos leave out: Back in the day every second household had a midi capable keyboard or synth somewhere and you could connect that to your PC as a Wavetable Midi Module in addition to your Soundblaster. You could even use the line in of your soundcard if you didn't have a small stage mixer or something similar. The game music produced by those was as different as the keyboards where.

thanks for new video! I love how you compares all the sound & music options for DOS games. although I have real MT-32 and SC-55mk II and several retro PC for DOS & windows 98, I DO use dosbox emulation/ PCem emulation for DOS games because it is so convenient. I don't have ambition to run every single DOS games for perfect condition. I play old DOS game for my own nostalgic reason - childhood memories. so it doesn't matter which format I use. I appreciate that DOSbox emulates some of fancier sound card like Adlib gold or Gravis ultrasound(I tried to buy it is rare now). It is very easy to run DosBox for Tandy sound or parallel port sound card to bring back my memory without spending too much money. for me I play old DOS games maybe 3 times a month ?! so it is practical to play through DosBox rather than setting up real retro PC, which I already have but I become super lazy LOL

another nice Video, thanks

Is this the beginning of the Phil's Computer Goatee?

Amazing Video!!!

Thank you for the analysis. My only comment is how beautiful that background is, Another World is a masterpiece. P.S. on eBay news, recently surfaced a sealed/boxed GF4Ti 4600, the bid closed on $1200. (pretty much nonexistent item)

Thank You, shared to my Twitter Retro friends :)

Most shocking thing about emulated soundcards for me: The demo Second reality. Music played thru "sounblaster" - a disaster. Music thru "gus"? A miracle ;)

Would be nice to see the Gravis Ultrasound review in your channel... any way, great video

Very interesting, like!

From memory it all sound accurate to my ears, and I have been around since the PC Speaker/ZX Spectrum/Amiga 2000 days. Although indeed with the small touches it sounds better than they did original. First soundcard was a SB Pro 2 followed by a SB AWE64, than a Live! and X-Fi was the last one. To be honest, Creative has been getting a bigger and bigger pain in the behind driver wise to the point that I stopped bothering buying a soundcard altogether.