can i change the sound volume on MS-DOS games?

seems that the midi volume seems low on all MS-DOS games... how can i change it?

Hi @Joaquim. It depends on the setup and game. Some DOS games provide in-game options to adjust gameplay and music volumes. Some games user can only toggle between sound effects or music. Here on real hardware, of course external speakers have a physical volume control.

My main DOS system uses SoundBlaster (DOS drivers for the Creative Sound Blaster Live! cards), running SBEMIXER.EXE allows setting sound volume. If game is too quiet or loud, exit game, run SBEMIXER.EXE to change volume, restart game. Recommend checking out the software that came with your sound driver.

Just confirmed, SBEMIXER.EXE mentioned above allows setting separate volume levels for MASTER, Voice, CD and MIDI. It's quite nice if you're planning a soundcard purchase for DOS.

There is usually a mixer to raise the volume of the MIDI synthesizer or lower the other volume lines to compensate. The issue that I always have is that Adlib sound seems to always get lumped together in the mixer with the master volume or digital sound. Some games allow you to control this volume separately in-game, but not always. The best solution I found was to use a dedicated card for Adlib and route it into the Line-In of whatever card is meant to be used as the primary. This way you can control the Adlib volume by the Line-In slider of your audio mixer.

can i use the 'SBEMIXER.EXE' if my DOS sound driver is VMDSound?

Hi @Joaquim. For sure not, probably not with VDMSound either :)

Maybe there's an old VDMSound forum for help. You may want to post your exact setup so others can provide better assistance.

Sorry i can't help, never had much success with VDMSound. Personal preference, and privilege, is to play DOS games on real hardware with authentic drivers.

hi @Wunderbar98.. at least i have sound on DOS games without using DOSBox or something

Agree @Joaquim, sound good, without it games that use sound to cue the player or provide feedback are almost unplayable. The VDMSound config does not appear to provide volume options and i believe the project is dead. There was a VDMSound update 2 or something, not sure whether it would make a difference.

In the What's New section:
DirectSound support for audio mixing
https://forum.hardwareheaven.com/threads/dos-games-static-win2k-xp-vdmsound-project-2-0-4.715/

If you're running an NT-based system, an alternative to try is SoundFX 2000 (no personal experience):
SoundFX 2000 is THE sound card emulator for DOS programs running on Windows XP, 2000 and NT4.
http://www.softsystem.co.uk/products/soundfx.htm

Good luck with your sound volume quest.

@Joaquim

When you play DOS games in Windows, the Volume Control program (sndvol32.exe) should be enough. 

When you are running in pure DOS, you should look for a mixer/settings program included with the DOS drivers you use.

SoundFX  don't work with sound effects(tested).. thanks for all

thanks for all to all

On 8/4/2022 at 11:03 PM, Joaquim said:

can i change the sound volume on MS-DOS games?

seems that the midi volume seems low on all MS-DOS games... how can i change it?

What about this? I found this guy on FreeDOS mailing list:

https://www.bttr-software.de/products/sbmix/ (this is just utility, there is also universal dos driver here: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=72553 )

 

System requirements

Intel i8086 microprocessor (or compatibles)

Microsoft MS-DOS 2.0 (or compatibles)

SoundBlaster Pro sound card (or compatibles) with 'BLASTER' environment variable correctly set

Edited August 25, 20223 yr by cyberluke