Sound Blaster AWE 32/64 HOWTO

5. AWE Driver Software

5.1 sfxload

You can load samples in your DRAM on the sound card with the sfxload tool. Note that you can only load one sample file per bank, with bank 0 as default. So, after sfxload synthgs.sbk, the only samples on your sound card are the GS samples. If you want to load additional Sound Font Banks, you have to use the -b option, for example:

# sfxload synthgs.sbk
# sfxload -b1 sample.sbk
# drvmidi sfx.mid

You can load a default Sound Font Bank automatically with installing the module. Just append a line like

post-install sound /usr/bin/sfxload synthgm.sbk

to your /etc/conf.modules file.

See the documentation for more details about sfxload.

5.2 drvmidi

With the drvmidi program, you can use your AWE Driver to play MIDI files. Just specify the name of your midi file after the command:

# drvmidi waltz.mid

See the documentation for more details about drvmidi