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Maes
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An very interesting thing would be to hear how the IBM Music Feature card (scroll down to the mid of the page) would sound with Doom's music, in-game.

It was basically a Yamaha FB-01 module on an ISA card, which meant 8-voice 4-operator FM synthesis (the OPL3 could only do 6 voices in 4-op mode), with a bank of relatively high quality synthesized FM instruments (like those found in Yamaha keyboard of the time, more or less).
Old Post 06-10-09 20:24 #
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Maes
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Aliotroph? said:
To the growing collection of interesting players I submit HTSFMS -- whatever that means.


That one is actually pretty cool :-o

It has operators to spare (apparently up to 8, but the provided banks use up to 5 for some instruments), and as you said the FM tones can be edited as text files. If I figure out how Doom's DMX library GENMIDI lump maps to adlib regs, and what the equivalents are in HTSFMS, then a converter can be made, mapping only two operators of course.

The interesting thing is that there's a module.exe file that can be used as a system midi device (if you also have MIDI Yoke, thus putting the final nail in the coffin of that lame-ass soundfont shit.
Old Post 06-10-09 22:21 #
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Csonicgo
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DOSBOX's new OPL core is great but it still SUCKS at 4-operator synth.

speaking of 4-operator, I gotta pimp me buddy madbrain over at Battle of the bits.

http://battleofthebits.org/player/M...igation.a2m.mp3

Note that this is sampled STRAIGHT from an OPL3. Personally I would play it with xmplay and set the reverb just a little bit. Try not to fall out of your chair from the awesome.

Now I tried to play this song in its original form in dosbox, and it sounded absolutely different. I'm not being picky--- wait, yes I am, and the low/crude quality as it is is unacceptable to me at this moment in time. On a lighter side, it shows just how much ass YAMAHA equipment can kick for years and years- which is why I refuse to play anything else.</consumerwhore>
Old Post 06-11-09 08:41 #
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Aliotroph?
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Maes said:
The interesting thing is that there's a module.exe file that can be used as a system midi device (if you also have MIDI Yoke, thus putting the final nail in the coffin of that lame-ass soundfont shit.


EPIC! Took a while to figure it out since I can't read Japanese.

Here's some Babelfished instructions that make enough sense to get it going.

The weird thing was I had to mismatch the ports to get it to work and I only found that by accident. My control panels says "MIDI Yoke 2" and the config file for the module says "midevno 1" so it makes little sense now. It is a bucket of awesome, though.

Last edited by Aliotroph? on 06-11-09 at 09:33
Old Post 06-11-09 08:55 #
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Maes
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Probably nobody here gives a rat's ass, but the blogger in the OP (Benjamin Anderson) took down his "OPL3 midi" blog entry, after I went there and filled the soundfont's ass with concrete (yeah, I had went on finger-waving for a while) ;-)

Also, it's probably unrelated (wishful thinking....) , but the guy is also a wannabe Mac user. Really, really sad ;-)
Old Post 06-18-09 20:52 #
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fraggle
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Maes said:
It has operators to spare (apparently up to 8, but the provided banks use up to 5 for some instruments), and as you said the FM tones can be edited as text files. If I figure out how Doom's DMX library GENMIDI lump maps to adlib regs, and what the equivalents are in HTSFMS, then a converter can be made, mapping only two operators of course.
The GENMIDI lump is pretty well documented already. Actually, I think I already wrote a .op2 -> GENMIDI converter as part of my recent OPL research. It's pretty trivial.
Old Post 06-18-09 23:28 #
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Maes
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fraggle said:
The GENMIDI lump is pretty well documented already. Actually, I think I already wrote a .op2 -> GENMIDI converter as part of my recent OPL research. It's pretty trivial.


Pretty neat. By looking at the format (and judging by the absence of an equivalent OPL-3 timbre data file) I presume that the OPL3 chip didn't actually add anything except stereo music and the ability to play certain instruments as "double voices" (have this on a Yamaha keyboard, BTW), when used with Doom? Even with the -opl3 parameter?

I think that not even in GM mode, with a Vibra 16 at least, was it possible to make it sound appreciably different (and then again, most MIDI players uses way more than the 6 voices allowed in 4-op mode, so I think it would still work in 2-op mode even in MPU-401 emulation mode).

Last edited by Maes on 06-18-09 at 23:46
Old Post 06-18-09 23:41 #
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Super Jamie
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Bump.

I think for the purposes of casual listening, a soundfont does ok. They're a hell of a lot more accurate than the eawpats or freepats or Microsoft's Windows thing, which all sound like absolute balls. Arguing about the merits of SF2/emu seems almost akin to one of those "analog warmth" arguments mentioned above.

I like the Doom music when played through the emu10k 8Mb SF2, it has a classic sound but is also alot clearer. I imagine a nice crisp commercial soundbank like that is how Bobby envisioned his tracks, but the technology just wasn't there at the time both soundwise and spacewise. I think chipdoom is a rad concept too.

Perhaps the most interesting thing to come from all this is the amount of soundfonts at http://www3.telus.net/anapan8/oldscardemu.htm. I mean seriously, an SF2 made by ripping samples from SNES ROMs? That's a labour of love in anyone's book. This I have to hear!
Old Post 07-03-09 09:31 #
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myk
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Super Jamie said:
eawpats
That's my favorite way to listen to DOOM tracks outside of Doom using its GENMIDI lump through a Sound Blaster 16 or more. Its more rounded, slightly vibrant, sound is very good for the soundtrack, as it gives a somewhat similar feel to Doom and a SB. I tried this OPL3 SF2 but, while it's okay and is more similar to Doom playing its music in various ways, it's not as mood friendly as eawpats because it often sounds too sharp (try D_E1M8, for example). If someone were to make an SF2 based on how Doom plays the music, that'd be more interesting.
Old Post 07-03-09 12:15 #
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Maes
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The funny thing is that certain instruments (especially the many kinds of distorted electric guitars) sound much better with (Doom's) FM timbres than with most soundfonts, especially as there are a lot of effects like vibrato and subtle ADSR (Attack/Decay/Sustain/Release) envelope effects that most soundfonts screw up badly, especially for Guitars.

A prime example of that is simply D_E1M1: it's amazing in how many ways it's possible to get it sounding completely wrong with many soundfonts and different FM timbres, with the lead guitar sounding like everything ranging from an overdriven squarewave banjo to a heavily muted and flanged guitar played in pizzicato, except for a normal heavy metal guitar.

Other tracks suffer from this too, with ambient tracks like D_E1M2 being more robust, but D_E1M1 is the most brutally raped.
Old Post 07-03-09 14:22 #
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Super Jamie
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I dislike how alot of the "loungey" songs turn out with modern sound, even alot of peoples' covers really fall down on these songs too.

However the great Mr Prince did it, they sound fantastic. Distinctly not metal, but still very dark and brooding and full of depressed-sounding horn instruments.

Almost anything that's not OPL3 (be it hardware or ZDoom/DOSBox emulation) ends up sounding too light-hearted, like something you'd hear in an elevator or in a wanky cafe.
Old Post 07-04-09 00:21 #
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