Original Dos (OPL SoundBlaster 220) Heretic/Hexen music pack (for fans)

This website http://opl3.cozendey.com/ has an OPL-3 emulator with java source code available for download under the GNU Lesser General Public License.

One of the examples you can listen to in the demonstration applet is Doom E1M1.

Porsche Monty said:

For 11.025Hz -> 11.000Hz = -0.039 semitones (approx)
For 22.050Hz -> 11.000Hz = -12.039 semitones (approx)
For 49.716Hz -> 50.000Hz = 0.099 semitones (approx)

Do the OPL chips even allow such a fine degree of frequency control? The fact that they use digitally stored waveforms themselves puts some limits on how finely they can be tuned.

This is intended to circumvent precisely that potential limitation. The signal will still be generated at 49.716Hz , but the semitones (or whatever other measurement you choose, that's just what I personal favor because I work with specific analog equipment) of said signal will be shifted prior to resampling. The shifting should be relative to a control semitone, which's exactly the multiple closest to the target.

I don't know how accurate the stored waveforms are (there is some info on that Java page though), but the highest frequency the chip can produce without distorting the samples themselves will be 49716/BaseSampleLength, and the smallest audible change in frequency can only be accomplished in increments of 1 or 2 samples at a time, until you get down to the point that you play only a single full waveform in one second (again, not sure if the real thing can actually do that).

Edit: Wiki page on OPL2 says that you can select the base frequency with a 10-bit precision, and then you have a choice of 3-bit octaves. Combined, this gives you 13-bit precision or 8192 steps over 8 octaves. Since an octave has 12 semitones, you can have at most 12/1024 semitone resolution.

I just stumbled upon this thread while I was kicking myself here with DOSBox and not being able to get a "clean" recording of ANY track. Chops, clips, etc. Must be the settings I am using for DOSBox.

Anywhoo, opie, darn close, if not perfect, recordings. That is how I remember them sounding, save some exceptions (E1M1). For me, Sound Blaster sounds the closest.
Do you mind telling me what settings you used in DOSBox (I am actually using D-Fend for easier config) for Heretic and got it to not chop, clip etc while recording?

Have other, better, results been obtained since this thread? Heretic is the one game I'm desperately trying to find the soundtrack to as "it used to sound like".

I can't figure out Timidity + Eawpats :( I just want some darn mp3s :)

fishbone said:
Do you mind telling me what settings you used in DOSBox (I am actually using D-Fend for easier config) for Heretic and got it to not chop, clip etc while recording?

If you asked me - here is my config in dosbox: http://hotfile.com/dl/118540545/59da578/dosbox-0.74.conf.html

Awesome! Many thanks, I will try it out.

fishbone said:

Awesome! Many thanks, I will try it out.

If you encounter any problems or want same for Doom2/Hexen/Strife - please tell me. Also you can create such packs manually with dosbox and any sound recording software like goldwave or soundforge.


Sorry for late answer - my subscription to this thread has been deleted somehow.

I'm good with Doom 2 or Strife but if you have the Hexen soundtrack, that would be awesome!

fishbone said:

I'm good with Doom 2 or Strife but if you have the Hexen soundtrack, that would be awesome!

Ok - I will create OST for Hexen

Thanks a lot!The old,vintage sound...

As of 1.9.7, Doomsday supports custom DLS format soundfont's via the 'music-soundfont' console command.

So you could enter something like:

music-soundfont :c:\somewhere\on\my\harddrive\soundfontthatsoundslikesoundblaster220.dls

Naturally, you have to supply the soundfont.

A little harder to use than ZDoom's menu. But one can load any DLS soundfont (no other format, currently) they want rather than the hardcoded handful ZDoom supports.

Vermil said:

As of 1.9.7, Doomsday supports custom DLS format soundfont's via the 'music-soundfont' console command.

So you could enter something like:

music-soundfont :c:\somewhere\on\my\harddrive\soundfontthatsoundslikesoundblaster220.dls

Naturally, you have to supply the soundfont.

A little harder to use than ZDoom's menu. But one can load any DLS soundfont (no other format, currently) they want rather than the hardcoded handful ZDoom supports.

Where I can find soundfontthatsoundslikesoundblaster220.dls ?

Also I should say, that I am not fully satisfied with ZDoom/GZDoom OPL emulation (just compare Heretic's E1M9 from ZDoom opl emulation and my pack (dosbox emulation) to see the difference).

Will Doomsday 1.9.7 with soundfontthatsoundslikesoundblaster220.dls produce same results, as Dosbox do?

P.S. Anyway, grabbing music from dosbox to "wav" file and adding this wav files as addons to Doomsday/GZDoom is acceptable for me.

Good luck finding an "OPL-like" soundfont in DLS format. It might be the Microsoft standard; but everybody is using SF2 instead.

Also, the forum's resident squad of OPL purists will be by soon to explain how soundfonts will never be able to replicate the real thing.

Vermil said:

A little harder to use than ZDoom's menu. But one can load any DLS soundfont (no other format, currently) they want rather than the hardcoded handful ZDoom supports.

Heh, hardcoded handful.

None of the MIDI synths offered by ZDoom are hardcoded. You can always change which soundfont they use, or in the case of the OPL emulator, you can reprogram it with the GENMIDI lump.

The others are MIDI drivers installed on your system. ZDoom will detect them and so you can choose them if so you want. Any hardcodedness on their part cannot be blamed on ZDoom. Note that the default MIDI driver on Windows, "Microsoft GS wavetable SW synth", can have its soundfont changed. You need to find GM.dls and replace it with another DLS soundfont. Of course it'll affect the rest of your MIDI players. If you install additional MIDI drivers, they'll be detected, too. You can use BASSMIDI driver, for example. And if you somehow uninstall all system-provided MIDI drivers, then ZDoom will also detect that there aren't any available and you'll only have the choice between FMOD and the ZDoom ones.

Console variables for reference:
FMOD: use snd_midipatchset to give path to DLS soundfont to use.
FluidSynth: use fluid_patchset to give path to SF2 soundfont to use.
GUS (aka internal TiMidity): use midi_config to point to TiMidity configuration file to use. It supports SF2 and GUS .pat files.
TiMidity++ (aka external TiMidity or TiMidity4ZDoom): use timidity_exe to point to where you installed it, and it'll use the timidity.cfg file in the same directory. It supports SF2, DLS and GUS .pat files.

fishbone said:

I'm good with Doom 2 or Strife but if you have the Hexen soundtrack, that would be awesome!

UPDATE: added Hexen OST and GZDoom versions of Heretic OST


Heretic OST:


MP3 (20 MB):

Doomsday: https://www.rapidshare.com/files/1067167271/DOOMSDAY_HERETIC_DOS_MUSIC_MP3.pk3

GZDoom: https://www.rapidshare.com/files/2482403445/GZDOOM_HERETIC_DOS_MUSIC_MP3.pk3


WAV (230 MB):

Doomsday: https://www.rapidshare.com/files/4165517182/DOOMSDAY_HERETIC_DOS_MUSIC_WAV.7z

GZDoom: https://www.rapidshare.com/files/1005699634/GZDOOM_HERETIC_DOS_MUSIC_WAV.7z


Here is the sample: http://rapidshare.com/files/368052524/good_sample.rar



Hexen OST:


Sample (loading music (orb), map21 and map29):

Sycraft (for comparison): https://www.rapidshare.com/files/2345381496/SAMPLE_SYCRAFT.zip

Dos OPL Soundblaster 220 (from my packs): https://www.rapidshare.com/files/865982625/SAMPLE_DOS_SB_220.zip


Full pack (MP3, 75 MB):

Doomsday: https://www.rapidshare.com/files/2442854251/DOOMSDAY_HEXEN_DOS_MUSIC_MP3.pk3

GZDoom: https://www.rapidshare.com/files/3730174271/GZDOOM_HEXEN_DOS_MUSIC_MP3.pk3


Full pack (WAV, 720 MB):

Doomsday: https://www.rapidshare.com/files/1068173858/DOOMSDAY_HEXEN_DOS_MUSIC_WAV.7z

GZDoom: https://www.rapidshare.com/files/3063282940/GZDOOM_HEXEN_DOS_MUSIC_WAV.7z


Enjoy:)

I would be interested in an OPL music pack if somebody was to capture it from an actual sound card and not emulation.

Mike.Reiner said:

I would be interested in an OPL music pack if somebody was to capture it from an actual sound card and not emulation.

I'd do it but that would take 5 minutes past forever.

Mike.Reiner said:

I would be interested in an OPL music pack if somebody was to capture it from an actual sound card and not emulation.

Sorry for late answer, but somebody already did this:

Doom: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL44ECABBB2F44C6F7

Heretic: https://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FFA9A564103330CE

Hexen: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5E8E620BC2E28125

This is a long shot, but does anyone have a link to Doom 2 and Strife OPL soundtracks? Also the few unique tracks from Final Doom would be an amazing bonus. It's been tough to rip these from in-game since ZDoom's "writeopl" command has been broken...

The Heretic and Hexen ones sound great btw, thanks for posting! Also the Doom OPL soundtrack linked on that youtube channel is great, lots of other great Adlib tunes there.

Hehe, first time I hear about that writeopl command. Maybe it works on some older ZDoom version?

Also, you could use Dosbox to rip it I believe, just record a video with the functionality they have and rip out the audio.

VGA said:

Also, you could use Dosbox to rip it I believe, just record a video with the functionality they have and rip out the audio.

I did that with Doom 1's soundtrack about 10 years ago, and while the result was good it took lots of time to record (in 1:1 time), edit, and encode each track. I figured someone else had already done that for Doom 2 if not Strife, hence why I asked.

JPL said:

This is a long shot, but does anyone have a link to Doom 2 and Strife OPL soundtracks? Also the few unique tracks from Final Doom would be an amazing bonus. It's been tough to rip these from in-game since ZDoom's "writeopl" command has been broken...

The Heretic and Hexen ones sound great btw, thanks for posting! Also the Doom OPL soundtrack linked on that youtube channel is great, lots of other great Adlib tunes there.

For now I have next tracks from Doom2: map01/02/07/08/09/10/18/20/28/31/32

Should I upload them for you?

JPL said:

I did that with Doom 1's soundtrack about 10 years ago, and while the result was good it took lots of time to record (in 1:1 time), edit, and encode each track. I figured someone else had already done that for Doom 2 if not Strife, hence why I asked.

It's very nice to hear, that people are interested in this, so I can create those tracks for you if needed (I mean Doom2 tracks which are not listed above, and also Strife tracks). Should I do it?

VGA said:

Also, you could use Dosbox to rip it I believe, just record a video with the functionality they have and rip out the audio.

Use CTRL-F6 for "Start/Stop recording sound output to a wave file (goes to capture folder)" (more details here http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Special_Keys )

theleo_ua said:

For now I have next tracks from Doom2: map01/02/07/08/09/10/18/20/28/31/32

It's very nice to hear, that people are interested in this, so I can create those tracks for you if needed (I mean Doom2 tracks which are not listed above, and also Strife tracks). Should I do it?

Yes, I'd be most grateful, and suspect others on here would be too! Thanks again for the Heretic and Hexen ones.

JPL said:

Yes, I'd be most grateful, and suspect others on here would be too! Thanks again for the Heretic and Hexen ones.

Doom2 map01/02/07/08/09/10/18/20/28/31/32 + Doom1 ones: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BygbyP4_qEiTVDdyUmJVY3YtZTg/view?usp=sharing

Will record other tracks in a nearest future. But before I do this, could you please check this: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7C23A0444911513D . Tell me please, if this is enough for you (so I should not record them)

JPL said:

Thanks again for the Heretic and Hexen ones.

Thanks, have a nice playing:)

You can clearly hear the notes getting cut off and ruining the song when you use the Adlib music posted in the OT. I remember having a different soundcard back in 1996 that didn't butcher the music as much.

JPL said:

This is a long shot, but does anyone have a link to Doom 2 and Strife OPL soundtracks? Also the few unique tracks from Final Doom would be an amazing bonus. It's been tough to rip these from in-game since ZDoom's "writeopl" command has been broken...

Randy fixed it.

For those who care, I made an OPL3 (DOSBox) rip of the non-Doom2 Final Doom tracks:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ag48rtqclg49wsk/final_doom_opl3.zip?dl=0

ID3 tags with track names (taken from the wiki) and musician credits.