Oldschool music? (Instead of standard MIDI stuff)

I thought I made a thread about this a while back, but I've searched for it with no results.

With that said, does anyone remember how the Doom music used to sound back when the "Soundblaster" cards were really popular? I'm especially referring to the Windows 3.1/etc. days.

It seems like ever since we've been stuck with MIDIs, the music hasn't sounded the same. I swear I can remember a similar topic that I created and others were giving me suggestions for changing sound settings in ZDoom to make it sound somewhat similar to how the music sounded back then, but as I said, I can't even find that thread.

A great example is found within the SNES Doom's music, which is nowhere near as clear as the PC counterpart was but still gives a good idea of what it sounded like .. try E1M1.
http://www.doom2.net/~doomdepot/music.html#snes

I understand that you can download a high-quality PC version of E1M1's track, but it STILL doesn't sound like it did back in the "Soundblaster" days or even quite like the SNES versions!

One specific part of the song is great for comparing..
0:04 into the SNES version's (from Doom Depot)
0:04-0:05 into the PC version's (from Doom Depot)

In the SNES versions, that part sounds a lot more drawn out/more like the old version that I'm referring to. Can anyone see what I'm talking about here?

So does anyone know of any way you could possibly emulate it? It seems like my soundcard back then was Soundblaster 32 or something like that.


Sorry for such a silly thread .. this question has been aching me for a long time, though, and I've still not found a good solution yet to get the oldschool music back. It's a shame that the music sounded so much darker/better back then, and today even with our technology it's so hard to replicate!

Use DOSBox, run SETUP.EXE, and set the music device to "Sound Blaster".

You can also get the same/similar effect in ZDoom. Go under Sound Options and somewhere in there is an option to use OPL emulation. It only works with actual MUS files though, if a map uses an actual MIDI files it won't work.

Too bad it doesn't fit anymore the enhanced FPS, translucency, high resolution, of ZDoom.

Bloodshedder said:

Use DOSBox, run SETUP.EXE, and set the music device to "Sound Blaster".

Unfortunately I only have the IWAD files for the games and I use those to run in ZDoom, so using DOSBox isn't an option unless I just download the shareware version or something .. but that'd be kind of crappy. :(

Lamneth said:

You can also get the same/similar effect in ZDoom. Go under Sound Options and somewhere in there is an option to use OPL emulation. It only works with actual MUS files though, if a map uses an actual MIDI files it won't work.

How exactly do you get the MUS files though?

printz said:

Too bad it doesn't fit anymore the enhanced FPS, translucency, high resolution, of ZDoom.

LOL yeah that's what sucks so much .. we have all these new graphical enhancements and such, yet of all things, the MUSIC doesn't sound like it used to. WTF!?

Download the Doom shareware and ONLY copy Doom.exe where your IWAD is.

MUS files are by default in DOom.wad and Doom2.wad and probably TNT.wad and PluTonIa.wAd.

I meant that, with old-style music emulation, ZDoom sounds funny with old music but new graphics and such effects.

This has really been beaten to death, and then some, but here goes anyway: assuming that you mean AdLib/Soundblaster music to be the "true oldskool sound everybody's longing for", then the closest you can get to it without a real Soundblaster/Adlib and vanilla doom, on a modern Windows XP system, is to use a source port with OPL emulation, or DOSBox with an emulated Soundblaster/Adlib.

On Windows 95/98, things are more forgiving and if you have an ISA or PCI card with an OPL2/OPL3 in standard config (base I/O 0x388-0x389 and "driverless"), then you can use vanilla Doom directly.

NOtice that having an OPL2/OPL3 card is NOT enough to get oldskool sound via source ports, because the OPL chips are used through Windows MIDI drivers, not "directly" by Doom (and I think no source port can actually drive the OPL chips directly). Unfortunately, the stock FM timbres used by Windows for OPL-generated MIDI sound like crap. X32 Doom kind of crap.

If on the other hand you hold GUS, AWE32 Wavetable or Roland MT-32 music to be more "oldskool", you can use Timidity++ with the right set of patches: same exact result.

Thanks for the help, guys .. ZDoom with OPL @ 49716 HZ sample rate sounds pretty close to the original. It's not identical, but it's close enough for me!

If you guys want to hear some major changes, try MAP05 or MAP06 on Doom 2 (Waste tunnels, Crusher) and listen how the music changes when you change from simple MIDI to OPL emulation .. you get a much more powerful sound that's unlike anything MIDI can produce. It's a shame we're stuck with this crappy MIDI-quality music when the "old" stuff was so much better.

Thanks again - this has helped alot.

Same for D_E1M7. Or D_E3M8 (my favourite Doom 1 music). Heretic musics sound better now than how they used to, however. Try MUSE2M4 - modern style, and MUSE2M4 - classic style. Notice how the voice part (most musical, melodious) is lost. I believe old-style music can't render too many instruments at once.

You might have noticed I'm not quite schooled at sounds, unlike other posters here.

Well duh, an AdLib (OPL2) in standard mode could play 9 simultaneous voices. Compare this to tracker music which typically was 4 or 8 tracks. Sure, some MIDI files had more than 16 "tracks", but these are seldom played at the same time, so 9 voices usually does the trick.

The OPL3 could play even more: a whooping 18 2-operator voices at your disposal, really hard to top except perhaps with very complex/experimental compositions.

There was ofc the infamous OPL3 4-operator mode which went essentially underutilised, and had the nasty side-effect of leaving you with just 6 voices :-(

I always wondered what OPL emulation meant... that's pretty sweet.

What's even sweeter is that the OPL should be, at least in theory, perfectly emulatable (is that a word?), since the FM synthesis was performed digitally via DDS (Direct Digital Synthesis).

E.g. instead of having banks of analog oscillators (which would result in different sound from chip to chip, variations with temperature etc.), it used digitized sinusoidal forms, as well as other waveforms, and did all modulation/synthesis/effects entirely in digital.

It was then connected to an external DAC which worked at a fixed frequency of 49716 Hz.

The frequency you see under ZDoom OPL settings (49716 Hz) is exactly the sampling/synthesis frequency of the OPL chip, carried on to the external DAC. Setting it below the normal value of 49 KHz results in serious distortion, since it affects not only the final output sampling rate, but all synthesis before it, so some things may sound totally wrong.

Maes said:

What's even sweeter is that the OPL should be, at least in theory, perfectly emulatable (is that a word?), since the FM synthesis was performed digitally via DDS (Direct Digital Synthesis).

E.g. instead of having banks of analog oscillators (which would result in different sound from chip to chip, variations with temperature etc.), it used digitized sinusoidal forms, as well as other waveforms, and did all modulation/synthesis/effects entirely in digital.

It was then connected to an external DAC which worked at a fixed frequency of 49716 Hz.

The frequency you see under ZDoom OPL settings (49716 Hz) is exactly the sampling/synthesis frequency of the OPL chip, carried on to the external DAC. Setting it below the normal value of 49 KHz results in serious distortion, since it affects not only the final output sampling rate, but all synthesis before it, so some things may sound totally wrong.

Damn dude, you know TOO much about this stuff, LOL. :)

Maes said:

What's even sweeter is that the OPL should be, at least in theory, perfectly emulatable (is that a word?), since the FM synthesis was performed digitally via DDS (Direct Digital Synthesis).

E.g. instead of having banks of analog oscillators (which would result in different sound from chip to chip, variations with temperature etc.), it used digitized sinusoidal forms, as well as other waveforms, and did all modulation/synthesis/effects entirely in digital.

It was then connected to an external DAC which worked at a fixed frequency of 49716 Hz.

The frequency you see under ZDoom OPL settings (49716 Hz) is exactly the sampling/synthesis frequency of the OPL chip, carried on to the external DAC. Setting it below the normal value of 49 KHz results in serious distortion, since it affects not only the final output sampling rate, but all synthesis before it, so some things may sound totally wrong.

jacks off X-D

printz said:

jacks off X-D

No words are enough to express how I feel about this :sniff:

I'm tempted to save that flash program (or any remake if it's COPYRIGHTED) on the first social-networking account I'm gonna make. :P

Great music, big coincidence that I recently heard it on the radio, as same unremixed version...

Thanks for the link.

Wow, it sure brings back memories... Sound Blaster version of "Sign of Evil" (e1m8) means something to me since I was 9 years old, and I feared like hell those Barons of Hell... Hiding behind their "throne" to kill them while they couldn't burn my ass. Then to die in that teleporter.

D_runnin "Running from Hell" had that channel problem (?) where the guitar was sometime cut during the solo (I thought it was normal back in time). And TNT02 sounds as "dirty" as before. =O

Thanks a lot for those infos, I never really searched thought ZDOOM 's menus (since I mostly use Legacy).

chubz said:

Unfortunately I only have the IWAD files for the games

So you don't own DOOM then?

You don't deserve opl jerk

I find it a bit suspicious as well... I doubt there's many (if any) legal ways to get a full IWAD without DOOM.exe or DOOM2.exe.

yomoneyboat said:

I find it a bit suspicious as well... I doubt there's many (if any) legal ways to get a full IWAD without DOOM.exe or DOOM2.exe.

Mac Doom? :-p

@printz: I don't think there will be any problems :-)

We're simple folk... we don't know 'bout no Macdoom...

In all seriousness, though, good point.

yomoneyboat said:

I find it a bit suspicious as well... I doubt there's many (if any) legal ways to get a full IWAD without DOOM.exe or DOOM2.exe.

Never heard of Doom Collector's Edition?

MikeRS said:

Never heard of Doom Collector's Edition?

Yes, in fact I own it.

What I really should have said was: an iD-approved executable.

leileilol said:

So you don't own DOOM then?

You don't deserve opl jerk

Back in the day I had copies of Doom and Doom 2 on diskettes, but those copies (as well as other games such as Wolfenstein 3d, Nitemare 3d, Corridor 7, etc.) were lost in the process of upgrading computers over the years.

I got the Ultimate Doom IWAD from a friend and got the Doom 2 IWAD from a CD version I purchased several years ago for $10 at WalMart. (Yes, I should have waited for the Collector's Edition, but I don't care much for Final Doom .. I played it on Playstation & hated it.)

So yes, I HAVE owned copies of Doom and I DO own a CD version of Doom 2 - I don't see what's wrong with getting a Ultimate Doom IWAD from a friend when I used to have the game back on my old computer.

I've been playing Doom since I was a kid, so believe me, I've paid id Software the money they deserve for the kickass game that holds up so well even today. I still play the Doom games more than any other game to be honest. Doom forever!

Maes said:

Mac Doom? :-p

@printz: I don't think there will be any problems :-)

No, Sega Doom. Also, the link doesn't work. Invalid IP used. Too bad.

Well, in any case, since upgrading from a previous version of Doom/Doom2.exe to v1.9 can be tricky and time consuming (mostly locating the correct patches) you could just use the v1.9 shareware Doom.exe: it's exactly the same for Shareware/Doom/Ultimate Doom/Doom 2/Final Doom (it adapts itself to the IWAD found. If more than one IWADs are found, I believe DOOM.WAD takes priority over the others, then DOOM2.WAD etc.

@printz: huh? Which link is broken, exactly?

Maes said:
it's exactly the same for Shareware/Doom/Ultimate Doom/Doom 2/Final Doom (it adapts itself to the IWAD found. If more than one IWADs are found, I believe DOOM.WAD takes priority over the others, then DOOM2.WAD etc.

The order is Plutonia, TNT, Doom2, Doom, and then Doom1 (as applicable). There are actually three variants, but indeed the shareware's and DOOM II's are the same file, just renamed.

Thanks. BTW, I think you can also play TNT and Plutonia with the Doom2 engine by renaming them to Doom2.WAD, or, viceversa, use Doom2.wad with "tnt.exe" or "plutonia.exe" by renaming it.

Better if doom.exe becomes tnt.exe and its text content is edited to represent TNT: Evilution. It won't be able to replicate it, because string lengths in Doom/Doom 2 are different to TNT. Compare "gotcha" with "central processing". Better luck obtaining the TNT executable from (AFAIK) an original Final Doom distribution.
Same with Plutonia. Vanilla executables are always the best versions of Doom. Unfortunately Doom95 has fucked up sounds, sounding bad on this ensoniq soundscape, and it's bad for mouse users; even worse, it crashes under some situations, most probably involving saved games, or MAP30 (one of those). No deh support is another issue. ;) In the meantime I use Eternity.

Yes, that link you gave doesn't work. It says "Invalid IP used", on a white blank background. Same for the homepage, same for the subdirectory contained mentioned there. I checked it twice: on this Win98 computer, and on a PSP (which got IP information just like these computers, I guess). Haven't checked on a WinXP computer, yet. Why would it have an IP restriction?

Hmm that link belongs to an uni server, so perhaps it blocks access from certain IP (or viceversa, your ISP blocks access to it). I posted an alternate link for the flash file now (check again).

If you meant the cheeseportal forum link...well that's beyond my control, unfortunately.