Timidity DOESN'T WORK... But Why?

I actually downloaded timidity for doom awhile ago to use in gzdoom. I did this in order to replace the terrible quality midi samples that are default for my shitty sound card (SB Audigy LS). I gave up on it but I recently found myself trying to get it to work again because the default instruments are horrible!

The problem is that timidity just plain doesn't work! I've done everything in my best ability. First of all, yes, I did download the correct timidity that is specified for doom. Second, I replaced the default patch with the soundfont I want to replace the default instruments with (in the timidity.cfg file). It reads "soundfont C:\Program Files\Doom\timidity\sf2\FF3.sf2" .

Third of all, I've tried multiple soundfonts; at least 3 or 4. Each one has the same exact issue. Anytime I test timidity in cmd with a midi file, it never fails to give me the same exact error everytime: "Bad patch option". And of course, if the test doesn't work, it also doesn't work in doom.

Google has worked to no avail either. I don't see how nobody else has this problem... This is very frustrating and I would be extremely appreciative of any help provided. Thanks in advance!

Here's the instruments I use with timidity and wildmidi. They're the perfect compromise between size and quality (in my opinion). The only thing you need to do is change the DIR path in the timidity.cfg file.

minipats.zip

Make sure the timidity_exe variable in the GZDoom CFG has the path to the TiMidity executable, and set snd_mididevice to -2.

To use an SF2 instead of PAT fonts, open the timidity.cfg file placed in the TiMidity executable directory, uncomment source sndfont.cfg instead of other CFGs (by default some drum PAT configs may be uncommented), comment the path to the PAT files, and set the path to your SF2 file in sndfont.cfg.

If you don't have a sndfont.cfg I could upload one, or you could get the eawpats package, that includes one.

Chilly Willy said:

minipats.zip

That's a very impressive patchset, especially considering it's only 4Mb! The volume of some instruments is a little low, but alot of them sound pretty OPL-like. I might play with it for a while and see if I like it better than eaw. Do you know if it's based off anything in particular?

Edit: I found the author's homepage. From Google Translate it seems to be a set he compiled on his own in 1996. It's a more "conservative" form of this 10Mb patch set he made, which he believes sounds perfectly like an SC-55. He goes on to laments the poor sound of the SC-88, and challenges anyone who doesn't think that patch sounds like a genuine Roland to email him. I have to agree that it does sound pretty damn good, even better than eawpats!

I have a new patchset :) Best post evar, Chilly Willy.

Thanks. I've been using that set for a while now, particularly with games on the PSP. You don't have a lot of memory to spend on some of the really big patch sets. This one was small, but still sounded good. There is one difference between the minipats on the web and the set I posted: The sawtooth voice has been replaced. The original sawtooth instrument worked fine on a modern PC, but made everything grind to a halt on systems with a CPU rate less than a GHz. I discovered that using the instruments with ROTT on the PSP. I replaced the sawtooth with a different one that did not cause the same problem.

Seeing as though I've never gotten timidity to play anything, would someone be so kind as to record what it sounds like so I can see what I'm missing out on? If it really is as good as I hope it is I'd be more inclined to continue troubleshooting until I get it to do something.

Sure, I can output directly to OGG. Any songs you'd like to hear in particular or just the lot? I can do a comparison with eawpats, minipats, shompats and any others you can think of.

Songs I use to test when trying a new font are E1M1 & E3M1 for the guitars, E1M3 for the bit at the start which so many patchsets ruin, E1M8 which usually sounds amazing anyway. I never really test Doom 2 songs, though D_SHAWN (MAP07) is a favorite of mine.


Edit: Also we're not really helping OP here. Under Linux, you aren't able to use an SF2 with Timidity and SDL, you have to use instrument patches with a cfg file. I don't know if that applies to Windows SDL ports or even if GZDoom uses SDL under Windows for sound.

There is a Linux app called unsf which can convert an SF2 to patches and write a cfg. You can get that going in a virtual machine or LiveCD if you run Windows. As as been said though, eawpats/minipats/shompats are the best you're going to get. I've converted every GM soundfont I can find and haven't heard anything better.

any music track really, surprise me. I'll recognize em all.

Here ya go!

doom-in-timidity.zip (36.56Mb)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Z3ZVL8JS

e1m1-eawpats.ogg  e1m8-eawpats.ogg  map01-eawpats.ogg  map31-eawpats.ogg
e1m1-shom.ogg     e1m8-shom.ogg     map01-shom.ogg     map31-shom.ogg
e1m3-eawpats.ogg  e3m1-eawpats.ogg  map07-eawpats.ogg  readme.txt
e1m3-shom.ogg     e3m1-shom.ogg     map07-shom.ogg

The two patchsets used are Eric Welch's eawpats, and shom's patch set linked above. More info in the readme. Some songs sound so similar (E1M1) the same instruments are probably used, some sound noticeably different. I like shompats better, it sounds more crisp and classic, though a few instrument volumes could do with tweaking (which I think is just a simple matter of amp=XXX in the cfg file).

E1M1 and MAP01 everyone will know like the back of their hand, so they're a good comparison when using many patchsets. I know as soon as I think of playing Doom I hear the old OPL3 track of E1M1 in my head. They're a good test of guitars, especially in the faster parts, E3M1 is included for the same reason.

E1M3 is tricky to hear nicely, as the boingy bit at the start often gets ruined by patches not cutting off quick enough. The slow chimes are usually too cheesy sounding, these seem to be a tough instrument to find a good version of. Shompats and eawpats do a good job of it.

E1M8's short drums, harmonic voices and horns can sound chillingly haunting or horribly poor too. This sounds amazing in eawpats! In the Fluid R3 patchset the voices sound so real you'd swear a whole choir of monks are hidden away behind the walls.

MAP07 (D_SHAWN) is just a great song :P

MAP31 (D_EVIL) is probably one of the hardest songs to get accurate, due to Bobby's use of the gunshot instrument to simulate the marching of feet. In some patch sets you even hear the gunshot ricochet. These two sets don't do that, but they do sound kinda muddy when compared to an actual Roland Sound Canvas hardware synth.

Super Jamie said:

Edit: I found the author's homepage. From Google Translate it seems to be a set he compiled on his own in 1996. It's a more "conservative" form of this 10Mb patch set he made, which he believes sounds perfectly like an SC-55. He goes on to laments the poor sound of the SC-88, and challenges anyone who doesn't think that patch sounds like a genuine Roland to email him. I have to agree that it does sound pretty damn good, even better than eawpats!

Dumb question, but is there anything special I need to do to get this working? I edited the included timidity.cfg to point to the correct directories, and replaced my current configuration file with it, but I'm not getting any music. I've never had any problems getting other patchsets/soundfonts working, including the minipats Chilly Willy linked to.

Alright, I love timidity so I'm gonna give you a detailed walkthrough of how I got it working on mine.

I suggest you remove everything you downloaded timidity related and start from scratch, it wasn't working for me until I did it that way.

1. Get Timidity 4 Zdoom

2. Get EAWpats

3. Snag the timidity.cfg from eawpats, put it in the folder where you saved Timidity 4 Zdoom. Copy and replace the one from timidty 4 zdoom.

4. Open up the new timidity.cfg,

##############################################################################
# If you've moved things around since compiling, uncomment and edit this to
# point to the library directory: 
#
dir <somethingsomethingsomething>
#
##############################################################################

I don't remember what the default path is, but change where it says <somethingsomethingsomething> to the location of the folder where your .pat's are. If you've kept the original folder names it should end in "\eawpats". This area of code is about 25 lines down. You can right click one of the .pat's and click properties, then copy and paste it's location there.

5. Right click on TIMIDITY.exe, go to properties, and copy the file location.

6. Go to your GZDoom/Zdoom/Skulltag folder, open up the gzdoom-xxx.cfg / zdoom-xxx.cfg / skulltag-xxx.cfg, find the line that says "timidity_exe" and paste the location over top the default location, make sure the location ends with "\timidity.exe"

7. Change the number where it says "snd_mididevice" to "-2" in your gzdoom-xxx.cfg / zdoom-xxx.cfg / skulltag-xxx.cfg

8. Somewhere in the readme for timidity 4 zdoom, it says to change the "timidity_pipe" value if your soundcard has trouble playing multiple wave sounds at a time. I changed mine from 60 to 30. I can't tell if it did anything. Timidity wasn't working for me before I changed it to 30, but I eventually got it working after changing it to 30 along with some other things. I doubt that was exactly what made it start working but keep that in mind.

I believe it should start working by then. Check your midi volume if you don't hear anything. If you got it working and are interested in trying some new soundfonts, I could help you with that too.

I seem to have finally gotten timidity to play midi files whether it's using sf2's or patches. So I really do appreciate the help but... it's still not working in doom no matter what I use.

Here are the timidity-related variables in my zdoom-USERNAME.ini file in the gzDoom directory if it helps at all.

midi_timiditylike=false
midi_voices=32
midi_config=timidity.cfg
snd_midiprecache=false
spc_amp=1.875
opl_onechip=false
timidity_frequency=22500
timidity_pipe=25
timidity_mastervolume=1
timidity_byteswap=false
timidity_8bit=false
timidity_stereo=true
timidity_reverb=0
timidity_chorus=0
timidity_extargs=
timidity_exe=C:\Program Files\Doom\timidity\eawpats\timidity.exe
snd_mididevice=-2

I'm also using Vista.

Try putting quotes around your path or moving it to a path that doesn't have a space in it?

Bloodshedder said:

Try putting quotes around your path or moving it to a path that doesn't have a space in it?

Neither of those seem to help either. Thanks though.

If you just want "good Doom music" try choose the "OPL Synth Emulator" option in the ZDoom sound menu. This sounds way better than any MIDI synth imho.