Doom 1 & 2 High quality music

at first I was gonna list this message as QUESTION or HELP. But I realize that this may be a strange request:

I'm running GZDoom for DOOM 1 & 2 and although its great to have graphics and gameplay that are far better than their original dos versions, music is not.
there are only 2 settings to choose from for the music in GZDoom:
1) General Midi (which uses Windows' GS wavetable SW synth)
2) FM synth (AdLib/Soundblaster FM emulation)

You see, back in the day people could purchase not only a SoundBlaster for real sound effects but they could also get a Gravis UltraSound or a Roland sound card for High quality Music.

My question is: Is It possible to get Roland quality playback in a form of a MIDI device to replace the "GS wavetable SW synth"? If so, where can I download it?

Just google Roland VSC-MP1. It is the closest you can get to the sound of a real Roland device without owning one. Well. real Roland SC-55 still destroys it, especially when comparing the guitar sound, but this is much better than stock Windows stuff.

I won't give direct links because of teh warez, but this is easy to find :)

One tip, if you use Vista or Win7, be sure to install this software under admin rights and WinXP compatibility mode.

Golly! Is my English that bad? lots of views but no replies?!

Ok, let me put it simply:
if you (in Windows XP) go to "START > Settings > control panel > Sound and Audio Devices" - then you go to the "Audio" tab and go down to "MIDI music playback". there is a "Default device" list that allows you to select different MIDI devices. I only have one, the "Microsoft GS wavetable SW synth". My question is: HOW DO I ADD ALTERNATIVE MIDI DEVISES TO THAT LIST? WHERE DO I GET THIS STUFF, WHERE DO I DOWNLOAD IT?

Thanx in advance

Oh, I see someone has replied as I was typing the last message, Thanks for the help, any other tips?

DASI-I said:

Oh, I see someone has replied as I was typing the last message, Thanks for the help, any other tips?

You may alternatively try Timidity, but it is pain in the arse to configure, and none of its soundfonts sound like Roland.

DASI-I said:

I'm running GZDoom for DOOM 1 & 2 and although its great to have graphics and gameplay that are far better than their original dos versions, music is not.
there are only 2 settings to choose from for the music in GZDoom:
1) General Midi (which uses Windows' GS wavetable SW synth)
2) FM synth (AdLib/Soundblaster FM emulation)

There are more than that, even if you haven't installed FluidSynth or TiMidity++ and even if you don't use the latest SVN builds. At the minimum, you have system-provided (MS wavetable synth on Windows), FMOD, and OPL emulation.

If you install other system-wide MIDI drivers, you'll be able to use them too.

And you can install TiMidity++ and get some soundfont or patch set to go with it. If you're using an SVN build of ZDoom or GZDoom, you can also get FluidSynth. (Actually, the latest official version of GZDoom has FluidSynth too.)


If you have Windows XP, you can install another system-wide MIDI driver courtesy of Yamaha and Microsoft; read up the instructions there. (Unfortunately for Vista/7 users, this doesn't work with the new driver model Microsoft uses now. You can install it successfully and it'll be detected and all, but it won't play any sound so it's useless.)

DASI-I said:

any other tips?

Not being that impatient.

Gez said:

There are more than that, even if you haven't installed FluidSynth or TiMidity++ and even if you don't use the latest SVN builds. At the minimum, you have system-provided (MS wavetable synth on Windows), FMOD, and OPL emulation.

I only listed 2 because all the other options either sounded exactly the same or they dont work at all, I've just updated GZDoom just incase more options were added, but alas :(

LogicDeLuxe said:

Not being that impatient.

fair enough.

DASI-I said:

I've just updated GZDoom just incase more options were added, but alas :(

If you had read the entirety of my post and followed its handy links, you could have gotten three or four new options, namely FluidSynth, TiMidity++, Yamaha XG and possibly GUS emulation.

Gez said:

If you had read the entirety of my post and followed its handy links, you could have gotten three or four new options, namely FluidSynth, TiMidity++, Yamaha XG and possibly GUS emulation.

Why do you guys dismiss Roland VSC? :( Isn't it the best way to emulate 90's Roland sound?

Is Roland VSC a legit free download?

Gez said:

Is Roland VSC a legit free download?

Roland doesn't sell this anymore, might be abandoned.

Gez said:

If you had read the entirety of my post and followed its handy links, you could have gotten three or four new options, namely FluidSynth, TiMidity++, Yamaha XG and possibly GUS emulation.

I did, I'm downloading stuff right now, I'm also on doom wiki learning about these external programs.

There's a graphic tutorial How to install and set up Timidity++ driver. It allows you use various soundfonts with any port, I use and recommend Hubbe64. Here's a sample of how it sounds.