DOOM's music remastered in OPL3

[bertrandguegan]

1 hour ago, Alex S. said:

I think a lot of us would enjoy listening if you did decide to do that. After Doom II, however, I would vote on Hexen; That game has a highly-underrated score.

 

So I should listen to Hexen's music first, it has been a while since I played this game ;)  

[bertrandguegan]

1 hour ago, TheUltimateDoomer666 said:

I listened to the finished pack. I noticed Sign of Evil (E1M8) is missing the drums. Was this intentional? Also, the OGG versions need to be re-rendered because they sound...weird. Listen to Dark Halls (E1M3) for example. The notes are all wonky. In fact, there are several oddities throughout the OGGs. There's a noise at the start of E1M8 and several other tracks, and the OGG for E2M1 sounds horrible.

 

As for my opinions on the pack, I like that many instruments make use of stereo effects and are made to sound much more aggressive. The drums also benefit from OPL3's features by sounding heavier. However, there are just a few parts where I prefer the OPL2 sound due to personal preference. I think the guitar vibratos in E1M1 sound better in the original version; the sustained notes have quite a nice effect to them. In the OPL3 version, the sustained notes sort of just fade out slightly; they don't really sound like vibratos. Also, I think the guitar in the OPL3 version of E1M8 sounds more like a violin as it lacks the sharp attack from the original version. Some may find the slower attack makes the lead in the OPL3 version less grating, though.

 

Oh my.. you're right, there's definitely something wrong with those OGG files! I did my last "thorough listening check" just BEFORE exporting them into wav files. 

 

I found out what went wrong (and that was kind of stupid, as it appears that sometimes for some reasons I just forgot to solo the track before bouncing to disk...)

Thinking about this, it may have been for the best that I didn't noticed it the night when I uploaded the pack : I would have certainly thrown my pc out of my window!!! xD (as I was completely exhausted as I recall)

 

It won't take long to correct that mistake though, I should be able to find time to upload a corrected version today. 

 

I'm very sorry for the inconvenience!

 

You also mentioned noise at the beginning of some of the loops (OGG tracks). You're right but sadly I don't think there is anything I can do about it now. This was a compromise I had to do so the tracks loop seamlessly. The noise you hear is the reverb tail of the track. It's noticeable when a track starts quietly and smoothly, and ends loudly and abruptly. There are other solutions of course, but as far as I know it would also involve changes in the material and there would have been compromises too at some point. A better solution would have been to split the track, physically or virtually (with tags or markers), into an "intro" section and a "loop" section. But I don't know if DOOM would technically support this solution? 

 

Thank you very much for your feedback! Here are my thoughts :

 

- I also like how drums benefit from the OPL3. However, I'm still not very happy of my toms patches. They lack some "meat" and "oomph", especially when the mix is crowded. If someone would have asked me what I hated the most in this remaster, it would be probably this !

- about E1M8, you're right I removed the drums part. For many tracks the drums parts were the last things I tweaked. And sometimes I really liked the way it sounded without the drums. For this one in particular I prefered to keep it that way. 

- In a general sense I didn't want necessarly making things to sound as close as possible as reality (except for the drums). That's why you're probably right with the E1M1 guitar parts, I know what you mean. But I think I still prefer it that way too ;) 

 

That being said, I just started my journey into FM synth, and there is still room for improvment ! Thanks again for your feedback.

 

 

 

 

[Gifty]

LOVE the chunky, growly sound of this. Instant autoload for me!

[zokum]

On 3/29/2022 at 11:31 AM, bertrandguegan said:

I still have a bunch of 2x2 ops that should fit well in GENMIDI ;) That being said, there would be no guarantee that it would sound better. The instruments I created where meant to be played together as a whole, for each track. Even if sometimes I'm using the same instrument for different tracks, there is always individual adjustments (so they could fit better in the global "mix")

Are you talking about the DMXOPL project? So far I've only heard about DMXOPL and Hisymak's project.

 

I was talking about the DMXOPL project yeah. Details are sparse, but from what I can tell, if it can be done with OPL3, it may not be possible to do it with DMX:

"I decided to release v1.9 today, found a stupid DMX bug with double voices, and had to fix that, so we're at v1.9.1 now. Why do I never test this thoroughly before release?"

There is also the already mentioned lack of support for 4 op voices. So yes, DMX supports OPL3, but only a subset of what OPL3 can do. This is a bit like saying one has a stereo soundtrack, that just happens to be mixed with everything in mono, but played back as if it was stereo. Technically stereo... DMX has more of an OPL3-lite feature set.

[bertrandguegan]

2 hours ago, zokum said:

I was talking about the DMXOPL project yeah. Details are sparse, but from what I can tell, if it can be done with OPL3, it may not be possible to do it with DMX:

"I decided to release v1.9 today, found a stupid DMX bug with double voices, and had to fix that, so we're at v1.9.1 now. Why do I never test this thoroughly before release?"

There is also the already mentioned lack of support for 4 op voices. So yes, DMX supports OPL3, but only a subset of what OPL3 can do. This is a bit like saying one has a stereo soundtrack, that just happens to be mixed with everything in mono, but played back as if it was stereo. Technically stereo... DMX has more of an OPL3-lite feature set.

 

Thanks for your insight !

 

That settles it I suppose... more than half of my instruments are 4ops :/

 

[bertrandguegan]

I just released a new pack for GZdoom users. Process is now very straightforward :)

 

(link in the YT video's description)

[QuaketallicA]

Your version just sounds too loud to me. Bass, Highs, just sound too loud compared to the original midi.

[bertrandguegan]

20 hours ago, QuaketallicA said:

Your version just sounds too loud to me. Bass, Highs, just sound too loud compared to the original midi.

Thanks for listening !

 

In terms of spectral response, sure that my version sounds "thicker" (and broad) compared to the original one. I carefully set the volume instruments (low-end and high-end) by using references tracks though, so I'm kind of surprised that's such an annoyance to you. I'm sorry for that.

 

Are you talking about casual listening or in-game experience ? 

[zokum]

For Adlib to sound good you need to use the synth for what it is good at. Using it recreate all kinds of analog instruments like oboes, guitar and pianos is not what it is any good at.

This piece here isn't pure adlib, but it shows how a more adlib focused soundtrack can sound.

The Doom soundtrack was written for an SC55, so the adlib version is just an approximation to the SC5 sounds. Imagine trying to recreate this mix here on an SC55. It wouldn't have sounded nearly as cool. Mind you he does use some samples now and then, but the sounds is distinctly adlib.

Another synth that is hard to replicate is the MT32. It is close to GM, but is pre-gm. It also has 32kb of memory with which one can upload/generate new instruments. Used correctly, you can make some interesting cool new synth leads. The soundtrack for Dune 2 uses the MT-32 extensively, adding 6 new instruments or so. On any other soundcard midi approximations are used, and they sound a lot more boring than the original instruments.

It's kind of odd Doom doesn't support the MT32 for music. It doesn't sound like a huge job to port the track to the MT32 instrument set. A list of the instruments can be found her: https://www.synthmania.com/mt-32.htm

[zokum]

This is slightly off-topic, but how about an MT-32 version of the Doom(2) soundtrack? It should have enough different instruments to fill in nicely for the SC-55 and you could always make a few custom instruments per track if you needed to. I'd like to see your take on making this synth sound as good as possible. For reference here is one of the tracks from the Dune 2 soundtrack. The raspy synth lead is a custom instrument.
 

 

[bertrandguegan]

21 hours ago, zokum said:

For Adlib to sound good you need to use the synth for what it is good at. Using it recreate all kinds of analog instruments like oboes, guitar and pianos is not what it is any good at.

 

I agree, many composers from this era considered AdLib FM synth as "cheap", and there was nothing but frustration around this chip. That's because there were trying to replicate real acoustic instruments (maybe subconsciously IDK).

 

I was very aware of this when working on this remastered version. Except for the drums part where I clearly intended to make them sound realistics (because I think OPL3 can sound really good for kick and snare), I tried different approaches for the other instruments. 

 

Stephane Picq's work (Dune, Conspiracy/KGB to name a few) inspires me as he really tried to use AdLib for what it was (thanks to the HERAD system, which allowed to "automate" the chip's parameters, that was just awesome). BTW I absolutely love the MT-32's DUNE2 soundtrack. That's fun that you're mentionning it, because I'm scoring a commercial game using exclusively an MT-32 ;) I didn't used custom parameters for it though, but this is something I'm definetely interested in.

 

That's why an MT-32 version of Doom2 sounds interesting to me, I'll think about it. For now I'm more thinking about making an OPL3 version first, but I didn't make up my mind yet.  

[zokum]

If you did an MT-32 version. You could release the necessary stuff to add support for it into ports. This way the game could finally get the MIDI support it should have had back in the day. It would be interesting to see if 1-2 custom instruments per song would make it sound really good/authentic. 32kb isn't much to work with, but I think it is a somewhat capable prosumer synth.

[bertrandguegan]

On 4/27/2022 at 9:20 AM, zokum said:

If you did an MT-32 version. You could release the necessary stuff to add support for it into ports. This way the game could finally get the MIDI support it should have had back in the day. It would be interesting to see if 1-2 custom instruments per song would make it sound really good/authentic. 32kb isn't much to work with, but I think it is a somewhat capable prosumer synth.

 

That would be an interesting thing to do, but don't you think that it would sound a little bit too close to the original version ? (I mean by original the Roland SC version, as Bobby Prince composed doom music with that gear) But as you said, maybe it's worth trying. I wonder why anyone didn't try this before, custom instruments aside, it would be just a simple remapping, doesn't it?

[Fabricator]

Oh dude, this is great! Love the chunky, sludgy MegaDrive-esque sound, it just works so well for Doom! Can't wait to hear the finished Doom 2 soundtrack once it's been given the same treatment. :)

[zokum]

On 4/30/2022 at 12:31 AM, bertrandguegan said:

 

That would be an interesting thing to do, but don't you think that it would sound a little bit too close to the original version ? (I mean by original the Roland SC version, as Bobby Prince composed doom music with that gear) But as you said, maybe it's worth trying. I wonder why anyone didn't try this before, custom instruments aside, it would be just a simple remapping, doesn't it?

If all of the instruments Doom uses in GM mode are available on the MT32, it would be a simple remap. If not, you would have to add custom instruments, possibly per track. In some cases you might be able to produce better instruments than the SC55 ones. This is basically what you did for the OPL3 version. Just having the option of selecting MT32 support in the 'setup.exe' would be cool.

[zokum]

It should be noted that it might be possible to play all of the Doom tracks just fine on an MT32, but maybe not all of the custom music in wads. The SC55 has more channels than the MT32, so polyphony problems might arise. There's a fair bit of info about Doom compatibility here: github.com/dwhinham/mt32-pi/issues/33 (dw's link paste tool was broken).

[rzh]

On 4/20/2022 at 4:58 PM, bertrandguegan said:

 

So I should listen to Hexen's music first, it has been a while since I played this game ;)  

After listening to this I can only dream how good Heretic and Hexen's soundtracks would sound with this treatment.

This is some amazing stuff!

[bertrandguegan]

Hello everyone! 

 

I'm back with some good news. :) 

First I just uploaded a few days ago the entire OPL3 soundtrack on YT. So no need now to download to files to enjoy the music. 

 

No more excuses, you can OPL3 DOOM party anywhere anytime! :D

 

 

Also, DOOM II OPL3 remaster will be probably released this year! I'll keep you updated!

 

In my quest to rehabilitate the OPL3 soundchip, I'll also remaster the same way iconic music from some early 90's DOS games so, if you want to follow up on this, please don't hesitate to subscribe to my YT channel ;)

 

Here's a brand new remaster of the Monkey Island's iconic theme: