MUS player

[Bashe]

Mus is the type of music format in original Doom (no source ports).

Isn't there a winamp plugin for mus files?

[Grazza]

There was some old DOS utility that played MUS files directly, but I don't know of one for Windows. What you'd normally do is convert them to midi files, which can be played by all sorts of things.

[Little Faith]

No, no and no!

Firstly, regarding to Winamp: The .mus files that Doom uses are similar to MIDI files (.mid). Midi-type files are NOT audio files, but sequencer files. This means that the data they store is not sound, but something akin to "sheet music" for the computer. The .mid or .mus file supplies the notation. The soundcard supplies the actual sounds via it's in-built synthesizer or maybe a custom sound-font.

Winamp is a program for replaying various kind of audio files and thus it is totally useless for replaying .mid and .mus files.



Regarding to .mus specifically you are out of luck again. .mus is a file format specifically made for Doom and thus you won't really find them any other places than in Doom (or Hexen, Heretic or Strife) wads.

There is, however two programs for making .mus files into .mid files and vice versa. Both can be downloaded from this site.

mid2mus.exe is the proggie that id Software used themselves for making midi files into the Doom-specific mus files.

Qmus2mid.exe is a fanmade program made to do the exact opposite operation. Unfortunately it can sometimes mess up the music files quite badly (try running it on any of the music files stored Memento Mori's music wad (mmmus.wad)).



Just to complicate everything even more most modern source ports allow music in .mid format stored in wads to be played back.

[Sporku]

Uh.. Actually, WinAmp can play Midi files. You should try it some time!

[Bloodshedder]

WinAmp plays MIDI files. And if you have a halfway-recent version (2.8x or higher), it will play MUS files too.

[Never_Again]

Any half-decent MOD player will play them too.
And yes: you can import straight MIDIs into PWADs and DOOM will play them just as fine as the native MUS tracks.

[Grimm]

and thus it is totally useless for replaying .mid and .mus files.

Uh . . . no. Not only that, but it can play the DOS MIDIs that MUS2MIDI will create, something that Windows Media Player and probably other programs don't like.

[dr_st]

I'll repeat most of the things which were said here (only the true ones):

Yes, WinAmp can play MIDI files, MUS files and various other "MIDI Clones" used in old PC games.

However, the files will definitely sound different than they sound in DOOM/Heretoc/Hexen with their native MUS support.

The only programs that I know of that play MUS files directly, as are, and that sound identical (or almost identical) to the original DOOM/Heretic/Hexen are:

1. NWT (not a nice choice because you need to be inside the editor while playing)

2. MUSPlay by Vladimir Arnost. That's one great DOS app which allows you to play MUS via command-line and can play in the background while you're doing other things. Problem is that, again, it's a DOS program, and under Windows may not function well. Also, being a command-line app, it doesn't include any fancy (but pretty standard these days) options, like playlists.

Also, I don't believe the original DOOM can play MIDI files. However, certain programs may automatically convert MIDI to MUS while inserting it into the WAD. Many new source ports do play MIDIs.

To summarize it all - if you want a simple and convenient way to play MUS files - go for WinAmp. If you want accurate playback - the old MUSPlay is pretty much the only way.

[Bashe]

I don't know which version of Winamp I have. I think I have 2.0 or something.

[dr_st]

Bashe said:

I don't know which version of Winamp I have. I think I have 2.0 or something.

Good, want a candy? Download the latest 2.x version from the WinAmp site http://classic.winamp.com .

[Tobester]

I use 2.9 something

if you go into your preferences and look at your plugins (input i think) go look for a midi plugin, click configure, and you can select which extensions that winamp will use, including mus.

[Never_Again]

dr_st said:

Yes, WinAmp can play MIDI files, MUS files and various other "MIDI Clones" used in old PC games.

However, the files will definitely sound different than they sound in DOOM/Heretoc/Hexen with their native MUS support.

There are a lot of factors that determine how a MIDI will sound. Only time when the playback is almost the same regardless of the player is when FM synthesis is used.
Ever heard of wavetable synthesis?

Also, I don't believe the original DOOM can play MIDI files.

.It is not a question of faith. Import a MIDI with that NWT as "RAW" and hear for yourself.

[dr_st]

Never_Again said:

It is not a question of faith. Import a MIDI with that NWT as "RAW" and hear for yourself.

If that was the case, why would anyone bother with writing MIDI2MUS and stuff like that?

[Fletcher`]

It is possible to have a mus playing in nwtpro while it is minimized. This is for windows 98. Not sure about other OSes.

In fact, I'm doing this very thing with some music from Dwango10.

[Bashe]

If you play mus in Zdoom, there are some differences.

The main differences that can be heard are the Sawtooth instrument. I guess Zdoom has a different mus player, why?

[NiGHTMARE]

John Carmack was too lazy/not l33t enough/whatever to write his own sound code for Doom, so it's licensed from elsewhere, and it obviously had to be stripped out when the source code was released. Consequently port authors had to use different sound systems than the original .exe's

ZDoom - like most other Windows-based ports - uses DirectSound and FMOD for sound and music, which basically means that (unless you fiddle around with the various in-game music settings), midi's, wavs, etc in ZDoom will sound exactly the same as they do in Winamp, Media Player, and the like.

[Fletcher`]

Bashe said:

If you play mus in Zdoom, there are some differences.

The main differences that can be heard are the Sawtooth instrument. I guess Zdoom has a different mus player, why?

It's not dos?