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Maes

Alternate ways of listening to Doom music

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For all of you who desire a different way of listening to Doom music, you can either use fmmidi, a free FM OPL4 emulator that plays MIDI files using programmable FM timbres.

For something truly out of the ordinary, at least for Doom standards, try Bleeper Music Maker, another free little program that can, among other things to play MIDI files through the PC Speaker.

Just make sure you change your piezo squeaker with a decent paper cone speaker ( 0.5 W, 8 Ohm minimum, but 1W 4 Ohm gives more range) to get the most of it. Now imagine a source port supporting either program's driver...

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I really don't know how this stuff works. Can I install software that will take over all MIDI synthesizing in all applications, or do these programs only change MIDI synthesizing in applications that specifically support them?

I'm hijacking this thread because I got new speakers recently and I'm interested in making my MIDIs sound better, across the board. I looked at Timidity++ a while ago, but I don't fully understand what it does, and the install procedure scared me away.

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As much as I'd be interested in a driver-like approach too, unfortunately these are "just" players that load and play midi files on their own. A pity, because e.g. FM-midi has much better FM timbres than most "real" OPL drivers so it would be cool to see a midi mapper device based on it. Well..the source code is available.

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Christoph said:

I record original doom music onto cassette tapes and blast them from my 1989 Volvo! How alternate is that??

You have to do it Boards of Canada-style and record them back and forth between two cheap cassette recorders placed on opposite ends of a room, then leave the resulting tape under the seat of the aforementioned Volvo for a few hot months in the summer. Then we're talking.

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Maes said:
For all of you who desire a different way of listening to Doom music, you can either use fmmidi, a free FM OPL4 emulator that plays MIDI files using programmable FM timbres.

I tried this app and, compared the output of a good OPL3 chip, it sounds like a farting robot.

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myk said:

I tried this app and, compared the output of a good OPL3 chip, it sounds like a farting robot.


I didn't say it replicates exactly the FM timbres used in Doom or whatever you associate with OPL3, but it can be made to if you wish. As far as I can tell, it has full-fledged 4-op emulation. Since the FM synthesis is performed digitally, it's always possible to perfectly replicate the chip's output, and, save for software/hardware bugs or broken amplifiers on particular soundcards, all OPL3 implementations sound the same, even emulated ones.

Christoph said:

I record original doom music onto cassette tapes and blast them from my 1989 Volvo! How alternate is that??


Hey, I did that consistently back in 1995-1998, not always using top-notch equipment for doing so, either. I recorded game music and music modules, even MIDI files from my SB-8/SB-16 to cassette tapes and listened to them in my walkman, Peugeot 305's cassette player and the various cassette decks I had at home. For recording, I used variably some old Grundig cassette players with DIN inputs, until I got a Philips hi-fi with RCA inputs.

Among the craziest stuff I have recorded and listened to, there were music modules played through a parallel port DAC (could actually play samples at higher rates than the SB, at 64 KHz!) and PC speaker output. Heh, talk about having a low-fi and nerdy adolescence...

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Maes said:
I didn't say it replicates exactly the FM timbres used in Doom or whatever you associate with OPL3, but it can be made to if you wish.

I just wished it and the sound didn't change much. I don't have a magic lamp, though.

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myk said:

I don't have a magic lamp, though.


All it takes is the patience to reconfigure 128 FM timbres (with a 20-so parameters each). Piece of cake.

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