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40oz

How do you like your MIDI?

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What playabck devices do you use to listen to music in Doom?

  • Native MIDI
  • OPL Emulation
  • Timidity
  • Other
Personally I like Timidity the best. I generally like to play Doom with as many of its resources intact but higher quality music is always something I can make an exception for.

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I just use whatever the default software gives me, whether it's Windows for SDL or FMod for ZDoom. Effects are either good or bad. For example, the NIN "Head like a hole" midi is ruined by my current computer's Windows font, but if I listen to the "March of the pigs" midi, the wind sound effect starts to sound spooky like a Heretic cowled wizard, as in "ehHhHhehehHhHh".

Native MIDI I guess is the answer.

When playing limit-removing wads and am not lazy enough to just start Eternity, I prefer Doom+ and OPL midi, which is most of the time inimitable. But I find that the Doom 2 or Heretic music aren't that great on OPL though.

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I'm not that picky with how the music sounds (if I enable it at all), so unless there are issues with the normal system MIDI, or the music is really butchered by it, I'll generally just stick with that, or whatever other default any given source port uses. Since my laptop runs Win7 with its broken native MIDI support, there I'll instead use Fluidsynth or OPL emulation as an easy workaround where they're supported. Otherwise I'd rather mute the music altogether.

On that note though, I have to say that OPL emulation doesn't strike up any nostalgia value for me, nor do I accept that it's "the way Doom should sound" or whatever. Despite the ubiquity of OPL cards in the '90s, people owned (and the game was designed for) other hardware as well, and I heard the music through both an MPU-401 knockoff and a GUS for years before ever hearing the way it was played by an OPL2 card, which I first had a chance to experience somewhere around 2005.

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Mithran Denizen said:

On that note though, I have to say that OPL emulation doesn't strike up any nostalgia value for me, nor do I accept that it's "the way Doom should sound" or whatever. Despite the ubiquity of OPL cards in the '90s, people owned (and the game was designed for) other hardware as well, and I heard the music through both an MPU-401 knockoff and a GUS for years before ever hearing the way it was played by an OPL2 card, which I first had a chance to experience somewhere around 2005.

Amen, brother!

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I really like the OPL synths (and just about anything else that sounds oldschool as hell, to be honest :P), but in my opinion nothing beats the regular MIDI soundbank - that's how MIDI started as sounding, and it's still excellent. Though I will use Timidity with the Weeds soundfont occasionally.

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I usually dont have musics on. I listen music from CD's. If sometimes I do listen MIDI's from the game, I use deafult.

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OPL2 emulation in Chocolate Doom.

Everywhere else I prefer MIDI with an SC-55 sound set where possible, but since the synth is on the other side of the room right now I usually fall back on Timidity+eawpats...

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On my lappy, I use BassMIDI for playback. On my desktop, I use Native MIDI with my SBLive card, able to change to whatever soundfont I like.

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Native MIDI, as it's reasonably close to how the songs actually sounded on the hardware they were written for, and it shows.

The synth patches used for OPL playback in Doom makes the music sound like it's about 20 years older than Doom is. It gives me nostalgia of playing "Pitfall", but not of playing anything that was born after I was.

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GM for me.
Having a standard is nice because you know how it's going to sound. I'm not about to expend effort setting up a software MIDI driver just to use a soundfont with lord-knows-what instruments, and levels and mastering that are all over the place.

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I use Timidity with EAWPats in PrBoom+ and OPL emulation in ZDoom and DOSBox.

That being said, I prefer OPL emu. If there was some way I could have OPL emu done for all midi on my PC then I would do that.

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BASSMIDI + WeedsGM3 soundfont. Partially because I can't find any other good general soundfont out there that doesn't want to charge me money to use it.

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OPL emulation. I had a PAS-16 card when i first found doom, and it only had support for OPL and Adlib. :D

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Yeah I had a PAS-16 in my 486 too! So I like the OPL more, but its emulation seems more taxing than timidity (Chocolate Doom framerate isn't as fluid).

Normally I play with just sound fx though.

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Using ZDOOM 2.5.0, in Map 01, when I switched the midi device to Timidity++ and restarted sound, the music switched to the Underhalls (Map 02) music. I kept fiddling with it but it wouldn't play D_RUNNIN, even though I was on Map 01. What gives?

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I use Timidity with eawpats. They have issues with certain songs, but for the most part, they do the job nicely. Before I upgraded to Windows 7, I just used the default midi sounds, which were in most cases Windows' default set, but now they're completely broken in 7.

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I remember hearing the music for the first time on a Mozart card... SB ripoff, so I guess I heard it via OPL2 or such.
Sounded nice but also strange.
After that I heard it via a RAP-10 and that was a BIG difference.
Since Win2000/XP all midi seems to sound "good" though I wasn't aware that it's all a software emulation unless you get a good card.
I'm shocked at how many midi options there are.
A dude gave me an old SB Live and I like it when playing Doom.

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OPL. It adds that certain "character" to the game, provided you have the right sound card, like one of those kickarse pnp vibras with their simple but exceptionally effective filters.

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DuckReconMajor said:

How do I use this?

You type in IDCHOPPERS. It won't suck I promise.

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I think the best ive heard to be fittin is the sc-55, or cm 500 if you can afford it! the GUS works well for songs likes suspense, but not so much for the rock ones, though based on what ive heard.. OPL to me sounds like what they tried with the 32x version, but done right, similar sounds, nostalgic, but lacking.. I use a Rolnd MT-32, strays from the appropraiate sound for doom, but is great at the same time! has a very 8 bit, 80's kinda sound, but far more then something like the NES! great all round, not the best for Doom, but works.. cheaper then some of the others i mentioned to.. Never liked the built in windows sound font, to dry and thin sounding or something..

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Timidity++ with EAWPats sounds good for nearly everything - except Doom's original music so for that I use the Sycraft Oggs.

Regarding OPL emu, I still have a CD with recordings I made 15 years ago directly off Doom.exe and I have to say that none of the OPL emulators comes even close to that sound. By comparison they are all too harsh and annoying. Not that it matters much. That CD also doesn't even come close to the high quality renderings of the songs that I normally use.

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For DOS games - OPL only, no exeptions! It`s absolutely native to me.

When I`ve atlast heard DooM tracks in Native MIDI arrangement, I was, em, disgusted how 'flat' it sounds..

Hail to the SOUND BLASTER(1.0, 2.0, 16, pro etc.)/Adlib, baby!

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