midi to mp3 sounding like in Doom?

[Memfis]

How do I convert midi to mp3 so that it sounds exactly like in prboom-plus? I tried some free converter thing but the instruments all sounded really different from the ones I hear in Doom.

[Ribbiks]

I'm sure there are more elegant solutions, but an extremely ghetto option would be to record your computer audio while playing back the midi, either in prb+, or your favorite media player, or what-have-you. then converting the recording to whatever format you desire.

[Technician]

Ideally you'd want to record them through the appropriate sound card they were originally composed with in mind. If you're talking about the original game, then something like a Sound Blaster AWE32.

We had someone actually do just that some time ago.

[IMX]

Get TiMidity++ and select a proper soundfont. I don't recall what's the name of Microsoft's default soundfont, though.

[Reisal]

Synthfont 1.7.x

Be sure to have actual soundfonts first!

[Avoozl]

Whatever the Roland Sound Canvas would be it should be that.

[Doomkid]

FL Studio is capable of importing MIDIs and exporting them into MP3s. Obviously the filesize goes up tenfold, but it sounds 100% indentical at 192kbps.

[Memfis]

On 16.02.2015 at 1:47 PM, Doomkid said:

FL Studio is capable of importing MIDIs and exporting them into MP3s. Obviously the filesize goes up tenfold, but it sounds 100% indentical at 192kbps.

Hmm, I tried doing that and it almost seemed to work but some notes ended up sounding a bit buggy. Did I need to change some setting first? Tested on this long midi (at least the guitar solos are off-key at times).

[Memfis]

I tried Synthfont with c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\gm.dls and it doesn't have the off-key notes, but some instruments here have more echo or something, it's hard to explain. Basically it still sounds different from prboom-plus or Windows Media Player. Maybe I indeed will have to just record the audio live, though that sounds really shitty. :\ Strange that this is such a big problem.

[CapnClever]

When I want to create an MP3 out of a MIDI file (or MUS or any number of old music filetypes), I first use Winamp to output a raw WAV file (or straight to MP3), then throw that into Audacity to fix it up when necessary. The second step is mostly to build a seamless loop and have it trail off after a loop or two, kinda like making a "preview" out of the song. It's an intensive process but it gets the job done and I'm satisfied with the results.

 

For the Winamp part:

1. Open up Preferences (Ctrl-P)
2. Plug-ins > Output
3. Select "Nullsoft Disk Writer"
4. Double-click the disk writer option for some settings:
   • If you find that the output is fine for you without altering it, you can also immediately convert it to MP3 by adjusting the "Conversion" settings. For this I've learned to use LAME MP3 encoder, 44.1kHz, CBR Stereo @ 192kBit/s (192 is probably overkill for most MIDI but I got the disk space).
   • Set the "Output File Location" directory to wherever you want the file to go. The rest of the settings underneath that determine the filename, though you can easily do that later.
5. Simply play the file back and it usually does so at a super-speed: when it's done the converted file is ready to use. (And if you happen to use Winamp to listen to the file you made, don't forget to switch the Output back to "Nullsoft DirectSound Output".)

The Audacity side (that is, editing) gets more complicated and depends on the specifications of your desired file, so I won't explain it here. There are some really handy tools in that program like "Fade Out" and it's very easy to splice the audio as well.

 

Even got some high-quality Raptor MP3s thanks to this method! I've included the Apogee Fanfare from that game as an attachment. (It is impossible to find a simple OPL version for this soundtrack, I swear.)

Raptor Apogee Fanfare.zip