DMXOPL v1.11 - Because Doom Deserves Better (August 22, 2017)

[Csonicgo]

So v1.11 is out!!! Check it! This release is the last OPL2-compatible version, and adds a lot of new things.

 

• Steel Drums are better (Thanks pcorf).
• Honky-Tonk Piano redone.
• Accordion Redone.
• Harmonica Redone.
• Recorder tweaked to sound less like a clarinet in normal range.
• Various misc mixing fixes I forgot.

• FX(Crystal) changed to match Sound Canvas.
• Toms overhauled completely.
• Splash Cymbal more tolerable.
• Piano is back to something that sounds like a piano. Whoops.
• Tremolo Strings reduced in volume.
• Synth String 1 reduced in volume (Heretic is still loud though).
• Trumpet sounds more like one (Cid's Theme).
• Choir Aahs reduced in volume.
• Electric Grand was way too loud, fixed.
• Dulcimer made softer.
• Echo Drops made softer.
• Tubular Bells redone.

 

Only one original Paul Radek instrument remains - Gunshot. I felt as if MAP31 deserved to have the original DMX sound for the soldiers. No other IWAD MIDI uses it.

DMXOPL is now included in foobar2000 MIDI Player!  Download component HERE

DMXOPL is now included in MIDI Player for Android 4.2 and higher - Store page HERE

 

I'm taking a break from this project for a while. If there are any bugs, I'll fix them, but timbre changes will no longer happen. Instead, work will be done on DMXOPL3 - a new patch that aims to use all OPL3 waveforms. Stay tuned!

 

NOTE: This release is best used with Source Ports that allow multiple OPL3 chips to be emulated.

 

Download from Github: HERE! (v1.11)

Download older 1.10 from idgames: HERE and HERE 

Okay, so a lot of people hated the DMX sound banks, mostly the percussion - it sounds "correct" if you're doing orchestral scores, but doom is not just that - it's thrash! Enter this OPL patch that aims to make OPL synth better for source ports on platforms that don't have the best MIDI access.

 

Will this run on Vanilla?

Yes, but some note cut-offs will happen if you don't have your DMXOPTION variables set. Even then, this may cut notes. I was aiming for sound quality with source ports that can run multiple OPL2/OPL3 chips, but I may release a cut-down version later.

What IWAD works best?

Doom Registered. That's what I used to test these patches on. Doom 2 is being started (rock organ has been redone entirely) so expect D_STALKS to sound pretty good soon.

HOW CAN I HELP?

I unno, send a pull request I guess?
I STILL DON'T LIKE THE NOTE CUTOFFS I HATE THIS

Lucky for you, I'm working on a cut-down version for Vanilla to minimize note cuts. Expect that to be out....Some time.

 

Repo here: https://github.com/sneakernets/DMXOPL

Videos here:

Original 0.99 Release:

DMXOPL v1.2.2

 

Stewboy - Yuletide (DMXOPL v1.5)

 

 

DMXOPL v1.7 - T-Square - Sweet Sorrow (ADLMidi plugin)

DMXOPL v1.10 Demo:
 

 

Edited August 22, 2017 by Csonicgo : v1.11 Final Release

[Jimmy]

HELL TO THE YES

[Jaxxoon R]

Yeaaaaa I've been waiting for this for years!

[Csonicgo]

I appreciate the positive response! I'll be continuing this ASAP, worrying me to death are the woodwind instruments and some of the synth pads, which could be much better given that the OPL is a synth itself!

[kb1]

The YT video sounds nice! I wish it had a "side-by-side" (one after the other) comparison to really hear the difference. Is this something for Vanilla/DOS, or can it apply to modern ports? I guess what I'm asking is if modern ports can take advantage of your files.

[axdoomer]

On 3/15/2017 at 7:21 AM, Csonicgo said:

Will this run on Vanilla?

Yes, but some note cut-offs will happen if you don't have your DMXOPTION variables set. Even then, this may cut notes. I was aiming for sound quality with

 

Amazing, it sounds so good in the YT video, but how exactly do you set DMXOPTION?

[Gez]

It's an environment variable. See the ever-helpful wiki.

[Csonicgo]

I have tested this with DOS and the results are perfect. whee! some midis on mods may cut out due to things like "too many notes". Bah. most midis out there aren't set up properly for priority so expect issues.

[NightFright]

Are you aiming for a GENMIDI that works with both Doom and Doom II or will you need to load separate files? This is important to know for projects like WadSmoosh that merge both games together and only access one file.

[Voros]

19 minutes ago, NightFright said:

Are you aiming for a GENMIDI that works with both Doom and Doom II or will you need to load separate files?

Why would there be seperate versions of GENMIDI? If one GENMIDI lump has less instruments than another GENMIDI lump, then the latter GENMIDI is the one that should be used, not the dumbed down version. 

[Csonicgo]

On 07/04/2017 at 8:56 AM, NightFright said:

Are you aiming for a GENMIDI that works with both Doom and Doom II or will you need to load separate files? This is important to know for projects like WadSmoosh that merge both games together and only access one file.

This should work with all doom/raven/strife games. I am not considering releasing variants, as there's really no point. I really don't know why there were variants at all, but there are, and it's a mess...

[Csonicgo]

Version 1.1 is out, thanks to Jimmy and Essel for feedback.

[Csonicgo]

Version 1.2 is now out fixing all the loose ends. Here is what I used to test instruments not in doom's midis... Christmas music :s

 

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1YXHSelQIeX

 

I'll clean up some synths in v1.3 as well, some don't sound well in the high ranges as I had hoped.

Edited May 24, 2017 by Csonicgo : v1.2

[Blastfrog]

Excellent work! This is going into my autoload immediately.

 

Are the timbres ripped from anywhere, or are they all original? I'd prefer that the timbres sound like other games where Bobby Prince exported his music to IMF format. That being said, trying to sound close to the SC-55 GM set is a good target, too.

[Csonicgo]

I used the DMX base set as.. a base. Almost all of them have been replaced.

 

They are based on the sounds of FM Yamaha synths I own, with most of the "Doom" instruments mimicking the SC-55 as close as possible.

[Reisal]

I'll keep an eye on this.

[Csonicgo]

Ancient Aliens has uncovered many inconsistencies, and I'm working on those. In the meantime, here's a Release with some of those changes.

 

https://github.com/sneakernets/DMXOPL/releases/tag/v1.2.1

 

 

[Reisal]

I've noticed in 1.2 and 1.2.1 that a certain track (who did this one? incl. w/ 1.2.1) that under GZDoom v3.0.1 that the entire song was played in the left speaker of mine while Zandronum and ZDoom played it back in the normal locations. Must be something with OpenAL since all of the FMOD ports played it back just fine.

 

@Graf Zahl, have you heard of this issue before? Further tests indicate it happens without @Csonicgo's GENMIDI changes, which I thought it was initially.

 

Edit: This occurs with multiple songs it seems.

Edited May 24, 2017 by Glaice

[Csonicgo]

27 minutes ago, Glaice said:

I've noticed in 1.2 and 1.2.1 that a certain track (who did this one? incl. w/ 1.2.1) that under GZDoom v3.0.1 that the entire song was played in the left speaker of mine while Zandronum and ZDoom played it back in the normal locations. Must be something with OpenAL since all of the FMOD ports played it back just fine.

 

@Graf Zahl, have you heard of this issue before? Further tests indicate it happens without @Csonicgo's GENMIDI changes, which I thought it was initially.

Yep, confirmed. I had to use the last ZDoom version for testing, as well as Chocolate Doom.

[Gez]

It's a known issue and in fact it's already been fixed. Fulll details are here: https://github.com/coelckers/gzdoom/pull/333

[Blastfrog]

It just occurred to me; how much of this could be put into Freedoom? I know a lot of the sounds are derived from the existing GENMIDIs, but OPL voices are so, so simple, that if it's so heavily modified, can you really say that it's the same? Or just that it's totally original that simply took inspiration from a reference?

 

Also oh my god my ears have never felt this good are you some kind of opl goddess or something i mean jeez

[Woolie Wool]

Just an FYI, the IMF music in Wolfenstein, Blake Stone, Duke Nukem 3D, etc. has pretty great OPL instruments and you can rip these instruments from IMFs and put them into GENMIDI (and then modify them to your heart's content) with IMFCreator: http://winwolf3d.dugtrio17.com/download/IMFCreator-1.0.17.2.exe

 

E: Though the snare drum sounds almost exactly like Wolf3D's so maybe you already did?

[Csonicgo]

14 minutes ago, Blastfrog said:

It just occurred to me; how much of this could be put into Freedoom? I know a lot of the sounds are derived from the existing GENMIDIs, but OPL voices are so, so simple, that if it's so heavily modified, can you really say that it's the same? Or just that it's totally original that simply took inspiration from a reference?

 

Also oh my god my ears have never felt this good are you some kind of opl goddess or something i mean jeez

Part of me says "yes", the other part says - this took years of messing around with the concepts of FM synthesis in general to get this far. It helps to have some music theory as well as knowledge of harmonics to get the sounds you want. There are so many variables that affect the sound, including the octave range, feedback, waveform, and 2-op/4-op. 4-op synthesis (what most of this is, technically) is how I layer sounds to make bells, ensembles, synth leads, etc. I also have to take into account how the instruments are played. Violin solos always use vibrato, fiddles don't.

 

At the end of the day it's just a bunch of hexadecimal numbers, but knowing what those numbers do is the magic. Creating a patch, testing it, tweaking it, testing again... sometimes takes more than I would like to admit. 

 

But, if I had to pick a custom title I would go with "OPL Goddess" in a heartbeat. :P

 

And another thing, I'll be working on making as many sounds as 2op as possible to free up channels for Vanilla Doom. There will be two versions when I'm done- one for doom.exe and for source ports that can emulate more than one chip at a time.

 

For your other question, I have blessing from the original creator of gmopl and the 4op fat man set to use his values as a base. Three only parts that are still DMX defaults are some of the percussion I haven't tweaked yet.

 

I'm in talks with the freedoom crew (or at least I think so) so I hope to make that happen. I'll also do a standalone release on idgames.

[Csonicgo]

16 minutes ago, Woolie Wool said:

Just an FYI, the IMF music in Wolfenstein, Blake Stone, Duke Nukem 3D, etc. has pretty great OPL instruments and you can rip these instruments from IMFs and put them into GENMIDI (and then modify them to your heart's content) with IMFCreator: http://winwolf3d.dugtrio17.com/download/IMFCreator-1.0.17.2.exe

 

E: Though the snare drum sounds almost exactly like Wolf3D's so maybe you already did?

Some IMF sounds were inspiration, yes. :) Although none were directly copied, my snare drum patch is almost five years old, one of the very first ones I did.

[Reisal]

I really liked the original OPL's lead square and sawtooth and noticed it sounds more like a soundfont's square and more natural. However, a lot of the changes done I do like and sound better.

[Csonicgo]

1 minute ago, Glaice said:

I really liked the original OPL's lead square and sawtooth and noticed it sounds more like a soundfont's square and more natural.

It was very close. The version that's in my set took inspiration from Voyetra Sequencer. However, Voyetra Sequencer has an extra trick in that it actively controls the OPL registers as the sounds are playing. DMX doesn't allow for that, but I've managed to get "close enough" that I'm satisfied.

 

The major things left to do are proper mixing of all sounds (this just takes time, trial and error) and making sure the voices work with all velocities. I'll have to play a lot of custom music to test all that.

[Blastfrog]

2 hours ago, Csonicgo said:

Creating a patch, testing it, tweaking it, testing again... sometimes takes more than I would like to admit.

That's actually a good thing. It means that you care about getting it right, even if it takes a lot of iteration.

 

2 hours ago, Csonicgo said:

But, if I had to pick a custom title I would go with "OPL Goddess" in a heartbeat. :P

It wouldn't hurt to ask an admin to make it so. :)

 

2 hours ago, Csonicgo said:

For your other question...

What I meant by that was that even if you used anything as a basis, wouldn't the massive changes effectively make it a new thing that isn't necessarily derived from the old work? It was in regard to any concerns the Freedoom maintainers may have about whether your patches are cleared for use in Freedoom by virtue of effectively being 100% original works, despite the process used to create them.

 

What I meant by they're just simple, small pieces of data, is that can anyone really "own" them? Like for example, can anyone really "own" a palette? Without a doubt, palettes and FM voices require a keen ear/eye, knowledge of how it all plays out in practice, and a good artistic sense. I wasn't trying to dismiss any of that.

 

On that note, I've been trying my hand at an alternative to DM2PAL, taking a slightly different approach. This stuff is so hard to get right when you have so little room to work in! It's a very, very careful balancing act.

 

2 hours ago, Csonicgo said:

an extra trick in that it actively controls the OPL registers as the sounds are playing. DMX doesn't allow for that

My question is, did any games that use IMF have a similar trick? Wolf 3D sounds so damn good, was that just clever and careful use of ordinary voice usage, or was it capable of doing something like you describe Voyetra being able to do?

[Voros]

Freedoom's GENMIDI has missing percussion instruments. Would be nice if they got filled at the very least.

[esselfortium]

These sound fantastic. That pluck synth in Silent Night is seriously beautiful.

[Csonicgo]

RC1 is out. Go break it. Other than some percussion, it's done :v