TheUltimateDoomer666

I think the Microsoft GS Synth sounds very bland as well, but I use it when balancing MIDIs as it's still based on the SC-55. MS Synth's very limited polyphony is annoying, and I often experienced notes being dropped when composing MIDIs for community packs. I attempted to alleviate the issue by shifting certain notes forward or backward in relation to other notes in some parts of my MIDIs. As for what exactly the voice limit is, I recall a now-defunct website saying that it actually varies on different systems. Supposedly the voice limit was reduced even further on newer Windows versions, although I have no idea if that's true or just anecdotal evidence. The Creative SoundFonts are nice, although the sounds are a little basic which is to be expected from smaller banks. There are actually a few different versions of the Creative SoundFonts. Some of them are available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aj2SMQnxvwIxi1616tE1-USm7Q2FrFuF?usp=sharing

It's just a stock loop that both composers happened to use. Composers using stock presets or loops is actually very common. As another example, listen to the credits music from PS1 DOOM: Now compare that to this Hexen II track: That sample originates from an Ensoniq synth: Also compare the following tracks from Total Meltdown and Nebula Fighter: I'm not sure exactly where the Total Meltdown guitar riffs originate from, but they're likely from a hardware workstation or sample CD as those were commonly used for game soundtracks that used digitized music.

I also ordered it as soon as it became available, although I haven't received it yet as I'm in Australia. I also ordered the Astro Slayer variant, as it comes with the Crucible Sword. The Astro figure is exclusive to BigBadToyStore and is due to ship in October.

LoopMIDI isn't needed for programs that have built-in support for FluidSynth (or other synths). Since Woof already supports FluidSynth, loopMIDI is being bypassed entirely.

For Rise of the Triad, the opening music is at 0:13, and for Tyrian, the menu music is at 35:59. For MIDI downloads, VGMPF has MIDI rips from many classic games available. Here's the page for Rise of the Triad. Tyrian is a little different in that its music is in LDS format and was written specifically for AdLib cards. Regardless, here's a download for the General MIDI versions of the songs: MIDIs recorded by Borg No. One.

One downside with the way the samples are recorded is that the loops are too short, so longer notes in some MIDIs sound like a "broken record". This is noticeable in the opening music from Rise of the Triad and the menu music from Tyrian.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymbal_choke

It was an intentional limitation designed for realism. There is some information about it in the original SC-55 manual. There are even different percussion sounds that can't be played at the same time (as it would be impossible to do so in real life with a single instrument). SCVA not emulating that feature is an oversight from the programmers.

There is pretty much zero chance of Bethesda updating DOOM 3 BFG Edition, especially considering DOOM 3 already got an updated re-release in 2019 (this version is called the "Bethesda.net Edition" on Steam). I can't imagine that being easy to implement at all with how weapon progression works in the game. Playing later levels with a starting pistol wouldn't be feasible, as the game was designed for continuous play. For replaying levels, you can just use manual saves. Would there be an audience for this? id Software and Bethesda are not going to spend time and resources adding additional modes to DOOM 3 when they are busy with current projects. Those have already been added to the standalone re-releases of DOOM and DOOM II.

No it was not. Bobby Prince himself has explained that E1M1 was not inspired by any specific song. He came up with the riff while "goofing around on the guitar" (source).

Originally posted by Tristan in this thread:

Because "Roland Sound Canvas" alone doesn't imply GS compatibility. A number of Sound Canvas synths are GM only, such as the SC-7 and RAP-10. In addition, making GS-only versions of the music would have been too much work in most cases. The composer would practically have to re-make the tracks to take advantage of the hundreds of new instruments that GS adds.

The SC-55 can apply reverb to GM tracks, while some other synths are dry. Most SC-55 recordings of GM soundtracks are done with the reverb enabled. It's all General MIDI. Very few games made use of the additional GS features, as doing so would have caused problems for those without GS synths (e.g., the wrong instruments would play if the composer used instruments that aren't in the GM standard).

I've seen this discussion a few times on Doomworld and VOGONS. I think it was done simply for clarity and to avoid confusion (not every Sound Canvas owner would know to select "General MIDI"). It's sort of like how there are separate music options for AdLib and Sound Blaster, even though they're the same thing in terms of music synthesis (the Sound Blaster is 100% AdLib compatible). There are also way more games than ROTT and Duke 3D that have identical-sounding options for General MIDI and Sound Canvas. DOOM does this as well. Even this obscure platformer does it: That would hardly be a scam because even with GM-only MIDIs, the SC-55 would still significantly improve the quality of the MIDI playback compared to whatever non-Roland MIDI synth the user previously had. In fact, Apogee even recommended the Roland Sound Canvas in some of their catalogs for the best music quality in games like Raptor: Call of the Shadows, despite the fact that game's music is GM.