VOGONS


First post, by thecrankyhermit

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I just took my new-old MT-32 for a test drive with King's Quest IV and V. Results were a bit of a mixed bag - King's Quest IV wasn't *that* big an upgrade over the usual Adlib synth, and King's Quest V at times sounded wonderful, but almost as often sounded a bit cheesy, with 16-bit sounding instruments playing at too high a volume.

I'm about to play Might and Magic: World of Xeen for the first time, but I'm struggling with getting it set up right.

The setup program gives me these options for "speech device":
* None
Adlib
* PC Speaker
* Sound Blaster
* Sound Blaster Pro
Pro-Audio Spectrum
Disney Sound Source
Covox Sound Master 2
* Sound Blaster 16
Pro-Audio Spectrum Alt

I always go with SB16. Can't think of any reason not to.

After that, it gives me these options for "music and effects hardware":
* None
Adlib
* PC Speaker
* Sound Blaster
* Sound Blaster Pro
Pro-Audio Spectrum
* Roland Canvas / GS
* Roland LAPC-1 / MT-32
* Wave Blaster
* Roland TAP-10

After that, it wants the port, IRQ, and DMA. I give it 0x220, 7, and 1.

Then it asks me "Automatically adjust Sound Blaster volumes?" I have no idea what this does - yes or no doesn't seem to make a difference.

Anyway, if I have the music set to "Sound Blaster Pro," it's satisfactory, but I'd like to think I can do better. Certain sound effects are kind of bad, too.

If I set it to Roland LAPC/MT-32 and enable my MT-32, the music sounds different, maybe better, but a lot of the sound effects are now musical notes. Footsteps play a horn sound, firing arrows plays a bass sound, etc.

Now let's say I set the music to Roland Canvas / GS and disable my MT-32, using the Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth, which I have been told is similar to a Sound Canvas. Speech effects are too loud. The "automatically adjust sound blaster volumes" option makes no difference either way. I've checked and checked again - they are quieter when the music is set to SB Pro. Sound effects are screwed up even more than with MT-32 - opening a door plays a telephone ringing sound. Music sounds not so great - worse than with MT-32.

Finally, I know someone who has a Roland Virtual Sound Canvas (not a real one, unfortunately). I tried playing on his computer, with music set to Roland Canvas / GS mode. Now footsteps sound like footsteps, door opening sounds like a door opening, etc. Voices and certain sound effects are still too loud. Music isn't as good as MT-32 was, and I noticed that the motif you hear when collecting hidden items is missing. More might be missing too.

So I am basically going bonkers trying to make this sound like it should. So far SBPro mode has given the best results, and that should not be. I did find and read through this thread but I haven't been able to draw anything conclusive from it (and it's not always clear to me how each poster has configured the game's setup).

Any advice on the subject?

Oh, and I expect to be asking similar questions about many other games over the next year or two. If there's a better forum than this one for asking such questions, I'd like to know what it is. Queststudios, maybe?

Thanks.

Running:
Windows 10
Core i5-6600
Geforce GTX 970
8GB RAM

Reply 1 of 8, by Mau1wurf1977

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I was just about to link you to that thread, but you already are aware of it.

AFAIK a LAPC-I / CM-32L or SC-55 are the preferred MIDI devices for this game.

The MT-32 doesn't have these "33 sound effects" which the CM units do. That's why you hear other instruments in their place.

A SC-55MKII and other Sound Canvas Devices need a GS Reset before playing this game.

That's the gist of it, the full information is in the thread you linked!

Reply 2 of 8, by keropi

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from our last tests I remember that some sfx are played through midi... door sounds (very realistic too!), spell sounds and some combat ones where playing through my lapci-i

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Reply 3 of 8, by thecrankyhermit

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I'm not crazy about the idea of getting yet another piece of legacy hardware. Roland Virtual Sound Canvas seems much more palatable - is it a suitable SC-55 substitute? And if so, what can I do about digital sound effects being too loud?

Running:
Windows 10
Core i5-6600
Geforce GTX 970
8GB RAM

Reply 4 of 8, by Mau1wurf1977

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thecrankyhermit wrote:

is it a suitable SC-55 substitute?

Yes it is. Make sure it's set to SC-55 (not MKII).

And if so, what can I do about digital sound effects being too loud?

Adjust the mixer settings of your DOSBox configuration.

Reply 5 of 8, by thecrankyhermit

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Is it supposed to have a MkII setting? I recall seeing three settings, SC-88Pro, SC-88, and SC-55. Default was SC-88Pro, and I left it there when I tried it out.

Also, am I right to assume that the VSC has the CM32L sound effects that MT-32 lacks? Because I did hear some sound effects with it that weren't present in MT-32, like the door opening, and a few combat sounds.

Running:
Windows 10
Core i5-6600
Geforce GTX 970
8GB RAM

Reply 6 of 8, by Mau1wurf1977

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Yes the SC-55 plays all the sound effects.

Ignore my comment about the MKII setting, but set it to SC-55

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Reply 7 of 8, by EmperorsDynasty

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I'm at a loss here... I have recently picked up an SC-55 with a Roland UM-ONE MIDI to USB interface.

When I mixer /listmidi it shows "UM-ONE" as device 3. I set config=3 under Midi, I go into launcher settings and configure Midi to 7 (Roland Canvas/GS) but the game/dosbox does not send the Midi to the SC-55! Instead the sound/music just comes out from Windows. I initialize the SC-55 in GS mode too.

I was able to get the SC-55 to play music from X-Wing in both GM and MT32 modes.

Ok, I figured this out. The default dosbox config file written for World of Xeen by GOG has a typo/error.

The midi section reads...

mpu401=intelligent
device=default
config=

instead of

mpu401=intelligent
mididevice=default
midiconfig=

This is why no matter what # I put in the config line it would not recognize my Sound Canvas.

Reply 8 of 8, by Kodai

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It's not a typo. It's a config from an older version of dosbox. You'll find many games on GoG have this issue. They were setup with older versions of that used that parameter, but when they updated to a newer version they kept the old config file. That I'm aware, it's the only issue caused when they did that. So few people ever configure and use midi with GoG games, that they don't feel the need to correct each and every game with the current midi parameters.

Now that you're aware of it, just keep it in mind for other games from GoG. I'd say about 3/4 of my gog collection (about 300 titles) have that issue. Good luck and enjoy your new SC-55.