Not sure on the levels right now, but you can download the soundtrack here and just go by the names. Normally this is not a good way to investigate things because some instruments will differ from ingame playback but in this case the relevant part is same as ingame.
I find the roland cm-500 recordings on youtube to be the most pleasing to my ears.
sc-88 sounds good too
OK tested with "spook" song and tilakat's fixed version:
- with the SC-55 mk1 you hear the guitar click sample
- with the MU-80 you hear a breath-like instrument, reminds me of panpipes...
but what's the correct instrument? personally I think it's the guitar click sample , the panpipe doesn't stick well to me... but it could just be me 😊
wrote:There are SC-55 units (NOT mkII) which have the logo, so it would be interesting to know how those behave in this case.
Mine has both logos.
If you guys tell me exactly what / how to test and can take a look 😀
wrote:wrote:There are SC-55 units (NOT mkII) which have the logo, so it would be interesting to know how those behave in this case.
Mine has both logos.
If you guys tell me exactly what / how to test and can take a look 😀
launch the fixed duke3d just to be sure
enter the 1st level
type DNSCOTTY310 , it warps you to level "Tier Drops" and listen to what it plays... it will either be a tik-tak sound or a pan-pipe one...
Actually I just realized that the name of the level "Tier Drops" might indicate that the guitar click sample is indeed the correct one. It does sound like "drops".
And the other level that uses the same guitar click sample is the "Launch Facility" one, which is an underground sewer level (DNSOTTY106) and it makes sense that the guitar click sample is used again for water drops... The breath/panpipe sample just seems out of place IMHO
Is the breath noise alternating between the left and right channel?
I get it in both units daisychained. The SC-55 with both logos and SC-55ST (MKII without LCD display).
I cycled through the parts on the SC-55 and it shows Breath Noise on the display.
Where can I get the fixed MIDI driver from?
Recording attached. It sounds like this on the SC-55 and SC-55ST.
^ you can grab the patches here: Apogee / 3D Realms - sound driver hacking
edit: yep, that's what I hear with the MU-80 too... on the mk1 SC-55 that breath sound that repeats in the song is replaced by a tik-tak sound...
I never thought this thread would be full of General MIDI awesomeness. It doesn't even matter anymore, i'll get the SC88. From everything i can hear its SC55 map sounds pretty much like the real thing.
Im also looking for an affordable Roland sc-88.
get it!
I'm confused... so what's the best version of the SC-55 for DOS games? MK1 but with GM logo?
wrote:I'm confused... so what's the best version of the SC-55 for DOS games? MK1 but with GM logo?
Before I bought my SC-55 I researched and concluded that the best version for the DOS games I like was the GS-only one mainly because of the tone fallback "feature" it had (see the relevant thread here: Calling all Roland SCC-1A Owners )
Apparently even in DN3D it is the only version that plays correctly the notorious breath/click songs... basically what makes it great is that the composers used the very same unit so you are almost certain you are hearing what they wanted you to hear... almost because sound drivers were buggy apparently, tilakat is doing an awesome job fixing them 😊
...basically you need several synths to cover everything 😵
would love to hear though what other people think about the situation
To reiterate, you can manually adjust any GM+GS Sound Canvas to play the click noise (well with an external unit that is), so nothing is "missing". It just won't play back correctly out of the box, if the clicks are indeed the correct instrument in that case.
With lower end units like the SC-7 it'd be impossible to get correct playback as they lack variation tones save for additional drumkits though. So even changing stuff in the MIDI files wouldn't do anything here.
As per queststudios information, I believe that the World of Xeen issues are fixed by simply sending a GS reset before playing the game on GM+GS SCs. Once again it comes down to MIDI driver screwup.
d1stortion, can you do the test with XEEN and the SC-88?
Send a reset before the game starts and see if you get the arrow sfx (as per the instructions at the thread I linked at my previous post)
It will shed some light on the situation and clear things better IMHO.
Yeah I will do the test.
This is the thread I was talking about btw: http://queststudios.com/smf/index.php/topic,2483.0.html
It looks like I didn't read it through. Maybe correct playback is not possible on GM+GS units after all. I will expect it to perform wrong on my SC-88 then.
Edit: Well here are the recordings:
https://mega.co.nz/#!FBxknDTA!KZJe7TxzujU77Fn … iRzvfne19zREIOo (without patch)
https://mega.co.nz/#!xc4WRJ5I!QeB8UnW0-hgjVLC … hLarew_oW7M1x8A (with patch)
Since there is a patch available I wouldn't say that a non-GM SC-55 is really necessary for this game. And actually with all of the SFX going on this could be hogging the MIDI synth more than other games, so something with higher polyphony might be preferable here...?
Also, protip... don't update to Audacity 2.0.4 if you intend on recording. I did so and couldn't record the line in at all. Only going back to 2.0.3 fixed it 😵
great, thanks for testing...
about higher polyphony, doesn't this need support from the game engine/data? I mean they certainly did not create complex midi songs+"overlayed" sfx , they must have had a limit in their head regarding polyphony... ?
wrote:...basically you need several synths to cover everything 😵
would love to hear though what other people think about the situation
That's exactly what the situation is 😀
Get every unit to cover your bases. 🤣
wrote:Get every unit to cover your bases. 🤣
🤣
It's been so long since I played World of Xeen. But I only use my SB cards for digital output, unless I wanted to test things. Generally I use the MKII only for SC/GS/GM music. I guess the SB cards should be enough to produce the arrow sounds? (Can't remember).
^ sadly no, they made the game outputting some sfx via the midi device... much like uw1's footsteps
wrote:That's exactly what the situation is 😀
Get every unit to cover your bases. 🤣
I'll have to settle with one only. The SC88 will be enough.
