Are recordings from the GUS acceptable? 😀

For now, here are some recordings I made from both my SW60XG and Cancun FX.

Yamaha SW60XG
All recordings were done the old-fashioned way - SW60XG line out to ASUS Xonar DG line in using a 12ft 3.5mm stereo audio cable. GoldWave 5.70 was used to capture and process audio signal (no filters applied). OS on playback PC is DOS 6.2, on recording PC is Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit.

Creature Shock - W13G (smf)
Descent - Game14 (game)
Descent 2 - Briefing (game)
Doom - E1M4 (game)
Final Doom: Evilution - TNT02 (game)
Fire Fight Demo - FFTRACK2 (smf)
The Settlers 2 - SNG_0013 (game)
Warcraft - HUMAN1 (game)
Warcraft 2 - ORC4GM (game)

Turtle Beach Cancun FX
This was done different - Cancun FX is connected to a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, audio was captured by selecting Daughter Card on recording input. GoldWave 4.26 was used to capture and process audio signal (noise reduction filter applied). OS is Windows 98 SE. Unfortunately playback volume from this wavetable card is very high, so clipping is unavoidable.

Creature Shock - W9G (smf)
Descent 2 - Descent (game)
Doom - E2M1 (game)
Shattered Steel Demo - Space-GM (smf)
Xenophage - PakManX (smf)

Nice 😀
I don't know if GUS is considered GM compatible? Maybe not the old ones?

Cancun FX was interesting to hear, and yes many times are clipping unavoidable unless the game has volume control for the music. I have the same problem with SCC-1 and i guess it is the same for all devices that do not have any external volume control.

Stefan_L wrote:

Nice 😀
I don't know if GUS is considered GM compatible? Maybe not the old ones?

Both old and new (PnP) ones are GM compatible, which is proved easily by playing GM MIDI files over them.

Stefan_L wrote:

Also if more people post recordings showing how other GM devices play GM games music in this thread so will i try and update this first post with the examples, but if you post then please state if the recording is from an SMF or from the game files (unless the game uses actual SMF files).

I did some recordings a few years ago and put them in 2011 here: ftp://78.46.141.148/wavetable_comparison/

Got some recordings of my XR385 (DB60XG clone).

NEC XR385
Tried to use the same recording method as the Cancun FX, but clipping was so bad (even at very low volume) that I opted to just connect the Santa Cruz line output to the Xonar DG line input; in the words of the immortal Duke Nukem, "Aaahhh, much better!" 😀 . GoldWave 5.70 was used to capture and process audio signal (noise reduction filter applied). OS on playback PC is Windows 98 SE, on recording PC is Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit.

Creature Shock - W13G (smf)
Doom - E1M4 (game)
Shattered Steel Demo - Space-GM (smf)
Xenophage - PakManX (smf)

These recordings were done to compare them with the SW60XG (first two) and Cancun FX (next two).

Descent - Game02 (game)
Duke Nukem 3D - ALIENZ (smf*)
FIFA International Soccer - RAY22S (game)
Gateworld - GWV1BOSS (game)
Raptor: Call of the Shadows - RAPTOR15 (smf**)
The Terminator: Rampage - WALK_3 (game)

*The Duke Nukem 3D recording was done from a MIDI file that's available in the game CD; it sounds almost identical to the EMIDI in the game itself IMHO.

**The Raptor recording was done by ripping and converting the original game music to MIDI; it's just easier that way for me 😊

Just for clarification: SMF is not a file format but a shortcut for Separate Midi File ?!? (just a guess of me)

SMF is a music format.. "Standard MIDI File" 😀
AFAIK so was SMF not used for so many PC games that supported GM.. mostly some windows games i think. The most common format for GM music for PC games was XMI followed by HMI(?) and i just wanted to seperate the original to those converted to SMF using outdated converters that still is around these days...like XMI2MID and such stuff from the 1990's.
To play XMI files you can use PX, no need to convert them anymore unless you gonna re-arrange it. PX Player: play MID and XMI files under DOS

I don't know if you are aware of XMIPLAY. There was never the need to convert XMI to MID unless you are stuck with a player playing MID only. Of course there is PX now, but XMIPLAY is around since the XMI format was used as it is part of the (now) RAD game tools package.
I put a copy here: ftp://78.46.141.148/dos/sound/xmiplay.zip

Of course i know of xmiplay 😀 I rarely convert to SMF, and i think the reason why there is so many of those XMI -> SMF (MID) files around these days is because there never was any XMI player/editor for windows.

Actually, there was (and maybe still is) one available:

This is the Miles Sound Studio from RAD Game Tools, has an XMI player and was freely available at their web site for quite some time; a few years ago though, they removed the download link and now you have to send them an email about it.

I have two versions of the Sound Studio, 6.1c works in Win3.1/Win95, 6.6g works from Win98 to WinXP (haven't tried either one in Vista/64 or newer). If the mods allow it and there are no legal issues, I can post them both here.

There you go ftp://78.46.141.148/driver/RADTools/

Excellent! It's 7.2b, has both 32 and 64 bit versions, and works great in Win7 64 with BASSMIDI. Thanks elianda 😀

I have uploaded my copies to my Dropbox account. Here are the links:

Miles Sound Studio 6.1c (needs Win32s in Win3.x)

Miles Sound Studio 6.6g

Stefan_L wrote:

there never was any XMI player/editor for windows.

Why? Apart from Miles Sound Player, which is no longer available as a free download from RAD, there are Winamp and foobar2000 which both can play XMI, HMI and many other MIDI-like files. The difference between Winamp and foobar2000 (with foo_midi plugin) is simple: Winamp plays through Windows MIDI device, while foobar2000 renders MIDI internally using built-in engines. So, if you have, for example, a Roland SC-55 attached to your Windows PC, you should use Winamp. Otherwise, foobar2000 offers more options. With foo_midi you can play through OPL emulator with game OPL banks, or a GM renderer (bassmidi) with soundfont support, or even MUNT.

could some do a soundcard comparison with /teamxmi/29.xmi from NHLPA?

could anyone record the music of great word adventure on various gm cards?
for an easy way to record ensoniq audio PCI midi playback, record it from vmware. vmware can emulate the ensoniq audio PCI (including the midi part) under windows 98 guests.

elianda wrote on 2015-01-31, 15:19:

I don't know if you are aware of XMIPLAY. There was never the need to convert XMI to MID unless you are stuck with a player playing MID only. Of course there is PX now, but XMIPLAY is around since the XMI format was used as it is part of the (now) RAD game tools package.
I put a copy here: ftp://78.46.141.148/dos/sound/xmiplay.zip

Thanks! This one saves my day!
I was going to find a xmi to vgm converter but since XMI is related to games, thus no good converter found, the PX player plays XMI but differently from the game. This one plays exact OPL3 music as in the game.
Now I can use this player to play xmi in Dosbox and record a DRO for each file now. 😁

The links above are dead.
The ftp-link still works.

I found there is now another tool to play XMI files available, PX player, see PX Player: play MID and XMI files under DOS

perhenden wrote on 2022-10-17, 21:17:

The links above are dead.

I don't think so. It is just that support for ftp:// was removed from browsers. The links are perfectly fine.

elianda wrote on 2022-10-18, 02:04:

perhenden wrote on 2022-10-17, 21:17:

The links above are dead.

I don't think so. It is just that support for ftp:// was removed from browsers. The links are perfectly fine.

It still works if I paste the URL into Internet Explorer on my Windows 10 machine .