rgart wrote:

Police Quest 3
Police Quest 4
Ultima 8

PQ3 is MT32. It can be patched for GM with a third party tool, but can't use GM by default.

thecrankyhermit wrote:

The Dagger of Amon Ra

Dagger has a great soundtrack when using GM, as does Conquest of the Longbow, but they were originally composed for MT-32. As wonderful as they sound, I don't feel that these games best represent the new capabilities of sample based MIDI.

carlostex wrote:

Warcraft 2 is one of the few games where Sound Canvas really beats competition to a pulp.

Really? CD Audio included?

The CD-Audio to Warcraft 2 sounds like pre-recorded MIDI to me. With a sufficiently realistic and detailed Sound Font you can end up with music like the CD tracks.

I really like Warcraft 2's sound track, it's probably my favorite Blizzard sound track of all time. But making the MIDI sound like the CD-ROM version isn't that interesting to me. I have the CD-ROM version.

I'd still like help curating the Sierra list. Going to try a different approach. Here are all of the Sierra games with GM that I've played fairly recently. Which are the most worth re-playing just for the music?

EcoQuest 2
Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist
Gabriel Knight
Gabriel Knight 2
Leisure Suit Larry 6
Pepper's Adventures in Time
Police Quest I Remake
Police Quest IV
Space Quest V
Space Quest 6

DracoNihil wrote:

The CD-Audio to Warcraft 2 sounds like pre-recorded MIDI to me. With a sufficiently realistic and detailed Sound Font you can end up with music like the CD tracks.

IIRC, it was recorded from an SC-88 (one step up from the SC-55). The tempo is also slightly slower than the MIDI files.

thecrankyhermit wrote:

Now that Roland Sound Canvas VA has reached "good enough" territory

Unfortunally Win7 required by SCVA is not "good enough" for DOSBox as blocksize=256 there makes garbage from music, while higher values give sensible lag in action games.
Also SCVA has no identical SC-55 emulation as is based on SC-88. Just better than other known ways today.

Mine's set to 1024. If that introduces input lag, I never noticed it. I don't play a lot of twitch action games in DOSBox.

thecrankyhermit wrote:

...

Also, I understand Lands of Lore uses capital tone fallback, and that won't work in Sound Canvas VA (or anything other than an old GS hardware synth, really). Is there any way around this, like a patch, or fixed version of DOSBox, or ScummVM? If not, how much of a difference does it make?

I originally played Lands of Lore with a SCC-1 card back in the day (equivalent to SC-55 rev. 1). I recently tried it in Dosbox with a SC-55Mk2 and noticed the problems related to capital tone fallback - mostly missing sound effects. A patch would be welcome but I don't think there's any. Might & Magic IV and Might & Magic V also exhibit this problem and there's apparently a patch, but I've never been able to make it work... so it seems the best way to experience these games is to play them with an original SC-55 or similar.

thecrankyhermit wrote:

Mine's set to 1024. If that introduces input lag, I never noticed it.

To compare you may try a platformer with 256 and 1024 on CRT, as LCD gives a lag iteself, what makes harder to notice the difference.

Pirates! Gold has a great GM patch and jukebox executable. 🤣

MMaximus wrote:

thecrankyhermit wrote:

...

Also, I understand Lands of Lore uses capital tone fallback, and that won't work in Sound Canvas VA (or anything other than an old GS hardware synth, really). Is there any way around this, like a patch, or fixed version of DOSBox, or ScummVM? If not, how much of a difference does it make?

I originally played Lands of Lore with a SCC-1 card back in the day (equivalent to SC-55 rev. 1). I recently tried it in Dosbox with a SC-55Mk2 and noticed the problems related to capital tone fallback - mostly missing sound effects. A patch would be welcome but I don't think there's any. Might & Magic IV and Might & Magic V also exhibit this problem and there's apparently a patch, but I've never been able to make it work... so it seems the best way to experience these games is to play them with an original SC-55 or similar.

Where is this patch? I'd like to try it.

And with Lands of Lore, I wonder if there's salvation with ScummVM. I'd test it, but I don't know what it's supposed to sound like. Even if ScummVM has the same problem, fixing it there ought to be easier than making a DOS patch.

Tilakat made various awesome patches, mainly for GM synths - there is a Xeen patch there as well: Sound Driver Enhancement Hacks - General MIDI

I compared Warcraft 2 CD Audio to SC-VA and apparently the CD audio uses all the SC-XX models for various instruments in the same track and each instrument is equalized differently.
So it is not a simple direct SC-88 recording, they probably used the SC-88Pro and recorded each instrument separately from the 55,88,88pro map that sounded the best to them on that particular instrument.
I can hear instruments that sound closer to the SC-55, they tweaked each instrument in their recording software and mixed them all together.
The instruments are definitely from the sound canvas units but the mix is different and not a straightforward recording of the 88 model.

EDIT:
On a closer listen, most if not all instruments are from SC-55, especially the "Trombone" "Choir Aahs" "French Horn".
If I would have to give a verdict, I would say that the CD Audio is a studio remix of SC-55 instruments with carefully balanced EQ and Effects crafted for each instrument.
Blasphemy I know, everyone says it's the 88, but there are some instrument that are radically different between the 88 and the CD track, where the 55 is much closer.

Doesn't the 88 have the 55 samples onboard though? Or the 88pro at least?

Yes, they all have the 55 map.

So one unit could still have been used, even if everything was recorded separately. I admire the work they went into to make the music sound the best it could be, if that was truly the case!

Stonekeep has some of the best SC-55 music ever composed.

Listen and be amazed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnVRfTsYGww

MusicallyInspired wrote:

Have to echo Descent. Some tracks are hit and miss, but a few of them are spectacular pieces of Sound Canvas MIDI engineering. Brilliant stuff.

Descent intro sounds better with Yamaha XG IMO.

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

MusicallyInspired wrote:

Have to echo Descent. Some tracks are hit and miss, but a few of them are spectacular pieces of Sound Canvas MIDI engineering. Brilliant stuff.

Descent intro sounds better with Yamaha XG IMO.

I think I actually prefer the AWE32 soundtrack for Descent. Something about my AWE64 with electronic/techno sounding music just fits better.

Just want to clarify something. When we say "Sound Canvas" games, are we talking about games that offer a specific "Sound Canvas" option for music or a regular "General MIDI" option?

I know that games like Descent offer a "Sound Canvas" option, but I was always under the impression that selecting it gave you the same music as "General MIDI," even if you had an SC-55. Is it really pumping out Roland GS music?