I Googled around a bit to see if anyone ever produced a working (and decent) SC-55 approximation soundfont for Creative AWE32 in SBK format for DOS/Win3.x
My search turned up soundfonts in SF2 format, but not in SBK.
If anyone ever got an SBK file like that, please let me know. Thanks!
PS My AWE32 has 8MB of sample RAM.
I've been looking for one myself.
The most decent version 1 soundfont (*.sbk) that I found was a file called "Finegm.sbk".
However, the version 2 soundfont called "SCC1T2.sf2" is probably the closest in terms of the sample quality of a real SC-55 (within the limitations of file size and memory availability on most AWE based cards).
It would be nice if someone could convert that one into a *.sbk (version 1) format.
wrote:I've been looking for one myself. The most decent version 1 soundfont (*.sbk) that I found was a file called "Finegm.sbk". Howev […]
I've been looking for one myself.
The most decent version 1 soundfont (*.sbk) that I found was a file called "Finegm.sbk".
However, the version 2 soundfont called "SCC1T2.sf2" is probably the closest in terms of the sample quality of a real SC-55 (within the limitations of file size and memory availability on most AWE based cards).
It would be nice if someone could convert that one into a *.sbk (version 1) format.
On your recommendation I got the finegm.sbk file. That resulted in a mega-fail on my part, apparently protected mode DOS games ignore the loaded soundfont, and I don't know any real mode DOS games with General MIDI support. Can you suggest a few, please?
I have the scc1t2.sf2 file, I used it a bit with soft MIDI device on my modern PC, and it's good. I seem to prefer "Roland SC-55 Presets.sf2" file instead. I did a hex editor comparison against scc1t2.sf2 to make sure my ears aren't lying to me, they aren't the same soundfont in fact. I definitely prefer the sound of "Roland SC-55 Presets.sf2", it seems (at least to me) to have more dynamic range and more definition. Have you tried it? The soft MIDI device I use is CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth.
[EDIT]
The soundfont, finegm.sbk, I was able to test using the WinG/win32s port of Doom under Windows 3.11, it works. It does a fair job of emulating the sound of GUS, however it's not quite the quality of the GUS recordings found on YouTube. Better than OPL3 and default sample set on AWE32 ROM nevertheless. Nice to have.
Tried my favorite "Roland SC-55 Presets.sf2" as well, it sounds a little bit different on AWE32 than on my choice of soft MIDI device. Best so far. Will try scc1t2.sf2 on it next. If only I had ability to get MIDI sound like this everywhere else under DOS.
I think I did try out a couple of soundfonts in the past (specifically playing them though an AWE32/64) and the "SCC1T2.sf2" soundfont sounded the closest to that of a Roland Sound Canvas SC-55. I'll try out the "Roland SC-55 Presets.sf2" soundfont as well and see how it compares to my SC-55 (I also have a real SC-55).
However, I agree that the "finegm.sbk" soundfont is not perfect, but it is at least better sounding than the standard 1 MB ROM on the AWE32.
You can get around (at least with most protected mode games) by playing them through a Windows "DOS box" (command prompt). In such a case, you would select General MIDI as your music device and not AWE32.
