VOGONS


Soundfonts and Retrogaming MIDI

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First post, by appiah4

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I'm doing kind of a pet project to compare as many Soundfonts I can find online and compare them against each other in terms of suitability for retrogaming. This will probably turn into a series of YouTube videos, but before I start working on this like the OCD I am, I wanted to share the outlines of what I'm doing with Vogons and see if there are any aspects that I overlooked or any other Soundfonts that I should definitely consider.

I'll be comparing the soundfonts in four broad categories:

<4MB SFs that can be loaded on a vanilla AWE64 Gold
Creative/EMU 1MB (AWE32 ROM)
Creative/EMU 2MB (Mono)
Creative/EMU 4MB (Stereo)
SCC1T2
Yamaha XG Sounset Re-Map

4-32MB SFs that can be loaded on an AWE card with 32MB memory
Chaos 8MB thanks cyclone3d
Chaos 12MB thanks cyclone3d
Creative 8MB
Creative 28MB
GeneralUser GS 1.35
GeneralUser GS SoftSynth 1.44
Merlin GM 2.2 thanks cyclone3d
MT-32 2.52 (16.5MB)
NTONYX 32MB GM
PersonalCopy Lite 4r1 thanks cyclone3d
SC-55 (25MB)
Unison 1.00 thanks cyclone3d

32-128MB SFs that can be reasonably used on Live! cards and pre-2000 hardware
LauGM 1.0
Magic SF 2.0 thanks cyclone3d
Reality GM/GS thanks Falcosoft
OPL-3 FM (128MB)
Personal Copy 5r2 thanks cyclone3d
SC-55 (Patch93)
Weeds GM 3 (w/ GM 4 Update)

>128MB SFs for contemporary PCs
Airfont 380 thanks Laukku
Arachno 1.0
Fluid R3
Musyng thanks Laukku
Omega GM/GS 2
SGM 2.01
SONIVOX 250 thanks Laukku
Timbers of Heaven 3.4

Soundfonts I looked for but failed to find or were commercial:

COLOSSAL
Conexant GM500
Sonivox 24MB
Sonivox 250MB found, thanks Falcosoft
Musyng GM/GS found, thanks Falcosoft

I’m also curious about what songs I should test with.. The usual Suspects are

Descent
DOOM E1M1
Duke Nukem Grabbag Theme thanks Falcosoft
Dune Palace GM
Monkey Island GM Intro

Ideas for a couple more would be nice. Games also on the Amiga are probably a good idea because I plan to record Amiga’s Paula PCM synth out and compare that at some point as well.

Last edited by appiah4 on 2017-06-16, 07:17. Edited 10 times in total.

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Reply 1 of 33, by Falcosoft

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Maybe Reality_GMGS_falcomod.sf2 could be included in the 28-64MB group:
http://falcosoft.hu/softwares.html#midiplayer

And of course Grabbag theme from Duke Nukem 3D (and maybe some Warcraft 2 midis) should be among the test songs.

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Reply 2 of 33, by Laukku

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appiah4 wrote:

Soundfonts I looked for but failed to find or were commercial:

Musyng GM/GS

I did a quick google search and found several download links here: http://www.synthfont.com/soundfonts.html

I tried the OneDrive link and it worked from me.

BTW, LauGM is 124 MB when the .sfArk is unpacked.

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Reply 3 of 33, by appiah4

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Laukku wrote:
I did a quick google search and found several download links here: http://www.synthfont.com/soundfonts.html […]
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appiah4 wrote:

Soundfonts I looked for but failed to find or were commercial:

Musyng GM/GS

I did a quick google search and found several download links here: http://www.synthfont.com/soundfonts.html

I tried the OneDrive link and it worked from me.

BTW, LauGM is 124 MB when the .sfArk is unpacked.

Thanks for the link, I grabbed SONIVOX 250 and Airfont 380 while at it. I will update the OP with LauGM fixes.

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Reply 4 of 33, by jheronimus

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appiah4 wrote:

Creative 28MB

What soundfont is that? Could anyone please point me to some recordings? I might have found a reason to get 32MB for my AWE32 after all 😀

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Reply 5 of 33, by Jade Falcon

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CGM3.0

http://www.bismutnetwork.com/04CrisisGeneralM … oundfont3.0.php

Warning, that sound font will bring your systems to its knees.
It can be used with a Sound blaster Audigy in vista/7 or in software, its so big you can't use it on xp/2k/9x, at 1.57gb is size Id say its probably too big for most people to use. But it sounds amazing.

There is also CGM1.8, its much smaller but sucks.

Reply 6 of 33, by cyclone3d

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The Chaos 12MB soundfont used to be my favorite back in the day.

I think I have a newer, larger Chaos soundfont as well.

Let me know if you want me to upload them for testing.

I probably have some others that you don't have listed as well. Been collecting way too much lately to keep track of it all.

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Reply 7 of 33, by appiah4

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jheronimus wrote:
appiah4 wrote:

Creative 28MB

What soundfont is that? Could anyone please point me to some recordings? I might have found a reason to get 32MB for my AWE32 after all 😀

I believe it ships with Audigy cards, I can share it with you if you want; PM me. GeneralUser GM 1.35 is also <28MB and fits on an AWE32 with 32MB RAM, and is A LOT better, by the way.

Jade Falcon wrote:
CGM3.0 […]
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CGM3.0

http://www.bismutnetwork.com/04CrisisGeneralM … oundfont3.0.php

Warning, that sound font will bring your systems to its knees.
It can be used with a Sound blaster Audigy in vista/7 or in software, its so big you can't use it on xp/2k/9x, at 1.57gb is size Id say its probably too big for most people to use. But it sounds amazing.

There is also CGM1.8, its much smaller but sucks.

This appears to be mostly for composing, it's basically impractical for gaming and out of my scope, but it looks interesting as hell for sure, I'll give it a look.

cyclone3d wrote:
The Chaos 12MB soundfont used to be my favorite back in the day. […]
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The Chaos 12MB soundfont used to be my favorite back in the day.

I think I have a newer, larger Chaos soundfont as well.

Let me know if you want me to upload them for testing.

I probably have some others that you don't have listed as well. Been collecting way too much lately to keep track of it all.

I'd be more than happy to add the ones you want to see in the comparison to the list, point me to a download location, or ask for an upload location, and you'll be served 😀

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Reply 8 of 33, by Jade Falcon

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I had no problem using CGM3.0 for gaming with an Audigy 4, sounds a lot better then anything else I ever found. Its only problem is its size, it takes forever to load up such a log sound font with the creative labs sound font tool. don't bother trying to loud it up with a sound blaster if you are not running vista or 7, XP and back can't put that much data in ram as one file.

Take a look at the bottom of the page, a lot of game music recordings on uploaded there.

Here is a recording of CGM3.0 on my Audigy playing passport.
download/file.php?id=30269

EDIT: its truly amazing
www.bismutnetwork.com/01Download/Music/ ... spair).mp3

Yes that's CGM3 playing a midi from doom

ImperialMarch
www.bismutnetwork.com/01Download/Music/ ... March).mp3

Last edited by Jade Falcon on 2017-06-17, 00:06. Edited 3 times in total.

Reply 9 of 33, by cyclone3d

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Here is a link to my google drive which has the Chaos 8MB and Chaos 12MB sound fonts as well as an SC-55 soundfont which I am guessing is one of the ones you already have.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx6yUkEXCMV … Mk5rVVVnSnhoSUk

Here is a link to a page that has some more soundfonts available for download. I have not tried any of them.

http://www.personalcopy.com/sfarkfonts1.htm

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Reply 10 of 33, by appiah4

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cyclone3d wrote:
Here is a link to my google drive which has the Chaos 8MB and Chaos 12MB sound fonts as well as an SC-55 soundfont which I am gu […]
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Here is a link to my google drive which has the Chaos 8MB and Chaos 12MB sound fonts as well as an SC-55 soundfont which I am guessing is one of the ones you already have.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx6yUkEXCMV … Mk5rVVVnSnhoSUk

Here is a link to a page that has some more soundfonts available for download. I have not tried any of them.

http://www.personalcopy.com/sfarkfonts1.htm

Thanks, I grabbed the Chaos SFs, but the SC-55 appears to be an older revision of Patch93's SC-55 SF so I skipped that. I also grabbed the regular and Lite versions of personal Copy, Magic SF, Merlin SF and Unison on the linked site. I'll add them to my OP now.

The 4-32MB category is starting to get rather crowded, I may have to change the categories to 4-28 and 28+ to differentiate stuff that can fit onto an AWE32/64 from stuff that can be used with a Live/Audigy..

As an aside, I've accumulated a rather extensive library of Soundfonts in the process of this project; who should I contact about possibly uploading them to vogonsdrivers? I also have some ESS drivers that aren't on the site I'd be happy to upload.

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Reply 12 of 33, by jur32mast

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Hi I'm not an expert, but IMHO, some others

2MB, user.sf2
FineGM-user_Vogons, is in Vogons library. One of the best - due to size, incomplete

4MB, vcgs4mv4.sf2
Voice Crystal - very good, sound-balanced

5.6MB, GUS.sf2
GUS_sbk_Vogons, is in Vogons library, good, from Gravis Ultrasound card?

25MB, SC-55.sf2
From Roland card? - most used by me, Some stereo reversible instruments, but still very good

More, not for games,

65MB, EdgeSounds.Genevoice.GM64Pro24.SF2
good, especially with high quality equipment, paid

235MB, Papelmedia.sf2
the next considered one of very good

266MB, JaZMan PRO GM-24 Bit SoundFont.sf2
by many consider to be the best, paid

407MB, Princess Soft 2.3.4.sf2
one of very good, paid

Reply 13 of 33, by kode54

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jur32mast wrote:

407MB, Princess Soft 2.3.4.sf2
one of very good, paid

If Princess Soft is up to 2.3.4, what is the significance of the Princess Soft Gold 1.2.0 linked on the main site? And why is there a countdown to January 1st, 2018 on the main site, which appears to only be in Italian?

Sadly, I will not have the funds to spend spuriously on things like this for years to come, since my entire monthly income is tied up with just paying minimum payments to three credit cards, two of which are permanently closed, but will still take a decade to pay off.

I already had to ask JaZMan for a refund on Genesys PRO8 because it was a giant mess of bad loops and 5-10ms delays at the starts of some dozens of the samples, causing some notes to be noticeably late. Gave up trying to fix it and deleted it. Not the first JaZMan bank I've had to make fixes on, some of which I've sent back to him as xdelta3 patches.

Reply 14 of 33, by cyclone3d

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Found some more including newer versions of the Chaos 12MB. 1.2 is the one I originally submitted. I found 1.9 and 2.0.

http://www.synthfont.com/soundfonts.html

http://rkhive.com/banks.html

https://polyphone-soundfonts.com/en/files/27- … -200-gm-gs-v1-2
https://polyphone-soundfonts.com/en/files/27- … drive-soundfont
https://polyphone-soundfonts.com/en/files/27- … ets/55-jns-gm-2

http://linuxmusic1.louwilkinson.us/SoundFonts.html

Here is a huge massive collection of soundfonts. I am downloading the entire collection through the torrent. 39.8GB
http://zandro.freeunixhost.com/

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Reply 16 of 33, by Falcosoft

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Hi,
I have also made some tests (and actually tested different test methods).
1. Changing soundfonts real time during playbacking a song.
(I think it can be useful only with 2-3 soundfonts 5 proved to be too much.)
2. Playing a song with all soundfonts one by one.

Tested songs:
1. Duke Nukem 3D Grabbag theme
2. Doom E1M1

Tested Soundfonts (1 from each category + my default one) :
Bank 0 - Reality GM/GS falcomod
Bank 1 - Creative 4MB
Bank 2 - GeneralUser GS SoftSynth
Bank 3 - SC-55 (Patch93)
Bank 4 - SGM - V2.01

I think adding timecodes for the description part is a must for such long videos.

https://youtu.be/aBhTH1Z9s4I

@appiah4:
Please, reconsider the inclusion of MT-32 converted GM files in your testbed (Dune Palace GM, Monkey Island GM Intro)
The reason is exactly what you have written:

compare them against each other in terms of suitability for retrogaming.

I think for serious retrogaming there are at least 4 better options for MT-32 based games so no user should/would choose the GM soundfont path (if it is even possible).
1. Real MT-32 Hw
2. Munt(Vsti)
3. GS devices with MT-32 map (SC-55, SC-VA, S-YXG50 etc.)
4. Full GS Soundfonts with MT-32 map.

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Reply 17 of 33, by elianda

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Are your tests strictly limited to SF2 format sound fonts only?

I mean there are also 94B / TTS, ECW, FFF, PAT sound fonts in use with various cards.

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Reply 18 of 33, by kode54

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And all of those are specific to various sound cards. Using them involves plugging in a specific device, then recording its analog output.

SF2 is universal and works on any machine that can run Windows, macOS, or Linux. Possibly some BSDs, depending on FluidSynth or BASSMIDI availability. And you can render the digital output to an unclipped floating point signal, at many times faster than real time.

I know this forum's name is about running old games on new systems, but I still can't get over how much it seems to be about hoarding legacy hardware and building it into frankenmachines for running old games in an "authentic" configuration.

Reply 19 of 33, by elianda

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kode54: I understand what you mean, however it is my opinion that the synth rendering of the sound cards that were made in the days the DOS games were daily business leaves should be considered as well.

I know this forum's name is about running old games on new systems, but I still can't get over how much it seems to be about hoarding legacy hardware and building it into frankenmachines for running old games in an "authentic" configuration.

This is the Marvin sub forum here which is actually about old hardware.

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