VOGONS


Soundfonts and Retrogaming MIDI

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Reply 20 of 33, by appiah4

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My oennvideos arencoming along Im in the process of learning overlay caption tect placement in lightworks but the <4MB test is done and to my ears the best sounding and the most authentic sounding soundfonts are different..

More coming soon as I post on Youtube.

As for the MT32 comverted GM question it is my understanding that the MIDI files I am using have been converted from MT32 output to GM and those are the best options for uaing he or sw synths using SF2, but please walk me through the alternative if this is wrong!

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 21 of 33, by Falcosoft

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the MIDI files I am using have been converted from MT32 output to GM

Sorry, but there is no such conversion. MT-32 output is rendered waveform. There is no 'one authentic' conversion from MT-32 to GM. Conversions can only be done with automatic/manual remapping of the midi messages that is never perfect. There are always different choices in remapping that favor e.g. AWE, GS, XG etc. devices. But this is not the point.
Your aim was to 'compare soundfonts against each other in terms of suitability for retrogaming.'
If you consider this, Descent title theme, Grabbag theme, Doom E1M1 (and the earlier suggested Warcraft 2 midis) are relevant since these midi files output the same midi messages as the game(engines) themselves.
Contrary the GM converted versions of MT-32 midis are highly irrelevant since no versions of the Games use/output them.
OK, in case of Monkey Island 1 you can set ScummVM to enable real time GM conversion (I have attached the result). It is very likely that it is different from the version you use. But my point is that none of them is THE authentic one, and none of them is important as long as 'retro gaming and soundfonts' is the subject.

Filename
Monkey Island 1 - Main Theme - ScummVM - GM.zip
File size
11.37 KiB
Downloads
95 downloads
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

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Reply 22 of 33, by 33oldnew

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Hi
My second comparison - removed

Questions:
1. I'm looking for good soundfont bank *. WFB, size 4 to 8 MB, please any link to, email, etc
2. Is Reality_GMGS_falcomod with a size over 20 MB but so that I can use directly in Sound Blaster AWE32 card with 32 MB memory

Last edited by 33oldnew on 2017-06-26, 09:37. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 23 of 33, by BeginnerGuy

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http://rkhive.com/banks.html

I'm fond of the 28mb Masterpiece sf

(few recordings done by somebody with this font)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh0QIFQwKPc&t=703s

Sup. I like computers. Are you a computer?

Reply 24 of 33, by badmojo

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+1 for Masterpiece, sounds great. I don't use it much though because it takes so long to load into my Goldfinch (P166 / Windows 95)

Life? Don't talk to me about life.

Reply 26 of 33, by Falcosoft

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@33oldnew:

2. Is Reality_GMGS_falcomod with a size over 20 MB but so that I can use directly in Sound Blaster AWE32 card with 32 MB memory

http://falcosoft.hu/reality_gmgs_falcomod_30mb.zip (Most of the variation banks removed). It's 30.5 MB so hopefully fits in your card's memory.

...and Midi Player v4.7 vs. v4.8 test

I do not really understand what you tried to test/demonstrate in the first part of your video. You have not enabled the additional soundfonts (unticked checkboxes) and then tried to switch banks with Ctrl+x. It was of course unsuccessful (you could see --- as active instrument). When there is no match found bassmidi uses its fall back mechanism and uses the default (Bank 0) soundfont.
Here's how it works with 4.7 ( and when you untick 'Use Bank LSB' in 4.8 )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=A4rXu3YNXDc
The only advantage of 'Use Bank LSB' for soundfont testing is when the midi uses GS variations for instruments (bank MSB is not 0): without using LSB the additional soundfonts can override the previous soundfont's variation banks.

Ps:
Your tested OmegaDZ2 midi (from 17:10) is a Hungarian song called 'Gyöngyhajú lány' 😀 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gy%C3%B6ngyhaj%C3%BA_l%C3%A1ny
Please, use (at least some) time codes in your description. It's very hard to navigate in a 45 min. video without them.

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Reply 27 of 33, by Stiletto

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elianda wrote:

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.

All you Johnny-come-latelys have corrupted this forum!!!

... okay, just kidding. At this point, VOGONS is VOGONS. Other than stemming the tide of Marvin people invading The Guide (which moderators work daily on), I don't have any beef with it. Marvin adds variety, and the amount of info that emulator authors and so on can learn from hardware (and accordingly firmware/BIOS/driver) collectors, and vice-versa, is staggering. 😀

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do the Fandango!" - Queen

Stiletto

Reply 28 of 33, by 33oldnew

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@Folcosoft:
Thanks for link

OK, an introduction to testing is a bit too long, and little understood

Very good song, I know I as: Omega - The Girl With Pearl's Hair https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rej4nJ4GTDw

This video is for test only, not for song presentation, all test videos will be removed.
Regards

Last edited by 33oldnew on 2017-06-26, 09:35. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 29 of 33, by Falcosoft

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@33oldnew:
OK. It seems you do not fully understand how banks and different midi systems (GM, GM2, GS, XG etc.) and soundfont management work.
I’m trying my best now but you should search for the net/vogons for more info.
Since I do not want to spam this topic I have written my detailed answer in Midiplayer’s topic:
Re: Falcosoft Soundfont Midi Player + Munt VSTi + BassMidi VSTi

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Reply 30 of 33, by Shreddoc

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Apologies if this 2017 thread is considered too old to revisit. In light of the below, I didn't want to pre-emptively begin a new thread without first doing at least a cursory check here.

I'm really curious about whether there were ultimately ever any conclusions drawn or comparison content made, as this thread begins to comprehensively cover the exact ground I've been treading at length lately during my research about how best to populate the soundfonts of an mt32-pi, a setup which has certain SF2 size/performance limitations. (I assume quite a few others building that project are also doing similar research)

As a side-factor: Being a small niche area, a lot of this stuff is slipping into obscurity : some of the .sf2 files are only getting ever-more scarce as the years tick over (evidence - many links above are already quite understandably dead). All of which I note only from a preservation perspective.

Reply 31 of 33, by mothergoose729

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I use the sound canvas VSTi plugin for all of my general midi games to emulate the Roland SC-55. It isn't necessarily the "best" sounding midi device for every game and every track, but since most DOS games from popular studio like Id software, Sierra online, interplay ect. used the SC-55 or somewhat similar sc-88 for composing, it never sounds "off" to me like a lot of other sound fonts can. The Microsoft GS software midi player is also based on the SC-55, being licensed from Roland when they were developing it.

There are some great imitation fonts online. Patch93's Is really good.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/g6bmov62qmbky03 … ndfont.zip/file

For the most authentic sound you will want to set you midi player to a sample rate of 3200, but I am not sure how much that matters.

A comparison of it to the real thing, if you care.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU9meFrNMZM&t=78s

Reply 33 of 33, by Shreddoc

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mothergoose729 wrote on 2021-05-12, 04:04:
I use the sound canvas VSTi plugin for all of my general midi games to emulate the Roland SC-55. It isn't necessarily the "best" […]
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I use the sound canvas VSTi plugin for all of my general midi games to emulate the Roland SC-55. It isn't necessarily the "best" sounding midi device for every game and every track, but since most DOS games from popular studio like Id software, Sierra online, interplay ect. used the SC-55 or somewhat similar sc-88 for composing, it never sounds "off" to me like a lot of other sound fonts can. The Microsoft GS software midi player is also based on the SC-55, being licensed from Roland when they were developing it.

There are some great imitation fonts online. Patch93's Is really good.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/g6bmov62qmbky03 … ndfont.zip/file

For the most authentic sound you will want to set you midi player to a sample rate of 3200, but I am not sure how much that matters.

A comparison of it to the real thing, if you care.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU9meFrNMZM&t=78s

Funnily enough, I have a real SC-55 alongside my mt32-pi, and they are hooked up to an A/B switchbox. In the past few weeks I have run subjective tests where I compared Patch93 and other SC-candidate soundfonts to the real thing at the press of a button.

And I have indeed found that, at least for many things, the Patch93 SF is the most accurate / which also doesn't overload the Pi. Switching back and forth between it and real SC-55, on say the Doom soundtrack, they're near identical-sounding except that the SF is just a slight touch wetter iirc.