YodasRaytracedRetro wrote on 2021-04-16, 03:19:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvG18wDv4uc

Something like this looked interesting. And fixing one winged angel. Same style of sound, just cleaner and more rad. Maybe more fine tuned even. See im not big into sound stuff but I want that sort of vibe to the way this composers work flows out of my speakers and not stray too far.

Let me try to explain again: you can, if you so choose, download this very Youtube video, split the audio, convert it to .ogg, and drop it in as a replacement for the appropriate .ogg file in the Steam version. Boom! Done!

If you are not familiar with how to download Youtube videos and remove the audio, then this is a routine operation that will take you five minutes of Googling to learn using completely free tools.

Jorpho wrote on 2021-04-16, 03:48:

YodasRaytracedRetro wrote on 2021-04-16, 03:19:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvG18wDv4uc

Something like this looked interesting. And fixing one winged angel. Same style of sound, just cleaner and more rad. Maybe more fine tuned even. See im not big into sound stuff but I want that sort of vibe to the way this composers work flows out of my speakers and not stray too far.

Let me try to explain again: you can, if you so choose, download this very Youtube video, split the audio, convert it to .ogg, and drop it in as a replacement for the appropriate .ogg file in the Steam version. Boom! Done!

If you are not familiar with how to download Youtube videos and remove the audio, then this is a routine operation that will take you five minutes of Googling to learn using completely free tools.

Isnt the internet in itself a degradation layer by virtue of compression somewhat defeating the purpose? Youtube being a particular offender since it caps you out at 16 bit and all that jazz. Im assuming the guy that uploaded it has the juicy full bore cleanness comparatively speaking, and to be honest with you his work doesnt sound perfect either. I was hoping someone could give us the native reworked goodness but it looks like maybe thats going to be me taking whats already on offer, and tweaking it out myself which will be a hassle since I wouldnt know the first thing. Maybe I can farm it out to my step bro the techno fruity loops wiz trucker hybrid. My obsession is perfection.

Remember Gabe Newell is watching.

At minimum whats a good software to run these sounds through where I can play mad scientist? -- and how then do I convert it to .ogg or whatever file type that is, I know the game reads it and it works, thats about it. Apparently the one winged angel vocals are broken and I need to do Gods work, if no one else will, fixing it in the Yamaha sort of sound package. See this is where I was hoping someone would jump onboard and give mankind, excellence. I dont want this months into the future being another rant of how I was there the day the strength of men failed. Especially if that day started very close to the turn of 1997.

https://system-audio.com/digital-audio-stream … -sound-quality/
I get a degree of what you hear with modern sound cards ramped up to the 32bit realm is interpolation of a root consistency of data but I dont want the source datas integrity compromised at any point in its transit down the pipeline. Im not even sure that is happening, but its in my interest that I objectively know or I suck at my self assigned job, necromancer.

"All audio on YouTube is compressed (approximately to around 126 kbps AAC), which in itself isn't such a bad thing; AAC compression can sound ok at relatively low bitrates."

This sounds like it would be a trash idea (Maybe im wrong IDK), that id be better off taking the base games MIDI data, and touching it up, and outright changing one track at the end of the game anyway. I dont pay attention to sound stuff closely because im not auditory dominant. Im however very objective, its my tool to effect maximal change without wildly changing the original art direction. Sort of like an evolutionary approach that respects the original parts up to their clear damaged bits.

I suspect the reason the old Creative pathing has a superior one winged angel sound is that was intentional to give it purpose. So it wasnt completely inferior, allowing the japanese sound card offering to throughout time shine brighter than it otherwise would overall but not in a way that was almost aggressively dominating which is seen as bad taste in this culture. Look at that long road of we all make "286" horsepower japanese supercars. I see this in multiple japan relevant spheres like other video games as well. I dont think thats an unreasonable theory. They literally on their website admit they specifically made that yamaha software synthesizer for the game. Again the sound driver choice in the game is certainly going to be its cats meow for the same reason. Thats all im trying to do here really. Erase the political scarring locked in time, smooth out and compliment the sound direction as much as possible without basically taking it and doing my own thing which isnt preservation. I dont want to preserve bugs, or semi damaged art for the sake of, again, politics. Im here to fix it, subtle the offense or not.

Join me, and we can fashion beautiful ozarkian purity. I need sound scientists, or it will be a long process getting on said level because im just a padawan in terms of this invisible atmospheric disturbance in the force business.

I am trying to say you do not need "sound scientists" or a "wizard sound guy" or "divine lords of the internet audiophiles underworld" (!?) or a "necromancer" to produce something that "in practice might be indistinguishable" and that even a "padawan" is entirely capable.

I give up. You seem to be having a very enjoyable conversation with yourself here already.

Remember Gabe Newell is watching.

No, actually, I assure you he is likely quite indifferent.

Jorpho wrote on 2021-04-17, 00:54:

"I am trying to say you do not need "sound scientists" or a "wizard sound guy" or "divine lords of the internet audiophiles unde […]
Show full quote

"I am trying to say you do not need "sound scientists" or a "wizard sound guy" or "divine lords of the internet audiophiles underworld" (!?) or a "necromancer" to produce something that "in practice might be indistinguishable" and that even a "padawan" is entirely capable."

Well you dont need to work for Space X to understand how something as primitive as beep beep bop bop goes, although more symphonically admittedly. You just have to care and focus, learn, and suddenly the lack of a PHD in sound credentialing becomes less and less relevant. Yes you can learn a great deal without flatterizing language to really cheerlead for awakening the sleeping passion of a generation that now has grown to be many in respect to this title.

"I give up."

So you're out. Shocking.

"You seem to be having a very enjoyable conversation with yourself here already."

Until someone useful comes along who actually cares about the nuance im talking about enough to explain it instead of departing to half hearted ville under the guise of elitism thats an expected sentiment from you.

Remember Gabe Newell is watching.

No, actually, I assure you he is likely quite indifferent.

Gaben Almighty most surely likes himself some art. His business running the affairs of his steam powered capital ships has not quite yet been automated by AGI, so he has less time than ourselves to dedicate to the great works of PC Master Drag Racing in pursuit of greater and prettier art. Amen.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2020-12-20, 11:47:

I've been playing around with this recently so I decided to write a quick guide for getting the highest quality music from Final […]
Show full quote

I've been playing around with this recently so I decided to write a quick guide for getting the highest quality music from Final Fantasy VII when using an AWE card.

Here's what you need:

• Windows 98SE (not sure if this works on later Windows versions)
• The retail CD version of Final Fantasy VII for the PC
• Official patch 1.02 for the game
• An AWE32 or an AWE64 sound card with at least 4 MB RAM on-board
• Latest Win98 drivers for AWE cards from Creative's website (specifically, you need sbw9xup.exe)

And here's the setup process:

1. Perform a clean install of Windows 98SE. Do not install any sound card drivers or utilities except those mentioned below
2. Double click on sbw9xup.exe to unpack the archive, then run UPDDRV95.EXE to update the sound card drivers
3. Browse to the FF7 Install CD and from there install the SoundFont Manager (D:\SFMan\setup.exe)
4. Restart your computer
5. Install Final Fantasy VII using the "maximum install" option
6. Extract the contents of the official patch 1.02 to the folder where FF7 is installed and overwrite the relevant files when prompted
7. Run the FF7 Configuration tool and on the MIDI tab select the options as shown on the screenshot below, then press the "Test" button:

If everything worked correctly, a message saying "Loading 4 MB soundfont" should briefly appear in the status window, followed by "playing MIDI". Click "Ok" to finish the setup process. With this, you get high quality music which is 90% the same as on the original PlayStation version, including the vocals during Sephiroth's theme which will play fine.

I LOVE YOU MAN!! THANK YOU!

Parni wrote on 2023-02-15, 13:12:

I LOVE YOU MAN!! THANK YOU!

Heh, you're welcome! Enjoy your play through!

On topic, I've recently found that using a Yamaha YMF 7x4 card and selecting General MIDI for music (not Yamaha XG) also produces a soundtrack that is somewhat close to PlayStation original.

Since the thread has already been bumped, I'll put my own findings here for the record.....

SoundFont MIDI is the definitive choice for FF7 and seems to be based on Uematsu's own sound sampling and MIDI work for the PS1 release. The XG tracks were re-arranged from the Uematsu MIDI files by/for Yamaha by someone who has never been named and Uematsu himself is believed to have had nothing to do with it, as he used Roland gear at the time and hasn't ever said anything about the Yamaha XG synth or the FF7 PC XG soundtrack.

For FF8, there is apparently no definitive choice because of DirectMusic usage and I don't know the game enough to say much beyond that, but the best choice would probably be to play the game with a DirectMusic version of the XG SoftSynth, as it would provide XG for the 4 XG-compatible tracks and good GM for the rest of the game. Alternatively, you might be able to - with some fiddling - get the XGLite DLS file to load with DirectMusic and use that as an alternative to the DM version of XG SoftSynths, as the S-YXG50 VSTI that everyone uses these days doesn't work with DirectMusic out of the box.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-02-15, 14:39:

Parni wrote on 2023-02-15, 13:12:

I LOVE YOU MAN!! THANK YOU!

Heh, you're welcome! Enjoy your play through!

On topic, I've recently found that using a Yamaha YMF 7x4 card and selecting General MIDI for music (not Yamaha XG) also produces a soundtrack that is somewhat close to PlayStation original.

I'm gonna go with AWE64, I have a CT4500 and the CT1390 memory module for it 😀 😀

So I own a Yamaha MU-90R hardware synthesizer, is there anyway to get it set up to where on the windows 98 version of the game it will use the MU-90R for all music, but play the one winged angel vocals?

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2020-12-20, 11:47:

I've been playing around with this recently so I decided to write a quick guide for getting the highest quality music from Final […]
Show full quote

I've been playing around with this recently so I decided to write a quick guide for getting the highest quality music from Final Fantasy VII when using an AWE card.

Here's what you need:

• Windows 98SE (not sure if this works on later Windows versions)
• The retail CD version of Final Fantasy VII for the PC
• Official patch 1.02 for the game
• An AWE32 or an AWE64 sound card with at least 4 MB RAM on-board
• Latest Win98 drivers for AWE cards from Creative's website (specifically, you need sbw9xup.exe)

And here's the setup process:

1. Perform a clean install of Windows 98SE. Do not install any sound card drivers or utilities except those mentioned below
2. Double click on sbw9xup.exe to unpack the archive, then run UPDDRV95.EXE to update the sound card drivers
3. Browse to the FF7 Install CD and from there install the SoundFont Manager (D:\SFMan\setup.exe)
4. Restart your computer
5. Install Final Fantasy VII using the "maximum install" option
6. Extract the contents of the official patch 1.02 to the folder where FF7 is installed and overwrite the relevant files when prompted
7. Run the FF7 Configuration tool and on the MIDI tab select the options as shown on the screenshot below, then press the "Test" button:

If everything worked correctly, a message saying "Loading 4 MB soundfont" should briefly appear in the status window, followed by "playing MIDI". Click "Ok" to finish the setup process. With this, you get high quality music which is 90% the same as on the original PlayStation version, including the vocals during Sephiroth's theme which will play fine.

A thanks from me as well as your post made me want to start a new run and give the PC version with Midi a try. Honestly I just followed the basic steps on my existing rig and it worked fine (Install SFman, install ff7 max, update to 1.02, run ff7 configuration tool) - specs P2 350 with AWE64 Legacy. I am more than pleasantly surprised by the soundtrack. It's just so slightly different, some instruments more noticeable than others, but it's a great fresh take and a welcome change from the gazillion times I've listened to the PSX soundtrack, it genuinely sounds very very good 😀 I'm on CD2 now and kinda dropped it right now but will eventually get back to it.

Enchurito wrote on 2023-05-23, 23:10:

So I own a Yamaha MU-90R hardware synthesizer, is there anyway to get it set up to where on the windows 98 version of the game it will use the MU-90R for all music, but play the one winged angel vocals?

I don't think that is possible, at least to my knowledge.

If you use the game's Yamaha XG music, there won't be any vocals in OWA.

Boohyaka wrote on 2023-05-24, 19:34:

A thanks from me as well as your post made me want to start a new run and give the PC version with Midi a try. Honestly I just followed the basic steps on my existing rig and it worked fine (Install SFman, install ff7 max, update to 1.02, run ff7 configuration tool) - specs P2 350 with AWE64 Legacy. I am more than pleasantly surprised by the soundtrack. It's just so slightly different, some instruments more noticeable than others, but it's a great fresh take and a welcome change from the gazillion times I've listened to the PSX soundtrack, it genuinely sounds very very good 😀

Cheers! I think the developers did a fairly good job with the AWE soundtrack. It does occasionally use some of the built-in ROM samples, instead of the instruments from the PlayStation version, and that is where most of the differences come from. But it's a pretty solid rendition overall.

I'm on CD2 now and kinda dropped it right now but will eventually get back to it.

Heh, that's kinda when I start losing interest as well. But after taking a break, things usually become fun once more.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-05-24, 19:52:

It does occasionally use some of the built-in ROM samples, instead of the instruments from the PlayStation version, and that is where most of the differences come from.

Ah! that makes a lot of sense.

Heh, that's kinda when I start losing interest as well. But after taking a break, things usually become fun once more.

Right... And it's not like there's any surprise left - I know the game inside and out and made way more runs than I'd be willing to admit 😀 but the new orchestration was really the novelty that was sufficient to make me go through another run!

Enchurito wrote on 2023-05-23, 23:10:

So I own a Yamaha MU-90R hardware synthesizer, is there anyway to get it set up to where on the windows 98 version of the game it will use the MU-90R for all music, but play the one winged angel vocals?

Even if you modified the source files to be compatible with what was ultimately, the pinnacle of Yamaha's XG MIDI (MU2000EX with vocal PLG boards/S-YXG100 PVL), it most certainly would not sound as you want it to.

Sorry if it's already been mentioned, but there's a simple tutorial to have the Playstation music working flawlessly for Final Fantasy VIII PC, the original non-Steam version, unless you want to try Midi of course