So there is no difference, hmmm.

So this behaviour is specific to the NEC? Meaning it needs a GS reset before playing Duke3D?

badmofo wrote:

I've never noticed any difference, just making Sound Canvas owners feel special perhaps? (as they should!)

it's a redundant list, because back in the old days over 90% of the people neither did know exactly which kind of hardware they had in their computers nor did they know that sound blaster midi is the same as adlib midi

schlang wrote:

badmofo wrote:

I've never noticed any difference, just making Sound Canvas owners feel special perhaps? (as they should!)

it's a redundant list, because back in the old days over 90% of the people neither did know exactly which kind of hardware they had in their computers nor did they know that sound blaster midi is the same as adlib midi

They'd know if there was a SCC-1 in there though!

yeah, but that still meant nothing. I talked with a person who had lapc that time and removed it when he got sb2

FYI, after we (Team Eternal) released the last chapter of Eternal DOOM (III) and Jim Flynn started working on the "BOOM" source port, I had asked him the exact same thing... why did DOOM have three MIDI devices listed, as they all sounded the same to me?

IIRC, he said that there was in actuality only *ONE* MIDI device, and that the reason for the three selections in DOOM1/2's setup program (e.g. General MIDI, Sound Canvas, WaveBlaster) were simply for folks who didn't realize that one was the same as the other (as far as the capabilities and limitations of the DOOM music engine was concerned).

That being said, there are three sysex messages contained in the DOOM1/2 executables. In example, here is the sysex data and hex offsets for DOOM2.EXE:

GM Mode On:
Hex Offset 88543 : F0 7E 7F 09 01 F7

GM Mode Off:
Hex Offset 88549 : F0 7E 7F 09 02 F7

GS Reset:
Hex Offset 89738 : F0 41 10 42 12 40 00 7F 00 41 F7

...although the GS Reset is *NEVER* used or transmitted by DOOM1/2.

This can be confirmed when using a MIDI data stream viewer (such as MIDI-OX). Regardless of which of the three MIDI drivers are selected for DOOM1/2, the game still does the same thing:

Startup: F0 7E 7F 09 01 F7

In-game: The usual plethora of MIDI controller resets and standard GM MIDI data.

Shutdown: F0 7E 7F 09 02 F7

Anyhow, AFAIK the reason for the three MIDI drivers was simply user-"friendlyness" (note that I *HATE* "user-friendly"... and if the driver was simply a single entry of "General MIDI" in DOOM1/2's setup program, power-users like myself wouldn't have been wondering about it in the first place 🤣!).

(EDIT) P.S. Hehe, the "GM Mode Off" (which ALL of the WAD based games transmit when the games shut down, and was causing a weird problem for me) was the reason for my FIRST POST here at VOGONS -> Re: Drums of midi files broken after DosBox usage <grin> 😀

Doom 1.0 - 1.4 = GS reset
Doom 1.5 - Ultimate = GM on/off

I am still learning how to use my SC-88 Pro but here is what i have done with it

http://youtu.be/6MOun1tW0Ec DOOM E3M4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH2o2iZHSxs DOOM II MAP 20

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ndPuXZ4reA DUNE 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJW9grNnA7M Descent 1

I like to change the instrument codes and replace others 😜

The Soundfont i use on the AWE32 and SC-88 for common gaming is the one from the Soundblaster Audigy! but i do have some software soundcanvas SF's on my main rig i can pass the classic rig threw 😎 !

EDIT: DOOM E1M1 150MB SF2 on Roland Software Soundcanvas on my Windows 8 Pro PC and cleaned up by the Soundblaster ZXR Hardware SPU
Win98SE-Music Quest MPU-401-Cabled-USB MIDII/O- Software http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU0QuqNzIjg&feature=youtu.be