miracle.flame wrote on 2021-05-25, 17:23:
...
Also I managed to play Albion with General MIDI set using Roland Sound Canvas VA and it sounds definitelly better than OPL, you might want to check such option. I believe that's what Albion OST on youtube sounds like.
I did not tried out with Roland Sound Canvas VA, because it is a Windows program and like I mentioned, I have Linux and I prefer to use native Linux softwares.
I know that, you can use Roland SCVA under 64bit Linux with DOSBox, but it need to use Wine.
(I made an installation tutorial on that some times ago, you can find it here on the forum under "DOSBox Guides")
The video that you mentioned, is that video is this one?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRHHCvy4J_E
If that is how it is sound with Roland SCVA, than I prefer not even bother with Wine and the installation of that software.
The reason is because it is (IMO) sounds really awful.
Like I said earlier, compared to the OPL or GUS music, when you play with GeneralMIDI it's like some instruments are missing, or just sounds very off.
That is exactly the problem with this video too. Lot of instruments are just sounds off.
In this video the whole thing is sounds like the instruments are a wierd combination of instruments from a somewhat qood quality soundfont and quirky OPL FM "beeping" instruments.
Meanwile I played a bit again, with some more soundfonts, and I figured out something interesting; why playing the game with GeneralMIDI and soundfonts makes the music sounds off.
It turned out the problem is NOT that tha game's music is not meant to be played on a GM software/hardware synth, no.
The problem was the SOUNDFONTS itself!
In every DOS game that can use GeneralMIDI/Roland MT-32, I using software synthesizer; Qsynth which is just a GUI for FluidSynth, with the 'Timbres of Heaven' soundfont. It always gives the best result.
Or, in some cases, when I had that mood, I use my Audigy 4 (Emu10k1) with the 'CT8MGM.SF2' soundfont from Creative, it is from the Audigy driver CD.
You can use this same soundfont with any software synth, I tested it out and it sounds exactly the same on both real hardware or software synth.
Strange thing it is, but in Albion even the best Timbres soundfont sound off!
(That's why first I thouth, that the game's music is not meant to be played on GeneralMIDI.)
But I tried out the game on my Audigy card with the CT8MGM soudnfont and it was really good! I think even this little 8MB Crative soundfont beats Roland in this game.So it seems the game's music is perfectly fine with GeneralMIDI wiht the right choice of a soundfont; it's only sounds off, weird, bad WITH anything that is Roland...
I made few recordings, so you guys can compare it and decide what you prefer.
I recorded 2 music from the game, that I think really shows the differences and the "bugs" too.
-With DOSBox's OPL3 emulation (SB16) for comparison. (The file name is 'albDOSBoxOPL')
-With the Audigy's CT8MGM soundfont. Qsynth, because no audio is recorded when I use the Audigy hardware, but it's the same. (The file name is 'albAUD4soft')
-With GUS. (The file name is 'albGUS')
-Also grabbed the music of the Roland SC8820 from that YouTube video. (The file name is 'albSC8820')
-And with something that I come up with; a combination of 2 different soundfonts. (The file name is 'albGMsoftsynthmix')
I used SimpleScreenRecorder with uncompressed audio for recording.
After that, I normalized the volume in Audacity and exported to best quality OGG.
If you copare the Roland SC8820 music from the YouTube video to anything, I think you guys can agree that it's simply HORRIBLE!
Everything other than that Roland, regardless of that you listen to; simple OPL or any sondfont, all the instruments are sounds the same. Roland is just off, it feels that some instruments doesn't fit into the whole music. Doesn't fit with the other instruments. But the worst thing that the whole music is plays FASTER.
Not good at all...
The Audigy4/Emu10k1 is fairly good in every music.
I still prefer that 'über-acoustic' GUS music, but turned out to be, that not all the music from the game sounds great with it!
In the TerranWalk2 music the GUS fails, something relly gone wild in that. Other are fine.
And there is that "combo" I find, is just...well, just listen to it; it's almost like you listen to not a synth-music but a music played on real instruments.
I think that is how the music should sounds in this game.
The only "problem" is that you need a lot of RAM and a modern fast CPU to use this combo; you can't play with this on a real, old retro computer.
This one is a combined sound of the FuidR3_GM soundfont (142 MB) and the FatBoy soundfont (315MB).
To be honest, I really doesn't like FluidR3 or FatBoy and I never use them. In every other game that I played or when simply just listen MIDI music, they never give a good result that I like. But in Albion they gives the best result.
Albion is a unique game...
I had to upload the files to an external place, because all of them are bigger than 5 megs so I made 2 ZIP files for the 2 music.
(It will be only hosted for 30 days, so if someone knows better way to keep them up for a long time, plese tell me and I will reupload them.)
The TerranWalk2 musics:
https://ufile.io/lw34ghs4
The Benevoleno City musics:
https://ufile.io/9rr5zid5