First post, by thecrankyhermit
I just took my new-old MT-32 for a test drive with King's Quest IV and V. Results were a bit of a mixed bag - King's Quest IV wasn't *that* big an upgrade over the usual Adlib synth, and King's Quest V at times sounded wonderful, but almost as often sounded a bit cheesy, with 16-bit sounding instruments playing at too high a volume.
I'm about to play Might and Magic: World of Xeen for the first time, but I'm struggling with getting it set up right.
The setup program gives me these options for "speech device":
* None
Adlib
* PC Speaker
* Sound Blaster
* Sound Blaster Pro
Pro-Audio Spectrum
Disney Sound Source
Covox Sound Master 2
* Sound Blaster 16
Pro-Audio Spectrum Alt
I always go with SB16. Can't think of any reason not to.
After that, it gives me these options for "music and effects hardware":
* None
Adlib
* PC Speaker
* Sound Blaster
* Sound Blaster Pro
Pro-Audio Spectrum
* Roland Canvas / GS
* Roland LAPC-1 / MT-32
* Wave Blaster
* Roland TAP-10
After that, it wants the port, IRQ, and DMA. I give it 0x220, 7, and 1.
Then it asks me "Automatically adjust Sound Blaster volumes?" I have no idea what this does - yes or no doesn't seem to make a difference.
Anyway, if I have the music set to "Sound Blaster Pro," it's satisfactory, but I'd like to think I can do better. Certain sound effects are kind of bad, too.
If I set it to Roland LAPC/MT-32 and enable my MT-32, the music sounds different, maybe better, but a lot of the sound effects are now musical notes. Footsteps play a horn sound, firing arrows plays a bass sound, etc.
Now let's say I set the music to Roland Canvas / GS and disable my MT-32, using the Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth, which I have been told is similar to a Sound Canvas. Speech effects are too loud. The "automatically adjust sound blaster volumes" option makes no difference either way. I've checked and checked again - they are quieter when the music is set to SB Pro. Sound effects are screwed up even more than with MT-32 - opening a door plays a telephone ringing sound. Music sounds not so great - worse than with MT-32.
Finally, I know someone who has a Roland Virtual Sound Canvas (not a real one, unfortunately). I tried playing on his computer, with music set to Roland Canvas / GS mode. Now footsteps sound like footsteps, door opening sounds like a door opening, etc. Voices and certain sound effects are still too loud. Music isn't as good as MT-32 was, and I noticed that the motif you hear when collecting hidden items is missing. More might be missing too.
So I am basically going bonkers trying to make this sound like it should. So far SBPro mode has given the best results, and that should not be. I did find and read through this thread but I haven't been able to draw anything conclusive from it (and it's not always clear to me how each poster has configured the game's setup).
Any advice on the subject?
Oh, and I expect to be asking similar questions about many other games over the next year or two. If there's a better forum than this one for asking such questions, I'd like to know what it is. Queststudios, maybe?
Thanks.
Running:
Windows 10
Core i5-6600
Geforce GTX 970
8GB RAM