That's not the hanging note bug, but something different. The hanging note bug strikes randomly, not at some specific point in a MIDI song.

Hmm I'd like to test this, confirm it, compare with with an MPU401AT. What can I do to replicate the issue?

DOSBox can capture MIDI, so you could start a capture before starting the game and then share the MIDI file.

But a faster way is to play the game without speech / digital FX (e.g. NO Sound Blaster selected for sounds). Then there will never be a hanging note bug...

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Hmm I'd like to test this, confirm it, compare with with an MPU401AT. What can I do to replicate the issue?

DOSBox can capture MIDI, so you could start a capture before starting the game and then share the MIDI file.

But a faster way is to play the game without speech / digital FX (e.g. NO Sound Blaster selected for sounds). Then there will never be a hanging note bug...

Easier still: The game has midi files itself (attached). Just play it in Winamp or some other midi player via AWE64 midi out (port 330 or 300). The hanging note does not occur on standard FM nor on AWE port 620, nor while emulating MPU401 with a soundfont (from AWE control panel).

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

DOSBox can capture MIDI, so you could start a capture before starting the game and then share the MIDI file.

Sry for another post, but - how exactly does this work? Please. Step by step. I would *love* to extract the midi from knights of xentar and run it with serious synth instead of classic FM.

elfuego wrote:

Easier still: The game has midi files itself (attached). Just play it in Winamp or some other midi player via AWE64 midi out (port 330 or 300). The hanging note does not occur on standard FM nor on AWE port 620, nor while emulating MPU401 with a soundfont (from AWE control panel).

Wunderbar! I will test it later today 😀 I have both, an AWE64 and MPU401AT. But I will need to find a DOS midi player that allows you to select between Port 330 (MPU401) and 300 (AWE64).

elfuego wrote:

Sry for another post, but - how exactly does this work? Please. Step by step. I would *love* to extract the midi from knights of xentar and run it with serious synth instead of classic FM.

Very easy!

1. At the DOS prompt before you start the Game, press CTRL+ALT+F8. It captures MIDI data now
2. Run your game
3. Go to the parts that has the music you want
3. Quit the game
4. Press CTRL+ALT+F8 again

There will now be a *mid file in the capture folder 😀

It's important you start capturing before starting the game, because sometimes the game sends reset messages and whatnot. Not that much of an issue with General MIDI, but with Roland MT-32 / LAPC-I it's crucial as otherwise everything sounds wrong!

elfuego wrote:

Easier still: The game has midi files itself (attached). Just play it in Winamp or some other midi player via AWE64 midi out (port 330 or 300). The hanging note does not occur on standard FM nor on AWE port 620, nor while emulating MPU401 with a soundfont (from AWE control panel).

Well that file doesn't play. I tried in Windows 7 and under DOS 😒

(Deleted. No longer relevant anyway)

Thank you!

Ok so this is what I found:

I get different behaviors, depending on what MIDI player I use (I use DOS exclusively).

GSPLAY gives me a speeding up / slowing down tempo and that hanging flute at ~33 seconds. MEGAMID has consistent tempo but also that hanging flute at ~ seconds. This is with both, MPU401AT and AWE64 Gold.

The only player that plays it correctly is MIDPAK, which uses a MPU401 driver from John Miles. This one has consistent tempo and no hanging instrument at 33s. However MIDPAK doesn't seem to have an option to change the MIDI port, so I had to briefly remove the MPU401AT from the machine and set the MPU401 of the AWE64 back to 300. Both MPU401 interfaces played the midi file perfectly.

I have attached a recording of the SC-55 connected to the AWE64Gold and played with MIDPAK.

Is it possible that this game uses the John Miles MPU401 driver?

So looking at this I conclude that this is not a hanging note bug (AFAIK the AWE64 GOLD has a perfect MPU401 interface in this regards), but some issue to do with this MIDI file and what player you use.

I'm happy to test the game, but not owning it, how large is it? If you're happy to email it to me / put it on DropBox (just for testing) with a save game of that level I'd be happy to test it for you. Because I believe that this game comes with the necessary MPU401 / MIDI driver to play it correctly 😀

Thanks for the tip Maulwurf! I'm off to capture some good old midi! And do check your PM, I've sent the link to settlers 2 download. For all other interested parties, it took me less then 5 minutes of googling for "dos games download", it was the 7th link on the first page of google 😜

I've tried to capture midi, but it captures nothing and says something like "stopped before receiving anything" 🙁 Also, there is no capture folder, neither in mounted directory, nor in dosbox folder 🙁

Maybe it allows capturing only general midi and not FM midi?