I use SDL_Mixer under Doomsday for the music and have no problems under Windows, at all.
The DosBox source is available and shouldn't have any issues being integrated under another free software project. (Read the GNU license).

The problem with sdl-mixer on linux is likely a problem in how sdl-mixer is producing midi there and/or your music/midi backend. Tmidity doesn't use a midi device but runs the midi data through its soundfont and gives itout to the sound device as wave/digital music (in very much layman terms 😉).
So you need to fix your backend and not sdl-mixer 😉

I use SDL_Mixer under Doomsday with Windows 7 and it's Hell.. The only way I can make it the Doom games sound like my old SB AWE32 card is to use Bassmidi and an AWE 32 soundfont. But every time the damn music loops, there is a high chance when it restarts it'll render EVERY instrument as piano until it loops again.

And it's not once in a while, it's like a 40% chance. Doomsday Engine programmer says it's an SDL_mixer bug, and there's nothing they can do about it. DOSbox games, however, work flawlessly.

Uriel_Dagda wrote:

I use SDL_Mixer under Doomsday with Windows 7 and it's Hell.. The only way I can make it the Doom games sound like my old SB AWE32 card is to use Bassmidi and an AWE 32 soundfont. But every time the damn music loops, there is a high chance when it restarts it'll render EVERY instrument as piano until it loops again.

I don't have such problems but...
a) I have real hardware (an X-Fi).
and
b) I don't want it to sound like an Awe32.
Anyway, Doomsday, via Fmod, has the ability to load soundfonts, in dls format. Read their docs.
Shouldn't this go in the Doomsday forum?

I just want to relive the good old days.. back when I had an SB AWE32, and mix it with today's graphics.. Worst thing about it is, I bought Doom through Steam and it uses DOSbox--- but they don't include the setup program, so I can't change the music to MIDI.. Arrgh!

Yeah I was just commenting about the topic of SDL_mixer, so it's really not a Doomsday issue, it's an SDL_mixer issue.

Since Heretic under DOSbox has no issues with the MIDI, I, too, wish that these Doom source ports would figure out a way to use the sound system DOSbox uses-- so I could finally complete my quest for the Perfect Doom Engine. Today's high definition graphics, with the soothing MIDI music of yesteryear. AWE yeah! 😀

I wish I could use my old AWE 32 card, but a) I lost it in the hurricane Ivan flood of '04, and b) I don't think it'd fit in my laptop if I had it. 😀

The problem with SDL, is when it's actually an SDL issue, it's easier for SDL devs to blame and torment than to actually fix things, because of "wait for the rewrite 1.2/2.0/3.0 etc"

like for example, when SDL causes input lag for framerates under 40, the suggestion is to "fix Windows oh wait you can't"... ditto for some keys not pressing properly.

Uriel_Dagda wrote:

Worst thing about it is, I bought Doom through Steam and it uses DOSbox--- but they don't include the setup program, so I can't change the music to MIDI.. Arrgh!

You could take the SETUP.EXE file from the demo version, AFAIK the only difference between Shareware DooM and Registered DooM is the .WAD file 😀

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1nqRTO0zao

Here's a video of the issue cropping up for me.. Yeah. I wish somebody would come along and make something 10x better than SDL and put them out of their misery... If I actually had a clue how to, I'd do it myself!

Ahh the trials and tribulations I go through to get all my old games working like I remember. 😀

I'm just thankful that between Munt, BassMIDI, and DOSbox I've gotten tons of old DOS classics up and running like it's 1995.

It's easy to lament on SDL but never forget the good part of it:
Easy cross platform groundwork. Without that many projects would be linux only or the porting part wouldbe much harder.
There are alternatives but that doesn't matter much for projects already using SDL since you'd need to port to this framework...

I just wish FMOD would allow soundfonts that were actually able to be found.. Then I'd be able to just use that with Doomsday. Instead they chose DLS, which is basically as popular as 3D TV. Not sure why FMOD doesn't support any MIDI drivers and the well-established library of SF2 soundfonts.

Uriel_Dagda wrote:

I just wish FMOD would allow soundfonts that were actually able to be found.. Then I'd be able to just use that with Doomsday. Instead they chose DLS, which is basically as popular as 3D TV. Not sure why FMOD doesn't support any MIDI drivers and the well-established library of SF2 soundfonts.

They are working on supporting sf2, in the mean time you can convert those soundfonts to dls...use Google 😀