VOGONS


First post, by Kahenraz

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While doing some research on the EverQuest title track I learned about another polyphony related issue with the music from Warcraft 2. I was under assumption that an SC-55 with its 24-voice polyphony would be sufficient, but this is not entirely true.

There is definitely a disconnect between what we believe this music should sound like and what comes out of a synthesizer. These synthesizers are very good at compensating for a lack of polyphony and unless you know that something is wrong then you'll never know to miss it. But this creates a new problem where music we think is playing correctly actually contains errors. For example, if you're not familiar with a particular track and an instrument at some point doesn't play or a note is shorter than intended, how would you know? You wouldn't. This has resulted in recordings which end up butchering the composer's intent through our own lack of experience.

While the SC-55 is often more than adequate for game music of this era, even the SC-55mkII with its 28-voice polyphony struggles. James-F created a custom SysEx command to alter the voice reserve for the SC-55mkII to try and improve compatibility and, while it did make some improvement, is unable to correct all of the problems. What is most interesting is that the SC-55 with its reduced polyphony actually performs better than the SC-55mkII in my testing. Another observation is that the SC-55ST, which has the same clipping issue as the SC-55mkII, does not benefit at all from James-F's SysEx command.

I have isolated a few sequences from the first few seconds of the HUMAN1 track to demonstrate the issue with varying results between each synthesizer. Surprisingly, the SC-55 which is the oldest and least capable synthesizer on paper sounds better than the others, at least where bells are concerned.

SysEx command for SC-55mkII:

F0 41 10 42 12 40 00 7F 00 41 F7
F0 41 10 42 12 40 01 10 02 02 02 02 02 02 02 02 02 02 02 02 01 01 01 01 13 F7

MIDI playback was performed by Falcosoft's Midi Player 6.1 (64-bit).

Full 9 seconds from each synthesizer:

Filename
sc55_121_warcraft2_human1_9s.mp3
File size
208.84 KiB
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45 downloads
File license
CC-BY-4.0
Filename
sc55mk2_100_warcraft2_human1_9s.mp3
File size
210.55 KiB
Downloads
69 downloads
File license
CC-BY-4.0
Filename
sc55st_warcraft2_human1_9s.mp3
File size
212.9 KiB
Downloads
72 downloads
File license
CC-BY-4.0
Filename
sc7_warcraft2_human1_9s.mp3
File size
220.24 KiB
Downloads
51 downloads
File license
CC-BY-4.0

The same 9 seconds from the SC-55mkII but after the SysEx command has been applied.

Filename
sc55mk2_100_warcraft2_human1_sysex_9s.mp3
File size
210.86 KiB
Downloads
50 downloads
File license
CC-BY-4.0
Last edited by Kahenraz on 2022-02-03, 19:30. Edited 13 times in total.

Reply 1 of 19, by Kahenraz

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Sequence 01 (7.42s - 0.86s). Here the bell tone is shortened on the SC-55mkII and SC-55ST. It sounds fine on the SC-55 and SC-7.

Filename
sc55_121_warcraft2_human1_seq01.mp3
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28.43 KiB
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66 downloads
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CC-BY-4.0
Filename
sc55st_warcraft2_human1_seq01.mp3
File size
29.25 KiB
Downloads
62 downloads
File license
CC-BY-4.0
Filename
sc7_warcraft2_human1_seq01.mp3
File size
29.66 KiB
Downloads
54 downloads
File license
CC-BY-4.0

Here is the same sequence after the voice reserve has been rearranged. This shows a clear improvement on the SC-55mkII but the SC-55ST does not benefit at all.

Filename
sc55mk2_100_warcraft2_human1_sysex_seq01.mp3
File size
28.94 KiB
Downloads
45 downloads
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CC-BY-4.0
Last edited by Kahenraz on 2022-02-03, 17:12. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 2 of 19, by Kahenraz

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Sequence 02 (4.75s - 6.00s). Despite the improvement to the SC-55mkII had with the voice reserve SysEx, this part of the track remains unchanged. It sounds fine on the SC-55 and SC-7 but is short on the SC-55mkII and SC-55ST.

Filename
sc55mk2_100_warcraft2_human1_sysex_seq02.mp3
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30.07 KiB
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71 downloads
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CC-BY-4.0
Filename
sc55st_warcraft2_human1_seq02.mp3
File size
30.17 KiB
Downloads
43 downloads
File license
CC-BY-4.0
Last edited by Kahenraz on 2022-02-03, 17:17. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 3 of 19, by Kahenraz

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Sequence 03 (2.5s - 3.3s). The SC-55mkII shows no improvement even with the SysEx command. The bell is also cut short here on the SC-55ST, as well as on the SC-7. On the SC-55 I don't think the bell has been shortened at all.

Filename
sc55_121_warcraft2_human1_seq03.mp3
File size
19.88 KiB
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46 downloads
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CC-BY-4.0
Filename
sc55mk2_100_warcraft2_human1_sysex_seq03.mp3
File size
19.77 KiB
Downloads
64 downloads
File license
CC-BY-4.0
Filename
sc55st_warcraft2_human1_seq03.mp3
File size
20.59 KiB
Downloads
41 downloads
File license
CC-BY-4.0
Filename
sc7_warcraft2_human1_seq03.mp3
File size
21.1 KiB
Downloads
42 downloads
File license
CC-BY-4.0
Last edited by Kahenraz on 2022-02-03, 17:32. Edited 4 times in total.

Reply 4 of 19, by Kahenraz

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Another observation which I found to be consistent across the SC-55, SC-55mkII, SC-55ST and SC-7 is that the strings instrument which plays in the background has an audible oscillation. I don't know if this is an artifact of the limited polyphony of these synthesizers or if it's related to the sample used in ROM, but it sounds strange. I would argue that, because the music for this game has issues with the polyphony on these older synthesizers, that this was not the author's intent.

To provide a contrast, here is the same 9 second sequence but performed by the SC-88 native as well as the SC-88 in SC-55 mode. Notice how the strings do not oscillate as they did with the other synthesizers.

The bell which was an issue for most of the other synthesizers sounds perfect here with a long and deep ring to it.

Filename
sc88st_warcraft2_human1_9s.mp3
File size
209.74 KiB
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43 downloads
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CC-BY-4.0
Filename
sc88st_55_warcraft2_human1_9s.mp3
File size
210.55 KiB
Downloads
70 downloads
File license
CC-BY-4.0
Last edited by Kahenraz on 2022-02-03, 17:44. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 5 of 19, by Kahenraz

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Here are recordings of the entire track from all of the synthesizers for comparison if anyone would like to try and find anything else to use for comparison.

Filename
sc55_121_warcraft2_human1.mp3
File size
3.25 MiB
Downloads
68 downloads
File license
CC-BY-4.0
Filename
sc55mk2_100_warcraft2_human1.mp3
File size
3.25 MiB
Downloads
41 downloads
File license
CC-BY-4.0
Filename
sc55st_warcraft2_human1.mp3
File size
3.27 MiB
Downloads
41 downloads
File license
CC-BY-4.0
Filename
sc7_warcraft2_human1.mp3
File size
3.39 MiB
Downloads
43 downloads
File license
CC-BY-4.0

The same track from the SC-55mkII but after the SysEx command has been applied.

Filename
sc55mk2_100_warcraft2_human1_sysex.mp3
File size
3.27 MiB
Downloads
63 downloads
File license
CC-BY-4.0
Last edited by Kahenraz on 2022-02-03, 18:06. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 6 of 19, by Kahenraz

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For further comparison, here is the full track on the SC-88 in native and SC-55 mode.

Filename
sc88vl_104_warcraft2_human1.mp3
File size
3.25 MiB
Downloads
54 downloads
File license
CC-BY-4.0
Filename
sc88vl_104_55_warcraft2_human1.mp3
File size
3.26 MiB
Downloads
50 downloads
File license
CC-BY-4.0

The conclusion is that the music for Warcraft 2 needs at least a SC-88 to take full advantage of expected voice polyphony. This is confirmed by the older synthesizers which have issues reproducing the bells in the first few seconds of this track. The SC-55 makes a surprising show being able to produce a perceptively better reproduction than all of the polyphonically superior SC-55mkII and others. However, these recording are the best-case scenario where only one song is played with nothing preceding it. Even though the SC-55 seems to perform well in this example, it too can manifest the same shortened bell sound given the right circumstances. For example, the bell at the very start of the track will be cut short if the track is played on a loop rather than from the start in isolation.

I happen to favor the sound of the SC-55 over the SC-88 but there are still clear benefits to owning an SC-88 for situations where the former is unable to keep up. It's in my opinion then that the best reproduction for Warcraft 2 is with a SC-88 but using the SC-55 mode samples. While it won't sound exactly like an SC-55, all of the instruments are guaranteed to be present.

And just for fun, here is the same track as produced by a Yamaha MU50 for an alternative performance.

Filename
mu50_106_warcraft2_human1.mp3
File size
3.37 MiB
Downloads
59 downloads
File license
CC-BY-4.0

Reply 7 of 19, by Kahenraz

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Is there a way to query what the voice reserve layout is on the SC-55 and configure the SC-55mkII to match it? I'm curious how it will sound in this configuration since it already sounds worse by default.

Reply 8 of 19, by Cloudschatze

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Manual method
Press both the < and > Part buttons simultaneously to access the settings menu for the currently selected Part, then press the Mute button seven times to scroll down to the Partial Reserve parameter. At this point, you can press the left and right Part buttons to check the setting for all sixteen parts.

SysEx method
Send and receive the following string:
F0 41 10 42 11 40 01 10 00 00 10 1F F7

The default response will be as follows:
F0 41 10 42 12 40 01 10 02 06 02 02 02 02 02 02 02 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 17 F7

Just to spoil the surprise, the SC-55 and SC-55mkII share the exact same default voice reserve settings.

The difference between the two relates to the voice assigner wall, which creates a division between parts, and prevents voice stealing from occurring between the separate groups (for voices that are already sounding). Despite the fact that the SC-55 and SC-55mII report the same value for the wall parameter, the default behavior of the SC-55 is a separation between parts 1-10 and parts 11-16. By contrast, the behavior with the SC-55mkII is one of no separation at all, meaning voice stealing can occur amongst all parts.

I've mentioned it before, but adjusting the voice reserve is an impractical solution - it gets reset to the default settings by reception of either a GS Reset or GM System On message, and therefore can't be applied to most game-related scenarios. The only real solutions are to either use a tone generator with greater polyphony, or, as specifically applies to the SC-55 and SC-55mkII, expand the polyphony by splitting the MIDI channel reception between multiple units.

Reply 10 of 19, by Cloudschatze

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Kahenraz wrote on 2022-02-04, 18:05:

Is there a guide on how to split the MIDI channels between multiple units? I would like to try this.

I'm partial to hardware methods, and have one setup that involves the use of MOTU MTP units, and another with just a Music Quest MQX-32M interface card; either of which allow for such splitting.

Reply 12 of 19, by BloodyCactus

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can the SC55 do overflow via midi through? I know I can double the polyphony with my EMU SoundEngine by linking two together and one overflows to the next.

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Reply 13 of 19, by ph4nt0m

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Roland SC-88 came with a 64-voice polyphony as well as the first Yamaha XG compatible synth, the MU-80. Although there were cost reduced models like MU-50 with only 32 voices. Although that's year 1994 for the SC-88 and 1995 for the MU-80 while the SC-55 was introduced in 1991. I recall E-mu Proteus 1 was launched even before the SC-55 and was capable of 32 voices, but it wasn't GM compatible for obvious reasons.

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Reply 14 of 19, by Kahenraz

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BloodyCactus wrote on 2022-02-04, 22:46:

can the SC55 do overflow via midi through? I know I can double the polyphony with my EMU SoundEngine by linking two together and one overflows to the next.

I found that there is a bit of lag between synthesizers when chaining them together via MIDI thru. If you chain a couple of them together, for example, the last in the chain will be very out of sync with the first. Can anyone else confirm?

Reply 15 of 19, by Tree Wyrm

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I always preferred Warcraft 2 soundtrack on SC-88 (but then again I tend to favor 88 over 55 most of the time anyway even if I know it was a different model used to compose). Not sure if Glenn Stafford composed it on SC-88 but it definitely was some Sound Canvas.

Reply 16 of 19, by AppleSauce

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According to a post on vogons by lordskylark referencing a quote from Stafford its both a 88 and a 55? Which might explain things

Warcraft II Music Soundcard

For Warcraft II -- from Glenn Stafford

"The original equipment used to record the Warcraft II music was a Roland SC-55 layered with a Roland SC-88. I recall only certain sounds were doubled with SC-88 but not all. French Horns were doubled, and... probably some of the woodwinds too, and I’m guessing strings and choir too. I think Snare was better on SC-55 alone, maybe timp too, also reverse cymbal, and not entirely sure about the rest and would have to take it case by case."

Reply 17 of 19, by Cloudschatze

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Kahenraz wrote on 2022-02-04, 22:24:

Would you explain how this works with your setup, please?

With the MTP, it's just a matter of routing a given input port to any combination of output ports, and then muting MIDI channels on the output ports as appropriate. E.g., input 1 routes to outputs 1 and 2, with the even MIDI channels muted on output 1, and the odd MIDI channels muted on output 2.

It's a similar case with the MQX-32M. That is, output 1 goes to SC-55 #1, and output 2 goes to SC-55 #2, with even/odd MIDI channel muting configured to take place between the two. The benefit here is that the "splitting" all takes place directly from the (intelligent-mode MPU-401 compatible) MIDI interface card itself, without the need for external hardware.

BloodyCactus wrote on 2022-02-04, 22:46:

can the SC55 do overflow via midi through?

Not by any known or documented means.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-02-05, 06:41:

I found that there is a bit of lag between synthesizers when chaining them together via MIDI thru. If you chain a couple of them together, for example, the last in the chain will be very out of sync with the first. Can anyone else confirm?

I find it to be a non-issue. MIDI latency compounds by ~3 ms, or 0.003 seconds, for each successive device in a chain. Where latency is a concern, the general recommendation is to not exceed chains of more than three devices, wherewith the difference between the first and last device in the chain is an imperceptible ~6 ms.

Reply 18 of 19, by RetroGamer4Ever

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AppleSauce wrote on 2022-02-05, 14:12:
According to a post on vogons by lordskylark referencing a quote from Stafford its both a 88 and a 55? Which might explain thing […]
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According to a post on vogons by lordskylark referencing a quote from Stafford its both a 88 and a 55? Which might explain things

Warcraft II Music Soundcard

For Warcraft II -- from Glenn Stafford

"The original equipment used to record the Warcraft II music was a Roland SC-55 layered with a Roland SC-88. I recall only certain sounds were doubled with SC-88 but not all. French Horns were doubled, and... probably some of the woodwinds too, and I’m guessing strings and choir too. I think Snare was better on SC-55 alone, maybe timp too, also reverse cymbal, and not entirely sure about the rest and would have to take it case by case."

So, it seems like recreating the score in a DAW with today's wavetable sampling tech is definitely the best way to go for recording the music as it "should sound", which is like a real soundtrack/symphonic orchestra.

Reply 19 of 19, by orcish75

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Just want to say that my setup pretty much mirrors your findings exactly. I have two SC-55s, one is the older version with the 1.20 control rom (only the GS logo on the front panel) and the second is the slightly newer version with the 2.00 control rom (has the GS and GM logos on the front panel, still only 24 voice polyphony) as well as an SC-88Pro.

Both SC-55s have the oscillating strings effect and the bell is also cut off at times. The SC-88Pro in native mode and in full SC-55 compatibilty mode play the track perfectly, without the oscillating strings and the bell isn't cut off at all. I tried muting channels on the SC-55 panel but it didn't seem to make a difference. I guess the muted channels are still playing, just at zero volume, so the polyphony is still affected.

I'm gonna build one of these to split the channels between the two SC-55s via hardware, pretty much doing the same thing as what Cloudschatze has done with his setup.

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