Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-02-02, 17:16:

Ok, here are a few tracks that I'd like to hear using the Voice Crystal soundfont. They should be easy to record since they play […]
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darry wrote on 2021-02-02, 13:10:

Do you have some examples of specific tracks from the aforementioned (or other) games that you would like to hear played back with that soundfont ?

Ok, here are a few tracks that I'd like to hear using the Voice Crystal soundfont. They should be easy to record since they play in the main menu and/or the first area of the game.

• Gabriel Knight - St. George's Book Shop
• King's Quest VI - Village #1
• Stonekeep - Main menu theme
• Stonekeep - Ruins of Stonekeep pt. 2

The track from Gabriel Knight plays in the first area when you start a new game.
In King's Quest VI, start a new game, walk north, then east to reach the village.
For the second Stonekeep track, simply follow Thera downstairs after starting a new game.

Here are some raw recordings of the tracks that you requested played with the Voice Crystal SF2 soundbank . They were recorded straight out of an AWE64 Value's CT4500 line-out (everything non essential muted, including the surprisingly noisy wave out) into a Roland VS-880EX whose S/PDIF output was recording through a UA-4FX. I used my typical analogue gain settings on the VS-880EX and lowered analogue gain slightly on the Stonekeep tracks to avoid clipping .

EDIT : Corrected typos

darry wrote on 2021-02-04, 21:17:

Here are some raw recordings of the tracks that you requested played with the Voice Crystal SF2 soundbank.

Thanks! Those sound great, and I have to say Voice Crystal might be even better balanced across multiple games and music styles than Creative's GM35REVC.SF2.

Personally, I prefer the guitar and piano instruments of Voice Crystal but the Creative soundfont appears to handle cymbals and the "heartbeat" noise somewhat better (Ruins of Stonekeep pt2 @ 1:18). These are very minor nitpicks though, and Voice Crystal seems like it could be a good fit for an AWE64 Gold.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-02-04, 21:58:

darry wrote on 2021-02-04, 21:17:

Here are some raw recordings of the tracks that you requested played with the Voice Crystal SF2 soundbank.

Thanks! Those sound great, and I have to say Voice Crystal might be even better balanced across multiple games and music styles than Creative's GM35REVC.SF2.

Personally, I prefer the guitar and piano instruments of Voice Crystal but the Creative soundfont appears to handle cymbals and the "heartbeat" noise somewhat better (Ruins of Stonekeep pt2 @ 1:18). These are very minor nitpicks though, and Voice Crystal seems like it could be a good fit for an AWE64 Gold.

The Voice Crystal folks really know what they are doing, IMHO and at 20 US$, that soundbank is a steal . It is really too bad that the (likely) lack of demand has prevented them from making an 8MB, 16MB or bigger GM or GS soundbank .

I think I know what you mean regarding the cymbals, I think that I feel similarly regarding the rendition of the timpani in Duke Nuke 3D's Waterworld track Re: New Waveblaster card : Reptile Paradise - Yucatan FX on the SAM9733 with the Roland GS "cloned" soundbank . It may be a nitpick, but it really gets my wheels spinning on an otherwise very decent rendition .

darry wrote on 2021-02-05, 00:26:

I think I know what you mean regarding the cymbals, I think that I feel similarly regarding the rendition of the timpani in Duke Nuke 3D's Waterworld track Re: New Waveblaster card : Reptile Paradise - Yucatan FX on the SAM9733 with the Roland GS "cloned" soundbank . It may be a nitpick, but it really gets my wheels spinning on an otherwise very decent rendition.

Oh yeah, I can definitively hear that. The timpani used there just doesn't sound right in the context of that song.

It's funny, when I first started getting into soundfonts, I was only looking at the ones that try to mimic the SC-55. And they do sound nice for the most part, especially in the rock/metal heavy soundtracks of Duke, Doom and such. However, they sometimes don't seem to be balanced well enough to work across multiple music genres.

With time, I have become more appreciative of soundfonts that don't necessarily try to copy the SC-55, but instead opt to sound neutral. From my experience, those tend to work fine in most games.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-02-05, 08:57:

Oh yeah, I can definitively hear that. The timpani used there just doesn't sound right in the context of that song. […]
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darry wrote on 2021-02-05, 00:26:

I think I know what you mean regarding the cymbals, I think that I feel similarly regarding the rendition of the timpani in Duke Nuke 3D's Waterworld track Re: New Waveblaster card : Reptile Paradise - Yucatan FX on the SAM9733 with the Roland GS "cloned" soundbank . It may be a nitpick, but it really gets my wheels spinning on an otherwise very decent rendition.

Oh yeah, I can definitively hear that. The timpani used there just doesn't sound right in the context of that song.

It's funny, when I first started getting into soundfonts, I was only looking at the ones that try to mimic the SC-55. And they do sound nice for the most part, especially in the rock/metal heavy soundtracks of Duke, Doom and such. However, they sometimes don't seem to be balanced well enough to work across multiple music genres.

With time, I have become more appreciative of soundfonts that don't necessarily try to copy the SC-55, but instead opt to sound neutral. From my experience, those tend to work fine in most games.

Patches are supremely important, but the effects engine really does make a difference, IMHO .After having known and enjoyed OPL2 sound, I moved on to a GUS classic, that I still own and use with the original patchset . IMHO, it sounded quite good, but the lack of an effects engine did it no favors . I moved on to a GUS PnP with 8MB of RAM and with the 4MB soundbank and later the Utopia soundbank for Interwave cards . Again, patches were fine, but the effects were really cheesy, IMHO, to the point where I did not use them . I then got an SB Live! and the available SF2s were nice, but again, I never quite liked the effects engine . After that, I got a DB60XG daughterboard and finally heard effects that I liked . When I finally got to hear an EMU8000 based card, I found I liked the effects as well . Then I finally got some Sound Canvases, a DreamBlaster X2 and I like their effects as well . I also got an MT-32 somewhere along the way and I love it too .

EDIT: I am starting to doubt my memory as to whether I actually bought and tried the GUS PnP/Interwave version of you Utopia (I may be confusing with something else) . I definitely bought the Utopia Live 2.0 version as I have it in my archives (2 CD-R copies of different brand media, as was my habit back then for electronic purchases) but I cannot find the Interwave one .