I don't recall soundfonts being supported on any Aztech based cards.

Most likely, you had an earlier version of Yamaha's XG SoftSynth (or something similar) installed under Windows which is how you were able to playback GM soundtracks of your DOS games through Windows.

Although there are software implementations these days that supports soundfonts, back in 1996/1997 your only hardware that supported soundfonts (from a PC gaming perspective) was Creative's AWE range of sound cards.

i bet your aztech software synth was the brooktree/rockwell/conexant wavestream synthesizer. it was bundled with several of the win9x drivers from soundcards i own across different vendors. i'm thinking you could somehow install it independently as it doesn't seem to be tied to any particular hardware when i switch out cards. there's even an earlier version of the brooktree vxd files buried in the win98se cabs.

jesolo wrote on 2023-07-18, 18:30:

I don't recall soundfonts being supported on any Aztech based cards.

Most likely, you had an earlier version of Yamaha's XG SoftSynth (or something similar) installed under Windows which is how you were able to playback GM soundtracks of your DOS games through Windows.

Although there are software implementations these days that supports soundfonts, back in 1996/1997 your only hardware that supported soundfonts (from a PC gaming perspective) was Creative's AWE range of sound cards.

No, I didn't expect that the Aztech was actually a SF2 based card like my much newer creative PCI-E has. I meant that if somehow it was 'emulated' in a Sf2 file.

stanwebber wrote on 2023-07-19, 08:40:

i bet your aztech software synth was the brooktree/rockwell/conexant wavestream synthesizer. it was bundled with several of the win9x drivers from soundcards i own across different vendors. i'm thinking you could somehow install it independently as it doesn't seem to be tied to any particular hardware when i switch out cards. there's even an earlier version of the brooktree vxd files buried in the win98se cabs.

mmm that's interesting!

Hi,

I'm in the same situation as dontbugster : I owned a Packard Bell PC in the end of 90s (166MMX, 16MB RAM, S3 Trio64V+...) and I loved how the GM set sounded!
It is possible to recover these sounds by restoring the old machine with 86box and Master CDs. Look at my post here : Hearing for this mighty Packard Bell GM softsynth!

To summerize, these machines actually used a software based MIDI synthesizer called WaveStream (vwstream.vxd driver files) by Conexant, formerly Rockwell, formerly Brooktree as said stanwebber.
This softsynth is not .sf2 based, it uses a proprietary sample bank format, .wsl files.
You can find the sample bank genmidi.wsl in C:\windows\system (it was this path on my old Packard Bell machine).
As is, it is not possible to extract the 128 MIDI instruments because it is a compiled file.

But I have good news!!!
You can find in this driver CD (https://archive.org/details/mako-iii-64) all the installation files for the WaveStream synthesizer AND ALSO A SAMPLE BANK EDITOR !!!
It is D:\wstream\WSTREAM\wseditor.exe. It also need the btvctls.dll file to work (in the same directory). Unfortunately, it won't work on a recent 64 bit system but it works perfectly on win95/98 virtual machine.
This guy allows you to disassemble the genmidi.wsl file into 128 instruments and extract the .wav samples for each instruments (2 or 3 .wav samples for each instrument). You also have access to the looping points, enveloppe settings etc... for each sample. With all these informations, it should be possible to rebuild an sf2 sound bank with Polyphone for instance.
I think I will give a try with some sounds...

Here is how it looks :
https://ibb.co/37sfp80

bimole wrote on 2024-06-30, 10:19:

Hi, […]
Show full quote

Hi,

I'm in the same situation as dontbugster : I owned a Packard Bell PC in the end of 90s (166MMX, 16MB RAM, S3 Trio64V+...) and I loved how the GM set sounded!
It is possible to recover these sounds by restoring the old machine with 86box and Master CDs. Look at my post here : Hearing for this mighty Packard Bell GM softsynth!

To summerize, these machines actually used a software based MIDI synthesizer called WaveStream (vwstream.vxd driver files) by Conexant, formerly Rockwell, formerly Brooktree as said stanwebber.
This softsynth is not .sf2 based, it uses a proprietary sample bank format, .wsl files.
You can find the sample bank genmidi.wsl in C:\windows\system (it was this path on my old Packard Bell machine).
As is, it is not possible to extract the 128 MIDI instruments because it is a compiled file.

But I have good news!!!
You can find in this driver CD (https://archive.org/details/mako-iii-64) all the installation files for the WaveStream synthesizer AND ALSO A SAMPLE BANK EDITOR !!!
It is D:\wstream\WSTREAM\wseditor.exe. It also need the btvctls.dll file to work (in the same directory). Unfortunately, it won't work on a recent 64 bit system but it works perfectly on win95/98 virtual machine.
This guy allows you to disassemble the genmidi.wsl file into 128 instruments and extract the .wav samples for each instruments (2 or 3 .wav samples for each instrument). You also have access to the looping points, enveloppe settings etc... for each sample. With all these informations, it should be possible to rebuild an sf2 sound bank with Polyphone for instance.
I think I will give a try with some sounds...

Here is how it looks :
https://ibb.co/37sfp80

That was great!!

Althought I never suceeded to extract all the instruments, so I could create an sf2 file (with lot of time bringing instruments).

Hi,

Does the editor works on your side ? Let me know if you succeed in samples extraction and .sf2 file making, I'm very interrested!

JB