tentacle music

Don Quijote · Post by **Don Quijote** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 6:33 pm

I am not satisfied with music in day of the tentacle. I have cd-version. I am using WinXP and have soundblaster audigy 2 if that matters. I'm giving you links to archive with tracks I recorded playing DOTT on two settings (adlib nad windows midi) and the same track but from Original Soundtrack, im mp3. Compare them and tell me why do I hear it so differently? Is there a way to have sound as good as in OST?!

Link for archive:

http://files-upload.com/183096/Pulpit.rar.html

(there is a countdown and in the middle of site shows "download link")

Arantor · Post by **Arantor** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 7:25 pm

Hello,
Yes, it does make a difference if you have the Audigy 2.

Adlib emulation uses a set of preset sounds to replicate each instrument and is generally closer to how the original musicians intended it to sound (at least that is what I understand to be the general consensus on the subject)

Windows MIDI plays it through whatever Soundfont is currently loaded. Unless you specify a Soundfont (which 0.9.1 will load), it will use whatever the Creative software has been told is the current Soundfont, many of which are totally unsuitable for the ScummVM games.

There was a really good Soundfont which was linked to on this forum a bit back, Shan's Soundfont, specifically SGM180 GM, and I use this myself in preference to all others because it seems to improve the overall quality above the original.

It can be downloaded from Shan's page at http://www.geocities.jp/shansoundfont/ under the SGM180 link, but be warned it is a 79MB download, which expands to 175MB uncompressed.

(Once uncompressed from the ZIP, unpack it from the SGM-180 v1.5.sfArk.exe to create the full .sf2 file which you load up in ScummVM in Options/MIDI/Soundfont...)

Hope this helps!

Don Quijote · Post by **Don Quijote** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:17 pm

I downloaded font, extracted it and used CTPanel to turn off CMSS. I didn't know what to do with other files. I set windows midi in audio and in midi I chose font I extracted. effect is the same, you can listen it here:

http://files-upload.com/183518/font.rar.html

Maybe I didn't do something. Maybe I have got bad drivers. But download all sounds and listen to it. I want to know if anybody has the sound of that good qualitty as in the mp3 from OST.

Laserschwert · Post by **Laserschwert** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:32 pm

Don Quijote wrote:I want to know if anybody has the sound of that good qualitty as in the mp3 from OST.

The soundtrack-sample you've posted is from my site soundtracks.mixnmojo.com. And that's not really an "Official Soundtrack", but a conversion from MIDI to MP3 that I did using several different soundfonts plus some mixing, and I have no idea which ones I used back then. So I'm afraid reaching that exact sound isn't possible.

Don Quijote · Post by **Don Quijote** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:34 pm

Laserschwert wrote:
Don Quijote wrote:I want to know if anybody has the sound of that good qualitty as in the mp3 from OST.
The soundtrack-sample you've posted is from my site soundtracks.mixnmojo.com. And that's not really an "Official Soundtrack", but a conversion from MIDI to MP3 that I did using several different soundfonts plus some mixing, and I have no idea which ones I used back then. So I'm afraid reaching that exact sound isn't possible.

I don't want exact one, but that one is better than mine and I thought it was original. but if you listen to mine you can hear a BIG diffrence. I just want to have netter sound.

Post by **eriktorbjorn** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:34 pm

Don Quijote wrote:I downloaded font, extracted it and used CTPanel to turn off CMSS. I didn't know what to do with other files. I set windows midi in audio and in midi I chose font I extracted. effect is the same, you can listen it here:

I'm not sure if I understood you correctly, but the SoundFont setting in ScummVM only affects the CoreAudio (Macintosh only) and FluidSynth (software synth; probably not enabled in Windows) MIDI drivers. For other MIDI drivers, it's a matter for the operating system. I know how to do it on my Linux box, but I haven't got a clue how to do it in Windows.

Post by **eriktorbjorn** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:41 pm

eriktorbjorn wrote:FluidSynth (software synth; probably not enabled in Windows)

The FluidSynth driver isn't ideal for this anyway since it has problems with the pitch bend at the beginning of Day of the Tentacle. I think this is a bug in FluidSynth itself. I get the same glitch if I use a standalone FluidSynth process, as described in the README.

Arantor · Post by **Arantor** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 10:26 pm

eriktorbjorn wrote:but the SoundFont setting in ScummVM only affects the CoreAudio (Macintosh only) and FluidSynth (software synth; probably not enabled in Windows) MIDI drivers.

I have just been playing with ScummVM and realised something fairly stupid about what I said before

ScummVM plays through a SoundFont on my PC because that's how Windows MIDI is set up to play (through a specified SoundFont I have, the one I mentioned earlier)

Selecting it in the GUI doesn't make any difference... because I don't have FluidSynth.

It might be worth documenting this because Windows MIDI as an output is likely to be very different on different machines (as my experience has just proved)

Sorry for adding some randomness to the debate!

Don Quijote · Post by **Don Quijote** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 5:32 pm

sorry, but I'm not so... familiar with this kind of stuff - like FluidSynth If you want you can desribe it to me in details, but i think it would be some kind of wasted time. you should just tell me in simple, understandable steps how to make my sound better, etc. where to use this font in the windows so it can work properly (maybe it requires some software), give me the link to best drivers for my card... i don't know, but I will be happy if the game would sound better and I think it can.

Post by **eriktorbjorn** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 7:02 pm

Don Quijote wrote:sorry, but I'm not so... familiar with this kind of stuff - like FluidSynth If you want you can desribe it to me in details, but i think it would be some kind of wasted time.

FluidSynth is "a real-time software synthesizer based on the SoundFont 2 specifications".

What that means in the context of ScummVM is that it provides a way to play MIDI music, even if your sound card doesn't support MIDI in hardware. I don't know if anyone has managed to get it to work on Windows, though, but I believe Windows already comes with its own software MIDI synth.

I'm not a Windows user myself, so I have no idea if/how SoundFonts are handled in Windows.

exofreeze · Post by **exofreeze** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 3:50 pm

It sounds to me that the issue here is the guy is trying to get his midi files to sound like enhanced mp3 files...

That's impossible, and not a problem with the midi files.

Don Quijote · Post by **Don Quijote** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 4:45 pm

I don't want it sound exactly like mp3, but better than it sounds now. Maybe listen like it sounds on my PC (I uploaded a recorded sample) and compare if it sounds better on yours, so I can know if there is a chance to make it sounds better. And maybe someone knows how to use sound fonts in Windows?

Arantor · Post by **Arantor** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 8:09 pm

Well, for soundcards that support SoundFonts (Audigy 2 definitely does), it needs to be loaded into the memory of the soundcard so it can be used.

You can load a SoundFont bank by going into the SoundFont Bank Manager (installed along with all the other Creative software), selecting Librarian, then from the screen which pops up (which has a list of instruments), you can select File/Open to browse for a new SoundFont to use.

This should then drive Windows MIDI as a setting in ScummVM (this is what my system is doing)

Unfortunately I don't know too much about FluidSynth on Windows, but I imagine that what FluidSynth does is read the SoundFont and interpret the musical instructions from ScummVM (i.e. which instruments to play and which notes to play on them), then play those notes with the sounds in the SoundFont, passing the musical information to the soundcard. That is at least how it seems to work.

Don Quijote · Post by **Don Quijote** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 6:24 am

I do as you told, and opened this soundfont in Soundfont Bank Manager, didn't close it, and ran DOTT. I don't heared any difference. I don't think this was affecting my sound in any way. maybe some setting should be set in that program or I should do something more than only open this soundfont?

PS I don't have any MIDI In devices to select.

Don Quijote · Post by **Don Quijote** » Tue May 01, 2007 7:42 pm

I'm playing now with music I had. it's good enough I think and the game is great. but iff anybody know how to use this soundfont in windows please tell me.