Best soundfont for Doom?

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wildweasel
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Re: Best soundfont for Doom?

Post by wildweasel »

Skunk wrote:EDIT 2: Also are there soundfonts that recreate the FM synth sounds from games like Doom and Lemmings?
If there is, I would love to get my hands on it, but after years of on-and-off searching for such a thing, I don't believe that one exists yet.
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jallamann
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Re: Best soundfont for Doom?

Post by jallamann »

Skunk wrote:EDIT 2: Also are there soundfonts that recreate the FM synth sounds from games like Doom and Lemmings?
For Doom, use ZDoom's OPL emulation...


And for other games, use DOSBox. It has MAME's AdLib emulator in it.
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Skunk
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Re: Best soundfont for Doom?

Post by Skunk »

No Adlib\OPL soundfont for my own personal uses?

EDIT: Also, to use SF2 soundfonts with Timidity, just use the original cfg file but replace "dir" with "soundfont" and the full path (ie: 'soundfont c:\doom\soundfont.sf2'). That wasn't in the readme. What poor documentation! Anyway I found that online, the directions were for the Linux version but I assumed it'd work the same for Windows and it did. I'm running Silverspring Gaming 1.5 right now. I tried NESFont Advance but some sound banks didn't play (since NESFont isn't a bank replacement but rather designed for use in programs like Fruity Loops or on keyboards).
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wildweasel
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Re: Best soundfont for Doom?

Post by wildweasel »

jallamann wrote:
Skunk wrote:EDIT 2: Also are there soundfonts that recreate the FM synth sounds from games like Doom and Lemmings?
For Doom, use ZDoom's OPL emulation...


And for other games, use DOSBox. It has MAME's AdLib emulator in it.
What about for playing MIDIs, or for older Windows games?
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Skunk
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Re: Best soundfont for Doom?

Post by Skunk »

Exactly. Honestly if I knew anything about making soundfonts I'd just make a midi file that played each bank individually at C and record that. I think that's what they did for the NES soundfont I have. Could do that to a few other games I liked that had that special sound to them as well... hell I ought to look into this! It's widely wanted. And I have Alive, it's a soundfont creator, I could just use that to do it...
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jallamann
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Re: Best soundfont for Doom?

Post by jallamann »

I honestly don't see the point. General MIDI has 128 different voices. OPL has near infinite. How on earth would you justify having stuff like 128 channel polyphony in stereo with a sound whose chip could only output 9(OPL2)/18(OPL3) channel polyphony in mono?

If you want an oldschool feel for your MIDIs, get an old sound card and play them through.
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Skunk
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Re: Best soundfont for Doom?

Post by Skunk »

Because I said so and that's that. The OPL\Adlib sounds we're looking for are game specific, just like the game specific soundfonts I've seen before like the one for Final Fantasy 7 PC. Not to mention compilation packages. The NES has near infinte voices as well, but there is a soundfont that contains the most well known ones like Mega Man 2's "Triangle Tom". Sure, it doesn't have Blaster Master's "Triangle Bass Drum" or Maniac Mansion's "Square Tom" but those aren't well known are they? So for an OPL\Adlib collection you're looking at things like the Wolfenstien horns, the Doom guitars, Lemming's Piano, and other well known effects from classic games. Besides it could also be used by musicians. Not to mention this tiny little fact: what do you care?
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jallamann
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Re: Best soundfont for Doom?

Post by jallamann »

Skunk wrote:The NES has near infinte voices as well
No it does not.
2 channels of square wave in 4 or so different shapes, volume control with 16 steps from completely off to completely on.
1 channel of triangle wave, no volume control
1 channel of noise with 16 step volume control.
1 channel of 1-bit PCM sound.

Any sound effects apart from PCM sound are made by clever use of the channel in question.
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zwouth
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Re: Best soundfont for Doom?

Post by zwouth »

Wow, this is why I love that we don't have the necro-post rule here.
Sick as it is, I probably would DO want to hear what the original DooM MUS files would sound like through the (Japan only) Castlevania III VRC6 sound chip.

Awesome getting soundbanks to work with Timidty. I must try this.

And dammit jallamann, you NEED a book that's: "Kick ass soundfonts jallmann style. The Zdoom Music for Dummies Book." =)

I love MIDI's ever since the AWE32. I've heard that DooM through the Orchid Soundwave 32 is totally badass. Is there any way to emulate this using Timidity abuse? Or on a (i'm sorry, i needed a PCI sound card) Creative X-Fi level?
I've never actually heard an Orchid Soundwave 32 but a friend tells me it's basically Roland's bastardized angel for wavetable sound quality awesomeness.

Like there is a MT-32 syth emulator, but my friend tells me it doesn't sound right. D'oh.

EDIT: ADDED IN THE HOPE TO SHOW I'M NOT JUST A "DO IT FOR ME MOOCH/LAMER" AND THAT I APPRECIATE PEOPLE'S EFFORT IN FORMING A RESPONSE.
VRC6 NES sound chip: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlevani ... la's_Curse
Sound Blaster AWE32 soundfont for X-Fi (and hopefully Live! and Audigy) Users: http://ux1.eiu.edu/~jckoontz/personal/d ... YNTHGM.zip
MT-32 emulation project: http://www.artworxinn.com/alex/history.htm
I do have the "assemble it yourself from Roland's downloads" ROM that they got the cease and desist order from. But umm, I don't want to be banned for such material. But if you PM me i um.. well something might happen involving a zip file.
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jallamann
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Re: Best soundfont for Doom?

Post by jallamann »

zwouth wrote:I DO want to hear what the original DooM MUS files would sound like through the (Japan only) Castlevania III VRC6 sound chip.
In that case, playing back a MIDI file with sounds coming from two chips with severe limits in simultaneous sounds (4 square, 2 tri, 1 noise, 1 pcm in total) would just sound wrong.

I'd suggest learning tracking. That way you can do wacky stuff like making NES music from other things like, oh, say Doom.
Additionally, you can use AdTrackII, a tracker for making OPL3 music.
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Skunk
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Re: Best soundfont for Doom?

Post by Skunk »

You're forgetting expansion chips not to mention all the different kind of waves you can make with the different sound channels and the combinations thereof can form near infinite different voices. That's why games like Startropics 2 and River City Ransom have radically different sounds compared to other games.

You didn't answer my question. Why do you care what I want to do? Do you seriously have a problem with this that you have to argue about it? How about this... if you seriously think I'm making a bad decision why don't you just let me make said bad decision and you can go back to doing something productive with your life?

EDIT: By the way, I'm not arguing this with you anymore, if you got a problem with it you can gladly take it up with a brick wall. :)
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jallamann
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Re: Best soundfont for Doom?

Post by jallamann »

The "problem" is that your solution would be incredibly untrue to the very nature of such sound.
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Skunk
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Re: Best soundfont for Doom?

Post by Skunk »

And I understand that, problem is I don't care, now begone with thee. :D
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wildweasel
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Re: Best soundfont for Doom?

Post by wildweasel »

Problem: I want OPL-style music.

Jalla's solution: Install an old sound card.

Problem 2: My computer doesn't have the ISA port to install this old soundcard. What now?
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Re: Best soundfont for Doom?

Post by jallamann »

wildweasel wrote:Problem 2: My computer doesn't have the ISA port to install this old soundcard. What now?
Solution 1: Use an old computer for oldskooling.
Solution 2: Emulate. Use DOSBox or something.
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