Soundfont discussion

[JustSomeGuy]

Using the FluidSynth->"Select Configuration" option in the sound menu to change soundfonts appears to be broken for me in the latest gzdoom.

The error message is "Invalid command for menudef/zscript: fluid_patchset C:/Doom/SF/test.sf2"
Does anybody else have this issue?

[Gez]

Yeah, this comes from a hasty fix to a potential issue. A better fix should come with the next release version sometimes soon.

[_mental_]

Workaround is to set fluid_patchset CVAR directly in console. It supports copy/paste via usual shortcut so it's not a big deal.

Code: Select all • Expand view

fluid_patchset C:/Doom/SF/test.sf2

Unfortunately soundfont/patchset menus are still broken at the moment. I'll take a closer look at this problem.

[Xaser]

Only found out about this the other day...the music in SSD sounds awful with the new fluidsynth default - soo much chorus fx, some synths will drown out everything else. (in fact the only reason I upgraded to 3.1 in the middle of the playthrough was because I hit a track that wouldn't play at all with 3.0, one of several it turned out)

Does anyone know of a soundfont that is close to the original fmod playback?

.mid composer's two cents here: the included soundfont (gzdoom.sf2) frankly works pretty well... if the fluid_chorus and fluid_reverb settings are disabled. Enabling either of these totally throws things out of whack, and no midi composers in the Doom community write music with reverb/chorus in mind. With those two switched off, the sound is close enough to GM.dls that most tracks tend to play As The Artist Intended(tm), which is really what the engine's default behavior should be.

I'd really like to propose changing those two settings to be off by default. It's already confusing folks into thinking the included soundfont is problematic, when it's really the settings.

[Graf Zahl]

Done. I don't use FluidSynth but I regularly disable these two settings for any MIDI synth I use.
Interestingly their Timidity++ counterparts default to 'off'.

[Xaser]

Much obliged! That should square things up.

[Chris]

.mid composer's two cents here: the included soundfont (gzdoom.sf2) frankly works pretty well... if the fluid_chorus and fluid_reverb settings are disabled. Enabling either of these totally throws things out of whack, and no midi composers in the Doom community write music with reverb/chorus in mind. With those two switched off, the sound is close enough to GM.dls that most tracks tend to play As The Artist Intended(tm), which is really what the engine's default behavior should be.

Typically I find MIDI music sounds flat and bland if there's no reverb or chorus. I don't know exactly how MIDI reverb and chorus works, though. IIRC, soundfonts can define the amount of reverb and chorus per instrument, and the song itself can set it per channel too (additive? override? or...?), but I don't know how that interacts with the chorus and reverb options. Do they need to be on for those effects to be applied at all, or do they force it on at full regardless of the soundfont and song?

[Xaser]

You'd have to ask someone else about how channel-defined reverb/chorus is handled. All I know about it is that it exists, but no Doom community .mid composers ever seem to use it. The de facto "standard" sound is vanilla GM.dls, and forcing the settings off by default is the least of the evils even if it stomps the channel-defined stuff.

To clarify something, I certainly don't mind if folks enable those settings manually, change the soundfont, or otherwise tweak the sound to their heart's content. Just so long as the engine isn't presenting it as a default; that'd be like distributing GZDoom with a gameplay mod enabled by default.

[ferrao]

https://forums.duke4.net/topic/6973-sc-55-soundfont-huge-update/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tmN1a3cDMg

I can't find SC-55 Soundfont by Patch93 v2.0.

I had it on my hard disk:
https://mega.nz/#!dB5z3aZQ!yNrp3q9QAxUe ... xDzU4gNkA4

[Hellser]

Typically we don't approve necrobump posts, but since this -- to me anyways -- a form of preservation, I'm allowing it. Next time, please see how long ago the last post was posted. Generally if it's over six months, then don't worry about posting.

[Rachael]

Any post that is extremely helpful is a good necro bump, and perfectly okay.

[bLUEbYTE]

Workaround is to set fluid_patchset CVAR directly in console. It supports copy/paste via usual shortcut so it's not a big deal.

Code: Select all • Expand view

fluid_patchset C:/Doom/SF/test.sf2

Unfortunately soundfont/patchset menus are still broken at the moment. I'll take a closer look at this problem.

Is this a file path problem? Because if it is, I doubt that there will be any issue if you set

Code: Select all • Expand view

[SoundfontSearch.Directories]

in the config where you have your soundfiles - that way only the filename gets used in the config.

As for the original question, here's my ratings from best to worst for use within Doom, out of my soundfonts shortlist:

SGM-V2.01.sf2 *****
FatBoy-v0.786.sf2 ****
WeedsGM3.sf2 ***
Unison.sf2 **
Chorium.sf2 *

I have reverb enabled with default parameters, but chorus is not globally enabled as I think it gets a bit too muddy and annoying after a while.

Also, check this out: https://solmire.com/soundfonts.php - very useful for getting a quick idea of different soundfonts.