[Music Pack] Final Doom/TNT SC-55 Music Pack released!

[MusicallyInspired]

I can't access this forum from home as my ISP seems to be blacklisted (I live in the middle of nowhere out of town and use a wireless LTE network ISP), so I had to post from work which uses a more popular and widely-used ISP in town instead.


Music pack released! (OGG, FLAC, and MP3)

Finally (pun intended, sorry), after an unforgivable amount of time I've managed record the Roland SC-55 soundtrack for TNT: Evilution. This music pack contains metadata loop tags for seamless looping playback in-game with fadeouts at the end for easy listening outside the game. The SC-55 was the most-used synth module in the 90s for PC games and most soundtracks (including Doom) were composed with it so it's the most authentic experience you can get with the original music. There are two versions of the pack: "boosted" and "raw." The boosted pack has had the levels compressed and raised so it's louder and at a more acceptable volume without clipping, while the raw pack is just the raw recordings without any post processing (more authentic for the hardcore vanilla seekers out there) but it's noticeably quieter. Finally (sorry again) along with the Doom and Doom 2 soundtracks I've already had available, this brings the official Doom games to a completed status. Next on my list is Heretic and Hexen.

Check out my website for music packs for other games like Duke3D, Descent, Hocus Pocus (best used with rf`'s Hocusdoom mod for GZDoom) and others. My music packs were even used for the official Super 3D Noah's Ark and the (late) Duke Nukem 3D Megaton Edition releases on Steam!

[Eagle]

Well, it's good one. What about Heretic/Hexen ?

[Freaklore1]

How do i play those with Zdoom/GZdoom if they are not in wad format ?

Dang,dont tell me i'll have to download all that then have to use slade 3 to make music wads out of those.

I mean yeah i could do it,but it would had been much easier if someone also released a wad version of those for quicker use or for peoples that have difficulty or dont know how to use slade 3.

[wildweasel]

How do i play those with Zdoom/GZdoom if they are not in wad format ?

Load the ZIP file with ZDoom as if it was a WAD.

[Freaklore1]

Ah ok...so thats how you do it,tough wich one do i need to download,the OGG or the Flac one ?

[wildweasel]

Any of them will work this way. You'll only want the FLAC one, though, if you're a big audiophile that can hear compression artifacts (most people can't, last I heard).

[Nevander]

What is the difference between boosted and raw?

[MusicallyInspired]

I see I can now access the forums at home! Thank you to the admins for helping me out there!

Slight update.

I wanted to do something about Plutonia because it has a unique tracklist but it just reuses music from Doom and Doom 2. I didn't want to make new packs and upload what I essentially already have on my website, so what I did was create a batch script to generate a Plutonia music pack automatically. All you have to do is create a new folder, dump a set of Doom and Doom 2 music packs in (doesn't matter which, it'll automatically look for whichever set of ZIP files you got from my website, be it MP3, OGG, FLAC, raw, or boosted), unpack the plutonia_script.zip file and run plutoniamusic.bat. It will automatically pull the required tracks from the Doom/Doom 2 music pack ZIPs, rename each track appropriately, repackage them all into a new zipped Plutonia music pack, and clean up after itself. If it doesn't find any zipped music packs or if it already sees a Plutonia music pack in the folder it'll just cancel. It's best to make a brand new folder just to rule out the risk of accidental deletion of files you may want to keep. It should be pretty idiot proof, but it's just a good habbit to have anyway.

Doom: The Plutonia Experiment music pack batch script

Being a batch script, however, it obviously only works in Windows. The package includes the batch script and the 7zip command line tool. Both are required for it to work properly.

Well, it's good one. What about Heretic/Hexen ?

They're coming.

Ah ok...so thats how you do it,tough wich one do i need to download,the OGG or the Flac one ?

Whichever one you want! FLAC is lossless but pretty hefty in file size. OGG has the smallest file size and sounds great but is a lossy codec so some audio information is lost, mostly only the frequencies you can't hear anyway. You may hear some artifacts on the higher pitched sounds (cymbals, high string notes, etc), but it's barely noticeable. I suggest FLAC if you want top notch lossless quality, or OGG if you're concerned about conserving disk space. The MP3 tracks will work (I think) but I don't recommend them as they don't retain the metadata loop tags for seamless looping in-game, so you'll hear them fade out and restart again instead. I basically made them for listening only outside of the game for people that want to throw it on their iPod, phone, Winamp or whatever. However, all formats are listenable outside of the game and all have fadeouts (the metadata loop tags are enforced by ZDoom/GZDoom/Chocolate Doom only so it won't fade out in-game).

What is the difference between boosted and raw?

For the "boosted" packs I had the levels compressed (not to be confused with file format codec compression) and raised to the ceiling of the dynamic range so it can be louder without actually clipping. The Doom sound effects are lower quality and have a much smaller dynamic range so they end up overpowering the music. My boosted packs take care of that problem (without having to mess with the voume sliders). The "raw" packs just contain the unadulterated recordings but at a significantly lower volume level so that they don't clip. The sfx can really drown out these tracks. When I initially created these packs some people (mostly from the Chocolate Doom community, I believe) requested a version of the pack that wasn't manipulated so they could get the most authentic experience possible. So I decided to provide both options. Generally I suggest using the "boosted" packs if you don't care about that sort of thing, though.

[Gez]

For Plutonia you could always use the non-official Plutonia MIDI Pack!

[MusicallyInspired]

Someone else just showed me this last night! I wasn't aware it existed. I'll throw it on my list and get to it sometime after Heretic and Hexen.

[Freaklore1]

I tried this and well...im not sure what to say.

It's not really that different from the default version except maybe the instruments sounds being of a slightly higher quality.

It's ok if peoples want to use this,it's their choice,but for me i dont see the point in using this wad when it's too slight of a difference to the GUS version.

The MT-32 on the other hand...NOW THAT would had been interesting since it's a different kind of sound.

Sorry,trying to be not too harsh.

[MusicallyInspired]

It's certainly down to personal taste whether you prefer one version over another. But the point is that this is what Doom sounded like in 1993 if you had the best of the best hardware available at the time. That wasn't possible for a lot of people back then, but it's something that can be experienced for free now. I have an SC-55 so I can share that with others. It's not about having the best or most realistic music pack out there, but rather the most authentic experience of what you'd get in its heyday. Read the history of PC game music section on my website for more details.

I don't agree that the GUS sounds comparable to the SC-55 at all. If by "default version" you mean Windows' built-in MIDI Microsoft GS wavetable synth, it sounds similar because Roland made it and based it on the SC-55. But it's not near the level of quality that a real SC-55 has and is missing several features and effects such as reverb, chorus, and certain pitch shifting capabilities. It's a poor excuse indeed of the real thing. Of course, being an approximation of something that was top of the line in 1993, one might not consider there to be much of a difference. The SC-55 by today's standards is not going to be anything earth-shattering by any means. But again, that wasn't the point. Doom and other titles were composed with the SC-55 specifically, while merely supporting compatibility with other devices, so that makes it special.

An MT-32 pack would be...interesting. Don't get me wrong, I love the MT-32. I have one myself. But it has its strengths and its weaknesses. And one of its weaknesses is guitar sounds and rock music. Also, Doom didn't support the MT-32 initially so it was out of scope with the original intention.

[Gez]

I love the MT-32 as well, but its instrument list (at the end of this page) is different from the General MIDI one; for example, the harpsichord from Into Sandy's City would be rendered as an electric piano while the electric guitars would turn into bass and brass; inversely brass instruments would turn into guitars.

Games that had a General MIDI and an MT-32 soundtrack had different MIDI files they used depending on which card was selected. (Often there was a third version for FM synth.)

[Nevander]

Just looked up MT-32... wow. I love the sounds of it. Is there an MT-32 soundfont anywhere?

[MusicallyInspired]

I love the MT-32 as well, but its instrument list (at the end of this page) is different from the General MIDI one; for example, the harpsichord from Into Sandy's City would be rendered as an electric piano while the electric guitars would turn into bass and brass; inversely brass instruments would turn into guitars.

Games that had a General MIDI and an MT-32 soundtrack had different MIDI files they used depending on which card was selected. (Often there was a third version for FM synth.)

Not only that, but besides the MT-32 standard instrument list it could also be programmable with up to 64 custom timbres via MIDI sysex messages and have a completely different 128-instrument list. Not every game took advantage of this, but some did. Sierra is the most notable example with some of the best custom timbres coming from their adventure games.

That said, it's not that hard to change instrument mapping to appropriate instruments and it could be done, I just don't think the MT-32 could do the Doom soundtrack justice. Perhaps a hybrid music pack of SC-55/MT-32 with the MT-32 using most of the more synthy instruments and the SC-55 doing what it does better with guitars, piano, and vocals.....that's an interesting concept.

Just looked up MT-32... wow. I love the sounds of it. Is there an MT-32 soundfont anywhere?

See above. You'll probably find an approximation of the default sound set, but there's so much more the MT-32 is capable of. Also, its reverb is unparalleled and not something a soundfont could ever reproduce properly.