Play Doom midi with VLC properly?

[zdusr]

Hi!

I would like to play Doom midis. Windows Media Player can play those very accurately but I would like to explore alternatives to it. One of those alternatives is VLC - it's open source and can play alot. To play midi with VLC you need to download soundfont then configure VLC to use it from Preferences > Input / Codecs > Audio codecs > FluidSynth. At fir's I tried with FluidSynth's own soundfont like it was suggested on VLC wiki but that was way off. Next I tried gzdoom.sf2 from GZDoom. It sounds a lot closer to how GZDoom and windows media player plays those but still wrong in some places. Has anyone had luck with VLC or any other media player that does not use windows built in midi functionality?Also any ideas why it might sound wrong even if I use gzdoom.sf2?

[axredneck]

I noticed too that gzdoom.sf2 sounds totally wrong with some MIDIs, regardless of player.
Now i mostly use this soundfont: https://schristiancollins.com/generaluser.php

[Player701]

I happen to have a soundfont that appears to be a direct conversion of the built-in GM.DLS found in most (if not all) Windows installations, used by the Microsoft Wavetable Synth. I don't know if it's legal to share it publicly, though. Please PM me for details if you're interested.

[Xeotroid]

I use the Florestan Basic GM GS soundfont, which sounds very close to the MS synth.

[yum13241]

I happen to have a soundfont that appears to be a direct conversion of the built-in GM.DLS found in most (if not all) Windows installations, used by the Microsoft Wavetable Synth. I don't know if it's legal to share it publicly, though. Please PM me for details if you're interested.

I believe I have the same thing. I believe it's called RLNDGM.SF2. https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/115687-scc1t2sf2-has-out-of-tune-pianos-gmsf2-has-bad-volume-levels-fixes-for-both/.

[zdusr]

I happen to have a soundfont that appears to be a direct conversion of the built-in GM.DLS found in most (if not all) Windows installations, used by the Microsoft Wavetable Synth. I don't know if it's legal to share it publicly, though. Please PM me for details if you're interested.

I believe I have the same thing. I believe it's called RLNDGM.SF2. https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/115687-scc1t2sf2-has-out-of-tune-pianos-gmsf2-has-bad-volume-levels-fixes-for-both/.

Tnx, it plays better. But then again D_THEDA2.mid from chillax-v9.7.3.wad plays very wrong.

I happen to have a soundfont that appears to be a direct conversion of the built-in GM.DLS found in most (if not all) Windows installations, used by the Microsoft Wavetable Synth. I don't know if it's legal to share it publicly, though. Please PM me for details if you're interested.

You can let us know if what yum13241 is that or something else? But anyways even MS Windows Media Player has slight differences.

I noticed too that gzdoom.sf2 sounds totally wrong with some MIDIs, regardless of player.
Now i mostly use this soundfont: https://schristiancollins.com/generaluser.php

Any ideas why this happens? I would expect that if I use gzdoom.sf2 from GZDoom then it would sound exactly like GZDoom. I don't understand what's the difference? Do VLC implement their midi player wrongly somehow or is GZDoom secretly doing some magic on background such as silencing certain notes or instruments?

Makes me that if midi player source code were ported from GZDoom to VLC would that be improvement or would that ruin midi player for the rest of use cases? Not that I wanted to do so time consuming thing myself but just curious to know.

[Player701]

You can let us know if what yum13241 is that or something else? But anyways even MS Windows Media Player has slight differences.

It seems to sound more or less the same, and the file size is similar also. I'm afraid I can't tell you exactly what the difference is, but if you give me a MIDI file, I can record and send you both renditions for comparison.

[axredneck]

I noticed too that gzdoom.sf2 sounds totally wrong with some MIDIs, regardless of player.
Now i mostly use this soundfont: https://schristiancollins.com/generaluser.php

Any ideas why this happens? I would expect that if I use gzdoom.sf2 from GZDoom then it would sound exactly like GZDoom. I don't understand what's the difference? Do VLC implement their midi player wrongly somehow or is GZDoom secretly doing some magic on background such as silencing certain notes or instruments?

Makes me that if midi player source code were ported from GZDoom to VLC would that be improvement or would that ruin midi player for the rest of use cases? Not that I wanted to do so time consuming thing myself but just curious to know.

I mean, it plays wrong even in GZDoom.

[Hellser]

Might I ask what songs sounds wrong? I have a SC-88ST that I can compare the song to with gzdoom.sf2. gzdoom.sf2 is suppose to be a near raw rip of the SC-55.

Edit: Trying out that THEDA2 from chillax, gzdoom.sf2 and my SC-88 in SC-55 mode sounds nearly identical. Also would like to mention I don't use VLC for midi playback. I use Falcosoft's Midiplayer.

[yum13241]

gzdoom.sf2 is suppose to be a near raw rip of the SC-55.

It sounds more like an SCC-1 to me. Patch93 from DoomWorld made an SC-55-like soundfont.

[Hellser]

The SCC-1 is an ISA card version of the SC-55.

[yum13241]

Then why does it sound so different?

[Hellser]

That's the neat part! It shouldn't! The SCC-1 and SC-55 are identical, save for one being a rackmounted option and one should be inside of a computer. You are either dealing with people who are making soundfonts to sound good with MIDI music for their games or you're dealing with people who are making accurate soundfonts.

Edit: On the subject of accurate soundfonts, I have yet to find one that is 100% accurate.

[yum13241]

Then explain why patch93's soundfont sounds different compared to say, scc1t2?

[axredneck]

Might I ask what songs sounds wrong? I have a SC-88ST that I can compare the song to with gzdoom.sf2. gzdoom.sf2 is suppose to be a near raw rip of the SC-55.

Edit: Trying out that THEDA2 from chillax, gzdoom.sf2 and my SC-88 in SC-55 mode sounds nearly identical. Also would like to mention I don't use VLC for midi playback. I use Falcosoft's Midiplayer.

I stopped using gzdoom.sf2 long time ago so i can't remember exactly what midis did it play wrong, but probably it was some FreeDoom's midi i noticed it to misbehave with.