Trying System Shock 1 for the first time, I was unhappy with the quality of the music which dosbox would allow.
I set out to learn all I could go about improving the midi music in SS1, starting with Munt, researching Timidity++ and Yamaha S-YXG50 SoftSynthesizer, and eventually settling on BASSMIDI.
I offer this info to help anyone who wishes to improve the MIDI music of SS1.
BASSMIDI offers the highest available quality soundfont synthesizer, which allows you to change soundfonts quickly and easily.
These soundfonts can offer anything from perfectly emulated sounds of older soundcards to a more modern collection of sounds.
MIDI simply tells when to play each sound in the music, but the sound it plays can be chosen by you in this way.
In the past, Vista and Windows 7 users usually have had many problems getting sound fonts to work on their PCs.
BASSMIDI works fine on my laptop with Win7 32 bit, using gulikoza dosbox, with a Realtek soundcard, and works with all other OSs as well.
It should work with any method you use to play older games in fact, since it effectively replaces the onboard midi when active.
BASSMIDI INSTALLATION
Here is a step by step guide to installing and using BASSMIDI.
http://www.mudlord.info/bassmididrv/BASSMIDI_Driver_Installation_and_Configuration.htmThe newest versions of BASSMIDI can currently be found here, which as I am writing this is bassmididrv2.02.exe
If a newer version comes out it should be listed here as well.
http://www.mudlord.info/bassmididrv/DOSBOX CONFIGURATION
Once BASSMIDI is set up you have to configure dosbox to make use of the new sounds.
Simply open dosbox.conf and edit the following lines..
mpu401=intelligent
mididevice=default
midiconfig=0My default for midi is 0, but you can check which number to put there on your computer by typing this in the dosbox cmd window.
mixer /listmidiOn a side note the only thing I have been able to do to improve the
sound effects is to change the sb16 settings in dosbox.conf to
oplemu=oldI'm not even sure it improved the sound effects, but it seems like it has slightly.
***Everything below here is optional information***Sound fonts (.sf2) available to try with the game
The writer of the BASSMIDI installation guide, wrote the soundtrack to EternalDoom.
His soundfont, named WeedsGM3 can be downloaded there.
Many have hailed it as one of the best available soundfonts for older video games such as Doom.
It keeps the retro feel to the music while drastically improving quality.
Here is an example of SS1 running with the WeedsGM3 soundfont.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVoOhT9yHXsCompare that sound to the original to get an idea of the upgrade in music quality from weedsgm3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blPAm8Z0dHI [dead link]
WeedsGM3. For the sake of simplicity, this is a good sf2 to use to generally make SS1s music sound good overall.
http://www.simpilot.net/~richnagel/#downloadsYou can also find a list of other soundfonts on the guide, or search out others on your own.
GM format (general midi) is the type of soundfont which has all the sounds in the correct placement to work on video games.
Although sometimes a soundfont will not specifically say it is a GM sf2, if it is called a collection or a soundbank that usually means the same thing.
Keep in mind that the larger a soundfont is, the more available RAM you will need to run it.
LINKS:
8MBGMSFX.SF2 The main SF2 used for Creative Sound Blaster Live's (emu10k1). I think it's how the SoundBlaster AWE64 Gold sounded.
www.alsa-project.org/~james/sound-fonts/8MBGMSFX.SF2
Personal Copy. Large soundfonts and the Merlin 4mbgm_plus12 which I personally recommend for a smaller sf2 with quality. (11MB)
http://www.personalcopy.com/sfonts.htm
GeneralUser. Designed to work well with practically any kind of music.
http://www.schristiancollins.com/generaluser.php
HammerSound. A very large collection of soundfont 'collections' and samples.
http://www.hammersound.net/
GiantSoundFont. A softer sound overall. Excellent drums soundfont, which can be used alone to combine with other sf2s
http://giantsoundfont.npage.de/ Example with SS1 music:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Turrican4E#p/u/34/kTFnXYC2C_A
Crisis 3.0. An absurdly huge soundfont (1.7gb) with the most realistic sound I found. (you need a password from the forums to unzip)
http://www.bismutnetwork.com/10Music/Crisis/Soundfont3.0.phpCrisis also has a ver. 3.51 ZSF edit (upgraded to 3.52 with an exe), as well. (1.1gb) Slightly less reverb and the same jaw dropping quality.
I switch between Crisis 3.52, weedsgm3, and Merlin 4mbgm_plus12 with the Giantsoundfont drumbank, but slowly I am combining them into one on the side.
There are other soundfonts such as
Utopia Live! 2.0, Silverspring 1.5, FluidR3, Airfont, Arachno, etc on the web.
If you're good at searching, you'll find them around.
Also, if there was a soundcard in the past that played midis and had a unique sound, there is a soundfont out there that will recreate it for you.
Stacking soundfonts in BASSMIDI / Combining soundfonts / Adding samples to a soundfont
It is also possible to combine and alter samples from many soundfonts to make your own Sf2, to sound how you would prefer for each particular game.
Stacking soundfonts in BASSMIDI:In the BassMIDI "configure driver" options window, the lowest .sf2 on the list that you load in, overwrites everything above it.
If an incomplete .sf2 is at the bottom, like a guitar set only, BassMIDI will look to the next sf2 up on the list to fill in all the rest of the sounds.
In this way, you can essentially create your own soundfont, simply by how you order the .sf2s on the list.
This only works with drumkits and individual samples which keep them in the sample slot they were in originally.
Individual samples on the web usually will only overwrite the first sample on the list, because they did not keep the sample slot information.
Because of this, stacking is not usually a practical way to make your own soundfont.
Combining Soundfonts:To use any sound from any individual sample or a sample inside another soundfont you need an audio editing program.
The program is called 'Viena', which is confusing because there is another audio edit program called 'Vienna' which only supports some sound cards. (extra N)
Viena is a free standalone program which allows you to open up to 4 .sf2 files, play each sample on an included keyboard to test the sound, and has the ability to replace specific samples within a soundfont and save them as a seperate sf2 file.
description: (second topic)
http://www.synthfont.com/download:
Viena (V0.910)http://www.synthfont.com/Downloads.htmlFor example, the electric guitar from a battle in medical, seems very ancient and out of place with the rest of the music in many soundfonts.
I found an overdrive guitar sample (029) which sounded more natural and lower volume, and replaced the one in the soundfont I was using.
Use XMPlay to listen to the music of the game with a soundfont, find what sound it was you want to replace in Viena, bring in the replacement sample you like better, and r-click the sample number to overwrite that sample in the original sf2.
It's surprisingly simple.
Once you save as... to make a new sf2 you're ready to test the songs out again or just go play the game.
Conclusion
You may prefer a soundfont which makes the game sound exactly as it did when you first played it, or you may want to have the music sound more modern.
Whatever you prefer, you should be able to find a soundfont(s) to suit your needs and not be stuck with the only music options dosbox offers alone.
I am not expert when it comes to all this, I simply sought out information on improving the sound quality, and this is the conclusion I arrived at which suits me best.
If you have any questions or information that might be relevant to this, please let me know.
I'd also be curious as to which soundfont you ended up using.
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