Make EQ's music (MIDI) sound Significantly Better.

[Kelendil_Arclight]

Originally Posted by Maestrobob [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This is correct. The mp3s were created using XMPlay to play the game MIDI with the fixed soundfont. They represent what the music should sound like in-game with the soundfont configured properly.

There is a method to replace most of the classic .XMI zone midi's with mp3 on the p99 client, but it's rather involved and requires editing all of the zone emitter files in the EQ directory.

One of the issues I’m having with this fix is that the music sounds incredible but the vendor music is very very low compared to the game music now. So turning down the city music, for example, makes the vendor and bank track inaudible. Any fix to equalize these sounds? Love the rest though.

[Maestrobob]

The links in my original post and from the 27th are to the same versioned file on my google drive, so yes. You can use those links to always get the latest versions.

Unlike the zone music, the different combat, underwater, bard instruments, sneak, etc. music are part of a global midi file (gl.xmi). The triggers for those seem to be hard coded into the EQ binary, which were screwed up when they switched over to DX8 and/or added support for the MP3 playback in PoP.

I'm pretty sure the only way to get those working again is to find a way to hack or otherwise redirect those calls externally (can't be done as far as I know).

[Shortok]

All my recordings be here.

[Kaa]

Thanks Shortok, that's fuckin rad

I'm guessing the different racial versions of the character creation screen is also unfixable? I.e. each race when clicked on had a different musical arrangement or theme, originally. That would be awesome to bring back in P99 but if it's impossible, alas

[Shortok]

I recorded each race for 3-5mins so those audacity projects(and for everything else) are available if anyone wants to mash it together better than me pushing buttons. It took the instruments a while to switch out after the click so it gets sloppy in places.

I have to figure out if I can do velious with a velious client/emu or if I need to edit the xmi's/etc to get this dumb kunark client to play them. If anyone has solutions or wants to help edit the files or even VNC the 98 box, lmk.

[paronga]

First, thank you so much to you excellent talented people for working on this project. Music is such a key part of any video game.

I know this a long shot, does anyone know how to get this sort of thing working under linux/macOS under wine?

[vans21emu]

Does this still works? it seems some of the link is dead

[Arkaan]

Originally Posted by Psycher [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

*Most of the Information I found to complete this was taken from http://www.project1999.org/forums/sh...ad.php?t=8893&

By changing your systems MIDI soundfont, you can recreate the AWE32 Soundblaster sound which is how the music was meant to be heard in EQ! (the MIDI soundfont that windows comes with by default is pretty terrible)

Preview the sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWj-...&feature=g-upl
(you may not be super impressed but in comparison its a lot better, im too lazy to upload a comparison video, maybe i will at a later date)

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HOW TO:
1.) Download 1mgm.sf2 to Desktop or any location [download]
2.) install bassmididrv.exe [download]
3.) Run BASSMIDI Driver Configuration
4.) "Add" 1mgm.sf2 to soundfonts and click "Apply"
5.) Go to Advanced tab, under Default MIDI Synth, select BASSMIDI Driver and hit "Apply"
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You can google "MIDI soundfont Banks" to see if you find any you like better

You might notice a little bit of glitchyness in the video with the sound, i think that's only because my fraps was running.

Enjoy!

Noticed you are suggesting to load 1MGM.sf2.

This is a compacted 1MB soundfont with GM fonts only. This was the ROM preloaded in the AWE32 line of cards from Creative.

There are several, much more rich fonts available. 1MGM.sf2 has larger variants such as 4GMGSMT.SF2 or CT4MGM.SF2. These are copyright, but if you can get your hands on an old school AWE64 Gold installation CD you will find them there.

If your goal is to make EQ music "sound like it used to in 1999" then it depends on what you were hearing. Windows 98 defaulted to MS GS Wavetable Synth regardless of soundcard. You may want to search the web for a better version of the built in windows soundbank, gm.dls.

If your goal is to make the music not have issues such as skipping and clipping then you need another synthesizer. I wont recommend building a computer with ISA slots and getting a 20 year old AWE64 Gold. Software can fix these issues nicely.

In either event, I recommend OmniMIDI https://github.com/KeppySoftware/OmniMIDI

This software allows you to load various soundbanks. It is a fork of BASSMIDI but is more updated and robust.

Once you have loaded the soundfont you can change the default midi device in Windows 10 by editing the registry under Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\M icrosoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32 for 64 bit OS or Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Win dows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32 for 32 bit OS

There will be a REG_SZ key named "midi" which points to wdmaud.drv by default. This is the default windows audio driver which also contains Microsoft's software synth.

You should see your custom synth listed as "midi1" with the registered driver name.
Just copy the string from "midi1" and paste it into "midi"

To revert to default just make sure "midi" says "wdmaud.drv"

[Guids]

Originally Posted by Arkaan [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Noticed you are suggesting to load 1MGM.sf2.

This is a compacted 1MB soundfont with GM fonts only. This was the ROM preloaded in the AWE32 line of cards from Creative.

There are several, much more rich fonts available. 1MGM.sf2 has larger variants such as 4GMGSMT.SF2 or CT4MGM.SF2. These are copyright, but if you can get your hands on an old school AWE64 Gold installation CD you will find them there.

If your goal is to make EQ music "sound like it used to in 1999" then it depends on what you were hearing. Windows 98 defaulted to MS GS Wavetable Synth regardless of soundcard. You may want to search the web for a better version of the built in windows soundbank, gm.dls.

If your goal is to make the music not have issues such as skipping and clipping then you need another synthesizer. I wont recommend building a computer with ISA slots and getting a 20 year old AWE64 Gold. Software can fix these issues nicely.

In either event, I recommend OmniMIDI https://github.com/KeppySoftware/OmniMIDI

This software allows you to load various soundbanks. It is a fork of BASSMIDI but is more updated and robust.

Once you have loaded the soundfont you can change the default midi device in Windows 10 by editing the registry under Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\M icrosoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32 for 64 bit OS or Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Win dows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32 for 32 bit OS

There will be a REG_SZ key named "midi" which points to wdmaud.drv by default. This is the default windows audio driver which also contains Microsoft's software synth.

You should see your custom synth listed as "midi1" with the registered driver name.
Just copy the string from "midi1" and paste it into "midi"

To revert to default just make sure "midi" says "wdmaud.drv"

Heya, first off wanted to thank you for the info you provided on that comment. Secondly, I wanted to ask if you still use OmniMidi, and if you've noticed any issues with it. After testing a ton of sf2 files and messing with the settings, i've gotten the sound where I want it, but I'm noticing that regardless of sf2 or settings, its cutting off certain notes (like Qeynos entrance theme the quick high notes near the beginning, or in the vendor music, the single high note about 6 seconds into the track). Did you ever notice these issues, and if so, any idea how it can be fixed?

[Arkaan]

If you havent yet heard EQ music using 4GMGSMT.SF2 or CT4MGM.SF2 (they are the same) I would highly recommend doing so. This was the default font on SoundBlaster Live