Posted May 05, 2009
high rated
I've accidentally found this piece of software called WinGrove:
http://www.wg7.com/en/
It is a software MIDI wavetable-based synthesizer for Windows (all versions from Win3.1 to Vista) and its sound quality kicks more ass than the humanity's collective bottom. No really, it is by far the best MIDI playback i've heard coming out from my computer and makes Microsoft's wavetable synthesizer sound like someone is scratching the walls trying to imitate music.
Since DOSBox can use the Windows MIDI mapper to play MPU-401 instruments, you can configure your games to play music via MPU-401, which in turn will use WinGrove to play the sound.
I tried this with Stonekeep actually. By default the DOSBox version of Stonekeep via GOG is configured to use the emulated OPL chip. I had to modify the dosbox.conf file in Stonekeep to allow me run the game's setup program in order to configure it use MPU-401. Once i did, well the difference was amazing. Using OPL it sounded like... well OPL. You know, the stuff that made MIDI lost its appeal. Using MPU-401 via WinGrove though, its like hearing some orchestra playing the game's music.
I wish i could record the sound to show the difference. I can record the OPL-produced sound via DOSBox but not the MPU-401 sound :-(. But you have to try this to hear by yourself the difference.
http://www.wg7.com/en/
It is a software MIDI wavetable-based synthesizer for Windows (all versions from Win3.1 to Vista) and its sound quality kicks more ass than the humanity's collective bottom. No really, it is by far the best MIDI playback i've heard coming out from my computer and makes Microsoft's wavetable synthesizer sound like someone is scratching the walls trying to imitate music.
Since DOSBox can use the Windows MIDI mapper to play MPU-401 instruments, you can configure your games to play music via MPU-401, which in turn will use WinGrove to play the sound.
I tried this with Stonekeep actually. By default the DOSBox version of Stonekeep via GOG is configured to use the emulated OPL chip. I had to modify the dosbox.conf file in Stonekeep to allow me run the game's setup program in order to configure it use MPU-401. Once i did, well the difference was amazing. Using OPL it sounded like... well OPL. You know, the stuff that made MIDI lost its appeal. Using MPU-401 via WinGrove though, its like hearing some orchestra playing the game's music.
I wish i could record the sound to show the difference. I can record the OPL-produced sound via DOSBox but not the MPU-401 sound :-(. But you have to try this to hear by yourself the difference.
