HELL YEA Got this working. Thank you very much for this its amazing

I have been messing around with DOS games, MT-32 and General MIDI for a few months now, all thanks to this post. I am old enough for being around when the games were released, but not rich enough to have the hardware to play them like this back then.

Thank you

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If I may add something: The SC-55 soundfont sounds pretty nice, and is authentic to the time period, but I prefer the Merlin Vienna soundfont for more realistic instruments.

You can find it at http://timbrechbill.com/saxguru/Timidity.php
One thing to note: it is compressed in sfArk instead of sfPack (download link for the compression soft also at the site above)

I was about to make a patch updater for a couple of friends, and I realized it might be useful to someone else. It is for running from Windows (tested to be ok in Win10 Pro).

It covers steps 2 and 3 of the original post instructions, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE DOSBOX CONFIG FILE MODIFICATION, that you have to do yourself.

The zip file contains a .txt file with the VirusTotal scan link and the SHA-512 checksum for an .exe file made with a free patch creator program (so, sorry for the plug at the end of installation, but it really is no big deal).

This is a patch, no complete game files are contained in the updater, only 'resource.cfg' and 'krondor.cfg', since they could have been changed by the user if they run the configuration or the game itself before running the update.

Download link: http://www.mediafire.com/file/dbt7p4c87a4kvm1/BaK_update_redux_by_Links_for_GOG_release.zip

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I also made one for the Sierra 1.02 Free Release, but I doubt it will be useful for anyone here. That one includes the changes made by the official patch, since Sierra messed up back then, and did not include all the fixes of the original 1.02 version.

Thanks Links for the patcher, worked for me with no cfg editing needed.

Windows 10 users will need to enable the installed soft synth either by registry editing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfbbzN9XuPw

or a utility like

https://coolsoft.altervista.org/en/download/CoolSoft_MIDIMapper_1.1.0.exe

.. otherwise you will get the default windows GM.

You can test it by playing a .mid file with windows media player and seeing if its playing the right set of sound, there should be a massive step up in quality.

Glad you found it useful.

Absolutely correct.

You could also edit the game's DOSBox config file to point to the new MIDI device, but that would only change it for BaK; and it's a bit more involved than just changing the default with either of those methods.

Since I also use Munt to emulate MT-32, I personally use CoolSoft's MIDIMapper to change the default whenever I need to.

Could someone clarify why exactly I would want to use midi over CD audio? I followed all the steps of this procedure and can still hear a marked difference in quality.

See my response here: https://www.gog.com/forum/krondor_series/original_or_gog_version/post5

Which soundfont are you using?

Okay, sooooo, I tried downloading this update for the music, the game seems to have patched okay & the sound quality did improve. I particularly like that the music now loops instead of playing once & cutting out.

HOWEVER, the game seems to be moving at a super crawl pace now, compared to just before I updated it. The DosBox settings don't seem to have changed, it is still set to max cycles (same as before). Can anyone think of a reason I would all of a sudden move across the map MUCH slower than before?

I only played this a few minutes after the update, I cannot imagine playing the game at this pace. I was trying to walk from Romney to Malac's Crossing (which isn't that far) and I literally got annoyed and used a temple to warp ahead to test out the music in town.

Just tried a fresh install.
Used the patch from the first post here (Thanks oasis789 !): I'm using Falcosoft MidiPlayer and Sound Canvas VA to provide the MIDI and Coolsoft MIDI Mapper to set it as the default MIDI option (through loopMIDI)

Loaded the game, checked the preferences and disabled CD Music.
Almost immediately ran into freezing issues, and had to switch DOSBox output from overlay to opengl. (I'll be updating to a newer DOSBox build after this...) [Also why did GOG set the Mixer and sndblaster rates to 22050 instead of 44100 ?!?]
After the main scene it was 2 steps left and 21 steps forward to lock in on the main road.

Made backup copies of FRP.SX, Krondor.exe and SX.OVL
Copied FRX.SX from the main patch folder.
From "tikalat Addendum" patch folder copied SX.OVL and Sierra patch.exe
Ran Sierra patch.exe
Edited RESOURCE.CFG so that soundDrv = GENMIDI.DRV

Loaded the Game, started anew. Got the lightning at the title and the death scream in the opening scene so I know the patch is working.
It was once again 2 left and 21 forward to lock in on the main road.
Game was additionally running at the same speed as before.

So not sure why your install is going slower. But here's some thoughts:
Did something maybe go wrong with the install process?
Are you using a soundfont? If so which one? What are you using to load the soundfont?
Did the step size get turned down in preferences?
Is cputype=386_slow still set properly in the DOSBox settings?

You could also try a different DOSBox build like Staging or ECE if you're familar with how DOSBox works...

I'm not technical enough for a MIDI player or sound fonts. Whatever those are =)

Apparently, it was the step size, I guess I'm used to playing on Large, and the install reset it to Small.

Geez, that makes a huge difference in game speed. Unreal.

Glad you figured it out!
If you do want to try a soundfont, the main reason of which is that it can give you higher quality in-game MIDI music, here's an easy way to do it for Windows 10.
*Note: Many other late DOS and some early Windows games can also benefit from this!

Download and install Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth
https://coolsoft.altervista.org/en/virtualmidisynth

Download and install Coolsoft MIDIMapper
https://coolsoft.altervista.org/en/midimapper

Set VirtualMIDISynth as the default MIDI Device in the newly installed MIDIMapper.

Install a soundfont.
A good one for Betrayal at Krondor is found here: https://archive.org/download/SC55EmperorGrieferus
A good all rounder is found here: https://fatboy.site/
For something VERY different and fun (but not at all accurate):http://midkar.com/soundfonts/

If you run Betrayal at Krondor in a window, you should be able to see VirtualMIDISynth playing the music instruments in the background.

Newer DOSBox builds like Staging also have soundfont support built in.

Is this all you need to do at this point for this guide? First post, which is of course from way back in 2013 or something, has you jumping through a bunch of hoops patching the game and replacing various files.

No, in this case I was responding to someone who had already patched the game with the fix for getting both digital and midi sound.

But if you grab the mirrored patch from the bottom of step 2 of the first post.
https://www.gog.com/forum/krondor_series/guide_to_betrayal_at_krondor_music_and_sound_effects_settings/post1

Install it as so: Then you can install and use soundfonts as I had mentioned here (The prev post you quoted), or use the first post.
https://www.gog.com/forum/krondor_series/guide_to_betrayal_at_krondor_music_and_sound_effects_settings/post41

I got a new computer with Windows 11 (I had been using Windows 10). I want to download VirtualMIDISynth to get better sound to use with Betrayal at Krondor. However, when I click on the download link on the Coolsoft website, it (after restarting the download process several times) downloads an 8 file to my computer with no executable function. I opened this 8 file with Notepad and it said "This program cannot be run in DOS mode."

I do not know what is wrong. My computer is running Windows 11, which does not have a native DOS mode. Does anyone know why might be wrong?


Edit: Okay. I figured out the problem. Some bug is preventing downloading that executable file on Firefox (the browser I was using), perhaps due to an incompatible extension. I was able to download correctly using Chrome.