It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
high rated
How to get CD-quality music with digitized sound effects

The version of Betrayal at Krondor on GOG is the CD version 1.02, which includes the redbook audio, which is on by default (along with Sound Blaster for digitized sound effects). However, there are several problems with the redbook audio.

- The tracks are very short and do not loop, so longer combat sequences end up being completely silent
- The tracks do not fade out, making scene transitions jarring

For these reasons, it is better to turn off the CD audio, but that leads us to another problem:

Most (if not all) of Sierra's SCI1 games have MIDI music and digital sound effects. Depending on the version of the interpreter, this can be supported in several ways. In later SCI1 interpreters (such as Space Quest 5, Police Quest 1, and Conquests of the Longbow) Sierra used separate drivers for music and sound effects. However in earlier interpreters (such as Space Quest 1 and Leisure Suit Larry 5) the logic to handle both music and sound effects were in the same driver.

To receive the best-quality MIDI music, a General MIDI (GM) compatible wavetable synthesizer is recommended over a FM synth. Wavetable synths of the day were the Roland MT-32 (though it was not GM compatible) and the Sound Blaster AWE32 while popular FM synths were the Adlib and Sound Blaster 16. Furthermore, the Sound Blaster series were popularized by thier ability to playback digitized sound effects. Today, all sound cards can playback recorded sounds and nearly all are GM compatible. But back in the day, the only way to do both was to buy an AWE32 (which wasn't available until the mid-90's) or connect an MT-32 to an SB card. Furthermore, the game had to have the correct drivers to support these options.
This is true for Betrayal at Krondor, which like these older games, had a single music/sound driver. So you have to use either the General MIDI driver, or the Sound Blaster driver, but you can't use both simultaneously. The SB16 uses FM synth, which is vastly inferior to MT-32 and GM. So you have a choice between beautiful music or hearing the digitized sound effects (voices, lightning bolts etc).

Furthermore, most people don't have a real MT-32 or SC-55 (though you could buy one on ebay). Most people just have emulation with the default Windows MIDI device, Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth, which is generally inadequate. Listen to the difference yourself.

The solution:

1. Soundfont

Download and install either Bassmidi or VirtualMIDISynth. I prefer VirtualMIDISynth. Or you can also use any other Soundfont program (e.g. X-Fi).

Either download a) Patch93's Roland SC-55 Soundfont V2.2 and unpack using SFPack to .sf2, or b) StrikingUAC's soundfont. Configure Bassmidi or VirtualMIDISynth to use it. (There are many alternative soundfonts but this is the best I've found for GM. It's so much better than the default Windows one)

Another alternative is to buy and run Roland Sound Canvas VA. Pricey and not quite the same as a real Sound Canvas, but sound is subjective and you should use whatever sounds best to you. Hell, if I had the disposable income I'd get a real Sound Canvas, but I'm pretty broke.

Edit: Patch93 mirrored here.

2. Patch to use both General MIDI and Sound Blaster simultaneously

Download NewRisingSun's patch, krondor.zip. Extract and replace frp.sx in the Betrayal at Krondor directory.

Download Tikalat's GM patch, Krondor_GM_reverb.7z. Extract and replace /CD - 1.02/krondor.exe in the Betrayal at Krondor directory.

Download Tikalat's GM patch v2, Krondor_GM_reverb_v2.7z. Extract and replace sx.ovl in the Betrayal at Krondor directory.

Edit: Files mirrored here. Follow the instructions within.

3. In-game settings

Edit RESOURCE.CFG in the Betrayal at Krondor directory.
Change the line to "soundDrv = GENMIDI.DRV"

Edit dosboxBAK.conf in the Betrayal at Krondor directory.
Ensure "mididevice=default"

In the main settings, turn off CD audio.

Making sure it works

Run the game, and watch the intro credits for the two lightning bolts. You should hear them crisply and distinctly.

At the menu screen, listen to the main theme with and without CD audio activated. There should be little to no difference.

Start a new game. In the chapter one intro, you should hear Haseth's voice as Gorath kills him.

---

Now enjoy one of the best games on GOG.com, as it was meant to be played.

This guide is based on the work of NewRisingSun and Tikalat at Vogons. If you'd like to show your appreciation, head on over to the Vogons thread and say thanks there.
Post edited November 29, 2017 by oasis789
I was unaware of the SC-55 soundfont---very cool. Now if only GOG had a better tool for configuring DOSBox....
avatar
oasis789: How to get CD-quality music with digitized sound effects

The version of Betrayal at Krondor on GOG is the CD version 1.02, which includes the redbook audio, which is on by default (along with Sound Blaster for digitized sound effects). However, there are several problems with the redbook audio.

- The tracks are very short and do not loop, so longer combat sequences end up being completely silent
- The tracks do not fade out, making scene transitions jarring

For these reasons, it is better to turn off the CD audio, but that leads us to another problem:

Most (if not all) of Sierra's SCI1 games have MIDI music and digital sound effects. Depending on the version of the interpreter, this can be supported in several ways. In later SCI1 interpreters (such as Space Quest 5, Police Quest 1, and Conquests of the Longbow) Sierra used separate drivers for music and sound effects. However in earlier interpreters (such as Space Quest 1 and Leisure Suit Larry 5) the logic to handle both music and sound effects were in the same driver.

To receive the best-quality MIDI music, a General MIDI (GM) compatible wavetable synthesizer is recommended over a FM synth. Wavetable synths of the day were the Roland MT-32 (though it was not GM compatible) and the Sound Blaster AWE32 while popular FM synths were the Adlib and Sound Blaster 16. Furthermore, the Sound Blaster series were popularized by thier ability to playback digitized sound effects. Today, all sound cards can playback recorded sounds and nearly all are GM compatible. But back in the day, the only way to do both was to buy an AWE32 (which wasn't available until the mid-90's) or connect an MT-32 to an SB card. Furthermore, the game had to have the correct drivers to support these options.
avatar
oasis789: This is true for Betrayal at Krondor, which like these older games, had a single music/sound driver. So you have to use either the General MIDI driver, or the Sound Blaster driver, but you can't use both simultaneously. The SB16 uses FM synth, which is vastly inferior to MT-32 and GM. So you have a choice between beautiful music or hearing the digitized sound effects (voices, lightning bolts etc).

Furthermore, most people don't have a real MT-32 or SC-55 (though you could buy one on ebay). Most people just have emulation with the default Windows MIDI device, Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth, which is generally inadequate. Listen to the difference yourself.

The solution:

1. Soundfont

Download and install either or [url=http://coolsoft.altervista.org/en/virtualmidisynth]VirtualMIDISynth. I prefer VirtualMIDISynth. Or you can also use any other Soundfont program (e.g. X-Fi).

Download Patch93's Roland SC-55 Soundfont V1.8. Configure Bassmidi or VirtualMIDISynth to use it. (There are many alternative soundfonts but this is the best I've found for GM. It's so much better than the default Windows one)

Another alternative is to buy and run Roland VSC. Not quite the same as a real Sound Canvas, but sound is subjective and you should use whatever sounds best to you. Hell, if I had the disposable income I'd get a real Sound Canvas, but I'm pretty broke.

2. Patch to use both General MIDI and Sound Blaster simultaneously

Download NewRisingSun's patch, krondor.zip. Extract and replace frp.sx in the Betrayal at Krondor directory.

Download Tikalat's GM patch, Krondor_GM_reverb.7z. Extract and replace /CD - 1.02/krondor.exe in the Betrayal at Krondor directory.

Download Tikalat's GM patch v2, Krondor_GM_reverb_v2.7z. Extract and replace sx.ovl in the Betrayal at Krondor directory.

3. In-game settings

Edit RESOURCE.CFG in the Betrayal at Krondor directory.
Change the line to "soundDrv = GENMIDI.DRV"

Edit dosboxBAK.conf in the Betrayal at Krondor directory.
Ensure "mididevice=default"

In the main settings, turn off CD audio.

Making sure it works

Run the game, and watch the intro credits for the two lightning bolts. You should hear them crisply and distinctly.

At the menu screen, listen to the main theme with and without CD audio activated. There should be little to no difference.

Start a new game. In the chapter one intro, you should hear Haseth's voice as Gorath kills him.

---

Now enjoy one of the best games on GOG.com, as it was meant to be played.

This guide is based on the work of NewRisingSun and Tikalat at Vogons. If you'd like to show your appreciation, head on over to the Vogons thread and say thanks there.
Thanks for all of this information, I'm sure it will be extremely useful once I get a soundfont. I can't use Patch93's soundfont that you suggested, as the file is a sfpack format and VirtualMIDISynth requires an SF2 file format. Any suugestions? Maybe an updated link?


Okay, everybody, I managed to find a utility to unpack the SFPack file and reveal the SF2 inside. Download it here:
http://www.personalcopy.com/sfpack.htm

Once you extract it, run it as administrator and it will register the ability to expand an SFPack file with your Windows Shell. Use that, don't even bother with using the utility's GUI.

The link in the YouTube video appears to broken, but it is not. Change all of the %2F in the address to forward-slashes and bingo. For my less internet-savvy friends here, and the sake of ease, I have provided the modified link for everyone:
www.mediafire.com/download/cu0wncrd0ecmh5d/Patch93's_Roland_SC-55_Soundfont_V1.9.rar
Post edited June 02, 2013 by vulchor
Good job.

In the years and maybe decades to come, many links in this guide will become broken as the individual contributors go away, or the forums or distribution networks hosting the files disappear. Programs listed here will no longer be compatible with newer OSes, newer hardware. The guide itself may become obsolete as GOG and DOSBOX improve their products. I won't always be around to correct things, if they can even be fixed, so Google will be your best friend, and there's enough documented here to let people get educated on what needs be done.
I finally got around to getting all of this set up and the difference is astounding! Thank you very much Oasis, I never would have known there was a problem in the first place had I not read this, but I am so happy that I did because the difference in quality is night and day. +1
avatar
vulchor: I finally got around to getting all of this set up and the difference is astounding! Thank you very much Oasis, I never would have known there was a problem in the first place had I not read this, but I am so happy that I did because the difference in quality is night and day. +1
You're welcome. You can upvote this thread and its posts if you like. Best is to send thanks to NewRisingSun and Tikalat at Vogons who wrote the fixes in the linked thread. Without them this would've been much poorer.
Thanks for pulling everything together into a very helpful guide! This sounds fantastic.
The link to Patch93's Roland SC-55 Soundfont V1.9 in the linked youtube vid appears to be dead. Would anyone happen to have an alternate link or possibly be willing to upload it to free file host? I'd love to get my hands on it.

Great guide, by the way.
avatar
Nomad_Soul: The link to Patch93's Roland SC-55 Soundfont V1.9 in the linked youtube vid appears to be dead. Would anyone happen to have an alternate link or possibly be willing to upload it to free file host? I'd love to get my hands on it.

Great guide, by the way.
the mediafire link works fine for me, downloaded it again with no problems. try it again?
Turns out my ad blocker plugin/extension was shooting down mediafire links for some odd reason. Disabled it temporarily and that did the trick. Up and running just fine now. Thanks again for the excellent guide.
I'm applying these fixes, but it seems that tikalat's patch has updated again... there are no longer any files called Krondor_GM_reverb, there's just a single file called Betrayal at Krondor - Genmid.7z.. This seems to contain a self-patching executable called Sierra_patch.exe which will fix the krondor.exe file. Can someone confirm this?

So now it seems the patching process is:

1) apply NewRisingSun's patch as per step 2.1 in the first post.
2) download and extract tikalat's Betrayal at Krondor - Genmidi.7z patch following the link in step 2.2 in the first post.
3) Copy SX.OVL and Sierra_patch.exe from tikalat's patch to game directory, run Sierra_patch.exe.

The readme for tikalat's patch says to run installer.exe and select general MIDI, but I think that it's easier to follow the first post and edit RESOURCE.CFG and dosboxBAK.conf if you are using the GOG version of Betrayal at Krondor.

I'm about to test it, I'll edit this post when I've determined whether it works.

EIDT:

Doesn't seem to be working for me... my sound still sounds like Windows General MIDI rather than the Roland. I probably made a mistake during the soundfont installation rather than the patching, but if someone can confirm how to use tikalat's latest patch update that would be great. I don't have time to test it more right now; I'll post again later if I get it working.

By the way, the difference is most noticeable in the mustic... switching from CD music to MIDI music sounds pretty different, and mine sounds like the "General MIDI" sections on the youtube link in the first post. But, I do still hear the lightning bolts in the intro and I can hear Haseth's voice. My guess is that those test the patch, whereas the music quality tests the soundfont, correct? This is why I think the patch worked but the soundfont didn't. I'll mess with the soundfont some more later and post back.

EDIT 2:

Got it working; see below.
Post edited October 04, 2013 by Waltorious
avatar
Waltorious: snip
Thanks for updating me on this, I'll sort out the first post.

An easy way to troubleshoot the soundfont is to try a few of them, there are some free distinctive ones like Weeds and Chorium, or more usefully, ones that simulate different devices e.g. MT-32, SC-55 etc, and see if things sound different. If you play classic GOGs it's probably a good idea to acquire a collection of these anyway. If they sound identical, the soundfont is not replacing the default midi device. If they sound different, excellent, now you can figure out which one sounds best to your ears.
avatar
oasis789: An easy way to troubleshoot the soundfont is to try a few of them, there are some free distinctive ones like Weeds and Chorium, or more usefully, ones that simulate different devices e.g. MT-32, SC-55 etc, and see if things sound different.
Yeah, I got it working now. Not sure what was wrong before, but now when I go to the "MIDI Mapper" tab in the VirtualMIDISynth settings, I can switch between VirtualMIDISynth and the default Windows GM and they definitely sound different. The SC-55 soundfont also sounds distinct from the MT-32 in the video you linked in the first post... I think I prefer the SC-55 soundfont actually.

Anyway, thanks again for the great guide! I seem to have both sound and music (I can hear the lightning bolts in the intro, and I think I can hear Haseth's voice in the opening cutscene, although it's not very loud compared to the music), so I think the steps I listed in my earlier post work for the patches.

If the patches aren't working, I assume I'll notice pretty quickly when playing? Sound effects during combat and such won't play / will sound terrible? Should I mess with the actual soundblaster settings in the DOSbox config file?

EDIT:

There is still a noticeable difference between the MIDI and CD music, however... I assume the CD music was based off of the MT-32? My soundfont still sounds way better than Windows GM, regardless, so I'm happy.
Post edited August 26, 2013 by Waltorious
avatar
Waltorious: snip
Sadly, soundfonts are often poor approximations at best. The youtube video linked in 1 is using a real MT-32, so that's as accurate as it gets. But yes, the SC-55 soundfont sounds much better than windows default, and both much better than the sound blaster setting. I played the original with a hardware SB, and the dosbox emulation is basically much the same.
avatar
oasis789: ::snip::
There has been a HUGE update to the SC-55 SoundFont. The new version can be found here:

http://www.mediafire.com/download/gbxaqsyxlyy6x3t/Roland+SC-55+Soundfont.7z