I'm playing the GoG pack using ScummVM and the sound effects and music are wrong in 3. Take the apothecary. I can hear the regular trippy guitar thing, but there's also a trumpet-like counterline that was never there before. I can't even describe the Heart of the World, it's a chopped up hash of noise.

And the sound effects are bizarre. Kreesha's portal in the beginning makes a cartoony wind-up noise, and the ant enemy makes an ascending buzz noise.

I've fiddeld with the audio settings and asked around. Someone please, guide me what settings I need to just make the game sound like it did on release. (and this time it's not my memory being bad, I've looked up LPs and OST for the game and they sound perfect).

It sounds like your General Midi soundfont is... well, unusual, to say the least.

One thing you can do to fix this is to set the game's audio to the Ad Lib emulator in ScummVM (it's the closest equivalent to Soundblaster in the settings)

To fix your soundfont in general, you're gonna need additional software - VirtualMidiSynth, along with a soundfont.

https://www.philscomputerlab.com/general-midi-and-soundfonts.html

This site is a good resource on that (it will say there's an issue with the site, but it's a false positive due to them being soundfonts)

Hmm. That seems to help the music a little. The sfx are still the same. Are there any other settings besides AdLib emulator?

What about sound font, any way to change this? I saw a post you made a few years ago but the font you linked wasn't available on there anymore.

(edit-posted this before I saw your edit)

OK, I got VMS and the Fluidr3 soundfont. It certainly sounds richer! The weird trumpet line is still there in the apothecary's song. The victory music after a battle is nothing like the original, and the ant monster now doesn't make any sfx at all when it appears. I set VMS as the emulator in all the audio tabs I could find. Are there any other settings to help?

I realize this is the kind of problem best addressed if I could let you hear what I hear vs what it should be, so I appreciate your efforts.

Forum won't let me post links. I put together a video comparing what I hear vs. expected, if you're willing to visit my YT channel.

Hello!

What version of ScummVM are you testing with?
Could you download and test with the latest daily development build (2.6.0git)?

Also from the ScummVM Launcher, select the game from the list and click on "Game Options". Then, make sure you check the checkbox for "Prefer digital sound effects". I think that is closest to what you expect (based on the portal sound mostly, since I cannot quickly check the others).

Thanks for the input Wolfie! I just came on to update that running the game through DOSBox is yielding the results I want.

ScummVM has native support for up to a hundred save slots, cloud save management, and all kinds of useful thingamabobs that I could never go back to an emulator. Out of all the games that don't use CD quality music and SFX (so all of them except 2VGA and 5) Shadows of Darkness is the only one that was composed for MIDI if I recall. MT-32 provides the best results for the first game, that much I know full well.